The Washington Post has published an article headlined “Mideast turmoil rattles Iran-Saudi standoff”. The author depicts how Iran and Saudi Arabia were greatly influenced by the current crisis in the Middle East and believes that both countries’ elites are trying to hold on to power. He also underlines that the results of the recent revolutions are still not clear and that Iran is doing its best to use the opportunity given to become an unquestioned leader of the new Middle East.
The New York Times recently published an article entitled “A Saudi Prince’s Plea for Reform”, devoted to the unfolding crisis in the Arab world. The author believes that Arab governments must make radical changes to avoid unrest. He thinks that the revolutionary crisis will expand and that more and more Arab countries will soon be affected, if only they don’t adopt a different policy.
According to an article published today in The Los Angeles Times, Iran is reaping certain benefits from the crisis in the Middle East, especially from the revolution in Libya. The reason is that as oil prices have gone up and Libya stops delivering oil, Iran has a chance to export more oil at higher prices. The same benefits, says the author of another article published in the same newspaper, are now accruing to Saudi Arabia. He also underlines that there are still some tensions between two countries.
The current crisis in the Middle East is discussed in an article headlined “The truth about Twitter, Facebook and the uprisings in the Arab world”. It is well-known that recent events in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt have been called 'Twitter revolutions'. The author is trying to find out whether social networking can really overthrow a government. He says the impact of social media on the situation in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Bahrain was indeed great and that social networks are much more powerful than was believed before.
Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper has published an article devoted to the situation regarding the freedom of mass media in Turkey. In an article headlined “Who dares ask a question of PM Erdogan?” journalist Barcin Yinanc complains that Turkey is suffering from a lack of freedom of speech. According to the author, during any press conference journalists are told what questions shouldn’t be asked and are fired if they ask such questions. For instance, during the last press conference with Prime Minister Erdogan no one dared to ask him about the Turkey’s attitude to the events in Libya.
The Moscow Times has published an article by Anders Aslund entitled “What Russia Can Learn From Tunisia and Egypt”. The author seeks to understand whether a revolution could begin in Russia as well as it began in Tunisia, Egypt or Libya. He admits that Russia is much richer, but underlines that the Great French Revolution and the Orange Revolution in Ukraine both started at times when the economic situation was improving. Corruption and lack of freedom can force well-educated young people to take to the streets and thus the Middle Eastern scenario is possible for Russia.
