The Guardian published an extremely interesting article listing Azerbaijani national attractions and places of interest usually unknown among Europeans – and sometimes even among Azerbaijani people themselves. The material headlined “Baku and beyond: a road-trip around Azerbaijan” states that even if oil wealth means that Azerbaijan is developing fast, outside Baku time is still a commodity to be spent freely on many small pleasures. This is how the author perceives Azerbaijan: “It is on the world's largest lake, has hillsides that sprout fire, and the national game is nerd. This is Azerbaijan. Proud winner of Eurovision and proudly independent since 1991, Azerbaijan is probably where the Vikings came from, and definitely has the most mud volcanoes in the world. But a herdsman living 2km from the volcanoes had never heard of them… Azerbaijan isn't everyone's cuppa, but if you're an aficionado of post-industrial ruins, of amazing nature, of exotic headgear, of world history, of kind gentleness and wild strangeness, Azerbaijan will surely light your fire”.
The Los Angeles Times published an article entitled “Iran's supreme leader and president wrestle for power”. According to the author, the dispute between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ignites concern inside the nation that the infighting weakens Iran's ability to project power internationally amid historic instability across the Middle east. The Iranian president had been skipping Cabinet meetings, apparently over Khamenei's decision to overrule his firing of the country's intelligence chief. So Khamenei asked a conservative lawmaker to begin assembling a caretaker Cabinet, just in case the president resigned or had to be removed, said an Iranian official close to the politician. As the author puts it, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wanted to send his one-time protege Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an unmistakable message: You're replaceable. Ahmadinejad eventually returned to work. But he also had a message for Khamenei: I can still make a big mess.
According to The Washington Post, Turkish authorities say last week’s 5.9-magnitude earthquake has rendered more than 2,000 homes uninhabitable, forcing nearly 7,000 people to live in tents in a western town. Some residents of the tent city have complained of inadequate sanitary facilities and shortage of drinking water.
Hurriyet published an analytical article concerning current pre-election political situation in Turkey and the assent of AKP to power. The author states that this success of a party with Islamic roots, representing the marginal populations of the countryside, which sprang out of the urbanization in Turkey during the last few decades, had something to do the phenomenon of current Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who from efficiently heading the biggest metropolitan local authority in the country, that of Istanbul, ended up heading now the political fate of his country almost single-handedly.
Press-TV news agency informs its readers that Iran's Foreign Ministry will file a lawsuit against Geneva to the United Nations as Switzerland refrains from delivering fuel to Iran Air airplanes.
According to The Jerusalem Post, new Iranian missile test-fired on Sunday is likely intended for delivery to terror proxies of the Islamic Republic, like Hezbollah. Iran did not disclose the range of the missile, but Tal Inbar, head of the Space Research Center at the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies, said that the Qiyam was similar to the Scud missile, which has a range of a few hundred kilometres, makes up the backbone of Syria’s arsenal and is believed to have been transferred to Hezbollah.
