World Press on Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus (August 10, 2011)

"Bloodshed in Syria backfiring on government," an article with such a
headline was published today by The Washington Post. Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad's attempt to crush dissent through a massive military
offensive appears to be backfiring, with fervent condemnations both at
home and abroad undermining his government's chances of survival, the
author of the article believes. He underlines that the bloodshed of
the past 10 days has drawn the ire of regional powers that had stayed
silent throughout the nearly five-month-old uprising but were outraged
by the killings of fellow Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan.
Even Turkey, Assad's closest ally now criticizes him severely and
insist on an immediate stop to the violence.

The same topic is discussed in the article headlined "The Arab States
and Syria" published by The New York Times. The Turkish authorities'
decision to increase pressure on Assad was a good one, the author says
adding that the international community needs to keep up the
diplomatic pressure and broaden sanctions to include the energy sector
until those enabling Mr. Assad -- the military and the business
community -- force him out.

The Guardian published an article entitled "Iran - topping the world
schadenfreude league." "No sooner had the riots started in London than
delighted international onlookers began to revel in schadenfreude,"
the article reads. According to its author, the prize for the smuggest
reaction must go to Iran, a nation still smarting from condemnation of
their own brutal crackdown on demonstrations over a contested
election. In spite of the situation surrounding human rights in Iran,
the country's Foreign Ministry's spokesman has recently accused
Britain of severe human rights violations.

Turkey's Hurrieyt published an article headlined "Tolerance or
endurance?" devoted to further Islamization of the country. "There
might be no limit to the consolidation of political Islam in this
country. Electoral support of one in every two Turks must be
sufficient enough to demonstrate that transformation of the axis of
political power towards Islamist conservatism has reached a very
advanced stage," author of the article Yusuf Kanli thinks. May be it's
time to speak about the replacement of the "culture of tolerance"
Turks have been so proud of with the "culture of endurance," the
author concludes.