World Press on Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus (April 6, 2012)

The Washington Post published an article by David Ignatius headlined 'Obama’s signal to Iran'. President Obama has signalled to Iran that the United States would accept an Iranian civilian nuclear program if Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei can back up his recent public claim that his nation “will never pursue nuclear weapons.” According to the author, the Obama administration's position is a zero-risk one. "As Iran’s leadership debates its negotiating stance, the squeeze of Western sanctions is becoming tighter. Nat Kern, the editor of Foreign Reports, a leading oil newsletter, forecasts that Iran will lose about a third of its oil exports by mid-summer. It may get even worse for Iran after July 1 if China and the European Union follow through on recent warnings that they might stop insuring tankers carrying Iranian crude," Ignatius says. "U.S. officials believe that if Iran refuses to negotiate, it will be easier to tighten sanctions even more."

The Guardian published an article about the case of Recip Cetin, a Turkish citizen, who has killed two women from Nothern Ireland. Cetin, who is in fact 22 years old, previously told the Turkish police that he was 17 and was expected to serve a short sentence. As Cetin is not actually underaged, he could face life in jail, the newspaper reports. Cetin stands accused of killing Marion Graham and Kathy Dinsmore near Izmir last August. As a result of establishing his real age, Cetin can be tried in an adult court. A lawyer for the women's families said that, if found guilty, Cetin could face life in jail rather than seven to eight years in a juvenile prison.

Hurriyet published an article by Burak Bekdil headlined 'How best to fight Islamophobia'. The article was written after Turkey’s top Muslim cleric, Mehmet Görmez, decided to visit Denmark, the country where an anti-Muslim cartoon was produced seven years ago. Görmez criticized the cartoon's producers and the whole of Danish society as “an infidel land of blasphemy”. Now he is going to visit the country in order to fight Islamophobia. "If Muslims stopped killing other Muslims because they belong to a different sect; stopped forcing their chosen practices on other Muslims; tolerated less pious Muslims; did not feel enraged if other Muslims did not abstain from alcohol or pork, or did not attend the mosque; did not kill men, women and children because they adhered to other faiths; did not blame rape on the length of a woman’s skirt; did not murder their own wives because they spoke to strangers, or their daughters because they flirted with boys or because they were raped by rascals; did not wish to start World War III because some maverick cartoonist drew blasphemous caricatures; did not issue death fatwahs because an author wrote a blasphemous book; or did not aim to spread their religion to the entire world, by the sword if necessary, then fighting Islamophobia would be much easier," the article reads.