The Los Angeles Times writes about Turkish premier Erdogan's speech in Lebanon. For the second time in two months, a regional leader has addressed Israel in Lebanon. This time, however, the words were a lot less harsh. In a speech delivered in northern Lebanon on Wednesday, Turkish premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the tiny country's neighbour, Israel, to embrace peace and stop "provocations" for its own good. Erdogan's remarks were far more diplomatically worded and more conciliatory than the tirade that Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered in southern Lebanon last month, in which he said that "the world should understand that the Zionists will go."
Meanwhile, Turkish news agency Hurriyet writes that Georgia seeks tit-for-tat retaliation in the latest North Caucasus campaign. Pro-Western President Mikhail Saakashvili first sounded the call for a “free, stable and united” Caucasus last month, in a speech to the United Nations. “In terms of human and cultural space, there is no North and South Caucasus,” Saakashvili said. “There is one Caucasus that belongs to Europe and will one day join the European family of free nations, following the Georgian path.”
More news from Hurriyet is that an Armenian opposition figure has been released from jail. The well-known Armenian opposition figure has been set free, after spending more than 30 months in prison on controversial charges stemming from the 2008 post-election unrest. Mushegh Saghatelian, a controversial former chief of Armenia's prisons, was granted parole earlier this week by a government commission dominated by senior law-enforcement officials.
Also, "Non-combat deaths bring Armenian army under spotlight", reports Hurriyet. The recent non-combat deaths of four Armenian soldiers on the Azerbaijani front, bringing the Armenian death toll to 15 since July, are stoking fresh debate about transparency and discipline in the Armenian army, a report has said. Four conscripts, aged between 19 and 20 years old, were reportedly killed south of the Nagorno-Karabakh frontline at around midnight on Nov. 19, in what has been described “a scrap among soldiers”. Another four conscripts were wounded in the incident. The Ministry of Defense said it “is almost ruled out” that gunfire from Azerbaijan led to the bloodshed.
On Turkey itself the agency writes that Turkish prosecutors disagree on opening a case against an anti-journalist speech. One prosecutor in Adana determined that the incident constituted a threat to beat up journalists and decided to prosecute, while another said there were insufficient grounds for prosecution.
At the same time, female Turkish deputies unite to end violence against women. Women have no control over their own bodies in many parts of the world, because gender inequality caused by male-dominated societal systems reduces women to second-class citizens.
The Iranian PressTV also writes about Turkey. The news is that Turkey suspends 'coup plotters'. In an unprecedented move, Turkey has suspended three high-ranking members of its armed forces on suspicion of conspiring to overthrow the government. The move by the interior and defense ministers affected, Major Generals Halil Helvacioglu and Gurbuz Kaya, as well as Rear Admiral Abdullah Gavramoglu. "I find the suspension very important. The generals were 100 percent negligent in the murders of our children. The entire world knows this,” said Selahattin Yilmaz, a father of one serviceman.
More Iranian news reported by PressTV is that Iran urges Pakistan to secure its border. Iran's Interior Minister, Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar, has urged Pakistan to help adopt "a solid strategy" against terrorists operating on both sides of its border with Iran. Speaking during a joint press conference with Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik in Islamabad on Thursday, the Iranian official said Tehran and Islamabad should "further reactivate border security forces … to stop the movement of illegal immigrants."
