He may no longer control huge swathes of Syrian territory, but his forces appear nowhere near collapse. Over the past 18 months, at least, the dictator has beaten the odds
Erdogan
Turkey’s Massive Military Trial Opens Old Wounds and New Anxieties
Claims of procedural and evidentiary anomalies in a huge trial of coup plotters raise criticism of the Erdogan administration. Is the Prime Minister trying too hard to bury the military — and Turkish secularism?
How the Kurds Have Changed Turkey’s Calculations on Syria
Support for the anti-Assad rebellion has been complicated by Syria’s Kurds moving to establish autonomy, raising Ankara’s fears about implications for Turkey’s domestic Kurdish challenge
Military Intervention Still Unlikely After Syria Shoots Down Turkish Jet
After shooting down a Turkish jet flying in international airspace, the embattled Syrian regime is sticking to its guns. But Turkey, Syria’s infuriated neighbor, and the rest of the international community are not likely to …
Must-Reads from Around the World: March 21, 2012
Suspect Cornered – An hours-long stand-off between French police and the 24-year-old man suspected of Monday’s shootings at a Jewish school in Toulouse continues. Reuters reports that police tracked the suspect to an apartment …
Erdogan vs. Auster: Why Is the Turkish Prime Minister Feuding with a Brooklyn-Based Writer?
An Internet-fueled war of words raged across the Atlantic this week between the unlikeliest of opponents: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an Islamic-leaning politician of fiery rhetoric and oft bellicose disposition, …
The Fate of Bashar Assad: Will He Be the Next Gaddafi or the Next Milosevic?
The fighting words from Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, who vowed Tuesday to hold on to power and crush his opponents with “an iron fist”, were optimistically interpreted by some as the bluster of a doomed man. To be sure, the …
Fareed Zakaria: It’s Not the Islamists You Should Worry About
In his column in the latest issue of TIME magazine, Fareed Zakaria points to the specter seemingly hanging over the Middle East — the rise of Islamist political parties in Arab Spring countries like Egypt — and dispels its menace. Groups like the Muslim Brotherhood appear genuine in their commitments to democratic and constitutional …
The Syria Game of Thrones: Turkey vs. Iran vs. the Saudis in Battle to Shape a Rebellion’s Outcome
The Arab League called Wednesday for “urgent measures” to protect Syrian civilians in the face of violent repression by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. But lest anyone take that as an echo of the call that legitimized the NATO-led military operation in Libya, the League’s statement also rejected “all foreign intervention” …
As Tunisia Counts its Votes, Can the West Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Islamists?
Tunisia’s election and Libya’s celebration of the overthrow of Col. Muammar Gaddafi won’t have made for a happy weekend among those fevered heads in Washington who believe the West is locked in an existential struggle with political Islam: If anything, the Islamist tones of the Libyan celebrations, coupled with the Islamist victory …
Mogadishu Bombing Delivers a Slap to Turkey
The truck bomb attack that killed more than 100 people in Mogadishu on Tuesday was a not entirely unfamiliar horror for the residents of a city locked in a permanent state of fratricidal warfare for two decades, but it highlighted the scale of a foreign policy challenge recently accepted by the government of Turkey.
Prime Minister …
Syria Escapes U.N. Sanctions, But Not Turkey’s
Nobody ought to be surprised by the Russian and Chinese vetoes of a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Syria’s brutal crackdown on its citizenry and hinting that sanctions could be invoked if repression continues. That sanctions threat had been watered down in the hope of winning Russian and Chinese consent, but to no avail …
Is Israel Again Weighing an Attack on Iran’s Nuclear Facilities?
“I think the most effective way to deal with Iran is not on a unilateral basis,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters in Israel on Tuesday, stressing that the Israeli government needed to act in concert and consensus with the international community. Israeli reporters noted his repeated use of the word together when it came …