Latest Articles about Middle East
ARE MEDVEDEV’S LATEST PROMISES TO FIGHT CORRUPTION SIMPLY “RITUAL INCANTATIONS”?
Acting on his promises to battle corruption, instill respect for the law and overcome “legal nihilism,” President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree setting up a presidential anticorruption council and appointed Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Naryshkin to head the council’s presidium, which will have... MORE
Leading PKK Commander Cemil Bayik Crosses into Iran
On May 10, the Turkish General Staff posted a press release on its web site which stated: “As a result of the Turkish air strike on the Qandil Mountains, a senior PKK commander, Cemil Bayik, fled into a neighboring country together with a large group... MORE
Iraqi Government Launches Operation to Expel al-Qaeda from Mosul
After four days of a preparatory operation code-named Za’eer al-Asad (The Lion’s Roar), Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki arrived in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul to supervise a new military operation against al-Qaeda in Ninawa (Nineveh) province (al-Jazeera, May 14). Al-Maliki was accompanied by... MORE
OBSERVERS DEBATE WHETHER THE SILOVIKI HAVE WON OR LOST
The general consensus about the personnel changes in the Kremlin administration and cabinet of ministers that have been made in the week and a half since Dmitry Medvedev was inaugurated president and Vladimir Putin was named his prime minister is that the reshuffle has meant... MORE
THE NORTH CAUCASUS IS THE KEY SECURITY CHALLENGE FOR PRESIDENT MEDVEDEV
Virtually all the political talk in Moscow since the beginning of last week and, probably, for weeks to come, has been about the new appointments in the government and the presidential administration. It is indeed exciting to speculate about the declining influence of the siloviki... MORE
PJAK in Northern Iraq: Tangled Interests and Proxy Wars
The Kurdish area in northern Iraq has become one of the most complex fronts in the war in Iraq, a place where Iranian, Turkish, Kurdish, Iraqi and American interests clash. An often perplexing role in the region’s conflicts is played by the Party for a... MORE
Yemen’s Three Rebellions
Politics in Yemen has always been a violent affair. Two of its four presidents have died unnaturally—one in a hotel room surrounded by drugs and prostitutes; his successor, suddenly and absurdly, by an exploding briefcase. The next man to take office, a young tank commander... MORE
APPOINTMENTS SHOW PUTIN REMAINS DOMINANT–BUT FOR HOW LONG?
While it is perhaps too early to assess definitively the meaning of the appointments to the Kremlin administration and the cabinet of ministers, one can put forward two provisional conclusions. The first is that the hard-line siloviki faction, said to be headed informally by Igor... MORE
Victory in Death: The Political Use of Islamist Martyrs
The past week once again saw the international media intensely focus on the capture and death of prominent Islamist leaders. On May 8, hundreds of reports appeared that al-Qaeda’s commander in Iraq Abu Ayub al-Masri (a.k.a. Abu Hamza al-Muhajir) had been captured by U.S. and... MORE
Turkish and Iraqi Kurdish Rapprochement Ominous for PKK
In a significant change of policy, Turkey recently initiated high-level official dialogue with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq. A columnist for the Turkish mass circulation daily Zaman commented that such an official dialogue “was not an ordinary step. It was a turning point... MORE