Arab Awakening's columnists offer their weekly perspective on what is happening on the ground in the Middle East. Leading the week: A toast to the Brotherhood
In this interview conducted in Diyarbakir, the unofficial Kurdish capital in Turkey, Aydin Yildiz tells the story of his imprisonment without trial and his time as a journalist reporting from inside his prison cell.
Natan Blanc's refusals to serve and repeated imprisonments come in the context of mass demonstrations against the inclusion of Orthodox Jews in the army alongside their less religious peers.
One year on from the violence of June 2012, new empirical evidence about the treatment of the Rohingya in Rakhine State, Burma, has taken the issue from the realms of international human rights and humanitarian law to that of international criminal law, says Amal de Chickera.
While the Geneva talks, if they are actually held, are tipped to fail, a political settlement may well be the only hope, not only for Syria, but also for the region.
Brutal assaults by the Turkish police on protesters in Istanbul and around the country during the last few days have invited a few expressions of ‘concern’ from EU capitals. Unfortunately, the EU’s ‘concern’ about the Turks’ human rights is not substantiated by corresponding policy.
Our columnist returns to Egypt from nine months in London. But it is not he who has changed.
The Gezi Park occupation has been presented as little more than an environmental dispute over an urban green space. But it goes to the heart of the identity of modern Turkey and the character of the Turkish republic.
The eruption of protest in Istanbul and other Turkish cities expresses vigorous opposition to the political direction of prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, says Dimitar Bechev.
Our columnist attends a conference and can see why Gandhi suggested that humans are best organized in the small compounds he called “Swadeshi”.
Holding elections for the Constitutional Commission will be a step in the right direction but to stop this process being hijacked or derailed the state has to show some strength and follow through on their actions.
