Nadim Ladki | Beirut | May 8

Reuters - The Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah said on Thursday the U.S.-supported Beirut government had declared war by targeting its communications network.

Hezbollah launched a new street campaign on Wednesday, piling pressure on the government after it declared the network illegal and removed the head of airport security, a figure close to the group, from his post.

Supporters of Hezbollah and its allies have blocked roads leading to the airport -- Lebanon's only air link to the outside world -- and other main streets, paralysing much of the capital.

Sporadic gun battles erupted between Hezbollah supporters and pro-government loyalists in the Bekaa Valley in the east of the country, wounding five people, security sources said. Similar clashes took place in Beirut on Wednesday.

April 28

Hurriyet - Turkey is planning to send an emissary to Jerusalem in an attempt to find a compromise that would pave the way of peace talks between Syria and Israel, as it played down the high expectations saying there is a long way to go.

Israel's Haaretz said on Monday Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan plans to send an emissary to Jerusalem to brief Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on his recent talks with Assad in Damascus. Erdogan will apparently send his foreign policy advisor Ahmet Davutoglu, who is also in charge of talks with Syria and has in the past met with Olmert adviser, Yoram Turbowicz, in Ankara, it reported.

Israeli officials believe Turkey's involvement in the issue will increase. "Erdogan has decided to go all the way on the issue of Israel and Syria," the Israeli government source told Haaretz.

The source added that Israel has not yet received an update on Erdogan's talks in Damascus. "Talks are being conducted to chart out the issue," the source said. "The goal of Turkey's activity is to allow talks to start. That's how we view it. So far, no real negotiations are taking place."

   Col. Pat Lang snarks, "Imagine the effrontery of the locals! Taking things into their own hands like this! Who do they think they are to do this?"

Isabel Kershner | Jerusalem | April 24

NYT - Peace overtures between Israel and Syria moved up a gear on Wednesday when a Syrian cabinet minister said that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel had sent a message to President Bashar al-Assad to the effect that Israel would be willing to withdraw from all the Golan Heights in return for peace with Syria.

more

Nicholas Birch | Istanbul | April 23

The Guardian - As a child, Klaus Schmidt used to grub around in caves in his native Germany in the hope of finding prehistoric paintings. Thirty years later, a member of the German Archaeological Institute, he found something infinitely more important: a temple complex almost twice as old as anything comparable on the planet.

"This place is a supernova," said Schmidt, standing under a lone tree on a windswept hilltop 35 miles north of Turkey's border with Syria. "Within a minute of first seeing it I knew I had two choices: go away and tell nobody, or spend the rest of my life working here."

Khaled Yacoub Oweis | Damacus | April 18

Reuters - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter arrived in Damascus on Friday for talks with exiled leaders of Hamas, the Islamist group which he argues should be included in international efforts for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Carter, who is on a Middle East tour to hear views on solving the historic conflict, will meet Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and senior Hamas members in one of the highest profile encounters between the group and a Western figure.

The former statesman, who brokered the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt when he was president, met two senior Hamas officials in Cairo on Thursday after Israel refused him permission to enter the Gaza Strip, where they live.

Carter said the Hamas leaders he had met in Cairo told him they would accept a peace agreement with Israel negotiated by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the rival Fatah faction, if the Palestinians approved it in a referendum.

Hilmi Toros | Islamabad | April 18

Asia Times Online - Turkey is locked in a do-or-die duel between its secular "fundamentalism" and "moderate" Islam. The outcome is likely to bring profound changes at home, and may affect its controversial bid for European Union membership.

The all-embracing clash is coming to a boiling point after the Constitutional Court agreed to take up a case brought by the chief prosecutor to close down the ruling and highly popular Justice and Development Party (AKP) on the grounds it has become a cover for anti-secular activity bent on replacing the secular regime with an Islamic one.

The prosecution also asked that AKP chairman and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President Abdullah Gul and 69 other senior party officials be barred from politics for five years.

The AKP, despite its Islamist roots, denies the charges, and portrays itself as "conservative democrat" and loyal to entrenched secularism. The party is also portrayed as an expression of "moderate" Islam, as opposed to a more extreme form.

Can the Hizbollah shoot Israeli jets out of the sky in the event of another conflict?

By Robert Fisk in Teir Dibba, south Lebanon
Tuesday, 8 April 2008

Independent - The Shia "martyrs" of this hill village are normally killed in the dangerous, stony landscape of southern Lebanon, in Israeli air raids or invasions or attacks from the sea. The Hizbollah duly honours them. But the body of the latest Shia fighter to be buried here – from the local Hashem family – was flown back to Lebanon last month from Iran.

He was hailed as a martyr in the village Husseiniya mosque but the Hizbollah would say no more. For when a Lebanese is killed in live firing exercises in the Islamic Republic, his death brings almost as many questions as mourners. Yet it is an open secret south of the Litani river that thousands of young men have been leaving their villages for military training in Iran. Up to 300 men are taken to Beirut en route to Tehran each month and the operation has been running since November of 2006; in all, as many as 4,500 Hizbollah members have been sent for three-month sessions of live-fire ammunition and rocket exercises to create a nucleus of Iranian-trained guerrillas for the "next" Israeli-Hizbollah war.

Whether this frightening conflict takes place will depend on President Bush's behaviour. If America – or its proxy, Israel – bombs Iran, the response is likely to be swift and will come from the deep underground bunkers that the Hizbollah has been building in the fields and beside the roadways east and south of Jezzine.

Stratfor | April 8

George Friedman

The Arab-Israeli region of the Middle East is filled with rumors of war. That is about as unusual as the rising of the sun, so normally it would not be worth mentioning. But like the proverbial broken clock that is right twice a day, such rumors occasionally will be true. In this case, we don’t know that they are true, and certainly it’s not the rumors that are driving us. But other things — minor and readily explicable individually — have drawn our attention to the possibility that something is happening.

Amy Teibel | JERUSALEM | March 28

AP - On Wednesday, Olmert told foreign journalists that Israel favors face-to-face talks with Syria that could result in a peace treaty, adding: "That doesn't mean that when we sit together you have to see us."

A Cabinet minister said Friday that Israel was trying to bring Syria back to the negotiating table eight years after talks between the two countries broke down.

The disclosure of Israeli efforts to engage Syria in negotiations comes at a time when Israeli attempts to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians are making no visible progress despite intense U.S. involvement.

...

"All efforts are being made to bring Syria to the negotiating table" in order to "sign a peace treaty," Ben-Eliezer told Israel Radio, without elaborating.

"We know exactly what the price would be," he added _ namely, Israel's return of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war.

Beirut | March 24

M&C - Lebanon's parliament speaker Nabih Berri postponed Monday the country's presidential election from March 25 to April 22 for the 17th time, after rival parties failed to reached a compromise.

'Parliament speaker Nabih Berri has decided to postpone the session to April 22 at noon (0900 GMT),' his spokesman Ali Hamdan said.

The latest postponement means that Lebanon will not be represented at the Arab summit from March 29 to 30 in Damascus by a president.

Arab divisions over Lebanon have already undermined the meeting and Saudi Arabia announced earlier Monday that it would send a low- level delegation to the annual summit.

March 15

BBC News - Turkey's chief prosecutor has asked the Constitutional Court to ban the governing AK Party, accusing it of anti-secular activities.

Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya said he believed that there was enough evidence to show the party had been contravening Turkey's secular constitution.

The AK Party, which has Islamist roots, won last year's general elections.

The AKP is already locked in a battle with Turkey's secular elite, backed by the powerful military, over recent changes on the headscarf issue.

The Constitutional Court is reviewing an appeal by the main pro-secular opposition party on the validity of parliament's constitutional amendments in February to allow women wear Islamic headscarves at universities.

March 9

Todays Zaman - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a statement yesterday similar to that of Turkey's top military commander, who had lashed out at charges suggesting that Turkey ended its ground offensive against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq under pressure from the US, with the prime minister threatening to step down from his post if the allegations are proven true.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Uşak Atatürk Sports Hall yesterday, Erdoğan also commented on accusations by opposition parties regarding the timing of the Turkish troops' withdrawal. Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt recently stated that he would quit if US pressure is proven, and Prime Minister Erdoğan has now also said that he will step down from his political post if critics can prove their accusations.

Erdoğan noted: “Gen. Büyükanıt has said something very significant, and now I also repeat the same [for my own post]. Nobody can accuse us of getting orders from the US or other authorities. If such accusations are proven, I will quit politics. I am making a significant claim.”

Addressing those making the accusations, Erdoğan said: “The law states that slanderers must prove their accusations. I am asking how they will live with themselves without being able to prove these claims of theirs.”

I don't really have much to say about this post except to say it should be read. And pondered. I think Col. Lang is largely correct.

More here.

Washington | Feb 28

Reuters (Updated and expanded) -

Signaling impatience with Syria, the United States has sent its USS Cole warship off the coast of Lebanon in a "show of support" for regional stability, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.

The senior official told Reuters the United States was very concerned about the political deadlock in Lebanon, which Washington blames on Syrian meddling. A U.S. defense official said the Cole left Malta on Tuesday and was headed towards Lebanon, adding it would not be within visible range of Lebanon but "well over the horizon.

AP - The U.S. Navy is sending three ships to the eastern Mediterranean Sea in a show of strength during a period of tensions with Syria and political uncertainty in Lebanon.

** New Sanctions Aimed at Syrians
** Karami: War is Coming and Damascus Summit Would be Held
** Syria slow on Saudi invite to summit amid Lebanon row
** Egypt & Saudi Arabia discussed moving summit to Sharm Al-Sheikh

The goal of this post is not in any way defending Turkey (disclaimer: I am a Turkish citizen) but attempting to make international audience understand how Turkey as a state and Turkish public see things and react accordingly. Before we come to the current incursion let's have some history and maps.

Our first map is from the Treaty of Sèvres which was signed between Ottoman Empire and the Allies after the World War 1:

Turkey plans to invade northern Iraq

Feb 19 - The Turkish military said it is setting the ground work for a large-scale ground invasion into northern Iraq targeting the Kurdistan Workers' Party.

The military said the ground operation is the final strike against the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known by its Kurdish language initials of PKK. The operation follows airstrikes on the group in late 2007 and military officials said the operation is scheduled for mid-March, the English language Turkish daily, Today's Zaman said Monday.

Military sources told the newspaper that the operation would be on two fronts; one along the Turkish border with Iraq and one inside Turkey in its southeastern provinces.

Israel gave the Turkish military unmanned surveillance drones that military officials said will provide key intelligence about PKK activity.

UPDATE Feb 22 : Turkish Army Begins Ground Assault on PKK in Iraq
(Bloomberg) -- Turkish soldiers crossed into northern Iraq in their first major incursion in 11 years, stepping up an assault against Kurdish militants after two months of air strikes.

The troops moved in late yesterday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in Ankara without saying how many soldiers were involved. Istanbul-based NTV television said that 10,000 Turkish soldiers pushed 10 kilometers (6 miles) into Iraq. CNN-Turk later said the attack involved 3,000 troops.

Robin Wright | February 22

Washington Post - The Bush administration yesterday froze the U.S. assets and restricted the financial transactions of Syrian businessman Rami Makhluf, a powerful behind-the-scenes middle man for the Syrian government, in a move targeting the political and economic inner sanctum in Damascus. As a cousin of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Makhluf, 38, is a key player in the Assad dynasty and is the force behind Syria's effort to privatize state-owned enterprises. However, his power over vital business monopolies has helped the government retain control over Syria's most important economic assets, according to U.S. officials and outside experts.

Sabrina Tavernise | Istanbul | February 19

NYT - When two women in Islamic head scarves were spotted in an Italian restaurant in this city's posh new shopping mall this month, Gulbin Simitcioglu did a double take.

Covered women, long seen as backward peasants from the countryside, "have started to be everywhere," said Ms. Simitcioglu, a sales clerk in an Italian clothing store, and it is making women like her more than a little uncomfortable. "We are Turkey's image. They are ruining it."

As Turkey lurches toward a repeal of a ban on head scarves at universities, the country's secular upper middle class is feeling increasingly threatened.

Religious Turks, once the underclass of society here, have become educated and middle class, and are moving into urban spaces that were once the exclusive domain of the elite. Now the repeal of the scarf ban — pressed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, passed by Parliament and now just awaiting an official signature — is again setting the two groups against each other, unleashing fears that have as much to do with class rivalry as with the growing influence of Islam.

In the eyes of the Israeli leadership, the “liquidation” was a huge success.

By Uri Avnery | February 16th

Rootless Cosmopolitan - Every people elevates the profession in which it excels.

If a person in the street were asked to name the area of enterprise in which we Israelis excel, his answer would probably be: Hi-Tech. And indeed, in this area we have recorded some impressive achievements. It seems as if hardly a day passes without an Israeli start-up company that was born in a garage being sold for hundreds of millions. Little Israel is one of the major hi-tech powers in the world.
But the profession in which Israel is not only one of the biggest, but the unchallenged Numero Uno is: liquidations.

This week this was proven once again. The Hebrew verb “lekhassel” - liquidate - in all its grammatical forms, currently dominates our public discourse. Respected professors debate with academic solemnity when to “liquidate” and whom. Used generals discuss with professional zeal the technicalities of “liquidation”, its rules and methods. Shrewd politicians compete with each other about the number and status of the candidates for “liquidation”.

Indeed, for a long time now there has not been such an orgy of jubilation and self-congratulation in the Israeli media as there was this week. Every reporter, every commentator, every political hack, every transient celeb interviewed on TV, on the radio and in the newspapers, was radiant with pride. We have done it! We have succeeded! We have “liquidated” Imad Mughniyeh! ...

Beirut | February 14

AFP - Imad Mughnieh, a top Hezbollah commander linked to notorious attacks against Western and Israeli targets in the 1980s and 1990s, was killed in a car bombing in Syria, the Shiite militant group announced on Wednesday.

It said Mughnieh, a shadowy figure in the world of terrorism and on America's most wanted list for more than 20 years, died on Tuesday in the Syrian capital Damascus in an attack orchestrated by Israel.

"A great jihadist from the Islamic resistance in Lebanon has become a martyr," the Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah said in a statement. "Haj Imad Mughnieh died a martyr at the hands of the Israeli Zionists."

In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office denied Israel was behind the killing. "Israel rejects any attempt by terrorist organisations to attribute to it any implication in this affair," it said in a statement.

Washington openly welcomed his death.

Ankara | February 12

TurkishPress.com - Turkish government spokesman criticized a ruling by a Belgian court which acquitted members of a terrorist group, which is on the European Union`s list of terrorist organizations.
"This ruling is meaningful in the sense that it showed how sincere and committed certain countries are in the global fight against terrorism," Cemil Cicek told reporters at press briefing after Monday`s meeting of the Council of Ministers.

"Unfortunately, the terrorist organization which killed many innocent people in Turkey have found shelter in certain countries with which we stand side by side in many international organizations and even defense alliances," Cicek said. The Belgian court in Anvers has acquitted members of the terrorist group DHKP-C; Dursun Karatas, Zerrin Sari, Sukriye Akar and Bahar Kimyongur.

Raed Rafei and Borzou Daragahi | Beirut and Los Angeles | February 12

Los Angeles Times blogs - Recent Lebanese media reports claim that Saudi Arabia plans to plans to deposit $1 billion in Lebanon's central bank to bolster the economy.

The reports, as yet unconfirmed, have raised eyebrows in the Middle East.

Laila Bassam and Nadim Ladki | Berlin | February 13

Reuters - Top Hezbollah commander Imad Moughniyah, accused of masterminding a hijacking, suicide bombings and hostage takings of U.S. and Israeli targets in the 1980s, was killed by a car bomb in Damascus, the Shi'ite Muslim group said on Wednesday.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, accused Israel of killing Moughniyah, 45. The Israeli government declined to comment. Moughniyah had long been on a list of foreigners Israel wanted to kill or capture and had also been among the FBI's most wanted.

Ankara | February 10

AFP - Turkey's parliament voted Saturday to lift a ban on Islamic headscarves at universities, handing victory to the Islamist-rooted ruling party as tens of thousands protested the deeply controversial move.

The constitutional reform package tabled by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) received 411 'yes' votes in the 550-seat house, parliament speaker Koksal Toptan said.

As parliament was voting, tens of thousands of people waving Turkish flags and carrying pictures of modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, packed a square in downtown Ankara to voice their opposition.

Secularists -- among them the army, the judiciary and academics -- see the headscarf as a symbol of defiance against the strict separation of state and religion, a basic tenet of the mainly Muslim country.

Beirut | February 3

Reuters - A Lebanese man was killed on Sunday in south Lebanon when Israeli forces opened fire from northern Israel, a security source in Lebanon said.

A second Lebanese man was seriously wounded in the shooting.

An Israeli army spokesman said gunmen in Lebanon had opened fire on Israeli troops across the border. He said the incident involved three drug smugglers who had crossed into Israel.

"The soldiers fired back and hit the gunmen," the army spokesman said, adding the incident took place near the village of Ghajar.