The triumph of Turkey’s fundamentalist Freedom and Development Party (AKP) in local elections is bad news for both Syria and Cyprus. The AKP’s success is certain to embolden Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to stand for president in the country’s first presi

Baghdad has been rated as one of the world’s worst cities to live in, alongside Bangui in war-torn Central African Republic and the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, which has not yet recovered from a massive earthquake in 2010. Baghdad, once the capital of the Abbasid empir

Egypt’s interim President Adly Mansour argued in an interview aired this week that the country had made progress in implementing the roadmap drawn up in the wake of the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi last July. He said ratification of the new constitution in January was

The “Ides of March” was a turning point for the Arab region as was March 15, 44 BC, the day Julius Caesar was assassinated. This event began the transformation of the Roman Republic into the dictatorial Roman Empire. In 2011, Syria followed Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and

During the 1950s and 1960s, Turkey was proclaimed the success story of this region. Experts argued that the country had transformed itself from the powerhouse of the Ottoman Empire to a secular, modernising, democratic, Western-oriented republic. But two factors were ignored: t

One must not be misled by the similarities between developments in Ukraine and the January-February 2011 and June 2013 events in Egypt. It is true that the hub of the uprisings was Maidan (Independence) Square and Midan Al Tahrir (Liberation Square) in both countries and that te

The suicide bomber who slew two South Korean tourists and the Egyptian driver of their bus last Sunday was dispatched by Ansar Beit Al Maqdis, the radical jihadist group operating in the northern Sinai, which is now expanding its reach into Egypt “proper” and southe

Good news from Syria is not news for many a quality Western newspaper.

“The US must reconsider its failed Syrian policy,” The Washington Post editorialised this week. Indeed. The Post, however, urged a more proactive policy, implying that air strikes on Syrian targets would be the right way to go. In September, US President Barack