Mideast Media Sampler 06/22/2011

From DG:

1) Spontaneous?

The headline of this New York Times news story from Syria is curious, Thousand turn out for Assad.

The second paragraph reads:

The scenes across the country illustrated the complexity of the three-month crisis in Syria, which has deeply isolated Mr. Assad’s leadership. Though orchestrated, the rallies underlined the reservoirs of support Mr. Assad himself still draws on. But even as his government sought to suggest at least the intention of reform, violence erupted again as security forces fired on counterprotests, killing nine people, activists said.

"Though orchestrated?" Isn't that the most significant fact about the protests? If Assad's forces told people to protest wouldn't they have to protest whether they supported him or not?

At least one such incident was reported in the Times:

But even within the rallies, there were voices of dissent. An employee of a private company forced by his manager to attend said he resented that at a time of economic crisis, companies and the government came to a standstill for a political ploy. 

Later on we get what seems like an apology for the Assad regime:

When genuine, the rallies Tuesday demonstrated sentiments that had “less to do with support for Bashar and more to do with not wanting to descend into the unknown,” said Bassam S. Haddad, director of the Middle East Studies Program at George Mason University. “There’s a lot of orchestrating going on, but it’s not all orchestration.” 

Robert Mackey, does a better job of putting things in context at the Lede.

While Syria’s state media lavished attention on rallies in support of President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday, opposition activists posted video online showing what they described as evidence that security forces are continuing to use violence to suppress dissent.

Here's an interesting tweet from June 18:

I don't mean to be racist but none of those #Aleppo pro-Bashar protesters interviewed on #Syria TV now have Aleppo accents.

That's a subtlety I wouldn't pick up on. (And I have no way of knowing that it's true.)

2) Refugees in Turkey

The actress Angelina Jolie visited some of the Syrian refugees in Turkey last week. This article said that there was criticism of her visit, because the cameras left when she did. But at least she got some cameras to focus on the refugees, didn't she?

I missed this article by Soner Cagaptay from last week about the Syrian refugees in Turkey. He lists some possible consequences to these refugees:

In the recent Turkish elections on June 12, 36 deputies belonging to the Kurdish nationalist Peace and Democracy Party, which publicly states its sympathies for the PKK, entered the Turkish parliament.

If a flow of hard-line PKK members and sympathizers were to enter Turkey, this could potentially re-direct the Kurdish nationalist movement in Turkey toward a violent stance.

A flow of Syrian refugees could also inflame Turkish public opinion to demand its government breaks ties with Assad. Given the ethnic ties that cut across the Turkish-Syrian border, the AKP government is likely to come under pressure from the many Turkish citizens who have family across the Syrian border.

Finally, if the crackdown in Syria takes on a sectarian color with the Alawite regime appearing to persecute the Sunni population, this could have ripple effects across the border, creating unwanted tensions between Turkey's own Alawite and Sunni populations.

Some of those consequences might be why Turkey warned Syria earlier this week that it needs to reform and soon:

Ersat Hurmuzlu, an advisor to Turkish President Abdullah Gul, told the Dubai-based al-Arabiya channel on Sunday night that Turkey will be watching closely what Assad tells his people in a planned speech on Monday. 

"The demands in this field will be for a positive response to these issues within a short period that does not exceed a week," Hurmuzulu said. 

"The opposite of this, it would not be possible to offer any cover for the leadership in Syria because there is the danger ...that we had always been afraid of, and that is foreign intervention." 

Somehow I don't think that blaming saboteurs was what the Turkish government had in mind.


3) The Killer

As the Syrian army kills more and more of its own citizens, the former chief investigator of the murder of Rafiq Hariri accuses Assad for that murder too:

“The mastermind of Hariri’s killer is sitting in Damascus” , Mehlis said in the interview
He said ” we came to the conclusion that members of the Syrian regime were involved in the assassination and witness testimonies confirmed that the way the regime in Syria is structured doesn’t allow anyone to carry out such crimes without orders from Assad.”

4) The killer app

With apologies to Israel Matzav for using his title.

Arutz-7 reports (via memeorandum):

Israeli officials were up in arms Tuesday after Apple cleared for release into the iPhone App Store an application that encourages violent uprising against Israel, and advocates violence against “settlers,” generally defined by Arab anti-Israel groups as all residents of Israel.

Called “The Third Intifada,” the Arabic-language app features articles and stories by radical Arab members of Fatah and Hamas, as well as members of the Palestinian Authority. They discuss strategies to use in fighting IDF soldiers, and glorify acts of violence that have already taken place.

The Associated Press adds:

Apple’s guidelines for developers say that applications “containing references or commentary about a religious, cultural or ethnic group that are defamatory, offensive, mean-spirited or likely to expose the targeted group to harm or violence will be rejected.”

5) Reaching out

Apparently PM Netanyahu has at least made some efforts to reach out to PM Erdogan.

Israeli media report Israel’s prime minister has sent a letter to Turkey’s leader expressing hope for improved ties.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Middle East>.