Current Analysis Return of the Turkish “State of Exception” Diyarbakır, the political and cultural center of Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeastern provinces, displays its beauty in springtime. The surrounding plains and mountains, dusty and barren during the summer months, shine in shades of green and the rainbow colors of alpine flowers and herbs. Aro Kerem Öktem • 14 min read
Current Analysis Impunity on Both Sides of the Green Line As Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon strode up to the podium at the UN General Assembly on September 15, 2005 to deliver a speech recognizing the Palestinians’ right to statehood, government officials back in Jerusalem were preparing to draw a firm line under unfinished business from the start of Jonathan Cook • 12 min read
MER Article Villages of No Return During the bitter war with the guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the 1990s, the Turkish army and paramilitary “village guards” depopulated and burned villages in southeastern Turkey on a systematic scale. Clearance of the countryside and resettlement of the rural population, from which the PKK drew membership, Joost Jongerden • 11 min read
MER Article Reluctant Partners Turkey passed a milestone in its long and arduous journey toward acceptance into the exclusive club of the European Union when the EU gave Turkey a date for the start of accession talks. But major obstacles remain -- chiefly resurgent anti-Muslim feeling in Europe and resurgent ethnic nationalism in Hilal Elver • 14 min read
MER Article The Targeted and the Untargeted of Nablus On April 14, 2005, Ibrahim Isneiri, a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, was shot dead by Israeli forces in the Balata refugee camp on the outskirts of Nablus, a town located between two mountains in the northern West Bank. Palestinian eyewitnesses said Israeli forces opened fire first, while t Amahl Bishara • 10 min read
MER Article Rhetorical Acrobatics and Reputations The inaugural report of Egypt's state-sponsored National Council for Human Rights raised eyebrows when it was released in April 2005. The 358-page document acknowledged claims of torture in the country's police stations and called for an end to the emergency laws that have effectively suspended the Joshua Stacher • 17 min read
Current Analysis Morocco’s Justice and Reconciliation Commission From independence in 1956 through the 1990s, the Moroccan state sent thousands of dissidents and political opponents to prison. During these decades, known to Moroccans as the “black years,” the act of expressing an “unauthorized opinion” could earn years of arbitrary detention. Political opponents of King Hassan II’s regime, Susan Slyomovics • 10 min read
MER Article Egypt's Virtual Protection of Morality Action by states to impose excessive regulations on the use of...the Internet, on the grounds that control, regulation and denial of access are necessary to preserve the moral fabric and cultural identity of societies, is paternalistic. These regulations presume to protect people from themselves and Hossam Bahgat • 11 min read
MER Article "Honor Crimes" and the International Spotlight on Jordan With the runaway success of Norma Khouri’s Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern-Day Jordan, “honor crimes” -- killings of girls or women accused of sexual transgressions, in order to cleanse family honor -- are firmly equated in the eyes of the West with Jordan. Khouri’s book sold Janine A. Clark • 12 min read
MER Article No Buying Off the Past Since King Mohammed VI ascended the throne in 1999, Morocco has created various bodies to pay cash awards to Moroccans "disappeared," imprisoned or tortured for their political beliefs under the reign of his king father. But there have been no trials of the jailers and torturers. Former prisoners co Susan Slyomovics • 11 min read
MER Article Paying the Price of Injustice Around 30 soldiers invaded my home at 2:30 am on August 17, 2001. They searched the home and messed up our belongings, breaking the windows and confiscating our telephone agenda. They took me to the roof of the house for two hours and asked me about people they wanted. Catherine Cook, Adah Kay, Adam Hanieh • 14 min read
Current Analysis Shirin Ebadi's Nobel Peace Prize Highlights Tension in Iran The decision to award the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize to Shirin Ebadi, the intrepid Iranian human rights lawyer and former judge, took everyone by surprise—not least Ebadi herself. On the morning of October 10, when the award was announced, the Nobel winner was about to leave Paris, where she Ziba Mir-Hosseini • 9 min read
