Middle East

I am sitting drinking tea with friends in the Cafe Grand Boulevard in the Beyoglu district of Istanbul. It is evening and the place is busier than usual. We are sat so close together all our knees are touching. Regular…

The news coming out from Istanbul via news services such as Al Jazeera show a lot of violent action from the side of the police and their allied security forces. Update – from Ankara. Listening to the speeches of the…

Reformist Hassan Rohani has won Iran’s 11th presidential election by a landslide win, the results in on 14 June, 2013. The announcement brought the Tehran population into the streets in jubilation. Clearly this is what the majority wants, change, and…

“Tehran has developed technical expertise in a number of areas – including uranium enrichment, nuclear reactors, and ballistic missiles – from which it could draw if it decided to build missile-deliverable nuclear weapons,” reads Director of National Intelligence James R.…

In 2011, when Arab revolts began to sweep the Middle East and North Africa, the view from Washington and its closest allies was one of concern. How would the removal of mostly pro-Western dictatorships affect the balance of power in…

The correspondents heard that people were gathering at the central square of Kizilay, so they went out at 3pm walking down to the main road to Kizilay Square where many people were walking in that direction with slogans, banners and…

Dear humanist brothers and sisters from all over the world from Hüseyin Öntas, Turkey. Thank you for sharing testimonies of the people of Turkey with your loved ones. After all the violence in Turkey a different kind of siblinghood and…

It sounds like a jet approaching, and everybody, it’s a matter of instants, stares at each other, your words stifled in your mouth; but it’s only a gate that slides and shuts. A hatchet chopping fi-rewood is a burst from…

Today I try to honor a young woman who made an impact on me in one meeting long ago. Syrian journalist Yara Abbas’ love for her country and the soldiers who protected her in combat zones humanized these young men…

Paul Larudee has been part of the delegation that with Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, has visited Syria in early May. Paul wrote various press releases that Pressenza published together with the articles of Marinella Correggia, who was…