Mohammed Mostafaei, a human rights lawyer for an Iranian woman who was recently sentenced to death by stoning, looks out from a barred window at the Kumkapi Foreigners Detention center in Istanbul on Aug. 5. At the time of the photo, Mostafaei was unsure whether he'd be sent back to Iran, from where he fled after an arrest warrant had been issued for him.
The 31-year-old said he first fled to Turkey, where he was detained for an undisclosed passport issue. He then flew to Norway two days later with a one-year Norwegian travel visa and may consider applying for asylum. Mostafaei has promoted the case and the sentence of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani widely within the international community.
Jonathan Lewis is a freelance photojournalist based in Istanbul.
Russia has clarified its short-term modernization plans for the Black Sea Fleet:
Three patrol boats of a new project and three submarines of 636 project will be laid up at Russian shipyards for the Black Sea Fleet before the end of 2010, Russian Navy Commander Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky said.
"They [the ships] will be included in the Black Sea Fleet," Vysotsky said. "The three submarines of the 636 project have already been laid, and they will be included in submarine forces of the Black Sea Fleet."
The ships appear, given Vysotksy's description, to be Krivak III class frigates, a version of which has been produced for export to India. That would contradict some earlier reports that the ships would be the newer Admiral Gorshkov-class frigates. And Moscow appears to have opted for 636(Kilo)-class submarines rather than the newer Lada/St. Petersburg class that some had expected. (A side note: Really? You're naming a new submarine 'Lada'?)
While this may be look like a downscaling of Russia's expectations, it's a more realistic plan that has a greater chance of success, argued Dmitry Gorenburg in a good analysis of Russia's Black Sea Fleet plans a month ago:
If the Navy announces that the new ships will consist of Admiral Gorshkov frigates and Lada submarines, the Black Sea Fleet is likely to be in for more delays and disappointments. But if the modernization does end up consisting of Kilo submarines and Krivak III frigates, then it is much more likely to happen quickly and successfully.
In addition, Russia will soon be getting back its only currently functional submarine in the Black Sea Fleet:
Young girls play on July 18 in the central Istanbul district of Tarlabasi, a community facing displacement as developers threaten the run down, but centrally located district.
Jonathan Lewis is a freelance photojournalist based in Istanbul.
Remember when we thought that the prospect of Turkish troops going to Armenia, through a temporarily opened border, for a NATO exercise was a further step toward rapprochement between the two countries? Well, never mind. For all the enthusiasm Turkey apparently held for the idea, it was less popular among Armenian officials, who quickly rejected the notion:
The Armenian Foreign Ministry refrained from officially commenting on the possibility of a temporary border opening. But a diplomatic source in Yerevan shrugged off the Turkish statement as "a public-relations stunt aimed at burnishing Turkey's image."
"Armenia has no desire to contribute to that effort," the source, who asked not to be identified, told RFE/RL. The Armenian government might refuse to let any personnel or vehicles enter the country from Turkey during the exercise, he added.
Other Armenian officials went on the record rejecting the Turkish reports:
The talks on a temporary opening of the Armenian-Turkish border during the NATO military drills to be held on September 11-17 in Armenia are groundless, assure correspondents of the RA Ministry of Emergency Situations with which NATO is organizing this year's military drills.
During the initial and final planning conferences organized within the framework of the NATO military drills, there was no mention of the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border. The Armenian, North-Atlantic and Turkish delegations didn't even make a proposal," Deputy Director of Armenia's Rescue Service of the RA Ministry of Emergency Situations Sergey Azaryan told "A1+".
A new food and photo book called "Istanbul Eats: Exploring the Culinary Backstreets" hit the market mid July and breaks open the gastronomic mysteries of Turkey's largest city and biggest tourist destination. Co-written and shot by EurasiaNet contributor Yigal Schleifer and Ansel Mullins, the book is the first spin-off from the duo's successful blog Istanbuleats.com. Currently the English-language book is only for sale in Turkey -- in stores and through online Turkish book sellers -- but may be available soon on Amazon.com and other international book sites.
Yigal's "5 and 5" - five questions and five photos - will get your mouth watering and your tummy grumbling.
1. What inspired you to do this photo book? Istanbuleats.com was launched in April of last year, as a joint project between me and Ansel Mullins, another American living here, who works in the architectural restoration field. Although it started as a blog/website, we always felt like the subject -- Istanbul's best local and authentic restaurants -- would be ideal for a photo-rich book, since the people, places and food tell such a compelling visual story. We felt like a good would be a great way to celebrate some of the unsung heroes of Istanbul's culinary scene.
2. Aren't there already plenty of restaurant guides for Istanbul - so why another one?
Turkish representatives will take part in military and humanitarian trainings of NATO to be held in September of this year in Armenia.
According to Turkish Radikal, the names of Turkish servicemen have already been added to the list of the Alliance soldiers who will come to Armenia for exercise. In addition, the newspaper says that there is a plan to open the Armenian-Turkish border for the limitless passage of servicemen for a time period.
It is not reported anywhere how many soldiers, of what kind, and what sort of equipment Turkey will be bringing. And given that the exercise is a civil emergency simulation, they probably won't be that many and won't have heavy weapons. But it's surely an important symbolic move. Azerbaijan, however, is not participating.
Tomorrow we will post a beautifully shot audio slideshow of an ancient wrestling tournament that has taken place in Turkey for several centuries. Nichole Sobecki, an Istanbul-based reporter and photojournalist, talks about the event during a three-minute slideshow of black-and-white images of the greased wrestlers.
There is an interesting piece in Salon.com about how the row between Turkey and Israel over the humanitarian flotilla incident is changing the Israeli perspective on Ottoman Turkey's World War I-era slayings of ethnic Armenians. The story may be largely about its disgruntled author venting his grievances against The Los Angeles Times for allegedly killing his article on the same topic for a perceived pro-Armenian bias, but it nonetheless includes some fresh observations on the politics surrounding Armenia's genocide recognition campaign.
Mark Arax argues that the idea of recognizing the slaughter of ethnic Armenians as genocide is gaining currency with Israel, which allegedly refrained from doing so previously out of fear of alienating a strong Muslim ally. With Turkey and Israel now at loggerheads over the flotilla attack, that reluctance could soon vanish, Arax predicts.
At the big defense expo in Kazakhstan, if you recall, the two main foreign countries exhibiting their hardware for Kazakhstan were Israel and Turkey. The conference ended just before the brouhaha with the Turkish aid flotilla going to Gaza, and I wondered, how would it have turned out had that been going on while Kazakhstan was buddying up to Turkey and Israel at the same time. Well, at the Asia Summit that's been going in Turkey, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev weighed in on the controversy:
"The Israeli Armed Force's attack on the humanitarian ship, which took place in the Mediterranean Sea, intensified the situation in this region. Standing on this rostrum I urge all conflicting sides to reach compromise," the Kazakh leader said.
He said that "it is difficult even start talking about security and stability in the region" without investigating all circumstances of the incident at an international level.
In this respect, Nazarbayev said that "the Asian conference has a range of confidence-building measures specifying the main spheres of cooperation".
Are Iran and Turkey planning to gang up against Armenia in Nagorno Karabakh? That's what an Armenian analyst says, according to ArmInfo:
The Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem and Iran have arrived at a certain arrangement regarding deployment of international forces in Nagorny Karabakh, the political expert Hmayak Hovhanissyan told media on Tuesday.
"Iran's stance has sharply changed and now Tehran comes out for change of the status-quo in Nagorny Karabakh and even offers its assistance in the process. Azerbaijan has already accepted that offer whereas Armenia has not responded to that yet. As regards my concern about possible resumption of military actions in Nagorny Karabakh, it is not exaggerated, otherwise President of Armenia Serzh Sargayan would not touched upon this topic during his visit to Brussels," he said.
This seems alarmist, but it is worth noting that Iran and Turkey have been cooperating more lately (most notably on the Iranian nuclear deal), and Iran seems to be moving a little bit away from Armenia, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference just came out with a statement declaring Armenia the aggressor in Karabakh. On the other hand, things are a little rocky between Turkey and Azerbaijan because of the Turkey-Armenia rapprochement. All this is to say that this is a pretty fluid situation, and so it seems possible that, for better or worse, there could be some movement soon on Karabakh.
And if Iran and Turkey fail to resolve the situation, it may fall to Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore to set things right. Today.az reports:
Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher, reportedly, wishes to visit Baku, and support Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute...
