Middle East Panorama show on Resonance FM 104.4 Every Friday 14:00 - 15:00 London Time (GMT) The Economist magazine: "Turkey's problems are postponed, not solved." “We want neither Sharia [Islamic law] nor another coup, but a democratic Turkey,” say the Kemalists. The Turkish military has carried out no fewer than three coups in recent history-in 1960, 1971 and 1980. "Turkey is NATO's longstanding bulwark in the Middle East," argues Cihan Tugal. However, in 2003 the Turkish parliament refused the US use of Turkish bases for its war against Iraq. On this year's May Day between 600 and 900 people were detained during a rally in Istanbul. >> Interview with Cihan Tugal . Labour News: "The longest and strongest wave of worker protest since the end of World War II is rolling through Egypt." May Day rallies in Turkey and Pakistan.
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” —Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilisation and the Remaking of the World Order, 1996, p. 51