A Kuwaiti blogger was sentenced to ten years in prison Monday for insulting the Prophet Mohammad and the Sunni Muslim rulers of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and for harming Kuwait’s interests by targeting other countries in the region. Shi'ite Muslim Hamad al-Naqi pleaded not guilty and said that he did not post the messages, and that his Twitter account had been hacked. The written verdict, delivered by Judge Hisham Abdullah, found Naqi guilty ...

On Thursday, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Al-Monitor hosted a discussion titled “Egyptian Elections, Round One.”  The event featured Michael Wahid Hanna, a fellow at the Century Foundation; Samer Shehata, a professor of comparative and Middle East politics and U.S. policy toward the Middle East at Georgetown University; and Marina Ottaway, a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Barbara Slavin, Washington correspondent for Al-Monitor, moderated ...

Writing at bitterlemons-international.org, Anouar Boukhars argues that Morocco and other Arab nations, "...purposefully perpetuate the political incongruence and economic 'dissonance' that is at the root of their failure...". According to Boukhars, this "incongruence" has manifested itself in the Algerian and Moroccan positions regarding the Western Sahara. "Algeria's policy has been stuck in perpetual tension between the military and the civilian branches of the government...", with the civilian branch supporting ...

"The theory is good, but perhaps 20% is useful. The programs are a bit pre-formatted." This is quote from a Moroccan politician pretty much sums up the dark side democracy assistance these days. Check out Anna Khakee's new piece for FRIDE for the full assessment of democracy assistance programs in Morocco. Also, here is another critical look by Khakee of the EU approach to reforming the Moroccan Justice system.

I’ve been on a different planet for the past few months but I’m back with some great links on patronage and politics (these two words should always go together in Morocco-and most countries, for that matter). Check out Si Maati’s latest piece on the USFP as well as a new report by the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy assessing opportunities for engaging political actors for reform in Egypt, Morocco and ...

On Monday, Turkish police arrested 49 military commanders in Turkey's three biggest cities- Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir- for allegedly conspiring to topple the government as part of the "Sledgehammer" plot. The details of this latest coup attempt were unveiled in the liberal Taraf newspaper last month and are possibly linked to the Ergenekon conspiracy. The arrest of high-level officials like former air force chief Ibrahim Firtina and former navy chief Ozden Ornek highlights once again ...

The clamor over the closure of Le Journal continues amidst an environment in which the parameters of free speech within the kingdom seem to be shrinking daily. Just days after Le Journal’s offices were shut down, a blogger was arrested for organizing a bloggers’ strike. All of this on the heels of a critical Human Rights Watch report that the Moroccan government has been handicapped to rebut. It is telling that ...

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon arrived in Cyprus on Sunday to invigorate long-running talks between Mehmet Ali Talat, the Turkish Cypriot leader, and Demetris Christofias, the Greek Cypriot leader. Both are in favor of reunifying the island, but have made little headway since negotiations started in 2008. The clock is ticking, and ticking loudly-- if hardliner Dervis Eroglu wins presidential elections in Northern Cyprus in April as expected ,it could ...

Issandr Amrani has a good piece out on the recent closure of Le Journal Hebdomadaire, Morocco’s first publication to push the newly expanding boundaries of free speech at the end of King Hassan’s rule ten years ago. I have enjoyed reading Le Journal for four years now and its state-ordered demise is a major blow to Morocco’s experiment with press freedom. In a different but related story, the editor of ...

Last week, the Turkish Constitutional Court overturned a law that would have allowed military personnel to be tried in civilian courts. The ruling drew criticism from leading members of the Strasbourg-based European Parliament and proved that the relationship between the AKP-dominated Parliament and the Kemalist courts remains tense.

Human Rights Watch just released its 2009 report chronicling what has been a rather disappointing year in Moroccan human rights.

A new year, a new plot unveiled. Yesterday, the liberal daily Taraf published a front page article detailing plans by figures in the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) to topple the ruling Justice and Development party. According to Taraf, the Balyoz (Sledgehammer) Security Operation Plan, allegedly masterminded by retired General Cetin Dogan in 2003, would incite violence both within Turkey and with Turkey’s neighbor Greece to create the conditions necessary for a ...

Americans spent yesterday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. Today, Turks commemorated a similar hero, Hrant Dink, whose calls for peace were silenced by the bigotry and intolerance of Turkey’s ultra-nationalist forces. Dink, who was editor-in-chief of the Armenian-Turkish daily, Agos, was assassinated on January 19, 2007. Although today marks the third anniversary of his murder, the investigation has made little progress. Dink’s family, lawyers, and domestic and international human rights ...