TURKEY: An American-style mega mall sprouts in Istanbul

Hüseyin Bürge had a dream.

As the mayor of Istanbul’s Bayrampasa district, he dreamed it would one day be remembered for something more joyful than its notorious prison.

Two weeks ago, his dream became a reality with the opening of Forum Istanbul down the street from the former Bayrampasa Prison. The new mega-mall is branded as Europe’s largest shopping center and probably offers one of the world's most unique mall views -- a grim jail and barbed wire.

“Finally, with this project, my dream has become real,” the Turkish English-language newspaper Hürriyet quoted Bürge as saying at the inauguration of the mall on Nov. 18.

The giant shopping center features hundreds of Turkish and international brands, including Zara and a gigantic IKEA. It's located on a large swath of land, about 5,300 square feet near the center of Istanbul’s European side, and was developed by the company Multi Turkmall with an investment of up to 1 billion euros.

IRAQ: Kurdish leader talks about Turkey and the prospects for peace

The Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, has been battling Turkey for an independent Kurdish state since the 1970s. Now Turkey has promised to come up with a plan to give Kurds more political rights in a bid to end the conflict. At the PKK's main camp in the remote Qandil mountains in northern Iraq's Kurdistan region, the PKK leader, Murat Karayilan, spoke to Babylon and Beyond about the PKK's suspicions of the Turkish offer.

Q: Turkey has shown a willingness to resolve the Kurdish issue. How do you read the situation?

A: We are serious, and we want to resolve the Kurdish issue in Turkey, and we are working towards peace. We want to solve the issue by dialogue, away from violence and the use of weapons. If Turkey is serious and has true intentions about peace, there must be an initial step of good faith to stop the ongoing military operations against our soldiers and our bases inside Turkey.  To begin with, there should be a halt to military operations against us, then dialogue and negotiation, and then we will start talking about giving up our weapons. Any solution or peace initiative to give up our weapons will be considered at the end, not the beginning.

I see a number of politicians demanding that we should abandon our armed struggle, but they do not talk about the Turkish side and the military operations they carry out against us. On the ground, we feel their agenda is unclear and they don't have a road map.

IRAN: Ahmadinejad, Turkish premier find common ground on nuclear issue

After months of diplomatic isolation following Iran's disputed presidential election and the subsequent violent government crackdown, President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad appears to have found a friend in Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan, who recently described Ahmedinejad as a "friend," arrived in Tehran on Tuesday with a delegation of more than 100 Turkish lawmakers and business leaders intent on strengthening trade relations between Turkey and Iran, which already amount to $11 billion annually. 

Iranian news agencies reported today that the two countries would sign a $4-billion deal giving Turkey access to Iran's rich natural gas fields.

TURKEY, SYRIA: Nations sign historic accord, end visa requirements

Turkey continued its decade-old quest to expand its influence in the Middle East, announcing the end of visa restrictions for travel to Syria.  

The two nations' foreign ministers announced that Syrians could travel to Turkey without visas, and vice versa, as the countries' leaders held talks on Turkish-mediated efforts to ease tensions between Baghdad and Damascus and foster peace between Syria and Israel, according to the English-language Today's Zaman news website. 

The two countries also signed a cooperation deal similar to one Turkey penned with Iraq. For years Iranians and Turks have been able to cross their border without visas.

Though a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization which hosts a major United States military base, Turkey maintains strong diplomatic and economic relations with many of the Middle East's main players, including U.S. rivals Iran and Syria.

TURKEY: Signs of progress in making peace with Kurds

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with the Kurdish politician Ahmet Turk Wednesday suggesting a move towards reconciliation between the government and the main Kurdish political group, the Democratic Society Party (DTP), which Turk chairs, according to a report in the  Hurriyet newspaper. 

"We are in the middle of a process, and I believe our hopes for the future have increased with today’s meeting," Erdogan told reporters.  

Erdogan had refused to meet with the DTP since the 2007 elections because it did not condemn militant activities of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. Turkey and the United States consider the militant group a terrorist organization.  

The government's so-called "Kurdish move" is an attempt to resolve decades-old tensions between Kurds, who constitute at least a 12 million-strong minority in Turkey, and the Turkish government.

Erdogan's government has been promoting the initiative under the banner of "greater democratization."  

Turk expressed similar sentiment saying, "We hope and wish to see positive developments for a more democratic process that everybody embraces with love."  

TURKEY: Government defends Chinese Uighur minority

When Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza, he was aligning himself with his fellow Muslims.

Now he’s picking up the standard of the Uighurs in northwest China.

The Uighurs, who like  the Turks are an ethically Turkic and Sunni Muslim people, are the focus of riots in Xinjiang Province, sparking tensions with both the Chinese government and members of the Han Chinese ethnic group.

In response to ethnic violence as a result of the riots, Erdogan didn’t mince words: “These incidents in China are as if they are genocide…. We ask the Chinese government not to remain a spectator to these incidents. There is clearly a savagery here.”

The Turks have rushed to the defense of the Uighurs, while the Iranian government has remained silent, even alleging that the Uighurs were acting at the behest of the U.S. 

Iran has fashioned itself as a leader of Muslims worldwide, but the unrest following the Iranian elections may be keeping the government silent.

MIDDLE EAST: Daily headlines from Gaza, Israel, Iran in your mailbox

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You can subscribe by logging in or registering at the website here, clicking on the box for "L.A. Times updates," and then clicking on the "World: Mideast" box.

— Los Angeles Times staff

IRAN: Will Obama meet Khatami at Turkey confab?

Iranian and Turkish media are all abuzz about the possibility that President Obama and former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami might meet at a U.N.-sponsored conference in Turkey this week.

Hurriyet, the big Turkish daily, is reporting that since both men are expected to attend the Alliance of Civilizations conference in Istanbul on Monday and Tuesday, the odds of a chance encounter are high, although noting that "it was not clear as of yesterday if the two would be at the summit at the same time."

Iran's conservative Mehr News Agency cited a close aide to Khatami as saying that "most probably" on the second day of the summit "a short talk will be held between" Khatami and Obama.

"One of the reasons for Obama's visit to Turkey and his presence in the second day of the Alliance for Civilizations summit on Tuesday is that he wants to meet a number of figures who participate at the summit, including ... Khatami, and talk to them about the issues concerning world nations and international climate," the source was quoted as saying.

EGYPT: Erdogan hailed as hero

By recently walking off the stage after a clash with the Israeli president over the Gaza Strip at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was viewed as a hero among Arabs who accuse their own leaders of not standing up to the Jewish state.

Erdogan was provoked when the moderator interrupted him while he was responding to comments made by Israeli President Shimon Peres, who defended Israel's military incursion into Gaza. Outraged at being cut off, Erdogan gathered his papers and walked out, saying: “And so Davos is over for me from now on.”

He had earlier told Peres: “When it comes to killing, you know well how to kill.”

ISRAEL: The Gaza effect on sports, diplomacy

This week, Turkish sports fans and angered citizens took their fury over Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip to the basketball court.

Thousands protested in Ankara, the capital, outside an arena where visiting the Israeli basketball team, Bnei Hasharon, was warming up to play Turk Telekom.

Indoors, the mood was red-hot with crowds chanting slogans against Israel and supporting Hamas.

Although police were present, things didn't cool down, and when fans threatened to charge the court, the Israeli team retreated and took cover in the locker rooms for three hours before being safely extricated.