Global Voices has a great summary of the latest press crackdowns in Morocco. There have been so many as of late that Ms. York will need to start doing this kind of post every month.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Ollie Rehn warned Turkey that the 2.5 million dollar fine levied against a media group that had been critical of the government "felt like a political sanction" and would cause serious concerns in Brussels. He also reiterated the urgency of Turkey ending its trade embargo against the Republic of Cyprus.

Radikal announced that "friendship" won the Turkish-Armenian soccer match in Bursa this evening. Meanwhile Prime Minister Erdogan announced that in blocking Israeli participation in a NATO joint exercise he was responding to the wishes of the Turkish people.

In other parliamentary news, the PAM’s Secretary General Mohamed Cheikh Biadillah was just elected President of the House of Advisors (Morocco’s Upper House). In an unsurprising move, Biadillah “urged the members of the House to support the major projects launched by the Kingdom under the leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI.”

King Mohammed VI kicked off the Fall session of parliament last Friday with a speech calling for the establishment of a new Economic and Social Council to “serve as a watchdog and as a powerhouse of proposals for public policy guidelines in economic, social and sustainable development sectors.” How this new body will interact with the current government is still not clear. However, one thing is certain: since it will ...

Maati Monjib of Brookings just came out with a new piece discussing women’s political participation in light of the new local gender quota implemented before the June municipal elections. Here is a post I made commenting on Monjib’s piece and critiquing the discourse on gender quotas.

Human Rights Watch has released a new detailed report criticizing the Interior Ministry’s practice of delaying registration for controversial civil society organizations (anti-corruption, Berber rights, etc.).  Such restrictions have been used to curtail meetings and bring legal measures against unregistered groups that do carry out activities. The Moroccan government responded today denouncing the report for “not being objective.” A senior official within the Ministry of Interior even accused the authors ...

Egypt detains and deports another foreign journalist.  AFP says that he was deported for his involvement in a pro-Palestine march that was also attended by Philip Rizk, a German-Egyptian dual national who had been detained for five days by Egyptian authorities for his own involvement in the march.  It seems that Egypt is getting more brazen when it comes to how they treat foreigners they deem undesirable.

Under Secretary of State for the Middle East, Jeffrey Feltman, met with Moroccan Foreign Minister Taib Fassi-Fihri at the United Nations yesterday. The two discussed a host of bilateral issues including security in the Sahel and the Isreali-Palestinian conflict. Feltman stated that the talks were "extremely constructive" and that both countries have “communication channels open.”

The PKK announced it would extend its unilateral ceasefire. Kurdish politicians, meanwhile, continued to call for the Turkish military to halt its operations against the PKK in return. The military has refused to do this. Recent military operations resulted in a clash with PKK forces in which several Turkish soldiers were killed. The AKP government said it would not yield in the face of what it characterized as attacks by ...

While most coverage of last week's UN meeting focused on Obama's speech and nuclear disarmament, Turkish press covered PM Erdogan's call for the world to recognize the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in 2010 if Greek Cypriots continue to block efforts at unification. Without a major breakthrough on Cyprus by the end of this year, Turkey's EU bid will suffer a major setback. Ongoing negotiations between Greek and Turkish leaders ...

Internal disputes within the National Rally for Independents (RNI) have boiled to the surface following a recent media sortie by Finance Minister, Salaheddine Mezouar. Mezouar came out firmly against the direction the party is taking and the lack of official meetings among its senior structures. That such a senior official would speak out publically against RNI Secretary General and President of the Lower House of Parliament, Mustapha Monsouri, signals foundational ...

For anyone who wants to read more on Turkey's Kurdish initiaitve, here is an article in Foreign Policy that summarizes some recent developments and looks at the international angle with Northern Iraq as well.

Controversy continues following the imposition of a 2.5 billion dollar fine on the Dogan Media Group for alleged tax violations. The fine, almost equal to the value of the company, is widely seen as the government's latest move in a battle between PM Erdogan and Aydin Dogan. Critics of the Prime Minister have long accused him of using authoritarian tactics to restrict the freedom of the press. The fine appears ...

Osama Diab writes in the Guardian's Comment is Free about the Egyptian government using Ramadan to target secularists and enforce religious practice.  This comes after a week in which over one hundred people were arrested for drinking or smoking publicly during the day.

An AP reporter has an article about having to deal with day-to-day bureaucracy and corruption in Egypt.

A new study out by the Peterson Institute for International Economics—Capitalizing on the US-Morocco FTA—just came out. It discusses the status of the agreement on its 5yr anniversary and highlights areas where Morocco can get more out of the FTA. Several chapters also look at Morocco’s FTA with the European Union in order to add perspective to differing implementation strategies. Of note are comparisons of the US-Morocco FTA with the ...

Radikal reported that imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan had prepared a lengthy "road map" for resolving the Kurdish issue in which he said that Turks and Kurds must both accept Turkey and Kurdistan as joint homelands. Both President Gul, PM Erdogan and the head of the Turkish military have uncategorically refused to incorporate Ocalan into their Kurdish initiative, despite the fact that Turkey's Kurdish nationalist Democratic Society Party insists he ...

After Turkey's National Security Council, which has traditionally been an avenue for the military to "advise" the government on political issues, gave its support to the government's Kurdish initiative, opposition parties were increasingly critical of the army. In response to this criticism, chief of staff Ilker Bashbug gave a speech in which he repeated a number of the army's traditional red lines, stressing the importance of a unified state and ...

Back from summer hiatus. Things are likely to continue to be slow during the Ramadan season, but I’ve added several new publications and articles on the page to keep you occupied. Ramadan Kareem!