We have been documenting the human cost of the crisis in Syria, and beyond, but in the end, the economic cost of the Arab Spring may be a major driving factor in social and political change in the region. Ibrahim Saif, an analyst with the Carnegie Middle East Center, writes on the LA's Times blog, Babylon & Beyond:;)
Turkey’s military command echelon resigned late Friday from their posts amid an ongoing spat with the government over the growing number of arrested generals. The mass resignations, which marked a first in the country’s history, immediately caused a state crisis.
Chief of General Staff Gen. Işık Koşaner, Land Forces Commander Gen. Erdal Ceylanoğlu, Air Forces Commander Gen. Hasan Aksay and Naval Forces Commander Adm. Eşref Uğur Yiğit quit their posts days before the Supreme Military Council, or YAŞ, was supposed to meet to discuss key military promotions. Koşaner had another two years left in the office.
Gendarmerie Forces Commander Necdet Özel did not resign.
The resignations came hours after a prosecutor demanded the arrest of a top military official, Gen. Hüseyin Nusret Taşdeler, the commander of the Aegean Army. Sources said disagreements over promotions and the arrests of numerous generals peaked to an unacceptable level following the legal action against Taşdeler.
Tensions between the military and the government have been high in recent years as hundreds of high-ranking officers were put behind bars in the ongoing “Balyoz” (Sledgehammer) and Ergenekon coup-plot cases.
Turkey and Israel are close to resolving their dispute over last year's flotilla fiasco, but the partnership that existed between them for more than a decade will almost certainly stay submerged.
As a new flotilla of ships prepared to set sail for Gaza Tuesday, Turkish and Israeli officials and analysts said that only a major breakthrough on Israeli-Palestinian peace could begin to revive a relationship that once featured joint military exercises and hordes of Israeli tourists visiting Istanbul. Even then, the officials said, they doubted that the warmth of the 1990s and the mid-2000s would resurface.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) ended up with less than 330 MPs out of 550 in the Parliament, short of the "super-majority" which would enable the AKP to amend the Constitution without resistance.
Meanwhile, the imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, declared that passive resistance, rather than armed conflict, would continue if two conditions were met: a halt to Turkish military operations and engagement with his leadership, reaching out to the militants and urging them to accept a democratic solution.
Both these headline developments are now accompanied by other manoeuvres.
AKP, Abdullah Ocalan, PKK, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey 
At the end of the day, the people of Turkey voted for a hegemonic "stability" --- the continuation of a relatively settled neo-liberal period --- rather than a coalition government.
AKP, PKK, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey 
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed to embrace the entire nation after a sweeping victory in Sunday's parliamentary elections and said his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) will seek a broad-based consensus of opposition parties and civil society groups while drafting a new constitution.
The AK Party won a third consecutive term by securing a record-high vote of 50 percent in Sunday's polls. The biggest opposition party, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's Republican People's Party (CHP), won 25.9 percent.
In less than a week, Turkey will have a new government.
Anticipating the Parliamentary elections on Sunday, EA takes a look at the differences between the parties on key issues. Today: Protest and the Future of the Kurds.
Prime Minister Erdogan Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said, “There is no Kurdish problem but there are problems of Kurdish people”. After the killing of 12 members of the outlawed PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) on 14 May, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc offered a more confusing formula, “There is a Kurdish problem but it is not productive to say that there is a problem as it is in the solution process."
AKP, Israel, Kurdish problem, PKK, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russia, Turkey 
On Tuesday, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren put forth an article, “The Ultimate Ally”, in Foreign Policy.
Oren starts with the premise of a a strong ally that not only “shares America’s values, reflects its founding spirit, and resonates with its people’s beliefs”, but also politically, militarily and economically enhances Washington’s position in the Middle East. According to Oren, in this “dynamic” relationship, far from one-dimensional, “America needs Israel now more than ever”.
Fatah, Gaza, Goldstone Report, Hamas, Iran, Israel, Michael Oren, Palestine, Turkel Commission, Turkey, West Bank Thursday, April 21, 2011 at 23:00 | Ali Yenidunya in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
UPDATE 22 APRIL: The Supreme Election Board, after eight hours of discussions, has reinstated the candidacy of seven independent candidates.
The Baord had vetoed 12 mostly Kurdish applicants, including two current MPs.
Six Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) candidates and one independent were re-instated. There was no word about the other five who had been blocked.
Protests broke out in several cities across Turkey, with at least one person shot and killed by police on Wednesday, after the board's initial decision.
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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in Strasbourg, France last week, taking questions from the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly. When French MP Muriel Marland-Militello, whose grandfather was an Armenian born in Istanbul and escaped Turkey in 1915, asked how he would guarantee freedoms for religious minorities in Turkey, Erdogan said, “I believe this friend is French. She is also 'French” to Turkey', which is a saying in Turkish meaning that 'you don’t know anything about it'."
Last week, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu wrote for The Guardian of London about his approach to foreign policy.
The context, Davutoglu explained, was a “natural” history, “flowing” from “abnormalities” --- such as the division of peoples of the region by colonialism and Cold War --- to democracies spreading in the Middle East. In the course of time, he says, an ordinary Turk or Arab can change the history but you are bound to lose if you resist the “momentum of the history” which is giving the “dignity” of this region back.
AKP, Ahmet Davutoglu, Bashar al-Assad, Iran, Libya, NATO, Namik Tan, PKK, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Syria, The Guardian, Turkey 
