Ankara, Turkey
Kurd speaks Kurdish: A Kurdish politician defiantly broke the law this week by giving a speech in Turkey’s parliament in the Kurdish language. Ahmet Turk was speaking to his Democratic Society Party about the cultural richness of a multilingual society when, to demonstrate his point, he switched from Turkish to Kurdish. State television immediately cut away from its live broadcast. Kurdish is no longer banned outright in Turkey, but it cannot be spoken at political rallies or in television commercials. As a member of parliament, Turk ostensibly has immunity from prosecution. But in a similar case in 1991, Kurdish politician Leyla Zana had her immunity stripped after she spoke Kurdish at her inauguration. She later served 10 years in prison.
Tehran
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Reactor fired up: Iran began a dry test-run at its Bushehr nuclear power plant this week, amid increasing concern by the U.S. and its allies over Tehran’s nuclear intentions. The plant “is on its way to being ready,” according to one project engineer, although it is unclear how long that will take. Although the current test, which may go on for months, is being conducted without nuclear fuel, officials said that Iran would run tests using fuel rods containing enriched uranium at the end of this year. The reactor is now being overseen by a Russian firm, which says it plans to supply the nuclear fuel and collect spent fuel rods, to ensure that they cannot be used to make nuclear weapons. The U.S. had no immediate comment.
Baghdad
Museum reopens: Iraq’s National Museum, looted and vandalized at the beginning of the U.S. invasion nearly six years ago, reopened this week. More than 5,000 of the artifacts that were stolen in the chaotic days after the fall of Saddam Hussein are back on display, having been bought back or turned in. But some 15,000 other objects, including many of the most precious Babylonian and Sumerian relics, are still at large. Many of them likely ended up in the private collections of rich Westerners. The U.S. was blamed for not preventing the looting. “Stuff happens,” then–Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld famously said of the looting. “Freedom’s untidy.”
Cairo
Terrorism hits tourists: A bombing at a Cairo marketplace this week killed a 17-year-old French girl on a school tour and wounded at least 20 others, including several other French, German, and Saudi tourists and four Egyptians. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but Egyptian police detained three men and two women as suspects. Officials said the bomb was “very primitive,” in contrast to the sophisticated devices typically used by al Qaida. “I think they are Islamists, Islamist beginners,” said Egyptian political analyst Diaa Rashwan. “Something inspired, perhaps, from the Internet.” Many local groups are hostile to the Egyptian government because of its cooperation with the U.S. and its enforcement of the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Cairo
Dissident released: Egypt last week abruptly freed jailed opposition leader Ayman Nour, an outspoken critic of President Hosni Mubarak. Nour had served three years of a five-year sentence for forging party documents, a charge that international human-rights groups deemed trumped up. His release, which officials said was for “medical reasons,” was so sudden that none of Nour’s family or friends was alerted, and he found himself locked out of his apartment. Egyptian commentators said that freeing Nour so soon after the inauguration of President Obama was meant as a slap at former President Bush, whose administration repeatedly had pressured Mubarak to ease up on political dissidents.
Puthukkudiyiruppu, Sri Lanka
Civil war close to end: Sri Lankan troops this week entered the last stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the separatists who have been fighting for an ethnic Tamil homeland for more than 30 years. With their backs against the wall, the Tamil Tigers called for a truce, but the government declined the offer, saying victory was in sight. “If the LTTE is genuinely interested in the welfare of Tamil citizens caught in the crossfire, it should give up arms and convincingly demonstrate its readiness to join the democratic mainstream,” said government spokesman Keheliya Rembukwella. The Tamil Tigers have drawn international condemnation for using civilians as human shields in a long struggle that has claimed more than 70,000 lives.
