The Comics Reporter reports:
A court of appeals in Turkey has thrown out a fine against a cartoonist who depicted Prime Minister Reycip Erdogan as a horse. Sefer Selvi’s cartoon appeared in April 2004 and led to an approximately $7500 fine — although I admit I’m guessing on that latter fact, what with their being multiple [...]

The New Yorker: The Talk of the Town
In Istanbul this Friday—in Şişli, the district where I have spent my whole life, in the courthouse directly opposite the three-story house where my grandmother lived alone for forty years—I will stand before a judge. My crime is to have “publicly denigrated Turkish identity.” The prosecutor will ask [...]

Can the new democracy withstand a murder investigation?
So, when Viktor Yushchenko was catapulted to power last December, there was widespread expectation that the government would finally solve the crime. After all, ex-President Kuchma appeared to have been implicated in the murder by audiotapes provided by a former guard.
Alas, it’s been 10 months since Yushchenko [...]

The Head Heeb on the Azerbaijan elections
“This seems to be one of the many recent cases where the government stole an election that it didn’t really have to steal, and ended up with a victory that was large but tainted rather than narrow but clear.”
Also: BBC.

Can an Iron Fist Put Power in Bosnia’s Hands? - New York Times
“There is a growing consensus that Paddy Ashdown, Bosnia’s high representative, may be doing as much harm as good by holding back the development of democracy.”
This line of criticism has been put forward by some at least since Bildt was succeeded by the [...]

Slate’s Steven A. Cook arguesTurkish military are still plenty powerful.
Their wings have been clipped, but they’re still the big winners in the EU membership process.

Coincidences never cease to surprise me. Last Friday I mentioned the work of Brookings analyst Fiona Hill on Afoe. Well today she writes in the FT (with Sara Mendelson) alerting us to the continuing problems of the North Caucasus and our continuing neglect (subscription only unfortunately).
This week, the one-year anniversary of the hostage siege and [...]

Tomorrow Bulgaria will have elections:
Nearly six decades after Simeon II, Bulgaria’s 9-year-old child-king, was removed by the Communists, their heirs are again poised to oust him from power. The opposition Socialist Party is leading opinion polls ahead of the June 25 general election and is likely to defeat Prime Minister Simeon Saxcoburggotski.
Actually I know a [...]

The owner of a satirical magazine sued for publishing drawings of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s head on the bodies of animals accused the premier of intolerance on the opening day of his trial Tuesday.
Erdogan has done things like this for a while now, but I haven’t seen any mention of it in the [...]

This is a very intelligent move:
Between the rock of the French and Dutch referenda and the hard place of the looming early elections in Germany, Turkey has reiterated its determination to seek full EU membership. Ankara has also named its chief EU negotiator.
Turkey’s 38-year-old chief EU negotiator Ali Babacan is a founding member of the [...]