Eurasia Security Watch No. 171, February 29, 2008
American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, DC
Editor: Jeff Smith

HEADSCARF REOPENS TURKEY’S RELIGIOUS DIVIDE
A running battle between Turkey’s secular establishment and the country’s ruling Islamist party, the AKP, over the role of headscarves in the public square has finally been settled. Legislation designed to lift 28-year-old ban on Islamic headscarves in universities has easily sailed through the AKP-friendly parliament as part of a broader constitutional reform package. While the measures received the backing of the opposition Nationalist Action Party, Turkey’s secular establishment has vowed to take the measure to the country’s constitutional court, and some expect universities to continue enforcing a de facto dress code. The AKP has touted the reform as a long-overdue boost for religious freedom. Secular protesters in Ankara, however, have a different take on the matter; they insist the law would “eliminate the republican regime and replace it with bigotry.” (Agence France Presse, February 10, 2008)

TWO STEPS FORWARD IN IRAQ
February was a good month for Iraq. Add to the mounting successes of the Bush administration’s “surge” strategy, a series of hard-fought legislative agreements cleared Iraq’s parliament, moving the former Ba’athist state a long way toward the national reconciliation Washington has identified as the cure to country’s ills. First, in early February, Iraq’s three main factions hammered out an agreement on a “de-Ba’athification” law, creating a process for disaffected Sunnis expelled from government en masse in 2003 to return to their former posts. The measure – one of Washington’s “key legislative benchmarks” – was universally hailed as a critical step toward undermining the Sunni-led insurgency.

In an equally ambitious move, Iraqi lawmakers in mid-February also rammed through a three-tiered piece of legislation effectively providing amnesty to thousands of uncharged and untried prisoners; delineating a critical power-sharing agreement between the central and local governments (provincial elections must now be held by October 1st); and settling a contentious debate over the 2008 budget that threatened to bring down the government. (London BBC, February 3, 2008; Reuters, February 13, 2008)

ARAB MEDIA UNDER FIRE
It is no secret that Arab governments have been skeptical of the rapid spread of satellite TV and independent media that has taken place in their own backyard in recent years. Now, two regional states are taking their attempts at censorship to a new level. In mid-February, Saudi Arabia and Egypt convened a meeting of the Arab League, producing a resolution calling on regional media “not to offend the leaders of national and religious symbols” or “damage social harmony, national unity, public order or traditional values.” Aside from Qatar, home to al-Jazeera, there was unanimous support for the “charter,” which will allow authorities to “withdraw, freeze, or not renew work permits of media which break the regulations.” For good measure, the charter includes restrictions on content promoting eroticism, alcohol, and smoking, in order to “protect Arab identity from the harmful effects of globalization.” (London BBC, February 12, 2008)

MUGHNIYEH MEETS HIS MAKER
Hezbollah’s Imad Fayez Mughniyeh, one of the world’s most notorious terrorists, was assassinated on February 13th by a car bomb in Damascus, Syria. Although responsibility for the assassination has yet to be claimed, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and many others have pointed the finger at Israel, which is now bracing for reprisal attacks from the Lebanese militants. Mughniyeh, most famous for the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Lebanon which killed over 240 Marines, has remained close ties with Iran and Syria during his quarter-century of carnage. He is credited with introducing suicide bombings, plane hijackings, and kidnappings to the region in the 1980s and 90s, and is responsible for terrorist attacks on Israelis in as far away places as Latin America. In the last decade, Mughniyeh was believed to have assumed a more behind-the-scenes role in Iran’s global terrorist infrastructure, although some have fingered Mughniyeh in the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers in 2006.

Mughniyeh’s killing, then, comes as a major blow to Hezbollah and its chief patron, Iran. “Mughniyeh's departure removes Hizballah's key conduit to Iranian intelligence and could serve to exacerbate organizational fissures within the organization,” observe Washington Institute scholars Matthew Levitt and David Schenker. (Washington Institute for Near East Policy Policywatch, February 14, 2008)