Footage from Al-Mayadeen TV of the regime capture of Qusayr
Qusayr did not resolve the Syrian conflict. It only highlighted that resolution is distant.
The regime is unlikely to alter this with victory in one town, achieved only with substantial help from Hezbollah. Whether the insurgency and the "West" can do so is the more intriguing scenario.
Thursday, June 6, 2013 at 7:17 | Scott Lucas in EA Live, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
Tear Gas in Ankara on Wednesday (Photo: AFP)Tear Gas in Ankara Square on Wednesday
PM Erdogan Stands Firm Over Gezi Park
Defying protesters, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has stood firm on the re-development of Istanbul's Gezi Park --- he said the construction of a replica Ottoman-era military barracks, housing a shopping mall, will go ahead.
Erdogan spoke from Tunisia during his tour of North African countries.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013 at 16:51 | Scott Lucas in EA Live, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran Reports Of Breadlines In Largely Kurdish Town Of Efrin Near Aleppo
A Kurdish activist group claims that Kurds in Efrin near Aleppo in northern Syria are suffering because of an ongoing siege by the Free Syrian Army.
Activists on Wednesday tweeted images purportedly of breadlines in the town.
Huge bread crisis in Efrin near Aleppo with huge lines on the only remaining bakery in the town. twitter.com/omarsyria/stat…
— Omar (@omarsyria) June 5, 2013
There were sustained reports last month of clashes between the FSA and local Kurdish militia.
Claimed footage, from "Daraa City" activists, of insurgents evacuating women and children from Qusayr
See also Middle East Today: Turkey --- Deputy PM Apologises for "Excessive Violence"...But Will PM Erdogan?
Tuesday's Syria Today: More Than 100 Claimed Deaths on a "Quiet" Monday
Insurgent Withdrawal from Qusayr
Reuters, citing an "opposition group" from Qusayr, said more than 500 insurgents died in the three weeks of the regime assault, with a further 1,000 wounded, leaving just 400 outgunned men struggling to hold onto the town.
Survivors decided to escape in the night through a corridor that regime attackers said they had deliberately left open to encourage flight.
Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said, “The Al-Qusayr accomplishment is a severe blow to the project of the American-Israeli-Takfiri [infidel] trio and a glowing point for the project of the resistance in Syria.
Qassem continued, “Today, it has been proven that betting on the fall of the resisting Syrian [regime] is an illusion....Building political stances on the accomplishments of the American-Israeli project is unsuccessful.”
[Editor's Note: Ali Yenidunya has also spoken this morning with BBC WM Radio --- the interview begins at the 2:09.12 mark.]
So far, the wave of protests have reflected a wider people’s initiative. People go to work in the morning and after dinner they go out and demonstrate. The protests have shown that young people are tired of politics and don't want any more government restrictions.
By the same token, however, this situation makes further demonstrations difficult to organise and direct into a political agenda. Beyond what we see on streets, Turkish protesters need a solid strategy to carry this initial surge of popular anger to wider victory. Without leaders or clear demands, there is no future for this movement.
So what does Turkey need? First and foremost, the declaration of a general strike. This is not because a strike will shake the government’s authority, but because people will no longer need to go to work and abandon in the morning what they gained the night before.
Ethem Sarısülük, who was wounded in the head during police attacks on protesters in Taksim Square, has died of his injuries.
Two other people have so far died in the protests. Abdullah Cömert, a 22-year-old youth branch member of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), was killed in Antakya on June 3 during the clashes, while 20-year-old Mehmet Ayvalıtaş was hit and killed after a car driver ignored warnings to stop for protesters in Ümraniye’s 1 Mayıs neighborhood on the night of June 2.Turkey: Protesters Present Demands to Government
Protesters of the "Taksim Platform", who began the current wave of demonstrations with a challenge to the re-development of Istanbul's Gezi Park, have put their demands in a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç.
Protest in the village of Ayvalik (pop: 40,000) on Tuesday
Thousands of protestors returned to Istanbul's Taksim Square on Tuesday night --- Turkish pipe music and singing blared over speakers as the crowd clapped and danced in a festive atmosphere.
In Ankara, residents carried out ther nightly protest of banging pots and pans, leaning from their windows, and marching in the street. Some waved red and white Turkish flags and drivers honked their horns, amid yells directed toward Prime Minister Erdogan: "Tayyip, resign!"
Bodies in Taftanaz, April 2012Government forces and affiliated militia have committed
murder, torture, rape, forcible displacement, enforced disappearance and other inhumane acts. Many of these crimes were perpetrated as part of widespread or systematic attacks against
civilian populations and constitute crimes against humanity. War crimes and gross violations of international human rights law –-- including summary execution, arbitrary arrest and detention, unlawful attack, attacking protected objects, and pillaging and destruction of property --- have also been committed. The tragedy of Syria’s 4.25 million internally displaced persons is compounded by recent incidents of IDPs being targeted and forcibly displaced.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013 at 5:45 | Scott Lucas in EA Live, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran Residents digging through rubble in Kafar Hamra section of Aleppo after Sunday's missile strike
US Cautious About Claims of Regime Use of Chemical Weapons
The White House has been cautious about a French finding that the regime has used chemical weapons.
"We need more information" about claims of such use, spokesman Jay Carney said.
Carney said there is a need to gather more evidence to pin down when chemical weapons were used, who employed them, and what the chain of custody was: "[We must] establish a body of information that can be presented and reviewed, and upon which policy decisions can be made."
Carney had no timetable for when the review might be completed, although he said, "I can assure you that we are working very diligently as an administration with our allies and the Syrian opposition on this matter."
France, Jay Carney, Syria, Wael al-Halki Monday, June 3, 2013 at 12:55 | Scott Lucas in EA Live, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran See also Middle East Today: Turkey --- Mass Protests and Clashes Move Beyond Istanbul
Sunday's Syria Today: The Civilians Trapped in Qusayr
Report: US Discussing Placement of Patriot Missiles in Jordan
A senior Pentagon official has said that the US and Jordan are discussing the possibility of sending American Patriot anti-aircraft missile batteries to the Kingdom, amid the Syrian conflict and the training and arming of insurgents from a base in Jordan.
The official emphasised that an agreement over the deployment has not been reached. However, he said the missile batteries could be flown to Jordan within days and used initially as part of a multinational military exercise in June.
Aleppo, Hezbollah, Jordan, Kasem Alzein, Lebanon, Louay al-Mokdad, Syria 
