Turkey's powerful populist leader Recep Tayip Erdogan shows no signs of flinching against masses of angry protesters who brand him a dictator, dismissing them as "a handful of vandals". Thousands have rallied, complaining that he is pushing conservative, Islamist-flavoured...

   I am on my knees, hands behind my head, on a border-crossing between Turkey and Syria. A Turkish border guard stoops over me menacingly, the nozzle of his Kalashnikov pressing against my upper thigh as he barks something in an unfamiliar language. What does he want? My...

 Turkey's deputy prime minister offered an apology Tuesday for the government's violent crackdown on an environmental protest , a calculated bid to ease days of anti-government rallies in the country's major cities. The message was a bit mixed, however, as hundreds of  riot police...

 Syria's Sana state news agency said the "heroic armed forces have returned security and stability to all of the town". Sana said a large number of "terrorists", as the state refers to the rebels, had been killed and many had surrendered. It said the army was now destroying...