The Levant Files

Σε μια απόφαση που νομικοί και παρατηρητές της δημοκρατίας χαρακτηρίζουν ήδη ως ένα από τα πιο καθοριστικά πλήγματα στον τουρκικό πολιτικό πλουραλισμό εδώ και δεκαετίες, εφετείο της Άγκυρας κήρυξε το εθνικό συνέδριο του κόμματος της τουρκικής αξιωματικής αντιπολίτευσης, του Ρεπουμπλικανικού Λαϊκού Κόμματος (CHP), «απολύτως άκυρο». Η απόφαση αυτή ουσιαστικά διαλύει την εκλεγμένη ηγεσία του κόμματος και διατάσσει την επαναφορά του στην κατάσταση που βρισκόταν πριν από τον Νοέμβριο του 2023. Το 36ο Περιφερειακό Εφετείο της Άγκυρας εξέδωσε απόφαση την Πέμπτη με την οποία ακυρώνει το 38ο Τακτικό Συνέδριο του CHP, το οποίο διεξήχθη στις 4-5 Νοεμβρίου 2023, λόγω απόλυτης ακυρότητας (mutlak butlan) – την αυστηρότερη κατηγορία νομικής ακυρότητας στο τουρκικό αστικό δίκαιο. Η απόφαση αυτή ακυρώνει όχι μόνο εκείνο το συνέδριο, αλλά και κάθε επόμενο συνέδριο, καθώς και κάθε απόφαση που ελήφθη έκτοτε, συμπεριλαμβανομένων των έκτακτων συνεδρίων που ακολούθησαν. Σε πρακτικούς όρους, η απόφαση στερεί ...

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Pakistan’s army chief has travelled to Tehran to advance a Pakistani-brokered de‑escalation initiative between Iran and the United States built around a “calm for freeze” formula that would curb military escalation while broader issues are negotiated. Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, General Asim Munir, is visiting Tehran on Thursday as part of Islamabad’s ongoing mediation efforts between Iran and Washington, in coordination with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, according to Iranian agency ISNA and Al Mayadeen. The visit coincides with talks in Tehran between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, underscoring the multiplicity of channels Islamabad is using to anchor its initiative. The Pakistani move comes against the backdrop of intense regional tensions following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and fears that any miscalculation could trigger a broader regional confrontation. The “Calm for Freeze” Formula According to...

Two men convicted on terrorism-related charges have been executed in Iran, the country’s judiciary said on Wednesday, citing a statement by the Judiciary’s Mizan News Agency. The men, identified as Ramin Zaleh and Karim Maroufpour, were hanged after the Supreme Court upheld death sentences against them for alleged involvement in armed activities linked to separatist organisations, according to the report. The judiciary’s media centre said the two had collaborated over several years with what authorities described as separatist terrorist groups and operated as part of a clandestine armed cell affiliated with those organisations. They were charged with membership in terrorist groups, forming an armed group with the aim of undermining national security, taking up arms against the state, and involvement in shootings and assassination attempts, the report said. According to details attributed to his confessions, Zaleh had received training and was tasked with acting as a leader during perio...

Israel is facing mounting criticism after an Israeli rights group said Gaza-bound flotilla activists detained this week were subjected to a “new pattern” of deliberate physical abuse, including extreme violence and sexual humiliation, by Israeli forces. The report, based on hundreds of testimonies, was first published by Nir Hasson in the Israeli daily Haaretz on May 21. According to Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, many of the international activists seized while trying to breach Israel’s blockade of Gaza reported severe beatings, degrading treatment and sexual humiliation while in Israeli custody. Lawyers from Adalah and volunteers met hundreds of detainees at Ashdod port, gathering accounts that the group says point to a systematic pattern of intentional physical abuse by Israeli authorities. Adalah said at least three detainees required hospitalization for injuries allegedly caused by Israeli forces, while dozens more showed suspected rib fractures and ...

Another femicide has shocked the country, as the body of an Iranian‑origin woman, reported missing weeks earlier from her home in Istanbul’s Maltepe district, was found in a plot of land in Kırşehir’s Mucur region. The investigation has led to the arrest of at least three suspects, including a man who allegedly strangled the victim and then dumped her body in a remote area, underscoring the ongoing pattern of gender‑based killings in Turkey. Woman’s Disappearance And Discovery Farkhondeh (Farkhundeh) Ghaem Maghami, a 68‑year‑old Iranian national, had lived in Istanbul for about two decades and was last heard from by her relatives in mid‑April. After repeated failed attempts to contact her, family members filed a missing‑person report, triggering police searches in and around her apartment building in Maltepe. Investigators later determined that Ghaem Maghami’s mobile phone had been used to send deceptive messages, including a text stating “I’m on vacation,” to a neighborhood WhatsApp g...

Italy’s recent clash involving Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, U.S. President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV is accelerating a shift toward a conservative vision of a “Europe of Nations,” in which sovereign states reclaim strategic autonomy while remaining inside the Western alliance framework, writes Alessandro Imperiali in The Conservative. At the heart of Rome’s current posture is the idea of a “Europe of Nations,” rooted in the European right’s tradition and inspired by Charles de Gaulle’s conviction that Europe must be an alliance of sovereign states, not a supranational bureaucracy. In this vision, Italy seeks renewed centrality—especially in the Mediterranean—by asserting more room for national decision‑making without formally breaking from its commitments to NATO, the European Union and the transatlantic relationship. The immediate trigger for the latest tensions was Italy’s decision not to renew its defense memorandum with Israel, officially justified by repeated attacks on Ital...

Nearly half a century after Iran’s 1979 revolution, its outcome is still widely miscast as an almost natural slide from monarchy to theocracy, yet Hossam el-Hamalawy’s analysis in The New Arab shows it was the product of fierce social and political struggle, not cultural destiny. In his piece for the London-based outlet, the Egyptian scholar-activist argues that the Islamic Republic emerged from contingent battles among competing forces within a broad revolutionary coalition, rather than from an allegedly “innately religious” society. Far from a mere religious eruption, the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi capped decades of uneven, top-down capitalist modernisation driven by oil revenues, rapid industrialisation and urban growth, alongside tightly controlled political participation. Rural displacement and widening inequality pushed millions into precarious urban life, fuelling mass unrest that, by 1978, had spilled beyond elite circles into nationwide demonstrations and cripplin...

A senior Iranian lawmaker says Iran has upended U.S. President Donald Trump’s assumption that any confrontation with Tehran could be contained, arguing that Washington now fears a wider regional war it can no longer control, according to comments published by Hamshahri Online citing an interview with Tasnim news agency. Rasoul Bakhshi Dastjerdi, a member of parliament from Isfahan, said Iran’s use of asymmetric warfare has exposed the limits of America’s expensive military hardware and forced Washington and Israel to halt recent offensives without achieving their objectives. He argued that Iran’s “agile” forces have managed to “stop the obese American war machine” and demonstrate that U.S.-style high-tech arsenals no longer guarantee battlefield dominance. Bakhshi Dastjerdi said the United States, backing Israel, joined an assault on Iran in the summer of 2026 but was compelled to accept a ceasefire after 12 days of heavy exchanges because it failed to meet its strategic goals while Is...