Stephen Starr

Pushed out of Gezi Park, Turkey's demonstrators are fanning out to parks across Istanbul to keep their cause alive.

The assassination of a high-ranking Syrian rebel commander by an Al Qaeda-linked fighter could spell trouble for the rebels trying to fight the regime of Bashar al-Assad and secure weapons from already skittish Western donors.

The popular uprising and military power that brought Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood to its knees is worrying political Islamist movements across the region.

Even as authorities moved to crackdown on social media amid a widening protest movement that engulfed cities across Turkey in recent weeks, Turkish officials are also emerging as avid users of both Twitter and Facebook.

Apart from chief protagonist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, no other element has been as roundly criticized by the thousands of anti-government protestors who have taken to Turkey’s streets over the past week than the country’s generally listless media.

Protests in Istanbul quickly morphed into a lightning rod for a broad set of social and political grievances against the Turkish government.

The protest movement sweeping Turkey has drawn people from all strata of society.