Aufheben analyse the long-term geopolitical aims of the US in the Middle East, following the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as President of Iran in July 2005.
The Turkish government's decision to allow the Orthodox patriarch to celebrate a liturgy at the ancient Panagia Soumela Monastery near Trabzon indicates that Ankara intents to further strengthen the rights of religious minorities in the country. Iason Athanasiadis reports from Trabzon