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The tomb of Suleyman Shah has been surrounded for months by militants belonging to the so-called "Islamic State", with just 40 guards holding onto the tiny pocket of Turkish sovereign land protected by international law. The operation represents the first land incursion by Turkish troops into Syria since the civil war began there nearly four years ago.

In the Middle East there is a lack of focus on culture in education. it focuses on the history of the "winners" and is promoting hate and ignorance in the education system. These issues have popped up before the Minister of Education since 1997. 

This article gives many different stories of survivors who were once a part of human trafficking. It includes the story of a 23 year old who was beaten and threatened to be buried in the desert when she refused to prostitute and men who sold family land for jobs only to be given only half the promised wages and nearly starved.

Barack Obama lands in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday as the U.S. alliance with the Mideast powerhouse is being questioned on both sides like never before.

This is an article from the Columbia Journalism Review discussing about a popular illustrator Mana Neyestani. In the article, Neyestani talks about his career in Iran as a comic illustrator and how it landed him in jail. This correlates to the issues that are currently happening in Egypt  

This Electronic Intifada article is a re-posting of an open letter written by Jews in support of Palestine, the Palestinian people, their right to return home to their ancestral lands, and a call for a single-state. This letter touches on the years of political and military assault on the Palestinian people and disassociates themselves from the Zionist movement.

US general Philip Breedlove is worried that the Syrian Refugees who are being dispersed throughout Europe and to the United States are causing the terror group of ISIS to "spread like cancer". He blames the Russian bombing in the name of Assad for causing this because civilians are forced to leave their land and are further pushed toward no other choice but joining ISIS.

This article goes briefly over the history of the Yemen and gives information on the present conflict. The future of this country looks grim as the war between the Shiites in the north and Sunnis in the south will divide the country.

This news release from today reported 12 wounded after rockets fired from Syria into Turkey's Kilis. It is highly suspected that the rocket launchers came from ISIL-controlled Bab region. There have been previous rocket projectiles form Bab on two separate incidents killing 8 people total, hitting a school and neighborhood.

This article is a response to International Women's Day, saying that gender equality doesn't exist in the world. In the middle of the article, they show a chart of the gender gap between men and women. Egypt is last in the chart.

This article goes into depth about the inequality in the Middle East which extends to today. This looks at the ideas of democratization which would promote higher education. Greater rights for women. and improve infant morality rates 

Al-Qaeda-linked militants have shelled the Syrian city of Aleppo, killing 16 people and injuring 86, state news agency SANA reports, as the fragile ceasefire is being threatened by resurging violence. A source at Aleppo police command told SANA on Monday that shells fired by al-Nusra fighters landed in Aleppo's al-Sulaimaniyeh neighborhood, claiming lives of four, three of them children, and injuring 19 others, many in critical conditions.

This article is from the point of view of an anthropologist who was brought in as a cultural consultant to mediate an issue of "watsa" for a corporation in the Middle East. The company prides itself on its lack of internal corruption, and in turn hired a man named Girgis who grew up in the Middle East but lived and received an education in the US. In Girgis's first year he hired one of his cousins, which the supervisors saw as corrupt hiring practice. The author, and hired consultant, explained to the company supervisors that watsa was an "investment and return" framework in Arab culture, and that there are economic parallels between Arab families and businesses, families existing as economic units. Girgis conveyed that anywhere else in the world he would run the office by the book, but in the Arab world he must also adhere to social norms. The result of watsa through Arab eyes leads to greater loyalty, and less likelihood for deception and theft. The article basically introduces the idea that while in the Western world this may be seen as corruption, it is an embedded part of culture in the Middle East. 

An American woman who was also a former member of the US military was arrested in April and officially charged in July with conspiring to aid members of ISIS. She was arrested when trying to board a plane to Syria where she was planning to meet a Tunisian man and aid the groups in attacks. This story also cites another woman who was arrested on similar charges, it is one of many examples of Americans going abroad to join Isis.

As we all see the war in Yemen is really way larger that the land of Yemen. It seems like indirect war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. This video talks more about what the roles of Saudi Arabia and Iran.