The majority of those who claim that the Arab Spring has become an Arab Winter due to the violence that erupted in reaction to the obscene movie also happen to think that the Arab Spring itself was a motion picture.

The al-Maliki government, particularly in the past year, has employed the most ordinary Baathist strategies.

In contrast to the weaker European economies, neighboring Turkey has managed to recover fast and exhibit positive signs that the economy is moving towards more sustainable growth rates while dealing with domestic vulnerabilities.

Russia is now about to pay the cost for its decision to invest in al-Assad -- a decision Russia has difficulty justifying even to itself.

We can assess where exactly Egypt falls on the “revolution” and “change” spectrum by tracing the “times” of Egypt post-Mubarak through the lenses of the Turkish political “calendar.

The round table underlined the significance of Russia and Iran in the Syrian crisis, while highlighting the inefficiency of regional and international organizations.

The practice of universal suffrage in Egypt, without limitations on gender and ethnicity, is a hopeful sign for the region.”

The Arab world is going through fundamental social and political transformation. By the end of 2010, Arab states were stagnant and paralyzed.

The Annan Plan was a miracle plan that could have benefited, in the short term, all those who were not disturbed by the bloodshed.

The final leg of support for the Syrian Ba’ath regime’s geopolitical comfort zone was the political climate generated by the other dictatorships in the area.

The Arab uprisings in early 2011 provided the US and Turkey with an opportunity and a necessity to discover new forms of cooperation and policy coordination due to the urgency for action on the ground.

Syria has become one of the few friends Iran has left, after it was blatantly sanctioned by the West, the U.S and other states in the region after the Islamic revolution.

Moderator: Taha Özhan, President of SETA Foundation    Panelists: Besma Kodmani, Syrian National Council Veniamin Popov, Moscow State Institute of International Relations Kayhan Barzegar, Center for Strategic Research, Iran Basheer Nafi, Al Jazeera Center for Studies  Date/Time: April 3rd, 2012, TUESDAY 10:00-12:00  Venue: SETA Ankara room, ANKARA

UN wants to see the al-Assad regime, which killed most of the 8,000+ people killed during demonstrations, to allow people to protest freely.

What the Syrian regime fails to see is that this space carved between the political occupations of 2012 and geopolitical balances is about to expire.

Intelligence as an occupation has its own set of rules, procedures and ethics.

America will only then - if indeed it wants - be free from the three answers or the single al-Assad answer outlined above!