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TIRANA DHA Photo Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his wife Emine Erdoğan shed tears on May 13 while a student recited a patriotic, Islamic-toned poem that Erdoğan had recently read on television. Erdoğan was in the Preza village near the Albanian capital Tirana to inaugurate a mosque during his official visit to the Balkan country.  During the ceremony, which turned into a political rally with more than 8,000 attendees, a student of a Turkish religious vocational imam-hatip school recited “Dua” (Prayer), a poem by Turkish nationalist poet Arif Nihat Asya, who passed away in 1975. The Erdoğan couple could not stop their tears while the student read the poem. Erdoğan himself had  read the poem last month  in a television commercial filmed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Turkish victory in the Gallipoli campaign during World War I.  The choice of the poem and the way that it was repeatedly broadcast by many Turkish TV channels had stirred a p...

Banksy , a quasi anonymous graffiti artist from Bristol England, has been making a name for himself on the British and international circuit. Some view his artwork merely as graffiti while others consider his work to be a comment on present-day society, politics, and life in general. Banksy graffiti in Palestine is the latest addition to his ever expanding global presence, and what a perfect place to make statements about political strife via urban work. Israeli West Bank Wall Since Israel became a nation, a constant state of unrest or even armed conflict has become the norm between Israel and Palestine. What better place could Banksy choose to offer societal and political statements than on one of the most famous walls in the world, the Palestinian Wall, more commonly called the Israeli West Bank Barrier? This wall serves as a political symbol and functions to separate the two conflicting opponents. Some Israelis claim that the wall gives protection against possible terrorism fr...