Image 01 Image 02 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

Turkey Tag

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 26, 2017 9 Comments
Remember last week when Turkish bodyguards beat the crap out of protesters in front of the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C.? Since then Turkey has feigned anger and insisted they did not do anything wrong and the men simply tried to protect themselves. Well, the New York Times dissected the videos released of the fiasco to identify the men and prove they started the fight.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 22, 2017 8 Comments
The Turkish government has summoned the U.S. ambassador over a brawl that Turkish bodyguards instigated in front of the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C., last week. From USA Today:
In a statement Monday, Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the ambassador was summoned and “a written and verbal protest was delivered due to the aggressive and unprofessional actions taken, contrary to diplomatic rules and practices, by U.S. security personnel toward the close protection team of H.E Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 20, 2017 6 Comments
OKC Thunder star Enes Kanter has tweeted out that Romanian officials have detained him at the airport after Turkey canceled his passport. Kanter has spoken out against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and voiced support for Fetullah Gulen, the preacher Erdogan has blamed for failed coups. From ESPN:
Kanter, who arrived in Bucharest from Jakarta, Indonesia, as part of his 2017 Enes Kanter Light Foundation global tour, posted a video on Twitter in which police officers have "been holding us here for hours." "The reason behind it is just, of course, my political views," Kanter, who turned 25 Saturday, said in the video. "And the guy who did it is Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey."

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 17, 2017 17 Comments
President Donald Trump welcomed Turkish dictator president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the White House Tuesday. A group of protesters outside of the Turkish Embassy showed support for the groups that Erdogan regularly cracks down on in Turkey. Erdogan's bodyguards did not appreciate this move and decided to pummel the protesters in broad daylight...on Embassy Row.

Posted by Mary Chastain on April 17, 2017 5 Comments
On Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared victory after a referendum vote gave him even more power with a slim 51% victory. But he has already received backlash from opposition groups and international monitors who found problems with the election. Erdogan even warned people not to fight the referendum outcome because "it's too late now."

Posted by Mary Chastain on April 16, 2017 15 Comments
Turkish citizens went to the booths today to vote on a constitutional reform that would grant President Recep Tayyip Erdogan more powers. The polls have closed and Erdogan has claimed victory with 51.3% yes votes. But the opposition parties have contested these results that allow the government to "abolish the post of prime minister and entrench one-man rule." This makes Erdogan "the country's most dominant leader since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish republic."

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 24, 2017 3 Comments
Last week, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn acknowledged that he worked as a foreign agent with the firm Inovo, owned by Turkish-American businessman Ekim Alptekin, who has links to the Turkish government. The firm hired Flynn to investigate Fehtullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric living in Pennsylvania, that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed for many attempts coups. Today, ex-CIA director James Moosley released a bombshell with The Wall Street Journal, stating he attended a meeting with Flynn and Turkish foreign ministers to discuss removing Gulen back to Turkey. At the time, Flynn served as a Trump campaign advisor.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on March 22, 2017 11 Comments
With the diplomatic row between Europe and Turkey escalating further, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan issued an unveiled threat to Europeans. "If Europe continues this way, no European in any part of the world can walk safely on the streets," Erdogan said during a speech in Ankara, Turkey. Earlier, several cities in Germany and the Netherlands canceled public appearances by Erdogan's ministers citing security concerns. It is unclear if Erdogan's statement was meant as a direct call to violence, but Erdogan supporters have a track record of resorting to intimidation and violence abroad to push their Islamist leaders' political agenda. Earlier this month, thousands of Turkish immigrants rioted in the streets of Rotterdam after city's mayor refused the landing rights to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. Following those riots in the Netherlands, Erdogan supporters vandalised the Dutch consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on March 12, 2017 14 Comments
A diplomatic dispute between the Netherlands and Turkey has led to rioting by Turks in Rotterdam and a diplomatic crisis that could influence the Dutch elections that are just a few days away.

Thousands of Turkish immigrants rioted in the streets of Rotterdam early Sunday following the Dutch government's decision to bar two Turkish ministers from entering the country.

The Mayor of Rotterdam issued emergency orders late Saturday in an attempt to contain a demonstration supporting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan outside the Turkish consulate in the city which has turned into a rallying point for Turkish immigrants.

Today morning, pro-Erdogan rioters vandalised the consulate of the Netherlands in the Turkish city of Istanbul and took down the Dutch flag replacing it with a Turkish flag, French news agency AFP reports.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on January 19, 2017 5 Comments
"The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the Islamic faithful our soldiers," Turkey's President Recep Erdogan proclaimed these prophetic words during his 'wilderness years' in 1990s. Now firmly in power for well over ten years, Erdogan is executing this game-plan down to the last word. If German Federal Prosecutor is to be believed, mosques across Germany are running spy operations under the directions of Erdogan regime. On Wednesday, Germany’s top state attorney opened an investigation into the activities of Turkish-Islamic organisation known as 'Ditib,' that operates nearly 900 mosques in Germany. Imams in this particular case were reportedly following the orders from Turkey’s state-run religious agency, known as Diyanet, which reports directly to Turkey’s Prime Minister.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 01, 2017 1 Comment
Authorities in Turkey have launched a manhunt for a gunman dressed as Santa Claus who stormed into a nightclub in Istanbul in the first hour of 2017 and slaughtered 39 people. Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahim said the victims included 15 foreign nationals. Officials identified five as Turkish nationals while others came from Lebanon, Morocco, Israel, Libya, and Saudi Arabia. Police officer Burak Yildiz, 22, and security guard Hatice Karcilar, 29, also lost their lives.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 31, 2016 7 Comments
A gunman dressed as Santa Claus killed at least 35 people at a Reina Club in Istanbul, Turkey, in the early morning hours of New Year's Day. From the Associated Press:
An armed assailant who is believed to have been dressed in a Santa Claus costume opened fire at a nightclub in Istanbul during New Year's celebrations, killing at least 35 people and wounding 40 others, according to Istanbul's governor Vasip Sahin and Turkey's state-run news agency. Sahin called the incident a "terror attack" but did not say who might have carried it out.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 20, 2016 7 Comments
Turkish special forces police officer Meviut Mert Alintas, 22, assassinated the Russian ambassador to Turkey on Monday during the opening of a gallery in Ankara. He shouted things about Aleppo, Syria, before cops took him down. Motives immediately swirled around, but I remained interested in who Russia and Turkey blamed. Once again, the officials did not disappoint. See, this is why it's hard not to go all Alex Jones on Russia and Turkey because you know the officials would do anything to achieve their objective. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan desperately wants America to extradite cleric Fethullah Gulen so it did not surprise me when Turkish authorities linked the gunman to the cleric, who resides in Pennsylvania. It also did not surprise me that a Kremlin official close to President Vladimir Putin claimed NATO organized the assassination as a way to provoke Moscow.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 19, 2016 29 Comments
A gunman shot Andrei Karlov, the Russian ambassador to Turkey, in Ankara on Monday at a gallery opening. Reuters has tweeted that Karlov passed away: https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/810892214863794181 Hurriyet Daily News reported:
Hürriyet Ankara representatvice Deniz Zeyrek said the attacker first shot into the air and later shot the envoy in the back. He shot the envoy for the second time after the scene was evacuated. It has also been reported that the attacker entered the scene by showing a police identity and wearing a suit. The attacker reportedly shouted “Don’t forget Aleppo! Don’t forget Syria! As long as our brothers are not safe, you will not enjoy safety” according to a footage released on Dutch website nos.nl.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 15, 2016 7 Comments
I guess this is now a continuing series. Turkey's Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is gutting any remnants of opposition by attacking numerous aspects of civil society, including particularly academia. Yet *shockingly* none of the progressive professors who demand a boycott of Israeli universities and academia are organizing a boycott of Turkish Universities. We have covered this hypocrisy many times: According to Turkish journalist Mahir Zeynalov, the crackdown on academics continues:
Accessibility by WAH