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Turkey Tag

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 29, 2016 6 Comments
The terrorist attack at Istanbul's Atatürk Airport left 41 dead, including 10 foreign nationals, and 239 injured. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has said that the evidence they have points to the Islamic State as the culprits.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 27, 2016 4 Comments
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have formally announced that their countries reached a deal to renew their relationship. Netanyahu assured Israel that "the maritime blockade on the Gaza Strip would remain in place following the deal but that Turkey would be able to send supplies to Gaza via the Israeli port of Ashdod." Yıldırım confirmed his government will build a "friendship hospital" and develop a housing project with the Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKİ).

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 26, 2016 7 Comments
No, it's not April 1. Israel and the Turkish government, led by anti-Semitic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, have agreed to normalize relations after "six years of animosity" due to the 2010 Mavi Marmara ship. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım will formally announce the deal on Monday at 1PM local time (6AM ET). Of course, this does not mean Erdoğan has changed his ways or views on Israel. It's all about money.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 05, 2016 2 Comments
NATO has accepted Israel's request to establish an office at the headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. The decision went through because Turkey decided to stop opposing Israel's attempts at opening an office at NATO. A non-NATO country needs unanimous consent from all NATO members in order to collaborate with the organization.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 03, 2016 4 Comments
The Turkish parliament dived into another fistfight this week as the lawmakers debate changes to the country's constitution. The members fought again about stripping some members of parliament of their immunity if they face charges. The fight "left one person with a dislocated shoulder and a second with a bloodied nose."

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on April 24, 2016 8 Comments
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cannot take criticism and will not tolerate dissent in Turkey . . . or, it seems, in Germany and the Netherlands. In 2014, Erdogan made international news when he ordered sweeping arrests of opposition "journalists, producers, scriptwriters, and even police chiefs" suspected of being aligned with his one of his enemies. The Clarion Project reported at the time:
Two days after Turkey’s Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hinted at a crackdown against the “evil forces” of his rival Fethullah Gulen, Turkish police embarked on a comprehensive operation to arrest prominent journalists, producers, scriptwriters and even police chiefs allegedly aligned with Gulen.
The arrests of at least 27 people—for the crime of being, as described by Erdogan, "terrorist forces" attempting to "seize control of the state"—were roundly condemned by the EU.  So much so that Erdogan felt compelled to respond, telling the EU to "mind its own business." With this background, it's not surprising that Erdogan has now had a Dutch journalist arrested for an anti-Erdogan tweet (or series of tweets).

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on April 05, 2016 7 Comments
More than 70 years after the fall of Nazi regime the government in Germany is tightening the noose on free speech. In a latest incident, Germany’s state-run television has removed a satirical clip critical of Turkish President Recep Erdogan. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called up the Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to apologise for the “deliberately abusive text.” This was an about-turn from Germany’s prior stance on the issue. Only last week, Germany’s top diplomat Markus Ederer had told his Turkish counterpart that freedom of press in Germany was “not negotiable.” However, with over 3 million Turkish immigrants now living in Germany and Europe’s growing dependency on Turkey to regulate migration on its outer borders, has placed Turkey’s President Erdogan in a very strong bargaining position. On Monday, the Program Director of Germany’s largest broadcaster ZDF, Norbert Himmler announced channel's decision to delete the two-minute clip ridiculing Turkey’s Islamist leader’s lavish lifestyle and crackdown on democracy. Himmler told the media that were “limits to irony and satire” and “in this case, [limits] were clearly exceeded.”

Posted by Jonathan Levin on March 18, 2016 8 Comments
The subtext in Secretary of State Kerry's agonizing over whether to label ISIS's systematic, premeditated rape and slaughter of Christians, Yazidis and Shi'ites in Syria is what it means for the million-and-a-half skeletons in Turkey's closet.  There is little objective doubt that during World War I, Turkey murdered around 1.5 million Armenians, but Turkey cannot abide the least suggestion that it engaged in genocide, and the US has thus far deferred to Turkish sensibilities. The US's failure to recognize the Armenian Genocide and Turkey's culpability, and to induce Turkey to learn from that dark period in its history undermines the US's ability to identify and condemn genocide elsewhere.  This is the undercurrent in Secretary of State Kerry's bizarre inability to call a spade a spade in Northern Syria. In brief, the 2015 omnibus spending bill included a requirement that the State Department make a determination of whether ISIS was engaged in genocide.  Anticipating and perhaps hoping to guide the results of that State Department review, on Monday the House of Representatives passed an unanimous resolution declaring that ISIS's actions are genocide.  That resolution has no legal effect.

Posted by Amy Miller on November 29, 2015 12 Comments
Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree imposing sanctions against Turkey in retaliation over last week's downing of a Russian jet that crossed into Turkish airspace near the Syrian border. The decree went into effect immediately, and places a stranglehold both on Turkish businesses operating in Russia and on Russians who planned on traveling to or doing business with Turkey. Via Reuters:
The decree, posted on the Kremlin's website, spoke of the need to protect Russia's national security and Russian citizens "from criminal and other illegal activities". In it, Putin ordered the government to prepare a list of goods, firms and jobs that would be affected. Some of the measures announced have already been informally introduced.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on November 24, 2015 28 Comments
Earlier today, Turkey shot down a Russian fighter plane after repeated warnings.
According to the Turkish military, officials warned “an unidentified aircraft” ten times over the course of five minutes that its path would violate Turkish airspace over the border town of Yayladagi, in Hatay province. A spokesman for U.S. officials leading the coalition from Baghdad confirmed that his team heard Turkish officials give those warnings over “open channels.” NATO called an emergency meeting today to address rapidly escalating tensions between Turkey and Russia, where Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stood in solidarity with Turkey.
According to The Telegraph, Obama spoke with the Turkish president who's said they're working to avoid any repeats of todays events:
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, has spoken to Barack Obama by telephone. The Turkish presidency said: "They were in accord on the importance of de-escalating tensions and making arrangements to prevent a repeat of such incidents." They also expressed their commitment to a bringing about a transitional political process for peace in Syria and joint determination to continue the fight against Isil, the statement added.
Shortly after news of the skirmish broke, Senator Rubio joined Fox News and was asked how the U.S. should respond. Rubio explained that if Turkey finds itself threatened by Russia, the U.S. must respond and defend the Turks.

Posted by Amy Miller on November 24, 2015 37 Comments
Today U.S. officials confirmed that the Turkish military fired upon a Russian jet when it repeatedly violated Turkish airspace near the Turkey-Syria border. The jet crash landed in the Jabal Turkmen area of the coastal Syrian province of Latakia, and it is now believed that both pilots have died under fire from rebel Turkmen forces. More via Fox News:
U.S. defense official said that two Turkish F-16s fired heat-seeking air-to-air missiles at the Russian aircraft. “This will get complicated,” the official said. Tuesday's incident is the first time since the 1950s that a Russian or Soviet military aircraft has been publicly acknowledged to have been shot down by a NATO country, according to Reuters. Russia's main stock index dropped more than 2 percent after the incident, while Turkish stocks fell 1.3 percent amid fears of an escalation between the two countries. Russia said the Su-24 was downed by artillery fire, but Turkey claimed that its F-16s fired on the Russian plane after it ignored the warnings.
Fox has posted amateur video claiming to show the crash:

Posted by Amy Miller on November 02, 2015 12 Comments
Back in June, the anti-Democratic Erdogan regime fielded a major blow when Turkish voters, led by the Kurds, denied the Justice and Development Party (or A.K.P.) a parliamentary majority. It was a victory for not only the Kurds, but for liberal and/or secular Turks who had spent years protesting the power creep advocated by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the A.K.P., as well as the administration's crackdown against dissidents. After that election, we wondered, could this be the beginning of the end of Erdogan's hold on power? It would have been a long time coming for the man who was behind the 2010 Gaza "Flotilla," and who turned to paranoid Jew-baiting to whip his base into an anti-Israel frenzy. Unfortunately, that victory was short lived; yesterday, Erdogan and the Islamist-rooted A.K.P. fielded enough votes to return the Turkish government to single-party rule and continue their push to drastically alter the Turkish constitution to be more receptive to executive-centered rule. From the New York Times:
“There is a president with de facto power in the country, not a symbolic one,” Mr. Erdogan told the crowd in his hometown, the Black Sea city of Rize. “The president should conduct his duties for the nation directly, but within his authority. Whether one accepts it or not, Turkey’s administrative system has changed. Now, what should be done is update this de facto situation in the legal framework of the Constitution.”

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on October 06, 2015 11 Comments
With news reports in Germany putting the number of migrants expected at 1.5 million, the opposition to Chancellor Angela Merkel's open boarder policy is rising. On Monday, about nine thousand people took to streets in Dresden at a rally called by the anti-Islamization group PEGIDA, or the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West. The Federal and local governments are clueless on how to handle the uncontrolled influx of migrants into Germany. Some municipalities, like the City of Hamburg, want to confiscate private property to house new migrants.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 27, 2015 4 Comments
Earlier this month we reported on an outrageous decision by the International Criminal Court requesting that the ICC prosecutor reconsider her decision to close the investigation into the Israeli raid on a Gaza Flotilla boat, the Mavi Marmara. In that raid, Turkish Islamists and activists attacked Israeli soldiers, resulting in 9 deaths of the attackers. Confirmed: International Criminal Court biased against Israel:
The key to the outrage was that the ICC demanded that international political considerations be taken into account by the prosecutor, something that normally would be outside the consideration of a prosecutor, and a consideration that taints any ruling directed at Israel. The ICC compounded that error by specifically requiring consideration of the views of the anti-Israel UN Human Rights Council.
The prosecutor has just appealed the request, as reported by multiple sources. (Update - Appeal here, and embedded at bottom of post.) The appeal is in the form of a request to dismiss the application of the Comoros Islands, which had given rise to the ICC judges' ruling:

Posted by Amy Miller on July 23, 2015 7 Comments
The Wall Street Journal is reporting via defense officials that Ankara has agreed to allow the United States to launch air strikes against ISIS from the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey. This is a departure from previous Turkish policy, which until now only allowed drone launches from the base. No Turkish aircraft will be used in any strikes launched by the US. Reuters reports that a deal between President Obama and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan may have been reached as early as Wednesday; White House press secretary Josh Earnest told the media today that the two leaders have reached an agreement to "deepen" cooperation in the fight against ISIS, but didn't go into details. Turkey's concerns about the violence in Syria go beyond the threat ISIS poses to the rest of the world. Until now, Turkish officials have refused to lead on the Islamic State pushback, citing concerns that merely taking out ISIS will not quash the violence caused by intra-Syrian conflict. Ankara has advocated for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in exchange for a larger role.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 07, 2015 7 Comments
I was against Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan before it was cool to be against Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. My first post warning of his anti-democratic, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic tendancies was on January 31, 2009, barely four months after the launch of Legal Insurrection in mid-October 2008. We continued to follow Erdogan's progression over the years, as he became more and more authoritarian and Islamist, undermining secular institutions such as the judiciary and military, repressing the press, and cracking down on social media. Erdogan was an obsessive Israel hater long before the deaths on board the Gaza Flotilla Erdogan's party helped organize in 2010. Those 2010 deaths, when Israeli soldiers boarding the main ship were attacked, turned Erdogan's anti-Israeli obsession wild. But more than anything, Erdogan turned to Jew-baiting to whip his supporters into frenzies. Erdogan became a paranoid bully who saw Jewish conspiracies behind opposition to his policies. On the eve of parliamentary elections held today, Erdogan lashed out at "Jewish" media:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 15, 2015 8 Comments
We have been warning about for years about Turkey's Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Erdogan systematically has set out to dismantl civil society and the secular military and foamed at the mouth about Israel, often through then Foreign Minister, now Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu: The Islamist terror attacks in Paris have not changed Erdoğan's theatrics and paranoia:
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday blasted Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu for "daring" to attend an anti-terror solidarity march in Paris, accusing him of leading "state terrorism" against the Palestinians. The comments, at a press conference in Ankara with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, were the latest verbal assault against Netanyahu by Erdogan under whose rule Turkey's relations with Israel have steadily deteriorated.
Is Erdoğan crazy? He sure has crazy theories that cover up for the Turkish intrigue in allowing the flow of Islamist fighters into Syria and Iraq:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 12, 2014 18 Comments
We've been writing about the lack of a free and independent Kurdistan for years, It’s time for a free and independent Kurdistan. While the Palestinian agenda has dominated every international forum, the much more populous and ethnically distinct Kurds have been mostly ignored.  In part, this is because the Kurds span several nation states created by colonial powers after the implosion of the Ottomon Empire.  Turkey particularly has threatened war if a Kurdish nation emerges. In part it is because creating an independent Kurdistan does do not serve a political purpose of snuffing out the only Jewish state in the region. Developments are moving fast that could change everything. Syria lost control of its Kurd territory during the ongoing civil war, and the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan has operated independently for years. With Iraq losing control of vast territory, and the U.S. not anxious to do anything to help, the Kurds have claimed Kirkuk for their own, as the BBC reports, Iraqi Kurds 'fully control Kirkuk' as army flees:
Iraqi Kurdish forces say they have taken full control of the northern oil city of Kirkuk as the army flees before an Islamist offensive nearby. "The whole of Kirkuk has fallen into the hands of peshmerga," Kurdish spokesman Jabbar Yawar told Reuters. "No Iraq army remains in Kirkuk now." Kurdish fighters are seen as a bulwark against Sunni Muslim insurgents.
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