PKK

A Turkish court ruled to free Pastor Andrew Brunson on Friday after two years of detention on Friday. He is reportedly on his way home to North Carolina.

A Turkish court on Friday ruled in favor of releasing American Pastor Andrew Brunson nearly two years after Turkish authorities arrested him on charges of terrorism.

A Turkish court on Tuesday ruled against American pastor Andrew Brunson’s appeal to be released from house arrest.

The government of Turkey issued a blanket decree Sunday firing 18,632 state employees for unspecified “links with terror groups” and has increased the number of arrests for “insulting the president” ahead of the inauguration of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Monday.

Turkey denounced the embargo imposed by its NATO ally the United States on state sponsor of terror Iran as a “mistake,” arguing that America “does not have the right” to force other countries to implement its unilateral decision,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) on Friday.

Presidential candidate Selahattin Demirtas of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) gave a remarkable campaign speech to Turkish voters on Sunday. His supporters say Demirtas is the only real challenger to incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, even though Demirtas is running with a rather large handicap: he is in jail.

The U.S. Department of State (DOS) confirmed on Tuesday that it reached an agreement with Turkey to pull the American-allied Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), deemed “terrorists’ by Ankara, from the northern Syrian city of Manbij, arguing that the move will “reduce tensions.”

Turkey has launched a major military surge against the terrorist Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, where Ankara has already set up 11 regional bases and doubled its military footprint, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim declared over the weekend.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdag said on Tuesday that it is “completely inconceivable to return Afrin back to the control of the Syrian regime” after Turkey invaded the northern border region in January.

The resumption of the trail in a Turkish Court on Monday where an American pastor faces 35 years in prison for his alleged ties to terrorism ended after one day, with the judge dismissing all of the witness testimony in support of Andrew Brunson and left him behind bars until the next hearing in July.

A Turkish court ordered the continued detention of American Pastor Andrew Brunson on Monday, deeming him a flight risk and placing him in what advocates call an “extremely grim” prison on charges of having used his Christian sermons to promote Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.

The alt-left extremist organisation Antifascist Action, or Antifa, has taken credit for the firebombing of a Turkish mosque in the German city of Kassel.

President Donald Trump may about to throw the Kurds under the bus – and with them, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and American interests in the Middle East.

ANKARA, Turkey — Six Turkish security forces were killed on Friday after an attack by Kurdish militants in the southeastern province of Siirt in Turkey, local officials said.

Tensions between Turkey and France over French support for Syrian Kurds turned profoundly ugly on Friday, as Turkish officials including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened France with terrorist warfare as a consequence of its actions.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis asserted on Tuesday that the government of Turkey is correct to be concerned about Kurdish factions in Sinjar, Iraq, where they participated in eradicating the Islamic State amid an attempting suicide of the majority-Yazidi population there.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Iraq that his military would “do what it necessary” and attack Sinjar, site of the Islamic State’s Yazidi genocide, if Baghdad did not occupy the area and forcibly expel Kurdish forces there.

Turkish President Reccip Erdogan has revealed that he will instruct his forces to invade the Iraqi province of Sinjar if it remains a Kurdish stronghold.

Contents: Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board overwhelmed by migrants crossing border from US; Turkey achieves victory in Afrin, Syria, but Kurds threaten guerilla war

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com Concerns grow of humanitarian disaster in Afrin, Syria, as Turkey’s forces enter Silence from North Korea puts Kim-Trump summit in doubt Concerns grow of humanitarian disaster in Afrin, Syria, as Turkey’s forces enter Syrians

A fistfight erupted on the floor of the Turkish parliament on Tuesday following the passage of a controversial election law, which critics denounced as a means for the ruling party to rig elections and make effective political opposition all but impossible.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu confirmed on Thursday that Ankara is preparing for a new military operation in Iraq, backed by the government in Baghdad, against the Marxist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist group.

Contents: US-backed Kurds stop fighting ISIS in order to fight Turkey in Afrin; Reports of Free Syrian Army atrocities on Kurds in Afrin; Mahmoud Abbas may step down as Palestinian Authority president

As he prepared to wrap up a visit to Cairo that included a landmark visit to the Coptic Christian St. Mark’s Cathedral, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman threw another jab at Islamists by describing them as one side of a “triangle of evil” that includes Iran… and Turkey.

Contents: Turkey suffers military setback in ‘Operation Olive Branch’ in Afrin Syria; Turkey doubles down on Afrin-Manbij operation, despite US opposition

Contents: Russia’s ‘humanitarian pause’ in Syria turns into farce on first day; Report: North Korea is selling chemical weapons supplies to Syria; Areas of control in Syria and Iraq

HAMOURIA, Syria — A heavy bombardment killed at least 100 civilians, 20 of them children, in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta on Monday, as regime forces appeared to be preparing for an imminent ground assault.

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis was optimistic on Thursday about finding “common ground” with Turkey in Syria, where Turkish troops and their local allies may be positioning for a strike against territory occupied by American troops.

The fuse may be lit on a major new crisis in war-torn Syria, as Turkish forces and their local allies push deeper into Syrian territory and threaten Manbij, a city where U.S. troops are deployed.

The Turkish government continued its crackdown on criticism of “Operation Olive Branch,” Turkey’s invasion of Syria to attack Kurdish positions, by arresting 474 people for “promoting” the Kurdistan Workers’ Party of Turkey (PKK) and the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) of Syria.

Saturday morning’s violent clashes along the Israeli-Syria border between Israel on the one hand and Iran and Syrian regime forces on the other occurred against the backdrop of multiplying acts of war and violence between a seemingly endless roster of combatants.

Turkey’s “Operation Olive Branch” military incursion into Syria has been conducted in concert with the Free Syrian Army, which has helped Turkish forces take control of several villages in the Afrin region.

Ismail Kahraman, Speaker for Turkey’s National Assembly, described his country’s military incursion against the Syrian Kurds as a “jihad” over the weekend. Meanwhile, the Turkish government’s crackdown on criticism of the operation continued with over 300 new arrests.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that his forces are prepared to push all the way across Syria to the Iraqi border in their campaign against Syrian Kurdish forces, fueling fears that Turkey’s incursion will trigger a new refugee wave, and could end in a confrontation with the U.S. military.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Sunday speech on the Turkish offensive against Kurdish forces in Afrin, Syria has gotten plenty of international attention, but a curiously underreported passage found the Islamist president railing against the Kurds as “collaborators in a postmodern crusade that our region is exposed to.”