Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is currently in Beijing, where he met with President Xi Jinping on Wednesday and called for the expansion of bilateral trade. While Chinese state media attempted to make trade the center of the meeting, the international community watched for signs of tension between the two nations given Turkey’s support of China’s Uyghur minority.
Discussing Turkey’s recent military action in Syria and Iraq, CNN quotes Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu blaming the Western world for creating ISIS by failing to remove Bashar Assad from power in Syria–a long-standing strategic objective of the Turks.
Contents: Thousands of pro-Kurd demonstrators march in Paris; Turkey – PKK ‘peace process’ threatened by new Turkish war policy; Turkey bombs ISIS targets in northern Syria to set up ‘safe zone’; Arab News: Turkey is lying about the attack in Suruç
Contents: Turkey’s warplanes bomb ISIS and PKK strongholds in Syria; Commodities and world trade plunge, signaling stock market decline; China’s stock market partially ‘recovers’ after destruction
Contents: Turkey’s politics become vitriolic after Suruç massacre; In major reversal, Turkey will let US use Incirlik to fight ISIS in Syria; Turkish soldier killed by ISIS in first gunfight across Syrian border
Contents: Riots and violence across Turkey after Monday’s suicide bombing in Suruç; PKK kills 2 Turkish police officers in retaliation for Suruç blast; Syria’s war comes to Turkey after Monday’s terror attack on Suruç; Greece’s parliament approves European lender reform demands
New details are emerging about Monday’s suicide bombing in southeastern Turkey, including the allegation that the Turkish government had intelligence warning about the attack. The explosion took place in the town of Suruc, which is across the border from the Syrian town of Kobani. Both towns are major centers for the region’s Kurdish minority.
Contents: Kurds blame Erdogan for ISIS terrorist attack in southeastern Turkey; Philippines reinforces grounded ship to challenge China in South China Sea
An explosion on Turkey’s border with Syria, allegedly executed by ISIS, killed at least 31 people on Monday. “We are concerned that the number of death will increase. The perpetrators will soon be found and put on trial,” Turkey’s interior minister said in a statement.
The Turkish government has chosen not to convict a pair of Chechen Islamists on murder charges after they beheaded three Christian priests.
The Turkish government has developed an international reputation for wasting no time in censoring websites and social media users inconvenient to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan or in any way offensive to Islam. It appears to take significantly more time to determine whether websites disseminating Islamic State propaganda deserve to be taken offline, too, with about seven of these websites blocked in Turkey on Sunday.
Facing up to four-and-a-half years in prison if found guilty, two Turkish newspaper commentators went on trial yesterday for illustrating columns with a cartoon of Mohammed. Charges of “inciting public hatred” and “insulting religious values” were brought against Ceyda Karan and
The leader of Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) excused a mistaken attack on Korean tourists by Turks attempting to protest the Chinese government by claiming the protesters were “young people” confused by Asians’ “slanted eyes.” Turkish nationalists have organized protests against China for its crackdown on Islam in Turkic Uyghur communities.
An Islamist group identified as “Young Islamic Defense” has flooded Turkey’s capital Ankara with posters allegedly quoting a Muslim teaching that calls for Muslims to “kill the perpetrator and the receiver on sight” should they ever see an LGBT person.
The Chinese embassy in Istanbul has released an advisory to Chinese nationals planning to travel to Turkey, warning that they may face violence following attacks on suspected Chinese nationals by Turkish national protesters this weekend. Those attacks may be a statement against the Chinese government’s attempts to ban the practice of Islam among Western ethnic Uyghurs, who largely subscribe to the faith.
Contents: Greece’s chaos continues as banks are closed; Turkey considers invasion of Syria to prevent a Kurdish state; Jordan makes plans for Syria invasion to protect its northern border
Turkey plans to deploy its army into northern Syria in an effort to prevent Kurds there from officially establishing their own state, reports The Daily Beast, citing both pro- and anti-government news outlets.
Turkish Islamist government authorities abruptly canceled Istanbul’s annual gay pride parade on Sunday, giving organizers no time to keep attendees from congregating and falling victim to water cannons, tear gas, rubber bullets, and other crowd control measures Turkey’s government is calling “proportional” to the threat presented.
Contents: Pakistan gives ‘Save the Children’ a partial reprieve; Turkey denies responsibility for ISIS massacre on Kurds in Kobani; European leaders prepare for Greece to default
Contents: Syrian Kurd militias deal a heavy blow to ISIS; Turkey’s support splits between Kurds and ISIS; US support for Kurds further alienates Saudi Arabia; Understanding men’s moustaches in Turkey
Headlines in pro-government Turkish media Friday praised the Islamic State while criticizing the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which, with the help of US-led air strikes, consolidated their hold over the 400-kilometer region next to Turkey’s border earlier this week.
The Turkish government’s uneasy relationship with freedom of the press led to another bit of unpleasantness on Tuesday, when four journalists made the mistake of asking the governor of a border town if he was concerned that ISIS militants fleeing a defeat at Kurdish hands might cross into Turkey and cause trouble.
Mustafa Karaaslan, an education official in Bursa, Turkey, has triggered national outrage after his Twitter account posted a picture of Turkey’s founding father Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in hell, presumably for being a secular leader, rather than an Islamist one.
Five Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IL) jihadists attempted to take advantage of the open Akçakale border crossing between Turkey and Syria to escape Kurdish forces in the latter, only to be arrested on the other side by the Turkish government. The ISIS contingent on the Syrian border is in disarray, as Kurdish forces have officially retaken the pivotal town of Tal Abyad.
As Turkey’s majority Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) scrambles to build a coalition government in the legislature, the largest minority party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), has suggested pairing up with other minority parties to keep the AKP out of the ruling coalition entirely.
In 1955, songwriter Pete Seeger wrote “Where Have All the Flowers Gone.” It begins with young girls picking flowers and ends with those flowers growing atop the graves of young men killed in war. The song’s anti-war message is clear in refrains repeated throughout, “Oh, when will they ever learn?”
At least one Turkish columnist, described as pro-government by the newspaper Hurriyet, is blaming an aggressive Internet strategy to smear critics of the majority AK Party for its own losses during Sunday’s parliamentary election.
urkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has submitted his formal resignation in a procedural move necessary for Turkey to begin rebuilding its government after shocking election results that left the nation with no parliamentary ruling party. The majority AK Party to which Davutoğlu belongs must now attempt to form a coalition with at least one other minority party for Turkey’s Parliament to function.
Turkey’s parliamentary elections on Sunday have resulted in a fragmented legislature that has significantly weakened the power of ruling Islamist AK Party, while bringing to power a record number of Kurds, Christians, women, Yazidis, and even members of the Roma minority.
Contents: Israeli residents near Gaza border expect war soon; Israel launches fresh air strikes on Gaza; In major election setback, Turkey’s Erdogan loses support as Kurds gain seats
Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been drawing fire from Western media over some of his more colorful comments, such as rallying Muslims to take control of Jerusalem. He has finally managed to isolate the source of all that Western media coverage portraying him as anti-Semitic: Jewish money.
As Turkey nears its national election on June 7, the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has managed to spark a national conversation regarding the material out of which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s toilet is made. Erdogan has sued the party’s leader to the tune of 100,000 Turkish Lira for claiming that members of his incumbent party enjoy the luxury of golden toilets.
Thousands of Muslim Turks marched this past weekend to observe the anniversary of the Israeli raid of a Gaza-bound Turkish flotilla in 2010, chanting, “Muslims, don’t sleep, protect your brothers!” Commemorating the event, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed longing for Muslims “to hoist the Islamic flag over Jerusalem again.”
A battle broke out on the Iran-Iraq border between armed Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) militants and members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), resulting in fatalities on both sides, news reports reveal.
A trial of gendarmerie officers in Turkey accused of being members of a terrorist group organized by Fetullah Gulen to allegedly undermine the country’s elected government has raised suspicion that Turkey is actively arming radical Islamists in Syria, reports Al Monitor.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used the opportunity of speaking to a think tank in Istanbul on Monday to attack The New York Times for sounding the alarm on freedom of the press in Turkey. He suggested that its criticisms of Erdogan’s use of the legal system to intimidate news outlets was “overstepping the limits of freedom,” and told the New York outlet, “Know your place.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told citizens in his country this week that Muslims need to assert dominance over Jerusalem.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking in Albania on Wednesday, called for Europe to accept more refugees, particularly those fleeing from the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Erdogan called this a “duty” Europe should be held accountable for.
Predominantly Sunni Turkey and Shia powerhouse Iran have decided to join forces towards finding a peaceful solution to the chaos in Yemen, reports Turkey’s pro-government Daily Sabah, quoting the Iranian envoy to Turkey.
A spat between the Turkish government and the United States over police misconduct got personal when the mayor Ankara took to Twitter Wednesday and called State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf a “stupid blonde.”
