Turkey

Turkey has washed its hands of a French jihadist, his two wives and their nine children, sending them all back to France after refusing to accommodate the group in refugee camps.

Turkish officials launched a furious attack against Iceland on Sunday, claiming the national football team was given “disrespectful” treatment at Reykjavik airport with “racist”, “rude”, and “offensive” service allegedly meted out by local immigration officers.

Greek authorities say arsonists have targeted two vehicles owned by Turkish nationals, one of them a diplomat, in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, destroying the cars and damaging another four.

Turkey on Tuesday confirmed it would not withdraw from a deal with Russia to buy S-400 missile defense systems despite pressure from the United States to reconsider.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s strategy to resolve the Syrian conflict is taking “cues” from Russia, Turkey, and Israel, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) argued during a House panel hearing Wednesday without acknowledging that the three countries stand on opposing sides of the more than eight-year-old war.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Tuesday his country is prepared to face U.S. sanctions for proceeding with its controversial purchase of Russian S-400 surface-to-air missiles while continuing to argue Turkey is not threatening American or NATO security by acquiring the Russian weapons.

Turkey’s Greek, Armenian, and Assyrian Christian communities, who predominated in the region before its colonisation by Turkic Muslims, were subjected to a “staggered campaign of genocide” from 1894 to 1924, which reduced them from 20 per cent of the population to less than 2 per cent, according to Israeli researchers. 

Pundit Ibrahim Karagul of Turkey’s Yeni Safak, whose column titles are often longer than entire editorials penned by more sedate writers, delivered a lively presentation of the Turkish ruling party’s view of the Iran crisis with his Friday broadside: “U.S. Won’t Attack Iran, It Will Start a New Arab-Persian War. Two Crown Princes, Two Countries: They Became Hitmen of the Crusaders. But the Big Trap Is Set Against Saudi Arabia.”

If the Portland Trail Blazers manage to battle back to defeat the mighty Golden State Warriors and reach the NBA Finals, there is a good chance that Enes Kanter will have had something to do with it.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D, OR) sent a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on behalf of Portland Trail Blazers player Enes Kanter, asking for his “safe passage” to and from Canada for all Western Conference Finals games against Toronto.

Trail Blazers center Enes Kanter will compete on the biggest stage of his NBA career on Monday night, when Portland faces the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of the NBA Western Conference Finals.

Berlin (AFP) – Support is growing in Germany for a “mosque tax” to make Islamic institutions less dependent on potentially anti-democratic or “radical” foreign funding sources.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan celebrated his government on Tuesday forcing Istanbul to host a do-over of the March 31 mayoral election after secularist opposition candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu won the race against Erdogan’s former foreign minister.

Turkey’s top election authority voided the Istanbul mayoral election won by an opposition candidate and ordered a do-over, ruling Monday in favor of a request by the president’s party to throw out the vote it narrowly lost.

Turkey on Sunday dismissed U.S. sanction threats and said it would not renege on a pledge to Moscow to purchase its advanced missile systems.

Turkey repudiated the annual report issued by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Wednesday for identifying Ankara as a “deeply troubling” violator against Christians, Jews, followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, and other minorities.

A top Turkish politician this week argued that the potential decision by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to list the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) as a foreign terrorist organization along with the likes of al-Qaeda would “increase Islamophobia” in America and Europe.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan weighed in on the struggle in Venezuela to remove dictator Nicolás Maduro on Tuesday, condemning those who support President Juan Guaidó for backing an alleged “coup” seeking to install a “postmodern colonial governor.”

Turkish warplanes reportedly bombed a mosque in the Duhok province of the Kurdistan Region on Monday, even as Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was in the Kurdish capital of Erbil to discuss security issues and economic relations.

The Libyan National Army, led by renegade Gen. Khalifa Haftar, claimed Sunday to possess documents and other evidence purportedly showing that Turkey and its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan support the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan justified the Armenian genocide, arguing that deportation of the Christian group by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 that ultimately led to the mass killings was “reasonable.”

Armenian-Americans waving flags and chanting, “Turkey supports ISIS,” marked the anniversary of the Ottoman Empire’s genocide of some 1.5 million Armenians outside the Turkish embassy in Washington, DC, on Wednesday.

France is marking its first national day of commemoration of the Armenian genocide on Wednesday, a remembrance of the more than 1.5 million Armenians who were systematically exterminated between 1915 and 1923 under the Ottoman Empire.

An angry mob featuring a member of Turkey’s Islamist ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) attempted to beat and “lynch” secular opposition party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu during a soldier’s funeral Sunday.

The French decision to mark April 24 as a day of commemoration for the Armenian genocide has been attacked in Turkey, with the government saying France should “look at its own dark history” before remembering the slaughter of Armenians.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed leftist Bolivian counterpart Evo Morales to Ankara for official talks Tuesday. Morales expressed hope that his country could expand cooperating with the Turkish military.

Turkey is prepared to look “elsewhere” if the U.S. doesn’t deliver the F-35 fighter jets it ordered, the country’s foreign minister announced Tuesday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed in remarks to reporters on Monday that his ruling Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost the March 31 mayoral elections in Istanbul and Ankara because “organized crime” elements had staged a “robbery.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Moscow on Monday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and discuss the increasingly close economic and strategic partnership between their countries.

Turkey “will never be in Europe”, Matteo Salvini has vowed, launching plans for an EU which “recognises [national] identity and culture” rather than one shaped around the demands of business and finance.