Turkey - Page 14

Former President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, said it is unprecedented and would be “problematic” if celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz were elected to the U.S. Senate and received security clearances.

Mike Pompeo raised concerns about Mehmet Oz’s ties with the Turkish government in a press briefing on Friday.

Celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz allegedly violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) over his failure to register for his work with Turkish Airlines, according to an advocacy group. 

Inflation in Turkey soared to nearly 70% in April, as prices eat away at earnings and put even basic necessities out of reach for many.

Celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz is under fire from national security experts after a resurfaced photo shows him casting a ballot in Turkey’s 2018 presidential election. 

Tens of thousands of people across Istanbul, Turkey, held demonstrations on Sunday in honor of the communist holiday “May Day,” with some of the gatherings devolving into riots and clashes with local police officers, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday to meet Saudi leaders for bilateral talks, marking his first visit with the Kingdom’s rulers since 2017, the state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Friday.

During the Republican primary debate for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, Carla Sands attacked Dr. Oz for allegedly putting “Turkey First.”

The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was raised at the beginning of the First War War to do battle against all the King’s enemies. It first saw mass action and casualties in the ill-fated Gallipoli Campaign that unfolded in what is now Turkey.

Cypriot Archbishop Chrysostomos said Sunday it would be a mistake for Ukraine to retreat rather than stand up to Russian aggression in the country.

Greece’s Defence Minister has announced that the country, often menaced by Turkey, will no longer be shipping weapons to Ukraine, as it requires arms for its own defence needs.

Members of the Armenian-American community told NBC News in a report published Tuesday that if Turkish talk show host Mehmet Oz is elected to the Senate, his election could grant Ankara a powerful ally across the planet in its campaign to deny the Armenian genocide.

Turkish forces operating in Syria reportedly shelled two villages on Sunday, coming perilously close to positions held by Russian troops. Turkey is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which is currently in a state of highly elevated tensions with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

The Turkish government has claimed to have stopped over 1,7000 illegal immigrants from reaching Europe in the month of March.

The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, formerly Constantinople, held its first Ramadan prayers in 88 years on Friday to mark the start of the Islamic month of fasting, after being converted into a mosque in 2020.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey told reporters Friday that joining other NATO countries in sanctioning Russia for its ongoing invasion of Ukraine was impossible because his economy is simply too dependent on Moscow.

Recently-minted U.S. citizen Enes Kanter Freedom dubbed Pennsylvania senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz a “foreign agent.”

An estimated 14,000 Russians have fled to Turkey since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last month, Turkey’s Hürriyet Daily News reported on Monday.

Turkish government authorities rejected the citizenship applications of Uyghur refugees fleeing genocide by China in occupied East Turkistan last year on the grounds they allegedly posed risks to Turkey’s “national security” or “social order,” Voice of America (VOA) reported on Wednesday.

U.S. Senate candidate and television celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz has flipped on his pledge to retain dual citizenship with Turkey.

Denis Pushilin, the leader of the Russia-backed Ukrainian separatist “Donetsk People’s Republic,” warned supporters of Kurdish independence not to rely on support from America or the West because “they won’t respect their promises,” unlike, he claimed, Russia.

Celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz, candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, told reporters he would forego specific security clearances provided to U.S. Senators in order to maintain his dual citizenship with Turkey.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters on Sunday Ankara “will not join the sanctions some Western countries have imposed on Russia” over its latest war with Ukraine, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declared following yet another round of failed peace talks between his country and Ukraine on Thursday that Russia had “not invaded Ukraine” and had no “plan to invade other countries.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog was greeted with pomp and ceremony at the palace of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday, marking the first time a leader from Israel has visited Ankara in nearly a decade and a half.

Baykar Defense, the Turkish company that manufactures the Bayraktar drones used to deadly effect by Ukraine’s defenders against the invading Russian army, on Tuesday anticipated booming sales across Asia for its already sizzling-hot weapon system. 

Turkey should not allow nearby Ukraine’s war with Russia to distract Ankara from its goal of regaining control over islets in the Aegean Sea disputed with Greece, Turkish journalist Hulki Tzevizoglou advised on Wednesday.

China came up about $6 billion short of the $40 billion in U.S. agricultural products it agreed to purchase in the two-year trade deal it signed in January 2020 – but suddenly began making up a bit of that deficit after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as Chinese buyers scrambled to cover potential shortfalls of Ukrainian corn.

Reports of Chechen involvement in Russia’s war on Ukraine are piquing interest among Chechens opposed to Moscow-supported warlord Ramzan Kadyrov to sign up on the Ukrainian side. Some of those vigorously anti-Russian Chechens are battle-hardened jihadi fighters from the Syrian civil war.

Turkish-made Bayraktar armed drones have proven to be a key weapon in Ukraine’s arsenal against the Russian invasion, helping the defenders take out armored vehicles, eliminate artillery positions, and disrupt supply lines.

The government of Turkey changed its view of Russia’s attack on Ukraine over the weekend, declaring the assault is “officially a war” and promising to limit the number of Russian warships that can pass through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits to enter the Black Sea.

Tensions have flared up between historic enemies Turkey and Greece following accusations that Greece is training terrorists, with four Turkish F-16 aircraft violating Greek airspace two days after the Greek coastguard fired warning shots at a Turkish vessel.

A petty article in China’s Global Times government propaganda publication celebrated the news, first shared by ESPN journalist Adrian Wojnarowski, that NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom had been traded from the Boston Celtics and has not yet landed on a new team.

Kyiv and Ankara signed a preliminary deal during bilateral talks this week to manufacture Turkish drones in Ukraine, Bloomberg reported.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will travel to Kyiv on February 3 where he will hold bilateral talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, amid recent political tension between Ukraine and Russia, Reuters reported on Monday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a press conference on Thursday that he believed a Russian invasion of Ukraine would be disastrous, and presented himself as a moderator who might be able to avert such a conflict by bringing the presidents of Russia and Ukraine together for negotiations.