Turkey - Page 25

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan filed a lawsuit Thursday against opposition Parliament member Engin Özkoç under charges of “insulting the president,” a crime in Turkey.

Populist Sweden Democrat (SD) leader Jimmie Åkesson appeared along the Turkish border with Greece this week to hand out flyers to migrants stating “Sweden is full”.

The Turkish parliament endured another of its periodic fistfights on Wednesday, a sizable melee between opposition politicians and members of the ruling AKP party that apparently started when one of the opposition leaders “insulted” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has labelled Greek attempts to stop asylum claims as being contrary to international agreements and not legal.

Greece conducted a military drill with live ammunition along the Turkish border, as waves of migrants attempt to cross the border after President Erdogan’s decision to ‘open the gates’ for migrants to cross into Europe. Ahead of a visit from

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has stated that the Turkish move to open its borders to Europe for migrants was an attack on both Greece and the EU and his government will not take in new waves of migrants.

Brussels’ border agency Frontex has warned EU leaders of a large surge of migrants heading to Greece, according to a leaked report released on Monday by German media.

Turkish forces in Syria shot down two Syrian warplanes and attacked an airport used by the Syrian regime on Sunday, while a Turkish drone strike struck a Syrian military convoy and purportedly killed 19 soldiers.

The Greek government has claimed that a widely spread video claiming to show a migrant fatally wounded at the border is “fake news.”

A terrorism trial starts Monday for a Dutch man of Turkish descent who allegedly opened fire on a tram, killing four people.

Violent clashes erupted on the European Union’s common external border over the weekend as Greek border guards tried to stop migrants promised they could travel to Europe by the Turkish president from entering.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed Monday to keep the doors open for migrants heading for Europe, promising he will not hinder anyone heading for the border with Greece.

Turkish interior minister Süleyman Soylu announced late Sunday that 100,577 refugees had left Turkey through Edirne, at the border with Greece.

Tensions on Europe’s borders with Turkey are rising as thousands of migrants are brought to the frontier on unmarked buses and state-owned railways.

KASTANIES, Greece (AP) – The United Nations said Sunday that at least 13,000 people were massed on Turkey’s land border with Greece, after Turkey officially declared its western borders were open to migrants and refugees hoping to head into the European Union.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that his country’s borders with Europe were open, as thousands of migrants gathered at the frontier with Greece.

An airstrike in Syria’s Idlib province on Thursday killed at least 33 Turkish soldiers and wounded numerous others. The attack was a serious escalation of hostilities and the worst loss of life for Turkish forces during their invasion of Syria. Both Syrian and Russian air forces were blamed for the attack, with Moscow on Friday claiming that Syrian planes carried out the bombing.

Greece sent dozens of naval vessels to patrol the Greek islands after Turkey announced it would allow all Syrian migrants to head to Europe. 

Turkey has announced it will open its borders to Syria and allow migrants to pass into Europe – as coronavirus cases in the Middle East rise.

The Turkish government has announced that for the next 72 hours it will open its border with Syria and allow any and all migrants to go to Europe unhindered.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that two Turkish soldiers have been killed in Libya, where Turkish forces were deployed to support the Government of National Accord (GNA) against the forces of the Libyan National Army (LNA) under Gen. Khalifa Haftar.

Backers of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria passed a motion on Thursday recognizing the Armenian genocide, a move inspired by growing hostility between Assad and Turkey.

The United Nations reported on Tuesday that a huge new wave of displaced civilians is pouring out of Syria’s Idlib province, driven out by intense Syrian and Russian military efforts to crush the last rebel forces and increasing tensions between Turkey and Syria. According to the U.N., the refugee situation in Idlib is the worst it has been since the beginning of the Syrian civil war.

(AFP) — Greece will only grant refugee protection for three years as it struggles to integrate foreigners, the conservative government’s migration minister Notis Mitarachi said in remarks published Sunday.

Italy and Turkey said Wednesday they were taking the temperatures of all arriving airline passengers in new prevention measures aimed at halting the spread of a virus outbreak that has killed hundreds of people in China.

Reuters filed an exclusive report on Monday citing three “senior Western security officials” who blamed a recent wave of cyberattacks in Europe and the Middle East on “hackers acting in the interests of the Turkish government.”

BRUSSELS (AP) — The number of migrants entering Europe from Turkey rose significantly last year as people fleeing strife in Syria and Afghanistan flooded into the country and then set out for Greece, the head of the European Union’s border agency said Friday.

TEL AVIV – In what is being hailed as a “historic milestone”, Israel has started exporting natural gas to Egypt, according to a joint statement by both countries’ energy ministers.

New research by the Pew Research Centre has found that President Donald Trump holds broad support in both Nigeria and Kenya, although he is generally unpopular in other parts of the world. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wasted little time sending troops to Libya after his parliament approved military intervention on January 2.

The editor-in-chief of one of Turkey’s largest pro-Islamist newspapers disparaged former Iranian terrorism chief Qasem Soleimani in a column this weekend for “ruthlessly implementing every type of terrorism” against Muslim people throughout the Middle East.

German police shot dead a Turkish citizen Sunday evening after he allegedly attempted to attack officers with a knife.

Israel, Greece, and Cyprus signed a historic agreement Thursday for the Eastern Mediterranean project that will see Israeli gas delivered to Europe via an undersea pipeline, overturning Turkey’s efforts to thwart the deal.

Turkey’s parliament voted to approve the use of military force in Libya on Thursday.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to send troops to Libya next month at the request of Tripoli’s Government of National Accord (GNA), as they continue to fend off attacks from renegade warlord General Khalifa Haftar’s opposition forces.

President Erdogan has warned Europe that it would face another wave of refugees as President Bashar al-Assad’s forces advance into Idlib.