President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, two U.S. Secretaries of State, and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) pressed Turkish officials this week to release American pastor Andrew Brunson, who has been in prison since October 2017 for allegedly aiding terrorists.
Turkey’s Islamist and increasingly authoritarian president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is set to visit the UK over the weekend, when he will be honored with a meeting with her Majesty the Queen.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the United States and the Trump administration for pulling out of the Iran deal in remarks Wednesday, describing it as an “unfortunate step.”
An American pastor facing 35 years in prison in Turkey for alleged ties to terrorist groups will not have a chance to leave prison until his next hearing on July 18, the court presiding over his case decided on Monday after dismissing all witnesses assembled to defend the pastor without listening to their testimony.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed over the weekend to launch new military operations in Syria similar to its previous offensives that targeted U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters he considers to be terrorists.
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.
If the United States approves a proposed law that would halt weapons sales to Turkey, the nation will retaliate, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Sunday.
An angry mob on the Greek Island of Lesbos has attempted to overturn a police bus after protests – against European Union (EU) migration policies and the arrival of the Greek Prime Minister – turned ugly.
Turkey is expected to give an al-Qaeda-affiliated group known as the al-Rahman Corps the police command of the Afrin region in Syria along with authority to impose Sharia, or strict Islamic laws, on the residents, which include members of the persecuted Yazidi and Christian minorities, a monitor group revealed over the weekend.
Greece is being “overwhelmed” by illegal migrants surging across its land border with Turkey, with a local mayor warning the situation is “on the verge of spinning out of control”.
Turkey said in remarks this weekend it will not choose between its Western allies, including the United States; Russia; and Iran, particularly in the ongoing Syrian civil war, where Iran has a significant stronghold.
Two Armenian-American teenagers were allegedly shot at on Tuesday evening — the 103-year anniversary of the Armenian Genocide — while driving on the 14 Freeway in Santa Clarita in what the driver claims was a hate crime.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Tuesday he is planning to hold a campaign rally in a European city next month ahead of the June elections, despite rules in some countries banning Turkish politicians from campaigning abroad.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement Wednesday condemning President Donald Trump for using the term Meds Yeghern (“Great calamity” in Armenian) to describe the Armenian genocide in his statement Tuesday.
People around the world paused to commemorate Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day on Tuesday, a remembrance of the more than 1.5 million Armenians who were systematically exterminated between 1915 and 1923 under the Ottoman Empire.
AFP — Thousands of Australians gathered in the pre-dawn chill on the Somme in northern France on Wednesday for a poignant ceremony in memory of the soldiers who fought and died on the Western Front, a century on from the
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan remarked on Tuesday that Turkey has an “ethical responsibility to share the historical pain” of the country’s Armenian citizens but again refused to refer to the tragedy as a genocide as he observed the anniversary of the killings.
People throughout the world commemorated 103 years since the Armenian genocide on Tuesday. Thousands will march throughout the streets of various cities to honor the 1.5 million lives lost during the 1915 massacre, carried out by Ottoman Turks.
The pro-Kurdish, anti-Islamist People’s Democratic Party (HDP) may run its imprisoned former co-chair, Selahattin Demirtaş, as a candidate against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in elections scheduled for June.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Monday that Greece categorically rejects “unacceptable preconditions” from Turkey for the return of two Greek soldiers arrested on the Turkish side of the border in March.
WASHINGTON, DC — The Islamist ruling party of Turkey has established a policy of persecuting indigenous Christian, Yazidi, and Jewish communities in the country, an expert on Turkish minority groups declared on Wednesday.
Turkey’s Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) announced on Wednesday that it would hold snap parliamentary elections on June 24, expected to reinforce President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s control of national policy.
WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration finds the expanding cooperation in Syria between U.S. NATO ally Turkey and Russia “gravely concerning,” a top Department of State (DOS) warned lawmakers.
The European Union (EU) should keep the door open for Turkey and its Islamist leader to join the bloc, Germany’s EU minister has insisted.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is trying to assemble an Arab force “to replace” the U.S. military presence in Syria and help bring stability to the war-ravaged country and the region, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) learned from unnamed American officials.
Less than a week after French President Emmanuel Macron boasted that Western intervention in Syria had “divided” Turkey and Syria, Turkish officials boasted on Tuesday of closer economic ties to China, urging greater investment and tourism from the Asian power.
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 government of Turkey went to great lengths Monday to insist that it is not taking sides in the Syrian civil war, instead occupying the northern Syrian region of Afrin to neutralize the effectiveness of the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG/YPJ), which Ankara considers a terrorist group.
Andrew Brunson, a Protestant pastor who has led a mission and church in western Turkey for more than two decades, appeared in Turkish court on Monday facing terror-related charges.
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Several hundred refugees and migrants have gathered outside a police station in Greece’s second largest city, waiting for hours to be formally arrested in order to gain temporary residence in the European Union country.
The leader of an Istanbul taxi union claimed on Thursday that the ride-sharing service Uber is “officially a terrorist group” whose customers are “traitors” to Turkey.
Amid mounting tensions between Greece and Turkey in the Aegean Sea, a Greek fighter plane reportedly crashed on Thursday after intercepting Turkish fighters near the island of Skyros. The pilot was reported dead on Thursday morning.
Greek forces fired tracer rounds at a Turkish helicopter near the Greek island of Ro in the Aegean Sea on Monday night, in the latest sign of mounting tensions between Athens and Ankara.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan refuted remarks by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the world expects Turkey to hand northern Afrin, Syria, to the Assad regime as soon as possible, replying Tuesday that the affairs of the Turkish military are “up to us, not to Mr. Lavrov.”
NEW YORK — The reported deaths of four Iranian “military advisers” killed in an airstrike in Syria spotlight Tehran’s meddling in Syria in a clear attempt to extend its fundamentalist tentacles to Israel’s north and exert hegemony across the region.
Russia expects Ankara to hand over the Afrin region Turkey seized from U.S.-allied Kurds in Syria to the Moscow and Iranian-backed regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said this weekend.
Missiles struck an air base in central Syria early Monday, its state-run news agency reported. Although the agency said it was likely “an American aggression,” U.S. officials said the U.S. had not launched airstrikes on Syria.
Turkey is reportedly expected to enhance financial and medical support to factions from one of its top allies, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), as the rebel group continues to participate in Ankara’s offensive against U.S.-allied Kurds in northern Syria.
A research assistant at a Turkish university killed four of his colleagues Thursday in a shooting spree reportedly preceded by over one hundred accusations of ties to anti-government Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, and Russian President Vladimir Putin convened in Ankara this week, discussing ways to end the ongoing Syrian civil war while isolating the United States from the region.
