01/30/2021
In a sign of its increasing desire to work closely with Tehran against US interests in the Middle East, Turkey hosted Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in Ankara on Friday.
The meeting illustrated that Turkey’s recent push for Azerbaijan to fight Armenians in the Caucasus will likely end with Ankara, Moscow and Tehran…
01/09/2021
The antisemitic conspiracy has been pushed by far-right Islamists from Hamas to Malaysia to Turkey, where the ruling party frequently taps into conspiracies to stay in power.
The recent article appeared at Yeni Safak in Turkey. Turkish media has largely become controlled by the government and dissidents silenced in the last ten…
12/18/2020
American-Turkish relations have been in a steady decline for the better part of the last decade in large part because Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government have found new and creative ways to undercut the relationship. Without a major change in Turkish behavior, the relationship will only get rockier.
Ankara…
12/17/2020
Turkey’s top diplomat says Ankara to slap retaliatory restrictions on Washington
Turkey will not cancel its acquisition of Russian-made S-400 air defense batteries over US sanctions, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday.
The top Turkish diplomat also said that Ankara will retaliate with tit-for-tat measures against…
12/16/2020
Turkey has in the last few weeks sought to use media connections abroad to push narratives about how it wants reconciliation with Israel, even as its own media pushes extremist anti-Israel comments. One commentator, according to T24 Turkish media, said that Turkey could “enter Tel Aviv in 48 hours.” He claimed, “we are not like the…
12/14/2020
The Trump administration announced on Monday that it has imposed sanctions on Turkey for acquiring a Russian missile-defense system.
The United States sanctioned Turkey’s Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) in accordance with the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) of 2017 for receiving the S-400…
12/10/2020
The United States is poised to impose sanctions on Turkey over its acquisition last year of Russian S-400 air defense systems, five sources including three U.S. officials told Reuters on Thursday, a move likely to worsen already problematic ties between the two NATO allies.
The long-anticipated step, which is likely to infuriate…
The rising chorus of anti-Israel statements from Turkey, particularly when it comes to the toxic blending of religious and extreme nationalist rhetoric from the ruling party, is becoming an increasing threat to Israel and regional stability.
After Turkey announced that it would turn the museum of Hagia Sophia back into a mosque, President Recep…
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday formally reconverted Istanbul’s sixth-century iconic Hagia Sophia into a mosque and declared it open to Muslim worship, hours after a high court annulled a 1934 decision that had turned it into a museum.
The decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia — a former cathedral that was turned into a mosque after…
Turkey is lashing out at the United States as Washington moves closer to providing Cyprus with military aid as the disputed island nation develops closer energy ties with Israel.
The Turkish reaction came after the US Embassy in Cyprus said Wednesday that the United States planned to provide international military education and training to the…
Civilians have been killed and villagers threatened by Turkey’s widespread airstrikes in northern Iraq. Ankara claims to be fighting “terrorists” but has used disproportionate force. Activists fear that Christian minorities, already threatened by Turkey’s invasions of northern Syria, will have to flee again.
The United States Commission on…
A Turkish court on Thursday convicted an employee of the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul of membership in an armed terror organization and sentenced him to eight years and nine months in prison, the state-run news agency reported.
Metin Topuz, a translator and assistant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, has been jailed since 2017, accused of links…
Turkey’s leadership thrives on crises. For the last several years the government in Ankara has invented a new crisis every month, sometimes with the US. In October 2019 it invaded part of eastern Syria, causing 200,000 people to flee. In November Turkey created a crises in Libya with an energy deal in the Mediterranean and in January and February…
