Tag: Turkey

Turkey reached an agreement with Russia to purchase the latter’s most sophisticated missile-defense system, the S-400, a senior Turkish military official told Bloomberg last week. Under the $2.5 billion agreement Ankara would receive two batteries of the antiaircraft missile from Moscow within the coming year and then produce two more batteries in Turkey. At the beginning of […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. authorities should search through any intercepted communications of Fethullah Gulen to seek evidence backing Turkey’s accusation that the U.S.-based Muslim cleric orchestrated last year’s failed coup, Turkey’s envoy to Washington said on Friday. In an interview with Reuters almost a year after the coup attempt, Ambassador Serdar Kilic expressed frustration over […]

Germany has followed through on threats to withdraw its military forces from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey after months of diplomatic tensions with the Turkish government. The forces in question composed Germany’s contribution to the coalition against ISIS, and will remain out of the fight for at least another two months as they are moved […]

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Sunday praised the courage of the Turkish people in defending democracy from an attempted coup almost exactly a year ago, although he made no mention of the widespread crackdown that has followed. Speaking at the opening ceremony of an oil conference in Istanbul, where he received an award […]

WASHINGTON — A Democratic lawmaker from Rhode Island is seeking to block the U.S. sale of Lockheed Martin-made F-35 fighter jets to Turkey over an attack on protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Washington two months ago. Rep. David Cicilline, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, has proposed the ban as an amendment to the 2018 […]

The head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said on Wednesday that Turkish military deployments near Kurdish-held areas of northwestern Syria amounted to a “declaration of war” which could trigger clashes within days. Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus retorted that his country was not declaring war but that its forces would respond to any […]

DUZCE, Turkey — The midday sun was roasting, their limbs were aching, and the protesters, from Turkey’s largest opposition party, still had 125 miles to march before Istanbul, their destination. The road had been hard: One elderly protester died of cardiac arrest and another was hospitalized with heart spasms. But spirits were soaring as they walked […]

The U.S. special envoy to the coalition against the Islamic State on Wednesday met with leaders of a council consisting of members from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who plan on administering the Syrian city of Raqqa following the eventual collapse of the ISIS stronghold. Brett McGurk, who was appointed by the State Department has […]

Turkey’s military returned fire against members of the Kurdish YPG militia near Syria’s Afrin region overnight, broadcaster Haberturk reported early on Wednesday, citing military sources. It was not clear whether there were any casualties. Turkish officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the report, which said Turkey’s military retaliated after YPG fighters opened […]

Saudi Arabia is upping the ante in an effort to put pressure on other Muslim nations to aid in their efforts to isolate and cut ties to Qatar. The Saudis are using the carrot and the stick approach, having promised financial packages for cooperation and reduced financial aid and quotas for the haj, the religious […]

The US-backed coalition of Kurds and Arabs of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have begun their long-awaited assault on the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate in Raqqa. The forecast for the battle has it that it will be long and costly as the IS fighters are cut off from any support. But the government of Turkey […]

Syrian military forces loyal to embattled President Assad ignored warnings about approaching a small US base that houses its Special Operations Forces this week and was hit by a US-led airstrike. This was the second attack in just the past month against Assad’s forces by US airstrikes in what the Defense Department characterized as self-defense […]