Russian bombing kills Turkish soldiers in Syria

A Russian plane bombed a building in Syria today, killing three Turkish soldiers. The accident came one day after the announcement that Turkey intends to make use of its special forces deeper in Syria The accident happened near the town of al-Bab, which Turkish troops and Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters are trying to take back […]

Trump has first phone call with Turkey’s Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Donald Trump had their first telephone call late Tuesday, a highly anticipated conversation in which Erdogan was expected to press the new U.S. leader to reject Pentagon proposals to arm Kurdish fighters in Syria and to quickly extradite a Turkish cleric exiled in Pennsylvania and regarded by Turkey […]

Turkey orders 177 police detained, extending post-coup crackdown: Anadolu

Turkish authorities ordered the detention of 177 police officers, the state-run Anadolu agency said on Thursday, widening a crackdown against people accused of links to a failed coup in July. The suspects, from 25 provinces, were being sought on suspicion of using ByLock, an encrypted smartphone messaging app, the agency said, citing the Ankara prosecutor’s […]

Greek and Turkish warships in standoff in Aegean Sea

The decision of the Greek Supreme court that the eight Turkish soldiers who have come to Greece after the failed coup of July are not to be extradited to Turkey, prompted a scathing response in writing from the Turkish side, and in the anniversary of the Imia crisis of 1996, a military show of force in the same area. -Vasilis […]

About 40 Turkish NATO soldiers request asylum in Germany

Forty Turkish soldiers stationed in various NATO positions in Germany have asked for asylum. The Turkish side is urging Germany to not accept those requests. -Vasilis Chronopoulos  About 40 mostly high-ranking Turkish soldiers who worked at NATO facilities in Germany but were suspended after the failed coup in Turkey in July have requested asylum in […]

UK Prime Minister May seals fighter jet deal with Turkey

BAE systems and Turkish Aerospace Industries will work together to develop the TF-X Turkish fighter program -Vasilis Chronopoulos May, in Turkey a day after meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, avoided criticising his sweeping ban on people from certain countries seeking refuge in the United States. She visited both countries for the first time as […]

Closed Balkan route means lucrative times for human traffickers

With the easy way closed, the refugees and immigrants are turning to human traffickers. -Vasilis Chronopoulos  Smugglers are currently offering to take people a short distance to the Hungarian or Croatian border, a service that costs between 200 and 300 euros ($214-321). They’ve also got wire cutters for the Hungarian border fence. Hundreds of people a […]

Alt-Qaeda: Lindsay Lohan meets with Erdogan and Aleppo Twitter girl

While Al-Qaeda Prime lurks in their caves in Afghanistan, triangular-shaped compounds in Pakistan, and bombed out buildings in Syria, the Alt-Qaeda camp had their meeting this week at the Turkish Presidential palace.  It was the perfect storm for the Alt-Qaeda movement.  The non-autonomous biological entity known as The Lohan shook hands with the Neo-Ottoman empire’s […]

Greece, Turkey, a coup, and eight souls at stake

On July 15th 2016, a coup d’état was attempted in Turkey. The coup was badly organized, as we learned later, with units believing they were headed to an anti-terrorism exercise (hence their deployment in urban centers). And it failed badly, with soldiers getting executed by an angry mob of President Erdogan supporters. In the wake […]

Greece snubs Turkey soldiers’ extradition

The Greek supreme court decided against the extradition of the 8 turkish soldiers that were accused as coup participants by Turkey. Now all that remains to be seen is Turkey’s reaction to that decision.  Vasilis Chronopoulos  The eight men fled in a helicopter to Greece after the coup attempt but say they were not involved. Turkey has […]

Turkish imams spied on teachers at German state schools

Imams in Germany have informed Turkish authorities of alleged supporters of cleric Fethullah Gulen, the exiled cleric President Erdogan blames as the leader behind the thwarted coup. That move raised protests from Germany’s domestic intelligence service and the demand for answers on the alleged activities. -Vasilis Chronopoulos A state intelligence body has discovered that imams at […]

Talks expose limits of what Russia, Turkey and Iran can achieve in Syria

Peace talks between the Syrian government and opposition in Kazakhstan were a coup for their international sponsors, but exposed the limits of what Russia, Turkey and Iran can achieve in their efforts to resolve the six-year-old war. It was the first time in nine months the two sides had come together, albeit briefly and unhappily, […]