Turkey - the country not the bird

[robert99]

Turkey shuts down scores of media outlets after failed coup - France 24
Turkey has ordered the closure of scores of media outlets and discharged 149 generals as part of a deepening crackdown that followed the failed coup earlier this month, official sources said Wednesday.
According to a government decree published in Turkey's official gazette, the closure involves three news agencies, 16 television stations, 23 radio stations, 45 newspapers, 15 magazines and 29 publishers.

 

[Second Summer]

I guess that means Turkey won't become an EU member. I wonder if they will still be welcome in NATO. A dictatorship with an islamizing agenda? We're supposed to be in a military alliance with that?

 

[robert99]

Turkey will remain in NATO - otherwise Putin would move in tout suite. It's too strategically important for NATO. EU will drag their feet even more now with Turkey's EU hopes of membership.

Seems like Newsweek had an hunch that there was a coup coming back in March - A coup against Turkey’s increasingly erratic leader is in the cards

 

[Moll Flanders]

Turkey wasn't anywhere close to joining the EU, even before all this. I heard recently that there are 35 policy areas that Turkey has to achieve before being able to join and they only have 1 out of 35.

Just let me double check that is right, yes. Reality Check: How soon can Turkey join the EU? - BBC News - EU rules are divided into 35 policy areas and in 10 years Turkey only managed to adopt the rules on one: science and research. In most other areas it has not even made a start.

 

[robert99]

EU membership strategic goal for Turkey: Erdogan
Erdogan was trying to use the refugee crisis to get non-membership agreements with EU. As you wrote, Moll, basic EU requirements for membership have not been meet, but going from Greece's membership circus, anything can happen.

 

[robert99]

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/turkey/280720161
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned US General Joseph Votel on Friday for voicing his concern about the ongoing purge of military officers following the failed July 15 coup attempt.

The US-led coalition is using Turkey’s Incirlik airbase as a launch pad for airstrikes against ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria and considers Turkey a key NATO ally in the war against the terrorist group.

On Friday, Erdogan responded to Votel’s concerns, saying, “Who are you?”

He then proceeded to allege that the US supported the attempted coup.

(BBC on same story Turkey coup bid: Erdogan says US general 'taking side of plotters' - BBC News
"Replying on Friday after President Erdogan's comments, Gen Votel said any reports that he was involved in the coup were "unfortunate and completely inaccurate"." )
(Erdogan needs to be careful - he might well have an "accident".)

 

[robert99]

PressTV-Turkey ‘to scrap EU deal’ over visas
Turkey says it will “back away” from a refugee deal it has struck with the European Union (EU) if the bloc does not grant Turkish nationals visa-free travel to Europe.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has told the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that the refugee deal had worked due to “very serious measures” taken by Turkey, without specifying which measures.

He further said in the interview — which is to be fully published in the daily’s Monday edition — that the success of the agreement now depends on the European side.

“All that is dependent on the cancellation of the visa requirement for our citizens, which is also an item in the agreement of March 18,” Cavusoglu said.

 

[robert99]

PressTV-Turkey calls in German envoy over rally
Turkey has summoned Germany’s envoy to Ankara over Berlin’s move to prevent Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from addressing his supporters during a rally in the German city of Cologne via video conference.

“The [German] charge d’affaires has been summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry at 1:00 pm (1000 GMT),” a spokeswoman for the German Embassy said Monday, noting that the ambassador was not in the city.

Tens of thousands of Erdogan supporters, including several Turkish officials, staged a rally in Cologne on Sunday to denounce the failed coup of July 15 in Turkey.

Turkey summons German diplomat over Erdogan ban | News | DW.COM | 01.08.2016
Germany's constitutional court intervened just hours before the demonstration began following fears that the atmosphere could turn heated.

 

[robert99]

Migrant crisis: Germany warns Turkey against 'blackmailing EU' - BBC News
Europe must not let itself be blackmailed by Turkey in talks about visa-free travel for Turkish citizens in the EU, German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has said.

Visa-free access to the EU is seen as a reward for Turkey's role in halting an influx of migrants into Europe.

"It is up to Turkey if there is or there isn't visa liberalisation," Mr Gabriel said. "Germany and Europe should under no circumstances be blackmailed."

The vice-chancellor also welcomed a decision to prevent Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan from addressing via video-link a rally in Cologne on Sunday.

(So Erdogan has managed to upset the US and EU - who's next, Putin?)

 

[robert99]

EU-Turkey refugee deal hinges on Greece | Europe | DW.COM | 03.08.2016
The situation in Greece would likely worsen if Turkey backs out of the refugee deal. Or would the conditions in Greece and the closed Balkan route serve as enough of a deterrant to keep migrants in Turkey? EU officials in Brussels are not the only ones asking themselves that question.

 

[robert99]

Turkey’s post-coup crisis arrives in Europe, dividing the diaspora - France 24
The war of hearts and minds between Erdogan’s AK Party and the Gulenists is being imported to Europe – and across the world – via institutions controlled by each camp and is destined to escalate as Turkey pushes its NATO allies to cooperate with Ankara’s crackdown on the Gulen movement.

På flykt undan Erdogans utrensningar - DN.SE
Coup Attempt Will Result in Crackdown on Remaining Turkish Opposition Media
Erdogan is creating his own refugee wave of people fleeing Turkey.

 

[robert99]

PressTV-Turkey, Russia agree on military hotline
Ankara says that an emergency hotline between the offices of the Turkish and Russian army commanders is to be established to avoid “unwanted incidents” similar to the last year's downing of a Russian jet by Turkish fighter planes.
Earlier on Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced that a Turkish delegation, including Foreign Ministry, military, and defense officials, would travel to Russia later in the day for follow-up talks.

PressTV-Erdogan to US: Choose Gulen or Turkey
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on the United States to extradite US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen blamed by Ankara for the failed military coup in the country last month.

Addressing thousands of government supporters outside the presidential palace in the capital Ankara on Wednesday, Erdogan said Washington must make a choice between Turkey and Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of having led a “terrorist” organization of putschists in Turkey.

 

[robert99]

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/18082016
Following a statement by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to the local media that Russia might be given the green light to use Turkey’s Incirlik base for airstrikes against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria, Deborah James, the Secretary of U.S. Air Force said that she "won't be ok" with sharing the air base with the Russians.

The top U.S. Air Force official told Rudaw's New York correspondent Majeed Gly, “It would not be OK with me as Secretary of Air Force. I would not be in favor of such a position.”

James’ response comes after strong indications from Tukish foreign minister that Turkey might consider military cooperation with Russia.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Cavusoglu told the Russian government-run agency Sputnik last week that “Turkey wanted to cooperate with NATO members up to this point, but the results we got did not satisfy us. Therefore, it is natural to look for other options.”

 

[robert99]

PressTV-Iran, Russia role key to Syria solution: Turkey
The Turkish foreign minister says a “permanent solution” to the ongoing conflict in Syria cannot be achieved without the participation of Iran and Russia.

“Without Russia’s contribution, there cannot be a permanent solution in Syria. We keep saying this. The same goes for Iran, too, with which we also have to boost our relations in this regard,” Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview with the Russian Sputnik new agency.

The minister also ruled out any “military solution” to the ongoing crisis in Syria.

Media reports indicate that Ankara could change its stance towards Syria and form an alliance with Russia and Iran to battle terrorists in Syria.

 

[robert99]

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...rs-asylum-claim-of-Turkish-coup-officers.html
Greece began hearing the asylum claim Friday of the first of eight Turkish military officers who fled their country after the failed coup on July 15, the asylum service said.

Captain Feridun Coban was driven to the headquarters of the asylum service in Athens in the early hours of Friday morning, according to the group's lawyer Stavroula Tomara.

His fellow officers -- three other captains, two commanders and two sergeants, who along with Coban are accused by Turkey of involvement in the coup -- will have their cases heard from Monday.

 

[robert99]

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...-Mevlut-Cavusoglu-is-surprise-Iran-visit.html
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has made a surprise visit to Tehran for talks on “regional issues”, Iranian state television said on Friday.

Cavusoglu’s short trip follows a meeting last week with Mohammad Javad Zarif in Ankara, an Iranian foreign ministry official was quoted as saying.

Thursday’s meeting “dealt with consultations on regional issues and bilateral relations”. foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghassemi said.
Both Tehran and Moscow were quick to voice support for Erdogan following the August coup attempt against him, and Cavusoglu last week called on Russia to carry out joint operations with Turkey against the ISIS in Syria.

 

[robert99]

Seems like Turkey's joining Iran & Russia ... Syrian war: Turkey to play more active role - BBC News
Turkey says it will take a more active role in efforts to end the war in Syria and accepts President Bashar al-Assad as an interim but not long-term player.

But announcing the Turkish policy shift, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim insisted that Mr Assad "can't have a role in Syria's future". "He is one of the actors today, whether we like it or not," Mr Yildirim said.

Fighting has continued in the city of Hassakeh, where Syrian government jets have bombed Kurdish areas for two days.

meanwhile ... PressTV-Turkey says 'US strategic partner, not enemy'
Turkey’s prime minister has described the United States as a “strategic partner” and not the enemy of his country despite Ankara's anger at Washington for not extraditing US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom it blames for last month’s failed military coup.

“There can be ups and downs in the two countries’ relations (but) we need to remove elements that harm our relations,” Binali Yildirim told reporters in Istanbul, referring to Gulen.

The Turkish premier also said that his country is willing to accept a role for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a transitional period in Syria, but insisted he has no place in the Arab country’s future.

Yildirim further expressed optimism that Iran, Persian Gulf Arab states, Russia and the US could work jointly to find a solution to more than five years of conflict in Syria.

 

[Moll Flanders]

The suicide bomber who carried out the wedding attack in Gaziantep in Turkey is believed to be a child of between 12-14 years old! 51 people were killed.

Turkey wedding suicide bomber 'was child aged 12-14' - BBC News

 

[robert99]

Not trying to be a "smarty pants" but I've recently posted some links to news stories about IS and their use of teenagers - see
The mess in the Middle East
see also from today http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/210820165
"A boy suicide bomber in his early teens was arrested by Kurdish security forces in Kirkuk on Sunday night before detonating his explosives belt, after two other suicide attacks on the same day in the Kurdish city.
The young bomber, aged between 12 and 13, was captured by security forces in Kirkuk’s Huzairan neighborhood, according to a Rudaw reporter on the scene."

 

[robert99]

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/turkey/210820162
At least nine mortars landed in the outskirts of Gaziantep in the early hours of Sunday, the governor of the city in southeastern Turkey said, hours after a suicide bomber killed 51 people at a Kurdish wedding party.
"Two hours after the deadly attack in Gaziantep which killed 51 and wounded more than 100, ISIS launched mortar fires again on the city’s Karkamish town, causing no casualties,” the governor said. “All the mortars landed in an open terrain.”

A bombing at a wedding party in Gaziantep city, known in Kurdish as Dilok, on Saturday night left 51 people dead and more than 100 injured. Among the dead were the bride and groom.