Turkey - the country not the bird

[robert99]

EU launches debit cards for refugees in Turkey
EU launches debit cards for refugees in Turkey

The European Union on Monday launched a scheme worth almost 350 million euros providing mainly Syrian refugees in Turkey with pre-paid debit cards, the biggest project yet under a landmark deal between the bloc and Ankara.

Each card will be automatically topped up with 100 Turkish lira ($33.50) a month, giving people the chance to choose their own purchases.

Stylianides said the programme was an "unprecedented response" to an "unprecedented crisis".

"This (scheme) is, in our humanitarian field, a game-changer in the delivery of humanitarian aid. Refugees can choose what they spend money on."

Turkey is home to some three million refugees, most of them Syrian. The vast majority live in cities without direct support from non- governmental organisations and aid groups.

Supported with 348 million euros ($392 million) from Brussels and its member states, the scheme will be rolled out by Turkish Red Crescent and the UN World Food Programme supported by the Turkish authorities.

Applications will start in October for the scheme. Families who have children going to school will receive more cash. All refugees registered in Turkey, including Iraqis, are eligible to apply.

 

[robert99]

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...-wants-jumbo-free-trade-deal-with-Turkey.html
(You can n't make this stuff up! Read and be amazed ...)
‘Ottoman Boris’
Johnson, on his first official visit to Turkey since becoming foreign secretary, said his hosts had not brought up his winning entry in a “President Tayyip Erdogan Offensive Poetry competition” earlier this year, which involved a goat, wild oats and the Turkish leader.

“What I hope for is a jumbo free trade deal between the United Kingdom and Turkey,” Johnson told a news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. “We are leaving the EU, but we are not leaving Europe.”

He and other pro-Brexit campaigners were accused by Turkey’s press and politicians of playing on British fears about a wave of immigration from mainly Muslim Turkey during the Brexit campaign. Earlier this year, the pro-government Daily Sabah newspaper described him as “anti-Turkey”.

Johnson, who was also due to meet Erdogan on Tuesday, had already been on a push to smooth over differences with his hosts. On Monday, he kicked off the visit to Ankara by highlighting his “proud ownership” of a Turkish washing machine. (WTF?!)

Johnson’s great-grandfather, Ali Kemal, was an opposition figure in the late Ottoman period and was lynched during Turkey’s War of Independence in the early 1920s.

 

[robert99]

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/turkey/011020162
Erdogan blasts world powers for Syria fighting; says this is a plot
“More than 600,000 civilians have been killed due to the war in Syria,” Erdogan said at the opening of the parliament’s new legislative year.

“Should the international community wait until the figure reaches a million dead?” he said.

He also wondered how the Islamic State (ISIS) could still exist in many parts of Syria and Iraq, despite a global coalition fighting against it for two years.

“This is the fifth year in Syria and third year in Iraq since ISIS emerged,” Erdogan said, claiming there is a “plot” to maintain tension and instability in the region.

 

[robert99]

Turkey sends 1,000 special forces over border in secretive Syria mission
Merve Tahiroglu, an analyst at the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies, said: “Turkey, embittered by Washington’s close cooperation with the YPG will act increasingly independent from the US in Syria. The picture is getting complicated and much will depend on the new Moscow-Ankara hotline”.

This action, independent from the US, is going to include the attempt to set up a “safety zone” inside Syria, something Ankara had long wanted and US and the West have steadfastly opposed.

 

[robert99]

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/041020161
The Iraqi parliament, in a majority vote, has rejected an extension of the mandate of Turkish troops in Iraq and called for a review of relations with Turkey.

The lawmakers also asked for the government of Iraq to file a complaint against Turkey at the United Nations and the UN Security Council. They want the government to formally describe Turkish troops as an “occupying” force.

In Iraq’s northern Nineveh Province, Turkey deployed military advisors to train Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the Sunni Hashd al-Watani militia to fight ISIS in that province last year. Baghdad has been demanding Turkish forces withdraw since last December when Turkey sent additional military forces to protect its base in Bashiqa, near Mosul, from ISIS attacks, without the explicit authorization of the Iraqi government.

On Saturday, the Turkish parliament voted to extend the army’s military mandates in both Iraq and Syria, where Turkish forces are trying to establish a 5,000 square kilometre safe zone along its border.
(Seems like the Turks want a buffer zone in Northern Iraq in case the Kurds get some kind of independence.)

 

[robert99]

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/turkey/111020162
(Kurds targeting Turkish politicians)
The armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) assassinated a Turkish politician from the ruling party, the third such killing in the past month.

The People’s Defense Forces (HPG) released a statement on Tuesday saying that they had “punished” Deryan Aktert, the district chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Dicle, Diyarbakir, “for his role in the massacre and killings of the AKP.”

Aktert was shot in his office Monday morning, the provincial governor’s office confirmed.

On Sunday, Aydın Muştu, the AKP’s district deputy leader in the Özalp district of Van, was shot and killed.

On September 14, Ahmet Budak, the AKP’s candidate in Hakkari in the November 2015 elections, was shot outside his home in Semdinli.

 

[robert99]

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/111020163
US officials are urging the governments in Ankara and Baghdad to ease the current tensions between them over the deployment of Turkish troops in northern Iraq and focus instead on confronting the threat posed by Islamic State (ISIS) militants. But the US faces an uphill battle as the leaders of the two countries engaged in a war of words on Tuesday.

"We call on both governments to focus on their common enemy: ISIL," Matthew Allen, a Pentagon spokesperson, told CNN on Tuesday, using an alternative acronym for ISIS.

An unnamed Iraqi told CNN that Turkey recently stepped up its training efforts of the Sunni Hashd al-Watani militia and believes this may have generated renewed protest from Baghdad.
The troops are reportedly there as part of an "understanding" between Ankara and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), something US officials fear could further strain ties between Baghdad and Erbil at a time when their coordination is needed for the Mosul operation, which is widely anticipated to begin before the end of this month.

 

[robert99]

Kurdisk tv-kanal i Sverige stängd - DN.SE
This gives you an idea on how much the Turks hate Kurds. The Turkish Radio and TV authorities in Turkey have "pressurized" Eutelsat to remove Kurdish TV station Newroz from it's sending in Europe.
Jeez!
see also ANF | Ajansa Nûçeyan a Firatê
French Eutelsat stops the broadcast of Kurdish Newroz TV
Eutelsat General Director Rodolphe Belmer spoke to the French Senate Commission of Economy last week and repeated that the decision to stop Med Nûçe’s broadcast was made on the request of RTÜK, the Radio and Television Supreme Council of Turkey.

Belmer admitted that they had to cooperate with Turkish authorities because they have operations in Turkey and accepted that they made the decision to stop the broadcast only on the demand of RTÜK.

Belmer tried to defend stopping Med Nûçe’s broadcast by RTÜK’s demand by saying “RTÜK is a member of the supreme councils of broadcasts in Europe” and claimed they were acting according to French and European law.

 

[robert99]

PressTV-Syria warns it will ‘bring down’ Turkish jets
The Syrian military has warned to intercept and bring down any Turkish fighter jets entering the country’s airspace, nearly a day after Turkish warplanes bombarded 18 positions of the People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria, and killed up to 200 Kurdish fighters.

"Any attempt to once again breach Syrian airspace by Turkish war planes will be dealt with and they will be brought down by all means available," the Syrian army general command said in a statement on Thursday.

 

[robert99]

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/21102016
Turkey and Iraq have reached an agreement ‘in principle’ regarding the involvement of Turkish forces in the military offensive in Mosul, though the details remain to be agreed upon, the US defense chief said.

"That will have to obviously be something that the Iraqi government will need to agree to and I think there's agreement there in principle," US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter told reporters. "But now we're down to the practicalities of that ... and that's what we're working through."

Carter was in Ankara on Friday to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey’s assistance could also be non-military, Reuters reported a senior US defense official saying.

 

[MadamSarcastra]

Nearly 500 People On Trial In Turkey Over Failed Coup

 

[MadamSarcastra]

Plane Dangles Off Cliff After Skidding Off Runway in Turkey