Latest News from Turkey

Turkey's main opposition leader welcomes rapprochement with Israel

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal K?l?çdaro?lu has welcomed reports of possible rapprochement between Turkey and Israel, suggesting that it was "already expected."

54 PKK militants killed in past three days in Turkey: Report

The state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Dec. 18 that security forces have killed some 20 militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in operations in southeastern Turkey, raising the number of militants killed over three days to 54.

55 PKK militants, one soldier killed in three days in southeast

Security forces have killed 55 militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in operations in Turkey's southeastern districts over the past three days, while one soldier has been killed in clashes on Dec. 18, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Russia experts examine black box of jet downed by Turkey

Russia on Dec. 18 began examining the black box of its warplane that was shot down over Turkey's border with Syria, again contesting Ankara's claim it had violated Turkish airspace.

UPD: Black box of Russian Su-24 jet shows no violation of Turkish air space

Russians opened the black box from the Russian Su-24 bomber’s black boxes in a live telecast. The box belonged to the jet that was bombed by Turkey for reportedly entering its air space.

The first examination found that chips removed from the black box are slightly damaged and will need to be x-rayed in the laboratory, said the Russian deputy head of Aerospace Forces at a briefing.

UN Security Council to meet Dec. 18 on Turkish troops in Iraq

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to meet on Dec. 18 to discuss a complaint by Iraq over Turkish troops deployed to a camp near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

A mandate for a common future

Turkey's southeast is experiencing its harshest days in decades. Never have we witnessed open "urban-warfare" on such a scale.

The Sunni Alliance?

Can there be anything more absurd? Well, probably. After all, the world is going through such a period that every day the level of absurdity is being carried to new heights. Still, the creation of a Sunni Alliance led by Saudi Arabia with the aim of fighting Sunni, Salafist, jihadist, Islamist terrorism might constitute a new and hard-to-be-surpassed world record in absurdity.

The Secular State of Iraq and the Levant (SSIL)

Egyptian clerics, particularly during the Gezi protests of 2013, were the inevitable darlings of Turkey's Islamists. Remember Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the president of the Association of Muslim Scholars and the ideological leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, who decreed in June 2013 that the Gezi protesters were "acting against Allah's will." The Turkish clergy never objected to that fatwa.