The parliament has extended on October 8 the use of military troops abroad for another year: there is no obstacle left to send Turkish soldiers into Syria to take the border zones between Euphrates and Tigris rivers to clear the region from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) affiliated militia. Another aim is to return

It truly was an outlandish scene. Just as the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) consultative body meeting started on October 5, Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan sent his recovery wishes for inpatient Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, in the name of “all of the Welfare Party (RP)”. There was round applause, albeit not too

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan’s Syria warnings at the Parliament’s legislative year opening on October 1 were not something unexpected. It had already become clear, after the National Security Council (MGK) meeting on September 30 that he would give out a new message for the U.S. about the possibility of a Safe Zone in Syria and

An Istanbul prosecutor has asked for 4 years and 1 month in jail for journalist Mehmet Yılmaz on September 27. The reason was that his question On T24 news site about how ex-Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım’s children made their fortune was taken as an “insult”. Just a day before, scientist Bülent Şık was sentenced to

Turkish opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said that there were besetting speculations regarding the Turkish Armed Forces and developments that could ruin the chain of command of the second biggest army within the Western alliance of the NATO. Claiming that no lessons have been drawn from the Gülenist [indicted as FETÖ] incident

There are two photos that I want to bring to your attention from the Astana Process meeting on Syria in Ankara on September 16 where Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani were hosted by Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan. Please take a good look at the faces of the three leaders in those

Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar has paid an unscheduled visit to the built-up Turkish troops in Şanlıurfa at Syria border on August 16 with Chief of Joint Staff General Yaşar Güler and force commanders. The obvious aim of the visit is to supervise the process of establishing a Joint Operation Centre with the U.S. forces

Six American soldiers as the first group of reportedly 90 strong troops arrived at the Şanlıurfa airport, neighbouring Syria on August 13, as a part of a Joint Task Force with the Turkish military to examine the establishment of a “Safe Zone” on the Syria side of the border. Such a Safe Zone has been

The Turkish service of the Russian Sputnik channel ended the political show of three Turkish journalists on July 19, a day after they interviewed Ahmet Davutoğlu, the former prime minister of President Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) but now one of the in-house dissidents in preparations of a new party. Ironically, when asked

A Pentagon announcement was made on July 17 about removing Turkey from the F-35 fighter jet program because of Turkey’s purchase of Russian S-400 missiles. The Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a strong statement in response, in the later hours, asking the U.S. to revoke the decision “which will irreparably damage” the relations between the two NATO allies. The Ministry said that it was “unfair” to remove Turkey