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The Turkish press is reporting that, with the latest round of arrests of former military officers for allegedly forcing the resignation of Necmettin ErbakanÂ’s Islamist government in 1997, one-in-five Turkish generals is now in prison. Even those who see the end of military influence in Turkey as the litmus test for democracy should worry. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan now targets political opponents, real or imagined, without restraint.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may have won a battle earlier this year (as the retreat of the Free Syrian Army from the ruined city of Homs testifies), but he is nowhere near winning the war. The uprising is quickly turning into a full-scale insurgency - a foreign-sponsored insurgency, to be more precise, which some analysts term a "neo-mujahideen strategy".

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan of Turkey said, Sunday, that President Bashar Al-Assad's grip on Syria is getting weaker by the day and "victory is close," according to the Associated Press. Unde heavy protection, Erdogan spoke to thousands of cheering Syrians who fled the brutal crackdown...

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan accused the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday of indirectly supporting the "oppression" of the Syrian people by failing to adopt a united stance on Syria. Once a friend of Damascus, Turkey has become a fierce critic of President Bashar al-Assad over his year-long crackdown on his opponents and has called for the Syrian leader to step down. "In not taking a decision, the U.N. Security Council has indirectly supported the oppression. To stand by with your hands and arms tied while the Syrian people are dying every day is to support the oppression," Erdogan said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denied he has cancer but does remain under doctors' orders not to overdo things after underdoing surgery in November, a report said Friday. -excerpt- The 57-year-old had laparoscopic gastrointestinal surgery on November 26. His surgeon Mehmet Fuzun had said the polyps which were removed were benign.

The AKP emerged out of a series of banned Islamist political movements. CNN’s Lie Squad mentions that the AKP’s current leader of Turkey Erdogan was banned for reading an Islamic poem in public. It neglects to mention the content of the poem. Erdogan was not jailed for reading an Islamic poem, he was jailed for reading a poem calling for a violent Islamic overthrow of the government. Erdogan has his own Al Qaeda connections. Yasin Al-Qadi, who funneled millions to Al Qaeda is a close friend and though his assets have been frozen worldwide, he enjoys a safe haven in...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met on Sunday with Hamas’ Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, in his residence in Istanbul. The visit was part of Haniyeh’s first official regional tour since Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007. The tour has already included stops in Egypt and Sudan. According to reports from sources in the Palestinian Authority who were quoted by Channel 10 News, the two leaders discussed during the meeting the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas and plans for rehabilitation of Gaza. One source was quoted by Channel 10 as having said that Erdogan told Haniyeh during the...

Annihilationist 'Prime Minister' of Hamas Ismail Haniyeh is on an official tour of the Muslim world, his first trip outside Muslim occupied Israel since the devout Muslim group took over Gaza in 2007. Hamas is a genocidal Muslim Brotherhood-tied organization. The opening paragraph in Hamas charter calls for the destruction of Israel. So why is this annihilationist being welcomed by anyone? Islamic Jew hatred, that's why. It's a mandate of Islam. Rolling back a century of moderation, Ataturk and enforced separation of mosque and state, Prime Minister Erdogan is openly aligning with terror groups. The jihad warship 'flotilla' launched from...

The Defense Ministry has ordered Israel Aerospace Industries and Elbit Systems Ltd. to cancel the sale of advanced intelligence equipment to Turkey, Channel 10 News reported on Thursday. According to the report the canceled deal, which was signed in 2009 and is worth $140 million, was for the sale of an advanced infrared camera and associated equipment. The reason for the cancelation, according to the report, is the diplomatic row between Israel and Turkey. All defense-related exports by Israeli companies require the approval of the Ministry of Defense, the report noted, but the cool relations between the two countries have...

So who is the man who got the “hug treatment”? Erdoğan has shown a commitment to Islamist politics, has demonstrated hostility toward Israel, recently downgrading relations and expelling its ambassador, and says he doesn’t believe Hamas is a terrorist organization. These views have increased his stature across the Middle East.

It's been eight months of bloody crackdowns, and Bashar Assad is still standing. NATO, the Arab League, and the United Nations would never confront him, whether his men continue to slaughter dozens of civilians every day, or not. He is flanked by Iran and Hezbollah, with Russia and China continuing to back him up diplomatically. Even the defections from his military and the rebellions within it have yet to endanger Assad's rule, and will continue to fail as long as the Alwai top brass remains loyal to the president. As of now, they have no one else to be loyal...

A strong earthquake collapsed homes and buildings in eastern Turkey Sunday morning. Casualty report to come. The mid-day earthquake was recorded at 7.3 on the Richter scale, according to a Greek news agency, and 6.6 by the Associated Press.

ISTANBUL -- A young American man with black hair and dark brown eyes checked into a small hotel in Cappadocia, where visitors to Turkey flock to see the famous lava formations carved into the landscape. "Are you Muslim," the clerk asked, acknowledging his Semitic features. "No, I'm Jewish," the young man replied, smiling and assuming the question was asked in good faith and good humor. "Oh," the clerk replied, disappointment in his voice. "This is not a good time for Jews in Turkey." A general observation rather than a personal one, but it was true enough. This is not a...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that while the West may presume that Israel and its surrounding nations would be under threat from a nuclear-armed Iran, it is Israel that possesses nuclear weapons. In a Time magazine article published on Tuesday, Erdogan dismissed claims that the agreement to install NATO radar in Turkey was a response to the nuclear threat posed by Iran. He said that the "radar system is executed under the framework of NATO obligations," and that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not concerned with the issue.

Syrian President Bashar Assad warned western countries on Tuesday that if Syria comes under NATO attack it would fire missiles at Tel Aviv, Iranian semi-official news agency FARS reported. During a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmad Davutoglu, Assad allegedly threatened: "If a crazy measure is taken against Damascus, I will need not more than 6 hours to transfer hundreds of rockets and missiles to the Golan Heights to fire them at Tel Aviv." According to the report, Assad also reiterated that Damascus will call on Hezbollah to launch such an intensive rocket and missile attack on Israel. "All these...

Op-ed: Turkey’s recent military moves, rhetoric have shifted from cursing to war games Alex Fishman Published: 10.02.11, 18:15 / Israel Opinion The Turks are playing with fire. It appears that Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is crossing the fine line between verbal escalation coupled with a diplomatic fight against Israel and the facilitation of military confrontation. This man, whom everyone believed was engaged in methodical, well-planned anti-Israel conduct with clear aims, is starting to go with his gut. The psychiatric aspects in the Israel-Turkey crisis are starting to overcome logic. Over the holiday, the Turks published a report about...

Turkey's leaders have called Israel the "West's spoiled child," and the "bully" of the eastern Mediterranean. When a Tel Aviv soccer team showed up in Istanbul recently for a match, the welcome was less than warm. In September, Turkey kicked out the Israeli ambassador, suspended military and trade deals and threatened legal and naval action to challenge Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip. As roars of approval went up around the Arab world, few noticed another announcement quietly slipped in by Ankara: Turkey had signed off on a plan to host an American X-band radar system as part of a...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan attacked Israel once again on Sunday, suggesting his country’s ties with the Jewish state may never be normalized. Erdogan, who was speaking in an interview on CNN, said, ..... He added that the flotilla “had passengers from 33 different countries and was attacked both from the sea and the air. At the end of these attacks, nine Turkish citizens died. One of them is an American citizen of Turkish descent and the American citizen’s rights have not been defended by the United States.” Erdogan, who was referring to the incident on the Mavi Marmara...

Yesterday, the Turkish media reported, “Turkey … agreed with the US on a deal involving the transfer of US-engineered unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that could prove crucial in combating terrorism.” The Predator drones, expected to be delivered in June 2012, are supposed to help the Turks combat terrorists, which in Ankara’s narrow definition means the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) crossing into Turkey from the Iraq border. The Predators, said Turkish defense minister İsmet Yilmaz, “are UAVs with better qualities and features than the [Israeli-made] Herons.” Ankara, the report explains, was “disappointed by Israel's failure to return six Herons it had...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Saturday that relations with Israel may "never be normal again" as tensions continue to rise after Israel refused to apologize over a raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla last year in which Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed nine Turkish citizen. "We gave our warnings to Israel. This is the reason for war. This is something you cannot do in international waters. But as a great state, we have been very forgiving. That's why we have been very patient," Erdogan said in an interview on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" to be aired on Sunday.

ANKARA - Turkey has seized a Syrian-flagged ship and will intercept any arms shipments headed to Syria, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said late on Friday, a response to Damascus' bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters. Speaking to reporters in New York late on Friday where he attended the UN General Assembly, Erdogan said Turkey had stopped a Syrian-flagged ship in Marmara, according to state-run Anatolia News Agency. It did not indicate whether the ship was stopped in the Sea of Marmara or the port of Marmara. Erdogan did not say when the ship was seized or whether any weapons were found...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan described offshore gas drilling by estranged ally Israel and Cyprus as "madness" on Wednesday, raising the stakes in a confrontation over potentially huge deposits in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The quarrel over gas has escalated in recent weeks, just as relations between Israel and Turkey abruptly broke down over Israel's refusal to apologize for its raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla last year in which nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists died. (snip) "The Greek Cypriot administration and Israel are engaging in oil exploration madness in the Mediterranean," Turkish state news agency Anatolian quoted Erdogan as telling...

It is not actually his region. Still, with the arrogance that is so characteristic of his behavior in matters he knows little about (which is a lot of matters), he entered the region as if in a triumphal march. But it wasn’t the power and sway of America that he was representing in Turkey and in Egypt. For the fact is that he has not much respect for these representations of the United States. In the mind of President Obama, in fact, these are what have wreaked havoc with our country’s standing in the world. So what—or, rather, who—does he...

Another step in the deteriorating relations between Israel and Turkey toook place on Thursday, with hints that Israel is behind the leakage of tapes of secret talks betwen Ankara's intelligence personnel and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a disclosure that shocked the Turkish public and put Erdogan's government on the defensive. Erdogan, obviously furious, sought to defend National Intelligence Organization Chief, Hakan Fidan, in his release to the press. He had previously denied the taped conversations took place. “We know certain circles have targeted Hakan Fidan in the past,” Erdogan said in reference to past Israeli claims that Fidan...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Tunisians on Thursday his country could have frigates and assault vessels in the eastern Mediterranean ''at any time'' to ensure freedom of movement. Israel's security cabinet has made a firm decision, however, not to respond to Erdogan's verbal attacks, in an attempt to avoid further inflaming the delicate diplomatic situation with Turkey. (snip) ''Israel will not be able to move in the eastern Mediterranean as it wishes,'' Erdogan said at a joint news conference with his counterpart, Interim Prime Minister Beji Caid el Sebsi. ''It will see our determination in this regard.''

9/15/11 Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday Israel could not do whatever it wanted in the eastern Mediterranean and that Turkish warships could be there at any moment. "Israel cannot do whatever it wants in the eastern Mediterranean. They will see what our decisions will be on this subject. Our navy attack ships can be there at any moment," Erdogan told a news conference on a visit to the Tunisian capital. (AP)

The Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday expressed anger at Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's assertion that Egypt should adopt the Turkish system of government and ensure the state's secular nature in its constitution, Al Arabiya reported. Erdogan made the statement during an appearance on Egyptian television. The Turkish leader had received a hero's welcome upon his arrival in Egypt. Many of the Egyptians gathered to welcome Erdogan appeared to be religious conservatives eager to imitate his AKP party’s success in bringing traditional Islam into mainstream politics. “Erdogan, Erdogan – a big welcome from the Brothers!” one protester’s banner said, in...

Ankara's Star Gazete says country's new F-16 radar system modified to recategorize Israeli targets as hostile. Order said to come directly from PM Erdogan's office; naval, submarine radar systems to be changed next Turkey has developed a new radar system for its US-made F-16 fighter jets that will allow them to fire at Israeli targets, Ankara's Star Gazete reported on Tuesday. The orders to modify the system reportedly came directly from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office. The new radar system – Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) – is a defensive command and control system developed by Turkey's Military...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dispatched 3 warships to the Eastern Mediterranean to 'defend against Israeli vessels' and ensure 'freedom of navigation' for his country’s ships, Today's Zaman reported. The move, only the latest in Erdogan's bellicose rhetorical assault on Israel, comes on the same day he called Israel's boarding of the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara in 2010 "grounds for war" adding only Turkey's "greatness and patience" had averted conflict. During the boarding action 9 Turkish nationals who participated in a mob that attempted to lynch the commandos were killed when non-lethal weapons the boarding party was equipped with...

The New York Times reports that President Obama and 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen have not spoken since February. Among the very first foreign leaders President Obama called after entering the Oval Office on Jan. 21, 2009, was the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. The last time the two men spoke was in February, when Mr. Obama failed, in an awkward, 55-minute phone conversation, to persuade Mr. Abbas not to go to the United Nations to condemn Israel for building Jewish settlements. The 25 months between those calls demonstrate how Mr. Obama’s relationship with Mr. Abbas...

Turkish warships will escort any Turkish aid vessels to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said in remarks broadcast on Al Jazeera television on Thursday. Erdogan also said that Turkey had taken steps to stop Israel from unilaterally exploiting natural resources from the eastern Mediterranean, according to Al Jazeera's Arabic translation of excerpts of the interview, which was conducted in Turkish.

Many of the 20,000 Jews living in Turkey are considering moving to Israel, and Knesset Member Dabby Danon said Wednesday that Israel must prepare for massive aliyah of Turkish Jews. MK Danon, chairman of the Knesset Immigration and Absorption committee, has asked the Jewish Agency and the Foreign and Immigration ministries to prepare the groundwork for a massive aliyah of Turkish Jews. “Turkey is working to harm Israel, and we have to be prepared for a further deterioration in relations that can be negative for Turkish Jews,” he said. “We must open up a support line to them to enhance...

Istanbul (CNN) -- Turkey's fiery prime minister ratcheted up rapidly-escalating tensions with Israel on Tuesday, comparing Ankara's once-close ally in the Middle East to a "spoiled boy" and announcing additional sanctions would soon be imposed. "We are completely suspending all of these, trade relations, military relations, related with the defense industry," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, according to the semi-official Anatolian Agency. "All of these are completely suspended and other measures will follow this process." Asked to clarify whether this meant Turkey will halt more than $3 billion in bilateral trade, an official in the Turkish prime ministry, speaking on condition...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan clarified Tuesday that his government has not suspended economic ties with Israel, despite a cessation of military and high-level diplomatic contacts. "Trade ties, military ties regarding defence industry ties, we are completely suspending them. This process will be followed by different measures," Erdogan had bombastically told reporters in Ankara on Monday. It was later reported by the Wall Street Journal that a spokesman for Erdogan said the prime minister had been referring in his remarks only to trade in defense goods, and not to trade in general - playing the contradiction off as a...

The progressive dismantling of Turkey's experiment in Westernization/ secularization -- which began within a decade of Ataturk's death -- came to popular, if ugly, fruition with the election of the Necmettin Erbakan government in the early 1990s. Erbakan was a full-throated, unapologetic promulgator of mainstream, "sacralized" Islamic Jew-hatred. The modern fundamentalist Islamic movement Erbakan founded (the Islamic Milli Gorus movement, which originated in 1969) has continued to produce the most extreme strain of Antisemitism extant in Turkey, and traditional Islamic motifs, i.e., frequent quotations from the Koran and Hadith, remain central to this hatred, nurtured by early Islam's basic animus...

Turkey’s entire top military command resigned Friday in a row with the government over generals jailed for an alleged coup plot, AFP reported. According to the report, Turkey’s Chief of Staff, General Isik Kosaner, stepped down after several meetings with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in recent days, ahead of a meeting scheduled for early August of the army’s high command, which decides on promotions for senior officers. Local media reports blamed Kosaner’s resignation on tensions between the military and Erdogan over army demands for the promotion of dozens of officers who are being held on suspicion of involvement in...

Gen Isik Kosaner, the head of the Turkish armed forces, quit his post along with the heads of the ground, naval and air forces in protest over government pressure to sack scores of serving officers they wished to promote. The generals had been preparing for a confrontation with Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan at next week's annual promotions board. Gen Kosaner resigned because he "deemed it necessary," according to a report on NTV. Mr Erdogan had signalled he would block promotions for officers he believed were part of a conspiracy to destabilise Turkey and undermine his government. The first elected prime...

Chief of General Staff Isik Kosaner and commanders of air forces, navy and land forces have resigned from their positions amid controversy on appointment of generals. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier ruled out any prospects of tensions between the government and the military at a Supreme Military Council (YAS) meeting slated for Monday, saying that the decisions to be made at the meeting will be in accordance with the law.

US President Barack Obama called Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Tuesday and congratulated him on his election victory, White House spokesman Jay Carney said. ... Erdogan has vowed to seek compromise with the opposition after his party won a thumping election victory, but fell short of the majority needed to overhaul the constitution. The Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) won 49.9 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results, its best electoral performance yet and the first time any party has won a third straight term in power while improving its support. But the AKP, in power since...

Initial results showed Turkey's ruling AK Party was on course for a solid victory in Sunday's parliamentary election to give Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan a third term, news channels said. With 50 percent of the votes counted, Erdogan's AK had 53 percent and was set to win four more years of single-party rule in the nation that straddles Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The party needs 330 seats to have the power to call a referendum on a promised new constitution. Television projected the party would win 331 seats this time, but the count was fluctuating.

"Call the Prime Minister a Turkey, Get Sued Turkish Leader Erdogan Is the Litigious Sort; to Him, Booing's a Tort" "...Mr. Guler had just accused the students, who couldn't all fit into the tiny courtroom, of "booing" the prime minister and calling him a "street vendor." Some of the students giggled. The hearing was adjourned until June 8..."

Video: Video Gallery -- May 31 -- Police fired into the air and used tear gas and water cannons on crowds responsible for hurling rocks at Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's convoy. Deborah Gembara reports.

Republic of Turkey – the First Fascist State in History By Times.am at 6 April, 2011, 11:25 am The Republics of Armenia and Turkey have been in a long-lasting conflict with no resolution in sight. Therefore a proper assessment of the political system and state ideology of Turkey is extremely important for the Armenian state to build a competent foreign policy and properly position itself in the international arena. The West has traditionally portrayed the Republic of Turkey which emerged on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire as a secular democratic Muslim state. Even though this cliche is being persistently...

...TURKEY IS a cautionary tale for the West, which is now faced with the prospect of AKP-like regimes from Egypt to Tunisia to Jordan to the Persian Gulf. And the real issue that Western leaders must address is how things in Turkey were permitted to deteriorate to the point they have without any US or European official lifting a finger to stem the Islamist tide? The answer, it would seem, is a combination of professional laziness and cultural weakness. This mix of factors is also on display in the US’s behavior toward the revolutionary forces active throughout much of the...

Ambitious TurkeyReasons and tips for showing our displeasure with Ankara's neo-Ottomanism A few days ago, Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, grandiloquently proclaimed that “if the world is on fire, Turkey is the firefighter. Turkey is assuming the leading role for stability in the Middle East.� Such ambition is new for Ankara. In the 1990s, it contentedly fulfilled its NATO obligations and followed Washington’s lead. Starting about 1996, relations with Israel blossomed. In all, Turkish policy offered an attractive exception to the tyrannical, Islamist, and conspiracist mentality generally dominating Muslim peoples. That the country’s political leaders were corrupt and fumbling seemed...

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan accused France of violating the freedom of religion on Wednesday after Paris began enforcing a law barring Muslim women from wearing full face veils in public. Erdogan told the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe that Turkey was the only Muslim country that had copied the French law on secularism, or separating church and state. "It's quite ironic to see that secularism is today under debate in Europe and is undermining certain freedoms," he said. "Today in France, there is no respect for individual religious freedom," he said. The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe monitors...

The Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signalled that Turkey is ready to act as a mediator to broker an early ceasefire in Libya, as he warned that a drawn-out conflict risked turning the country into a "second Iraq" or "another Afghanistan" with devastating repercussions both for Libya and the Nato states leading the intervention. ....Erdogan said that talks were still under way with Muammar Gaddafi's government and the Transitional National Council. He also revealed that Turkey is about to take over the running of the rebel-held Benghazi harbour and airport to facilitate humanitarian aid, in agreement with Nato....

Turkey’s objections to the military intervention in Libya reflect the difficulties of balancing its traditional role within Nato with its aspirations to be a regional power. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, has won influence in the Arab world by asserting Ankara’s independence from the west: refusing to aid the US invasion of Iraq, lambasting Israel, and opposing UN sanctions imposed on Iran last year. “Turkey will never, never be the side pointing weapons at the Libyan people,” he told his party in a televised speech on Tuesday, reiterating concern that the French-led actions had gone further than the UN...

The White House suggested Tuesday the mission in Libya is one of regime change, despite emphatic statements from President Obama and military brass that the goal is not to remove Moammar Gadhafi from power. According to a White House readout of a Monday night call between Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the two leaders "underscored their shared commitment to the goal of helping provide the Libyan people an opportunity to transform their country, by installing a democratic system that respects the people’s will."

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned European Union leaders that violence from Islamic extremists could escalate if the EU rejects Turkey as a member... Turkey signed the association agreement for EU membership in 1963 and it is expected that a two-day EU summit this week will finally decide to begin formal membership talks, probably in the second half of next year... Taking Turkey’s 69 million, mainly Muslim, population into the Union is widely disputed... In Germany, leader of the Christian Social Union Edmund Stoiber told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that his party in government would do what it...