Free Republic

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday waded into the controversy over comments by Turkey’s prime minister equating Zionism to a crime against humanity, rebuking the leader of the NATO ally by saying such remarks complicate efforts to find peace in the Middle East. Kerry said the Obama administration found the statements by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “objectionable” and he stressed the “urgent need to promote a spirit of tolerance, and that includes all of the public statements made by all leaders” at a news conference in Ankara with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. “We not only disagree...

And this is from the most moderate of the moderate Islamic countries, and Obama's favorite ally, of course. Turkey, under Erdogan, has abandoned the separation of mosque and state, abandoned Ataturk, abandoned its ties with Israel, and increasingly pursues the delusion of a return of the Ottoman empire. While participating in a Middle East panel of the Academy of Achievement in Chicago in September of 2007, Erdogan warned against religious definitions of terrorism and specifically objected to the phrase "moderate Islam." Erdogan said, "Turkey is not a country where moderate Islam is sovereign. First of all, the 'moderate Islam' concept...

BEIRUT (AP) — Turkey on Sunday pledged its continued support for the Syrian opposition, saying its leaders should not be pressured into talks with the regime as civil war rages. Speaking at a security conference in Germany, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said his country supports efforts to end the bloodshed in Syria, but he understands the opposition's refusal to talk to President Bashar Assad after so many Syrian deaths in the fight to topple him. "It is easy to say now, (the) opposition should accept to sit with the regime, after 60,000 people have been killed," Davutoglu said at...

Hamas traces its roots back to the Muslim Brotherhood. Sheikh Hasan Ahmed Abdel Rahman Muhammed al-Banna launched the Muslim Brothers in March 1928. The motto of the Muslim Brotherhood, which al-Banna supplied, is: "Islam is the solution, the Koran is our Constitution, Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our Leader, Jihad is our way, dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope." Said Ramadan was born in 1926 in Shibin al-Kawm, a village in the Nile delta. He encountered al-Banna and joined the Muslim Brotherhood when he was 14. After graduating from Cairo University, he became al-Banna's...

Although both are founding members of Turkey's ruling party, increasingly the two men appear to be at odds with one another on a variety of political issues. The rivalry could have far-reaching consequences for the country. The Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, has in the past few months been challenging what is perceived as the increasingly tough positions of the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whether on the treatment of the country’s Kurdish minority, imprisoned journalists or advocating membership in the European Union. Last month Erdogan voiced his frustration. He said Turkey is not ruled by double-headed governance and he said...

When will the Obama administration stand up and defend Israel against these outrageous claims by Turkey? I think the death toll from the many air strikes is only around 100 and most of them are terrorists. How in the world is that ethnic cleansing? It’s a stupid claim on its face and it deserves a rebuke from Obama. But I won’t hold my breath, especially considering his ‘leading from behind’ diplomacy. AL-ARABIA – AFP reported Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday condemning Israel of “ethnic cleansing” towards Palestinians. “Israel is committing ethnic cleansing by ignoring peace in this...

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan decried Israel's airstrikes on Gaza on Friday as a pre-election stunt and said he would discuss the crisis with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in Cairo this weekend. Under Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party, Turkey has sought to use its clout as a rising democratic power in the Muslim world to increase its influence in the Middle East, distancing itself from former ally Israel. Erdogan said he would speak by phone with US President Barack Obama later on Friday and that Ankara was also seeking talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid the prospect of a full...

....Today, Frank Ricciardone, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, announced that ObamaÂ’s first trip of his second term will be to Turkey, a country which has witnessed under its increasingly Islamist government an unprecedented roll back of basic freedoms. The Turks are looking at ObamaÂ’s choice as an endorsement. They are probably right. On top of this, RicciardoneÂ’s announcement comes right after TurkeyÂ’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan announced that he would soon travel to Gaza, in recognition and support of Hamas.

In an exclusive interview with RT, President Bashar Assad said that the conflict in Syria is not a civil war, but proxy terrorism by Syrians and foreign fighters. He also accused the Turkish PM of eyeing Syria with imperial ambitions. Assad told RT that the West creates scapegoats as enemies – from communism, to Islam, to Saddam Hussein. He accused Western countries of aiming to turn him into their next enemy. While mainstream media outlets generally report on the crisis as a battle between Assad and Syrian opposition groups, the president claims that his country has been infiltrated by numerous...

A record number of journalists are behind bars in Turkey as the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan wields draconian laws critics say are creating a climate of fear to silence dissenting voices and promote "pro-state" journalism. Erdogan's Islamist-leaning Justice and Development Party (AKP) is marking a decade in power boasting of political and economic reforms that have changed the face of the predominantly Muslim but staunchly secular nation. But it is under fire from rights groups about its escalating crackdown on the media, particularly Kurdish journalists. "The authorities are waging one of the world's biggest anti-press campaigns in...

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said on Friday that he planned to visit the Gaza Strip soon, a move that would significantly enhance the legitimacy of the Hamas-controlled Gaza government and antagonize the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the West. Turkish newspapers reported Friday that Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, would travel to Gaza -- the first visit by a representative of a NATO country. Mr. Erdogan, who twice last year scheduled and then canceled visits to Gaza, did not offer specifics about the timing or agenda for such a visit, which he mentioned to reporters traveling...

Escalating tension between Syria and Turkey has exposed the blatant hypocrisy of Turkey's Islamist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan when it comes to terrorism and a country's right to self-defense. Human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky makes that clear in a column published Friday at the Algemeiner website. Turkey has intercepted arms shipments headed for Damascus and even fired into Syrian territory last week after a mortar landed on Turkish soil killing five civilians. No one should doubt Turkey's resolve to protect its people, ErdoÄŸan said. "This situation has reached a stage that poses serious threats and risks to our national...

Exclusive: Albert Thompson sees Turkey PM becoming most powerful man in region The Turkish AK Party is on the verge of altering the balance of power in the Middle East. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan could soon be recognized as the most powerful man in the region. Erdogan is campaigning to merge the offices of Turkey’s president and prime minister. Currently, the Turkish presidency is a ceremonial role with some judicial appointments, but the president also has the power to call for referenda, appoint the chief of the Turkish military and to mobilize the Turkish military. However, the chief of...

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has made no secret of his religious agenda. “We will raise a religious generation,” he told parliament. With the military under Erdoğan’s boot, one-in-five Turkish generals are now imprisoned for offenses emanating from Erdoğan’s fevered imagination.

Turkey returned fire after Syrian mortar bombs landed in a field in southern Turkey on Saturday, the day after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warned Syria that Turkey would not shy away from war if provoked. It was the fourth day of Turkish retaliation for firing by Syrian forces that killed five Turkish civilians on Wednesday. Turkey has nearly 100,000 Syrian refugees in camps on its territory, has allowed rebel leaders sanctuary and has led calls for Assad to quit. Its armed forces are far larger than Syria's.

Turkey says it has fired artillery against targets inside Syria after Syrian shells killed five people in a Turkish border town. The Turkish military shelled Syrian targets identified by radar near the border, the office of PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement. Nato said it would hold an urgent meeting over the incident. In Syria, forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad are trying to put down an 18-month-old insurgency. Turkish territory has been hit by fire from Syria on several occasions since the uprising against President Assad began, but Wednesday's incident was the most serious. The shells, fired...

When Recep Tayyip Erdogan became prime minister of Turkey, it was anything but clear that he would last more than a few months. The military, the constitutional guardian of Atatürk’s secular order, had killed the Islamist administration of Erdogan’s mentor, Necmettin Erbakan, only a few years earlier. At the time, Erdogan was jailed for several months as a seditionist. Though he was nonetheless permitted to assume the prime minister’s office in 2003 after leading his Islamist party to victory, the man who famously proclaimed “I am a servant of sharia” still aroused great suspicion. To survive and thrive, Erdogan would...

Do you see the words “Hamas” and “Hezbollah” in here?(Platform) Me neither. Of course, there’s a difference. The omission of God and Jerusalem from the Democratic party’s 2012 platform was quite intentionally meant as a demotion, very much in keeping with Obama administration policy. The jihadists, by contrast, are moving up in the world. As for God, there’s not room in this universe for two The Ones. In cases of conflict, the president has made it abundantly clear that his pieties control, and the pious better get with the program: Domestically, abortion-on-demand and wealth-redistribution to assure free contraceptives for thirty-something...

Lebanon's Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar television station said on Friday that Syrian air defenses shot down a Turkish military aircraft, quoting Syrian security sources. "Syrian security sources confirmed to a Manar correspondent in Damascus that Syrian defense forces shot down the Turkish fighter jet," a news flash on the Beirut-based station said. Pro-Iranian Al-Mayadeen television station, which is based in Lebanon, also quoted what it said were Turkish sources as saying a jet had been shot down by Syrian air defenses. There was no confirmation of either report. Earlier, Turkey -- a member of NATO -- said it had lost contact with...

Turkey has expressed fears that the bloodshed from the growing civil war in Syria could spill over its border. “We are disturbed by the possibility that it could spread to us,” Turkey's Deputy Foreign Minister Naci Koru said Wednesday in an interview on state-run TRT television. More than 29,500 Syrian refugees have fled through that border to the safety of Turkey in the past year, officials in Ankara have said. At least two thousand of those arrived within the past 48 hours, a major upswing in the number of people fleeing the violence at one time, according to the Turkish...