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Secretary of State John Kerry called Friday for greater efforts to "unfreeze" decades of tense stalemate between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus, after meeting here with the foreign minister of the divided Mediterranean island. "The United States supports a bi-zonal, bicommunal federation. We would like to see us unfreeze this conflict and be able to move to a resolution," Kerry told reporters after meeting here with his Cypriot counterpart Ioannis Kasoulides. "We also look forward to working with the foreign minister, and with President (Nicos) Anastasiades and others to try to move Cyprus forward on one of the world's frozen...

TEL AVIV, Israel, May 9 (UPI) -- Israel's rapprochement with onetime strategic ally Turkey is a vital element in Ankara's drive to become the intercontinental east-west energy hub in the Mediterranean and many expect it to produce an energy alliance that will transform the region. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan has, since taking power in 2002, transformed his country's economic prospects through a wide-ranging diplomatic drive aimed at restoring Turkish leadership in the region. He has long sought to transform Turkey, which has no energy resources of its own, into the unassailable central hub for transporting oil and gas...

At a meeting with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu promised that Israel would continue to maintain good ties with Cyprus, regardless of its newly-rekindled relationship with Turkey. Netanyahu met with the newly-elected Anastasiades on Sunday night, before he departed for China. At a press conference after the meeting, Anastasiades said that Israel and Cyprus had “embarked on a strategically important dialogue with a view at enhancing and further developing our bilateral ties, which are founded on common principles and values.” In an interview with Channel Two, the Cyprus president said that he and Netanyahu had agreed, among...

Turkey's prime minister on Sunday delivered his most virulent attack so far on Bashar al-Assad, calling the Syrian president a "butcher" and warning that he will be held to account for the deaths of tens of thousands of his citizens. "If God permits, we will see this butcher, this murderer receive his judgement in this world ... and we will praise (God) for it," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. "You will pay a very, very heavy price for showing your courage to the babies in the cradle, the courage you cannot show others," he told a cheering crowd of lawmakers and...

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey said on Friday any use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would "take the crisis to another level", but remained cautious about any foreign military intervention in the conflict on its border. The White House said on Thursday Assad's government had probably used chemical arms on a small scale, but that President Barack Obama needed proof before he would act. "We have been hearing allegations of the use of chemical weapons for quite some time now and these new findings take things to another level. They are very alarming," Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Levent...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said he would go ahead with a scheduled trip to the Gaza Strip in May despite U.S. calls to delay the visit. “There is no question of delaying this trip,” Erdogan said on Turkish television. Washington had urged Erdogan to postpone visiting the impoverished Palestinian territory, saying it would be a “distraction” from U.S. efforts to revive the moribund Middle East peace process. Erdogan stressed the exact date for his Gaza visit would be set after he visits U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House on May 16. During a trip...

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — In a step toward restoring ties, former allies Turkey and Israel agreed Monday on the "methods and principles" of working out compensation payments for the victims of a deadly 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, Turkey's deputy prime minister said. Eight Turks and one Turkish-American were killed and several other pro-Palestinian activists were wounded when Israeli commandos stormed the ship Mavi Marmara while stopping an international flotilla trying to breach a blockade of the Gaza Strip. The incident, which also wounded seven Israeli soldiers, increased tensions between the once close allies and led to...

The United States asked Turkey's leader to delay a Gaza Strip visit so as not to upset U.S. efforts to revive Ankara's ties with Israel and Middle East peace talks, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who has for years spoken of his desire to visit the Palestinian enclave, said last week he planned to go in late May after an official visit to the United States. But Kerry said a Turkish visit to Gaza, controlled by the Hamas Islamist group which rejects Israel's existence, might distract from efforts to revive Middle East...

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus' offshore natural gas deposits are enough to warrant the construction of a gas processing plant to export excess supply, regardless of whether Israel decides to be a partner in the project, the island nation's foreign minister said Wednesday. Ioannis Kasoulides said Cyprus is continuing talks with Israel, which has also discovered its own offshore gas deposits, on ways the countries can best exploit their mineral reserves. Cyprus is particularly keen, hoping its future gas wealth will help pull it out of a crushing economic crisis that has forced it to ask for an international bailout....

On hill over the Bosphorus, highest minarets in the world(ANSAmed) - ANKARA, APRIL 3 - Polemics, accusations, and sarcasm have failed to put a damper on Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's plans to build an enormous mosque towering over the Bosphorus. The mosque will be gigantic, covering a surface area of some 15,000 square meters on the Camlica hill on Istanbul's Asian side, with another 250,000 square meters housing a park, museum, bar, restaurants, amusement park, and a terrace with a breathtaking view over the Bosphorus and Byzantine and Muslim Istanbul. Erdogan had announced the project a year ago,...

Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu recently called Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayipp Erdogan to apologize for the infamous Turkish flotilla incident that occurred back in May 2010. The reason that Mr. Netanyahu apologized? His naval commandos, after repeated physical assaults, decided to defend themselves. What began as Erdogan-instigated aggression against Israel's legitimate naval blockade against Gaza led the rather conservative Netanyahu to issue an odious apology to Erdogan in a desperate attempt to mend the deluded "Turkish-Israeli alliance" that ceased to exist years ago. Yet the apology may have only opened up a Pandora's Box for Israel, ominously endangering her...

A day after Israel apologized to Turkey over the Mavi Marmara incident, its Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Saturday that he will visit Gaza. “I may eventually visit Gaza and the West Bank in April. This visit would take place in the context of a general effort to contribute to the resolution process,” Erdogan told reporters, according to a report in the Turkish daily Hurriyet. Hamas’s Prime Minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, had already announced on Friday that Erdogan would visit Gaza in the near future, the report said. Hamas spokesman Taher al-Nunu had confirmed that "Recep Tayyip...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called homosexuality a “sexual preference” and said it conflicted with the “culture of Islam,” according to a report last week in the Turkish daily Hürriyet. The remarks rapidly became the subject of criticism on Monday in a widely read European gay media outlet. Speaking in the Netherlands on Thursday, Erdogan fiercely objected to a Dutch lesbian couple adopting a nine-year-old Turkish boy named Yunus. …

Israel and Turkey's recent rapprochement is a vital factor in developing peace and stability in the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday, AFP reported. "The reconciliation between Israel and Turkey is a very important development that will help advance the cause of peace and stability in the region," Kerry said in a statement Saturday from the Jordanian capital Amman. "Prime Minister Netanyahu and Prime Minister Erdogan deserve great credit for showing the leadership necessary to make this possible," he added, according to AFP. "We look forward to an expeditious implementation of the agreement and the...

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu expressed satisfaction on Friday with Israel’s apology for the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident. Davutoglu, who just recently hinted there was a “secret deal” between Israel and Syria, said that all of Turkey's fundamental demands had been met with the apology. Earlier, Netanyahu spoke on the phone with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and apologized for the deaths of nine Turks during Israel’s 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla. Channel 10 News reported on Friday the details of the agreement between Israel and Turkey. Netanyahu, in addition to the apology, has agreed to compensate the...

National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror confirmed on Saturday night that the situation in Syria was the main reason for Israel’s apology to Turkey for the Mavi Marmara incident. “The Middle East has changed,” he told Channel 2 News. “Between us and Turkey there is a state with chemical stockpiles that may get into hostile hands and Turkey has an interest to prevent this from happening, as does Israel.” Amidror claimed that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s phone call to Turkey did not come as a result of U.S. pressure. "There was no American pressure,” he said. “It was our idea. We...

Diplomatic failure in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan Obama’s only diplomatic achievement in the Middle East has been to make Bibi Netanyahu bow down apologize to the anti-Israeli Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, as reported here yesterday, How do you say “Apologize For What?!” in Hebrew?Knowing the insane anti-Israeli venom we have seen from Erdogan in the past, it was obvious that he would not be appeased.And indeed, within a day Erdogan has announced that the apology both was a victory for him and not enough to restore relations between Turkey and Israel.  It also was viewed as a...

Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman blasted Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday, over Netanyahu’s apology to Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan. Earlier, Netanyahu spoke on the phone with his Turkish counterpart and apologized for the deaths of nine Turks in a 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla. In response, Lieberman said in a statement, “Anyone who saw the photos taken on the Mavi Marmara understands beyond any doubt that IDF soldiers acted in self-defense against the activists of the IHH organization, which is recognized as a terrorist organization in Europe. "Such an apology harms IDF soldiers' motivation and their willingness...

In a dramatic development that occurred just as US President Barack Obama was leaving the country, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke with Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan for the first time since the Israeli prime minister took power in 2009. Netanyahu voiced regret for the loss of life in the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident, apologizing for any mistakes that led to the death of nine Turkish activists. Breaking a three-year deadlock, the two agreed to normalize relations. "Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed an apology to the Turkish people for any error that may have led to the loss of life, and agreed to...

Turkey's Islamist prime minister, Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, is once again engaging in his favorite political pastime - Israel-bashing. Late last month at a U.N. convention held ironically to promote religious tolerance, ErdoÄŸan lambasted Israel by calling Zionism "a crime against humanity." Indeed, ErdoÄŸan even outdid the biggest anti-Israel institution in the world - the United Nations - which in 1975 passed its infamous "Zionism is Racism" resolution.