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Turkey must accept that it needs Israel, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday, as the two countries seek to thrash out a deal on normalizing ties. NATO member Turkey was a key regional ally of Israel until the two countries fell out over the deadly storming by Israeli commandos in 2010 of a Turkish aid ship, the Mavi Marmara, bound for Gaza. AFP reports that Erdogan further raised hackles in Israel with his sometimes inflammatory rhetoric towards the Jewish State. But the atmosphere has transformed following the revelation last month the two sides were making progress in secret talks to...

As we reported yesterday, Turkish president Recip ErdoÄŸan caused quite a stir when he appeared to defend his proposed "presidential system" by referring to Nazi Germany. While visiting Saudi-Arabia, the Turkish leader said: "There is no such thing as 'no presidential system in unitary states.' There are examples of this around the world. There are examples in the past, too. When you look at Hitler's Germany, you can see it there. You can see examples in other countries as well. What is important is that a presidential system should not disturb the people in its implementation. If you provide justice,...

The Turkish president's office said Friday that Recep Tayyip Erdogan was not advocating a Hitler-style government when he called for a state system with a strong executive.A statement from Erdogan's office said the Turkish president has declared the Holocaust, anti-semitism and Islamophobia as crimes against humanity and that it was out of the question for him to cite Hitler's Germany as a good example. ...

Amid financial hardship, Erdogan looks to Qatar as 'rich daddy' Zülfikar Doğan Posted December 29, 2015 A series of controversial steps in the region has left Turkey increasingly isolated in its neighborhood. As a result, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has gone on a hunt for new "friends." Normalizing ties with Israel is now back on the agenda. The second door the government has knocked on is Qatar's. Yet, even Qatar's friendship could not stop the Arab League from adopting a joint statement last week condemning the Turkish troop deployment in Bashiqa, near Mosul, and urging Ankara to...

Earlier this week, we told a fascinating story about an unprecedented, multi-year smuggling ring involving Turkey, Iran, and Dubai (as well as China, Russia and countless other nations) which saw corruption reaching to the very top of the political and financial establishment: from president Erdogan in Turkey, to one of Turkey's richest people, Iran-born Riza Sarraf, to Sheikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, the son of the ruler of Abu Dhabi and one of the world's richest people. The smuggled object in question was gold, billions of dollars worth of gold. The focus of the story was the previously unknown...

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan met with Khaled Meshaal, leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas, on Saturday in Istanbul, Turkish presidential sources said, a day after Israel and Turkey said they were close to patching up five-year political rift. A source from Erdogan's office said Meshaal "briefed Erdogan on the latest developments in the region", without giving further details. Islamist Hamas controls the Gaza strip. Israeli officials said late on Thursday that a deal with Turkey was struck to normalize ties following high-level bilateral talks in Switzerland. Turkish officials said a final agreement was yet to be sealed,...

Dani Rodrik has just returned from Turkey, shunned while defending his father-in-law, the main defendant in the military coup plot case. The Harvard professor explains his take. IN DECEMBER I traveled to Turkey with my wife and young son, as we do every year during winter break. This time, though, we had more than visiting family and friends in mind. We were on a mission to demonstrate that what many have called the trial of the century in Turkey is in fact a sham built on fabricated evidence. Nearly two hundred Turkish military officers stand accused of having plotted a...

ROME (Reuters) - Turkey's foreign minister said Ankara's patience with Russia "has a limit" after Moscow's "exaggerated" reaction to a weekend naval incident between the two countries, an Italian newspaper reported on Monday. A Russian destroyer fired warning shots at a Turkish vessel in the Aegean on Sunday to avoid a collision and summoned the Turkish military attache over the incident.. "Ours was only a fishing boat, it seems to me that the reaction of the Russian naval ship was exaggerated," Mevlut Cavusoglu told Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an interview. "Russia and Turkey certainly have to re-establish the...

The Russian-Turkish conflict in Syria is not going to be an easy one for either party. Russia wants to punish Turkey for its menace in Syria. So Russia threatens to cripple Turkey by cutting-off the gas supplies. But this will also hurt Russia’s economy. Muslim Azerbaijan will gladly provide Turkey with a new gas-hookup and this will bring the Turkic states closer to Istanbul and further from Moscow. On the other hand, the increasing Muslim global menace is the fire necessary for Christendom's refinement, unity, and even bringing Jerusalem (which no longer trusts Turkey) closer to Cyprus. This conflict is...

These days we hear of confrontations between Russia and Turkey, Iraq and Turkey, Syria and Turkey, the Kurds and Turkey with no serious war on ISIS. Surprised? Even when I look at the media this morning and read headlines like "The Ottomans strike back - Turkey's race for control is metastasizing in Iraq" I begin to ponder, the world is witnessing a rising Hitler. Then to continue in the article "Erdogan wishes not to defeat ISIL, but endeavor to play the beast to feed his neo-Ottoman dreams" is when I begin to think, did this Muslim author (Catherine Shakdam), study...

It is not unusual for President Obama and our allies to communicate on a regular basis, especially with the Turkish Prime Minister in regards to the ongoing situation in neighboring Syria, however the Turkish press and government are bewildered over a photo released by the White House of President Obama talking to the Prime Minister earlier this week: Maybe the President really likes baseball, or maybe he's trying to create the image of Teddy Roosevelt's famous "walk softly and carry a big stick" quote for the fall campaign, but either way it's a massive failure. Why do I say that?...

President Vladimir Putin has attacked the Turkish ruling elite by saying that “Allah has deprived them of their sanity.”

I just saw an ad on CNN for Turkish airlines. Why would an American ever fly Turkish Airlines? Only 35 departing from the US used Turkish Airlines to fly anywhere but Istanbul all of last year. (1) So why is Turkish Airlines advertising on CNN? Simple: it's an excuse to give CNN cash. Why would Turkey want to give CNN cash? To influence U.S. policy. See, Turkey is the primary funder of ISIS. (2, 3) To be specific, Turkey's Prime Minister's son, Bilal Erdogan, is the person through whom ISIS sells its oil and collects their money. (3) Turkey has...

Vladimir Putin was dead serious when he warned Turkey that it would "regret more than once" shooting down a Russian fighter yet. Not only has the Russian president announced all kinds of sanctions against Turkey, but he's now also surrounding the Islamist-led country with his military. As Hurriyet Daily News reports, Putin has sent 14 helicopters to Erebuni Air Base in Armenia. Half of these helicopters are armored Mi-24 attack helicopters, while the other seven are Mi-8 model transport helicopters. Meanwhile, Putin has also sent a submarine called the 'Rostov-on-Don' to the Mediterranean. Russia has a naval base there, and...

That sounds more dramatic than it actually was. Turkey sent around 150 soldiers and two dozens tanks to Bashiqa, just northeast of Mosul in what Ankara described as an effort to replace an existing contingent of around 90 troops that have supposedly been on a "training" mission with the Peshmerga for the better part of two years. As we documented over the weekend, this is hardly the first time the Turks have entered the country. However, the circumstances are quite different this time around. That is, this isn't a anti-terror mission aimed at tracking the PKK. Over the weekend, we...

Erdogan's dreams of empire are perilous for Turkey Norman Stone Ankara is becoming far bolder with its foreign policy. Provoking Russia over Syria may be a step too far, though he aggressiveness of Turkish foreign policy is something new. It goes back to 2009 when, at Davos, President ErdoÄŸan insulted Shimon Peres, then Israel's president, using the Turkish form of "you" that is normally used for dogs, and accusing him of atrocities in Gaza. That went down very well with his home constituency, less well with Turks who think about things, and it also went down well in the Arab...

Turkish court to decide if comparing Erdogan to 'Rings' character Gollum a crime It can't be flattering to be compared to "Lord of the Rings" character Gollum, but a Turkish court is trying to determine if it is a crime. A doctor who likened President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the pasty, cave-dwelling creature is facing up to two years in prison in Turkey, where insulting the president is a crime, reports said Wednesday. Bilgin Ciftci is accused of sharing images of the two, but it is up to a court to determine whether a comparison to the muttering, gangrel creature...

On Monday, Turkey’s sultan President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said something funny. In the wake of Vladimir Putin’s contention that Russia has additional proof of Turkey’s participation in Islamic State’s illicit crude trade, Erdogan said he would resign if anyone could prove the accusations. Now obviously, conclusive evidence that Ankara is knowingly facilitating the sale of ISIS crude will probably be hard to come by, at least in the short-term, but the silly thing about Erdogan’s pronouncement is that we’re talking about a man who was willing to plunge his country into civil war over a few lost seats in Parliament....

Turkey once again showed it can't take a joke, as a Turkish court ordered a panel of experts to assess the character of Gollum from The Lord of the Rings - to decide whether a doctor who compared President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the figure should be jailed. Dr. Bilgin Ciftci of Aydin is accused of "insulting" Erdogan by posting images online comically comparing Erdogan and Gollum, the fantasy creature with a personality split between good and evil who became a fan favorite for pining over the One Ring - better known as "my precious." The experts will determine whether...

Tensions between Russia and Turkey continue to rise. Their relationship suffered a deadly blow when Turkey shot down a Russian jet last month. Ever since, Russia's President Putin and his Turkish counterpart Erdogan have gone after each other, both in public and privately. In the last few days, Putin has accused Turkey of buying ISIS oil. The Russian president is convinced that the terrorist group is shipping massive amounts of oil to the Turkish black market, where it's then sold for a relatively low price. Putin's accusations are backed up by Mowaffak al Rubaie, a former Iraqi Governing Council member...