Free Republic

The Men Who Stare at Goats, the latest George Clooney fiasco, is like getting stung by a wasp on the inside of your eyelid. You are blinded to all reason and the agony lasts for days. Despite Mr. Clooney’s easygoing charm and obvious good looks, his film choices point to an appalling lack of both intelligence and taste. He just doesn’t seem interested in narrative movies that make sense, and even worse, he has an exasperating tendency to turn his projects over to buddies and basketball cronies, whether or not they have any talent. (In George Clooney movies, talent is...

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that countries opposed to Iran's atomic program should give up their own nuclear weapons, and attacked as "arrogant" the sanctions imposed on Ankara's neighbor. He also said he wanted the Middle East, and then the whole world, to rid itself of nuclear weapons. During a trip to Iran this week, Erdogan said he backed Tehran's "right to peaceful nuclear energy" and called its approach in nuclear talks with Western powers "positive." The trip added to Western concern that NATO's only Muslim member may be shifting its foreign-policy focus towards the Islamic world...

Turkey is switching to national currencies in trade with Iran and China, ending dependence on the U.S. dollar and the euro for about 20% of its commodity turnover, local media reported on Wednesday. Turkey has already switched to settlements in national currencies with Russia amid weakening confidence in the greenback as the world's major reserve currency. The move was initiated by Turkish President Abdullah Gul during his visit to Moscow in February. Turkey's decision to make settlements with Iran and China in national currencies was announced during a visit to Iran by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is currently in Tehran with his "friend," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as the two leaders discuss ways to bolster the bilateral ties between their two countries. While Turkey's realignment towards Iran and Syria is by now familiar, it is possible that the Obama administration might be more annoyed at this development than it has let on publicly. Obama recently sent an invitation to Prime Minister Erdogan to meet with him in Washington D.C. on October 29. That just happens to be the Turkish equivalent of the Fourth of July -- the anniversary of the dissolution of...

Turkish prime minister Erdogan has flown back home after a 2-day visit to Tehran. It was a big deal in all senses of the term. He went to Iran with a large delegation, including three ministers, many businessmen, leaders of Parliament, scads of reporters, and television crews. He met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki, “President” Ahmadinejad, and other ministers. According to Iranians who were involved in the meetings, the two countries reached agreement on many issues, the upshot of which is a considerable tightening of the working alliance between them: –The creation of a joint airline; –The creation of a...

'There is no doubt he is our friend," Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, even as he accuses Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman of threatening to use nuclear weapons against Gaza. These outrageous assertions point to the profound change of orientation by Turkey's government - for six decades the West's closest Muslim ally - since Erdogan's AK party came to power in 2002. Three events this past month reveal the extent of that change. The first came on October 11 with the news that the Turkish military - a long-time bastion of secularism and advocate...

  This Luxury home in "occupied" northern Cyprus, pictured above, looks real nice doesn't it? The house is owned by a British couple. Just one major problem. No, make that several major problems.In the first place, the property on which the home was built, legally belongs to a citizen of Cyprus, Meletis Apostolides, who was forced to flee his property during the Turkish invasion and occupation of northern Cyprus in 1974.In 1974, the military junta of Greece staged a coup to overthrow the government of Cyprus. Turkey used this as a pretext for invasion and occupation. In the wake of the onslaught over...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - State television says Iran will agree to the “general framework” of a U.N.-drafted plan to ship enriched uranium out of the country for processing, but will seek “important changes” in the deal. The report Tuesday on the state-run channel Al-Alam does not specify the amendments Iran will seek. It says Iran will officially reply within 48 hours. The plan calls for Iran to ship 70 percent of its enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Iran next week adds to concerns that Ankara may be slowly turning its back on its Western allies and seeking to regain its status as a regional power in the Middle East. Following what Turks saw as Arab betrayal in World War One, Turkey made joining the elite club of Western powers its number one foreign policy objective, joining NATO in 1952 and first applying to join the European Economic Community in 1963. Nearly 50 years on, Muslim Turkey is still kept at arms length by the European Union, but...

TEHRAN, Oct. 23 (Mehr News Agency) -- Turkey plans to carry out its $3.5 billion natural gas development plans in Iran, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Wednesday. "The issue would be discussed during Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan''s upcoming trip to Tehran," Reuters reported. The Turkish and Iranian governments agreed in July 2007 that Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) would produce 20.4 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas annually from three development phases of Iran''s South Pars gas field, but the deal has been delayed. Iran has given TPAO a one-month deadline to finalize the deal to develop...

An attempted hijacking by a man wielding a knife from an in-flight meal has been thwarted by guards, EgyptAir officials said. The incident happened shortly after the plane, carrying almost 90 people, took off from Istanbul, Turkey, heading to Cairo. The Sudanese man threatened crew members and demanded that the flight be diverted to Jerusalem, officials said. He was detained by air marshals, and the flight landed in Cairo.

A Sudanese man used a knife from the in-flight meal to threaten crew members after the plane left Turkish airspace and demanded that the flight be diverted to Jerusalem, the official said.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Non-Traditional Security Threats and Regional Cooperation In Southern Caucasus” international conference will be held in Istanbul, Turkey, from October 22 to 24 in the framework of the NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) program. Experts from Armenia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia will be participating. Richard Giragosian, Director of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies ACNIS) will give a talk on “Issues of Transnational Crime and Regional Security in South Caucasus” on October 23. Tigran Mkrtchyan, representative of European Stability Initiative is expected to dwell on the role of NGOs in resolution of regional conflicts and reconciliation...

Once the apotheosis of a pro-Western, dependable Muslim democracy, this week Turkey officially left the Western alliance and became a full member of the Iranian axis. It isn't that Ankara's behavior changed fundamentally in recent days. There is nothing new in its massive hostility toward Israel and its effusive solicitousness toward the likes of Syria and Hamas. Since the Islamist AKP party first won control over the Turkish government in the 2002 elections, led by AKP chairman Recip Tayyip Erdogan, the Turks have incrementally and inexorably moved the formerly pro-Western Muslim democracy into the radical Islamist camp populated by the...

Note: The following news brief is a quote: Turkey Arrests 50 Suspected al-Qaida-Linked Militants By VOA News 15 October 2009 Turkish police have detained at least 50 suspected al-Qaida-linked militants in raids across nine provinces. Local media say the militants, thought to be members of a group (the Islamic Jihad League) tied to al-Qaida, were planning attacks against U.S., Israeli and NATO targets in Turkey. They say the suspects may have had contact with al-Qaida's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, and may have been trained in Afghanistan. Turkey's Hurriyet daily says police Thursday seized an unlicensed gun, documents, CDs and laptops during...

The Netanyahu government's slow-moving, lackadaisical handling of the Goldstone commission mandated for accusing Israel of war crimes in Gaza, played into the hands of a coalition formed to strip the Israeli military of legitimacy as a defensive strike force against Iran's fast-moving nuclear weapons program and its Middle East allies' missile arsenals. Those missiles are poised to strike Israel's population centers if Iran is attacked. Israel had - and still has - plenty of moral, diplomatic and strategic tools for defending itself. They were not applied and so this hostile coalition was allowed to strike Israel on three fronts in...

Policies pursued by Turkey regarding the Georgian separatist regions are viewed as pro-Russian, according to Russian and Turkish academics who participated in a workshop in Istanbul on Tuesday. The relationship between Moscow and Tbilisi deteriorated sharply in July and August, with each side trading fresh threats of hostilities. Moscow quickly exploited its victory in the August war with Georgia by recognizing South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent and deploying thousands of troops to the area. With the situation still tense, experts expect discussions to yield few results. The visit of a Turkish diplomat to Abkhazia means that Turkey will recognize...

Once the apotheosis of a pro-Western, dependable Muslim democracy, this week Turkey officially left the Western alliance and became a full member of the Iranian axis. It isn't that Ankara's behavior changed fundamentally in recent days. There is nothing new in its massive hostility toward Israel and its effusive solicitousness toward the likes of Syria and Hamas. Since the Islamist AKP party first won control over the Turkish government in the 2002 elections, led by AKP chairman Recip Tayyip Erdogan, the Turks have incrementally and inexorably moved the formerly pro-Western Muslim democracy into the radical Islamist camp populated by the...

REACHING LAST weekend’s diplomatic breakthrough between Turkey and Armenia was not easy. It took six weeks of secret talks in Switzerland, seven last-minute phone calls from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the two countries’ foreign ministers, and a wild ride in a Zurich police car, lights flashing and siren shrieking, for a Turkish diplomat carrying a revised draft of the accord. This breakthrough could also be said to have taken 16 years, the length of time the Turkey-Armenia border has been shut, or 94 years, the time that has passed since Ottoman Turkish forces slaughtered hundreds of thousands...

IF you ever questioned whether Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza was bad for the US and for Israel too, you ought to ponder Turkey's decision to suspend a multinational air force exercise last weekend. Why? Because it's a prime example of how pursuing the goal of "greater Israel" - which means retaining control of the West Bank and Gaza and preventing a true two-state solution - is undermining US and Israeli interests. Here's the background. For the past decade or more, Turkey has been Israel's closest ally in the Muslim world. It has bought a lot of...

Turkey’s decision to indefinitely postpone a military exercise apparently due to Israel’s planned involvement is raising concerns that Turkish-Israeli ties have not recovered from the Gaza war last January. The exercise—an air force program known as Anatolian Eagle—had been scheduled for this week and was supposed to include Israel along with the United States, Italy and other NATO countries. The other participating countries reportedly pulled out of the exercise after learning of Israel’s exclusion. Turkey has tried to downplay the episode. “It is not right to extract a political meaning and to make political conclusions out of the postponement of...

JERUSALEM, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Israel has complained to the Turkish Embassy about a fictional drama aired on a Turkish state television channel depicting atrocities by Israeli soldiers. The first episode of "Farewell" shown on the government-controlled TRT1 Tuesday portrayed Israeli soldiers as ruthless killers of innocent Palestinians, showing scenes of soldiers killing Palestinian babies and lining Palestinians up before a firing squad, Israeli media reported Thursday. "This series, which has absolutely no connection to reality and portrays Israeli soldiers as murderers of innocent children, is not fit to be broadcast even in the most hostile countries and certainly not...

Almost everyone in a dispute hopes to find an honest broker to mediate their differences. The controversy over the Goldstone Report on Gaza and the active role of Turkey’s prime minister therein has raised a collateral issue, which is the US role as a go-between or broker in the Middle East. So let’s look at the prospect that the US can be such a broker, either alone or in tandem with Turkey, which has been actively involved in the area. No one can be a broker when beholden utterly to one side, and while US President Barack Obama sounds much...

Can you yell, "Stop the presses!" in the computer age? We were going to interrupt our train of thought on Afghanistan and the Taliban to consider how Turkey's cancellation of a longstanding NATO exercise because of Israeli participation should have turned even Turkey's apologists into skeptics of the Islamist-leaning Turkish government's long-term intentions toward Israel, NATO and the West. The apologists have said Turkey is just balancing its secular, constitutional, 20th Century side with its history. And, anyhow, they continue, the increasing anti-Western, anti-American and anti-Israel (veering into anti-Semitic) venom from the Turkish government and media isn't actually Turkey's fault....

A joint military exercise that Israel, the US, NATO, Turkey and Italy were scheduled to conduct this week, was taken off the table because of American disappointment with Ankara's decision to withdraw from the maneuver due to Israel's planned participation, Israeli defense officials said Sunday. Turkey informed Israel of the cancellation of the Anatolian Eagle exercise last week, saying this was because the planes that Israel was going to send likely bombed Hamas targets during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip earlier this year. According to officials quoted by Israel Radio, the cancellation of the exercise came after both...

Recently Turkish PM Erodgan canceled a joint military exercise with Israel, to show Turkey's support of Palestine. His next move was to tell the people of Turkey to have more children. I am sure that neither of these actions have anything to do with the worldwide jihad. Nah....could never happen with "moderate" Turkey.

In today's "moderate" Islam is coming to the rescue segment, our great "ally' Turkey has shown their true Islamic colors and has decided to blacklist Israel. This is being done to show their support for the Palestinian terrorists. As I have been saying all along, the Islamic world will unite against the non-Muslim world. In the meantime most non-Muslims cannot even bring themselves to admit that there is an enemy out there. This line of thinking had better change fast.

Turkey and Armenia signed a landmark peace accord on Saturday to restore ties and open their shared border after a century of hostility stemming from the First World War mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman forces. But in an indication of the many pitfalls that lie ahead of its implementation, the ceremony was marred by a three-hour delay due to last-minute disagreements on statements, forcing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to engage in intense discussions to salvage a deal. Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian signed the Swiss-mediated deal in Zurich at a ceremony...

“A large number of Arabs and Turks in this city, who have increased in number as a result of wrong policies, have no productive function other than the fruit and vegetable trade,� he said. “The Turks are conquering Germany in the same way the Kosovars conquered Kosovo: through a higher birth rate,� he said. “I don’t have to acknowledge anyone who lives off the state, rejects this state, doesn’t properly take care of the education of his children and constantly produces little girls with headscarves,� he said. About 70 per cent of the Turkish and 90 per cent of the...

Bundesbank Official Under Police Investigation After Blasting Turks For 'Conquering Germany'A top official at the German Bundesbank is under police investigation after giving vent to a wild outburst against Berlin's Muslim population, resorting to language reminiscent of Nazi race theory. By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Published: 6:29PM BST 04 Oct 2009 Dr Thilo Sarrazin, a member of the executive board and head of the bank's risk control operations, told Europe's culture magazine Lettre International that Turks with low IQs and poor child-rearing practices were "conquering Germany" by breeding two or three times as fast. "A large number of Arabs and Turks in...

BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Investigators in Germany have arrested a 24-year-old man on terror-related charges. Authorities arrested the man "on suspicion of spreading al Qaeda propaganda online and for procuring materials which could be used to make a bomb," prosecutors said Friday in a written statement. Searches of a flat in Offenbach, Germany, and a business in Frankfurt, Germany, turned up a small amount of an "explosive substance" and a home-made electronic device. An initial assessment suggests that the items "could be used to ignite explosives," prosecutors said. The man holds dual German-Turkish citizenship, they said. The statement from prosecutors...

UNION, W.Va. — A West Virginia grand jury has indicted two former turkey plant workers already charged with abusing birds and captured on tape by animal rights activists. Walter Lee Hambrick, of Fairlea, faces three charges of animal cruelty and Scott Alvin White, of Second Creek, faces one charge

A TEENAGER died and more than 20 people were injured when swarms of bees escaped from their hives after the van transporting them crashed into a truck and overturned on a motorway near the resort of Marmaris, in southern Turkey. Rescue workers, police, medics and beekeepers tried for more than an hour to release two people trapped inside the vehicle, their faces carpeted with angry bees. One of the pair, aged 18, died in hospital from the combined effect of injuries sustained in the crash and multiple bee stings. Three others were in intensive care in hospital. About 20 people...

Turkish hopes of joining the EU appeared to be all but over after Germany gave warning it was ready to join France and Italy in outright opposition to the country's membership. Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Free Democrats (FDP) are both hostile to the accession of the overwhelmingly Muslim country of 71 million. The CDU is against the Turks joining for cultural reasons while the FDP leader, and probable new foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle has said the country's economy is too far below European standards to integrate comfortably with other members. With almost three million ethnic Turks living...

The Turkish government on Wednesday blamed a tense confrontation between Turkish security agents and U.S. security personnel Tuesday on a failure to communicate by the Secret Service. The incident took place within 10 to 15 feet of President Obama's limousine as he was preparing to leave an event at the Sheraton Hotel in midtown Manhattan. A group of security agents and police officers, yelling and shouting, converged on a corner of the tent housing the limousine and appeared to use force to move individuals away from the tent. The Secret Service on Tuesday blamed the fracas on a language barrier,...

In August an editor from Kazakhstan was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for “divulging state secrets” in an article which dealt with the relationship between the state security service KNB and a local distillery owner. Therefore the European Union has issued a declaration which states that journalists should be free to report on all issues of interest to the public, including commentary on how the state is run. All member states have signed as well as candidate countries Croatia and Macedonia, potential future members Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro together with Island and Norway. The only country which has...

President Obama has consistently declared Afghanistan "the good war" that is "a war of necessity" which is "fundamental to the defense of our people," although recently Obama also stated that "victory" was not necessarily the goal in Afghanistan. In an amazing declaration of historical ignorance, Obama explained "I'm always worried about using the word 'victory,' because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur." How we win without "victory" is but one conundrum the US military leadership must solve to execute the president's policy. In view of the president's ambivalence, it...

ISTANBUL, Turkey – Turkish military police said Thursday that they had stormed an Istanbul villa to rescue nine women held captive after being tricked into believing they were reality show contestants. The women were rescued on Monday in the villa in Riva, a summer resort on the outskirts of Istanbul, a spokesman said. The women were made to believe they were being filmed for a Big Brother-type television show. Instead, their naked images were sold on the Internet, the reports said. The women had responded to an ad searching for contestants for a reality show that would be aired on...

Is Turkey Renaming Istanbul Constantinople? Chances of Turkey and the Kurds reaching a rapprochement are at their highest in 25 years. But what does that mean for Turkification -- and what concessions are the Turks willing to make? BY NICK DANFORTH | SEPTEMBER 4, 2009 Last month, Turkish President Abdullah Gul broke a long-standing national taboo: He called the remote village of Guroymak by its Kurdish name, Norshin. The president's opponents say renaming Istanbul Constantinople on highway signs will inevitably follow. Or worse. For many Turks, saying Norshin leads to saying Kurdistan, and saying Kurdistan leads to recognizing an independent...

Former Rep. Jim Traficant (D-Ohio) waxed nostalgic about turkey hunting trips in his first post-prison release, lamenting that as a convicted felon, he can't carry a gun. Traficant called into the NewsRadio 570 WKBN "Outdoor Icon" show on Saturday morning, where he reminiscent about his turkey hunting trips with the host, Denny Malloy. "I want you to know, those were some of the best times in my life," Traficant told Malloy. "I think the hunters provide a very valuable service to our environment," he added. But Traficant said that he cannot hunt right now, though, because of restrictions on firearms...

Explosive news coming out of the just released deposition of former FBI translator-turned-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds. According to the released transcripts, Edmonds testified as follows: "[T]his Congresswoman's married with children, grown children, but she is bisexual. ... So they have sent Turkish female agents, and that Turkish female agents work for Turkish government, and have sexual relationship with this Congresswoman in her townhouse ... and the entire episodes of their sexual conduct was being filmed because the entire house, this Congressional woman's house was bugged...

For Good or Else? Christian Houses in Turkey markedGates of Vienna 02 September 2009 Our Austrian correspondent ESW has translated a report from Die Presse about ominous new developments in Istanbul that bode ill for Turkey’s few remaining Christians: Strangers “marking” Christian buildings in IstanbulBuildings inhabited by Christians have been marked with insignias in several districts of Istanbul. The labeling of the buildings are clearly done in concert with increasing harassment of the Christian inhabitants.Some buildings in the traditionally Christian districts of Feriköy and Kurtulus have recently been labeled with green and red signs. Apparently they were affixed to point...

Ancient faith of their Middle East fathers Guardian Weekly reader Catherine Ann Lombard writes on a visit to Mor Ephrem, the Syrian Orthodox Monastery at the far eastern border of the Netherlands and meets 45 boys who are learning to read and chant in kthobonoyo, the litur gical language that only about 300 people in the world speak today Tuesday September 1st 2009 The morning is hot and sticky, but I have promised Dayrayto Shmuni to help in the monastery kitchen and put on my long-sleeved T-shirt. How the nun manages during the summer months in her long black habit...

Ankara has denied NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen's suggestion that differences between Turkey and Greece have been hindering further defense cooperation between NATO and the European Union. The remarks by Rasmussen, who assumed office on Aug. 1, came ahead of his arrival in Turkey on Thursday for a two-day visit as part of a tour of NATO countries, including Greece. “We have come to the point where it is causing us problems in our missions. In Afghanistan, NATO cannot conclude an agreement to support EU police. Off the Horn of Africa, both NATO and the EU have missions in the...

ANKARA, Turkey – Armenia and Turkey agreed Monday to establish diplomat relations, overcoming a seemingly intractable rift that dates to the early 20th Century and was marked by massacres of Armenians under Ottoman rule. The neighboring countries would be setting up and developing relations for the first time, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Burak Ozugergin said. It is unclear, however, if the talks would touch on the dispute over the World War I-era killings. CONTINUED AT ARTICLE LINK

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Monday described information he received from the Iraqi government on the crisis with Syria as convincing, noting that he will transfer it to Damascus. At a joint press conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshyar Zebari in Baghdad, the minister called on the two sides to exchange information on the current crisis without revealing them. The minister said that he discussed with President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Vice President Adel Abdulmahdi the latest developments between Iraq and Syria. “We understood the Iraqi stance and its persuasive information and I will carry them...

German federal prosecutors said Friday they have arrested a man suspected of helping a terrorist cell that allegedly plotted attacks against U.S. troops in Germany. The U.S. military's Ramstein Air Base is believed to have been one of the targets for plotters. The prosecutor's office identified the man only as "Kadir T.," and said he is a German of Turkish origin. He is suspected of acquiring a video camera and night-vision equipment for the Islamic Jihad Union group, prosecutors said. The items were allegedly shipped to Waziristan in Pakistan, prosecutors said. Four men trained by the Islamic Jihad Union are...

Report: US looking at Israel, Turkey to house anti-missile bases The United States has all but abandoned plans to house anti-missile bases in Poland and the Czech Republic, according to a senior White House lobbyist, EUobserver news portal reported on Thursday, citing a news report in a Polish daily. Riki Ellison, chairman of the 10,000-member Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA), told Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza on Thursday that the US has changed its mind to avoid a rift with Russia and is now looking at Israel, Turkey, the Balkans or ship-borne facilities instead. “The signals given by generals from the...

Washington may relocate the controversial missile defense system planned for Eastern Europe to the Balkans, Turkey or Israel, a Polish newspaper reports. The U.S. plan included 10 long-range interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic. That plan will almost certainly be scrapped, Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza reports. Washington is now looking for alternative locations including in the Balkans, Israel and Turkey, the daily says, citing U.S. administration officials and lobbyists based in Washington. "The signals that the generals in the Pentagon are sending are absolutely clear: as far as missile defense is concerned, the current...

Syrian President Bashar Assad's..visit was officially described as a goodwill trip to congratulate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his re-election as Iran's president. But what came out following Assad's meeting with Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was an idea for an unofficial quadripartite alliance between Syria and Iran, with Turkey and Iraq....Turkey has begun to accept the possibility that its European dreams are unlikely to materialize... Obama...appears determined to announce his Middle East peace plan next month in New York in the presence of both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the chairman of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas