Free Republic

The U.S. and Turkish foreign ministers vowed on Monday to work toward a peaceful resolution to the Syrian crisis. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the escalating violence across Syria 'deplorable', saying that the government was using "artillery and tank fire against innocent civilians." ... She said the United States is looking forward to joining the Arab League initiative for the Friends of Syria group, which will have its first meeting in Tunisia on Feb 24. "Certainly, Minister Davutoglu and myself will play a very active role in trying to search for solutions," the top U.S. envoy said. ......

In the context of the social justice movement, it is instructive to learn from Greece, a country facing economic collapse. Last summer’s demonstrations in Israel have brought to the forefront socioeconomic issues. It was largely due to an increased sensitivity to the somewhat nebulous concept of “social justice” that enabled the Histradrut labor federation to launch a general strike last week for contract workers’ rights. The horrid treatment of these outsourced, temporary employees has been going on for years. But it was only after the summer’s demonstrations, which managed to mobilize record numbers of average Israelis to take to the...

Turkish media has published an interview with the Secretary-General of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood in which he makes comments highly critical of Iran and Hezbollah. The interview begins: The Syrian issue entered a critical juncture after the Syrian government refused the solution offered by the Arab League in order to put an end to the killing machine and stop the situation from moving further toward a full scale war. This development came along with the regional and international efforts to convince Russia to change its position on Syria after the failure of all previous initiatives to contain the situation under...

Over the last several years, Iran and Turkey have had an alliance of convenience but the situation in Syria is putting great strain on that alliance. Syria, which borders Iraq to its east, Lebanon to its west, and Turkey to its north has essentially been an arm of Iran under the Assad regime. Assad has allowed his country to act as a funnel for weapons and Hezbollah fighters into Lebanon. Prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, those efforts were more difficult. With the removal of Saddam Hussein and the subsequent withdrawal of American troops from Iraq more than eight...

DAMASCUS, Syria -- As the announcement was made Saturday evening that Russia and China had vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning the actions of the Syrian regime, some Christians inside the country celebrated. One man from the western Syrian town of Qatana called his relatives to say "mabrook," or congratulations, on the result of the vote. A lounge bar in Damascus offered two alcoholic drinks for one in a happy hour offer. But in Christian homes around the country the prevailing sentiment is one of relief rather than delight -- they link the survival of the Assad regime...

ore than 5,400 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising began in March. The number of dead in Homs alone is now over over 200 and climbing. The Assad regime says terrorists acting out a foreign conspiracy to destabilize the country are behind the uprising, not people seeking to transform the authoritarian regime. He’s right, it was Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood that claimed responsibility in December 2011 for two suicide bombings in Damascus that killed 44 people. Yet, you have Israeli politicians like Moshe (Boge) Ya’alon telling Army Radio that the end of Assad’s regime could bring ‘relatively moderate’...

Italy wants to build first Turkish fighter jet plane ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News Italy has presented a proposal to Turkey in creating the country’s first fighter jet including technology transfer and establish local production, Italian Ambassador to Turkey Gianpaolo Scarente said. İpek Yezdaniipek.yezdani@hurriyet.com.tr Italy has given a proposal to Turkey to build the first Turkish national fighter jet in the country, according to Italian Ambassador to Turkey Gianpaolo Scarante. “There is a proposal for a project. We would like to participate in a very important program to create a national fighter for Turkey. It is in the phase of...

HOLLYWOOD star Liam Neeson is considering giving up his Catholic belief and becoming a Muslim. The actor, 59, admitted Islamic prayer "got into his spirit" while filming in Turkish city Istanbul. He said: "The Call to Prayer happens five times a day and for the first week it drives you crazy, and then it just gets into your spirit and it's the most beautiful, beautiful thing. "There are 4,000 mosques in the city. Some are just stunning and it really makes me think about becoming a Muslim." Liam was raised in Northern Ireland as a devout Catholic and altar boy...

In a move that was decried by the U.S., France, and Arab countries, Russia and China on Saturday vetoed a U.S.-backed proposal at the UN Security Council to condemn Syrian leader Bashar al-Assed for violence against Syrian citizens. The resolution that had demanded that Assad resign was backed by the Arab League, and the League on Saturday night called on Arab countries to shut down their embassies and consulates in Syria, and remove Syrian ambassadors from their countries. U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said that Washington was "disgusted" by the vetoes. The vetoes followed a particularly bloody night...

Turkey aims to increase ballistic missile ranges ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News Missiles with a range of 2,500 kilometers are a realistic target according to Professor Yücel Altınbaşak, head of Turkey’s State Scientific Research Institute. However, analysts remain uncertain as to Turkey’s capacity or need to achieve this goal Turkey aims to build ballistic missiles with a range of 2,500 kilometers within the next two years, Turkish officials have said, but analysts remain uncertain as to whether the country needs, or can even achieve, such a capability. Professor Yücel Altınbaşak, head of Turkey’s State Scientific Research Institute (TÜBİTAK), recently told...

The fate of Syrian President Bashar Assad is sealed, according to Abdullah Gül, the president of Turkey, which until recent months had forged a warm relationship with Syria and Iran. “Some think that we want war in Syria. Turkey has done everything in its power for a transformation under the leadership of the president. We did everything except beg for it,” he told reporters in remarks published by Turkish newspapers Tuesday. “We worked so hard [to convince Assad]. We told him that one day you will regret it, one day you will say, ‘I did this and that,' but it...

In 2007:WPR Article | Is Anti-Semitism Really on the Decline in Germany? Apr 24, 2007 - In February, Germany's influential Bertelsmann Foundation published the results of a new public opinion survey on anti-Semitism in Germany. http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/721/is-anti-semitism-really-on-the-decline-in-germany This all changed in the course of 4-5 years... mainly due to, Iranian anti-Semitic propaganda and Turkish press in Germany. [As you may recall, the IHH Islamists' linked current acting Turkish goverment, including the 2010 jihadists' "peace" movement: 'Go back to Auchwitz' Flotilla]. In 2012: Study reveals 20% of Germans are anti-Semitic By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT 01/25/2012 [...] The 202-page study, titled...

The murky water in Dock No.1 in Cospicua has witnessed much history over the years. Nobody ever imagined, however, that lying underneath could be the remains of an ancient Turkish wonder - the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. No one, that is, but oncologist Stephen Brincat, who came across this precious piece of information while reading an article about the excavations of the site by the British in the 19th century in the Turkish magazine Cornucopia. "There was one sentence which said that the wall of the mausoleum was dismantled to build a dock in Malta," Dr Brincat said. Blocks of marble...

The Associated Press Switzerland has convicted people of racism for denying the genocide. But Turkey says that there was no systematic campaign to kill Armenians and that many ...

The media will spend the next ten years with their heads up their sphincters trying to determine motive. Hmmm ..... what could it be now? For those of us in the media who have not surrendered to jihad (all three of us), we have noticed a decided uptick in this activity. Arrests in the US are weekly now, sometimes daily. Nothing to see here, folks, keep it moving until the next catastrophe. And then the enemedia and Hamas-CAIR operatives in DC will blame ...... counter jihadists. :) Colorado man arrested on terrorism AP (hat tip Ken) AURORA, Colo. (AP) —...

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.

Turkish missiles over Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Rome (and others) The Ottoman siege of Vienna may have failed in 1683. But the Turks will soon be back at the gates (well, this time, the skies) of Europe. Much to the pride of millions of Turks, the state scientific research institute, TÃœBITAK, recently reported that its scientists this year would finish an all-Turkish missile with a range of 1,500 km, and, in 2014, another with a range of 2,500 km (no typo here). The head of TÃœBITAK said the order for the missile program had come from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan....

WASHINGTON — On Dec. 31, just hours before a New Year's Eve celebration, President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. Section 1245 of the law contains language providing authority to impose economic sanctions on Iran in order to deter the ayatollahs from acquiring nuclear weapons. White House efforts to have the sanctions provision stripped from the bill failed, and the measure became law with a quiet flourish of the presidential pen. Ever since, Washington and Tehran have been waging a war of words. None of this works to the advantage of the American...

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...

In the past 48 hours, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Turkey have alerted Washington to intelligence reports of Iranian Al Qods Brigades operatives heading their way for attacks on oil installations and American targets. The alert was accompanied by a query about how the US intended to respond to the approaching menace. Reporting this, DEBKAfile’s intelligence and counterterrorism sources say the information relayed to Washington was more detailed and specific than the customary tip-off. Tuesday night, the Turkish Security General Directorate-EGM put all the country's 81 districts on guard for the expected arrival of Al Qods operatives to stir up mass...

Turkish intelligence agencies are claiming that Israeli Heron unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) spied for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Turkish daily Today’s Zaman reported. According to the report, the Turkish intelligence agencies prepared a report after two Israeli Herons were detected in Turkey’s Hatay and Adana provinces roughly two months ago. The report says the Herons were collecting intelligence on Turkish military units in order to aid PKK operations in those regions. The report asserts that the PKK’s training camps in northern Syria, near Turkey’s Hatay border “where Turkish military border posts are relatively weak” were established in those...

The Turkish newspaper Zaman reported Tuesday that Turkish intelligence has warned that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is planning attacks on the American embassy and American consulates throughout the country. According to the report, Turkey’s security forces have warned police in all 81 districts throughout the country, informing them that they must remain alert. The report states that according to Turkish intelligence, it is likely that a cell of the Quds Unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is planning to break into the U.S. Embassy or one of its consulates. The intelligence further stated that the cell is planning on staying at a...

The Jihad Will Be YouTubed by Raffaello Pantucci December 15, 2011 FOREIGN POLICY - The AFPAK Channel SNIPPET: "While clearly the technology to make such videos is something that is universal, it does seem as though it is aspirant jihadists in the West who find it easiest to use. There was no evidence that Gul was being directed by foreign terrorist organizations to produce his material, and his case shows the continued existence of young Westerners producing radical material on their own. It may indeed be the case that the virtual armies have yet to fully emerge as active warriors...

The news that the Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar will be visiting Armenia mid-January might come as a surprise to some. Yet, Iran has always seen its Armenian population as well as its links with Armenia as an important asset. Armenians are the most favoured and relatively privileged of all non-Muslim communities in Iran today. It is tricky to establish the exact number of ethno-religious minorities in the country since the official numbers are politically shaped and minority communities guard such details and often are not clear themselves. However, various sources estimate that there are around 300,000 Baha'is, 110,000...

The AU wants Africa to manufacture and export finished products to its trading partners rather than just selling them the raw materials as it does now. She cited China, India, the EU and US and other rising stars in trade with the continent, including Turkey and Latin America, and said the AU had held talks on the new breed of partnerships with some of them. The AU also wants Africa to have a veto-wielding seat on the UN Security Council, and a place at the G20 negotiating table, Ali said. The peace and security that have eluded Africa for decades...

Russian ship, allegedly carrying tons of weapons, made a dash for Syria after Cypriot officials allowed it to leave their waters, Turkish officials said Thursday.

-excerpt - Russian state news agency RIA Novosti quoted a Westberg spokesman as saying that the Chariot was ferrying cargo owned by Russia's state arms trader Rosoboronexport.

Turkish customs officials intercepted four trucks on Tuesday suspected of carrying military equipment from Iran to Syria, a Turkish provincial governor. The governor of Kilis province said the trucks were confiscated at the Oncupinar border crossing into Syria after police received information about their cargo, according to Dogan news agency. "The four trucks were confiscated by customs. They are alleged to be carrying military equipment," Governor Yusuf Odabas said. He said experts were being sent from Ankara to examine the cargo. Turkey imposed economic sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad's government in November, having earlier implemented an arms embargo in protest...

Turkey has been ordered to pay thousands of euro in damages to Greek Cypriots for violating their human right to peaceful enjoyment of their property in Cyprus’ northern Turkish occupied areas. The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday delivered its judgment regarding the allegation by 13 Greek Cypriot applicants (Lordos and Others v. Turkey) that “the Turkish occupation of the northern part of Cyprus following the 1974 conflict had deprived them of their homes and properties”. In its judgment today, the Court awarded each of the applicants between EUR 100,000 and EUR 8,000,000 “for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages and...

ISTANBUL - Turkish customs officials intercepted four trucks on Tuesday suspected of carrying military equipment from Iran to Syria, a Turkish provincial governor. The governor of Kilis province said the trucks were confiscated at the Oncupinar border crossing into Syria after police received information about their cargo, according to Dogan news agency. "The four trucks were confiscated by customs. They are alleged to be carrying military equipment," Governor Yusuf Odabas said. He said experts were being sent from Ankara to examine the cargo.

The chairman of the humanitarian organization Åžefkat-Der, Hayrettin Bulan, who was on the receiving end of fierce criticism two weeks ago when he suggested that abused women should receive state-funded lessons at shooting ranges and be issued free, licensed firearms, has revealed that over 3,000 women have applied for such lessons. In a press statement on Sunday, Bulan said that so far, about 3,000 women have put in applications for shooting lessons, adding that interest in enrolling in such classes is increasing every day. Bulan was greeted with mixed reactions when he proposed at a demonstration in Taksim Square at...

Protest Held In NYC Over France's Armenian Genocide Legislation By RFE/RL January 06, 2012 NEW YORK -- About two dozen people of Turkish origin or descent gathered in front of the French Consulate in New York on January 5 to protest the French genocide bill, which would criminalize the denial that the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 constituted genocide. The evening protest, which was organized by the Young Turks Association, featured around 20 people waving Turkish and U.S. flags as they chanted "shame on France". Mae Sonmez, Vice President of the Northeast Region at the Assembly...

Amid the remains of a fourth or fifth century church at Hierapolis, one of the most significant Christian sites in Turkey, Francesco D’Andria found this first-century Roman tomb that he believes once held the remains of the apostle Philip. At about the same time as the July/August 2011 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review was hitting the newsstands, containing an article about St. Philip’s Martyrium,* author and excavation director Francesco D’Andria was making an exciting new discovery in the field at Hierapolis, one of the most significant sites in Christian Turkey. A month later he announced it: They had finally found...

George Orwell’s greatest act of genius was the invention of Newspeak, the official language of Oceania, devised to meet the ideological needs of “Ingsoc,” or English Socialism. Explaining the nature of a mass trial in Turkey likewise requires the construction of a language all its own. Of late, journalists’ trials have received particular notice in the foreign press, but only because the arrest of journalists excites other journalists. In fact, early-morning raids, mass arrests, detentions without trial, and mass trials are a common feature of the Turkish landscape—for academics, students, suspected members of the so-called KCK (the urban wing of...

The French Government announced recently that the Senate is to debate the bill penalizing the denial of the Armenian 'genocide' by late January. The lower chamber of the French parliament approved the draft with an overwhelming majority of votes on December 22. ... After the passage of the bill by the National Assembly, Turkey’s state-run television said Ankara was recalling its ambassador from Paris. Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan later said the country was freezing its political, economic and military ties with France.

An Israeli 'Heron' unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flying over Turkey was nearly shot down, according to reports published Tuesday by the Turkish newspaper Taraf. According to the Turkish daily, the drone was operating as part of an IDF surveillance mission. Taraf reported that the Israeli drone was flying over the 14th Hawk B. Brigade Command in the Kırıkhan district, situated along border between Turkey and neighboring Syria. According to Taraf, the drone circled the skies above the brigade command post for around four hours, supposedly in an effort to capture images of radar equipment and missile batteries. The Turkish Air...

Turkey: Killed for requesting a Kurdish song A weekend in December 2011 ended tragically when Gazi Akbayir, a man originally from Tunceli, was brutally murdered after having requested that musicians in a bar sing a folksong in Zaza Kurdish, his native language. The sad incident took place in a bar in Izmir in Turkey. News sources reports that Akbayir was attacked by a group of people after the song was played. He argued for his right to listen to a song in his mother tongue and was then assaulted with knives. Akbayir is said to have left the bar bleeding,...

'Israeli drone spying on Turkey almost shot down' Turkish media outlet claims fighter jets called up to intercept unmanned aerial vehicle circling over missile batteries, radar equipment An Israeli drone flying over Turkey was nearly intercepted by Turkish aerial defense forces, an Istanbul-based media outlet reported on Tuesday. Two F-16 fighter jets were called-up to the area, but failed to locate the drone. "The Israeli 'Heron' drone was detected spying on military headquarters in Turkey's southern Hatay province," the report stated, adding that "the aircraft hovered over the Turkish forces in order to capture images of missile batteries and radar...

A reliable Pentagon source confirmed that the U.S. is selling a huge $60 billion arms package to Serbia.The source spoke on condition of anonymity because minor details are still being hammered out. Afterwards there will be an official announcement made by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.The Pentagon source said the huge $60 billion arms package sale to Serbia is being made to counter the increasing dangerous militant Islamist threat in the region.The source noted Turkey's shift away from the secularism of Attaturk to fundamentalist Islam reflected by the ascension to power of Erdogan's AKP Islamist party.That is reflected in Turkey's closer ties with the Iranian regime and increasing hostility towards Israel and the West. The...

About the only people having a Happy New Year in the Muslim world aren't the Christians who are huddling and waiting out the storm, but the Islamists who use a different calendar but are having the best time of their lives since the last Caliphate. The news that the Obama Administration has brought in genocidal Muslim Brotherhood honcho Yusuf Al-Qaradawi to discuss terms of surrender for the transfer of Afghanistan to the Taliban caps a year in which the Brotherhood and the Salafists are looking up carve up Egypt, the Islamists won Tunisia's elections, Turkey's Islamist AKP Party purged the...

Following are excerpts from an interview with Prince Orhan Aal Othman, grandson of Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II, which aired on TRT Arabic on December 9, 2011. Prince Orhan Aal Othman: The Ottoman state did not collapse in a year or two, or even ten or twenty years. It began when Sultan Abdulhamid made his decision in his meeting with Dr. Herzl. Herzl made several requests to meet Sultan Abdulhamid, and he was refused - once, twice, and three times. The fourth time, he met him, and [Herzl] prepared the ground... he asked him for land in Palestine, to serve as...

Following is an excerpt from a sermon delivered by Sunni scholar Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi, which aired on Qatar TV on December 23, 2011. Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: We stand by our brothers in Turkey. All Muslims must oppose France in [its Armenian genocide bill]. We reject any allegation against the Muslims at any time. Throughout its history, Islam has never wanted to annihilate any nation. This is completely unacceptable.

Qatar Creates 20000 strong Anti-Syria Mercenary Force based in Turkey, Israeli Media Reports. Qatar finances and arms radical intervention force based in Turkey to activate it in Syria with the purpose to defeat the government of Tyrant president Bashar al-Assad reports the Israeli website DEBKAFile. According to this report, which Cham Press Agency echoes today, that paid contingency made of mercenaries from several countries of the region plus radical Syrian from Muslim Brotherhood had named it Syrian Army of Liberation, DEBKAFile says. The statements specifies that the paid force by Doha had been mobilized in battalions and military brigades in...

Several dozen young men are basking in the warm mid-day sun. They are Afghan and Pakistani. Behind them, on a white wall, is graffiti extolling the glories of the UÇK -- ex-Kosovo Albanian guerilla fighters.Over the past two years, the Macedonian village of Lojane, which borders Serbia, has become a stop-over on the illegal migration routes to Western Europe. “It started when groups of three or four would arrive periodically. It didn’t disturb us at first,” says Selam Mehmeti, the head of the village community. “But since this summer, it’s grown to a whole other dimension: there were 500 in...

Nearly 1,000 Kurds staged a protest in Istanbul Thursday against a Turkish airstrike that claimed 35 lives in Turkish-Iraqi border last night. Organized by The Peace and Democracy Party and Freedom and Democracy Party, The outraged protesters gathered at Istanbul city center of Taksim square and shouted slogans on Thursday afternoon. Clashes broke out as demonstrators threw stones against the police and attacked nearby shops while the police tried to disperse the crowd by cannoned water and tear gas. A total of 35 people were killed in a Turkish air raid in Iraq's northern region of Sinat-Haftanin Wednesday night. Most...

Åžefkat-Der says arming women is an effective way to combat violence. DAILY NEWS photo, Hasan ALTINIÅžIK A Turkish non-governmental organization (NGO) is set to give free shooting courses at a gun range for women who were subjected to domestic violence. Åžefkat-Der has suggested arming women as an effective way to combat domestic violence. "The state should grant licensed, tax-free arms to women under vital threat to defend themselves in emergency situations and train them in close combat and weapons use," said Hayrettin Bulan, the head of Åžefkat-Der. Purchasing guns in Turkey is easy, and it would serve to deter...

Researchers have analysed the oldest obsidian bracelet ever identified, discovered in the 1990s at the site of Asikli Höyük, Turkey. A high level of technical expertise Using high-tech methods developed by LTDS to study the bracelet's surface and micro-topographic features, the researchers have revealed the astounding technical expertise of craftsmen in the eighth millennium BCE. Their skills were highly sophisticated for this period in late prehistory, and on a par with today's polishing techniques. This work is published in the December 2011 issue of Journal of Archaeological Science, and sheds new light on Neolithic societies. Dated to 7500 BCE, the...

According to the Spanish daily ABC, a Libyan rebel commander who played a key role in overthrowing the rule of Muammar Qaddafi previously participated in the May 2010 attempt to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza aboard the Turkish-owned vessel the Mavi Marmara. The operation famously culminated in a deadly clash between Israel Defense Force commandos and “activists” armed with iron rods and knives aboard the ship. The paper’s source for the story is the rebel leader himself: Mahdi al-Harati, the commander of the so-called Tripoli Brigades, which are widely credited with having played a decisive role in the rebel...

Cypriot President Demetris Christofias has warned Turkey to stop its warships shelling the strip of water dividing the Cypriot and Israeli gas exploration zones in the eastern Mediterranean. Debkafile's military sources report Wednesday that Turkish warships began turning their guns on the strip dividing Israel's Leviathan gas field from Block 12 of Cyprus's Exclusive Economic Zone-EEZ, where a large gas field was recently discovered. Neither Israel nor Cyprus reported the Turkish attacks, which are staged in international waters, but both reinforced their naval units around the gas fields. It was the Cypriot president who broke the silence Friday with a...

Ankara accused of ‘abandoning’ Israel and France by Dutch Freedom Party. BERLIN – The Dutch Freedom Party, the Netherlands’s third largest political party, urged the Foreign Affairs and Defense Ministries last week to reconsider Turkey’s continued membership in NATO. Geert Wilders, head of the party, and its Mideast expert, deputy Wim Kortenoeven, accused Turkey of abandoning its allies – Israel earlier this year, and now France. Turkey severed diplomatic and military ties with France last week, over the French parliamentary resolution on the current Turkish government’s reaction to the Ottoman Empire’s massacre of Christian Armenians in 1915. The empire preceded...