Free Republic

A Palestinian-American activist asserted earlier this month that the United States and Israel share a common legacy of ethnic cleansing as the foundational basis of the two nations in a video posted to the online news outlet The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). In the clip Osama Abu Irshaid, the National Director of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), claims that the "Zionists" have co-opted the "racist" narrative of the founding of America to mirror that of the establishment of the State of Israel in order to convince Americans that the two peoples have a similar history. "We came to...

Sailors, spetsnaz on #BМФ #ВФ Dvinitsa 50 during its #Tartus Syria-bound Bosphorus transit pic.twitter.com/ZlH4RA93wY— Yörük Işık (@YorukIsik) June 3, 2016

An Ada-class corvette. Turkey’s new defence minister, Fikri Işık , visited Pakistan on Friday and informed the media that a number big-ticket programs are underway between the two countries. In fact, Turkey and Pakistan committed to enhancing defence and defence industry ties at the beginning of May. The programs on the table include the Pakistan Army’s interest in the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) T-129 ATAK attack helicopter, the sale of Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) Super Mushshak trainers to Turkey, and two Pakistan Navy programs – the upgrading of the Navy’s three Agosta 90B submarines and the possible purchase of four...

Istanbul’s Eyüp Municipality also organized a “Youth and Conquest Feast” yesterday at the Golden Horn, which included activities such as running and a bicycle race. The event ended with the show of the municipality’s mehter team and the distribution of “conquest rice.” A day earlier, on May 28, hundreds of Islamists prayed at the gates of Istanbul’s world famous Hagia Sophia, the towering former Byzantine church which now serves as a museum, in order to demand the right to pray there as part of an event called the “conquest prayer.” An imam led a prayer in front of the vast...

The international movement calling for a boycott against Israel on Thursday said its website was repeatedly attacked earlier this year and raised suspicions that Israel was behind the attacks. The BDS movement released a report Thursday showing that its main website suffered six attacks in February and March. The denial of service attacks, which work by flooding a target website with bogus traffic, knocked out the BDS website for several hours at a time. The report, compiled by nonprofit online security service eQualit.ie, said the attacks had a level of “sophistication and commitment” it normally does not see. It also...

The German parliament has passed a symbolic resolution recognizing the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces as a "genocide." The resolution was passed with a "striking majority" said President of the German Bundestag Norbert Lammert, with only one politician voting against it and one abstaining. Between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians, and other minorities, are estimated to have been killed by what was then-Ottoman Turkey during World War One. ... Germany's resolution is likely to place a strain on relations between Berlin and Ankara, and follows a recent migrant deal between Turkey and the European Union, in which Germany...

German lawmakers' planned vote to recognize the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide, will test the "friendship" between Berlin and Ankara, Turkey said Thursday, according to AFP. The resolution "will amount to a real test of the friendship" between the two nations, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said. "Some nations that we consider friends, when they are experiencing trouble in domestic policy attempt to divert attention from it," he said at a meeting of his Justice and Development Party (AKP). "This resolution is an example of that." He stopped short of threatening Germany with political and economic retaliation,...

On Saturday thousands of Muslim worshippers descended on Istanbul's world famous Hagia Sophia, the towering former Byzantine church that is now a museum, to demand the right to pray there, Turkish media reported. An imam led a prayer in front of the vast building that was once a Greek Orthodox basilica, then a mosque and now a museum before crowds called for it to be restored as a Muslim place of worship. "Let the chains break, open Hagia Sophia," chanted the crowds who gathered on the plaza in front of the museum, according to Turkey's Dogan news agency. "In the...

At some point in the second term of any presidency, the soaring eagle becomes a lame-duck with more quack than quake in its steps. With his place in history assured, President Obama has forged a new healthcare regime, restored relations with Cuba, made unprecedented visits and negotiated a nuclear deal with Iran. The latter of these strains U.S. relations with America's staunchest Middle East allies — Israel and Saudi Arabia — beyond credulity, and suggests the president may be too absorbed in creating his own legacy to think clearly. Obama called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) "the most...

Bent on destroying Israel, and gripped by vicious anti-Semitism, Baghdad ‘pauperized’ its Jews and forced them to leave for the nascent Jewish state in 1951-2. It believed Israel would collapse under the strain. But the immigrants ultimately helped Israel thrive, and it was Iraq that suffered After Adolf Hitler’s defeat in May 1945, many Nazis melted away from the Reich, smuggled out by such organizations as the infamous Odessa group and the lesser-known Catholic lay network Intermarium, as well as the CIA and KGB. They ensured the continuation of the Nazi legacy in the postwar Arab world. Egypt was a...

Turkey has carried out its largest-ever multinational military exercise with an astonishing display of land, sea and air drills over the Aegean Sea and coastal region of Izmir. Featuring 860 personnel from eight countries, the drills saw military jets, landing ships, drones, howitzers and tanks combine to form a display of military power on the Turkish coast. Attack helicopters carried out mock night-time raids, de-mining vehicles set off controlled explosions on land, and military equipment was delivered to the ground via the sea and air.

Preet Bharara has prosecuted mobsters from the Gambino family, Islamic terrorists, Wall Street insiders and top New York lawmakers. But it was a money-laundering case announced this week that has made the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York a bona fide celebrity on social media, and elevated him into a national obsession — in Turkey.Bharara gained almost 250,000 new followers on Twitter, many of them Turkish, after he announced Monday that a grand jury had indicted a controversial Turkish Iranian businessman on suspicion of violating U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel would upgrade its ties with the 28-member NATO military alliance by opening a permanent mission to its Brussels headquarters. "I declare that Israel will accept the invitation and open an office, in the near future," Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting. "The countries of the world want to cooperate with us because of our determined fight against terror, our technological know-how, our intelligence network and other things," his office quoted him as saying. The Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement late Tuesday that NATO had invited the...

Turkey is offering to "join forces" with Washington for a special operation inside Syria on condition it doesn't include a Syrian Kurdish militia blacklisted by Ankara but seen as an ally by the US, the foreign minister said. Washington's support of Kurdish fighters in Syria in the fight against Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists has angered Ankara, especially after AFP pictures last week revealed US commandos wearing patches of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) outlawed by Turkey. "If we join forces, they (the US) have their own special forces and we have our special forces," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told...

Reversing Course on U.S. Soldiers Wearing Kurdish Rebel Insignia On Thursday, the Defense Department said that in order to blend in, special-operation forces often don the insignia of forces they accompany. On Friday, after Turkey complained, a spokesman called the action “unauthorized and inappropriate.” KRISHNADEV CALAMUR MAY 27, 2016 Updated on May 27 at 2:31 p.m. ET The U.S. Defense Department has ordered American special-operations forces to take down the insignia of a Kurdish rebel group that Turkey regards as a terrorist organization—after angry complaints from Ankara and despite justifying the patches a day earlier. “Wearing those YPG patches was...

The mammoth, multi-million-dollar mansion where resident Barack Obama and his family will reportedly live after the first family exits the White House is located 1,096 feet from the Islamic Center of Washington — one of the largest mosques in the Western Hemisphere. ... The exterior of the Islamic Center features horseshoe arches, Arabic script and tall, ornate minaret. The building is surrounded by an array of flags representing the countries of the world where Islam is the state-sanctioned religion. ... In addition to the Islamic Center of Washington, the embassy of Oman and the former embassy of Iran are very...

On May 15, Al-Alam TV broadcast a report on the opening of the third International Holocaust Cartoon Contest in Tehran. The exhibition features caricatures of Israeli PM Netanyahu, comparing him to Hitler and to ISIS terrorists. The organizer, Shojai Tabtabai, said that the exhibition was "a response to the publication of cartoons by the French Charlie Hebdo magazine, which affronted the Prophet Muhammad, as well as an expression of [our opposition] to the massacres perpetrated against the Palestinian people." Reporter: "As a form of expression of the Palestinian cause, and in the context of the massacres, perpetrated by the Zionists...

White House hints that time for new Gaza policy is near. WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Wednesday that it had warned Israel's government repeatedly to use "caution and restraint" with half a dozen aid boats bound for the Gaza Strip before Israeli commandos raided the flotilla this week in an operation that killed nine people. In an interview with Charlie Rose broadcast Wednesday night, Vice President Joe Biden agreed that Israel had a right to inspect the cargo. "You can argue whether Israel should have dropped people onto that ship or not ... but the truth of the matter...

An Iranian delegation wrapped up its visit to Saudi Arabia on Friday without signing a final agreement on arrangements for the annual Hajj pilgrimage, the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah has said. The ministry said the delegation decided to return to Tehran without signing the final agreement despite two days of extensive talks. “The Iranian Organization of Hajj and Visit will be held responsible before God and the people of Iran for the inability of its pilgrims to perform Hajj this year,” the ministry said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency. The ministry said it offered...

La Prensa uncovered a criminal network that paid Honduran officials to illegally register foreigners as legal residents, which gave them access to documents that could then be used to gain broader access to the western hemisphere. The La Prensa report was highlighted Friday by the Center for Immigration Studies, which said the network appeared to be a favorite for those of Arab origin — particularly Syrians and Palestinians — who were looking for a way to enter the U.S. The criminal network managed to get names registered in Honduras’s national registration of persons (RNP). That meant they could obtain passports...