Free Republic

Sweden said on Sunday that Turkey is asking for too much in exchange for allowing it to join NATO, as Ankara effectively demands the impossible – that Stockholm override a decision by its own Supreme Court. But analysts say Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is unlikely to retract its condition, at least not before the all-important presidential elections scheduled in June. Sweden’s new conservative Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that, as far as he is concerned, Stockholm has done enough for Ankara. “Turkey confirms that we have done what we said we would do. But they also say that they...

Turkish police made a hundred arrests across Istanbul and nine other Turkish provinces connected with a wide-ranging investigation of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. Gulen, 72, currently lives in Pennsylvania, but is considered a powerful “arch-foe” of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as the Rudaw news service puts it. Gulen “runs an international Islamic network of schools, businesses, media outlets, and charity organizations from his exile home in Pennsylvania” and is “believed to be deeply influential in the Turkish judicial system and police,” according to Rudaw. In fact, he is so influential that Erdogan has accused him of trying to...

The Clinton family and Hillary Clinton’s campaign are being accused of accepting millions of dollars from what at least one U.S. ally is calling a terrorist network. The U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen is a longstanding ally of Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and their cozy relationship has included dinners and speaking arrangements throughout the years. He is suspected of controlling $25 billion in global assets and his followers have reportedly poured millions into the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. But now Gulen has been accused in a U.S. court of being the ringleader...