Free Republic

Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar warned on Friday that “one tiny mistake” could turn Cyprus into “a new Gaza”. Tatar, not recognized as a head of state by the international community, also suggested that Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan may soon recognize the north. Turkey is the only country that recognizes the so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. in an interview with the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, said, “A mistake or a misunderstanding such as the shooting of a Turkish soldier on the Green Line… would provoke a bomb between the two populations.” “If you shoot one Turkish soldier, you...

Today, a side of Adams that was not made much of in his lifetime has for many of us become the most important, and much-needed, part of his legacy: his critical view of Islam and of Muhammad. He derived these views from experience — his own and his father’s — of Muslim behavior (both of the Barbary Pirates and of the Ottoman Turks), from his lifelong study of history, and from his intensive reading of the Qur’an. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were sent in 1786 to negotiate in London with the ambassador from Tripoli, Sidi Haji Abdrahaman, about the...

Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Friday ordered the Foreign Ministry to summon Turkey’s envoy to Israel for a “serious reprimand” after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to “send [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] to Allah.” “I instructed officials to summon the Turkish deputy ambassador to Israel for a serious reprimand, following Erdogan’s serious attack on Prime Minister Netanyahu and his threats to send PM Netanyahu to Allah and to convey a clear message to Erdogan,” Katz posted on X. “You who support the burning of babies, murderers, rapists and the mutilation of corpses by Hamas criminals, [are] the last one...

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the Turkish President, and the rude-and-crude master of all he surveys from the 1,100 room “White Palace” that he had the government build for him in Istanbul, at a cost to the Turkish taxpayers of $615 million. But when a man like Erdogan comes along only once a millennium, why should the national exchequer skimp? In Istanbul, having announced to the world that he will not be running for office again (the hundreds of journalists he has imprisoned in Turkish jails must now be breathing proleptic sighs of relief), just to make sure we do not...

Officials say Sheher Bano, an assistant superintendent of police in Lahore, risked her life to rescue the woman after Arabic calligraphy on her outfit was mistaken for verses from the Quran. PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A police officer in Pakistan is being hailed as a hero after she protected a woman from a furious mob accusing her of blasphemy over what she was wearing. Sheher Bano, an assistant superintendent of police in the city of Lahore, “put her life in danger” to rescue the woman after colorful Arabic calligraphy on her outfit was mistaken for verses from the Quran, the Muslim...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate on Thursday soundly defeated an effort to stop the $23 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets and modernization kits to Turkey, which President Joe Biden's administration approved after Turkey approved Sweden's joining the NATO alliance. The Senate voted 79 to 13 against a resolution of disapproval of the sale introduced by Republican Senator Rand Paul.Before the vote, Paul criticized Turkey's government and said allowing the sale would embolden its "misbehavior." Backers of the sale said it was important for Washington to keep its word to a NATO ally. The Biden administration formally informed Congress on...

An incident in Lahore Pakistan stands as a damning indictment of modern Islamic society. From distant Pakistan, an NBC news story surfaces that serves to remind us of everything we need to know about our current crisis. A week ago, a female police officer in Lahore, Pakistan, patrolling a shopping district in the busy muslim city, saw a crowd gathering, to taunt, accuse, and threaten a young woman in a colorful Kurta (a long shirt-dress). Her dress was covered with bright and abstract calligraphy that the crowd assumed was an improper quoting of the Koran. In Pakistan, when a crowd...

Videos depicting Muslim migrants causing disturbances in Japan are surfacing. They engage in street altercations with locals, riot in cafes, and vandalize traditional Japanese Shinto shrines. In a recent incident, a family dispute escalated into a stabbing, leaving several people injured. On the streets, Kurdish Muslim demonstrators protest against “racism,” shouting slogans like “Japan must die!”Despite comprising only 2,000 individuals, Kurds who fled persecution in Turkey and Iraq to seek refuge in Japan are stirring up significant trouble. Increasingly, evidence of their disruptive behavior is circulating on social media platforms.Encounters between Kurds and local Japanese often turn violent, involving physical...

Jordan’s King Abdullah gives one of his most pointed criticisms of Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught. “All attacks against innocent civilians, women and children, including those of October 7, cannot be accepted by any Muslim,” he says alongside US President Joe Biden. “As I have previously stressed, we must make sure the horrors of the past few months since October 7, are never repeated, nor accepted by any human being.” “We must together, along with Arab partners and the international community, step up efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and immediately start working to create a political horizon that...

A drone attack late Sunday evening that struck a military base in eastern Syria, where U.S. troops are stationed, left at least six allied Kurdish soldiers dead, officials said. The attack hit a training ground at al-Omar base in Syria’s eastern province of Deir el-Zour, the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said in a statement Monday. According to the statement, the drone attack struck an area where the forces' commando units were being trained. No U.S. troops were killed or injured in the attack, they said. The strike was the first significant attack in Syria or Iraq since the...

The pair entered the Santa Maria Church in the Sariyer district while Sunday services were being held. Two masked assailants attacked a Roman Catholic church in Istanbul during Sunday services, killing one person, Turkish officials have announced. According to a statement posted on X - formerly Twitter - by Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, the armed assailants attacked the Santa Maria Church in the Sariyer district at 1140 am local time. He did not specify what kind of weapons were used or whether anyone else was wounded. Yerlikaya also condemned the attack and said authorities are working on capturing the assailants...

Since Hamas’s brutal attack against Israel on Oct. 7 and the resulting Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip, tensions and hostilities across the Middle East have reached fever pitch. And with such a complex regional crisis playing out, it should not come as a surprise that the Biden administration is reconsidering its military priorities in the region.It should be cause for significant concern, however, that this could involve a full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria. While no definitive decision has been made to leave, four sources within the Defense and State departments said the White House is no...

The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem sits atop the site of the Second Temple, the central place for Jewish worship before its destruction during the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. One wonders if any of the people braying about the alleged “settler colonialism” of Israel ever wonder how Al-Aqsa got there. Did the Jews voluntarily erect a version of it in an eighth-century homage to multiculturalism? If not, how did the Muslims who built it come to be in Jerusalem in the first place? These are rhetorical questions, of course. The caliphate besieged Jerusalem...

Several explosions were heard in southeastern Iran on Thursday morning, according to local media. The Mehr news agency reported that several people were injured in an attack by drones and missiles. According to the report, the attack was carried by the Pakistani army in Iranian territory, and follows an Iranian attack in Pakistani territory...

In what is a massive escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, Iran reportedly bombed a U.S. consulate in Northern Iraq on Monday. Several videos have gone viral claiming to show the moment of impact, though confirmation of their authenticity is still being gathered. The consulate was just one of eight different locations targeted, according to sources inside Iraq. Several explosions were reported near the U.S. Consulate in Erbil, Iraq, an Iraqi security source told ABC News.The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps quickly took responsibility for the attacks, saying it was targeting the "headquarters of spies" and "anti-Iranian terrorist gatherings in...

10 Questions PRO-Palestinians Can’t Answer (Can You Prove Me Wrong?) 0:00 - intro 1:48 - The oppressed people of the Middle East 4:28 - Stolen Land 5:56 - Why wasn’t an independent Palestinian state established between 1948 and 1967? 7:58 - Egypt 9:24 - Genocide 9:52 - Blacks and Palestinians 13:03- The State of Palestine 14:01- The R-word 14:58 - Tell me who your friends are

Turkish warplanes carried out airstrikes on PKK sites in northern Iraq and Syria early Saturday and destroyed 29 PKK terror targets, the Turkish National Defense Ministry said. Air operations were carried out against terror targets in the Metina, Hakurk, Gara and Qandil regions in Iraq and northern Syria, in line with the rights to self-defense arising from Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, the ministry said in a statement. The operations came after nine Turkish soldiers were killed in a PKK terror attack in northern Iraq. The National Defense Ministry announced a military operation was under way in the area...

Turkey has vowed to block two British Royal Navy ships intended for Ukraine to pass through its waters. Last month, Britain said it would transfer the two minehunter ships to the Ukrainian navy to help bolster its sea operations in its war with Russia. However, the Turkish presidency's communications directorate has now said it will not let the vessels through its Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits. When Russia first waged war on Ukraine in 2022, Turkey sparked an international agreement that blocks the passage of military ships through the passages for those at war. Today (Tuesday, January 2), the NATO member...

On Wednesday, Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan drew parallels between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Adolf Hitler. Turkey’s Attitudes Erdogan slammed Netanyahu’s actions, implying that there is little difference between him and the infamous Nazi leader. He also compared Israel’s military actions in Gaza to the Nazis’ brutal treatment of Jews during World War II, implying that the tactics and severity are reminiscent of Hitler and his regime’s historical atrocities. NATO member Turkey, which supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has criticized Israel’s air and ground assault on Gaza, calling it a “terror state,” and said its leaders...

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan asked his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken in a call on Sunday for Washington to use its influence over Israel to halt Israeli attacks on Gaza and the West Bank, a Turkish diplomatic source said. Turkey, which supports a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict, has harshly criticised Israel, calling for a full ceasefire and for Israeli leaders to be tried in international courts for war crimes, and slammed Western support for Israel. Washington, Israel's closest ally, has repeatedly said it supports Israel's right to defend itself after the cross-border rampage by Hamas militants on Oct....