Turkey

Aleppo | Turkish forces and proxy factions renew rocket fire on Kurdish-held areas in northern Aleppo, and rocket-propelled grenades hit Al-Bab city

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has monitored renewed rocket attacks by Turkish forces and proxy factions on areas held by Kurdish forces in northern countryside of Aleppo, where rocket-propelled grenades fell this evening on areas near Tel Rifaat and the village of Harbal, north of Aleppo. Meanwhile, rocket-propelled grenades …

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Turkey restarted diplomatic contacts with Egypt

Turkey has restarted diplomatic contacts with Egypt, state-run Anadolu Agency and TRT stated on Friday. “We have contacts both at the level of intelligence and foreign ministries with Egypt. Diplomatic-level contacts have started,” Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said in an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency and TRT. Çavuşoğlu said …

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Turkey, Russia, Qatar push for unlikely new Syria peace track

The trilateral meeting between the countries is meant to push for a political solution to Syria’s 10-year-long conflict. The foreign ministers of Turkey, Russia and Qatar gathered in Doha today, the first trilateral meeting of its kind in which the parties stressed the importance of preserving Syria’s territorial integrity. Their …

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Is Turkey challenging Egyptian influence in Guinea-Bissau?

Amid regional warnings of Turkey’s growing role in West Africa, including Guinea-Bissau, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi received a call from Umaro Sissoco Embalo, president of Guinea-Bissau, to discuss ways to develop cooperation in the economic and security fields. Despite the fact that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s one-year term …

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Online ‘auctions’ of Yazidi captives speak of ongoing Islamic State activity in Turkey

The rescue of a 7-year-old Yazidi captive in Ankara raises questions about how hard Turkey is trying to tackle Islamic State militants in the country. Six years after its gruesome assault on the Yazidi minority in Iraq, the Islamic State (IS) continues to sell Yazidi captives online on what is …

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Elusive figure of Syrian war dies with secrets in Turkey

Heysem Topalca, a fugitive whose name was implicated in some of the most controversial chapters of Ankara’s Syria policy due to his alleged role in the Turkish intelligence operations in Syria, has died, taking all his secrets to the grave. Heysem Topalca, a fugitive who allegedly played a key role …

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How the CIA Helped to Crush Turkey’s Post-War Left

After the Second World War (1939-45), the U.S. became the dominant global power and fought its rival, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) for international supremacy. Many countries became proxy battlegrounds between U.S. and Soviet influence. In addition to beating the Reds, U.S. war planners used secret militias, many …

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An Isolated Erdogan Learns the Cost of Hubris in Idlib

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan traveled to Russia on Thursday, seeking to persuade President Vladimir Putin to help stem disaster in Syria’s Idlib province. Turkish forces are locked in fierce combat there with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s army in what has become the last bastion of the armed rebels fighting …

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Sanction the Axis of Mercenary and Terrorist Evil: Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Georgia

Azerbaijan deployed thousands of mercenaries in last year’s 44-day war that it and Turkey waged against Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabagh and Armenia. Azerbaijan thereby flagrantly violated the UN’s International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries (UNMERC) which it signed in 1997. Forty-six countries have signed UNMERC including Belgium, Cyprus, …

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