Turkey

On 12 December, under the pretext of environmentalism, dozens of state-backed “eco-activists” from Azerbaijan blocked the only land corridor connecting Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh. The blockade created a humanitarian crisis for the 120,000 Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh, cutting them off from the outside world. This is not the first time Baku …

SDF Commander tells Asharq Al-Awsat he won’t visit Damascus before conditions for political solution are available. Commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Mazloum Abdi said the American administration of former President Donald Trump “betrayed” its allies in the SDF when it did not oppose the Turkish infiltration in Syria …

As Turkey approaches critical general and presidential elections in 2023, President Erdogan is moving to fix frayed relations with rich Middle Eastern countries in the hope of securing a much-needed cash flow.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey has had poor relations with almost all Middle Eastern countries for nearly a decade, …

Les suspects rassemblaient des informations sur des Palestiniens. Les services turcs des renseignements ont démantelé dans la mi-décembre 2022 un réseau de 44 espions qui activent pour le Mossad israélien, a informé l’agence médiatique turque. Les suspects devaient récolter semble-t-il des informations sur des Palestiniens présents sur le territoire turc. …

The work of Israeli spy networks reportedly allowed the Mossad to launch online defamation campaigns and threats against Palestinians working and studying in Turkiye Istanbul police and the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) on 14 December announced the arrest of 44 people suspected of leaking information about Palestinian expatriates in Turkiye …

Bulgaria rejected accusations that its border guards shot a Syrian refugee in October, according to Zaman al-Wasl. Bulgaria rejected accusations that its border guards shot a Syrian refugee in October after a video released Monday showed a man being fired at on the European country’s border with Turkey. The footage …

Israel/Palestine Double bombing rocked Jerusalem amid heightened volatility in West Bank, and victory of far-right coalition could bring even more destabilising policies in near future. Deadly bombings struck Jerusalem as Israeli and Palestinian violence continued in West Bank. In first such attack since 2016, unclaimed bombings at two bus stops …

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has rejected efforts by his Russian allies to arrange a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, refusing to give him leverage in next year’s upcoming elections in Turkiye. According to an anonymous source with knowledge of the Syrian regime’s thinking, cited by the Reuters …

Russia has offered to mediate and facilitate a meeting between Turkiye and Syria, with limited success On 6 December, Orhan Miroglu, the head of the Justice and Development Party, reported that Damascus turned down Ankara’s proposal to set up a meeting between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Turkish President Recep …

US convoys in Hasakah have been limited to deterring Turkish strikes on oil installations, in fear of further degradation of the decaying infrastructure Lebanese daily newspaper Al-Akhbar reported on 7 December that the US-backed Kurdish militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has suffered immensely in the latest wave of Turkish …