At least five people, including two Turkish officials, were wounded on Monday when a cross-border shooting hit a refugee camp in Turkey’s Kilis province along the Syrian border. This incident has been described by the Turks as a “violation” of its border. It adds another level of complexity to the …
A ceasefire between Syria’s government and rebel forces appeared, for a moment, to be on the horizon. But in reality it was nothing more than a mirage that evaporated over the weekend when dictator Bashar al-Assad’s government demanded concessions from the opposition who have been under unceasing attacks for the past year. The Guardian …
According to a March 29 article in the Journal of Turkish Weekly, 54 percent of Turkish survey respondents favor Turkey developing its own nuclear weapons in response to an Iranian nuclear threat. The alternative provided to the respondents was for Turkey to rely on NATO’s security umbrella. Just 8 percent …
Fifty-five explosions rocked the city of Homs, Syria, in the span of 15 minutes. Artillery and automatic gunfire pound neighborhoods. Snipers perch on rooftops, firing at civilians. Families crowd in makeshift basement shelters to avoid the violence, and the military is reportedly on a campaign to flatten every single neighborhood …
You can tell how serious the situation in Syria is getting by looking at the recent actions taken by its neighbors. Earlier this week, the Gulf Cooperation Council—a regional intergovernmental grouping consisting of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—released a condemning proclamation against the Assad …
Last Thursday, Iran and Turkey signed an agreement aimed at increasing trade between the two countries and doubling bilateral business by 2015. The agreement was inked by Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and Turkish Minister of the Environment and Urban Planning Erdo?an Bayraktar following the 23rd session of the …
The Turkish government understands what the Obama Administration does not: Acquiring the American-made F-35 fighter jet is the most effective way to claim supremacy of the skies. Yesterday, Turkey’s Defense Industry Implementation Committee announced the purchase of two Lockheed Martin F-35s. Turkey had put its F-35 order on hold in …
As international pressure on Iran has mounted due to its accelerating uranium enrichment, its foiled plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., and its systematic human rights abuses, the embattled regime in Tehran has lashed out verbally against Turkey, Britain, Israel, and the United States. On Saturday, General …
Vague platitudes, rather than meaningful solutions, dominated last week’s international conference on Afghanistan held in Turkey’s capital, Istanbul. Conference participants, including Pakistan, Iran, India, China, and Russia, broadly affirmed their support for the sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of Afghanistan. But for countries like Pakistan that continue to support Afghan …
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi visited Turkey over the weekend and met with Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davuto?lu. On a very broad agenda—which included a formal retraction from Davuto?lu stating that he did, in fact, take seriously U.S. claims that Iran was involved in a plot to kill Saudi …
