Ahmet Davutoglu

Contents: Syria’s al-Assad goes for the kill, turning Aleppo and civilians to bloody rubble; Responses to reader comments

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said yesterday he wanted Turkish citizens to be granted visa-free travel within the European Union (EU) by October at the latest. In a deal negotiated in March between Turkey and the EU it was agreed that

Contents: London elects Sadiq Khan as mayor, the first Muslim mayor of a major Western city; Turkey’s Erdogan threatens EU: ‘We’ll go our own way, you go yours!’; Turkey says it will meet other EU requirements for lifting visa restrictions

Contents: With Turkey already in chaos, Erdogan forces PM Davutoglu to resign; Davutoglu’s resignation may complicate the EU-Turkey migrant deal; Syria and Russia continue ‘Grozny Model,’ killing women and children in Aleppo refugee camp

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has announced that his Justice and Development Party (AKP) will be holding a congress to elect a new leader, and he will not be seeking to stay in his post.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (pictured) said on Saturday around 20 Syrians had been readmitted to Turkey under an EU migrant deal designed to help stem migration to Europe across the Aegean Sea. According to the text of an address

Contents: Female suicide bomber attacks Bursa in northwestern Turkey; Austria votes to close border with Italy to slow refugees

Contents: Europe goes on charm offensive with Turkey on migrant deal; Bangladesh in shock after university professor hacked to death; FBI offers to help investigate Bangladesh murders

Contents: Afghan Taliban launches ‘Spring Fighting Season’ with massive Kabul explosion; China tests its DF-41 long-range nuclear missile with multiple warheads; Turkey threatens to cancel migrant deal unless visa restrictions are lifted by June; Violence surges in Syria as ‘peace talks’ collapse becomes official

Turkey must use all measures at its disposal against the separatist communist group known as Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), including stripping its members of their citizenship, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said.

On Monday, an anonymous hacker posted a data file containing personal data on 50 million Turkish citizens, including their addresses, birthdates, and the national identifier numbers issued by the Turkish government.

Contents: EU will start returning migrants to Turkey on Sunday; UN and others object to EU-Turkey deal on humanitarian grounds; Greece’s refugee camp at Idomeni becomes disgusting an explosive

A key coalition partner in the government of Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that the new visa-free travel deal with Turkey will lead to a surge of new migrants. Domestic Policy spokesman for the Christian Social Union of Bavaria

Contents: Turkey and Hungary play hardball at EU-Turkey refugee summit; With summer approaching, European politicians may be close to panic

Turkey has refused entreaties from the U.S., France, and Russia to halt its shelling of Kurdish positions in Syria. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended the artillery strikes as self-defense against a terrorist threat, continuing his effort to link the Syrian Kurdish militia to Kurdish separatists in Turkey and blame them for the Ankara bombing.

Turkey launched airstrikes against Kurds in northern Iraq overnight, as Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu claimed the terrorist who carried out Wednesday’s deadly bomb attack in Ankara was linked to the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, a vital U.S. ally in the war against the Islamic State.

In a sign of escalating tensions, Russia and Turkey have begun accusing each other of supporting “terrorist” organizations in Syria.

Contents: Turkey doubles down on shelling Kurds in Syria; Qatar says it will join Saudi Arabia, UAE sending troops to Syria; John Kerry suggests that al-Assad and the Russians are delusional

Contents: Turkey’s military strikes Kurdish positions in Syria, north of Aleppo; Saudi Arabia and Turkey plan joint ground troop incursion into Syria; The death of Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan unleashed a furious rant against the United States on Wednesday, holding America responsible for the “sea of blood” spilled in Syria, and supporting other terrorist organizations while it focused too intently on defeating the Islamic State.

Turkey claims another Russian warplane violated its airspace on Friday, only two months after Turkish planes shot down a Russian jet, killing the pilot. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Russia would “endure the consequences” if its planes keep crossing into Turkey.

Contents: Turkey threatens ‘consequences’ after Russia violates its airspace again; The English language becomes an issue between Turkey and Russia

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed Russia sent weapons to the Iraqi Kurds to fight against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).

Vice President Joe Biden met with Turkish leaders in Istanbul over the weekend, asking for more Turkish help against the Islamic State and offering to assist with border security, while supporting Turkey’s campaign against the Kurdish separatists of the PKK. The Vice President’s remarks illustrated the delicate balance act between Turkey, Syria, Iraq, ISIS, and the Kurds.

A national debate turned to international scandal on Thursday after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cited Adolf Hitler’s Germany as the type of presidential system he would like to see established in Turkey. Now, the Turkish president’s office is claiming Erdogan’s comment was “distorted by the media.”

Selahattin Demirtaş, the head of the pro-Kurdish opposition party in Turkey, will visit Moscow this week to speak to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and open a satellite office for his party. The meeting follows a tense several weeks in which Turkey and Russia have all but severed their diplomatic ties.

U.S. diplomats told Reuters that the Russian government would accept a regime change in Syria that results in dictator Bashar al-Assad’s stepping down.

Hostility between Russia and Turkey is still simmering, as demonstrated by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu accusing Russia of “trying to make ethnic cleansing in northern Latakia to force out all Turkmen and Sunni population who do not have good relations with the regime.”

Shiite militia groups in Iraq are threatening to attack Turkish troops unless they are withdrawn within 48 hours, according to a Reuters report.

Masoud Barzani, the President of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq, is currently in Ankara holding bilateral talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. The meeting will cover trade and the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), and follows growing tensions between Turkey and Baghdad.

The Turkish government has clarified that it will not move the 150 soldiers deployed to northern Iraq from their position near Mosul, despite protests from the Iraqi government, though it will not double that amount as previously planned.

The Turkish government has arrested two generals and a retired colonel on terrorism charges for involvement in the ordered inspection of trucks allegedly sent to Syria by Turkey’s intelligence agency to aid anti-Assad Turkmen rebels.

A crackdown operation by the Turkish coast guard saw the arrests of around 1,300 migrants and three suspected people smugglers yesterday, just one day after Turkey reached a political deal with the European Union (EU)  to stem the flow of migrants.

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, struck a confrontational note in a Thanksgiving Day interview with CNN, refusing to apologize for his forces shooting down a Russian warplane along the Syrian border this week. In fact, Erdogan said Turkey would take the same actions again, under similar circumstances.

Contents: Putin calls Turkey’s downing of Russian plane a ‘stab in the back’; Turkmen in Syria versus Russians in occupied Crimea; Russia – Turkey crisis evokes memories of centuries of Crimean wars

On Tuesday morning, two Turkish F-16 fighters engaged a Russian Sukhoi-24 warplane and shot it down with an air-to-air missile, somewhere north of the Syrian port city of Latakia.