The Turkish National Security Council issued a statement on Tuesday that “Operation Peace Spring,” the Turkish invasion of northeastern Syria, will continue despite cease-fire agreements brokered with the United States and Russia.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, en route home to Ankara after meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump and members of Congress in Washington, boasted that he taught Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) a “lesson” for daring to insult Turkey by questioning Erdogan’s invasion of Syria to attack the Kurds.
President Donald Trump praised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday, during his visit to the White House. “I’m a big fan of the president, to tell you that,” Trump said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that when he meets with U.S. President Donald Trump this week, his agenda will include Turkey’s relationship with Russia, complaints about Syrian Kurdish militia forces remaining in the “safe area” Turkey wants to carve out near its border, and Turkey’s long-stalled extradition request for exiled cleric and Erdogan arch-enemy Fethullah Gulen.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday accused the United States and Russia of failing to keep the promises they made when negotiating a cease-fire between Turkey’s invasion force and Syrian Kurdish militia.
Tuesday brought the end of the cease-fire that halted Turkey’s invasion of Syria to drive Kurdish military forces away from the border. Despite some ominous rumblings from other Turkish officials, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pronounced the Kurdish withdrawal satisfactory and declared victory.
Diseased and wounded Islamic State terrorists under Kurdish custody in Syria are requesting to be returned home to the West, the Agence-France Presse (AFP) reported on Tuesday.
Iran’s state-run Fars news agency on Monday reported Syrian Army units advancing to the Turkish border region have skirmished with invading Turkish forces.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday there is no fixed timetable for Turkish troops to withdraw from northeastern Syria, even though the objective of their invasion has ostensibly been met.
The editor-in-chief of a major Islamist newspaper in Turkey declared in celebration that the Russia- and U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Turkey and Kurdish fighters in Syria was a sign “the international system has collapsed” in a column Thursday.
The Kremlin issued a warning to Kurdish forces on Wednesday that they must withdraw from the Turkish border region immediately, or else “Syrian border guards and Russian military police officers will have to pull back,” leaving the Kurds to be “run over by the Turkish military machine.”
Ilham Amhed, president of the Syrian Democratic Council, on Monday met with U.S. congressional representatives and pleaded with President Donald Trump to stop Turkey’s “massacre” and “ethnic cleansing” of Syrian Kurds.
Turkish journalist Can Dundar, onetime editor of the Cumhuriyet newspaper, on Sunday accused the Turkish government of “hosting ISIS for years” and “releasing their guerrillas” from captivity.
Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad commented personally on Turkey’s invasion of Syrian Kurdistan on Thursday, warning that his military “will respond and confront” Turkey’s “terrorism … in all its forms in any region of Syrian territory.”
Why is Congress abandoning the Kurds when the War Powers Act gives them clear constitutional authority to not abandon the Kurds?
The mainstream media have begun to acknowledge that some Kurdish forces in the Turkey-Syria border region are a legitimate national security concern for Turkey, after a week of criticism of President Donald Trump’s withdrawal.
Turkey’s invasion of northeastern Syria to drive the Kurds away from the Turkish border is bringing more Western attention to the Kurds than they received during the long and bloody Syrian civil war, where they played a key role in defeating the Islamic State. Here are some important things to know about the Kurds.
The Turkish government is cracking down hard on internal dissent at the same time it lashes out against foreign criticism of “Operation Peace Spring,” its invasion of Syria to attack the Kurds.
Islamist Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday to either impose global nuclear disarmament or establish laws that allow any nation to develop nuclear weapons, as the status quo breeds “inequality.”
The United States will not allow NATO member Turkey to attack U.S.-allied Kurds in Syria, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper declared this week.
Turkish warplanes reportedly bombed a mosque in the Duhok province of the Kurdistan Region on Monday, even as Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was in the Kurdish capital of Erbil to discuss security issues and economic relations.
An angry mob featuring a member of Turkey’s Islamist ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) attempted to beat and “lynch” secular opposition party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu during a soldier’s funeral Sunday.
The Turkish Interior Ministry announced on Monday that Turkey and Iran carried out a joint operation against Kurdish separatist militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), with full results yet to be announced. The operation was apparently conducted in the Qandil mountains of Iraq’s Irbil province, about 25 miles from the Turkish border.
Leyla Guven, a Turkish parliamentarian from the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), has been imprisoned for over a year and engaged in a hunger strike for the past 77 days.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Friday in what Graham described as an effort to defuse tensions between Turkey and the United States regarding the Syrian Kurds.
President Donald Trump threatened on Sunday to “devastate Turkey economically” if Turkish forces attack the Kurds in Syria after the United States withdraws.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan refused to meet with U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton before he departed Ankara on Tuesday, claiming a scheduling conflict but assailing Bolton’s defense of Syrian Kurdish militias in remarks the same day.
The U.S. special envoy for Syria, James Jeffrey, used a speech at the Atlantic Council on Tuesday to describe American support for armed Kurdish groups in Syria as “transactional” and temporary.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday urged Turkey to release pro-Kurdish opposition party leader Selahattin Demirtas from detention.
A Turkish court ruled to free Pastor Andrew Brunson on Friday after two years of detention on Friday. He is reportedly on his way home to North Carolina.
A Turkish court on Friday ruled in favor of releasing American Pastor Andrew Brunson nearly two years after Turkish authorities arrested him on charges of terrorism.
A Turkish court on Tuesday ruled against American pastor Andrew Brunson’s appeal to be released from house arrest.
The government of Turkey issued a blanket decree Sunday firing 18,632 state employees for unspecified “links with terror groups” and has increased the number of arrests for “insulting the president” ahead of the inauguration of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Monday.
Turkey denounced the embargo imposed by its NATO ally the United States on state sponsor of terror Iran as a “mistake,” arguing that America “does not have the right” to force other countries to implement its unilateral decision,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) on Friday.
Presidential candidate Selahattin Demirtas of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) gave a remarkable campaign speech to Turkish voters on Sunday. His supporters say Demirtas is the only real challenger to incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, even though Demirtas is running with a rather large handicap: he is in jail.
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) confirmed on Tuesday that it reached an agreement with Turkey to pull the American-allied Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), deemed “terrorists’ by Ankara, from the northern Syrian city of Manbij, arguing that the move will “reduce tensions.”
Turkey has launched a major military surge against the terrorist Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, where Ankara has already set up 11 regional bases and doubled its military footprint, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim declared over the weekend.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdag said on Tuesday that it is “completely inconceivable to return Afrin back to the control of the Syrian regime” after Turkey invaded the northern border region in January.
The resumption of the trail in a Turkish Court on Monday where an American pastor faces 35 years in prison for his alleged ties to terrorism ended after one day, with the judge dismissing all of the witness testimony in support of Andrew Brunson and left him behind bars until the next hearing in July.
A Turkish court ordered the continued detention of American Pastor Andrew Brunson on Monday, deeming him a flight risk and placing him in what advocates call an “extremely grim” prison on charges of having used his Christian sermons to promote Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.
