Post Pic

Iran Criticizes Turkey’s Aid In Extinguishing Forest Fire In Israel’s North

In recent days, Iranian media has been reporting on the Turkish aid in extinguishing the fire in the north of Israel, and on Israel’s attempts to take advantage of Turkey’s humanitarian aid to rebuild the relations between the two countries… Continue reading

Post Pic

WikiLeaks: Strong Pushback On the Turkey-Armenia Normalization

Burns stressed that the U.S. believes that progress on the Turkey-Armenia protocols could create political space for Sargsian to be more flexible on NK. He continued that the reverse was also true, that a failure of the Turkey-Armenia process would almost… Continue reading

Post Pic

After Dropping Freeze Bid, U.S. Formulates New Turkey-Iran Deal

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had the thankless task of writing finis on the Obama administration’s intense two-year effort to persuade Israelis and Palestinians to discuss peace. Her speech to the Saban Forum early Saturday, Dec. 11 was much awaited as Washington’s first comment on… Continue reading

Post Pic

Gaza-Bound ‘Asia to Gaza Solidarity Caravan’ Leaving India

The Asian convoy set out from Delhi in India on December 1. It was delayed for a number of days by the Indian and Pakistani authorities on the border between the two countries, but on December 5 it crossed the border on its way to Lahore, Pakistan, and from… Continue reading

Post Pic

Why Do Iranians And Turks Want Arabs To Fight Jews?

If you want to understand how the debate goes in the Arabic-speaking world and the ways liberals there try to get across their message, there’s nothing better to read than Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed’s article, “Erdogan…Fulfill Your Promises.” It’s also very easy to misunderstand… Continue reading

Post Pic

Turkish PM Erdogan: Hizbullah Not Involved In Rafik Hariri Assassination

The Lebanese daily Al-Safir reported on Monday that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan does not believe Hizbullah is connected to the 2005 Rafik Hariri assassination. Rafik Hariri was then Lebanese prime minister and is the father of the current Prime Minister Sa’ad Hariri… Continue reading

Post Pic

Lebanese Armenians Unhappy With Erdogan’s Visit To Lebanon

Hundreds of Lebanese of Armenian descent gathered in the capital’s Martyrs’ Square and clashed with army troops during a protest Thursday over a visit to Beirut by the Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan… Continue reading

Post Pic

Beware The Leader Who Bangs The Drums of War

It should be getting pretty hard even for Western leaders to ignore the Turkish regime’s growing alliance with their enemies. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Lebanon included a very dangerous statement that must not go unnoticed… Continue reading

Post Pic

Changing Of The Guard: Judicial Reforms Reinforce Concerns About the AKP’s Increasing Authoritarianism

The restructuring of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK), which is responsible for appointments and disciplinary procedures in the Turkish judicial system, was one of the key reforms in the package of constitutional amendments which were approved in a referendum… Continue reading

Post Pic

Poster Art of the Armenian Genocide

By the end of the nineteenth century, there were some 300,000 Armenians in Iran (Persia at the time) representing almost 3% of the Iranian population of 1900. The massacres at the end of 19th century and early 20th century brought more Armenian refugees… Continue reading

Post Pic

Turkey Moving Toward A Semi-Dictatorship

Soner Cagaptay, senior fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute, writes in an article that since 2002, when Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power… Continue reading

Post Pic

Democracy’s Balancing Act

When I started drawing the Dry Bones cartoons, way back in January of 1973, the accepted wisdom was that the future for a democratic Middle East was tied to the fortunes of Christian Lebanon, the secular government of Muslim Turkey, and the Jewish State of Israel… Continue reading

Post Pic

Egyptian Authorities Refused To Allow 17 Activists To Enter The Gaza Strip

Egyptian authorities refused to allow 17 activists from the Viva Palestina convoy to enter the Gaza Strip. Those denied entry included Viva Palestina leader George Galloway, several activists who had been aboard the Mavi Marmara, Muslim Brotherhood activists, and participants in the confrontation with… Continue reading

Post Pic

Turkey Declares Israel As A Threat

Only hours ago I wrote about the Turkish regime’s decision, in its official main strategy document, to drop revolutionary Islamism or Iran as threats–because they are now its allies–in the main NSC document. It was only a matter of time, I added, before they declared Israel or… Continue reading

Post Pic

Turkish PM Erdogan: Those Who Follow Islam Cannot Kill People

When Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was touring parts of flooded areas in Pakistan last week, he used his visit to Pakistan to attack Israel and to polish his image as a champion of Muslim solidarity… Continue reading

Post Pic

Turkish Islamist Regime Sounds Just Like Iran

Often, though, there is internal evidence in such statements that shows the problem goes much farther, as in the growing extremism of the Islamist regime in Turkey. Take Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s remarks in Pakistan, for example. He was complaining about the… Continue reading

Post Pic

Iran-Syria Bloc Consolidates Alliance With Turkish Regime

In effect, Ahmadinejad is saying: I insult America! I am leader of the Palestinian struggle! I’m going to get nuclear weapons! I’ve got it all. Now, if there was only some Western leadership to organize the other side there might be more hope of… Continue reading

Post Pic

Chinese Warplanes In Turkey and Iran

The arrival of a new Middle East player startled Washington and Jerusalem: debkafile’s military sources disclose that when Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan met Syrian president Bashar Assad in Damascus Monday, Oct. 11, they talked less about the Kurdish question and more about… Continue reading

Post Pic

Palestinian Attempt To Prevent OECD Conference In Jerusalem

The PLO’s international foreign relations department called on member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to boycott the organization’s conference scheduled for October 20-22, which will focus on the development of environmentally sustainable tourism… Continue reading

Post Pic

Interview With Turkish Journalist Who Was On The Mavi Marmara Contradicts UN Report

In a TV interview, Turkish journalist Şefik Dinç, who was on the Mavi Marmara and wrote a book about it, said that no shots were fired from the Israeli helicopters and that IDF soldiers did not open fire until their lives were in danger. The interview clearly contradicts the IHH narrative and… Continue reading

Post Pic

Peace and Humanity Convoy Part of Anti-Israel Propaganda

According to reports, Turkish participation in the convoy has been reduced to ten vehicles. In Istanbul the convoy was received by IHH activists, and at a ceremony held in its honor, IHH leader Bülent Yildirim called on Egypt to allow it to pass… Continue reading

Post Pic

Foreign Minister of Turkey Says Turkish Relationship With Israel Might Be A Permanent Problem

On thursday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that the relationship between Turkey and Israel might be a permanent problem, because Turkish civilians were killed during Israel’s raid on the Mavi Marmara… Continue reading

Post Pic

Turkey’s Referendum Doesn’t Mean Popular Support for a Regime Aligning With Iran

It is true that the passage of the referendum in Turkey with 58 percent of the vote can be seen as a victory for the AKP regime. But that point shouldn’t be exaggerated. The bad feature of the reforms–in terms of consolidating the Islamist government’s power–is to strengthen the regime’s control over the courts and to… Continue reading

Post Pic

The Ideology Behind the Mavi Marmara Flotilla

Conspicuous among the passengers and organizations aboard the Mavi Marmara were Turkish and Arab Islamic extremists led by IHH. They were joined by extremist European left activists and volunteers who answered the call to help the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and were not partners in IHH’s violent plans… Continue reading

Post Pic

President Gul Addresses the General Debate of the 65th Session of the General Assembly

Permanent реасе in the Middle East holds the key to а peaceful and stable future in the world. Unfortunately, the absence of реасе there has had serious and adverse strategic consequences for the rest of the world… Continue reading