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INTERNATIONAL | President Recep Tayyip Erdogan works to Islamize Christian sites TURKEY: The Turkish Islamic Foundation destroyed the historic St. Georgios Greek Orthodox Church in Bursa on Wednesday, seven years after local officials transferred the property to the group’s control. Authorities emptied Bursa of its Greek Orthodox population a century ago, and the church became a mosque in the 1920s. But in 2006 it was restored and for years served as a focal point for Greek-Turkish exchange and reconciliation, then was closed and lapsed into disrepair once the foundation took over. It follows a campaign by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan...

An organized campaign is under way against US targets. Who is responsible? The ongoing, steady tempo of rocket attacks against US and official targets in Iraq continued this week. On Monday, two Katyusha rockets fell on the Jadriya neighborhood of Baghdad, close to the fortified Green Zone. There were no casualties.Earlier, on September 27, five civilians (two women and three children) were killed when a Katyusha aimed at Baghdad airport fell short and fell on a private house. The five were members of the same family. On September 30, in an additional escalation, four rockets were launched at the Iraqi...

Minutes after the truce took force, the Armenian military accused Azerbaijan of shelling the area near the town of Kapan in southeastern Armenia, killing one civilian. The Azerbaijani military, in turn, accused Armenia of striking the Terter and Agdam regions of Azerbaijan with missiles and then attempting to launch offensives in the Agdere-Terter and the Fizuli-Jabrail areas. Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov charged that “conditions for implementing the humanitarian cease-fire are currently missing” amid the continuing Armenian shelling. The latest outburst of fighting between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces began Sept. 27 and left hundreds of people dead in the biggest...

"All trends are going in the wrong direction" The premier of Canada's most populous province speaking today announcing tightened restrictions in three areas (Toronto, Ottawa, Peel). Doug Ford warning of "an alarming rate" of growth in COVID-19 cases..... "The data speak for themselves, we had a superspreader event in the White House, and it was a situation where people were crowded together and not wearing masks" That's what Dr. Anthony Fauci told CBS News...... The commission on those presidential debates cancelling next Wednesday's planned debate amid disagreement..... The President taking his campaign for re-election onto The Rush Limbaugh Show.... Twitter...

Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed a temporary ceasefire in the conflict in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced the agreement just before 03:00 local time (01:00 BST), following 10 hours of talks in Moscow. The two countries will now begin "substantive" talks, he said. More than 300 people have died and thousands displaced since the latest violence in the long-running conflict broke out on 27 September. The hostilities will be halted from midday (08:00 GMT) on Saturday, to allow an exchange of prisoners and the recovery of dead bodies. Nagorno-Karabakh is run by ethnic Armenians although...

MOSCOW - The Russian and Egyptian Navy are preparing to conduct maneuvers, the first of their kind in the Black Sea. According to the press office of the Russian Southern Military District, representatives of the two armies held a three-day conference in Novorossiysk on the preparation of the joint exercises "Friendship Bridge - 2020", which will be held for the first time in the Black Sea. The Black Sea is an inland sea located between the southeastern part of Europe and Asia Minor. It connects with the Mediterranean Sea through the Bosphorus Strait and the Sea of ​​Marmara, and it...

Turkey supports efforts for a peaceful solution to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh as long as they account for Azerbaijan's legitimate demands, a spokesman for the Turkish presidency said. "We call on the Minsk Group to come up with a timetable and a new proposal that is actionable, that has specific guidelines to end the current round of hostilities but most importantly also a way to end the occupation of Azeri lands by Armenia, which has been the root cause of this problem," government spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin told Al Jazeera. "The Minsk Group, which was established almost 30 years ago, has...

Putin’s invitation came as there appeared to be no end in sight for nearly two weeks of fighting between Azerbaijan and ethic Armenian separatists that has claimed hundreds of lives. “The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia are being invited to Moscow on October 9,” Putin said in a statement released by the Kremlin. “The President of Russia is issuing a call to halt the fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh on humanitarian grounds in order to exchange dead bodies and prisoners,” the Kremlin added. Yerevan has so far ruled out any talks between the two countries’ top diplomats as long as...

Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of shelling a historic cathedral in Nagorno-Karabakh as fighting continues over the disputed region. Photos showed damage to both the interior and exterior of the Holy Saviour Cathedral in Shusha city. More than 300 people have died and thousands displaced since the latest fighting broke out on 27 September. International monitors from the US, Russia and France have begun efforts to try and end the violence. They are meeting the Azeri foreign minister in Geneva on Thursday. The Armenian foreign minister is due to meet his Russian counterpart in Moscow on Monday.

"We have very good relations with both nations," Rouhani said. "The war should come to the end. We hope stability returns to the region." ... Iran shares nearly 760 kilometers (470 miles) of its border with Azerbaijan and about 35 kilometers (22 miles) with Armenia, with traditionally good relations with both neighbors, though public opinion in the predominantly Shiite Iran mainly supports Azerbaijan.

In Nagorno-Karabakh, on the one hand, Shiite Azerbaijan, whose people are a large minority in Iran, is fighting, and on the other, Christian Armenia, a trading partner that helps Tehran circumvent sanctions. In the shadow of the fear of unrest by the Azeri minority, the regime is treading a thin rope Dr. Raz Zimet | Posted 10:12 The fighting between Azerbaijan and the Armenian forces in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave in the Caucasus entered its 11th day this morning (Wednesday), and a ceasefire is still not in sight. More than 200 people have already been killed and hundreds more injured in...

And the U.S. unwittingly aids its NATO ally’s jihad. Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. As it has done in other arenas where “extremists” are attacking moderates or Christians—from Syria to Libya to Nigeria—Turkey is spearheading another jihad, this time against Christian Armenia. Context: Fighting recently erupted in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which borders Armenia and Azerbaijan.  Although it is ethnically Armenian, after the dissolution of the USSR, the territory was allotted to Muslim Azerbaijan.  Since then, hostilities and skirmishes have erupted, though the current one, if not quenched—an Azerbaijani drone was shot down...

A new report has claimed that Turkey is deporting Uighur Muslims back to China via a third country. WION spoke to Uighur activist Arslan Hidayat in Istanbul - who shared details about the deportation of Uighurs from Turkey.Gravitas: Erdogan's Islamic Hypocrisy | Turkey deports Uighurs back to China via third country

Today's top stories 06.10.20; 1) Palestinian Islamists launched a rocket toward Israel's southern communities, last night; the first such attack since September the 16th.2) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan singles out Israel, Cyprus and Syria as the root obstacles to global peace and tranquility.3) Armenia claims Israel pledged to suspend weapons sales to Azerbaijan; sophisticated weaponry which granted the latter a clear qualitative military edge in the conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Turkey's "full support" motivated its ally Azerbaijan to reignite fighting in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Tuesday in an interview with AFP, calling the escalating conflict a "war against terrorism". "While it is true that the leadership of Azerbaijan has been actively promoting bellicose rhetoric for the last 15 years, now the decision to unleash a war was motivated by Turkey's full support," the 45-year-old premier said. "Without Turkey's active engagement this war would have not begun," he added, speaking to AFP in a sumptuous room of the Government House in the heart of Armenian...

RIYADH/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The head of Saudi Arabia's Chambers of Commerce has called for a boycott of Turkish products amid reports from merchants that animosity between Ankara and Riyadh is hindering the flow of goods between the two regional powers. Saudi Arabia and Turkey have been at odds for some years over foreign policy and attitudes towards political Islamist groups. The murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi's Istanbul consulate in 2018 escalated tensions sharply. Earlier this year the two countries blocked some of each other's news websites. "A boycott of everything Turkish, be it imports, investment or tourism,...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has warned the world Jerusalem “belongs” to Turkey, harking back to the Ottoman Empire’s control over the city for hundreds of years up until it was ejected in 1917. Erdogan made his public claim Thursday as he addressed Turkish lawmakers during a major policy speech in Ankara. He said: "In this city that we had to leave in tears during the First World War, it is still possible to come across traces of the Ottoman resistance. So Jerusalem is our city, a city from us. Our first qibla [direction of prayer in Islam] al-Aqsa and...

A police officer shown throwing a bucket during a crackdown on an illegal outdoor worship service. More later on Israel's coronavirus crackdown. New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio wants to shut down nine neighborhoods in the city starting Wednesday..... "Your own kid's high school football game...we just stood for the national anthem and then we violated every liberty and freedom that we have" "I have a right not to wear a mask" We now have video of what happened from Ammon Bundy's perspective as he took a stand against a mask-muzzle order at a high school football game..... The coronavirus freedom...

Today's top stories 02.10.20; 1) Israel and Lebanon have formulated a framework agreement to launch direct-negotiations on "maritime and land boundary demarcation between the two countries."2) The European Union concluded a two-day summit, today -- the first day of which focused primarily on EU relations with Turkey and tensions surrounding the Eastern Mediterranean.3) The Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem expressed regret over Armenia's decision to recall its ambassador for consultations.

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday about the latest fighting in a disputed enclave in Azerbaijan. According to a statement issued by Élysée Palace, the two “shared their concern regarding the sending of Syrian mercenaries by Turkey to Nagorno-Karabakh.” The enclave is governed by its ethnic-Armenian majority and has been a flashpoint over the years between Azerbaijan and its neighbor Armenia, both of which were republics in the Soviet Union, during which time Nagorno-Karabakh was viewed as being semi-autonomous. Ankara has indeed lined up behind Baku with regard to the renewed fighting but denies...