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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will travel to Vatican City on Sunday evening to meet with Pope Francis. During a news conference at Istanbul's Atatürk Airport State Guest House, Erdoğan called the visit a "significant opportunity" to convey messages of peace. "I see this visit as a significant opportunity in terms of drawing attention to common human values, friendship and peace messages," the president told reporters. "We will discuss Palestine, Jerusalem, Syria, Iraq, the fight against terrorism, the problems of refugees, humanitarian aid and the fight against rising Islamophobia and cultural racism in the West," he said, referring to his...

MOSCOW — Turkey’s offensive into the northern Syrian province of Afrin has been underway more than a week, raising concerns that Ankara will open a new full-fledged front in Syria with potential implications for the region's overall security. During a Russian Foreign Ministry briefing Jan. 25, ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova defended Russia against the Kurdish assertion that Moscow is siding with Turkey in Afrin. “Does Russia have to bear responsibility for Turkey’s actions?” Zakharova asked. “We have [our own] foreign policy, and a clear attitude toward engaging Kurds into the political process [in Syria].” A Kurdish reporter said it's hard...

A Russian warplane was shot down Saturday in Syria, according to Russian state-run news agencies. The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed one of its Su-25 warplanes was downed in Idlib province in northwest Syria, state media outlet RIA Novosti reported. Militants shot down the plane in an area controlled by al-Nusra Front fighters, according to the RIA Novosti report. Russia and Turkey, which is responsible for a de-escalation zone in Idlib, were taking measures to return the pilot's body, the defense ministry said. The ministry said more than 30 militants in the area were killed in a retaliatory strike, according...

The US-Turkey relations have become strained in the recent period due to the Turkish military intervention in Syria’s Afrin, an anti-Kurdish operation under the pretext of fighting terror – known as Operation Olive Branch. The US Congress is preparing sanctions against Turkey as part of the 2012 Magnitsky Act. The sanctions might target certain ministers and politicians of Turkey, Hurriyet reports. “The US government acknowledges that necessary means must be taken to stop Turkey, but at the same time the US tries to prevent the possible clash of the Turkish and American troops in the Syrian territory”, Hurriyet said. The...

Turkey has reneged on its pledge to not hound locally employed staff at US missions on its soil, with police interrogating a Turkish citizen working for the US Consulate in Istanbul yesterday, Al-Monitor has learned. The move could likely accelerate the US administration's plans to apply targeted visa sanctions against Turkish officials deemed to be involved in the unlawful detentions of US Consulate staff, provided that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson gives final approval, sources close to the Donald Trump administration told Al-Monitor.The sources, who spoke on strict condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the topic, said the...

Mutlu Civiroglu‏ @mutludc YPJ fighter Barin Kobani whose body was mutilated by Turkish-backed forces in Qurna village of Bilbil in #Afrin Remember both ISIS and al Qaeda fighters are now part of the FSA Turkish Militia who invaded Efrin, Syria -- Rojava; @AzadiRojava https://twitter.com/AzadiRojava/status/959150351894147072 YPJ heroine Barîn Kobane defended her homeland Efrîn from invading Al Qaeda Mercenaries & your ally Turkey. They got her. They mutilated & dismembered her body. Don’t condone these warcrimes. Break your silence @theresa_may @EmmanuelMacron @sigmargabriel @HalbeZijlstra-- Jenan Moussa; @jenanmoussa https://twitter.com/jenanmoussa/status/959151218680631297 There’s also another video going viral which is too graphic to share. But I’ll try...

A public event with the eminent scientist and rationalist Richard Dawkins was cancelled late last year by a Berkeley radio station. A spokesman for the station said that Dawkins had “said things that I know have hurt people,” a misleading allusion to the atheist Dawkins’s forthright criticism of Islam which, along with all religions, he regards as irrational. The station’s general manager declared: “We believe that it is our free speech right not to participate with anyone who uses hateful or hurtful language against a community that is already under attack.”This is only one of the more recent in...

I would like to believe that the United States can once again assume the mantle of the moral leader of the world. In 1939, when the Nazis rolled into Poland, my aunt, whose name I carry, was forced to strip naked and dig a hole, into which she and the other members of her village were summarily mowed down. Many in the Western world turned a deaf ear to the cries of my aunt, as well as to those of six million other Jews. America was exhausted and war weary after having fought World War I, in which approximately 30...

Despite the Federal German Government’s statements on the use of Leopard II tanks in the attacks against Afrin, it has come to light that Ankara had sent a notice to Berlin last week. The Berlin administration is under pressure due to the Turkish army using German-made Leopard II tanks in the attacks and massacres against Afrin. Despite photographs of German Leopard tanks published in the press, the Federal German Government had issued a statement saying they “didn’t have information”. Defense Ministry Spokesperson Holger Neumann spoke in a press conference last week in Berlin and said, “Outside of the images on...

Afrin, Syria after the Turkish attack Rosher Konis, an Armenian man whose family has lived in the Syrian region of Afrin since his ancestors escaped the Genocide, was reportedly killed last week after the Turkey launched an attack in its continuing campaign against Syria.According to the Hawar News Agency, Konis’ mother, Shamsa, 57 was injured and his sister, Hanifa, was badly injured forcing the amputation of her leg.The agency quoted Hartyon Kivork, a relative of the family, as saying: “Their ancestors fled the oppression of the Turkish authorities nearly 100 years ago in the result of the massacres committed...

The battle for a strategic hilltop is fast becoming an embarrassment for Turkey as its “Olive Branch” offensive drags on against Syrian Kurdish forces in Syria’s Afrin region.On Jan. 22, Turkish forces claimed victory over Bursaya amid cries of "Allahu Akbar," only to lose it within hours to the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). Yesterday, Turkish forces and their allies from the Free Syrian Army planted the Turkish flag on top of the hill, declaring they had seized full control of Bursaya once again. But authorities were forced to put the kibosh on a government-sponsored media tour of the hill today...

A Kurdish YPG fighter. Credit: Kurdishstruggle/Flickr Tensions have existed for years between Washington and Ankara over the Kurdish population in both Iraq and Syria. U.S. officials regard the Kurds as able fighters and democratic secular allies in the struggle against Islamic extremism. Turkish leaders view them and their agenda for an independent Kurdish homeland as a menace to Turkey’s sovereignty and territorial integrity—especially since a majority of Kurds reside in southeastern Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government deems the highly autonomous Kurdish entities across the border in Iraq and Syria as dangerous models and a magnet for their...

AFRIN, Syria — For more than a week, my home in northwestern Syria has been under a full-scale assault by the Turkish Army and thousands of Turkish-aligned Islamist jihadists.Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been threatening this invasion for a very long time. The Turkish Army has been targeting our villages with mortars and artillery for many months now.I and my fellow members of the Kurdish Women’s and People’s Protection Units, often known as the Y.P.J. and Y.P.G., have fought hard for years to keep the Islamic State out of this autonomous region of Syria known as Rojava. We endured...

In October of last year, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), backed by the United States, liberated the city of Raqqa from the Islamic State (ISIS) in a major defeat for the collapsing jihadist army that had proclaimed it to be the capital of its caliphate.Four months later, NATO member Turkey has opened a military campaign in the Syrian region Afrin against the same Kurds who led the fight against ISIS.The campaign appears to have jihadi expansionist goals. Turkey’s government-funded Diyanet (Presidency of Religious Affairs) declared that worshippers in mosques across Turkey—in at least 90,000 mosques—and across Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus...

Russian human rights activist, lawyer Maria Bast accused Turkey of violating international law by attacking Afrin and said, “On the other hand Russia has the mentality that is based on the principle that says everything’s fair on the way to victory”. President of Russian Lawyers Defending Human Rights, Maria Blast spoke to ANF about Turkish invasion attack on Afrin and Russia’s role in the region. How do you evaluate the invasion attack? Turkey, especially Erdogan doesn’t want to see Kurds getting their rights. During ISIS presence in Rojava, Erdogan didn’t raise his voice because ISIS was fighting against the Kurds...

U.S. coalition forces stationed in the Syrian Kurdish town of Manbij are ready to guard against a threatened Turkish offensive that risks direct confrontation between the NATO allies, a coalition spokesman said Friday. snip "Our forces there are well prepared to defend themselves," coalition spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon told the Washington Free Beacon. "We have air coverage over all of our troops so we're always prepared to defend ourselves, whether it's from ISIS or any other threat." Dillon reaffirmed American support for the Kurdish YPG fighters who make up the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a key U.S. partner...

Azaz (Syria) (AFP) - Turkey on Saturday urged the United States to withdraw personnel from a Kurdish-held town in northern Syria after Washington told Ankara it would stop arming a Syrian Kurdish militia that Turkey is fighting. As Turkey's offensive in Syria entered its second week with new air strikes and artillery, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said it was "necessary for them (US) to immediately withdraw from Manbij", where Washington has a military presence. Turkey launched operation "Olive Branch" on January 20 against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in its western enclave of Afrin, supporting Syrian opposition...

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel was protested by a large group in the audience in an event he attended in Hamburg’s historic theater because of the German tanks used in the Afrin attacks. A large group in the audience started chanting slogans against the German made Leopard II tanks being used in the attacks and massacres against Afrin as they held up banners when Gabriel started his speech. Gabriel and the protesters had a short argument. A banner that read “Turkey bombs Germany profits” was put up on one side of the hall and another that read “Solidarity with Kurdistan”...

We publish the ‘Daily News Bulletin’ by the ‘Information Centre of Afrin Resistance’ that is located in Afrin and hence based on primary sources, providing information from the invasion and resistance of the Afrin Canton. The Arab Youth Movement of Shehba region joined the Afrin Resistance against the occupying Turkish army and its affiliated Islamist groups. As a result of Turkish artillery shelling, multiple houses were damaged in the Yezili village of Basufanê, of the Shêrawa district. Although there were material damages, there was no death or injury. Heavy clashes occurred between the Turkish forces and the Syrian Democratic...

Turkish forces continue to bombard Afrin, a district in Syria currently controlled by Syrian Kurds. Turkey justifies its actions in the presence of the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, a Kurdish militia which Turkey accuses of being a terrorist group. The State Department and Pentagon, meanwhile, reticent to see hemorrhaging U.S.-Turkish ties decline further, split hairs: They explain their support for Syrian Kurds is limited to areas where the YPG (or Syrian Defense Force, of which the YPG is the dominant portion) fights the Islamic State, but that the United States is under no obligation to help the same groups...