Free Republic

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed in an overnight phone call on joint action against Islamic State in the Syrian towns of Raqqa and al-Bab, both held by the militants, Turkish presidency sources said on Wednesday. U.S.-Turkish differences during former President Barack Obama's administration impeded the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State, and closer coordination could mean faster progress towards freeing swathes of northern Syria from IS. Erdogan now hopes that relations with Washington, strained by the presence in the United States of a cleric he blames for an attempted military coup last year and by U.S....

The German government has accused Turkey of being a hub for Islamist groups that allows them to further their aims across the Middle East, according to a leaked confidential document. It alleges that the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan supports Palestinian militant group Hamas, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and “groups in the armed Islamist opposition in Syria,” all of which follow Sunni Islam, the same strand as the majority of Muslim Turks. In its response, the ministry says that the Turkish government’s “numerous statements of solidarity and supportive actions” for these three groups “underline their ideological affinity with the...

In Turkish media it emerges that Turkey's support for ISIS jihadists in Syria comes from the highest level of power in the country - the President and the government. Today's Zaman, which is controlled by the Gülen movement, writes that President Recep Erdoğan has admitted that the Turkish intelligence service, MIT, has smuggled weapons to ISIS in Syria. In a speech on November 24, to an assembly of teachers, the president said, according to the newspaper: "You know of the treason regarding the MIT trucks, don't you? So what if there were weapons in them? I believe that our people...

TEHRAN (FNA) - ISIL Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been transferred to Turkey for treatment through a series of coordination measures by the CIA after the notorious terrorist leader was severely injured in the Iraqi army's airstrike on his convoy in Western Anbar province, media reports disclosed on Wednesday. "The CIA has drone coordination with the Turkish intelligence organization to transfer al-Baghdadi to Turkey," the Arabic-language al-Manar TV quoted unnamed sources as saying on Wednesday. The source said that two companions of al-Baghdadi who were also injured in the attack on the ISIL leader's convoy and were captured by the...

Putin has personally sent a message to the Turkish ambassador to Moscow, Mr Ümit Yardim, and warned him that Russia will stop any relationships unless the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stops supporting ISIS terrorists in Syria. According to The leaked information obtained by The Moscow Times, the meeting between the Mr.Purin and Turkish ambassador was imbued with intense mutual resentment where Mr. Yardim has repudiated all Russian accusations, laying blame on Russia for Syria’s bitter and protracted civil war. “..THEN TELL YOUR DICTATOR PRESIDENT HE CAN GO TO HELL ALONG WITH HIS ISIS TERRORIST AND I SHALL MAKE SYRIA...

A US-led raid on the compound housing the Islamic State's "chief financial officer" produced evidence that Turkish officials directly dealt with ranking ISIS members, Martin Chulov of the Guardian reported recently. The officer killed in the raid, Islamic State official Abu Sayyaf, was responsible for directing the terror army's oil and gas operations in Syria. The Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh) earns up to $10 million a month selling oil on black markets.

Damning evidence was found when US special forces killed Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abu Sayyaf in May, revealing that NATO member Turkey has in fact been collaborating with the brutal jihadists. The British Guardian reported on Sunday that when Abu Sayyaf’s compound was raided in eastern Syria, it was discovered that Turkey is the main buyer of smuggled ISIS oil which was managed by Abu Sayyaf to economically prop up the terror group. The report quoted a senior Western official, who told the Observer that the findings at the compound showed direct deals between Turkish officials and ISIS leaders is...

In the latest of a series of revelations, the Turkish authorities have allegedly been providing electricity to Tel Abyad -- a northern Syrian city just across the border from the Turkish city of Akçakale -- which is controlled by militants linked to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). More stunning is the not-so-secret presence of ISIL militants on the streets of Akçakale, in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, a reporter with the Birgün daily claimed in a piece published on Friday. His account echoes many other reports, revealing the risks Turkey is facing as fighting between Kurdish...

VIDEO: 6 minutes After the Islamist AKP party cruised to defeat in last weekend’s parliamentary elections, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government announced the border would be closed to Syrians fleeing ISIS as “there is no longer a humanitarian tragedy,” in the words of Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş. Kurtulmuş further claimed Wednesday that people were “fleeing strikes by coalition forces and the progress of Kurdish fighters in the region.” He laid blame not on the Islamic State but on the anti-ISIS coalition for driving Syrian refugees into Turkey with “reasonless and meaningless” airstrikes. More than 13,000 Syrian refugees fled across...