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The presidents of Armenia and Turkey pledged Saturday to overcome decades of enmity between their two nations during the first visit to Yerevan by a Turkish head of state. Abdullah Gul held talks with Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian after which the two agreed there was now the "political will" to improve relations frozen for decades by lingering bitterness over 1915-1917 massacres. Gul's visit was hailed by French and EU President Nicolas Sarkozy as "courageous and historic" at a time when the Caucasus region is in turmoil following the conflict in Armenia's northern neighbour Georgia. The two countries -- which have...

Talks this week on the reunification of Cyprus look more hopeful than many would have dared to think possible. But the discovery of remains from some of those killed during the 1974 Turkish invasion is refreshing old grievances, as Tabitha Morgan reports. (snip) On 21 December 1963 Mustafa Arif, a senior officer at Nicosia prison, was admitted to hospital in what is today the Greek Cypriot side of the city to be treated for a heart condition. By the next day relations between the two communities had collapsed. Riots broke out in Nicosia, shops were looted and burned and the...

ANKARA -- At the moment, 60 percent of Turkey's natural gas and about half of its crude oil demand are supplied by Russia. The report said that any possible disturbance in crude oil needs to be supplied from other countries and the international spot market, however, a similar solution for a natural gas crisis is not available. Turkey has threatened to retaliate against new Russian import controls that are seen as an attempt to punish Turkey for allowing U.S. warships carrying aid to Georgia to pass through the Turkish straits, which connect the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. Experts do...

The second church was inaugurated in A.D. 405, after being built upon the remnants of the first church at the same site, which dates to A.D. 360... No scientific examinations have yet been carried out on the flooded ground four meters beneath the floor of the museum. According to Akkaya, the water found below is connected to the Basilica Cistern and Topkapi Palace. "Yes, the area underneath Hagia Sophia is filled with water. I assume the layers contain pieces of pottery and ceramics, as well as relics from the second church of Hagia Sophia," Akkaya acknowledged... Recently, a team of...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

Turkey threatened on Friday to restrict imports from Russia in a trade dispute that has highlighted Ankara’s precarious diplomatic position between its Nato allies and Moscow. Kursad Tuzmen, Turkey’s foreign trade minister, said his country would impose unspecified curbs on Russian goods after thousands of Turkish lorries were held up at Russian border posts. Turkish ministers fear that the disagreement is more significant than past export rows and could mark a Russian attempt to punish Turkey for allowing US warships to pass through the Bosphorus into the Black Sea. The dispute comes in spite of Ankara’s efforts to maintain good...

Landlocked and poor, Armenia is looking even more vulnerable. Most of its fuel and much of its grain comes through Georgia's Black Sea ports, which are virtually paralyzed. The capital city of Yerevan is already experiencing a serious fuel shortage, where many filling stations have halted sales of gasoline and supplies of key commodities such as jet fuel and wheat are dwindling. Armenia is reportedly trying to secure additional fuel supplies through Iran, its only remaining neighbor whose border remains open. This is the moment for Turkey to step forward. By re-opening the rail line linking the eastern province of...

Russia said U.S. ships could only stay in the Black Sea for 21 days according to the Montreux Convention, and warned if they do not leave by then Turkey would be responsible. Russia's deputy military chief Anatoly Nogovitsyn said the NATO warships' entrance to the Black Sea is a "serious threat to our security," Hurriyet daily reported on Thursday. He said under the Montreux Convention, signed in 1936 on the status of the Turkish Straits, the warships can only stay in the Black Sea for 21 days. "If the NATO ships continue to stay in the Black Sea after the...

Parts of a giant, exquisitely carved marble sculpture depicting the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius have been found at an archaeological site in Turkey... at the ancient city of Sagalassos. So far the statue's head, right arm and lower legs have been discovered... The partial statue was unearthed in the largest room at Sagalassos's Roman baths. The cross-shaped room measures 1,250 sq m (13,500 sq ft), is covered in mosaics and was probably used as a frigidarium -- a room with a cold pool which Romans could sink into after a hot bath. It was partially destroyed in an earthquake between...

Polska osada na tureckiej ziemi Saturday, August 23, 2008 'Our situation is extraordinary,' used to describe the position of Polish residents of Polonezköy Zofia Ryzy, who lived there all her life, 'Poland is our motherland, but Adampol on the Bosporus is like Poland with all its traditions on the Turkish soil' Marzena Romanowska ISTANBUL – Turkish Daily News The asphalt road leading to Polonezköy, or Adampol, as residents call it, was constructed only 10 years ago. Nowadays, especially in spring and fall, hundreds of vehicles use it to get to this peaceful oasis in the outskirts of Istanbul. People escaping...

Authorities seized a small amount of radioactive material and nerve gas from a taxi in the Georgian capital and detained the driver, officials said Monday. Tedo Mokeliya was detained May 31 after police in this former Soviet republic discovered two containers with 3 curies of cesium-137 and 12 microcuries of strontium in his taxi, said Givi Mgebrishvili, chief of the Interior Ministry's main criminal investigation department. Cesium and strontium, which have medical and industrial applications, are considered likely ingredients for a so-called "dirty bomb," in which conventional explosives are combined with radioactive material. Mgebrishvili said at a news conference that...

In 1943 during WW2, an army Sgt., Ed Davis, was working in Iran near the Turkish border, in charge of locals hired by our army to build a road through Iran to the Soviet border, which would carry supplies to the Soviets instead of flying them in. In short, Ed did a tremendous favor for a little Kurdish village near Ararat. His workers were mostly Kurds and the chief of the village came to Ed and asked if he would like to see Noah's Ark. He said the summer on the mountain had been hottest in many years and the...

NATO warships, which passed through Istanbul's Bosporus Strait Thursday, entered the Black Sea for long-planned exercises and routine visits to ports in Romania and Bulgaria, the alliance said. A U.S. Navy warship entered Turkey's Dardanel Strait on Friday taking relief supplies to Georgia. Three warships - from Spain, Germany and Poland - sailed into the Black Sea on Thursday. The move is not linked to the tensions over Russia's invasion of Georgia, which lies on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, about 900 kilometers (550 miles) from the Romanian coast, said officials at NATO's military command in southern Belgium....

Iranian President Ahmadinejad to Turkish TV In Advance of Turkey Visit: Our Attitude Toward Israel is Shared By Turks And By 'Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine – Because These Are the True Words [Of Allah]'; 'I Wish They Had Free Elections in America... Whatever Government Comes, It Must Leave the Middle East' CNNTurk and NTV television interviewed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in advance of his visit to Turkey. The following is the transcript of the interview: [1] To view the clip of the interview, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKUuGNNanjY. "The Two Countries [Turkey and Iran] are Culturally Close and the...

Arch[a]eologists unearthed a 1,700-year old Apollon statue in Soloi Pompeipolis ancient city [founded in 65-66 B.C.] in the southern province of Mersin. Dr. Remzi Yagci, an archeologist from Dokuz Eylul University, told AA that the statue was made up of bronze in the first half of 3rd century, and belonging to Roman period. Yagci said that the statue of sun-god Apollon was 615 grams and 20 cm. He added that the statue would be given to officials of Mersin Museum.

President Bush Wednesday promised that U.S. naval forces would deliver humanitarian aid to war-torn Georgia before his administration had received approval from Turkey, which controls naval access to the Black Sea, or the Pentagon had planned a seaborne operation, U.S. officials said Thursday. As of late Thursday, Ankara, a NATO ally, hadn't cleared any U.S. naval vessels to steam to Georgia through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, the narrow straits that connect the Mediterranean and the Black Seas, the officials said. Under the 1936 Montreaux Convention, countries must notify Turkey before sending warships through the straits. Pentagon officials told McClatchy...

The Austrian archeological team that has been carrying out excavations in Ephesus enlarged the scope of their activity in the past months to cover the nearby tumulus Cukuricihoyuk. The team has uncovered archeologically unique relics in the ancient tumulus[.] Traces of ancient settlements were unearthed during excavations of a tumulus located to the southeast of the ancient city of Ephesus. The Austrian archeological team that has been conducting excavations in Ephesus near the city of Izmir for more than a year expanded the scope of their activity in recent months to include the nearby tumulus of Cukuricihoyuk. Led by Dr....

When Hungary fell to the Turks and the library was lost, its size in the minds of men grew exponentially. Figures of up to 50,000 books were bandied about. In fact there were probably never more than 2,500. Today some 216 of them are known to have survived. How they did, and how they became Hungary's quest for the holy grail, is a gripping tale, helped along by Mr Tanner's penchant for intriguing asides... Translations of Greek and Latin works were often of poor quality, even if they had been prepared for princes. Although Hungarians eventually built a cult of...

Days after Russia scored a stunning geopolitical victory in the Caucasus, President Abdullah Gül of Turkey said he saw a new multipolar world emerging from the wreckage of war. The conflict in Georgia, Gül asserted, showed that the United States could no longer shape global politics on its own, and should begin sharing power with other countries. "I don't think you can control all the world from one centre," Gül told the Guardian.

ISTANBUL: Turkish warplanes hit a suspected Kurdish rebel target in northern Iraq, Turkey's military said on Sunday. The cross-border air assault targeted a rebel shelter late on Saturday where a group of PKK Kurdish rebels were believed to have gathered before a planned attack in Turkey, the military said on its website. The military provided no casualty figures. The reported air raid on the Avasin-Basyan region of Iraq could not independently be confirmed. Turkey's military has launched several air raids and one ground incursion targeting the PKK rebel safe havens in northern Iraq since the parliament authorized cross-border military moves...

ANKARA (AFP) - President Abdullah Gul sent a reconciliatory message to neighbouring Armenia on Saturday, saying Turkey is "no enemy" to any country in its region, as he mulled a possible landmark trip to Yerevan. The conflict between Georgia and Russia shows the need for "early measures to resolve frozen problems in the region and... prevent instability in the future," said Gul in televised remarks in the central city of Nevsehir.

WASHINGTON - It was surely not lost on Russia's bully in chief, Vladimir Putin, that the oil giant BP decided to shut down the pipeline that runs through parts of Georgia controlled by Russian troops. Indeed, that was one of the aims of the cross-border incursion. Putin understands better than anyone that oil and natural gas are the source of Russia's resurgence as a military and economic power and his own control over the Russian government and key sectors of its economy. It is oil and gas that provide the money to maintain Russia's powerful military, along with a vast...

A Turkish energy ministry official confirmed that the BTC pipeline blast was a terrorist act. But what’s more, Russia’s international politics advisor to the Russian Duma declared the pipeline “dead” and that it would never operate again. An adviser to the Russian parliament also claimed the closed pipeline would not be opened again and declared the line is “dead”. “The world and countries in the region have seen that not NATO, but Russia is the only one who could secure the energy routes,” Alexander Dugin, international politics advisor to the Russia’s Duma, told Turkish Cumhuriyet daily. “In this context, regarding...

ANKARA (AFP) — Washington has made no formal request from Ankara to allow two US hospital ships to sail through the Turkish Straits to Georgia, a US diplomat said Saturday, following reports that Turkey was dragging its feet on making a decision.

The sudden war in the Caucasus brought Georgia to heel, reasserted Russia's claim as the dominant force in the region, and dealt a blow to U.S. prestige. But in this part of the world, diplomacy and war are about oil and gas as much as they are about hegemony and the tragic loss of human life. Victory in Georgia now gives Russia the edge in the struggle over access to the Caspian's 35 billion barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of gas. The probable losers: the U.S. and those Western oil companies that have bet heavily on the...

Russia, Georgia back Turkish-sponsored Caucasian alliance 15/08/2008 TBILISI, Georgia -- Both Russia and Georgia have backed Turkey's proposal for an alliance of Caucasian countries, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday (August 14th) after a meeting with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. Erdogan, accompanied by Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, visited the Georgian capital for talks with Saakashvili on the situation in South Ossetia and Turkey's proposal for a Caucasian stability forum. Erdogan later told a joint press conference, "We asked Georgia to participate in this platform. Our proposal was also welcomed by Russia." His visit to Tbilisi came a...

South Ossetia is not, as some have suggested, tit-for-tat payback for American and European recognition, over Russian objections, of Kosovo's independence from Serbia. Russia has been "at war" with democratic Georgia for some time. Driven to distraction by Mr. Saakashvili's assertiveness and Georgia's desire to join NATO, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin first tried to bring the country to its knees through economic warfare beginning in 2005. He cut off access to Russian markets, expelled Georgians from Russia, quadrupled the price of Russian energy to Georgia, and severed transport links. Georgia failed to collapse. ... Unable to bend Tbilisi to...

Russian troops have entered the main body of Georgia on two fronts after Vladimir Putin rejected calls for a ceasefire and strongly criticised the US's role in the crisis. A Georgian official has said it is transferring "all its troops" from South Ossetia towards Tbilisi amid fighting in the city of Gori, about 35 miles to the south-east of the capital. Georgians were witnessed by the Telegraph in a full scale disorganised and panicked retreat from Gori. They are crammed into vehicles heading down road from Gori to Tbilisi, the capital. They say 6,000-7,000 Russian troops are heading their way...

On October 3, 1938, Adolf Hitler’s armies marched into Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia. Germany said it was responding to separatist demands from the large German population that lived there and that she was merely honoring their desire for reunion with Germany. Hitler’s tanks took over a vital part of an independent country that had largely rejected his overtures and allied itself with the West. Neither Britain nor France nor the United States did a thing to stop him. On August 7, 2008, Vladimir Putin’s armies marched into South Ossetia, a part of Georgia. Russia said it was responding to...

Russian jets targeted a key oil pipeline with over 50 missiles in a weekend bombing raid in Georgia that raised fears the conflict will tighten Moscow's stranglehold on Europe's energy supplies. Deep craters pockmark the landscape south of the Georgian capital Tblisi in a Y-shaped pattern straddling the British-operated pipeline. The attack left two deep holes less than 100 yards either side of a pressure vent on the pipeline. Shrapnel of highly engineered munitions litters the area. There was no visible damage to the pipeline. Its vulnerability is summed up by a yellow hazard sign next to the vent warning...

World leaders have condemned Russia’s attacks in South Ossetia, warning Moscow that failure to withdraw risks damaging international relations. The White House said Russia’s military action in the Georgia was “dangerous and disproportionate” and that any further escalation of the conflict could harm bilateral ties. “We have made it clear to the Russians that this will have a significant long term impact on US-Russian relations,” Jim Jeffrey, deputy National Security Adviser, said. In Britain, a spokesman for Gordon Brown said: "We are urging an immediate ceasefire to the fighting in South Ossetia and calling for a resumption of direct dialogue...

LONDON (AFP)--Western concerns are growing over the impact of the conflict between Georgia and Russia on a key oil pipeline through the region from the Caspian Sea to the West, analysts say. While Georgia doesn't produce oil itself, U.S. and European energy firms have counted on the pro-Western country - sandwiched between Russia and Iran further south - to host a conduit for oil and gas exports from Azerbaijan.

Russian media, "Turkey supports Georgia" Russian Izvestya newspapers has claimed that Turkey was among the countries that supported Georgia in the recent strife in South Ossetia, by supplying the country with weapons, CNNTurk reported on Sunday. The Russian newspaper cited a Russian Defense Ministry report published three months prior that claims over the past four years Turkey has supplied Georgia with $45 million in weapons and ammunition, as well as training Georgian army officers. Interfax Agency also reported that Turkish naval ship has entered in to Georgian territorial waters off the coast near the city of Batumi.

A Georgian military offensive on Friday to regain control over the breakaway province of South Ossetia has the potential to grow into an all-out war that would draw in Russia and Ankara, which has boosted its peacemaking skills through mediation efforts in the Middle East, and Turkey should quickly launch a mediation mission in the neighboring Caucasus to stop this nightmare scenario, experts say. Georgian troops, backed by tanks and warplanes, pounded separatist forces in a bid to re-take the territory. President Mikheil Saakashvili accused Russia of bombing Georgian territory, a claim denied by Moscow. But Prime Minister Vladimir Putin...

ANKARA, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Turkey has agreed to a request from neighbour Georgia to supply the country with electricity amid the conflict in the breakaway South Ossetia region, a senior Turkish Energy Ministry source told Reuters on Friday. Russia sent forces into Georgia on Friday to repel a Georgian assault on the breakaway region and Georgia's pro-Western president said the two countries were at war. "Under an agreement, Turkey was receiving electricity from Georgia until last night. But after the latest developments Georgia requested 30-40 MW (megawatts) of electricity," the ministry source said. "We gave a positive response," he...

Militant Islam, or what US President George W Bush once called "Islamo-fascism", may look back on the last months of the Bush administration as its moment in the sun. Iran's nuclear program soon may cross the point of no return; Pakistan's ruling coalition may have become the instrument of Muslim revanchism against India; and Turkey may return to Islamist rule in a "silent revolution" that will dismantle the secular institutions that have prevailed for three generations. In the first two cases, the US State Department played Dr Frankenstein to the creation of an Islamist monster, and I believe Turkey will...

A Turkish soap opera featuring an independent fashion designer and her amazingly supportive and attractive husband is emptying the streets whenever it's on and has more than doubled the number of Saudis visiting Turkey this summer. Millions of people -- especially women, apparently -- are tuning in nightly to find out whether the couple will stay together or be torn apart by jealousies and old flames. But "Noor," the story of a multi-generational, upper-class Turkish family, has also sparked a backlash. The show has become the subject of angry Friday sermons in this strict Islamic kingdom, and the country's chief...

I am sorry to say that there is more bad news coming from the Islamic world today. Turkey had their vote on whether they should ban the Islamic based ruling party the AKP. The Party won and is staying in power. The only good that can come out of this is that, they will get so strict that they will never be accepted in the EU.

Can democracy survive the closing of a major political party – the ruling political party in the country? Imagine if the Supreme Court had convened to discuss banning the Democratic Party. Something no less momentous is happening in Turkey this week.

Turkey's Constitutional Court has decided not to ban the ruling AK Party, accused of undermining the country's secular system. But the judges did cut half the AKP's treasury funding for this year. The AKP, which won a huge poll victory last year, denies it wants to create an Islamist state by stealth. It called the case an attack on democracy. The powerful military sees itself as the guardian of the modern secular state founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Court president Hasim Kilic said the financial sanctions imposed on the AKP were a "serious warning". At least seven of the 11...

I keep getting slandered so I thought I'd post this. Who Burned Izmir? In 1920 Izmir was given up to the Greeks by the Ottomans as part of a Peace agreement proposed by Churchill. Although intended as an allied occupation under the armistice terms, it was in fact a Greek occupation which quickly became an excuse to extend the boundaries of Greece across the Aegean in accordance with the Greek dream of rejuvenating the Byzantine Empire. In a three week battle Ataturk threw the Greeks back into the sea, captured the Greek commanding general and re-entered Izmir triumphant. The retreating...

Roman brooch find in Shetland extends ancient travel routes STEPHEN STEWART AMATEUR archaeologists may have found Britain's most northerly ancient Roman artefact, it emerged yesterday. The fibula, or brooch, which has been dated to between 50BC and 50AD, could have belonged to an islander returning to the area around Norwick on Shetland after serving in the Roman army. The archaeologists made the find when they were called in after bulldozers unearthed items while extending the graveyard at Norwick. It is highly unusual to find Roman goods so far north and the item gives a revealing insight into trade routes and...

Water will run down from the Antonine Nymphaeum, a monumental fountain located on the north of the ancient city of Sagalassos near Aglasun town of the southwestern Turkish province of Burdur, after some 1300 years. In an exclusive interview with the A.A, Semih Ercan said on Friday that restoration works on the fountain dated to the reign of Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180) were expected to finish in 2010. Ercan, who heads the restoration works, said, "the fountain with a height of 10 meters and width of 30 meters, is one of the most splendid structures in the ancient city. It...

Major Find at Sagalassos August 2, 2007 Colossal statue of the emperor Hadrian discovered A huge, exquisitely carved marble statue of the Roman emperor Hadrian is the latest find from Sagalassos, an ancient Greco-Roman city in south-central Turkey. Archaeologists estimate that the figure was originally between 13 and 16 feet in height (four to five meters). It is, says excavation director Marc Waelkens, one of the most beautiful portraits of Hadrian ever found. The discovery was made by archaeologists from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), who, under Waelkens' direction, have been investigating the site since 1990. Last month a new...

15 dead, 154 injured in Istanbul double bombing: TV 1 hour, 10 minutes ago Two bombs exploded in Istanbul overnight, leaving at least 15 people dead and 154 others wounded, officials announced. The first bomb created a small blast in a rubbish bin in the Gungoren neighbourhood on the western European bank of the Turkish city. A second stronger explosion took place several minutes later a few metres (yards) away while a crowd began to gather at the site of the first blast, NTV reported. The images broadcast by NTV showed scenes of panic, with people covered in blood and...

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf is on record stating his ambitions to make his country a modern and secular state modeled on the Turkish republic under Kemal Ataturk. Ironically, even as that goal appears mind bogglingly unachievable for Pakistan, recent events will conspire to push Turkey in the direction of Pakistan; into becoming a breeding ground for a new class of Islamic militants. The transition of Turkey into a new front for Saudi interests will follow typical ideological, strategic and political trends... It is no mere coincidence that the Saudis need a functioning Sunni army to counter the likely expansionism of...

Turkey to negotiate with German joint venture for new submarines Turkey decided to launch talks with German joint venture HDW-MFI to procure new type submarines for the Turkish Navy, Turkey's Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul said on Tuesday. The board decided to start negotiations with Howaldswerke-Deutsche Werft GMBH and Marine Force International LLP (HDW-MFI) for the procurement which is estimated to cost about 2.5 billion euros ($3.9 billion), Gonul told reporters after a defence industry meeting chaired by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. HDW and its partner, Britain-based Marine Force International, will build the type-214 air-independent submarines at the Golcuk shipyard...

YEREVAN -- Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian has called for closer ties with Turkey, 15 years after the two nations severed diplomatic relations over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. They are also at odds over the question of whether ethnic Armenians killed by Ottoman Turks during World War I were victims of genocide. Armenia and Turkey broke off diplomatic links in 1993, when Ankara closed the border and backed Azerbaijan during its war with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, a mainly ethnic Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan. "The improvement of ties between Armenia and Turkey is mutually beneficial," Sarkisian told a news conference on...

Russia has renewed an earlier offer for the direct sale of S-400 missiles to Turkey as an alternative to Russian participation in a tender opened by Ankara for the acquisition of long-range air and missile defense systems, both Turkish and Russian defense industry officials have said. The Russian offer was made during a meeting held in mid-June in Moscow between Turkish and Russian military officials. Military officials from the Turkish Defense Ministry have reportedly told the Russian side that Moscow's offer could be considered by the Undersecretariat for the Defense Industry (SSM), the civilian military procurement agency, but not by...

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian has decided to try a little "football diplomacy" to defuse longstanding tensions with neighboring Turkey. During a visit to Moscow in June, Sarkisian made waves by publicly announcing that he would like his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul, to come to Yerevan to watch a World Cup qualifying match between the two countries in September. The Armenian leader repeated the invitation in a commentary titled "We Are Ready To Talk To Turkey," published in the U.S. daily "The Wall Street Journal" on July 9. "There is no real alternative to the establishment of normal diplomatic relations between...