Free Republic

Turkey’s political elite is obsessed with joining the European Union. But senior players in the EU – in a rare moment of clarity amid their delusional fantasies of a federal Europe – are reluctant to let in a country which is increasingly hard to distinguish from the rest of the Islamic world. Here’s a tip for Turkish campaigners for EU membership: if you want to win over Herman Van Rompuy, best not set up your headquarters in a building confiscated from your country’s oppressed Orthodox Christian minority. This how the Un:dhimmi website reports the controversy: Unbelievable but true: the headquarters...

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that Turkey would by no means let Israel misuse Turkish airspace to carry out intelligence and surveillance missions of a neighboring country, in strongly worded remarks this week. If Israel were to misuse Turkish airspace to conduct reconnaissance operations on Iran, Ankara's reaction would resemble an "earthquake," Erdogan recently said in an interview when asked about claims that Israel had used Turkey's airspace for purposes of espionage. "[Israel] will receive a response equal to that of an earthquake," Erdogan was quoted as saying by the English-language Jerusalem Post. Urging Israel's leaders to refrain...

Iran is already a nuclear weapons power, with externally-acquired nuclear weapons. Iran's present geo-strategic position is also transformed in importance by the end of the Great Game (or at least the component of it which began with the Russo-Persian Treaty of 1813, transformed with the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907, and arguably concluded with the new Russo-Iranian understandings of the past few years). ShareThis Effective 2010, Iran is part of the Russian-dominated Central Asian energy and strategic framework, as is Turkey. In a parallel, and overlapping, dynamic, the China-Iran historical link has returned to the fore, especially given the PRC's position...

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday warned Israel not to use its airspace to attack Iran. “If Israel were to violate Turkish airspace in order to conduct reconnaissance operations on Iran, Ankara's reaction would resemble an 'earthquake',” he said during an iterview with an Egyptian newspaper. Erdogan noted that Israel has never entered Turkey’s airspace, "if it happened, the consequence would be terrible." The Turkish leader advised Israeli authorities not to use relations with Turkey “as a card to wage aggression on a third party.” According to him, Israel could not cherish hopes to participate in future joint...

What is an Islamist foreign policy, exactly? Is it identifying with Muslims and their suffering, or is it identifying with anti-Western regimes even at the cost of Muslims' best interests? Turkey's foreign policy under the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government demonstrates that far from protecting Muslims and their interests, it is the promotion of à la carte morals – bashing the West and supporting anti-Western regimes, even when the latter hurts Muslims. Since coming to power in 2002, the AKP has dramatically changed Turkey's foreign policy. The party has let Ankara's ties with pro-Western Azerbaijan, Georgia and Israel...

Quote: NO VISA REQUIREMENT FOR TRAVEL FROM TURKEY TO JORDAN I'm pretty sure the brothers think they can use this to their advantage... Posted on 06 December 2009 @ 13:17

CNA STAFF, Dec 6, 2009 / 04:47 am (CNA).- Today, December 6, the faithful commemorate a Turkish bishop in the early church who was known for generosity and love of children. Born in Lycia in Asia Minor around the late third or fourth century,  St. Nicholas of Myra is more than just the inspiration for the modern day Santa. As a young man he is said to have made a pilgrimage to Palestine and Egypt in order to study in the school of the Desert Fathers. On returning some years later he was almost immediately ordained Bishop of Myra, which...

ANKARA: Muslims should consider withdrawing their money from Swiss bank accounts in response to the country's ban on construction of minarets, a Turkish minister said. "I am certain this (vote) will prompt our brothers from Muslim countries who keep their money and investments in Swiss banks to review their decision," said Egemen Bagis, cited by Turkish daily Zaman. Bagis is the chief negotiator for Turkey's European Union accession as well as minister for European affairs. "In 2008, when banks around the world were falling, no bank was affected in Turkey, and the door of Turkey's banking system is open to...

Senior Turkish military officers had made extensive plans to terrorize non-Muslims in Turkey. In the large Ergenekon[1] scandal recently a well-planned terrorist operation was revealed. The operation which is called "Kafes Operasyonu Eylem Planı", in English meaning "the execution of the cage - operation" was to eliminate the remaining small group of Christians living in Turkey today. The plan was revealed when police arrested Levent Bektas, a major in the Turkish army. The evidence seized reveals more than 27 officers and senior military officers involved in the conspiracy against Christians. In order to identify key persons among the Christians and...

Sgt. 1st Class David A. Holder, the non-commissioned officer in charge with the 561st Movement Control Team Detachment out of Springfield, Mo., watches a truck driver open his vehicle at the validation yard at Habur Gate on the Iraq/Turkey border, recently. Holder, a Waco, Texas, native, inspected the truck for items not on the transportation movement request before the driver could process his paperwork and wait for a convoy south into Iraq. Photo by Sgt. Ryan Twist, 13th Sustainment Command. HABUR GATE — Iraqi Security Forces, U.S. Soldiers and civilian contractors here are manning the Iraq/Turkey border to ensure the...

YEREVAN -- Two leaders of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation party (Dashnaktsutyun) have criticized Russian policy toward Turkey and Azerbaijan, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports. Vahan Hovannisian, a senior Dashnaktsutyun lawyer, said that Russian policy toward the South Caucasus is "dangerous" for Armenia. Hovannisian did not elaborate on his statement. Another Dashnaktsutyun leader, Hrayr Karapetian, who heads the parliament's defense and security committee, said Russia's deepening military cooperation with Turkey and Azerbaijan runs counter to its military alliance with Armenia. Karapetian said a 2010 plan for joint military exercises signed by Azerbaijani and Russian defense ministers is "at the least, strange and...

Elizabeth Smith says she cooked the ham the night before and asked her father-in-law to wake her up on Thanksgiving morning so she could cook the rest. But when she woke up at 7 a.m., she said, Donald "Junior" Smith was already stuffing the turkey. With celery. Elizabeth's husband, Tristan Smith, is allergic to celery. "It makes him sick," she said. She started crying. Junior yelled. Elizabeth's husband shouted at his dad for yelling at his wife. "You're not going to step in my wife's face," Tristan hollered, according to Elizabeth.

If you're looking for something more creative than a sandwich to make with your leftover Thanksgiving turkey, this is an easy recipe that's sure to please. You can also substitute with chicken.

Handmade chocolates, artisanal cheeses, vintage Champagne — consumers are thinking twice about splurging on such luxurious goods during the tough economic times. But sales of at least one fancy food item have held up: gourmet turkeys that easily cost $100 or more. “It’s a hot item,” said Bill Niman, a prominent advocate for sustainable agriculture who this year jumped into the so-called heritage turkey market — older breeds of birds that had all but disappeared until championed by preservationists and foodies. He raised 2,500 birds for Thanksgiving and “sold every bird.” Mr. Niman’s turkeys were priced at $6.99 a pound....

If it's a turkey it belongs here. Have at it! Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving. :0)

“Most Americans are ignorant of the fact that Thanksgiving was celebrated in Texas 23 years before the first Pilgrim set foot by accident in Massachusetts in 1621"

Marcel Efroimski, a 13-year-old Israeli chess prodigy, yesterday became the Girls' Under-14 World Chess Champion when she won the Gold Medal for her age group at the World Youth Chess Championships held in Turkey. This in itself is not of any interest to Jihad Watch -- except that during the awards ceremony, the malignant (if not turban'd) and increasingly Islamic supremacist Turkish authorities refused to play the Israeli National Anthem, as is required at such ceremonies. However, young Marcel would not play the dhimmi. She stood on the podium and raised her trophy with an expression of defiance -- as...

RICHLAND, Wash. — Sarah Palin is taking a Thanksgiving break from her book tour to spend time with family members in Washington for a 5K run to benefit the Red Cross. Palin detailed her plans Wednesday on Twitter. Heather Filbin with the Benton-Franklin Chapter of the American Red Cross said about 25 Palin relatives had registered for the annual Turkey Trot at Kennewick's Columbia Park. Palin plans to have dinner at the home of her aunt Katie Johnson.

US President Barack Obama (R) alongside his daughter Malia Obama (R), and National Turkey Federation Chairman Walter Pelletier (2nd L), pet a turkey named Courage during the annual turkey pardoning ceremony for Thanksgiving on the North Portico of the White House in Washington, DC.

At the White House today, President Obama will give one lucky turkey a second chance at life and save it from ending up as Thanksgiving dinner. North Carolina farmers send off turkey to be "pardoned" by President Obama. (Bobby Williams/Goldsboro News-Argus)Obama, a former constitutional law professor, will issue a presidential pardon to Courage, a 20-week-old, 45-pound turkey from Princeton, N.C .

All packed with vitamins and just plain old good! Ingredients: 2 – 3 bunches of any type of greens you have a taste for (Collards, Mustard or Turnip Greens or Kale) 1 small smoked turkey leg or wing 5 cloves garlic, chopped 2-3 tbsp. oil 1 small onion – peeled, and sliced thinly 2 -3 tbsp. cider vinegar (optional) 1 cup low sodium chicken broth 1 tsp. pepper 1/z tbsp. Café Netties Saltless Classic European 2 Tbsp. maple syrup (optional)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IDRSkBOuuc

The traditional presidential pardon of a turkey will be a little different this year. The turkey pardoned will most likely be Cold Cash Jefferson.

Turkey 1541, "guinea fowl" (Numida meleagris), imported from Madagascar via Turkey, by Near East traders known as turkey merchants. The larger North American bird (Meleagris gallopavo) was domesticated by the Aztecs, introduced to Spain by conquistadors (1523) and thence to wider Europe, by way of North Africa (then under Ottoman rule) and Turkey (Indian corn was originally turkey corn or turkey wheat in Eng. for the same reason). The word turkey was first applied to it in Eng. 1555 because it was identified with or treated as a species of the guinea fowl. The Turkish name for it is hindi,...

United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates is the Mephistopheles of the Barack Obama administration - not because of his gift for intrigue, which is slender, but because of his capacity to personify non-being. "Everything that arises goes rightly to its ruin," said Goethe's devil to Faust, "so it would be better for nothing to arise." In his November 20 keynote speech to the German Marshall Fund's (GMF's) International Security Forum on Friday in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Gates portrayed the man who wasn't there. That is the secret of his longevity in public office. Several hundred attendees, including defense ministers and...

Azerbaijan and Armenia held a presidential summit on Sunday amid warnings that a full blown war is brewing over a festering territorial dispute. Azerbaijan and Armenia held a presidential summit yesterday amid warnings that war was brewing between the countries over a festering territorial dispute. Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, said the negotiations in Munich were a final attempt to avert a military confrontation. They were convened by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe as part of efforts to find a peaceful solution to a problem that has divided the two former Soviet republics since the 1991...

Disagreements over security measures have reportedly led to a scuffle between Turkish Prime Minister and US President Barack Obama’s bodyguards. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived in the US on Wednesday to attend the United Nations General Assembly and the G20 summit. According to “Cumhuriyet”, a Turkish daily newspaper, despite long talks, security services of the two heads of states failed to come to any agreement over organizing Erdoğan’s security. Apparently, having ran out of words, Obama’s bodyguards and their Turkish colleagues turned to close combat. Recep Erdoğan tried to intervene, but was manhandled by one of Obama’s bodyguards and kicked out...

From The Conscience of Kansas radio program, here is the story of the Democrat and the Turkey as read by radio host Paul A. Ibbetson. We invite you to watch and comment.

The poetry-loving favourite to become the first president of Europe, Herman Van Rompuy, is also a hard-line opponent of Turkey's bid to join the European Union because it is an Islamic country. Herman Van Rompuy, Belgium's Prime Minister, has in the past spoken out against Turkish EU membership because, he warned, it would dilute Europe's Christian heritage. His position on the issue is so strong that he has won the support of Vlaams Belang, the controversial far-right Flemish anti-immigrant party in Belgium.

The Ice Age has been a longstanding problem for uniformitarian thinking, with many unsolved mysteries. No mere tweaking of today's climate conditions would cause such a catastrophe. A creationist model based on the revealed events of Scripture, however, offers a possible answer...

The Syrian President surprised both Turkish and Arab public opinion when he advised Turkey on the importance of cultivating good relations with Israel, as this would allow Turkey to perform the role of mediator between Damascus and Tel Aviv. [Syrian] President Bashar al-Assad made this comment whilst answering a question put to him by the Turkish "Hurriyet" newspaper on whether he approved of Islamic countries having bad relations with Europe and Israel, or whether [Islamic] countries should cultivate good relations with Europe and coexist with Israel. Assad's answer was that "if Turkey wishes to help us on the subject of...

Turkey has displayed the first of 200 Chinese B611 ballistic missiles, that it is building under license. The B611 is a two ton missiles with a half ton warhead and a range of 280 kilometers. The missile is carried, and launched, in an 8x8 cross country truck. Some trucks are designed to carry two missiles. The B611 uses a solid fuel motor, and its basic guidance system will land the warhead within 150 meters of the aiming point. Using GPS for guidance will improve that to less than 30 meters.

ISTANBUL (AFP) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday slammed capitalism for the global financial meltdown as he joined Muslim leaders at a summit in Turkey amid increasing pressure on his country over its nuclear drive. "The present economic crisis is due to the capitalist system. The world needs radical change," Ahmadinejad told a one-day economic summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC). Describing interest rates as the biggest and most fundamental problem of the capitalist system, the Iranian leader said through a translator: "The world system based on usury has collapsed, proving its failure." "We have to...

Adnan Oktar, who as Harun Yahya isTurkey's best-known and most assertivecritic of evolution, says he is"following the path of Allah."(Marc Kaufman/the Washington Post) ISTANBUL -- Sema Ergezen teaches biology to Turkish students interested in teaching science themselves, and she has long struggled with her students' ignorance of, and sometimes hostility to, the notion of evolution. But she was taken aback when several of her Marmara University students recently accused her of being an atheist, or worse, for teaching anything but the doctrine that God created the Earth and everything on it. "They said I was a liar if I called...

The Men Who Stare at Goats, the latest George Clooney fiasco, is like getting stung by a wasp on the inside of your eyelid. You are blinded to all reason and the agony lasts for days. Despite Mr. Clooney’s easygoing charm and obvious good looks, his film choices point to an appalling lack of both intelligence and taste. He just doesn’t seem interested in narrative movies that make sense, and even worse, he has an exasperating tendency to turn his projects over to buddies and basketball cronies, whether or not they have any talent. (In George Clooney movies, talent is...

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that countries opposed to Iran's atomic program should give up their own nuclear weapons, and attacked as "arrogant" the sanctions imposed on Ankara's neighbor. He also said he wanted the Middle East, and then the whole world, to rid itself of nuclear weapons. During a trip to Iran this week, Erdogan said he backed Tehran's "right to peaceful nuclear energy" and called its approach in nuclear talks with Western powers "positive." The trip added to Western concern that NATO's only Muslim member may be shifting its foreign-policy focus towards the Islamic world...

Turkey is switching to national currencies in trade with Iran and China, ending dependence on the U.S. dollar and the euro for about 20% of its commodity turnover, local media reported on Wednesday. Turkey has already switched to settlements in national currencies with Russia amid weakening confidence in the greenback as the world's major reserve currency. The move was initiated by Turkish President Abdullah Gul during his visit to Moscow in February. Turkey's decision to make settlements with Iran and China in national currencies was announced during a visit to Iran by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is currently in Tehran with his "friend," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as the two leaders discuss ways to bolster the bilateral ties between their two countries. While Turkey's realignment towards Iran and Syria is by now familiar, it is possible that the Obama administration might be more annoyed at this development than it has let on publicly. Obama recently sent an invitation to Prime Minister Erdogan to meet with him in Washington D.C. on October 29. That just happens to be the Turkish equivalent of the Fourth of July -- the anniversary of the dissolution of...

Turkish prime minister Erdogan has flown back home after a 2-day visit to Tehran. It was a big deal in all senses of the term. He went to Iran with a large delegation, including three ministers, many businessmen, leaders of Parliament, scads of reporters, and television crews. He met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki, “President” Ahmadinejad, and other ministers. According to Iranians who were involved in the meetings, the two countries reached agreement on many issues, the upshot of which is a considerable tightening of the working alliance between them: –The creation of a joint airline; –The creation of a...

'There is no doubt he is our friend," Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, even as he accuses Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman of threatening to use nuclear weapons against Gaza. These outrageous assertions point to the profound change of orientation by Turkey's government - for six decades the West's closest Muslim ally - since Erdogan's AK party came to power in 2002. Three events this past month reveal the extent of that change. The first came on October 11 with the news that the Turkish military - a long-time bastion of secularism and advocate...

  This Luxury home in "occupied" northern Cyprus, pictured above, looks real nice doesn't it? The house is owned by a British couple. Just one major problem. No, make that several major problems.In the first place, the property on which the home was built, legally belongs to a citizen of Cyprus, Meletis Apostolides, who was forced to flee his property during the Turkish invasion and occupation of northern Cyprus in 1974.In 1974, the military junta of Greece staged a coup to overthrow the government of Cyprus. Turkey used this as a pretext for invasion and occupation. In the wake of the onslaught over...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - State television says Iran will agree to the “general framework” of a U.N.-drafted plan to ship enriched uranium out of the country for processing, but will seek “important changes” in the deal. The report Tuesday on the state-run channel Al-Alam does not specify the amendments Iran will seek. It says Iran will officially reply within 48 hours. The plan calls for Iran to ship 70 percent of its enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Iran next week adds to concerns that Ankara may be slowly turning its back on its Western allies and seeking to regain its status as a regional power in the Middle East. Following what Turks saw as Arab betrayal in World War One, Turkey made joining the elite club of Western powers its number one foreign policy objective, joining NATO in 1952 and first applying to join the European Economic Community in 1963. Nearly 50 years on, Muslim Turkey is still kept at arms length by the European Union, but...

TEHRAN, Oct. 23 (Mehr News Agency) -- Turkey plans to carry out its $3.5 billion natural gas development plans in Iran, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Wednesday. "The issue would be discussed during Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan''s upcoming trip to Tehran," Reuters reported. The Turkish and Iranian governments agreed in July 2007 that Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) would produce 20.4 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas annually from three development phases of Iran''s South Pars gas field, but the deal has been delayed. Iran has given TPAO a one-month deadline to finalize the deal to develop...

An attempted hijacking by a man wielding a knife from an in-flight meal has been thwarted by guards, EgyptAir officials said. The incident happened shortly after the plane, carrying almost 90 people, took off from Istanbul, Turkey, heading to Cairo. The Sudanese man threatened crew members and demanded that the flight be diverted to Jerusalem, officials said. He was detained by air marshals, and the flight landed in Cairo.

A Sudanese man used a knife from the in-flight meal to threaten crew members after the plane left Turkish airspace and demanded that the flight be diverted to Jerusalem, the official said.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Non-Traditional Security Threats and Regional Cooperation In Southern Caucasus” international conference will be held in Istanbul, Turkey, from October 22 to 24 in the framework of the NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) program. Experts from Armenia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia will be participating. Richard Giragosian, Director of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies ACNIS) will give a talk on “Issues of Transnational Crime and Regional Security in South Caucasus” on October 23. Tigran Mkrtchyan, representative of European Stability Initiative is expected to dwell on the role of NGOs in resolution of regional conflicts and reconciliation...

Once the apotheosis of a pro-Western, dependable Muslim democracy, this week Turkey officially left the Western alliance and became a full member of the Iranian axis. It isn't that Ankara's behavior changed fundamentally in recent days. There is nothing new in its massive hostility toward Israel and its effusive solicitousness toward the likes of Syria and Hamas. Since the Islamist AKP party first won control over the Turkish government in the 2002 elections, led by AKP chairman Recip Tayyip Erdogan, the Turks have incrementally and inexorably moved the formerly pro-Western Muslim democracy into the radical Islamist camp populated by the...