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Istanbul (AFP) - Riot police in Istanbul used teargas and fired rubber pellets to disperse thousands of participants in the city's Gay Pride march after some began chanting slogans against the president, an AFP reporter said. The scene turned violent when participants -- many brandishing rainbow flags -- denounced "the fascism" of the conservative President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Police then began to forcefully break up the crowd, with some officers firing rubber pellets into the crowd.

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered for gay pride parades, parties and celebrations around the world Sunday. Most events were peaceful, but in Istanbul, Turkish police fired water cannon and rubber pellets to disperse a crowd. It was not immediately clear why Turkish police stopped marchers in Istanbul, where gay pride parades have been held in previous years. Turkish media reported that police said people would not to be allowed to march this year. In New York, massive crowds gathered ahead of the city’s annual gay pride parade, which was first held in 1970. Organizers said they expected a record...

The Yezidis are now on the move. This has been secretly planned for months. What we now have is a potentially mass exodus from ISIS-controlled Iraq. They have reason to believe that Bulgaria will grant them asylum. However, Turkey, which they must enter and exit on their way to Bulgaria, is giving them trouble. According to my informant Ghulie Khalaf, “There have been clashes between the refugees and the Turkish police. Ten buses are on their way but there are seventeen more buses to be packed but the Turkish guards are stopping them at the border. We want media attention.”

For a head of state to visit the White House and not pose for photographers is rare. For a key ally to be left to his own devices while the President withdraws to have dinner in private was, until this week, unheard of. Yet that is how Binyamin Netanyahu was treated by President Obama on Tuesday night, according to Israeli reports on a trip seen in Jerusalem tonight as a disastrous humiliation. After failing to extract a written promise of concessions on Jewish settlements, Mr Obama walked out of his meeting with Mr Netanyahu but invited him to stay at...

Uproar in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has relieved Gen. Qassem Soleimani,the Al Qods Brigades chief and supreme commander of Iranian Middle East forces, of his Syria command after a series of war debacles. He was left in charge of Iran’s military and intelligence operations in Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon. This is revealed by exclusive Iranian intelligence sources. Since Soleimani last visited Damascus on June 2, in the aftershock of the historic town of Palmyra’s fall to the Islamic State, the situation of President Bashar Assad and his army has gone from bad to worse. The Iranian general’s...

In Jerusalem flyers were spread throughout the old city claiming to be ISIS.The bulletin which had the ISIS logo demanded that all Christian Arabs must leave eastern Jerusalem by the end of Ramadan accused of being “Israeli collaborators”. ISIS also demanded that in the case the Christians refuse to leave that Muslims in eastern Jerusalem are mandated to kill all the Christians living there.Photo Credit: Islamic State / JerusalemAl-Quds (Jerusalem Newspaper), the main Arab newspaper there had posted a reply from Theodosios (Hanna) of Sebastia, the Archbishop from the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. In his reply the Archbishop condemned the...

Archaeologists still aren't entirely sure where a secret passageway beneath a castle in Turkey leads, but visitors can now explore it for themselves. Not far from where Vlad the Impaler—the inspiration for Dracula—was reportedly held in one of two dungeons inside Tokat Castle, the tunnel stretches for about 100 feet before the path is blocked, reports Hurriyet Daily News. "We have made progress. Since it has an angle of 45 degrees, it is hard to remove stones and earth," culture and tourism director Abdurrahman Akyuz says of the tunnel, found during restoration efforts in 2009. "We think that this tunnel...

Turkey has been accused of allowing Islamic State jihadists to cross its border to attack the Kurdish town of Kobane. Twin car bombs exploded close to the crossing point with the Turkish town of Mursitpinar, and Kurdish activists and residents claimed they had come across the border, despite its being heavily policed on the Turkish side. Convoys of cars carrying up to 40 Isil fighters - reportedly using the uniform of Kurdish YPG militia as a guise - then attacked Kobane from three sides in the early hours of Thursday morning. Kobane became an important symbol in the battle against...

An ISIS fighter captured by Syrian Kurds last month described how easy it was for him to cross Turkey's notoriously porous border into Syria to join the Islamic State, according to a new video obtained by Al-Monitor. Turkish citizen Huseyin Mustafa Peri, who says he was wounded near the Turkish border, told his captors that getting into Syria “was an easy affair." Al-Monitor says it was unable to independently confirm details because Kurdish fighters would not allow him to be interviewed, noting that his statements aligns with the outlet's reporting. "[IS recruiter] Ibrahim Osama had given me a number ......

The EU will indeed merit the "Jew-hater" tag - should its ill-considered and misconceived labelling action proceed. The European Union (EU) runs the risk of being labelled “Jew-hater” - should it proceed with its plans requiring supermarkets and other retailers to label products made by Jews in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) differently from those made by Jews in Israel. No matter what spin the EU uses to justify any such discriminatory labelling—the EU will be seen to be actively supporting the 2005 Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel—whose manifesto states:

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Kurdish-led forces advanced on Monday deep into territory in Syria held by Islamic State, showing new momentum after they unexpectedly swiftly seized a border crossing from the jihadists last week. The Kurds, aided by U.S.-led air strikes and smaller Syrian rebel groups, had pushed to within 7 km (4 miles) of Ain Issa, a town 50 km (30 miles) north of Islamic State's de facto capital Raqqa city, said Redur Xelil, spokesman for the Kurdish forces. The rapid advance into Raqqa province has defied expectations of a protracted battle between the Kurdish YPG group and Islamic State...

<p>With some lawmakers chanting "Death to the America," Iran's parliament voted to ban access to military sites, documents and scientists as part of a future deal with world powers over its contested nuclear program.</p> <p>The bill, if ratified, could complicate the ongoing talks in Vienna between Iran and the six-nation group — the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany — as they face a self-imposed June 30 deadline. The talks are focused on reaching a final accord that curbs Iran's nuclear program in return for the lifting of economic sanctions.</p>

<p>Hundreds of graffiti messages engraved into stone in the ancient city of Aphrodisias, in modern-day Turkey, have been discovered and deciphered, revealing what life was like there over 1,500 years ago, researchers say.</p> <p>The graffiti touches on many aspects of the city's life, including gladiator combat, chariot racing, religious fighting and sex. The markings date to a time when the Roman and Byzantine empires ruled over the city.</p>

'There is an explosion of human suffering': Angelina Jolie begs the world to do more during visit to Turkish camps filled with Syrians and Iraqis who have fled war Angelina Jolie serves as a United Nations special envoy for refugees She visited a refugee camp in southeastern Turkey on Saturday, which is home to Syrians and Iraqis displaced by war This visit is the latest in a series of trips to Turkey as part of her work to bring attention to the plight of refugees This was Jolie's third visit to Turkey since 2011, when Syria conflict began Turkey hosts...

Since assuming office in 2009, President Barack Obama has consistently held that the United States would carry out airstrikes to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. This position is supported by the vast majority of U.S. policy makers, lawmakers and the political elite, regardless of political affiliation. Nonetheless, it is also generally agreed that airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities would only have a limited impact on preventing Iran from acquiring the bomb. To be sure, a concerted airstrike effort against Iran would delay its ability to build a nuclear arsenal by several years. Nonetheless, Iran would be able to...

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said after Friday's talks with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras that a prospective Russian natural gas pipeline should help Greece service its debt, but the Kremlin said the question of direct Russian financial aid to Greece was not discussed. Speaking of the pipeline deal at a meeting with top executives of global news agencies, including The Associated Press, which began nearly three hours behind schedule at around midnight, Putin said he saw no support for the Greeks from the EU. "If EU wants Greece to pay its debts it should be...

It is one thing to hate Greeks or Turks, for want of example, and quite a different thing to hate Jews. Likewise, to hate this country or that one is not akin to hating Israel. The faultless logic of a felon explains all. Asked why he robbed banks Willie Sutton explained, “That’s where the money is.” Well, Israel is where six million Jews are, and Iran is not the only power that, day and night, aches to wipe them off the face of the earth. Clearly there’s more to hating Israel than meets the eye. By “more” I mean a...

Bird flu has made the three-egg omelette a luxury item in parts of America, but the other fowl bearing the brunt of the highly pathogenic virus's outbreak is the poor turkey, whose flocks have been culled by 7.8 million so far. The USDA is now recognizing that this could have bad consequences in, say, five months, when a certain holiday occurs on the third Thursday of November. The federal agency's latest monthly hatchery report is a bit ominous: Reuters notes that it reports a "significant decline" in the May count for baby turkeys, or poults. That number (22.3 million) is...

ISTANBUL — A battle in the northern Syrian border town of Tal Abyad has inflicted a potentially crippling defeat on ISIS that could impede the jihadists’ rampage through Syria and Iraq. But U.S. ally Turkey is not happy about it. In fact, Ankara is accusing Washington of foul play. Some in Turkey want their own military—which is part of NATO—to intervene on Syrian soil, and not against ISIS.