Free Republic

Inside the Neve Shalom Synagogue after the 1986 terrorist attack. Photo: Facebook.Thirty years ago, Neve Shalom — Istanbul’s largest synagogue, whose name means “oasis of peace” — was the target of a brutal attack at the hands of Jew-hating murderers.On September 6, 1986, Palestinian Arab terrorists affiliated with the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO) bombed and opened fire at Neve Shalom during a Sabbath service, killing 22 people.At the time, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) called the attack “the bloodiest synagogue massacre since the Nazi era.”Gabriel (Gabi) Saul — a survivor whose father, Dr. Moiz Saul, died in the attack — told Şalom, a Jewish-Turkish weekly newspaper, about the moment of the attack: There were...

An international observer denied access to the trial of HDP co-chair Figen Yüksekdağ in Turkey recounts her experience. Earlier this month the trial of Figen Yüksekdağ, co-chair of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), began in Turkey’s capital of Ankara. Accused of supporting Kurdish separatists in the country’s southeast, Yüksekdağ has already been stripped of her place in Turkey’s parliament — but now the Erdoğan government is pursuing terrorism-related charges which come with the threat of an eighty-three-year jail term. Yüksekdağ is represented, symbolically, by 1,200 lawyers, whose numbers represent a political stand against the government’s attacks on opposition politicians. Her...

The Berlin administration is reportedly going to suspend military cooperation with the Turkish state on top of the sanctions announced by the German Foreign Minister. According to an article in Bild, one of the best selling daily newspapers in Germany, the Merkel administration is suspending all armament projects with Turkey. The newspaper cites government sources for the article. This will be the first time a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member country suspends military cooperation with another member. Several German arms manufacturers have factories in Turkey. In the previous months, the German government had barred arms sales deals with Turkey,...

US President Donald Trump announced to withdraw Ambassador John Bass from Ankara and expressed intent to nominate him to Afghanistan in an email announcement. Ambassador Bass has been under increasing criticism and attacks by President ErdoganÂ’s media in recent weeks. Amb Bass, when started his post in Ankara gave his first interview to pro-Erdogan and AKP government media, Sabah to show his intent of better relations after his predecessor Ricciardione, who also had a difficult time towards the end of his service. Last week Amb. Bass visited Amnesty International group to show solidarity after AI Turkey Director Idil Eser and...

A group of Turkish ultra-nationalists on Thursday protested outside one of the most significant synagogues in Istanbul to denounce Israel’s security measures at the Temple Mount following a deadly attack last Friday that left two Israeli police officers dead, the Dogan news agency said. The group from the Alperen Hearths, a far-right ultranationalist and Islamist youth group, said in a statement read outside the Neve Salom synagogue in central Istanbul that Israel was a “terror state” seeking to block freedom for worship to Muslims. “If you prevent our freedom of worship there then we will prevent your freedom of worship...

Turkish Education Minister İsmet Yılmaz has said a new national school curriculum will exclude evolution theory but will include the concept of jihad, or holy war, as part of Islamic law in textbooks. Speaking during a press conference to introduce the new school curriculum in Ankara on Tuesday, Yılmaz said: “Jihad is an element in our religion; it is in our religion… The duty of the Education Ministry is to teach every deserving concept correctly. It is also our job to correct things that are wrongly perceived, seen or taught.” {..snip..}

- Simply put, Jerusalem's Judaic history dates back to thousands of years before the birth of Islam, only in the seventh century CE. - As an American friend delicately asked: "Isn't Turkey supposed to be investing millions to help rebuild Gaza?" - Not, it seems, when Islamist ideology is involved. Less than a year ago, Turkey and Israel agreed to end their six-year-long diplomatic stand-off and officially "normalized" their relations. They appointed ambassadors Kemal Okem to Israel and Eitan Na'eh to Turkey, two prominent career diplomats, who, since then, have been struggling actually to normalize formally normalized ties. As some...

A Federal Foreign Office Spokesperson issued the following statement today (19 July): It was necessary to inform the Turkish Government directly, immediately and unambiguously about the German Government’s outrage and lack of understanding, as well as its crystal-clear views and expectations, in the case of Peter Steudtner – and to do so without using diplomatic pleasantries. That is why the Turkish Ambassador was summoned this morning on the instructions of Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel to a meeting at the Federal Foreign Office. This meeting has just taken place at the Federal Foreign Office. The Turkish Ambassador was told in no...

The United States reacted angrily Wednesday after Turkey's state news agency disclosed the locations of American military posts in northern Syria, a move the Pentagon warned could put lives at risk. The Anadolu Agency (AA) published a report Monday detailing the 10 US military facilities' whereabouts and, in some instances, the number of special operations forces working there. Pentagon spokesman Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway said the release of sensitive military information exposes coalition forces to "unnecessary risk."

ISTANBUL—In the latest display of Turkish anger at U.S. policy in Syria, the state news agency has divulged the locations of 10 U.S. military bases and outposts in northern Syria where the U.S. is leading an operation to destroy the so-called Islamic State in its self-styled capital of Raqqa. The list published by the Anadolu news agency points to a U.S. presence from one end to the other of the Kurdish self-administration region—a distance of more than 200 miles. The Anadolu news agency even listed the number of U.S. troops in several locations and in two instances stipulated the presence...

BEIRUT, LEBANON (5:40 P.M.) – Today, Turkey-led Free Syrian Army (FSA) militants launched a surprise attack in the northern countryside of Aleppo, striking at the defenses of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) around the town of ‘Ayn Daqqinah. Following a heavy pre-assault bombardment with howitzers, mortars and improvised rocket systems (seen in the video below), FSA fighters broke through the front-lines of the SDF and seized ‘Ayn Daqqinah. According to opposition sources, the specific FSA unit that attacked the SDF was comprised of several fighters who originate from the town of ‘Ayn Daqqinah. These individuals were expelled after...

Turkey announced the dismissal of another 7,000 police, soldiers and officials on Friday, a new purge on the eve of the one-year anniversary of a military-led coup that failed to topple President Tayyip Erdogan. July 15 has been declared an annual national holiday of "democracy and unity" and the authorities want people to see the foiling of the putsch as a historic victory of Turkish democracy. Friday's measures, however, mean that 50,000 people have been arrested and a further 100,000 sacked in response to the thwarted bid to overthrow Erdogan. Some 7,563 people were fired in the latest cull, the...

Kurdish fighters of the YPG at the top of Mount Abdulaziz after expelling ISIS militants from the area, Wednesday, May 20, 2015. Photo: ARA News Yasar Yakis, a former foreign minister of Turkey and founding member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), has urged Turkey to negotiate with the Syrian Kurds, rather than attacking them in Afrin.“A military operation in Afrin is not a remedy for the threat that Turkey perceives from there. It will be only a painkiller treatment,” he said.“The best course would be to negotiate a deal with the Syrian Kurds, persuade them not to...

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey's main opposition party, wrapped up his 25-day, 270-mile Justice March from Ankara to Istanbul last week and was greeted at a rally attended by more than a million people. Does the enormous support for the anti-authoritarian campaign indicate a turning tide in Turkish politics? The 25-day period was chosen deliberately to symbolize the prosecutors’ demand for a 25-year prison term for Enis Berberoglu, one of Kilicdaroglu's fellow members of the Republican People’s Party (CHP). Throughout the march, the most controversial issue was the reaction of members of two other opposition parties. One is the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), ultranationalists who...

Turkey is inching closer to buying Russian-made S400 missiles, despite a recent flurry of entreaties from the US for it to remain reliant on its Nato ally for air defence, according to two officials familiar with the matter told Financial Times. Turkey and Russia have agreed a price of as much as $3bn for four missile battery systems and a number of missiles, a senior Turkish official told the FT. Bloomberg earlier reported the price as $2.5bn, which included a requirement that two of the batteries be manufactured or assembled in Turkey as part of a “technology transfer” agreement. A...

The Turkish government has recently seized numerous properties belonging to Assyrian (Syriac) Christians − such as churches, monasteries and cemeteries − and transferred them to public institutions.On June 23, the Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos reported, Inquiries by the Mor Gabriel Monastery Foundation revealed that dozens of churches and monasteries have been transferred to the Treasury first and then allocated to the Presidency for Religious Affairs, known as the Diyanet, in Turkish. And the cemeteries have been transferred to the Metropolitan Municipality of Mardin. Kuryakos Ergün, the president of the Mor Gabriel Monastery Foundation, told The Philos Project that the decision of...

Turkey's Human Rights Association deputy secretary general in charge of organisation stressed that the Turkish government detained human rights activists to hide the violations in the country. Turkish government detained human rights activists to hide the violations in Turkey, Human Rights Association’s (IHD) deputy secretary general in charge of organisation Necla Şengül said. Her remarks came after Turkish police arrested human rights activists in Istanbul, on July 5th. Idil Eser, Amnesty International’s director in Turkey in among the 11 activists arrested. “The arrested activists are leading experts in human rights. They were deliberately targeted by the government” Şengül said. Şengül...

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey John Bass criticized the American fight against terrorism during a July Fourth celebration hosted by the U.S. consulate in Istanbul, claiming that an "overly broad" definition of terrorism has hampered U.S. efforts to combat extremists and eroded international confidence in America. Bass, a career foreign service officer who was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2014, urged Turkey to "avoid making the mistakes the U.S. made" in its fight against radical terrorists, telling those in attendance at an Independence Day reception "that rushing to justice or making an overly broad definition of terrorism can erode...

Special for the Armenian Weekly “Turkey’s president wants to purge Western words from its language,” reported The Economist on June 15.[Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s] latest purge has a more abstract target. Mr. Erdoğan wants to rid Turkish of unsightly Western loan-words. Turkey faces a mortal threat from foreign “affectations”, Mr. Erdoğan declared on May 23rd. “Where do attacks against cultures and civilisations begin? With language.” Mr. Erdoğan started by ordering the word “arena”, which reminded him of ancient Roman depravity, removed from sports venues across the country. Hagop Martayan, or Agop Dilaçar, was the first Secretary General and head specialist of the...

Turkey issued arrest warrants for 72 university staff, state media said on Monday, including a former adviser to the main opposition leader who staged a mass rally on Sunday to protest a crackdown since a failed military coup last year.The warrants were issued under an investigation into the movement of the U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of orchestrating the attempted coup on July 15, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the secularist CHP, told a huge crowd on Sunday Turkey was living under dictatorship and pledged to keep challenging the government after completing a 25-day...