Free Republic

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Iraq’s Kurdish region’s controversial vote on independence will go ahead as planned on Monday, despite mounting pressure to call off the referendum, the region’s president said at a press conference in Irbil Sunday. Masoud Barzani said that while the vote will be the first step in a long process to negotiate independence, the region’s “partnership” with the Iraqi central government in Baghdad is over. The Kurdish region’s president detailed the abuses Iraq’s Kurds have faced by Iraqi forces, including killings at the hands of former leader Saddam Hussein’s army that left more than 50,000 Kurds dead....

In general, lawful Islamist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood (work to insert themselves) into Western society, exploiting liberal, democratic bodies to promote their own (illiberal and anti-democratic ideology.) Whether co-opting Western democracies to silence its critics, or funding American Islamist organizations with long histories of extremism and ties to terror, the Turkish regime is now a crucial component of the global Islamist threat.For the past few years, the international Muslim Brotherhood has (found a welcoming home) in Ankara in the face of opposition from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Consequently, U.S. Islamist organizations have also turned...

Turkey is concerned that in "one night" all of the gains made by the Kurdistan Region since the overthrow of the Baathist regime in 2003 could be lost, if the independence referendum is held and could lead to an Iraqi "civil war," a senior Turkish presidential advisor revealed. "We feel that Iraq has made a lot of gains in the past so many years since 2003; and these were rightful gains, the Kurdish people deserved those gains," said Ilnur Cevik, a senior advisor to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Regarding the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum scheduled for September 25, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said that the United Nations and Ankara can “be guarantors of their rights.”

Ankara "will not refrain from using its natural rights"

Link Only. In one word, "unacceptable" by Turkey

Turkey's descent into Islamist despotism distorts the NATO alliance: how can Turkey combat a external threat from without, Daniel Pipes asked, when a member state poses the same threat from within? No one tells us what we can say. We are a free people, and we will act in complete freedom. – Daniel Pipes, President, Middle East Forum (MEF) The purging of 120,000 government employees following last year's failed coup means that "more police counter-terrorism experts are in prison than ISIS members." A democratic Turkey is a must for NATO, both for the alliance's success and for Turkey itself. –...

On April 29, the Turkish government announced that it completely blocked Wikipedia over the online encyclopediaÂ’s refusal to delete articles and comments that suggest that Ankara is co-operating with terrorist groups such as the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda.Despite multiple requests by Turkish officials, Wikipedia refused to take down the content the Turkish government objected to. In response, Turkish authorities blocked online access to Wikipedia in all languages across the country.Wikipedia continues to be blocked in Turkey. But it is not the only restricted website in the country. An estimated 127,000-plus websites have been blocked in Turkey, along with another 95,000...

The Turkish Anadolu news agency reports that Racep Erdogan is considering levying sanctions on the Kurdish population over their upcoming referendum for independence. "As the national security council, we will advise the government on our decision. With it, the cabinet will meet and discuss this. It will both evaluate this and put forth their own stance on what kind of sanctions we can impose, or if we will, but these will not be ordinary," ...

States speaking in the UN Human Rights Sessions criticized Turkey harshly and urged the country to end rights violations at once. United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council’s 36th Human Rights Sessions continued on the second day with discussions on the annual human rights report presented by the High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein yesterday. State and international NGO representatives spoke in the sessions and pointed out the scope of human rights violations in various parts of the world and stressed the need to prevent violations through international solidarity. Throughout the day, several states and NGOs speaking to...

New photos have emerged of M.A. who attacked the funeral of the mother of a prominent Kurdish politician, with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s son. Multiple photos emerged of M.A with Bilal Erdogan, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s son and with Turkish Labor and Social Security Minister Julide Sarieroglu. M.A. was among the group that attacked Hatun Tugluk’s funeral in Ankara on September 13. Hatun Tugluk is the mother of Aysel Tugluk, a prominent Kurdish politician. After the attack the body of Hatun Tugluk was taken out from her grave in Ankara and she was buried in Dersim the next...

Full Title: Erdogan Of Turkey Literally Resurrects The Image Of The Ottoman Beast And Vows That All Who Defy Him Will Be Beheaded When we say that the Ottomans will rise again, including its image “the image of the beast,” Shariah and Islamic Beheading’ we concluded all this decades ago just by reading the Bible. And now, as we monitor the news in Turkey, just in the last few days, we find two news pieces which further confirm our proclamations. Firstly, Hayrettin Karaman, Turkey’s main Fatwa giver, wrote an article for Yeni Safak headlined with “Shariah Will Rise Again”. This...

Michael Rubin, academic and former staff advisor for Iran and Iraq at the Pentagon, spoke to ANF English service on the inclusion of one of Erdoğan’s former ministers, Zafer Çağlayan, in the case file of Reza Zarrab, its influence on Zarrab’s case and Washington-Ankara relations, and Erdoğan’s planned visit to the U.S. in mid-September. Rubin remarked that the arrest warrant issued for Zafer Çağlayan could be a sign that Zarrab is talking to prosecutors and giving evidence. He said: “That's Erdogan's nightmare, because if Zarrab is talking, then Zarrab is also likely talking about Erdogan's dealings. And the thing with...

The US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs on Friday sent a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson requesting that he take steps to ensure that another violent incident involving the security detail of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan does not take place during Erdoğan’s visit to New York for the UN General Assembly on Sept. 12. “The violence on May 16 outside the Turkish Ambassador’s residence in Washington, D.C. was only the latest in a disturbing series of violent, unwarranted behavior by the security forces accompanying President Erdogan while in the United States. In 2011, Turkish security...

Turkey on Saturday asked citizens to be “cautious” in Germany and stay away from political gatherings ahead of this month’s election, as tensions ratcheted between the NATO allies. Ties have plummeted since last year’s attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Germany’s strong criticism of an ensuing crackdown which saw more than 50,000 people arrested. Relations further deteriorated after the detention of several German citizens including Deniz Yucel, a correspondent for the Die Welt newspaper. The Turkish foreign ministry urged citizens living in Germany or planning to travel there “to be cautious, taking into account the situation in Germany...

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is keeping on the table the topic of a military operation against US- and Russian-allied Syrian Kurds operating under the banner of the People's Protection Units (YPG).“Despite the problems we are having with our allies, we are not stepping back from our plans or operations,” Erdogan told his guests during the Victory Day reception Aug. 30.  “They have to know that we are preparing to do whatever we did with [Operation] Euphrates Shield,” he added, referring to the 216-day military incursion Turkey launched into northern Syria a little over a year ago. Ankara said at the...

Sept. 6, 1955 started just like any other day for the Greeks, Armenians, and Jews of ‎Istanbul—or Constantinople. ‎‎”I resided in Cengelkoy with my wife and two children back then,” wrote Apostolos Nikolaidis ‎in the book I Nihta ton Kristallon. ‎”Just as protests were starting in Taksim, I left my shop in Karakoy and went home.”Nikolaidis did not know that a horrid ethnic cleansing campaign was on the way. Just like Nikolaidis, ‎thousands of non-Muslims in Istanbul were not yet aware of the intent of their own state to ‎destroy their private property, businesses, and places of worship, to terrorize...

Video says it all.

On the banks of the river Tigris, in southeastern Turkey, sits Hasankeyf, a small village that is 12,000 years old. However, very soon, that history will come to an end. The Turkish government built a dam 60km downstream and soon Hasankeyf will be underwater. After years of fighting for their village, residents capitulated. They say they feel hopeless and humiliated, especially after the government starting using dynamite to destroy nearby cliffs over the past few weeks. Turkish authorities have also started to transport eight of the village’s key monuments to "New Hasankeyf". They say they want to preserve these artifacts...

ISTANBUL -- Coming from the airport into this city of about 15 million people and 5 million cars, as my driver describes it, I pass ancient Roman ruins and blocks of upscale shops; an old hotel where Agatha Christie penned "Murder on the Orient Express," smoke shops and modest restaurants, and luxury car dealers. It is a metaphor for the choices Turks are being forced to make under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan: forward to a better future and a recapture of their secular state, or back to a nostalgic past when Islam was the official religion of the Ottoman Empire....