Free Republic

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the Turkish President, and the rude-and-crude master of all he surveys from the 1,100 room “White Palace” that he had the government build for him in Istanbul, at a cost to the Turkish taxpayers of $615 million. But when a man like Erdogan comes along only once a millennium, why should the national exchequer skimp? In Istanbul, having announced to the world that he will not be running for office again (the hundreds of journalists he has imprisoned in Turkish jails must now be breathing proleptic sighs of relief), just to make sure we do not...

Since Hamas’s brutal attack against Israel on Oct. 7 and the resulting Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip, tensions and hostilities across the Middle East have reached fever pitch. And with such a complex regional crisis playing out, it should not come as a surprise that the Biden administration is reconsidering its military priorities in the region.It should be cause for significant concern, however, that this could involve a full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria. While no definitive decision has been made to leave, four sources within the Defense and State departments said the White House is no...

Turkish warplanes carried out airstrikes on PKK sites in northern Iraq and Syria early Saturday and destroyed 29 PKK terror targets, the Turkish National Defense Ministry said. Air operations were carried out against terror targets in the Metina, Hakurk, Gara and Qandil regions in Iraq and northern Syria, in line with the rights to self-defense arising from Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, the ministry said in a statement. The operations came after nine Turkish soldiers were killed in a PKK terror attack in northern Iraq. The National Defense Ministry announced a military operation was under way in the area...

An Israeli missile attack that killed a senior commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force in Syria last week has sparked criticism of the military partnership between Russia and Iran. On 25 December, Seyyed Reza Mousavi, a key figure in shaping Iran's military presence in Syria, was killed in a missile strike on his residence in the Zainabiyah neighbourhood of Damascus. Although it wasn't the first time that Israel had targeted Iranian forces in Syria, this incident has drawn attention to Russia's failure to deploy its advanced S-300 anti-missile defence system in support of Iran, its primary...

Chapters:0:00 Formerly lost cities2:30 Ekster3:32 Suburbs of Pompeii5:01 Tripergole5:45 Helike and other drowned cities6:44 Tigranocerta7:12 Ptolemais Theron and Muziris7 Lost Cities (that could still be found) | 8:35toldinstone | 444K subscribers | 69,473 views | December 8, 2023

A Russian-dominated security grouping held a summit in Belarus on Thursday with the absence of one of its members, Armenia, which has been irked by what it sees as a lack of support over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Speaking at the meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, CSTO, Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed what he called the group’s role in securing peace and stability in the region. But in a sign of the widening rift between Russia and Armenia, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan snubbed the summit in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, citing his government’s dissatisfaction with the organization....

Breaking: Israel is dropping leaflets over southern Lebanon, according to Al Mayadeen It reads: "An urgent message to the residents of South Lebanon. The actions of the terrorist organization Hezbollah push the Israeli Defense Forces to act against it in the areas where you live. For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and head to the safe areas in northern Lebanon. The IDF is not interested in harming you or any of your family members. Anyone who is near Hezbollah terrorists or the organization's facilities will put their lives in danger. A house used by terrorist organizations will...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on October 13 that in the coming weeks, Azerbaijan could invade Armenia. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has threatened Armenia with war multiple times.Meanwhile, pro-Erdogan media outlets in Turkey are also playing their war drums against Armenians. The headline news in the pro-Erdogan newspaper Türkiye on October 3 refers to Armenians in Armenia’s Syunik (Zangezur) province as “snakes”, “gangs” and “terrorists”. One headline reads: “The new nest of the snake is Zangezur”. It claims that the Armenians displaced from Artsakh (also known as Nagorno-Karabakh) are receiving military training in “terror camps in Zangezur”.When the...

At first glance, Thursday’s first-ever phone call between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi might suggest the two predominantly Muslim nations are coming together to support Hamas and its war on Israel. But a closer look shows the two leaders were talking past each other. The Saudi prince, known as MBS, wants peace with Israel and his country’s full integration into the world economy, an agenda that puts him fundamentally at odds with Tehran’s drive to destroy Israel and dominate the Middle East through a network of clients and proxies. According to the Saudi readout...

Speaking to a gathering of his AK party faction in parliament, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says that Israel “can view Hamas as a terrorist organization along with the West. The West owes you a lot. But Turkey does not owe you anything.” “Hamas is not a terrorist organization, it is a group of mujahideen defending their lands,” he says to a standing ovation. Erdogan also says he is canceling plans to visit Israel because of its “inhumane” war.

Palestinian-born Queen Rania of Jordan launched a remarkable attack on the West in an interview with CNN last night where she criticized America's support of Israel's retaliatory strikes against Hamas and claimed there was a 'double standard' in global sympathy for the war's victims. Rania, who was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents and grew up in the West Bank, raged against 'apartheid regime' Israel, claiming the conflict began 'before' Hamas killed 1,400 Israelis on October 7. She said she 'of course' condemned the killing of innocent Israelis by Hamas but, asked why Israel's self-defense was not coming under the...

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Tuesday that no one can intimidate and stop his country from condemning Israeli “aggression” and supporting Palestinians. Ibrahim noted he has received criticism from “some circles in Europe, the US” along with Israel. “I said as long as I am given a mandate by the people, I do not accept threats. We will still fight,” he said at a Solidarity with Palestine rally at Axiata Arena Stadium. He wanted anyone to not even “dream of threatening” his country because Malaysians know what is freedom. “Malaysians have been there (for Palestinians) until today,” he said....

Some voices are being raised to reassess Western ties with Qatar. “Enough is enough,” the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, said on Tuesday of the situation in Gaza. “It is untenable for Israel to be given an unconditional green light and free license to kill,” he said. Al Thani’s first words are correct, enough is enough. But what is enough is not Israel’s campaign to destroy Hamas’s military capabilities, but rather that Qatar – a state that provides diplomatic, media, and financial support to a barbaric terrorist organization that murders and mutilates men, rapes and kidnaps...

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has expressed deep concerns about the situation in the southeastern outskirts of Europe. According to Time.com, Blinken has issued a warning to U.S. officials that Azerbaijan is preparing for an invasion. Conflict with Armenia resurfaces The conflict with Armenia is once again coming to the forefront.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday submitted a bill approving Sweden's NATO membership bid to parliament for ratification, his office said, a move welcomed by Stockholm as it clears the way for it to join the Western defence alliance. Erdogan pleased his NATO allies at a summit in July by promising to send the legislation to parliament when it reopened on Oct. 1, having previously raised objections over Sweden's alleged harbouring of individuals who Turkey says are members of terrorist groups. Since parliament reopened, however, Turkish officials have repeatedly said Stockholm needed to take more concrete steps to clamp down...

Sweden inched a step closer to joining NATO on Monday after Turkey’s president sent accession protocols to parliament. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted both Sweden and Finland to seek NATO membership but the former’s entry had been stymied by Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s sign off on the accession protocols comes after months of delays but it is unclear how long the process will take. Erdogan’s proposal must make its way out of a parliamentary commission and then be opened up for a general vote on the main floor of the assembly where the Turkish president and his allies...

Armenia's ambassador to the European Union, Tigran Balayan, said in an interview published on October 6 that Azerbaijan was actively preparing an invasion within weeks. But on October 11 Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told Armenian Public TV that that risk was "extremely low," and that there was no military buildup on either side of the border.

On 24 April 1915, approximately 250 leading intellectuals of Constantinople’s Armenian community (including political leaders, journalists, and religious leaders) were arrested by Turkish officials. They were then slain. This event marked the beginning of the 1915 Armenian genocide. By 1923, Turkish deportation and annihilation policies resulted in the deaths of approximately 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children in jihad genocide during which Armenians and other Christians were targeted mainly for their religion. 108 years later, Azerbaijan and its ally Turkey have committed the same crime against the Armenians in the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). Since 2020, around 120,000 Armenians...

The fighting prompted over 100,000 people — more than 80% of the enclave's ethnic Armenian residents — to flee in the last two weeks.

Don’t imagine this is just an unprovoked, brutal attack by a bunch of terrorists from Gaza. It is much more than that. The hands that pushed these killers forward are in Moscow. US President Joe Biden and European leaders have long feared an escalation of the Ukraine war and that is what they’ve now got. Unwilling to take the fight directly to NATO, instead, Putin has been fomenting conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Serbia and Kosovo, in West Africa and now in Israel. The instability created in these places is intended to pull US attention, as well as resources, away...