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Keyword: kurdistan

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  • Turkey's Erdogan calls for boycott of French goods after Macron defends Muhammad cartoons

    10/26/2020 1:46:14 PM PDT · by karpov · 11 replies
    The Hill ^ | October 26, 2020 | John Bowden
    The leader of Turkey is calling on citizens to boycott French products after French President Emmanuel Macron defended a teacher who was murdered by an 18-year-old radical Islamist, vowing to crack down on radical elements in France. "Never give credit to French-labelled goods, don't buy them," Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan said Monday during a speech in Ankara, according to the BBC and CNN. "European leaders must say 'stop' to Macron and his campaign of hatred," he added. His remarks come amid a deepening dispute between Turkey and France over the treatment of Muslims in France. French authorities argue they are taking...
  • Turkey Reportedly Used S-400 System Against US-Made F-16s, and Congress Wants Answers

    10/26/2020 1:47:41 PM PDT · by RomanSoldier19 · 28 replies
    Military.com | ^ | 7 Oct 2020 | By Oriana Pawlyk
    Two lawmakers are requesting that the State Department provide details on Turkey's recent reported use of Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missile system against F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets, as well as Russia’s ability to gather critical intelligence through it on U.S. and NATO allies. Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and James Lankford, R-Okla., sent a letter Wednesday to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after media reports that Turkey tracked U.S.-made F-16s flying in the eastern Mediterranean Sea during the Eunomia joint exercise in August involving France, Italy, Greece and Cyprus. Reports of this activation make clear that Turkey has no intention...
  • Zoroastrians make comeback in northern Iraq, but still face stigma {Kurds converting from Islam to Zoroastrianism}

    10/26/2020 7:25:35 AM PDT · by Cronos · 35 replies
    Israel Hayom ^ | 2 October 2020 | ILYHF
    According to Yasna, an association that promotes Zoroastrianism in Kurdistan, since 2014 about 15,000 people have registered with the organization, most of them Kurds converting from Islam.Aram Mehdi, an Iraqi Kurd who recently converted from Islam to Zoroastriansim, poses for camera as he holds a pendant representing Zoroaster, in Dohuk, Iraq Carefully tucking his Farvahar pendant under his shirt, Aram Mehdi reminds himself of the core Zoroastrian principles it represents: good words, good thoughts and good deeds.Born and raised in a conservative Muslim family, the 31-year-old Iraqi Kurd from the city of Dohuk, in the north of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan...
  • Russia knocking Turkish drones from Armenian skies

    10/26/2020 5:15:36 AM PDT · by Cronos · 7 replies
    Asia Times ^ | 26 October 2020 | Stephen Bryen
    The electronic warfare system is known as “Belladonna”, a poisonous plant that gets its name from Renaissance women who used its extract for tinctures to dilate the pupils of their eyes, ostensibly to make them more attractive. While Belladonna translates to “beautiful woman” in English, in Russian it has a second meaning: it is the name of a Russian electronic jamming system now credited with knocking out at least nine Turkish Bayraktar armed drones used by Azerbaijan to target Armenia. If true – and no one has denied it – the system is now operating around the sensitive Russian military...
  • Why The United States Needs To Put Its Weight Behind France In The Mediterranean; It is a gift from heaven that one of America’s oldest allies, is now volunteering to shoulder additional security burdens.

    08/17/2020 7:24:52 AM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 22 replies
    The Federalist ^ | 08/17/2020 | Sumantra Maitra
    As forces mass in Europe, the biggest stumbling block to EuropeÂ’s future strategic independence as well as American grand strategy is once again Germany. North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies Turkey and Greece are embroiled in a dispute over Turkish oil and gas exploration in the Mediterranean, and Greece is backed by the French navy. After the French military conducted training exercises with Greek forces in the region on Thursday, Turkey warned France to retreat. Within a day, three things happened in rapid succession.First, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signed a treaty to relocate troops out of Germany to...
  • Trump announces new Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict ceasefire brokered by US

    10/25/2020 4:52:44 PM PDT · by CondoleezzaProtege · 27 replies
    Fox News ^ | Oct 25, 2020 | Danielle Wallace
    After taking the stage at a campaign stop in New Hampshire, President Trump tweeted his congratulations Sunday to the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, “who just agreed to adhere to a cease fire effective at midnight.” “Many lives will be saved,” Trump wrote, adding that he was “proud of my team,” including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Deputy Secretary of State Stephen E. Biegun, and the White House's National Security Council, for “getting the deal done!” The deal brokered by the U.S. comes after Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov...
  • France recalls Turkey envoy after Erdogan says Macron needs 'mental check

    10/25/2020 4:31:17 PM PDT · by Kid Shelleen · 8 replies
    BBC ^ | 10/25/2020 | STAFF
    France has recalled its ambassador to Turkey for consultations after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insulted his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron. He said Mr Macron needed a mental health check for pledging to defend secular values and fight radical Islam. Mr Macron has spoken out forcefully on these issues after a French teacher was murdered for showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in class. France "will not give up our cartoons", he said earlier this week. Depictions of the Prophet Muhammad can cause serious offence to Muslims because Islamic tradition explicitly forbids images of Muhammad and Allah (God).
  • Turkey’s Erdogan Questions Sanity of France’s Macron over Attitude to Muslims

    10/25/2020 8:15:04 AM PDT · by xomething · 14 replies
    Breitbart ^ | 10/25/2020 | Simon Kent
    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attacked his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, on Saturday saying he needed “mental checks” for daring to criticize Muslims and Islam. As Breitbart reported Macron has spoken out forcefully on Islam and its followers in France after local teacher Samuel Paty was publicly beheaded for showing cartoons of Muhammad in class. Erodgan is a pious Muslim who has sought to move Islam into Turkey’s mainstream politics... France “will not give up our cartoons”... 188 people talking about this:Pics:Defying islamists...Erdogan asked in a speech: “What’s the problem of the individual called Macron with Islam and with the...
  • ‘Not a serious crime’: Islamic scholar defends Muslim man who beheaded the French teacher, says it is not something he should be punished for

    10/25/2020 12:05:58 PM PDT · by aimhigh · 26 replies
    Opindia ^ | 10/22/2020 | Opindia
    The last week’s incident (October 16) where a high school teacher named Samuel Paty in Paris was beheaded by an Islamic fanatic for showing cartoons of prophet Mohammed to his students, has left the French people shocked. The 18-year-old Muslim youth, a refugee from Chechnya, Russia had not only beheaded the teacher but also uploaded the gory pictures on Twitter, before being shot dead by the French police. Since then, French President Emmanuel Macron has described the incident as a terrorist attack. However, recently, an Islamic scholar went on to normalise this harrowing act by saying that the Muslim teen...
  • Turkey: How the 3,000-year Greek Presence on the Aegean Shore Came to an End

    03/17/2017 5:45:15 PM PDT · by Texas Fossil · 49 replies
    Philos Project ^ | March 16, 2017 | Uzay Bulut
    Tension is running high between Greece and Turkey. The cause? Turkish Chief of the General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar paid a visit to Imia, a pair of two small, uninhabited Greek islets in the Aegean Sea, on January 29. He was accompanied by the commanders of the Turkish land, naval and air forces.Imia – which Turkey calls “Kardak” – was a subject of yet another crisis in 1996 that brought Greece and Turkey to the brink of war. Although armed conflict was ultimately averted, Turkey still claims that the islands are Turkish, even though the islands in the Aegean are...
  • New Math: 7+3=Mediterranean Bloc

    10/12/2020 6:35:50 AM PDT · by SJackson · 4 replies
    Jewish Press ^ | October 12, 2020 | BESA CENTER
    The power shift in the Middle East over the past several years has reshaped the political challenges facing several of its constituent countries, and has led them to consider a possible expansion of their framework of relations. Considering Turkey’s repeated interventions in the affairs of more than one state and the potential threat its ambitions pose to the region’s future, the strategic interests of Israel and many Arab countries—especially the UAE and Saudi Arabia—necessitate a strengthening of relations among countries that can offset Ankara’s aggression. Advertisement Greece is perhaps uniquely suited to assist in this cooperation. Jerusalem boosted its ties...
  • Fact check: Did Biden support wars in Iraq, Serbia, Syria and Libya?

    10/13/2020 12:00:44 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 7 replies
    WRAL ^ | August 27, 2020 | Miriam Valverde
    d biological weapons, sought nuclear weapons, supported terrorism, and threatened peace. In October 2002, then-U.S. Sen. Biden voted in favor of a resolution that authorized Bush to enforce ''all relevant'' United Nations Security Council resolutions on Iraq and if needed, to use military force against Iraq. In a Senate floor speech before voting for the resolution, Biden said that "failure to overwhelmingly support" the resolution was "likely to enhance the prospects that war will occur." The objective of the resolution was to compel Iraq to destroy its weapons of mass destruction, Biden said. He left open the possibility that Hussein...
  • Booby traps set by ISIS in Sinai kill at least 14 in 2 weeks

    10/25/2020 9:32:09 AM PDT · by xomething · 6 replies
    Israel Hayom ^ | 10/25/2020 | AP and ILH Staff
    More than a dozen civilians, including women and children, have been killed in Egypt's restive northern Sinai Peninsula over the past two weeks from explosive devices laid down in their homes by terrorists... Islamic State members attacked several villages in the town of Bir al-Abd in July, forcing people to flee their homes.... The ISIS members, however, had laid booby traps in several houses that killed at least 14 people, including six from the same family ... At least 10 others have been wounded since Oct. 12... The tribes of North Sinai have been heavily targeted by terrorists who view...
  • Turkey’s Relationship with ISIS Proves It Is Deserting Its European Allies

    10/25/2020 1:20:47 AM PDT · by xomething · 6 replies
    besacenter ^ | 10/11/2020 | Lt.Col. Dr. Mordechai Kedar
    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: ISIS was so successful in 2014 in part because President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan of Turkey is a vocal supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood. Any distance ErdoÄŸan has placed between himself and ISIS is attributable to pressure from Russia, the US, and Europe, not to his rejection of the groupÂ’s Islamist ideology. In view of TurkeyÂ’s increasingly divisive and destabilizing influence in the Middle East, the regionÂ’s biggest concern for the West could be President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸanÂ’s burgeoning Islamist tendencies. In order to understand the Turkish role in the threat of ISIS, borne from the Muslim Brotherhood, it...
  • Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: 'Execution' video prompts war crime probe

    10/23/2020 7:16:18 PM PDT · by Kriggerel · 7 replies
    BBC ^ | October 23, 2020 | Grigor Atanesian & Benjamin Strick
    Videos of a potential war crime have emerged as fighting rages around the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenians. One video posted on a messaging app shows what appears to be two Armenians in military uniforms being captured by troops from Azerbaijan. A second video seemingly shows the same Armenians being shot with their hands behind their backs. Armenian authorities have identified the men as Benik Hakobyan, 73, and 25-year-old Yuri Adamyan. Azerbaijan has dismissed the videos as fake.
  • US consulates in Ankara, Istanbul, Adana and Izmir suspend operating

    10/23/2020 4:48:56 PM PDT · by BeadCounter · 8 replies
    APA.AZ (Azerbaijan) ^ | 23 October 2020 | None Listed
    ... According to the Embassy, this is due to the high probability of potential terrorist attacks and kidnappings in Turkey. “In Istanbul and other cities of Turkey, US citizens should be careful,” the Embassy emphasized.
  • Uyghur Films China Using 20,000 Concentration Camp Detainees as Forced Labor

    10/23/2020 6:54:24 PM PDT · by E. Pluribus Unum · 17 replies
    Breitbart ^ | 23 Oct 2020 | JOHN HAYWARD
    Video filmed secretly inside China and uploaded to YouTube over the past month documented about 20,000 concentration camp victims shuttled to textile factories and forced to work 12 hours a day, every day of the week. Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported Thursday on the videos filmed by Miradil Hesen, a resident of the Aksu province where a major textile factory is located: In his videos, Hesen gave detailed accounts of young women and other ethnic Uyghurs from the prefecture’s Uchturpan (Wushi) county who are being forced to work at the Aksu Huafu Textile Factory 12 hours a day, with only...
  • Indians and Central Asians Are the New Face of the Islamic State

    10/23/2020 10:10:32 PM PDT · by xomething · 9 replies
    foreignpolicy.com ^ | October 8, 2020, | By Raffaello Pantucci
    ...the attack ... roster of fighters involved a multinational group that included Afghans, Indians, Tajiks, and Pakistanis. ... Some of the group's dramatic attacks like the Easter 2019 Sri Lanka bombings, the attack on a Turkish nightclub on New Year's Eve 2017, or the 2017 truck attacks in New York City and Stockhol revealed jihadism's persistent appeal to a global audience. ... the Syria.. battlefield was one that drew in Muslims from almost 100 different countries and from every continent. This included Indians and Central Asians, ... Since the Islamic State's emergence, Central Asians have been involved in repeated attacks...
  • Armenia: Caught In Its Own Trap?

    10/23/2020 10:19:30 AM PDT · by Kaslin · 22 replies
    Townhall.com ^ | October 23, 2020 | Ivan Sasha Sheehan
    Armenians are renowned the world over as a resourceful and skillful people. For a small nation, they have produced a remarkable number of impressive and original minds, and Kardashians too. But Armenians’ fabled ingenuity notwithstanding, the country of Armenia has fallen into a sophisticated trap of its own making – bankrupting its intellectually wealthy but economically fragile nation and stifling its own advancement. The trap – initially designed as a ploy to secure the permanent, internationally condoned transfer of a large swath of sovereign territory in neighboring Azerbaijan – now appears to have backfired. The stage was set by 1994,...
  • Statement from the Press Secretary on Sudan

    10/23/2020 8:26:37 AM PDT · by ransomnote · 5 replies
    whitehouse.gov ^ | October 23, 2020 | White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany
    President Donald J. Trump has informed Congress of his intent to formally rescind Sudan’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism.  This follows on Sudan’s recent agreement to resolve certain claims of United States victims of terror and their families.  Yesterday, in fulfillment of that agreement, the transitional government of Sudan transferred $335 million into an escrow account for these victims and their families.By finally serving justice for the American people, President Trump was able to achieve what previous presidents could not – the resolution of longstanding claims of victims of the East Africa embassy bombings, the attack on...