Free Republic

I nominate Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of Turkey, as the most inconsistent, mysterious, and therefore most unpredictable major politician on the world stage. His victory in a referendum last Sunday formally bestows him with near-dictatorial powers that leave Turkey, the Middle East, and beyond in a greater state of uncertainty than ever.Here are some of the puzzles:Mystery #1: Holding the referendum. The Turkish electorate voted on April 16 in a remarkable national plebiscite that dealt not with the usual topic – floating a bond or recalling a politician – but with fundamental constitutional changes affecting the very nature of their...

Romanian authorities have announced that the liberal mayor of Bucharest, mathematician Nicușor Dan has won the second and final round of the deeply controversial Romanian presidential elections.With the first round of vote cancelled; with favorite candidate Călin Georgescu arrested, prosecuted and banned from the re-election; with widespread allegations of fraud and foreign interference by France – this election is forever tainted.Right-wing populist George Simion, who won the first round of the election ‘re-do’ with over 20 percentage point ahead of Dan, warned of fraud, and posted on X that he was the new president of Romania.But the official results state:...

No one is going to defend you for free if you are not willing to fight for yourself. About ten years ago, I spoke with a friend from Austria. They were visiting the U.S. and we had the typical "Second Amendment" conversation that we usually have with Europeans. Then we talked about NATO and how Europe has been riding for free, i.e. very low, if any, military spending. I politely pressed them and they admitted that they couldn't afford all that "free stuff" if they had to build their military. And then the lady joked about depending on the U.S....

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan have been carrying out intense diplomacy in the past few days following increased hopes for the resumption of talks between Russia and Ukraine in Türkiye. Erdoğan will receive NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on May 13 in Ankara before the latter chairs the informal NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Antalya on May 14 and 15. Erdoğan and Rutte are expected to discuss the agenda of the NATO meeting and the efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. Erdoğa spoke with Zelensky on late May 12 and emphasized the significance...

Key names, entities: François Genoud, Shukeiri, Fatah, PLO, PFLP, Yasser Arafat, George Habash [Habbache], Karl van de Put, Johan Schuller, Herald Angelke, [Udo] Otto Albrecht, Karl-Heinz Hoffmann, Gundolf Keller [Köhler], Willi Voss [Pohl], L'oeuvre Francaise, Jean Tireault, Jean Robert Debbaudt, Manfred Roeder [Röder], Volker Heidel. AHMAD SHUKEIRI [SHUKAIRY / SHUQAIRY] AND TACUARA (1962) (his promoting of neo-Nazis at UN, while quoting NYT, which in fact details its Nazism) Recall of Arab Delegate from U.N. is Sought; ‘saluted’ Tacuara December 3, 1962 [PDF] A move for the recall by Saudi Arabia of its permanent representative to the United Nations, Ahmad Shukairy,...

WARSAW, Poland (AP) – A massive fire that destroyed a large shopping center in Warsaw last year was the result of arson ordered by Russian intelligence services, Polish officials said Sunday on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the blaze. The fire broke out May 12, 2024, in the Marywilska 44 shopping that housed some 1,400 shops and service points. Many of the vendors were from Vietnam, and it inflicted tragedy on many in Warsaw’s Vietnamese community. “We now know for certain that the massive fire on Marywilska was the result of arson commissioned by Russian services,” Prime Minister...

DataRepublican strikes AGAIN, this time with a fairly scary yet accurate portrayal just how George Soros planned to use NGOs for his New World Order. We know, that sounds fairly dramatic but when you read what she put together ... It's a real humdinger. Take a look: @DataRepublican 🧵THREAD: GEORGE SOROS, THE MASTERMIND Today's systems of NGOs isn't accidental - it was laid out in a vision 30 years ago by none other than George Soros. I joined @MikeBenzCyber on a livestream last night, where he was kind enough to walk us through the basics. As my bio says, I...

Lockheed bets on F-35 upgrades to remain relevant in an airpower race with China that favors revolution over evolution US F-35 in a file photo. Image: US Air Force Bested at the next-generation US fighter competition, Lockheed Martin is betting big on turning the F-35 into a “fifth-gen-plus” fighter — retrofitting tomorrow’s tech into yesterday’s jet to stay in the game. This month, multiple media sources reported that Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet announced that the defense giant will not challenge the US Air Force’s decision to award the US$20 billion Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter contract to rival...

In a sharp criticism of NATO’s European members that has become increasingly common in the Trump administration, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has issued a stark warning, urging the alliance’s member states to dramatically increase their defense budgets or risk undermining the credibility of the entire organization.“NATO is only as strong as the commitments of its members,” Rubio told The Free Press in an interview. “If the US is carrying the lion’s share, with European nations as mere junior partners, that’s not a true alliance—it’s a dependency.”Rubio’s comments come amid rising frustration in Washington over NATO’s continued reliance on...

The Kremlin said on Monday that the position of US President Donald Trump's administration on ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine gave Moscow satisfaction, but declined to comment on Trump's hopes for deal this week. US envoy General Keith Kellogg said on Sunday that NATO membership was "off the table" for Ukraine. Trump has repeatedly said previous US support for Ukraine's bid to join NATO was a cause of the war. "We have heard from Washington at various levels that Ukraine's membership in NATO is excluded," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters." Of course, this is something that causes our...

https://x.com/WarClandestine/status/1896373700834041941Clandestine@WarClandestine·Mar 2Did you catch that?Zelensky admits that if Ukraine gets NATO membership, then he has “fulfilled his mission”.His mission is not to govern Ukraine. His mission is NATO membership for Ukraine, which would immediately trigger WW3.The reason his mission is WW3, is because that’s the only scenario where he MIGHT survive. His only way out is if NATO comes in and takes over the fight with Russia directly. That’s his plan, but realistically he would need the US in order to pull it off.Zelensky, and his Deep State handlers, are literally trying to initiate full-scale WW3, in an effort to...

President Trump’s tariffs on Canadian imports triggered the usual response from Ottawa. First under Justin Trudeau and now under his successor, Mark Carney, Canada’s political class didn’t just protest—they retaliated, slapping on symbolic countermeasures and ... Outrage as policy—the Canadian default setting when Washington asserts leverage. But beneath the indignation lies a more straightforward truth: Canada had it coming. Canada has basked in American economic and military protection for years while shirking its responsibilities. Regarding trade, defense, energy, and foreign policy, successive Liberal governments have treated the U.S.-Canada relationship as a one-way arrangement—Washington provides the muscle, and Ottawa collects the...

Following pressure from the globalist mafia, Romanian authorities banned front-runner Calin Georgescu from running for president. Georgescu wanted peace in Ukraine and a democratic Romania.After the Romanian authorities canceled the first round of elections won by anti-Globalist Calin Georgescu, and detained him for questioning in a bogus prosecution, Georgescu was BARRED from running in the May poll, in which he is the leading candidate with 40% of vote intentions.Bucharest exploded in chaos after the decision was announced.On Thursday, Tucker Carlson posted his video interview with Călin Georgescu. During their talk – around the 15:39 minute mark – Georgescu talks about...

A German military assessment exposes major issues with NATO weapons in Ukraine. The PzH 2000 howitzer, while advanced, is so technically fragile that its combat usefulness is in doubt. The Leopard 1A5 tank is used mostly as makeshift artillery due to weak armor. The Leopard 2A6 is too expensive and complex to maintain at the front. Air defense systems also face problems. The IRIS-T works well, but ammo is too costly and scarce. The Patriot system is called “unsuitable for combat” because its MAN carrier vehicles are outdated and lack spare parts. This information was revealed in a transcript of...

NATO is a corpse. All that remains is the grotesque performance art of a diplomatic zombie stumbling from summit to summit, mouthing tired clichés about “shared values” and “burden sharing,” even as its core strategic logic lies rotting beneath the surface. The Atlantic Alliance, once the steel scaffolding of Western security, has become a hollow ritual. Its military readiness is an illusion. Its political cohesion is fraying. Its future, if it has one, lies not in revival—but in reinvention or replacement. This is not a triumphalist declaration from the Kremlin or Beijing. It is a sober diagnosis, grounded in realism...

As part of a broader effort to rid the Pentagon of “weak leadership” and inaction, the Trump administration has ousted a senior NATO official, whose firing was previously suggested by a conservative research group. Navy Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield was reportedly fired from NATO’s military committee over the weekend. She was the first woman to oversee the Naval War College, a position she held until 2023. In addition to leading a joint reconstruction team in Afghanistan, Chatfield was a Navy helicopter pilot and one of the 32 members of NATO’s military committee. On Tuesday, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced...

Japan expressed interest Tuesday in participating in the NATO command for its Ukrainian mission based in Germany in what would be a major boost in ties with the largely European alliance. Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani announced his country’s interest during talks with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Tokyo. After providing the war-torn country with defense equipment and support, Japan now wants to join NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine, or NSATU, headquartered at a U.S. base in the German town of Wiesbaden. Nakatani said Japan wants to further deepen security cooperation with NATO and that participation in...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is assuring fellow North Atlantic Treaty Organization member nations that the United States considers the defense alliance indispensable. Rubio made the comments during his address to the NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday. He dismissed panicked speculation that President Donald Trump was planning to pull out of the alliance. "As we speak right now, the United States is as active in NATO as it has ever been. And some of this hysteria and hyperbole that I see in the global media and some domestic media in the United States about NATO is...

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha says more pressure must be exerted on Russia to agree to a peace deal as he meets NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stressed on Thursday that any ceasefire or peace deal to stop the war in Ukraine must be "lasting". "I commend of course the American efforts to break the deadlock, that is important. We have to make sure that whenever a ceasefire or a peace deal is reached that it is enduring, that it is lasting," said Rutte on Thursday. Rutte emphasised that the outcome of this war is...

PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned fellow EU countries that joint defence is still realistic, but urged continued military cooperation with the US The Danish government will support a series of small steps to reinforce the EU's joint foreign and security policy this autumn, when member nations begin the dirty work of negotiating a new constitutional treaty for the European partnership. Denmark will neither contribute to majority-rule resolutions on defence, nor move to withdraw the military defence of Europe from the NATO alliance with the US, Rasmussen said Monday at an EU conference at Copenhagen's Industriens Hus. The prime minister warned...