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Al-Monitor has learned that US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is expected to travel to Turkey March 30. He will be the most senior US official to formally visit Turkey since the Donald Trump administration took office in January. A senior Turkish official who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed that Tillerson was expected to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, among others. The official was unaware of Tillerson’s full itinerary but said it would not be unusual for the secretary to visit other countries in the region as well. The official declined to elaborate any further. In an emailed...

The head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation Hakan Fidan was in the Kurdistan region of Iraq to meet with the region’s President Masoud Barzani in the city of Duhoq between 14-15 March, according to local news agency Roj News.The agency, which bases its story on ‘inside sources’, reported that Fidan met with both Masoud Barzani, who is also the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (and Deputy Leader of the KDP) Nechervan Barzani during his visit.The same sources said that the KDP’s relations with Turkey and a joint plan...

Turkey, which has developed rather odd relationships with some of its neighbors in recent years because of its reckless foreign policy, has begun treating Kurdish notables coming from Iraqi Kurdistan as official leaders. According to former Turkish Consul-General at Erbil Aydin Selcen, when Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani used to come to Turkey, he was received in Istanbul and not in Ankara, the capital. The meetings were not held in palaces but at less-impressive locations. The Kurdistan flag was never displayed. Meetings were held in Arabic, not Kurdish. To give the impression that the meetings were unofficial, nobody wore ties. In short, everything was...

I am presenting the news and you decide. Michigan restaurateur gets another chance to fight deportation http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/08/17/ibrahim-parkal-deportation-turkey-restauranteur/88905568/ "A decade later, however, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security began seeking his deportation, citing his past ties to the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, or PKK, which had been designated a terrorist organization in 1997. Officials said Parlak did not initially reveal his PKK activities or his conviction. TODAY's NEWS https://sofrep.com/67010/bombing-in-southeastern-turkey-kills-nine-and-wounds-100/ "The bombing was likely carried out by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and Turkish officials have already blamed the group for the explosion."

ISTANBUL // Turkish police detained four people in a hunt for the perpetrators of a car bombing in central Istanbul on Tuesday that killed seven police and four civilians. The third deadly attack in Turkey’s biggest city in six months targeted a bus transporting anti-riot police in Beyazit district, close to many of the city’s top tourist sites, said Istanbul governor Vasip Sahin. Thirty-six people were wounded, three of them seriously, he added. The four suspects were taken to police headquarters in Istanbul for interrogation, the state-run Anatolia news agency said, without providing further information. There was no early claim...

Turkey's capital Ankara has yet again been hit by terrorists. According to early reports, at least 27 people were killed. Another 75 people were injured. PHOTO The attack took place near a bus station in central Ankara. The explosion was truly massive, as is clear from these photos: 2 PHOTOS The attack was carried out by a car bomber and took place nearby a courthouse and the country's Justice and Interior ministries. TWEET A security camera recorded the blast as it happened: VIDEO As usual in Turkey, there are two prime suspects. The first is the PKK, a Kurdish nationalist...

Turkish military vehicles were hit by a major blast Wednesday evening at an intersection in the Turkish capital of Ankara. The terrorist attack came at around 6:30 p.m. local time, which is 11:30 a.m. Eastern time. In addition to three military vehicles, one private vehicle was also struck. Ankara governor Mehmet Kiliclar says that the vehicles were attacked when they stopped at a traffic light. Currently, the body count stands at 28 people dead and 61 injured. Here's a picture of the explosion of a military bus. TWEET Although the radical-Islamic terrorist organization ISIS carried out a massive terror attack...

A Turkish official says a prominent lawyer, who faced a prison term on charges of supporting Turkey's Kurdish rebels, has been killed in attack. Firat Anli, mayor of Diyarbakir city, said Tahir Elci was shot on Saturday while he was making a press statement. Elci, the head of the bar association in the mainly Kurdish city, was detained last month for saying during a live news program that the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, is not a terrorist organization.

ANKARA (AFP) - Turkish warplanes have carried out a new wave of air strikes on northern Iraq in the latest assault on suspected targets of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the army said Saturday. Shelters and supply points of the PKK in northern Iraq, including its Qandil mountain stronghold, in the raids late Friday, it said. The military did not give further details but the state-run Anatolia news agency said the operation involved 22 fighter jets and that 23 targets were hit. Turkey has for four months been waging a relentless campaign against the PKK in the country's southeast...

There is a potential black swan event taking place in Turkey on Sunday and no one seems to care. That is, the media isn’t devoting nearly enough coverage to Turkish elections considering the impact the outcome will invariably have on the situation in Syria, on the fate of the lira, and on the Pentagons strategy with regard to embedding spec ops with the YPG. As a reminder, Turkey held elections back in June and the outcome did not please President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. AKP lost its absolute majority in parliament thanks in no small part to a relatively strong showing...

More than 200 people have been killed in the renewed fighting between the PKK and the security forces since July, including around 100 soldiers and police officers. The spike in violence comes amid increased political uncertainty in Turkey. The country is holding a new election on Nov. 1 following the ruling party's failure to form a coalition government after an election in June. The PKK has been fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey since 1984. It is considered a terrorist group by Turkey and its allies.

http://www.basnews.com/en/news/2015/08/09/close-to-400-pkk-fighters-killed-in-two-weeks-of-airstrikes/ The Turkish state-run Anatolia news agency has on Sunday reported that 390 members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have been killed in the two weeks of airstrikes since the Ankara government announced it was launching operations against the PKK and Islamic State (IS).

The Defense Department is defending Turkey’s decision to bomb Kurdish rebels in northern Syria amid concern that the NATO member is using its alliance with the U.S. against ISIS as a pretext to defeat an old enemy, the independence-minded Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, which also is assisting the U.S. against the jihadist army that has taken over large portions of Iraq and Syria, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin. After the PKK claimed responsibility for the execution-style murder of two Turkish police officers near the Syrian border, Turkey bombed PKK fighters in northern Syria and non-PKK...

Turkish jets launched their heaviest assault on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq overnight since air strikes began last week, hours after President Tayyip Erdogan said a peace process had become impossible. The strikes hit Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets including shelters, depots and caves in six areas, a statement from Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's office said. A senior official told Reuters it was the biggest assault since the campaign started. Iraq condemned the air strikes as a "dangerous escalation and an assault on Iraqi sovereignty", saying it was committed to ensuring militant attacks on Turkey were not carried out from...

Turkish government is using ISIS as a pretext to attack the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party). Turkey just announced that its air base at Incirlik will soon be open to coalition forces, presumably to fight ISIS. But the moment Turkey started bombing, it targeted Kurdish positions in Iraq, in addition to targeting ISIS positions in Syria. In Turkey, millions of indigenous Kurds are continually terrorized and murdered, but ISIS terrorists can freely travel and use official border crossings to go to Syria and return to Turkey; they are even treated at Turkish hospitals. If this is how the states that rule...

ANKARA – Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said Saturday that airstrikes against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Iraqi Kurdistan will continue. “The operations will continue for as long as threats against Turkey continue,” Davutoğlu said in a press conference, before leaving for Istanbul where he is scheduled to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. “Those who threaten [Turkey] will face the consequences,” he added. Davutoglu’s comments came as Turkey launched air attacks against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is listed as a terror organisation by the US, the EU and Turkey. On Friday night and in the...

Turkish fighter jets launched attacks on camps of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq overnight SNIP---- Turkey simultaneously launched ground attacks against the PKK and Islamic State in northern Syria

The Kurdish Female Peshmerga fighters operates inside Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Their main task is to keep the civillian population safe from terrorist activity. Some female Peshmerga fighters operates as civillian (Asayish) and the primary intelligence agency operating in the Kurdistan region to keep an eye on the area for security reason. They investigative arms and intelligence gatherers operating in the Kurdistan Region. There is a small number of female Peshmerga fighters on the frontlines with the PKK members fighting the Islamic State in Kerkuk and Shingal.

United State government said that it has met directly with a main Kurdish political party in Syria for first time since the Syrian crisis began more than three years ago. The State Department has revealed that in the past week US officials in French Capital Paris have held talks with the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, known as the PYD. This is the first time US government has met with PYD, which has been linked to Kurdish Worker’s Party (PKK), a guerrilla group considered by the U.S. and Turkey as a terrorist organization. The reports of US meeting PYD official is...

Sub Categories: » HOMEPAGE / TURKEY/ LOCAL Tuesday,October 14 2014, Your time is 10:15:56 AM Turkish fighter jets bomb PKK positions for first time since start of peace bid Fevzi Kızılkoyun Ankara Print Page Send to friend » Share on Facebook The targeting of PKK positions is the first such bombardment since the start of the Kurdish peace process at the beginning of 2013. The targeting of PKK positions is the first such bombardment since the start of the Kurdish peace process at the beginning of 2013. Turkish fighter jets have bombarded positions of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)...