Free Republic

In the background of the strike stands Iran's attempt to construct a network of friendly forces stretching from Iraq through Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon. In 2016, pro-western sources in Iraq warned that Iran was building just such a conduit. In December 2017, The New Arab reported that convoys of unmarked vehicle had passed into Syria from Iraq through checkpoints manned by the Hashd al-Shaabi, the mostly Shi'ite militias that are known as Popular Mobilization Units (PMU). These militias play a complex role, forming one of a patchwork of similar groups that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has enlisted to...

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports Hezbollah will not withdraw from western and southwestern borders of Homs with Lebanon as the Russians demanded. Nasrallah: 'the whole world can not remove us from Syria' Hezbollah fighters are still stationed in western and southwestern Homs in Syria, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Thursday, and are refusing to comply with a Russian demand to pull away from the Israeli border. "All that has happened is a media withdrawal," the non-government affiliated organization reported, claiming the Russian forces are deployed in a way that ensures they will not need...

A chief of Turkish intelligence in Germany, Frankfurt Consul General Ilhan Saygili, who had close ties with Turkish-German Chief Inspector removed from duty for working for MİT Döndü Yazgan, was appointed as an ambassador in Switzerland. According to a report the German intelligence prepared on the Turkish-German Chief Inspector Döndü Yazgan, who was recently removed from duty for working for the Turkish intelligence service MİT, Yazgan met with Frankfurt and Mainz consuls general. German intelligence had documented that Yazgan shared intelligence information with Turkey via these consuls. Ilhan Saygılı served as the Frankfurt Consul General between 2008 and 2012 and...

Ahead of Turkey's presidential election, author Ece Temelkuran praises her compatriots' unbroken spirit. She says it is a model for all who have begun to experience the maddening absurdity of right-wing populism. Just days before an election that President Erdogan has forced on Turkey to consolidate his power, the most heated debate on Turkish social media surrounds a photo of a maimed black puppy whose paws were cut off before it was thrown away. Most people are shocked by this extreme act of cruelty. But as with everything else these days, even this discussion took on a political dimension: Government supporters dismissed the reactions...

In Turkey, a NATO member and a candidate for the European Union, citizens are systematically persecuted or even murdered for having been born non-Turkish or non-Muslim. For decades, the Turkish government and much of the Turkish public have victimized millions of people – Jews, Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, Kurds and Alevis. Here are six victims whose life stories I hope will give you an idea about what it means to live as a minority member in Turkey. Yasef Yahya, 39, a Jewish dentist from Turkey, was brutally murdered on Aug. 21, 2003 in the Şişli district of Istanbul. Yahya was married...

Bruce Thornton is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. In Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, when the Welsh magus Glendower boasts, “I can call spirits from the vasty deep,” the sceptic Hotspur retorts, “Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them?” For seven decades the West’s foreign policy establishment has been trying to call Middle East peace from depths of endless summits and conferences and agreements with ritualistic chants of “land for peace” and “two-state solution.” But all they’ve managed to produce is war, terrorism,...

Israel will strike against Iranian efforts to entrench itself militarily throughout Syria, and not only along the Syrian-Israeli border, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over the weekend. Netanyahu told the weekly cabinet meeting that he spoke with both men and discussed the region, with an emphasis on Syria. The prime minister said he reiterated and made clear the principles guiding Israeli policy toward Syria. “First of all, Iran needs to withdraw from all of Syria,” he said. “Second, we will take action – and are already taking action –...

Elham Ahmed confirmed that we are fully prepared for dialogue and starting direct negotiations with the Syrian regime if the latter is already ready to initiate such a step. Hawar news agency (ANHA) interviewed with the Co-chair of Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), Elham Ahmed about recent events that are taking place, said we are fully prepared to negotiate. Where Elham Ahmed said that the war and military option will not solve the Syrian crisis. "We from the beginning said and still say that we are ready for dialogue and start direct negotiations with the regime." Elham Ahmed said they were...

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, announced that he’s expelling Uber from Turkey, a result of pressure from Istanbul's taxi industry. Istanbul taxi drivers, numbering more than 17,000, claimed Uber was providing an illegal service and that it needs to be banned. Ever since Uber began its service in Turkey in 2014, it's caused dissension among the country's taxi drivers, not unlike what's happening elsewhere. In a speech on Friday, Erdogan said, “This thing called Uber emerged. That business is finished. That does not exist anymore. We have our taxi system.... Where does this come from? It is used...

GENEVA (Reuters) - Talks with the United States over how to reform the main U.N. rights body have failed to meet Washington’s demands, activists and diplomats say, suggesting that the Trump administration will quit the Geneva forum whose session opens on Monday. A U.S. source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the withdrawal appeared to be “imminent” but had no details. Diplomatic sources said it was not a question of if but of when the United States retreats from the Human Rights Council, which is holding a three-week session through July 6. A separate U.S. official in Geneva had...

Turkish authorities have received an official invitation to receive the country's first next-generation F-35 Lightning II jet on June 21, according to the Turkish daily, Hürriyet. "Lockheed Martin would be happy to see you by our side during ‘The Republic of Turkey F-35 Delivery Ceremony' at Fort Worth on June 21," said the official invitation letter from Lockheed Martin, the main manufacturer of the aircraft. The handover of the first warplane will take place after the reception on June 21, the invitation letter added. Turkey's first F-35A will enter service in November 2019 after the completion of a pilot training...

If all goes as planned, a long-anticipated ceremony will be held in Fort Worth, Texas on the first official day of summer. It's to mark the nation of Turkey taking possession of its first F-35 jet fighter. The F-35 is widely considered the world's most advanced and versatile warplane. Not only has Turkey ordered more than 100 of them - it's also part of a nine-nation consortium manufacturing the 300,000 parts that make up Lockheed Martin's 5th-generation stealth fighter. But there may be a problem. Congress is moving to block delivery of the F-35 to this nation that's been part...

What happens next may look like Greece during its financial collapse – meaning Turkey’s economy could shrink by 10%-20% The Turkish central bank managed to halt the free-fall of the country’s currency last week with a sharp rise in interest rates. But the move failed to stop the free-fall of Turkey’s equity market and – far more dangerous – the collapse of the credit quality of Turkey’s banks. Only last October, the euro-denominated 10-year bond of Turkey’s largest private lender, Garanti Bank, yielded just 3%. Now it yields more than 7%, and the dollar value of the bond has fallen...

For the umpteenth time, the United Nations General Assembly has voted to condemn Israel for defending itself. By a tally of 120 to 8, the members declared that Israel was guilty of “excessive use of force” against Palestinians who were protesting the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. The resolution also requested recommendations to protect Palestinians. For 10 weeks now, the two sides have clashed at the border, resulting in 120 Palestinian deaths. Israeli Defense Forces warned protesters not to approach the Israeli-Gaza border on May 14, the day of the embassy opening. They did anyway - some armed...

Yemen government forces — backed by the Arab coalition — launched on Wednesday morning an offensive on the rebel-held port city of Al Hodeidah.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says President Donald Trump’s Mideast negotiating team will visit the region 'next week' as it finalizes its as-yet unveiled Israeli-Palestinian peace plan and will hold talks on deteriorating conditions in the Gaza Strip. The trip comes as officials say the Trump administration is near completion of the plan with an eye on a possible release this summer. The National Security Council said Wednesday that senior adviser Jared Kushner and special representative for international negotiations Jason Greenblatt would travel to Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. It said they would discuss “the next stages of the...

The oil-rich Gulf States - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates - are not known for easily parting with their petro-dollars. But this miserly instinct dissipates when the Sheikhdoms perceive a direct threat to the stability of their respective governments. On Sunday, the three nations led by Riyadh pledged to provide Jordan with a cash infusion of $2.5 billion to help the arid kingdom prop up its free-falling economy. Separately, the European Union announced that it would provide Jordan with $23.5 million. The hefty Gulf State bailout is testament to how seriously they view the problem. Jordan has...

Unable to accept the enhancing status of the Kurds, the Turkish state has over the course of past few months ratcheted up its belligerent approach towards the Kurdistan Freedom Movement. Parallel with its illegal invasion/occupation of the Efrîn Canton in Syria, the Turkish army has been deploying forces inside a sovereign territory, internationally recognised as northern Iraq. Its avowed intention is to “eradicate” the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) whose spreading influence and growing popular support around the world is clearly evident for any independent observer. This is not the first time that the Turkish army is embarking on such an...

Heavy fighting in Yemen between pro-government forces and Shiite rebels has killed more than 600 people on both sides in recent days, security officials said Monday. A charity said meanwhile that an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition had destroyed a new cholera clinic in the country's north. Government forces, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, have been advancing along the western coast in recent weeks as they battle the Iran-allied rebels, known as Houthis. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. Witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals,...

“Keep calm and carry on.” In the wake of a disastrous G7 summit where US president Donald Trump all but broke off the Western alliance, the EU should stay cool and prepare to take over global leadership. That is the message on Monday (11 June) by a former member of the EU leaders club, Helle Thorning-Schmidt. “The US is leaving a vacuum. And who should step in? For me, it is completely obvious, it is Europe’s time to step in,” the former Danish prime minister said at an event in Brussels. “That’s where our new next opportunity is,” she said,...