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News from Turkey

Published on August 29, 2012

Turkey

OCTOBER 25

Turkey has started to lobby for a proposal, including a “humanitarian intervention,” to bypass the United National Security Council deadlock over the Syrian crisis. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has recently called on the international community to make a concerted effort, saying the best way to end the bloodshed is to launch a humanitarian intervention. | Zaman

Hundreds of Syrian refugees have poured into a makeshift refugee camp overlooking the Turkish border, fleeing a week of what they say are the most intense army bombardments since the uprising began nineteen months ago. | Zaman

OCTOBER 24

Dar Assabah journalists have suspended their nineteen-day hunger strike and 57-day sit-in, following an agreement reached between the government and the Tunisian General Labor Union. | TAP

Hundreds of Syrian refugees have poured into a makeshift refugee camp overlooking the Turkish border, fleeing a week of what they say are the most intense army bombardments since the uprising began nineteen months ago. | Zaman

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said that Israel is guilty and should first pay for its crimes before restoring relations with Turkey, referring to the Mavi Marmara incident that left nine Turkish activists dead. | Zaman

OCTOBER 23

The vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. James Winnefeld, arrived in Ankara early on Tuesday to meet with Turkish military and government officials for talks on security issues that reportedly focused on Syria and cooperation against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party. | Zaman

An anti-aircraft shell fired from Syria hit a health center across the border in Turkey’s Hatay province on Tuesday, but there were no immediate reports of injuries. | Zaman

Kurdish citizens need to build a barrier between themselves and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said today during a speech in the eastern province of Van. “My Kurdish brothers need to put up a wall between themselves and the terror organization,” Erdoğan said. | Hurriyet

OCTOBER 22

Israel has offered to hold talks with Ankara to discuss the nineteen-month-long Syrian crisis, but Ankara promptly dismissed the possibility, saying Israeli officials should fulfill the Turkish criteria for normalization of ties. | Zaman

Turkey’s General Staff has ordered all military shipping to be conducted by air, in an effort to avoid ambushes of military vehicle convoys by suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK). | Hurriyet

A joint operation carried out by special operationss units has led to the deaths of at least 40 terrorists from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) over the past five days in the Kazan Valley in Hakkari province. | Zaman

OCTOBER 19

Turkey's army fired on Syria today after two shells launched from Syria landed in Turkish territory, Turkish state broadcaster TRT reported. There were no reports of any casualties resulting from the exchange of fire. | Hurriyet

Turkey joined an appeal for a ceasefire to stop the bloodshed in Syria during the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha next week. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said both Syrian forces and rebels should end hostilities "at least" through the four-day holiday that begins on October 26. | Hurriyet

A pipeline in Turkey was hit by an explosion targeting a military vehicle, wounding soldiers and disrupting the natural gas flow from Iran, according to an official from the eastern province of Agri. | Wall Street Journal

OCTOBER 18

The Turkish military fired back after a mortar shell from Syria landed in Turkey's Hatay province near the Syrian border on Wednesday. The Hatay Governor's Office said that a mortar shell landed in a field near the town of Hacıpaşa and Turkish border forces immediately retaliated. | Zaman

Some fifteen members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party have been killed by Turkish security forces in ongoing clashes in the Hakkari province of southeastern Turkey over the past two days. | Hurriyet

New military outposts were introduced yesterday along the Turkey-Iran border by the governor of the eastern province of Van. Some 37 of 43 outposts stationed along the 285 kilometer-long border Turkey shares with Iran have been re-built since 2010. | Hurriyet

OCTOBER 17

Russia has begun installing a new state-of-the-art anti-aircraft weapon system in its southern military region with an eye toward targeting Turkey in response to a NATO missile defense shield outpost that was recently established in East Anatolia. | Hurriyet

The families of soldiers killed in a massive munitions blast last month have expressed bewilderment after they received letters from the military informing them their loved ones had died in a “natural disaster.” The definition means the families will not receive as much compensation as would the relatives of soldiers killed in terrorist attacks. | Hurriyet

Kurdish militants attacked military outposts in southeast Turkey overnight, killing three Turkish soldiers, security sources said on Wednesday. Armed with mortars and rifles, the Kurdistan Workers Party guerrillas launched raids at Cukurca in Hakkari province. | Hurriyet

OCTOBER 16

Nearly 400 million Turkish Liras have been spent on caring for Syrian refugees in Turkey, Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said, adding that factoring local expenses into the figure could increase the overall amount. | Hurriyet

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reportedly discussed their differences over Syria during an unscheduled meeting this morning in Baku. | Hurriyet

The number of Syrian refugees entering Turkey has exceeded Ankara's "psychological limit" of 100,000, officials said, underscoring concerns that the country might not be able to cope with a flow of people that shows no sign of abating. | Wall Street Journal

OCTOBER 15

Turkey has given the all-clear for an Armenian plane to continue on its journey to the Syrian city of Aleppo after ordering it to land in eastern Turkey so its cargo of humanitarian aid could be searched, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arinç said. | Hurriyet

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will not conduct a one-on-one meeting during the upcoming ECO Summit in Baku. The lack of correspondence between the leaders follows a worsening of relations due to their conflicting policies on Syria. | Hurriyet

Syria has decided to ban Turkish Airlines flights from Syrian airspace. The decision came three days after Turkey intercepted a Syrian passenger plane en route from Moscow to Damascus and seized what it said was military equipment on board. | Zaman

OCTOBER 11

Turkey briefly detained a Syrian passenger plane on Wednesday, suspecting it of carrying military equipment from Moscow. Passengers said they were forced to sign “fake papers” indicating that the aircraft had made an emergency landing. | Reuters; Hurriyet

Turkish Foreign Ministry officials have categorically denied media reports suggesting that Washington has Special Forces stationed close to the Syrian border in Turkey and that American and French Special Forces have been at İncirlik airbase in southern Turkey for weeks. | Hurriyet

Syria has stopped purchasing electricity from neighboring Turkey, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız told reporters on Thursday. “Syria halted their power purchases from Turkey one week ago,” Yıldız said, adding that Turkey was ready to resume supplies if a request was received. | Hurriyet

OCTOBER 10

Turkey's military chief vowed Wednesday to respond with more force to any further shelling from Syria, keeping up the pressure on its southern neighbor a day after NATO said it stood ready to defend Turkey. | AP

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan clearly ruled out the possibility of public education in languages other than Turkish, including such “mother tongues” as Kurdish. “Education in the mother tongue. There is no such thing. Our country’s official language is Turkish,” Erdoğan said. | Hurriyet

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attacked one school in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır and eight others in the southeastern province of Şırnak’s İdil district with Molotov cocktails and handmade bombs yesterday. | Hurriyet

OCTOBER 9

The head of NATO said on Tuesday that the alliance had plans in place to defend Turkey against attack from Syria if necessary, but that he hoped the two countries would find a way to stop tensions escalating. | Hurriyet

Turkish jets bombed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) hideouts in northern Iraq over the weekend, according to military sources. At least twelve F-16 fighter jets took off from the Diyarbakır base in southeastern Turkey and targeted four camps in the Kandil Mountains and the surrounding area. | Hurriyet

The Egyptian and Turkish navies have begun a week-long joint drill in the eastern Mediterranean, an Egyptian military official said on Monday. | Zaman

OCTOBER 4

The Turkish Parliament has passed a motion allowing the military to conduct cross-border raids into Syria. Members of main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) decided to vote against the motion following a group meeting earlier today. | Hurriyet

The Turkish military fired on targets in Syria after deadly shelling killed five civilians in a Turkish border town. Cross-border tensions escalated Wednesday after a shell fired from inside Syria landed on a home in the Turkish village of Akcakale, killing two women and three of their daughters and wounding at least 10 others. | Hurriyet

Iraq has made a decision to prohibit the presence of any foreign troops or foreign bases on Iraqi territory, however Turkish officials say they do not expect this decision to affect the presence of the Turkish military in Iraq. Iraq asked Turkey to stop attacking terrorists from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) sheltered across the border in northern Iraq, as Turkey prepares to extend its internal mandate for the cross-border raids. | Zaman

OCTOBER 3

Turkish police are going from house to house issuing an ultimatum to Syrian refugees: Either move into a refugee camp or go back to Syria. More than a half-dozen Syrian refugees living in rented homes in Antakya and the nearby town of Yayladagi offered similar descriptions of the stark choice recently imposed by local Turkish authorities. | CNN

Police detained nineteen students and pepper-sprayed many more in an effort to contain a demonstration protesting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as he was visiting Ankara University on the first day of classes. | Hurriyet

Turkey’s annualized inflation of consumer prices increased to 9.19 percent with the latest hikes in fuel prices, foods, and alcoholic beverages, data released by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) today show. | Zaman

OCTOBER 2

Turkish Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz has denied claims by Saudi Arabian news channel Al Arabiya that two Turkish pilots, thought to have perished when their jet was shot down on June 22, were actually murdered by Syrian intelligence. | Hurriyet

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan defended his Justice and Development Party’s refusal to provide accreditation to some newspapers to cover the party’s fourth ordinary congress, saying he is “not obliged to invite” all newspapers to his party’s convention. | Zaman

Officials began to open the grave of late President Turgut Özal in Istanbul today, following a prosecutor’s decision which ruled that his body should be exhumed. | Hurriyet

OCTOBER 1

PM Erdoğan signaled his intent to remain the country’s leader until 2023, openly hinting at plans to jump to a revamped presidency at his party’s congress. | Hurriyet

Turkish parliament begins the new legislative year with a number of topics such as extending cross-border operations in Iraq and lifting the immunity of nine Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputies. | Hurriyet

Parliament’s strength is weakened by the absence of lawmakers who remain in prison on a variety of terrorism-related cases, Turkish President Abdullah Gül said today. Currently, eight lawmakers, two from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), one from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and five from the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) are under arrest pending trial. | Hurriyet

SEPTEMBER 28

Jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan has reportedly criticized recent violent attacks by the PKK, calling them “reckless.” “The recent attacks [staged by the PKK] might destroy the bridges between peoples,” Öcalan said. | Zaman

US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Gordon has said that dealing with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is a challenge not just for Turkey but for the United States as well. “We see it as a terrorist organization that should be combated. And we work very closely with Turkey in supporting [Turkey] against the threat from the PKK,” added Gordon. | Zaman

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan lashed out at Russia, China, and Iran on Thursday, saying their stance on the crisis in neighboring Syria was allowing a massacre to go on unabated. | Zaman

SEPTEMBER 27

Two Turkish soldiers were killed and four were injured in clashes with militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the eastern province of Hakkari today. The soldiers were part of a large-scale military operation launched by Turkish armed forces, called "autumn clean-up." | Hurriyet

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan signaled that new talks between the state and the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) might be possible as his government faces an upsurge in violence in the country’s southeast. | Hurriyet

Turks would prefer to see incumbent Abdullah Gül as their next president if they had to choose between him and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, a Turkish opinion poll showed on Wednesday. The results suggest Erdoğan could face some public resistance in achieving his goal of taking charge of the newly constituted executive presidency in two years. | Hurriyet

SEPTEMBER 26

Iraq is now capable of shooting down Turkish jets entering Iraqi airspace to target Kurdish militants, according to Iraqi Air Force Officer Iskander Witwit. | Hurriyet

A court ruling allowing Turkey to ban access to the anti-Islam film “Innocence of Muslims” has been finalized. The ruling will now allow Turkish authorities to ban any webpage that shows any portion of the movie, including the video-sharing giant YouTube, according to Anatolia news agency. | Hurriyet

SEPTEMBER 25

Turkey’s cabinet sought approval from parliament to extend a mandate for ground troops to be sent into Iraq to fight Kurdish militants, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said. Parliament will reconvene from its summer holiday on October 1st and is expected to give priority to a one-year extension of the mandate for cross-border attacks, which expires on October 17th. | Bloomberg

Turkey's General Staff feels “sorrow” for the sentences that were meted out on September 21st to 324 soldiers as part of the “Balyoz” (Sledgehammer) case, stating that the Turkish Armed Forces “respect the superiority of law.” | Hurriyet

In response to violent protests in in the Muslim world over the recent anti-Islamic film deemed offensive to the Prophet Mohammed, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is urging nations to approve anti-blasphemy laws that would criminalize attacks on religion. | Journal of Turkish Weekly

SEPTEMBER 24

An Istanbul court sentenced 331 suspects including retired Air Force commander Gen. İbrahim Fırtına, retired First Army commander Gen. Çetin Doğan and retired Navy commander Adm. Özden Örnek to thirteen to twenty years in prison on September 21st for drawing up coup plans after taking part in an army seminar in 2003. | Hurriyet

Fifteen active duty high-ranking military officers who stood trial without arrest but were sentenced to jail time in the Sledgehammer coup case, which concluded on Friday, have been arrested over the past two days. | Zaman

The head of Turkey's main Kurdish party has called for talks between the government and Kurdish militants to prevent a further escalation of violence, which she said could undermine efforts to draw up a new, more liberal constitution. | Reuters

SEPTEMBER 21

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has canceled a planned visit to New York for the U.N. General Assembly due to preparations for his party’s upcoming convention and a busy schedule, his office has said. | Hurriyet

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has canceled a planned visit to New York for the U.N. General Assembly due to preparations for his party’s upcoming convention and a busy schedule, his office has said. | Hurriyet

Turkish authorities are working to finalize a detailed report regarding the Turkish jet downed earlier this year to demand compensation from Syria. The report will outline Syria’s responsibility in the downing of the Turkish RF 4E jet in international airspace and demand Syrian authorities compensate Turkey for the jet, as well as the two pilots that were killed in the crash. | Hurriyet

SEPTEMBER 20

Security officials increased security measures around Diyarbakır's Çarıklı village following the discovery of explosives placed at a bridge nearby, Doğan news agency reported this morning. | Hurriyet

The conservative opposition People’s Voice Party (HSP) dissolved itself with a majority of its delegates’ votes, after its chairman Numan Kurtulmuş accepted an offer to join the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) at the request of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. | Hurriyet

At least one person was killed and two others were injured after a group of terrorists opened fire on a civilian car that defied a Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) roadblock in the southeastern Turkish province of Diyarbakır. | Zaman

SEPTEMBER 19

Ten Turkish soldiers were killed and 70 others were injured when terrorists from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) attacked a military convoy with rocket launchers in the eastern province of Bingöl. | Zaman

Syrian rebels seized control of a third border crossing with Turkey on Wednesday after battling with forces loyal to President Assad, consolidating their grip on a border zone that until now had remained under government control. | Reuters

A report by the military prosecutor found that the Turkish F-4 Phantom warplane which crashed into the Mediterranean on June 22 was shot down by a Syrian air defense missile even though the missile did not directly hit the plane. | Hurriyet

SEPTEMBER 18

Seven soldiers were killed and 63 were injured after a Turkish military convoy was hit by a rocket before coming under fire in an ambush conducted by suspected militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in eastern Turkey. | Hurriyet

Meeting in Cairo with Egyptian leaders, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said, "We will build a new Middle East in cooperation with Egypt and other states." He said that Turkey will extend 2 billion dollars in assistance to Egypt in an effort to boost confidence in the Egyptian economy. | Turkish Weekly

SEPTEMBER 17

Some 500 suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) have been killed in the past month by Turkish security forces in operations against the militants, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today. | Hurriyet

A small group of protesters burned a U.S. flag outside the U.S. embassy in Turkey's capital in protest against a film mocking the Prophet Muhammad, while several dozen others chanted slogans against U.S. policy in Syria. | Zaman

SEPTEMBER 14

Seventy-five rebels and four soldiers have been killed over the past week in Turkey's latest operation against Kurdish separatists in the country's southeast, officials said Friday. The operation has been concentrated in the Semdinli district and has included nearly 5,000 ground troops backed by air power, according to the army. | Asharq Alawsat

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned both the anti-Islamic film and the violent protests that it sparked. He said, “Those who made this movie should be condemned in the harshest terms. But insulting religion cannot be an excuse to attack people.” | Hurriyet

Turkey's state-run oil firm TPAO plans to start offshore oil exploration on its own in 2013 in the Iskenderun-Mersin region of the eastern Mediterranean, after it failed to attract applications for joint exploration licenses, officials said. | Reuters

SEPTEMBER 13

Because no compromise could be reached on the drafting of an article covering freedom of religion and conscience in the Turkish Constitution, the parliament’s Constitution Conciliation Commission has decided to hold a special session on the issue. | Hurriyet

A recent survey conducted by a Turkish think tank shows that an overwhelming majority of Turks and Kurds have a strong faith in sharing a common political future in Turkey and reveals a decline in social alienation felt between the two groups. | Zaman

SEPTEMBER 12

A clear majority of Turks are against a military intervention to put a halt to the violence in Syria, according to a recent poll by the German Marshall Fund. Some 57 percent of Turkish respondents in the Transatlantic Trends survey categorically rejected a Turkish invasion. | Hurriyet

Two soldiers and numerous militants were killed last night in clashes between the military and suspected members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the eastern province of Hakkari. | Hurriyet

The grenades in a munitions depot in the western province of Afyonkarahisar, the site of a huge explosion last week that killed 25 soldiers, were slated to be sent to Syrian opposition forces, a deputy from the Republican People's Party (CHP) has claimed. | Zaman

SEPTEMBER 11

One police officer has been confirmed dead in a suicide bombing this morning at a police station in Istanbul's Sultangazi district. Seven people were also injured and were taken to nearby hospitals in critical condition, reports said. The suicide bomber was identified as İbrahim Çuhadar, who was known to be a member of the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C). | Hurriyet

Turkey refused to extradite Iraq's fugitive vice president Tareq al-Hashemi, who was sentenced in absentia to death by an Iraqi court. "We will host Hashemi in our country as long as he wants to remain in Turkey. We will not hand him over," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a news conference in Ankara. | Hurriyet

According to a report released by the International Crisis Group today, Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan should seize the opportunity to champion democratic reforms that would meet many of the demands voiced by most of Turkey's Kurds, and this would not require negotiations with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK.) | Zaman

SEPTEMBER 6

Twenty-five soldiers were killed and several others wounded yesterday when a military depot filled with hand grenades exploded in the western province of Afyonkarahisar. Initial reports claimed that the blast was due to mishandling while officers were classifying the hand grenades. | Hurriyet

Fifty-eight people died when a refugee boat carrying over 100 refugees sank off the coast of İzmir today. Some 43 refugees were rescued, but others remain missing. Some of the refugees swam to safety onshore. The rescued refugees are reportedly from Iraq and Syria and are of Kurdish origin. | Hurriyet

Turkey is likely to endorse Egypt’s “quartet proposal” on Syria, which will involve four-way meetings between Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, and Egypt to discuss the Syrian crisis. Egypt’s president stressed that the time had come to change the Syrian government. Morsi’s call is likely to be welcomed by Turkey, which is hosting some 80,000 Syrian refugees. | Zaman

SEPTEMBER 5

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said that President Bashar al-Assad had created a "terrorist state" in Syria and voiced further frustration at the lack of international consensus over the chaos there. "The massacres in Syria that gain strength from the international community's indifference are continuing to increase," Erdogan told a meeting of his ruling AK Party. | Reuters

The UN, which has started to issue unofficial numbers, reported that Turkey now hosts 82,000 Syrian refugees. | Turkish Press

SEPTEMBER 4

Ten Turkish security officials, including soldiers and policemen, were killed in clashes with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party when the terrorist group attacked police and military outposts in the southeastern province of Şırnak, which borders northern Iraq. Seven other members of the security services were wounded in the fighting. | Zaman

AUGUST 30

Thirteen people suspected of having links to al-Qaeda were arrested in northwest Turkey following the discovery of explosives, the local governor said Thursday. Police seized 90 kilograms of ammonium nitrate, which can be used to make bombs, in a house raid in Karamürsel, Kocaeli province. | Hurriyet

A recent survey conducted to measure public opinion of external and internal affairs has shown that the majority of Turkish citizens believe there is a need for a new political party and leader, signaling deep public resentment and frustration over politicians’ performances since the June 12, 2011 elections. | Zaman

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is scheduled to participate in a UN Security Council meeting on Syrian refugees on Thursday. Davutoglu is expected to brief the meeting on the state of Syrian refugees in Turkey and convey Turkey’s views over setting up a security zone inside Syria in case the number of refugees in Turkey exceeds what the country says is “the psychological threshold of 100,000.” | Turkish Press

AUGUST 29

Turkey discussed with the United Nations the possibility of housing Syrian refugees inside Syria, reiterating Ankara's call to set up an internationally protected "safe zone" on Syrian territory, a day after Turkey said it would open new camps to house the rapidly rising number of Syrians fleeing violence. | Wall Street Journal

Turkey has taken no initiative to establish protected buffer zones or no-fly zones over Syria, diplomatic sources said after the French president said discussions were underway with allies, including Turkey, on the possibility buffer zones. | Hurriyet

The Turkish police detained nine people, including an Iranian individual, on charges of spying for Iran's National Intelligence and Security Organization (SAVAK) and planning to fuel insurgency among the Kurdish population in Turkey's South and Southeast. | Zaman

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