Turkish media reported that Abd El Basset Azzouz, a senior al Qaeda leader in Libya and suspect in the 2012 murder of US Ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi, was seized in a joint CIA-Turkish raid in Yalova on Nov. 13. Azzouz was reportedly moved to Jordan on Nov. 24 for extradition to the US. Thirteen […]
About 110 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters from Iraq will be allowed to transit through Turkey to replace 150 Peshmerga in Kobane, Syria. Military officials denied a report that Islamic State fighters had attacked Kobane from Turkish soil. Long-buried Turkish landmines near the border with Syria are said to have killed and injured a number of Syrian […]
Authorities today released 12 members of the Turkish Youth Union (TGB) who were arrested for assaulting three US sailors yesterday in Istanbul. The US Navy, Turkish national police, and the US Embassy are working together to investigate the incident. Authorities have arrested 386 people in connection with protests in early October against the Islamic State’s […]
Three American sailors from a NATO ship docked in Eminönü were assaulted by members of the Turkish Youth Union (TGB), who put sacks over the sailors’ heads, threw dye on them, and called the US troops “murderers” in a video of the incident released by the group. The US Embassy called the incident “appalling.” The […]
Turkish authorities claimed that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was responsible for the murder of three Turkish soldiers in Hakkari on Oct. 25, but the PKK denied responsibility. A Turkish officer was shot by masked men in Diyarbakır. An estimated 50 to 150 Free Syrian Army soldiers crossed over from Turkey into Syria to assist […]
Turkish and American officials are investigating letters containing an unidentified yellow powder that were sent to the consulates of the US, Belgium, Canada, France, and Germany in Istanbul; nine people have been sent to the hospital for observation. Turkish media reported that Basil Hassan, a Dane wanted by Denmark for attempting to kill writer Lars […]
A farewell to beards: Men shaving to avoid jihadist stigma in southeast Turkey
Halis Bayancuk a.k.a. Abu Hanzala, the alleged head of al Qaeda in Turkey who was arrested with dozens of other operatives on Jan. 14, was released under a new court system introduced in July. Among those detained on Jan. 14 was İbrahim Şen, an ex-Gitmo detainee and a top al Qaeda leader in the Middle […]
At least 29 people have been killed and dozens wounded in nationwide protests against Turkey’s refusal to assist Kurdish forces against the Islamic State in Kobane. Turkish authorities have detained 16 Kurdish PYD fighters seeking to flee across the Syrian border into Turkey; two of them were unarmed females. Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of […]
The Parliament authorized the deployment of Turkish troops in Syria and Iraq and the temporary basing of foreign troops in Turkey; the opposition called the vote an attempt to curry favor with the West and topple the Assad regime, not a serious move against the Islamic State. Authorities arrested 16 female anti-Islamic State protesters on […]
Prime Minister Erdogan said Turkey will fight the Islamic State “and all other terrorist organizations in the region.” Turkey is planning to establish safe havens inside northern Syria to protect areas controlled by the Free Syrian Army and the Islamic Front. The government is also asking Parliamentary approval for deployment of Turkish troops abroad and […]
Turkish intelligence warned officials in all 81 provinces about some 22 bomb-laden Islamic State vehicles in the country as well as 30 possible suicide bombers. Police are monitoring IS groups in Ankara and Konya, as well as IS cells in Hatay, Adana, Gaziantep, Kilis, Şanlıurfa, İstanbul, and Mersin. A deputy prime minister said 60,000 Syrian […]
Defense Minister Yılmaz said Turkey has not provided any support to the US in its air campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq, noting that the Islamic State still holds captive 49 Turks from Turkey’s Mosul consulate. Turkey is planning to set up a second refugee camp inside Iraq for Turkmen fleeing the Islamic State; […]
Women should not laugh out loud in public, Turkey’s deputy prime minister says
The deputy of the opposition CHP party showed news media yesterday copies of official records confirming that Syria-bound trucks stopped in January by unwitting local authorities in Adana were carrying rockets that Turkish intelligence was supplying to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham. The military claimed that two soldiers and six Kurdish fighters […]
A Shiite mosque in Istanbul was vandalized twice in two days. Following a July 7 agreement by Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden to develop an “action plan” to prevent jihadists from returning to Europe, Turkish authorities have begun talking to families of jihadists and investigating aid organizations that allegedly […]
A former Turkish fighter with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham in Syria claimed that as many as 6,000 Turks have gone to Syria to fight, “thousands” have joined the Islamic State, and that of an estimated 23,000 ISIS fighters in Syria, 17,000 have sworn to fight in the organization until they die. […]
Turkey claims it has denied Syria entry to thousands of militants since 2012
The first group of Turks leaving Libya after being threatened with arrest on espionage charges arrived home. Turkey has added Boko Haram to its list of terrorist organizations, in line with the recent UN designation of the group. The Turkish Armed Forces General Staff last week refuted claims that four Turkish military intelligence officers had […]
The recent hostage crisis in Mosul is only the latest sign that Turkey’s new neighbor, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, poses a serious threat to Turkey’s national security.
A Syrian passenger left hand grenades in a bag on a bus bound for Istanbul. Turkey and Iran are planning to sign at least six new economic and political agreements. Turkey designated the Al Nusrah Front a terrorist organization on June 3.
Turkey’s wave of purges expands to reach governors
Authorities detonated a suspect package found outside the US Embassy in Ankara. The founder of a popular online forum was given a 10-month suspended sentence for blasphemy; he was among 40 members charged with insulting religion. “Smugglers” from Syria attacked a military border post at Hacıpaşa in Hatay province.
The public prosecutor’s office in Adana is seeking life sentences for 13 gendarmes who on Jan. 19 stopped, searched, and filmed the contents of trucks that reportedly were carrying arms into Syria. A similar incident, allegedly involving the Humanitarian Aid Foundation (İHH), also occurred on Jan. 1 in Hatay. The government has already removed the […]
Authorities claimed that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has kidnapped 331 children in the last six months. According to a National Police report, the Kurdistan Communities Union and the PKK have set up 48 training centers throughout 10 provinces, instructing 8,500 young people in tactics and ideology.
The day after reports emerged that Prime Minister Erdogan was seeking to extradite influential Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen from the US, sources in the Ankara Prosecutor’s office said no investigation has yet been launched against Gulen; his activities may be investigated, however, in relation to the leak of a conversation of top Turkish officials discussing […]
Turkish Leader Signs Bill Expanding Spy Agency’s Power
Prime Minister Erdogan confirmed that Turkey sent a convoy to protect the tomb of Suleyman Shah, a tiny piece of Turkish territory inside Syria’s province of Aleppo. Turkey reportedly deployed six tanks and 12 armored vehicles within 200 meters of positions held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham. In late March, Turkish […]
Syrian rebels and eyewitnesses claimed that Turkey had allowed Islamist rebels to enter Syria for the Kasab offensive; the Erdogan government denied the claim. An Adana prosecutor who in January stopped and searched trucks on suspicion they were carrying weapons into Syria has been removed from his post and reassigned; two officers arrested in the […]
Recent attacks in Nigde have raised concerns in Turkey over extremism in Syria. Tensions have been high between the Turkish military and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham since the tomb of Suleyman Shah, a small Turkish territory in Syria, fell under the threat of an ISIS attack.