Tag Archives: Turkey

The Turkish left-wing group Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C) claimed yesterday’s suicide attack on the US Embassy in Ankara. Turkish authorities say DNA tests prove the suicide bomber was Ecevit Sanli, a member of the group. The government alleged that “comprehensive evidence” linked the DHKP-C with nine lawyers arrested last week.

A suicide bomber detonated inside the US Embassy in Ankara, killing himself and a Turkish security guard, and wounding three other people. The Interior Minister said the blast was likely the work of a left-wing terrorist group; state media said the bomber belonged to The Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front. Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law Suleiman M., […]

NATO said the four Patriot missile batteries supplied by Germany and the Netherlands for the protection of Turkey along its Syrian border are operational, and that the two remaining batteries will come under NATO control within days. Turkey’s opposition parties have claimed the missiles are intended to defend a NATO radar base in Turkey.

Kurdistan Workers’ Party leader Abdullah Öcalan asked the Constitutional Court to allow the publication of his book “Kürtlerin Manifetosu” (The Kurds’ Manifesto). As a result of a government-launched “peace process” involving talks between intelligence officials and jailed PKK leader Öcalan, 100 PKK fighters are expected to lay down their arms and leave Turkey this spring.

NATO expects to have initial operating capability for its Patriot missile batteries along the Syrian border by this weekend. A Turkish man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the 2010 murder of a Catholic bishop.

The first two batteries of NATO Patriot missiles arrived from Germany; the US and the Netherlands are each sending two more. The missiles, which are for defensive purposes only, will be fully operational by early February. Turkey asked Belgium for more cooperation against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party; leading members of the PKK, including Zübeyir Aydar, […]

Turkish intelligence is talking with the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party about disaming; the government thinks it cannot defeat the group militarily. The government dismissed the European Union’s concerns over Cyprus and human rights. Turkey’s Environment and Urbanism Minister said Christianity is no longer a religion.

Members of a political party banned in May for links to the hardline Turkish Islamist group Hizbullah petitioned the Interior Ministry to be allowed to form a new party, the Free Cause Party (Hüda-Par). The outlawed Hizbullah organization is active mainly in southeastern Turkey.

The government pledged support for peace negotiations conducted by the Afghan High Peace Council, and said it would host a Taliban political office in Ankara. The military killed 42 PKK fighters in eastern Turkey.

About 400 NATO troops from the US and the Netherlands gathered near the Syrian border to assist with the installation of Patriot missile batteries as a defensive measure against possible Syrian bombardments. The Interior Minister said Kurdistan Workers’ Party militants are “human after all.”

The foreign minister said Turkey knows Syria has 700 missiles and where they are located. He said Turkey wants to see a transitional government in Syria without Assad. Security forces killed 13 PKK militants and captured five more in Osmaniye province.