Turkey preparing for war with Syria?

There are several ways one could take this article, but the bottom line is that Turkey believes that it will need troops to handle some sort of confrontation with Syria in the foreseeable future, whether as part of NATO or to protect refugees from Syria, or for some other reason. In anticipation of what is expected to be a massive influx of Syrian refugees, Turkey has taken extraordinary measures

Turkey helping Iran beat sanctions

Here's yet another reason why sanctions against Iran are not very effective: A state-owned Indian oil company has announced that it is paying its bills for Iranian oil via a state-owned bank in Turkey (Hat Tip: Joshua I). India's top state-run refiner, Indian Oil Corp Ltd, said on Wednesday it had begun paying its debt to Iran for oil imports and would clear an outstanding of 380 million euros

Bombshell: Turkey calls on Assad to step down

Israel Television has just reported on Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's visit to Syria on Tuesday. Neither Assad nor Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem greeted Davutoglu at the airport. Davutoglu met with Assad for five hours and told him that Turkey calls on him to step down and make a peaceful transition of power.

I have not seen confirmation of this report elsewhere.

Syrian

Davutoglu sounding more and more like Nasrallah

American-based Noble Energy announced on Wednesday that it is going to begin drilling for gas off the coast of Cyprus by October 1. Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL) will begin drilling for natural gas at Cyprus's offshore Block 12 by October 1, Energy Service director Solon Kassinis told "Cyprus Mail" today.Block 12, located in Cyprus's Exclusive Economic Zone, is near Israel's Leviathan license in

Civil War coming in Syria?

Jonathan Spyer argues that the irresistible force of the Syrian uprising is meeting the immovable object that is Bashar al-Assad and his Alawite cohorts, making an ethnic civil war all but inevitable. Alawi military units and Alawi militias (the Shabiha) are the instruments remaining to the Assads. Sectarian revenge killings of Shabiha men by Sunni Syrians in Homs earlier this month may presage

Now Erdogan wants an apology from... Armenia?

If the World is willing to tolerate the lies and innuendo of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan regarding Israel, will they also tolerate it regarding Armenia? Erdogan, whose country committed genocide against the Armenians 90-100 years ago, murdering a million and a half of them in the process, is now demanding that Armenia apologize to Turkey! Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip

Turkey mentioned many times in Breivik manifesto

Turkey's Today's Zaman describes Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik as 'obsessed with Turkey' (Hat Tip: Joshua I). There are 237 references to Turks and Turkey in the manifesto, but this number does not take into account the many other references to Ottoman history (written mostly focusing on the state of religious minorities) and the Seljuk Empire. He accuses the Ottoman Turks of

Kurdistan: Is it only a matter of time?

The Jerusalem Post published an editorial on Sunday calling for a Kurdish state. According to prevalent mythology, the international community deems self-determination the natural and inalienable right of each nationality. That, at least, is the pretext for the worldwide clamor for a Palestinian state.Swept aside are reservations about the rather recent origin of claims to a separate Palestinian

Those Jews can even play hockey!

Somehow, I missed this: Having won the last two games with team Greece 26-2 and team Turkey 9-1, Israel National ice Hockey team was ranked first in the World Ice Hockey Championship III division in South Africa, received Champion’s gold medals and a ticket to the IIHF second division (IIB).Goals in Israel team scored:Israel – Greece 26:2: Kniter x3, x6 Mazur, Lebedev X 2, Sherbatov x 6, Frenkel

Time for Israel to get real about hostile countries

Michael Rubin rips the possibility of Israel apologizing to Turkey and courting China (Hat Tip: Joshua I). Turkey has changed, however. Even if we put aside the Turkish prime minister’s anti-Semitism, Turkey seeks to have zero problems among its neighbors. With neighbors such as Syria and Iran, however, zero problems means accepting antagonism toward the Jewish state. Nor would anything Israel

Boogie talks Turkey

Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe (Boogie) Yaalon told Israel Radio on Wednesday morning that he has had it with talking to Turkey. According to Yaalon, the Turks want an apology and not reconciliation. Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe Ya'alon said on Wednesday that Turkey's insistence on an Israeli apology for last year's Gaza flotilla raid does not allow reconciliation talk to progress,

Erdogan's new demand

Just when you thought Israel was going to do something foolish and apologize to Turkey for the Mavi Marmara incident, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan throws a monkey wrench int he proceedings by raising a new issue: He now wants the Gaza 'blockade' lifted as a condition to reconciling with Israel. But that's not an issue that's between Israel and Turkey and I highly doubt that will

Flotilla of fools to sail from Turkey at the end of Ramadan?

'Israeli Arab' weekly Kul al-Arab is reporting that the Greek government has agreed to release the yachts from the flotilla of fools to Turkey, and that Turkey will allow the flotilla of fools to sail from its harbors at the end of Ramadamadan (approximately August 31). A member of the Turkish delegation to the second Freedom Flotilla told the Arab-Israeli weekly Kul Al-Arab that the Greek and