Deal with Sweden, Finland over NATO membership sees Turkey's Erdogan hailed at home

June 29, 2022

Andrew Wilks

ISTANBUL — The deal allowing Sweden and Finland to progress with their NATO bids was portrayed as an overwhelming victory for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday, with the Nordic states reported to have agreed to Ankara's demands. 

“Turkey got what it wanted,” Erdogan’s office said in a statement following an agreement at the NATO summit in Madrid.

The sentiment within Turkey’s pro-government media was summed up by a photograph carried by the state-run Anadolu news agency. A grinning Erdogan was shown standing at the NATO podium, flanked by the leaders of Sweden and Finland and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg who seemed to be gazing in gratitude at the president.

Tuesday’s breakthrough came after weeks when Ankara appeared ready to scupper the alliance’s northern expansion over calls for Stockholm and Helsinki to tighten their approach to terrorism and drop restrictions on arms sales to Turkey.

Turkey said that Sweden in particular had been harboring militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been waging war against Turkey since 1984, leading to tens of thousands of deaths.

It also claims members of what it considers terrorist groups, such as those said to be behind a 2016 coup attempt and the PKK’s Syrian branch, are sheltering in Sweden.

The statement from the Turkish presidency said the agreement would entail “full cooperation with Turkey in the fight against the PKK and its affiliates.”

Elsewhere in the Turkish media, which is largely controlled by Erdogan’s supporters in the business world, the daily Yeni Akit heralded the deal. “Two strongholds of terrorism fall in Europe,” it said.

The Sabah newspaper reported on Erdogan’s “Madrid victory” and praised his “decisiveness and leadership vision” to successfully have Ankara’s demands accepted. Another government-friendly newspaper, Aksam, said the deal incorporated guarantees for Turkey in monitoring the activities of PKK supporters in Sweden and Finland.

The agreement — signed by the foreign ministers of Turkey, Sweden and Finland — also said the Nordic states would “expeditiously and thoroughly” address Turkish extradition requests in accordance with the European Convention on Extradition.

Turkey’s Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Wednesday that Turkey would renew requests to Sweden and Finland for the extradition of 33 individuals it considers terrorists.

“The dossiers of six PKK members, six FETO members await in Finland, while those of 10 FETO members and 11 PKK members await in Sweden. We will write about their extradition again after the agreement and remind them,” Bozdag said.

FETO, or the Fethullah Terrorist Organization, is the label Ankara applies to the religious sect it holds responsible for the 2016 failed coup. The movement’s leader, US-based Fethullah Gulen, has denied involvement in the bid to overthrow Erdogan.

In parliament, Erdogan’s ultranationalist partner Devlet Bahceli, who last month said NATO expansion would “drag the world into a new fire,” welcomed the Madrid deal as a “national achievement.”

Addressing his Nationalist Action Party (MHP) lawmakers, Bahceli added, “On this occasion, I wholeheartedly congratulate Mr. President, our minister of foreign affairs and all our diplomats, and thank each of them individually.”

Opposition politicians were more critical of the deal, questioning whether promises made by the Nordic countries could be enforced after they enter NATO and Turkey no longer has any leverage.

“This signature that the government gave without any concrete developments from Sweden and Finland is, unfortunately, a compromise that is not in line with the interests of our country,” said Meral Aksener, head of the nationalist Iyi Party.

Addressing his words to Erdogan, Iyi Party lawmaker Muhammet Naci Cinisli added, “Please do not demean the value of Turkey’s word every time. It’s a disgrace, it’s a sin, it’s a pity.”

Engin Altay, deputy chairman of the parliamentary group of the Republican People’s Party, questioned whether any further agreement was made behind the scenes. “What promises were made? What commitments were made? We do not know,” he said.

Many commentators viewed the meeting between Erdogan and US President Joe Biden in Madrid on Wednesday as part of the deal to approve Sweden and Finland’s NATO application, although the White House denied any link.

Erdogan is expected to press Biden to sell Turkey 40 new F-16 fighters and nearly 80 modernization kits for its existing F-16 fleet, a request Ankara initially made in October.

“Erdogan, by this decision, again showed his pragmatism and ability always to do 180s when required,” said Timothy Ash, an economist at BlueBay Asset Management who focuses on Turkey.

“He negotiated hard, right up to the last minute, and got real wins with assurances from the [Swedes and Finns] on the Kurdish issue and from the US on F16s. … He comes back in from the cold with the West.”

Source: al-Monitor.

Link: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/06/deal-sweden-finland-over-nato-membership-sees-turkeys-erdogan-hailed-home.

Turkey lifts objection to Sweden, Finland joining NATO at last minute

June 28, 2022

Nazlan Ertan

After a day of phone diplomacy, conflicting statements, and last-minute political posturing, Turkey has given the nod to NATO hopefuls Sweden and Finland after signing a trilateral memorandum that addressed Ankara’s security concerns.

The memorandum, signed by the three countries' foreign ministers,  comes after an eleventh-hour meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Swedish Premier Magdalena Andersson, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg before the official dinner marking the beginning of Madrid Summit of June 28-30.  

“I am pleased to announce that we have an agreement that paves the way for the accession of Sweden and Finland,” Stoltenberg told a press conference, explaining that Finland and Sweden have agreed to Turkey’s demands for amending their laws further to crack down on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), work with Turkey on extraditions of people on Turkey’s wanted list and lift military embargoes on Ankara.

The Turkish reversal came after a phone conversation between Erdogan and US President Joe Biden on Tuesday morning. A US administration official told journalists in Madrid that the phone call came after Helsinki and Stockholm asked Biden to reach out to Erdogan.

The trilateral memorandum, a three-page, ten-point document, said that the two Nordic countries would extend their full support to Turkey on threats against national security. It explicitly stated that the two countries would not support YPG/PYD (Syrian Kurdish groups which Turkey considers offshoots of the PKK in Syria) or FETO, the organization headed by US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen which Ankara says directed the unsuccessful putsch in 2016.

Turkey’s green light to Finland and Sweden, two countries that have shed their long-standing neutrality, clears the way for NATO’s 30 members from Europe and North America to sign the accession protocol. Stoltenberg said that the accession protocol still needed to be ratified by members’ parliaments, but he was confident this would not be a problem.

Shortly before the signing of the memorandum, Turkey announced that bilateral talks between Turkey and Sweden would take place in Ankara tomorrow at the deputy foreign minister level. “During the consultations, bilateral relations will be discussed extensively along with Turkey-EU relations, and current regional and international issues,” a statement from the Foreign Ministry said. 

There had been conflicting messages before the mini-summit. Both Finland and Sweden expressed optimism following their top bureaucrats' talks in Brussels a day ago. "The general view is that the discussions went somewhat better, which should mean that understanding has somewhat increased on both sides," Niinisto told reporters in Helsinki before heading to Madrid. 

Niinisto’s optimism marked a sharp contrast from Erdogan, who remained inflexible as he boarded his plane Tuesday morning. “We emphasize our expectation since the beginning that the [Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK], which threaten Turkey’s national interests, and all offshoots in Syria, especially the PYD and YPG, should be prevented from acting freely in these countries,” he told journalists. “We do not want empty words, we want results. We are sick of passing the ball around in mid-field.”

But, as of Tuesday morning, the main prize for Erdogan was the phone conversation — and the promise of a meeting in Madrid — with US President Joe Biden, who had pointedly kept a chilly relationship with his Turkish counterpart. Both diplomats and journalists felt that the intervention from the United States, whom Erdogan called the “Number One country of NATO” could help break the impasse. 

“President Biden noted he looks forward to seeing President Erdogan at the NATO Summit in Madrid where leaders will discuss the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for Transatlantic security and other threats to the Alliance such as terrorism, as well as take historic decisions to strengthen the Alliance’s collective defense and security,” a statement from the White House said.

"We spoke with Mr.Biden this morning, and he expressed his desire to get together tonight or tomorrow,” Erdogan told journalists as he left Turkey for the NATO summit Tuesday morning. “We said it is possible.” Erdogan is expected to meet Biden tomorrow morning, according to Turkish officials.

Turkey’s looming veto to Nordic enlargement came as the military alliance is set to adopt its 2022 Strategic Concept, which will guide it through the 2030s. The concept will set out NATO's joint positions, including on Russia and emerging challenges, and for the first time, it will also address China. 

But for Erdogan, the Madrid Summit and the Nordic enlargement were also the moment to air his country’s grievances on the PKK and the US-backed armed Kurdish groups in Syria. Despite early claims that he would be persuaded well ahead of the summit, the Turkish president has been intransigent until the last. 

“Erdogan’s intransigence is widely attributed to domestic political considerations, including a desperate need to divert attention from the dire state of Turkey’s economy as well as boosting his sagging poll ratings by playing to rampant nationalist and anti-Western feelings," Kemal Kirisci, a non-resident senior fellow of Brookings Institute, wrote a day before the summit. Another factor, he said, is Erdoğan’s own discomfort with Turkey’s Western orientation, symbolized by its membership in NATO as well as in the Council of Europe. 

Erdogan — and his foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu — mostly targeted Sweden, which has a sizable Kurdish community, few but vocal PKK members and sympathizers, and liberal laws on freedom of association and fund-raising. But Erdogan repeated Tuesday that Germany, the Netherlands and Greece had also been harboring terrorist groups against Turkey. He also criticized the United States for sending arms to Syrian groups and for opening nine military bases in Greece.

“The United States is the number one country of NATO. Truckloads of weapons came from the US. This morning, we had a talk with [Biden] but I will reiterate these to him during our meeting this evening or tomorrow. How come all these weapons are dispatched to the PKK/YPG while we are two partner countries within NATO that stand shoulder to shoulder,” he said. “Against whom are these weapons used? They are used against Turkey.”

Given Erdogan’s stance, the diplomatic efforts of Stoltenberg and other NATO allies such as the United Kingdom have been two-pronged. One pillar was trying to assure Turkey that Finland and Sweden have “sufficiently” met Turkey’s long list of demands.

The other, which is more complex, was to persuade Turkey that not just Finland and Sweden, but all NATO allies recognize the legitimacy of Turkey’s security concerns. As a concession, a special session on the security of the southern flank was added to the program of the Madrid Summit. The Turkish side is expected to bring documents, information, and images to this session. Erdogan said that he would express Turkey’s concerns and individual acts by allies, including by France and the United States, “one by one.” 

On Monday, Stoltenberg and Andersson spoke at NATO headquarters to laud what Stoltenberg called a “paradigm shift” in Sweden’s attitude toward terrorism.

“You have already amended Swedish law. You have launched new police investigations against the PKK, and you are currently looking at Turkish extradition requests. These concrete steps represent a paradigm shift in Sweden’s approach to terrorism in a more dangerous and unpredictable world,” Stoltenberg told journalists with Andersson on his side.

Andersson maintained that Sweden has strengthened the laws against funding terrorism in the last few years. “Sweden’s terrorist legislation is undergoing its biggest overhaul in 30 years. A new and tougher Terrorist Offences Act enters into force on 1 July, with a broadened scope and higher scales of penalties. Constitutional amendments are being prepared which would pave the way for criminalization of participation in terrorist organizations,” she said.

Andersson also stated that her country’s stance regarding the PKK is crystal clear. “It is listed as a terror organization in the EU and is regarded as one by Sweden,” she said.

The Swedish prime minister sought to alleviate Turkey’s concerns about defense embargos and extraditions. “Our NATO membership will have implications with respect to export control of defense material to all NATO Allies. Alliance solidarity will be reflected within our national regulatory framework,” she said. 

Extraditions, she said, “are handled swiftly and carefully by our legal system in accordance with European Convention on Extradition. … The relevant authorities work intensively in order to expel persons who could be a security threat.”

The local media reported a day ago that Turkey has asked for the extradition of 45 people from Sweden and Finland. These are not only members of the PKK but also members of FETO, and from two left-wing groups, TIKKO and DHKP-C.

Source: al-Monitor.

Link: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/06/turkey-lifts-objection-sweden-finland-joining-nato-last-minute.

Finland, Sweden to Send Teams to Turkey to Discuss NATO Bids, Haavisto Says

Tuesday, 24 May, 2022

Finland and Sweden will send delegations to Ankara on Wednesday to try to resolve Turkish opposition to their applications for membership of the NATO military alliance, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Tuesday.

"We are sending our delegations to visit Ankara, actually both Sweden and Finland. This will happen tomorrow, so the dialogue is continuing," Haavisto said during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has objected to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, held phone calls with the leaders of the two Nordic countries on Saturday and discussed his concerns.

Turkey says Sweden and Finland harbor people linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group and followers of Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt.

"We understand that Turkey has some of their own security concerns vis a vis terrorism ... We think that these issues can be settled. There might be also some issues that are not linked directly to Finland and Sweden but more to other NATO members," Haavisto said.

Erdogan told Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson on Saturday that Ankara expected concrete steps to address its concerns, according to the Turkish presidency. He also said an arms exports embargo imposed on Turkey after its Syria incursion in 2019 should be lifted, it added.

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said on Saturday he had held "open and direct" talks on the phone with Erdogan.

"I stated that as NATO allies Finland and Turkey will commit to each other's security and our relationship will thus grow stronger," Niinisto tweeted after the call.

Erdogan spoke also with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Saturday, telling him that Ankara would not look positively on Sweden and Finland's NATO bids unless they clearly show cooperation in the fight against terrorism and other issues.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3663201/finland-sweden-send-teams-turkey-discuss-nato-bids-haavisto-says.

Turkish Drone Bombs the Vicinity of Erbil

Saturday, 20 August, 2022

A Turkish drone has bombed the vicinity of Erbil in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, according to the German Press Agency on Saturday citing an Iraqi source.

The bombing targeted a “hideout of members of the Kurdistan Labor Party (PKK), early this morning, in the Sidekan sub-district of Soran in Erbil,” Iraqi media said quoting the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The bombing was carried out by a drone,” added the source “but the magnitude of losses has not yet been identified.”

On Friday, fires broke out in the pastures of two villages in the Amadiya district, north of Dohuk, as a result of the bombing carried out by Turkish military helicopters," stated the agency.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3827021/turkish-drone-bombs-vicinity-erbil.

Turkey Continues its Drone War in Northern Syria

Friday, 5 August, 2022

A Tal Tamr Military Council member of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was killed by a Turkish drone strike in Tal Jumaa on Thursday.

The areas east of the Euphrates witnessed an increase in Turkish drone attacks, which killed leaders and prominent fighters of the People’s Defense Units.

The new development comes after the Tehran summit between the presidents of Russia, Vladimir Putin, Iran’s Ebrahim Raisi, and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Observers believe that Turkey is following a new strategy to weaken the SDF after failing to secure international support that would allow it to carry out a military operation in northern Syria.

They considered that the Turkish escalation came after the Tehran summit, where Turkey may have obtained a green light from Russia and Iran to weaken the SDF by targeting its leaders instead of launching the military operation aimed at establishing safe areas 30 kilometers inside Syrian territory south of the Turkish border.

On July 24, Turkey announced the killing of the commander of military operations in Ain al-Arab, and a week later, the intelligence announced the death of Arhan Arman, a member of the Executive Council in Ain al-Arab.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the Turkish armed drones killed at least ten SDF fighters, including prominent leaders.

The Observatory recounted 43 Turkish drone attacks in the areas under the control of the Autonomous Administration of North and Northeastern Syria.

Since the beginning of the year, 35 soldiers and one civilian were killed and 80 others injured.

The Turkish forces and the Syrian National Army (SNA) factions bombed the SDF locations in al-Hasakah, where several artillery shells fell on Tawila village in Tal Tamr.

The Turkish Ministry of Defense said in a statement Thursday that it eliminated two SDF members who were preparing to launch an attack on the Spring of Peace area, which is controlled by Ankara and its loyal factions in northeastern Syria.

The statement said that the Turkish army continues its pre-emptive operations against terrorists in northern Syria.

Syrian regime forces directly targeted a vehicle of the Turkish troops on the Efes axis in the eastern countryside of Idlib. They shelled the vicinity of Maklabis village in the western countryside of Aleppo, coinciding with the flyover of a Russian warplane in the de-escalation zone in northwestern Syria.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3799211/turkey-continues-its-drone-war-northern-syria.

Turkey shows off drones at Azerbaijan air show

Baku (AFP)

May 28, 2022

Looping in the air at lightning speed, Turkish drones like those used against Russian forces in Ukraine draw cheers from the crowd at an air show in Azerbaijan.

Turkey is showcasing its defense technology at the aerospace and technology festival "Teknofest" that started in Azerbaijan's capital Baku this week.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to attend on Saturday.

Turkey's TB2 drones are manufactured by aerospace company Baykar Defense, where Erdogan's increasingly prominent son-in-law Selcuk Bayraktar is chief technology officer.

On Wednesday, Bayraktar flew over Baku aboard an Azerbaijani air force Mikoyan MiG-29 plane. One of his combat drones, the "Akinci", accompanied the flight.

A video showing Bayraktar in command of the warplane, dressed in a pilot's uniform decorated with Turkish and Azerbaijani flag patches, went viral on social media.

"This has been a childhood dream for me," Bayraktar told reporters after the flight.

- Proximity to 'threats' -

Turkey's drones first attracted attention in 2019 when they were used during the war in Libya to thwart an advance by rebel commander, General Khalifa Haftar, against the government in Tripoli.

They were then again put into action the following year when Turkey-backed Azerbaijan in recapturing most of the land it lost to separatist Armenian forces in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Azerbaijani audience members at the aviation festival applauded during a display of TB2 drones, which are now playing a prominent role against invading Russian forces in Ukraine.

A senior official from the Turkish defense industry said his country was facing a wide spectrum of "threats", including the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Islamic State group jihadists.

The PKK is listed as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.

But with NATO allies -- including the United States -- having imposed embargoes on Turkey, Ankara was forced to take matters into its own hands to build defense equipment, the official told AFP.

"The situation is changing now with the war in Ukraine," the official said.

Turkey has been looking to modernize its air force after it was kicked out of the F-35 fighter jet program because of its purchase of Russia's S-400 missile defense system.

But Ankara's role in trying to mediate an end to the Ukraine conflict through direct negotiations may have helped improve its relations with Washington in the past months.

In April, US President Joe Biden's administration said it now believed that supplying Turkey with F-16 fighter jets would serve Washington's strategic interests.

- Exports to 25 countries -

Michael Boyle, of the Rutgers University-Camden in the United States, said Turkish drones such as Bayraktar TB2 drones were "increasingly important to modern conflicts because they have spread so widely".

For years, leading exporters like the United States and Israel limited the number of countries they would sell to, and also limited the models they were willing to sell, he told AFP.

"This created an opening in the export market which other countries, notably Turkey and China, have been willing to fill," added the author of the book "The Drone Age: How Drone Technology Will Change War and Peace".

The Turkish official said Turkey has been investing in the defense industry since the 2000s, but the real leap came in 2014 after serious investments in advanced technologies and a shift towards using locally made goods.

While Turkey's export of defense technologies amounted to $248 million in early 2000, it surpassed $3 billion in 2021 and was expected to reach $4 billion in 2022, he said.

Today Turkey exports its relatively cheap and effective drones to more than 25 countries.

Boyle said these drones could be used "for direct strikes, particularly against insurgent and terrorist forces, but also for battlefield reconnaissance to increase the accuracy and lethality of strikes".

"So they are an enabler of ground forces, and this makes them particularly useful for countries like Ukraine which are fighting a militarily superior enemy," he said.

Source: Space War.

Link: https://www.spacewar.com/reports/Turkey_shows_off_drones_at_Azerbaijan_air_show_999.html.

Saudi Arabia wants Turkey's armed drones, says Erdogan

March 17, 2021

Saudi Arabia is seeking to buy armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a press briefing yesterday. Erdogan made the remarks after voicing his displeasure at Riyadh's decision to carry out joint military exercises with Greece, Turkey's long-standing rival.

"Saudi Arabia is conducting joint exercises with Greece," said Erdogan, "yet at the same time, Saudi Arabia is asking us for armed drones. Our hope is to solve this issue calmly without getting heated."

Last month the Saudis participated in the "Friendship Forum" in Athens, which was also attended by Egypt, France, Cyprus, the UAE and Bahrain. Turkey's foreign ministry condemned the meeting.

"It is not possible for any forum not to include Turkey, the key country in its region, and Turkish Cypriots, to constitute an effective and successful mechanism of cooperation and friendship with regard to the challenges in the region," said the ministry.

Ties between Ankara and Riyadh hit their lowest point following the murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018. It is alleged that the killing was approved and sanctioned by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

Relations were also strained the year before, when Turkey sided with Qatar after a Saudi-led boycott was imposed on the Gulf State which has since been lifted. Moreover, both countries opposed the 2013 military coup against Egypt's first democratically-elected President, the late Mohamed Morsi.

Turkey has emerged as one of the world's leading makers of armed drones, which played an instrumental role in Azerbaijan's six-week war against Armenia last year over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. They have also been deployed in Syria and Libya to devastating effect.

Riyadh already has a technology transfer agreement with Turkey's privately-owned Vestel Company that allows Saudi Arabia to manufacture its own military drones. There are, though, concerns that it is also seeking weapons that could bypass Western arms embargoes imposed due to its war against Yemen.

Source: Middle East Monitor.

Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210317-saudi-arabia-wants-turkeys-armed-drones-says-erdogan/.

Turkey, Kazakhstan sign joint production accord for drones

May 11, 2022

Nazlan Ertan

Turkey and Kazakhstan signed an agreement to start co-producing Turkey’s Anka drones in Kazakhstan during the first-ever state visit of Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to Ankara.

The memorandum of understanding signed between Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAS) and state-owned Kazakhstan Engineering foresees the joint production of Anka — a medium-altitude, long-endurance, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) — by Turkish and Kazakh experts. This makes the energy-rich Central Asian state the first to produce these reconnaissance-strike drones outside Turkey.

Besides joint production, the sides plan to assemble unmanned aerial vehicles and hand over production technologies to Kazakhstan, according to the statement by TUSAS. Last year, Turkey sold three Anka drones (which have far less international fame than the Bayraktar TB2 fighters used in Ukraine) to Kazakhstan following a defense agreement in May.  Another three Anka drones were reportedly sold to Tunisia in an $80 million deal.

“This deal with Kazakhstan is an important gain for Turkey vis-a-vis China and Russia, both of which compete for political influence and economic dominance in Kazakhstan and have their own drones,” Ozgur Eksi, editor-in-chief of online defense portal TurDef.Co, told Al-Monitor. “This joint production plant may be a foothold to defense industry to Central Asia and former Soviet republics.”

Eksi maintains that the Anka drones had long been part of the defense industry agenda between Ankara and Astana. “They caught the Kazakh military’s eye at the Kazakh Defense Fair, Kadex, almost a decade ago. This is a large but scarcely populated country, and it wants to be able to control its airspace. These drones — which fly at medium altitude, cover a large area and can stay long in the air — are well suited to the Kazakh needs of reconnaissance and surveillance,” he said.

The joint-production announcement comes on the heels of Tuesday’s “enhanced strategic partnership” memorandum between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Tokayev on May 10. The two presidents also oversaw the inking of 15 accords in widely divergent areas such as cooperation between communication agencies and exchange of military intelligence.

“This first state visit by Tokayev ever since he took office is a confidence-bolstering one between the two countries,” professor and director of the Ankara-based Foreign Policy Institute Huseyin Bagci told Al-Monitor. “Tokayev signals that the bilateral ties with Turkey will remain a priority for him, as it had been with Nursultan Nazarbayev, his mentor.”

Bagci maintains that Ankara is also extending a similar message to Astana. “Ankara’s relationship with Uzbekistan (Kazakhstan’s neighbor and rival for regional leadership) has gained a new momentum, particularly with Erdogan’s visit to Tashkent last month, when the sides heralded their comprehensive strategic partnership,” he said. “Tokayev’s visit gave the opportunity to Turkey to rekindle its strategic partnership with Astana and reaffirm Kazakhstan’s key role in the Organization of Turkic States.”

The visit, marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral ties, was filled with mutual compliments and diplomatic niceties. “We have elevated our cooperation to the enhanced strategic partnership level with the joint memorandum we have just signed. Turkey and Kazakhstan, which draw strength from their shared history, language, religion and culture, are two brotherly countries with long-standing relations,” Erdogan said. In turn, Tokayev, a career diplomat, referred to Turkey as a very important strategic partner for Kazakhstan and to Erdogan as “a wise and respected statesman with a vision.”

Taking a break from official talks, the two leaders played a table tennis match in a move intended as a charm offensive to Tokayev, an accomplished player who held the chair of the Kazakh Table Tennis Federation for 13 years.

Erdogan also praised Tokayev’s leadership when his oil, gas and uranium-rich but landlocked country was rocked with unrest in January due to fuel price hikes, labor unrest and long-term grievances on inequality. The unrest spiraled into mass disturbances and looting that led to the worst bloodshed in the former Soviet state's 30 years of independence. Offering condolences for those who died in the protests, Erdogan said, “The perseverance and will President Tokayev has displayed to shape the New Kazakhstan is praiseworthy. We support the comprehensive reform program implemented in this regard and stand ready to do our part for the stability, peace, security and prosperity of this brotherly country.”

Many analysts believe that Turkey was caught off guard when unrest spread across Kazakhstan. “Turkey was unprepared for this uprising [and] the quick departure of the Nazarbayev regime, as they thought that Nazarbayev had fully consolidated authoritarian rule,” Gul Berna Ozcan, an academic who specializes in Central Asia at the School of Business and Management, Royal Holloway, University of London, told Al-Monitor. The fact that Tokayev turned to the Russian Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to help Kazakhstan overcome what he called “the terrorist threat” was seen as undermining, if not a downright snubbing, the Organization of  Turkic States (OTS) and Turkey’s leadership role.

Others say that it would be unrealistic to imagine that OTS could have played a similar role to CSTO, a military alliance created by Russian President Vladimir Putin to mirror NATO. “OTS neither has a military force nor such a mandate, so there does not seem to be an ‘either CSTO or OTS’ situation there,” Isik Kuscu, associate professor of international relations at METU and a Kazakhstan expert, told Al-Monitor.

“Ties with Turkey are an important pillar in Kazakhstan’s decades long multivector foreign policy, particularly vis-a-vis the two larger powers, China and Russia. With the growing concern among the Kazakhs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and some Russian politicians’ claims on Kazakhstan’s northern territories, warmer ties with Turkey seem even more relevant,” Kuscu said.

Speaking at the press conference on the Ukraine crisis and the importance the two countries attach to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, Erdogan said that the two countries were on the same page. He also underscored that the Ukraine crisis had shown the need for “solidarity and cooperation” among the Turkic states both at the bilateral level and within the Organization of Turkic States.

The Organization of Turkic States, founded under the name “Turkic Council” in 2009, was strongly supported by Nazarbayev. Its founding members consisted of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Uzbekistan joined in 2019, and Turkmenistan, which follows a policy of permanent neutrality, joined the organization as an observer at the Istanbul summit. EU-member Hungary has observer status. For cynics, the organization looks like an autocrats’ club. Its advocates — and there are many in Turkey’s diplomatic circles — say it offers an institutionalized platform where participants take up critical issues such as infrastructure, energy and transportation through economy-focused pragmatism rather than ethnic idealism.

President Erdogan maintained his “business-first” tone with Tokayev, saying that the sides planned to double the bilateral trade volume from the current $5 billion to $10 billion — exactly the same amount he pronounced with Uzbekistan during his Tashkent visit.

In March, Deputy President Fuat Oktay visited Kazakstan and attended a business forum that gathered more than 250 representatives of business, government agencies and the quasi-public sector from the two countries to seek ways to strengthen bilateral business ties. Ten commercial agreements worth $500 million were signed at the forum, including building transport and logistics centers with air cargo in western Kazakhstan and a pharmaceutical plant in Almaty, the Astana Times reported.

Source: al-Monitor.

Link: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/05/turkey-kazakhstan-sign-joint-production-accord-drones.

Turkey Says Ankara and Others Must Talk to Russia to Help End Ukraine War

Sunday, 27 March, 2022

Turkey and other states must still talk to Russia to help end the war in Ukraine, Turkey's presidential spokesman said on Sunday, adding that Kyiv needed more support to defend itself.

"If everybody burns bridges with Russia then who is going to talk to them at the end of the day," Ibrahim Kalin told the Doha international forum, Reuters reported.

"Ukrainians need to be supported by every means possible so they can defend themselves ... but the Russian case must be heard, one way or the other."

Meanwhile, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence accused on Sunday Russia of trying to split Ukraine in two to create a Moscow-controlled region after failing to take over the whole country.

"In fact, it is an attempt to create North and South Korea in Ukraine," Kyrylo Budanov said in a statement, adding that Ukraine would soon launch guerrilla warfare in Russian-occupied territory.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3556511/turkey-says-ankara-and-others-must-talk-russia-help-end-ukraine-war.

Turkey Hints at Pressure to Allow NATO Warships Passage into the Black Sea

Monday, 11 April, 2022

Turkey on Sunday accused Ukraine, without naming it, of trying to exert pressure on Ankara to make it abandon the Montreux Convention and allow NATO warships to enter the Black Sea.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said he doesn’t rule out that drifting mines appeared in the Black Sea with an intent to exert pressure on Ankara to make it allow the passage of NATO warships via the Bosphorus .

"We suspect that mines appeared there intentionally. Probably, they were released as part of a plan aiming at exerting pressure on us to let NATO’s mine sweepers into the Black Sea via the straits," the Minister said.

But he added that Ankara is committed to the rules of the Montreux Convention and will not allow warships to enter the Black Sea, nor will it let the Black Sea be dragged into the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Akar said the Turkish side is probing the issue, noting that media reports say there are some 400 such mines.

"We don’t know who placed them. We know that they were made in Russia but we are probing into which country placed them," he said.

Turkey already held meetings with Bulgarian and Romanian authorities to discuss the matter.

Observers said Akar’s statement about the country that placed the mines is an indirect hint at Ukraine, which seeks NATO support to face Russia’s aggression.

Last month, Russia said the mines placed by the Ukrainian side at the approaches to the Black Sea ports might be drifting toward the Bosphorus after breaking off from cables near Ukrainian ports.

The claim was dismissed by Kyiv as disinformation and an attempt to close off parts of the sea.

Three drifting mines were spotted and destroyed off Turkey’s coast in late March and early April.

Last week, Akar held a video conference with his counterparts in Bulgaria, Georgia, Poland, Romania and Ukraine to discuss the war in Ukraine, mines floating in the sea and regional security.

“Aside from the mines, the importance of cooperation in the Black Sea for peace, calm and stability was emphasized,” Akar said after the meeting,

In February, Ankara announced it will implement the international convention that allows Turkey to shut down the straits at the entrance of the Black Sea to the warships of “belligerent countries.”

The 1936 Montreux Convention gives Turkey the right to bar warships from using the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus during wartime.

Last week, Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, Stephane Dujarric, told the Turkish Anatolia news agency, that the UN monitors with great concern any kind of mines in international waters, especially with regard to their impact on international transport and on food exports.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3584821/turkey-hints-pressure-allow-nato-warships-passage-black-sea.

Spain to Extradite Turkish Citizen Suspected of Smuggling Banned Gear to Iran

Wednesday, 20 April, 2022

Spain's high court has agreed to extradite to the United States a Turkish citizen suspected of smuggling to Iran equipment that can be used in making missiles, circumventing an arms embargo, court documents showed on Wednesday.

Spanish police arrested Murat Bukey in the Barcelona airport in September at the request of US prosecutors, who suspect him of importing from the United States and selling in Iran fuel cells that can be used in powering ballistic missiles and biodetection in 2012 and 2013, the court said.

Iran was then under a UN arms embargo that banned imports of missile components and technologies. The embargo expired in 2020, but Iran remains under US economic sanctions.

In its ruling the court said Bukey had "falsely declared the material wouldn't be exported to Iran". He is also accused of money laundering.

During the extradition hearing, Bukey's lawyers argued the US statute of limitations had run out on the alleged offenses and that they had been allegedly committed while he was in Turkey, not in the United States.

Still, his lawyer, Llorenc Caldentey Morey, said he was not appealing against the decision. Bukey will remain in custody pending the approval of the extradition by the Spanish government.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3602881/spain-extradite-turkish-citizen-suspected-smuggling-banned-gear-iran.

Ozil leaves Arsenal for Turkey's Fenerbahce

January 18, 2021

Footballer Mesut Ozil confirmed at the weekend that he is leaving Arsenal for Turkish club Fenerbahce. The 32-year-old, who has Turkish roots, arrived in Istanbul yesterday to have a medical and complete the deal.

Ozil told Turkish NTV yesterday that he is "very happy, very excited" to be joining Fenerbahce and would "wear the shirt with pride".

He was quoted by Al Jazeera as saying that he is a Fenerbahce fan. "That is why I am very happy to be coming to Turkey to play for the club. I'm very excited. God gave me the chance to wear this shirt as a Fenerbahce fan. God willing, I will wear it with honor and do everything I can for the team."

The German-born World Cup winner has faced almost a year of frustration at Arsenal after apparently being frozen out by manager Mikel Arteta. Ozil was omitted from Arsenal's English Premier League and Europa League squads at the start of the current season. The last time he played for Arsenal was in a 1-0 win over West Ham on 7 March last year.

Despite the long break from first team football, Ozil insists that he is match fit, telling NTV, "I haven't played a match in a while, but I am physically fit, I have no issues." He pointed out that he had continued to train with the first team at Arsenal throughout his prolonged absence from the match day squad.

Ozil's contract with the London club was due to expire at the end of the 2020/21 season. He has reportedly agreed to a £285,000-a-week pay cut to join Fenerbahce on a free transfer. However, he will scoop a £4.5m signing bonus on top of a £225,000 reward if Fenerbahce qualify for the Champions League, as well as £445,000 if the club wins the Turkish Super League.

According to Turkish media reports, the former German international player is signing a three-and-a-half-year deal with the Istanbul side, which is currently second in the league behind Besiktas.

It is not yet clear what squad number Ozil will wear. His preferred number 10 is currently worn by striker Mbwana Samatta. He tweeted "67" with a heart emoji yesterday, prompting his Twitter followers to conclude that it is his new shirt number. Al Jazeera, however, noted that the digits correspond to the first two numbers of the post code of Zonguldak in Turkey, where the player's family come from.

Source: Middle East Monitor.

Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210118-ozil-leaves-arsenal-for-turkeys-fenerbahce/.

Erdogan Urges Putin to Declare Ukraine Ceasefire, Make Peace

Sunday, 6 March, 2022

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan urged his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Sunday to declare a ceasefire in Ukraine, open humanitarian corridors and sign a peace agreement, his office said.

NATO member Turkey shares a maritime border with Russia and Ukraine in the Black Sea and has good ties with both. Ankara has called Russia's invasion unacceptable and offered to host talks, but has opposed sanctions on Moscow, Reuters reported.

In a statement after a one-hour phone call, the Turkish presidency said Erdogan told Putin that Turkey was ready to contribute to a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

"President Erdogan, who said an immediate ceasefire will not only ease humanitarian concerns in the region but also give the search for a political solution an opportunity, renewed his call of 'let's pave the way for peace together'," his office said.

"Erdogan emphasized the importance of taking urgent steps to achieve a ceasefire, open humanitarian corridors and sign a peace agreement," it said.

The Kremlin said Putin told Erdogan that Russia would only halt its military operation if Ukraine stopped fighting and if Moscow's demand were met, adding the operation was going to plan.

Russia calls its assault a "special military operation". It has uprooted more than 1.5 million people, in what the United Nations says is the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two.

Turkey has said it would be "naïve" to expect results from the Ukraine-Russia negotiations while the fighting continues.

Turkey's defense minister on Sunday said an urgent ceasefire was needed so Ankara could evacuate its citizens from Ukraine.

Erdogan, who has called Putin a "friend", had last spoken to the Russian leader on Feb. 23, a day before Russia launched its invasion. The call makes Erdogan the third NATO leader to speak to Putin since his offensive, following the leaders of Germany and France.

While forging close ties with Russia on defense, trade and energy, and hosting millions of Russian tourists every year, Turkey has also sold drones to Ukraine, angering Moscow, and opposes Russian policies in Syria and Libya, as well as its 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Turkey has said it wants to bring together foreign ministers from Ukraine and Russia for talks at a diplomacy forum next week in southern Turkey. Both countries have welcomed the offer, but Ankara says it is unclear whether they will be able to attend.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3514616/erdogan-urges-putin-declare-ukraine-ceasefire-make-peace.

Balkanatolia: the forgotten continent that sheds light on the evolution of mammals

Paris, France (SPX)

Feb 23, 2022

A team of French, American and Turkish palaeontologists and geologists led by CNRS researchers1 has discovered the existence of a forgotten continent they have dubbed Balkanatolia, which today covers the present-day Balkans and Anatolia. Formerly inhabited by a highly specific fauna, they believe that it enabled mammals from Asia to colonize Europe 34 million years ago. Their findings are published in the March 2022 volume of Earth Science Reviews.

For millions of years during the Eocene Epoch (55 to 34 million years ago), Western Europe and Eastern Asia formed two distinct land masses with very different mammalian faunas: European forests were home to endemic fauna such as Palaeotheres (an extinct group distantly related to present-day horses, but more like today's tapirs), whereas Asia was populated by a more diverse fauna including the mammal families found today on both continents.

We know that, around 34 million years ago, Western Europe was colonized by Asian species, leading to a major renewal of vertebrate fauna and the extinction of its endemic mammals, a sudden event called the 'Grande Coupure'. Surprisingly, fossils found in the Balkans point to the presence of Asian mammals in southern Europe long before the Grande Coupure, suggesting earlier colonization.

Now, a team led by CNRS researchers has come up with an explanation for this paradox. To do this, they reviewed earlier palaeontological discoveries, some of which date back to the 19th century, sometimes reassessing their dating in the light of current geological data. The review revealed that, for much of the Eocene, the region corresponding to the present-day Balkans and Anatolia was home to a terrestrial fauna that was homogeneous, but distinct from those of Europe and eastern Asia. This exotic fauna included, for example, marsupials of South American affinity and Embrithopoda (large herbivorous mammals resembling hippopotamuses) formerly found in Africa. The region must therefore have made up a single land mass, separated from the neighboring continents.

The team also discovered a new fossil deposit in Turkey (Buyukteflek) dating from 38 to 35 million years ago, which yielded mammals whose affinity was clearly Asian, and are the earliest discovered in Anatolia until now. They found jaw fragments belonging to Brontotheres, animals resembling large rhinoceroses that died out at the end of the Eocene.

All this information enabled the team to outline the history of this third Eurasian continent, wedged between Europe, Africa and Asia, which they dubbed Balkanatolia. The continent, already in existence 50 million years ago2 and home to a unique fauna, was colonized 40 million years ago by Asian mammals as a result of geographical changes that have yet to be fully understood. It seems likely that a major glaciation 34 million years ago, leading to the formation of the Antarctic ice sheet and lowering sea levels, connected Balkanatolia to Western Europe, giving rise to the 'Grande Coupure'.

Source: Terra Daily.

Link: https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Balkanatolia_the_forgotten_continent_that_sheds_light_on_the_evolution_of_mammals_999.html.

How Erdogan and Putin spectacularly fell out

Ragip Soylu

5 October 2020

"Russia is, of course, a strategic partner. How many hours would it take for you to travel to Washington? How long would it take to go to Moscow?” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked me almost two years ago in a gathering. “We have joint strategic investments, from pipelines to nuclear reactors. We have joint interests in the defense industry, increasing bilateral trade and tourism, so on and so forth.”

Back then marked a high point in relations between Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. They enjoyed frequent phone calls to shape a strategy for both countries. At one point, they reached a level of trust in which Putin would personally present special reports to Erdogan, for his eyes only.

It wasn’t unusual for Turkey and Russia to enjoy friendly relations, as they had a tendency for decades to “agree to disagree” on many issues. But the burgeoning relationship between Erdogan and Putin was exceptional, especially considering that they had been at each other’s throats in 2015 after Turkey downed a Russian jet.

Erdogan was disillusioned with the West and looking for a more independent foreign policy after the 2016 coup attempt, which he was certain was backed by the West. With Putin, Erdogan had joint interests, such as the Syria crisis, where both countries were leveraging their militaries to restrict the US presence in support of Syrian Kurds. Moscow was working to save the Syrian regime while gradually seizing control of territory, and the US had been an obstacle.

For Ankara, the US-backed Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was an existential threat along its border, and it was clear that Syria’s opposition was no longer in a position to win the civil war. A new strategy was needed to keep the refugee crisis at bay, while preventing the emergence of a “PKK state” along the entire northern border.

Erdogan was enjoying his “friendship” with Putin because he felt that, unlike US presidents and officials, the Russian leader was honoring his promises and delivering in many areas, from the controversial S-400 missile defense system sale to pipeline projects.

Fast forward to today, and Turkey is now embroiled in a regional struggle against Russia in three separate countries, stretching from North Africa to the Middle East and the Caucasus. Turkish armed drones have been destroying Russian-made air defense systems, as exposed in footage ridiculing the Russian technology across all three conflict zones.

The erosion of trust between Erdogan and Putin has played an important role in turning the two countries against each other.

Libya crisis

The first cracks in the bilateral relationship began to surface in January, when Putin failed to deliver a promised ceasefire in Libya. Renegade general Khalifa Haftar abruptly left the summit in Moscow after Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA) agreed to a deal, yet Putin continued to militarily support him to protect his own footing in the country.

An angry Erdogan later told the media that Russia was actually leading Haftar’s forces by deploying Wagner Group mercenaries on the ground. As GNA-aligned forces earlier this year ended a siege imposed on Tripoli by Haftar, Putin was busy deploying more warplanes and Syrian mercenaries in an effort to hold onto the oil-rich Sirte.

But the relationship between Putin and Erdogan really went south after the Syria crisis intensified in February. The Syrian regime and its Russian backers ended the fragile ceasefire preserving the last opposition bastion in Idlib, after Putin realized that he had already achieved his aims in Syria last year. The deal he had with Erdogan effectively expired last October, when Turkey launched operations to clear a large chunk of Syrian land of Syrian Kurdish militia fighters.

In response, US President Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal of American forces from northern Syria, effectively ceding the territory to Russian control. With that, Turkey lost its main leverage with Russia. Putin no longer needed Turkey to balance the US presence in Syria, because Washington was already headed out the door.

Idlib escalation

Russia continued to heat things up in Idlib, with occasional attacks aiming to seize additional territory and to remove the last opposition bastion. As Syrian and Russian attacks on Idlib escalated in March, Turkish observation posts began to be reinforced by Ankara's allied forces.

As the fighting progressed, Erdogan phoned Putin, to no avail. As Erdogan pushed for a halt to the offensive, Putin maintained his position that the Syrian military was conducting a counterterrorism operation, as Ankara had failed to kick radical elements, such as Ha'yat Tahrir al-Sham, out of Idlib.

Erdogan threatened a military response to recapture lost territory. The phone calls were tense. Neither side was backing down, and for the first time, Putin wasn’t blinking. A Russian delegation that visited Ankara in the ensuing days even asked Turkish officials to withdraw from Afrin, effectively threatening the control that Turkey established along the northern border. 

The conflict in February and March ultimately led to the deaths of more than 59 Turkish soldiers. In one case, Turkish officials believe that a Russian air force attack was directly responsible for killing dozens of Turkish soldiers.

Erdogan stood his ground, but called off a counteroffensive amid increasing concerns over the Covid-19 pandemic in Turkey. He realized that Putin didn’t care about Ankara’s main concerns over a humanitarian crisis and refugee wave to Turkey. He has since courted Washington, suspending activation of the S-400 systems and issuing special export exemptions to ship much-needed ventilator parts and other medical equipment to the US.

Changing the equilibrium

Now, Erdogan and Putin hardly talk to each other. Russian diplomats and their Turkish counterparts rarely reach an understanding, let alone an agreement, on any issue.

But Erdogan’s adventurism in Syria and Libya has earned the Turkish military a skill set it never had before. The use of armed drones and proxies backed by Turkish military capabilities have changed the equilibrium in Idlib and on the battlefields of Libya.

That’s why Turkey has been more vocal and directly engaged in the latest Armenian and Azerbaijani clashes over occupied Karabakh. This time, Erdogan didn’t back down when Baku asked for help. Ankara appears more confident in its overseas operations as Erdogan grows more agitated by Putin’s moves against Turkish interests.

Erdogan finally saw the Russian bear in Putin, and he is now moving accordingly, worrying Moscow - because he believes Russia doesn’t care about Turkish interests anymore.

Source: Middle East Eye.

Link: https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/erdogan-finally-discovers-russian-bear-putin.

Turkey fines social media giants for breaching online law

November 04, 2020

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey has issued fines against global social media companies for failing to appoint a representative to ensure they conform to Turkish law, a senior official said Wednesday. Omer Fatih Sayan, chairman of the Information and Communication Technologies Authority, said Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Periscope, YouTube and TikTok would be fined 10 million lira ($1.2 million) each.

The fines are the first step on an escalating scale of penalties that can end in a block on 90% of the site’s internet traffic bandwidth. Social media firms with more than 1 million daily users in Turkey had been due to notify the government that they would establish a representative in the country by Monday.

The fine is the first of five stages to penalize companies that do not comply with the law, which came into force on Oct. 1. “I have complete faith that social network providers will make representative notices to our country as the legal process progresses,” tweeted Sayan, who is also Turkey’s deputy transport and infrastructure minister. “Our aim is not to be in conflict with these providers serving billions of people around the world.”

The legislation was passed in July, less than a month after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for social media sites to be “cleaned up” after his daughter and son-in-law were insulted on Twitter following the birth of their fourth child.

It requires platforms to appoint a representative accountable to Turkish courts, abide by orders to remove “offensive” content within 48 hours and store user data inside Turkey. Critics say the law is a government bid to control the online sphere. Some 90% of newspapers and TV news channels are controlled by the government or its supporters.

Turkey has previously blocked sites including YouTube, Twitter and Wikipedia over what it claimed was offensive content.

Hospital fire kills 9 COVID-19 patients at ICU in Turkey

December 19, 2020

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A fire broke out Saturday at an intensive care unit treating COVID-19 patients in southern Turkey after an oxygen cylinder exploded, killing nine people, the health minister said.

The state-run Anadolu news agency said the fire took place at the privately-run Sanko University Hospital unit in Gaziantep, 530 miles (850 kilometers) southeast of Istanbul. It cited a hospital statement identifying the victims as being between 56 and 85. The fire was quickly brought under control.

The statement said 14 patients undergoing intensive care treatment were transferred to other hospitals. An investigation is underway. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted that nine people were killed in the fire, raising the earlier estimate of eight dead by the hospital and the Gaziantep governor’s office. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy.

The governor’s office said 19 patients were in the unit when a “high pressure oxygen device” exploded at 4:45 a.m. (0145GMT). Other than the fatalities, no others were injured in the fire, it said. Intensive care units across Turkey currently have a 74% bed occupancy rate due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to government figures, although medical associations say the figure is higher and their hospitals are overrun with COVID-19 patients.

On Friday evening, Turkey’s Health Ministry reported 26,410 new coronavirus cases, bringing the country’s total since March to 1.98 million. The figure includes asymptomatic cases, which Ankara did not report in the four months up to late November, prompting criticism that the government was trying to hide the extent of the country’s outbreak.

Turkey hit a record daily high of 246 COVID-19-related deaths reported Friday for an overall reported coronavirus death toll of 17,610.

Turkey refuses to deport Iranian journalist

January 20, 2021

Turkey will not deport Iranian journalist Mohammad Mosaed back to Iran, security sources have revealed. Instead, he is being allowed to remain while his application for asylum is processed,

According to a statement released on Monday by the Washington-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Mosaed was arrested by the Turkish authorities at the weekend for entering the country illegally.

The Iranian authorities sentenced him in August to four years in prison on charges of "colluding against national security" and "spreading propaganda against the system." His sentence, he was told at the time, would start after two days.

Mosaed then fled from Iran and arrived in the Turkish city of Van, where he alerted the Turkish authorities to his presence in the country by calling the emergency services on Sunday to save him from freezing to death. The award-winning journalist was detained by police and he contacted the CPJ and filed an application for international protection that was received by the authorities in Van.

"We believe that Mohammad Mosaed has a well-founded fear of persecution should he be returned to Iran," said Sherif Mansour, the CPJ's Middle East and North Africa Coordinator. He called on the Turkish government to respect its obligations under international law; to refrain from deporting Mosaed; to consider any request for political asylum that he may make; and to assure that his rights are protected through due process of law.

According to a security source, Turkey won't deport him. "There is capital punishment in Iran and he is a journalist, not a mobster," the source told Middle East Eye.

In recent years, numerous Iranian dissidents and activists have sought refuge in Turkey fearing persecution in their home country. The government in Ankara has often refused to deport such dissidents. Iranian activist Maryam Shariatmadari, for example, was not deported when her residency permit expired last year.

There have, however, been a number of cases in Turkey where dissidents have been assassinated or kidnapped by Iranian agents. Dissident and former intelligence agent Masoud Maulavi Vardanjani was assassinated in Istanbul in November 2019, a killing apparently instigated by Iranian diplomats in the country.

A year later, the Ahvazi activist Habib Chaab was abducted in Istanbul by Iranian agents and smuggled across the border into Iran where he is being held in detention.

Source: Middle East Monitor.

Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210120-turkey-refuses-to-deport-iranian-journalist/.

Turkish pilots, official face 12 years jail for Ghosn flight

January 20, 2021

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish prosecutors on Wednesday sought the maximum possible 12 years in prison each for a Turkish private airline official and two pilots accused of smuggling the former Nissan Motor Co. chairman out of Japan, Turkey’s state news agency reported.

In the third hearing in the trial of seven people over Carlos Ghosn’s dramatic escape in 2019, prosecutors also requested that the court acquits two other pilots of the charge of “illegally smuggling a migrant,” Anadolu Agency said. They recommended instead that the two — who flew him from Istanbul to Beirut — be tried on charges of failing to report a crime.

Delivering their final opinion on the case, the prosecutors also demanded that charges against two flight attendants be dropped. The trial was adjourned until Feb. 24, when the court in Istanbul could deliver verdicts.

Ghosn, 66, who was arrested over financial misconduct allegations in Tokyo in 2018, skipped bail while awaiting trial there. He was flown by pilots Noyan Pasin and Bahri Kutlu Somek from Osaka to Istanbul on a private plane and then transferred onto another plane for Beirut, where he arrived Dec. 30, 2019. He is believed to have been smuggled inside a large, foam-covered music box.

All four pilots and two flight attendants have denied involvement in the plans to help Ghosn flee, insisting that they did not know that he was aboard the flights. During the opening hearing, airline official Okan Kosemen claimed he was made aware that Ghosn was on the plane to Istanbul only after it landed. He admitted helping smuggle Ghosn onto the second, Beirut-bound plane, but claimed he was threatened and feared for his family’s safety.

Turkish airline company MNG Jet has admitted that two of its planes were used illegally in Ghosn’s escape, flying him to Istanbul, and then to Beirut. The company said its employee had admitted to falsifying flight records so that Ghosn’s name didn’t appear on them.

Ghosn, who has French, Lebanese and Brazilian citizenship, led Japanese automaker Nissan for two decades. He is wanted on charges of breach of trust in misusing company assets for personal gain, and violating securities laws in not fully disclosing his compensation.

He has said that he fled because he could not expect a fair trial in Japan. Lebanon has no extradition treaty with Japan. In addition to his trial in Japan, the businessman is facing a number of legal challenges in France, including tax evasion and alleged money laundering, fraud and misuse of company assets while at the helm of the Renault-Nissan alliance.

Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.

Turkey announces vaccination plan for Chinese CoronaVac

December 03, 2020

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s health minister has announced a plan to start using an experimental Chinese COVID-19 vaccine later this month amid a surge in infections and deaths. Fahrettin Koca had previously announced an agreement with China’s Sinovac Biotech for 50 million doses of CoronaVac, which is currently in late stage trials. Koca said in a statement late Wednesday that the first shipment of the vaccine will arrive in Turkey after Dec. 11.

The minister said early use authorization would be granted after Turkish labs confirm the shots are safe and after assessment of initial results from the latest trials. “If developments continue positively as we expect, Turkey would be among the first countries in the world to begin vaccinations in the early phase,” Koca said.

In November, The Lancet published a study about the efficacy of Sinovac’s vaccine candidate based on initial clinical trials. The study said the efficacy was determined to be moderate, and that the vaccine produced lower levels of antibodies than those that have been found in recovered COVID-19 patients.

“The protective efficacy of CoronaVac remains to be determined,” the study said. Candidates from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have said that they have more than 90% efficacy rates. The U.K.’s AstraZeneca have an efficacy rate of 70-90%, again based on limited clinical trials.

Vaccination efforts would be rolled out in four stages, the minister said. The first group includes health care workers, citizens above age 65, and people living in homes for the elderly, disabled or other protective care homes.

Next would be essential workers and people above 50 with at least one chronic disease. Third, people younger than 50 with at least one chronic illness, young adults and other workers would be vaccinated. The fourth and final phase would be for the rest of the population.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday the vaccine would be administered free of charge. Other COVID-19 vaccines would be sold at pharmacies, according to the health minister. “We will take delivery of at least 10 million doses of the vaccine in December and likely 20 million. Another 20 million doses in January and 10 million in February,” Koca said earlier this week. Turkey's population is more than 83 million.

The CoronaVac, which is a so-called inactivated vaccine, will be delivered in two doses per person. Inactivated vaccines are made by growing the whole virus in a lab and then killing it. Safely brewing and then killing the virus can take longer than newer technologies. But inactivated vaccines give the body a sneak peek at the germ itself rather than just the single spike protein, which mediates the entry of the coronavirus.

Koca had previously announced an agreement for 1 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to be delivered in December. He said Wednesday that negotiations were ongoing for more vaccines that introduce a so-called messenger RNA, or mRNA, sequence coded for a disease specific antigen, which prompts the body to have an immune response.

Turkey was included in the trial phases of both vaccines and is also developing a local vaccine. Vaccine trials usually take years but have been drastically sped-up in wake of the global pandemic. Turkey has reported record fatalities for 10 consecutive days, with 193 new deaths Wednesday, bringing the total death toll in the country to 14,129.

The daily number of infections has also hit a record high of 31,923, as Turkey resumed reporting all positive cases last week after four months of only releasing the numbers of symptomatic patients. The new daily infection numbers put Turkey among the worst-hit in the world.