Zaman on Friday rounded up a series of recent exposés and incidents, published by Turkish media organs, describing moves made by Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) to establish what the outlet bluntly assessed as “full control” over Turkey’s judiciary. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has for months been...

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Hurriyet Daily News reported Thursday that Iran is looking to deepen the involvement of the Turkish financial sector in its oil and gas trade with Ankara, and is more specifically seeking “another Turkish lender to take part in its oil transactions along with the state-owned Halkbank.” Tehran’s moves were revealed by Turkey’s...

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When Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrives in Turkey on June 9th, his entourage along with their hosts will point out at every given opportunity the warm ties between the two largest non-Arab states in the Middle East. On the practical level, the governments will sign a series of deals boosting...

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Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday lashed out against CNN correspondent Ivan Watson amid international attention on a weekend incident that saw Watson assaulted by Turkish authorities as he was reporting on an anti-government protest: “The international media that came to Istanbul and made exaggerated, provocative calls were licking...

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Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, announced Sunday that it had broken up eleven plots to kidnap Israeli soldiers since September 2013. The Times of Israel reports: Of the foiled attempts, “the majority were driven by prisoners in order to use as a bargaining chip for their release.” Half...

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Iran has become the “the new priority” for Saudi Arabia in orienting itself toward Israel, replacing the Palestinian issue that had for decades been emphasized by Riyadh as having prominence, according to a not wholly sympathetic account of the shift published Thursday by London School of Economics professor Madawi Al-Rasheed....

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A Turkish court acceded to the request of prosecutors and issued arrest warrants May 26 in the names of four leading Israelis for their alleged role in the 2010 Mavi Marmara episode. The demand for the arrests flies in the face of media reports and comments from Turkish leaders that...

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State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki on Monday “reject[ed] the apparent use of unprovoked violence against [Turkish] demonstrators and protesters and urged accountability,” after a weekend in which the death toll of the Soma mining disaster in Turkey rose to over three hundred confirmed victims. CNN reported over the weekend that...

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A CNN report filed from Turkey on Friday described behavior by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) as part of “perhaps the strangest crisis management the world has ever seen,” as photos and video emerged of Erdogan and one of his top advisors beating...

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Freedom House set Israel’s ranking at “free” in its 2014 report of press rankings released earlier this month, in a marked contrast to the trend that “global press freedom has fallen to its lowest level in over a decade.” Noting that “Israel enjoys a lively, pluralistic media environment in which press freedom is generally...

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