Turkey’s Hurriyet discusses recent promotions and demotions in the country’s military, concluding that they highlight the extent to which Ankara’s ruling Islamist Justice and Development Party is succeeding in eroding the influence of army figures. The article specifically deals with defense procurement issues. An annual reshuffling, the article states, “underlines full government control over defense...

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What seemed to be a never ending trial of hundreds of Turkish officials accused of attempting to overthrow Ankara’s elected government culminated last Monday with verdicts. After five years the Turkish court in Silivri, a town in the outskirts of Istanbul, sentenced at least 18 people including General Ilker Basburg,...

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Egyptian authorities will prevent Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan from going through with a plan that would have seen the Islamist official travel to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip through Egypt, according to sources who spoke to Egyptian media outlets. The development is the result of multiple Middle East dynamics. The Egyptian...

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Several developments in Turkey over the weekend and stretching into early this week have observers fearing that the country’s ruling Justice and Development (AKP) Party is tightening its grip on the country’s armed forces. In the legal arena, the first convictions came down in a years-old campaign against former top...

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Turkish authorities have released a bird that officials had accused of being an Israeli spy. Investigators reportedly forced the animal to undergo X-ray tests at a university hospital before determining that it was not carrying any surveillance or communications equipment with which it could transmit intelligence to handlers in the Jewish state....

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Turkish police arrested dozens of people in Istanbul Tuesday for holding a demonstration in the city’s Taksim Square, bringing to at least 133 the total number of people arrested in connection with ongoing anti-government protests.More than 3,500 Turkish citizens have also been detained in connection with the unrest, and Turkish police are...

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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Turkish media Sunday that he still considers the ousted Mohammed Morsi to be Egypt’s leader: “Currently, my president in Egypt is Morsi because he was elected by the people,” he told the pro-government Today’s Zaman. “If we don’t judge the situation like that it...

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A combination of political ideology and entrenched anti-Semitism within Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development (AKP) Party threatens to derail efforts to reconcile with Israel – at significant cost to Ankara’s interests – according to an array of recently published analyses and reporting. Relations between the two countries were frozen by...

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Turkey and its ruling Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) had long sought to provide a so-called “Turkish model” for the region, providing an example of “a modern, moderate Muslim state that works.” Ankara’s aspirations had been met with “early enthusiasm” in some corners of the Western foreign policy community....

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Turkey is reportedly planning to purchase air defense systems from China, an announcement that has been met with consternation, and along with troubling authoritarian conduct at home, is raising questions about Turkey’s true intentions, and increasingly about its suitability as a NATO ally: “That would certainly leave many of us...

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