As its “Zero Problems” foreign policy continues to crumble, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) embarked on a series of moves this week that threatened to heighten tensions with a range of regional and global actors. Turkish officials publicly raised the prospect of deploying NATO Patriot batteries along Turkey’s southern border with Syria....

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Turkish officials are considering deploying NATO Patriot batteries along Turkey’s southern border with Syria, a critical step in establishing a no-fly zone over northern Syria that would provide protection to opposition forces seeking the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party has seen its “Zero...

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Turkish forces conducted a two-day ground operation in Iraq earlier this week, penetrating as far as 3 miles into Iraqi territory in order to target Kurdish groups. The Turkish military campaign comes as Iraq expelled Turkey’s state oil operator from an exploration contract, though analysts linked that move more to...

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In what diplomats and officials are deriding as a “kangaroo court” and a “show trial,” Turkey has opened proceedings in absentia against four Israeli officials that Ankara blames for Israel’s 2010 interception of the terrorist-linked Turkish vessel which was trying to breach Israel’s legal blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip....

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Lines between opposing groups in the Syrian civil war sharpened further over the weekend, as ethnic Kurds emerged as opponents to both the Bashar al-Assad government, which is backed by Iran and its proxies, and to Syrian rebel groups, who are backed by Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Syrian Kurds have...

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The Turkish military over the weekend dispatched F-16s across the border into Iraq, bombing bases of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and killing five. The PKK – which is identified as a terrorist organization by the U.S., EU, and others – is locked in a decades-old war with Turkey, the...

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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has again rejected overtures from Israel to rehabilitate relations, which Turkey froze in 2010 after Israel intercepted a terrorist-linked Turkish vessel trying to breach Israel’s legal blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Passengers aboard the MV Mavi Maramara attacked Israeli commandos who were boarding...

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Iran has provided drones to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to opposition forces speaking to CNN. Syrian government troops have reportedly turned the unmanned aircraft against Syrian civilians and rebel forces. The reports come in the aftermath of intelligence reports published in September that documented how “planes...

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The Israeli Air Force met Greek counterparts for a joint exercise in Greek air space to simulate a rescue operation. The event, which included exchanges on tactics and principles, follows a joint naval exercise between the two countries that took place in July. Relations between Greece and Israel, which have...

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In addition to spilling over regionally into Turkey and Lebanon, the civil war in Syria is increasingly becoming an explicit proxy war between US-aligned Saudi Arabia and Turkey, on one side, and Iran-aligned Hezbollah and Syria, on the other. A senior Russian general is charging that the Syrian opposition has...

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