The Turkish lira has continued to lose value over the past week as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his demand for more control over the Turkish central bank, hitting a new low of 2.448 to the dollar. It was also trading lower at 2.79 to the Euro. Erdogan is demanding...

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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) aim to enhance its control over two of its proxies in the Middle East, an Arabic magazine reported. The new strategic plan of the IRGC includes plans to transfer the decision-making from local figures in each area to the IRGC’s elite Quds Force. Al-Watan Al-Arabi reported (Arabic link)...

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Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal has left the Gulf state of Qatar, which had been his home since 2012, and has moved to Turkey, according to a report published Monday in The Christian Science Monitor. Meshaal’s departure is reportedly the result of the growing influence of the rapprochement between Qatar and...

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“Terrorism” is not the term the Turkish government prefers to use when it refers to the groups that it supports across the Middle East. But when terrorists affiliated with these groups staged attacks in France, a key ally, Turkey rushed to condemn them and tried to parlay its support for France into...

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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was welcomed to Turkey with a knight’s honor by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. When the two shook hands on the steps of Erdogan’s new luxurious and controversial palace in Ankara, they were surrounded by 16 guards dressed as knights in armor and carrying spears or...

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Turkey’s top diplomat on Wednesday said that Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal was free to come to Turkey, following conflicting reports earlier this week that Meshaal was forced out of Qatar, where he has lived for several years. The reports, first published Monday, indicated that the Hamas leader, along with several...

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Jews are the primary group subjected to hate speech in the Turkish media, according to a new report published in the Turkish Jewish newspaper Salom. The media monitoring report covering news reports and columns published between May and August 2014 was part of “Monitoring Hate Speech in Media” research conducted by...

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Monday and Tuesday saw conflicting reports that Hamas head Khaled Meshaal, who has for the past several years been based in Qatar, was expelled from the country and preparing to flee to Turkey. Speculation began Monday night in Turkish media and continued into Tuesday afternoon, with both Doha and the...

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A sweep of arrests of Turkish police officers conducted Monday – Turkish news outlets reported the detained officers were arrested on charges of illegal wiretapping – is set to deepen concerns that Ankara is again cracking down on government workers it fears are aligned with U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. The arrests...

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Turkey’s regime is trying to hide any evidence that holds Turkish leaders responsible for the support of terrorist groups, especially the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Turkish media is reporting. Turkey officially denies all accusations that it supports activities of terrorists and allows them to pass through its territory to fight...

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