Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made a landmark visit to Ankara on Wednesday, marking the first presidential visit between Egypt and Turkey in 12 years. This visit comes as both nations work to mend a decade-long strained relationship.

Earlier this year, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan visited Cairo for the first time since 2012, signalling a significant step toward restoration of ties. Relations had soured in 2013 following the ousting of Egypt’s then-president, Mohamed Mursi, an ally of Turkey.

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Source: https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/law-order/3074487-historic-reconciliation-egyptian-president-visits-turkey-after-12-year-hiatus

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“France’s President Emmanuel Macron and I agree that Turkey’s recent actions have been very aggressive,” Pompeo said, citing Turkey’s recent support to Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenia as well as military moves in Libya and the Mediterranean.

“Europe and the U.S. must work together to convince Erdogan such actions are not in the interest of his people,” Pompeo said, referring to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

Pompeo said increased use of Turkey’s military capability was a concern, but he did not say whether the country, which hosts U.S. military forces at its Incirlik Air Base, should stay in or quit the North Atlantic Alliance.

Pompeo told Le Figaro the U.S. administration had still work to do to maintain pressure on Iran.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) – The presidents of Russia, Iran, and Turkey will hold a video conference on Wednesday to discuss the conflict in Syria, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.

In Syria’s nine-year war, Russia and Iran are the main foreign supporters of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, while Turkey backs opposition fighters. Under a diplomatic process dating back to 2017, they agreed to work to de-escalate fighting.

Wednesday’s talks between Vladimir Putin, Hassan Rouhani, and Tayyip Erdogan were scheduled for around 1100 GMT, the Kremlin said.

After an escalation of violence displaced nearly a million people, Turkey and Russia agreed in March to halt hostilities in northwest Syria’s Idlib region. This month military jets bombed villages in the rebel-held area.

Two weeks ago, Russia and Turkey postponed bilateral ministerial-level talks which were expected to focus on Syria and Libya, another country where they support opposing sides.

(Reporting by Alexander Marrow; Writing by Daren Butler in Turkey; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Peter Graff)

Source: https://www.metro.us/russia-turkey-iran-leaders/

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Moscow said earlier on Tuesday that all attacks on Russian and Syrian government forces in Idlib should stop and that agreements it had struck with Turkey on the conflict there had to be upheld.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan shake hands during their meeting in Ankara, Sept. 16 | Photo: Pool via Reuters / Pavel Golovkin

Turkey’s incursion into Syria is an opportunity for Russia to dial up its influence in the region as Washington appears to be pulling back, but the risks to Moscow’s diplomacy will rise the longer the operation goes on, people close to the Kremlin say.

In a phone call with Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan before the operation against US-allied Kurdish fighters, Russian leader Vladimir Putin, an ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, made clear he hoped the incursion would be limited in time and scale, the sources said.

“The sooner this conflict situation is over, the better for everyone,” said Andrei Klimov, a senior pro-Putin lawmaker in Russia’s Senate.

“I really hope our Turkish partners do everything to avoid even a chance conflict on the ground with Syrian government forces and even more so with Russian soldiers.”

For Russia, it’s a delicate balancing act. It has pledged to use its air power to help Assad retake all the territory he has lost in Syria’s eight-year-old war and has repeatedly stressed the importance of the country’s territorial integrity.

But it is also working with Turkey and Iran to push for a peaceful settlement it hopes will eventually reshape Syria’s constitution and show that Russia can make peace as well as war.

Critics say Moscow’s efforts are a sham, aimed at yielding a fake political settlement to relegitimize Assad and attract funds from the European Union and the Gulf to rebuild Syria.

For Moscow, success would cap a 2015 intervention in Syria that gave Russia new clout in the Middle East and that it is keen to build on, particularly at a time when Washington appears to be distancing itself from the region.

US President Donald Trump pulled US troops out of the way of Turkey’s offensive earlier this week, drawing bipartisan criticism from members of Congress who credit the Kurds with fighting alongside Americans to defeat Islamic State.

Ankara brands the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia as terrorists because of their ties to militants who have waged an insurgency in Turkey.

A Turkish operation that drags on too long or gets too messy may upset the Kremlin’s diplomatic efforts.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said on Thursday that while Moscow was sympathetic to Ankara’s security concerns, Putin told Erdoğan his forces should tread carefully.

“We consider it important that all sides show restraint and carefully weigh their practical steps so as not to damage the measures taken to achieve a political settlement,” said Ushakov.

He pointed to the first scheduled meeting of a Moscow-backed Syrian constitutional committee on Oct. 29 as something that should not be disrupted and said it would be unacceptable for Moscow if civilians suffered in the Turkish offensive.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made clear on Thursday that Moscow is already positioning itself for a role as intermediary in resolving the latest twist in Syria’s long-drawn-out conflict.

That could involve brokering talks between Ankara and Damascus, which wants Turkish forces out, and between Damascus and the Kurds, who want a measure of autonomy inside Syria that Assad has so far shown no sign of giving.

Lavrov told reporters Moscow would try both, noting apparent enthusiasm for Russia’s services from both the Syrian and Kurdish sides.

“Let us see what we can do,” Lavrov said.

Mathieu Boulègue, a research fellow at Chatham House in London, said: “Russia is probably the only player in the room among the grown-ups who can talk with everyone in the room at the same time. Whether it’s Israel and Iran, or with Kurdish forces and Turkey, or Assad and everyone else.”

For Putin, this would be a significant geopolitical win.

“If he manages to fix this it would be considered a major political victory,” said Andrey Kortunov, head of the Russian International Affairs Council, a think tank close to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

“Putin could argue that the Americans failed to sort this out but we managed it, which implies our approach to the conflict is more efficient than our geopolitical opponents.”

If Turkey limits its operation to a 30-mile security zone inside Syria and conducts a quick operation, Russia is likely to tolerate it, said Vladimir Frolov, a senior former Russian diplomat.

Given Russia’s deployment of advanced air defense systems in Syria and its airbase there, it has the technical ability to halt any Turkish advance if it wants, he said.

“If Erdoğan wanted to go further into Syria and all but partition it … Moscow will try to block this by forward deploying Russian observation posts with Russian air cover,” predicted Frolov.

“Russia controls the skies in Syria and Turkey flies its planes now at Moscow’s

Source: https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/10/11/turkish-move-into-syria-gives-putin-a-chance-to-ramp-up-middle-east-role/

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German police registered a total of 609 attacks on asylum-seekers and refugees during the first half of 2019, according to the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. The newspaper cited an answer given by the German federal government in response to a question by the parliamentary group of the Left party.

The crimes ranged from verbal insult and harassment to arson and dangerous bodily harm.

Read more: How dangerous is the Identitarian Movement?

According to the report, there were 60 attacks on refugee shelters and 42 attacks on aid organizations or volunteers. 102 people were injured, including seven children. Authorities have designated all of them as “politically motivated right-wing crimes.”

The report stated that one in four attacks took place in the state of Brandenburg, which surrounds the country’s capital Berlin. Police recorded 160 offenses targeting refugees or asylum-seekers in the state.

There were 62 assaults in Baden-Wuerttemberg, 58 in Lower Saxony and 56 in Saxony.

Ulla Jelpke, the spokeswoman for domestic affairs for the Left party in the Bundestag, was quoted by the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung as saying that refugees and asylum-seekers are exposed to threats every day in Germany. “The state has a duty to protect these people.”

Right-wing attacks up

The report comes after German authorities registered 8,605 right-wing extremist offenses in the first half of 2019, according to the figures released by the Interior Ministry.

While the overall number of right-wing extremist crimes dropped by 0.3% in 2018, the number of violent crimes committed by known right-wing extremists rose by 3.2% (from 1,054 to 1,088), according to the report.

Read more: German ‘welcome culture’ still a new concept, study finds

Asylum and migration are topics that have dominated the German public and political agenda over the past several years since the country opened its doors to hundreds of thousands of people fleeing conflict and persecution.

sri/rt (afp, epd, kna)

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-over-600-attacks-on-refugees-in-first-half-of-2019/a-50296504

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Ankara, which hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees, controls parts of northern Syria where it says 350,000 Syrians have already returned. It is setting up a “safe zone” with the United States in the northeast where Erdogan said many more could be moved.

“We are saying we should form such a safe zone that we, as Turkey, can build towns here in lieu of the tent cities here. Let’s carry them to the safe zones there,” Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara.

“Give us logistical support and we can go build housing at 30 km (20 miles) depth in northern Syria. This way, we can provide them with humanitarian living conditions.”

“This either happens or otherwise we will have to open the gates,” Erdogan said. “Either you will provide support, or excuse us, but we are not going to carry this weight alone. We have not been able to get help from the international community, namely the European Union.”

Under a deal agreed between the EU and Turkey in March 2016, Ankara agreed to stem the flow of migrants into Europe in return for billions of euros in aid.

However, the number of migrant arrivals in neighboring Greece spiked last month. A week ago more than a dozen migrant boats carrying 600 people arrived, the first simultaneous arrival of its kind in three years.

“Our goal is for at least one million of our Syrian brothers to return to the safe zone we will form along our 450km border,” Erdogan said.

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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan casts his ballot at a polling station during the municipal elections in Istanbul, Turkey, March 31, 2019. (photo credit: REUTERS/MURAD SEZER)

ANKARA – Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan suffered a severe setback as his ruling AK Party lost control of the capital Ankara for the first time in a local election and he appeared to concede defeat in the country’s largest city, Istanbul.

Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics since coming to power 16 years ago and ruled his country with an ever tighter grip, campaigned relentlessly for two months ahead of Sunday’s vote, which he described as a “matter of survival” for Turkey.

But the president’s daily rallies and overwhelmingly supportive media coverage failed to win over the country’s capital or secure a definitive result in Istanbul, as Turkey’s tip toward economic recession weighed heavily on voters.

Turkish broadcasters said opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate Mansur Yavas had won a clear victory in Ankara, but the vote count in Istanbul was so tight that both parties declared the narrowest of victories.

“The people have voted in favor of democracy, they have chosen democracy,” opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said, declaring that his secularist CHP had taken Ankara and Istanbul from the AK Party (AKP) and held its Aegean coastal stronghold of Izmir, Turkey’s third largest city,

Defeat for Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted party in Ankara was a significant blow for the president. Losing Istanbul, where he launched his political career and served as mayor in the 1990s, would be an even greater symbolic shock and a broader sign of dwindling support.

The Turkish lira, which swung wildly in the week ahead of the elections echoing last year’s currency crisis, slipped again on Monday and was down 1.2 percent at 5.62 against the dollar.

State-owned Anadolu Agency said the AKP would appeal in some districts of the capital.

In Istanbul, the AKP said former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim defeated his CHP rival Ekrem Imamoglu by a mere 4,000 votes – with both candidates polling more than 4 million votes. Imamoglu said he had a lead of 28,000 with only 2,000 votes uncounted.

In a speech to supporters in Ankara, Erdogan appeared to accept AKP defeat in Istanbul, although he maintained that most neighborhoods in the city were held by his party. “Even if our people gave away the mayorship, they gave the districts to the AK Party,” he said.

The party would appeal results wherever needed, he added.

“TURNING A PAGE”

Erdogan pledged that Turkey would now focus on its troubled economy in the run-up to national elections in 2023. “We have a long period ahead where we will carry out economic reforms without compromising on the rules of the free-market economy,” he told reporters.

Turkey’s most prominent leader since the founder of the Turkish republic Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Erdogan’s support has been based on strong economic growth and backing from a core constituency of pious, conservative Muslim Turks.

A consummate campaigner, he has been the country’s most popular – although divisive – modern politician, tightening his grip in elections last year that ushered in a powerful executive presidency, approved in a bitter 2017 referendum which alarmed Western allies who fear growing authoritarianism in Turkey.

But a currency crisis after last year’s election dragged the lira down by 30 percent and tipped the economy into recession in the fourth quarter. With inflation close to 20 percent and unemployment rising, some voters appeared ready to punish the president.

“Today’s elections are as historic as that of 1994,” prominent journalist Rusen Cakir tweeted, referring to the year Erdogan was elected mayor of Istanbul. “It is a declaration that a page that was opened 25 years ago is being turned.”

As authorities again scrambled to shore up the lira over the past week, Erdogan cast the country’s economic woes as resulting from attacks by the West, saying Turkey would overcome its troubles and adding he was “the boss” of the economy.

However Wolfango Piccoli, co-president of Teneo political risk advisers, said the AKP had lost seven of the country’s 12 main cities, even without taking Istanbul into account.

“It’s a bad night for the AK Party,” he said. “They have done very poorly in all the economic powerhouses of country. For a party which portrays itself as pro-business, it’s a huge issue.”

Moody’s rating agency warned the central bank’s use of reserves last week to prop up the lira raises new questions over its independence, while uncertainty over Turkey’s policy response to recession raises the risk of further capital flight.

In mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey, residents celebrated as the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) won back municipalities that authorities had taken over two years ago, accusing the HDP of terrorist links. The HDP denies links to the outlawed militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party.

“They robbed us of our will and we overturned this,” Diyarbakir resident Abdullah Elmas said.

Source: https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Erdogans-party-loses-hold-over-Turkish-capital-Istanbul-disputed-585411

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