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Turkish Airstrikes Hit ISIS Targets in Syria

ISTANBUL — Turkish fighter jets struck three Islamic State targets inside Syria on Friday in a pre-emptive measure based on intelligence about a planned attack on Turkey , a senior government official said. The airstrikes came a day after Turkish forces engaged in their first direct combat with the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, on the border with Syria and gave permission for American warplanes to use two air bases in the fight against the group in Syria. As well as the airstrikes, Turkey also carried out simultaneous raids across 13 provinces on Friday, resulting in the arrests of 250 people suspected to have ties with terrorist organizations. Three F-16 jets launched guided bombs against two command centers and a meeting point for Islamic State fighters across the border from Kilis, in southern Turkey, without entering Syrian airspace, according to the prime minister’s office. “We received […]

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Suspected Islamic State suicide bombing kills 27 in Turkish border town

A wounded man sits on a step following an explosion in Suruc, in the southeastern Sanliurfa province, Turkey, July 20, 2015. An explosion outside a cultural center in the Turkish town of Suruc near the border with Syria killed at least 27 people and wounded many more on Monday, in what senior officials said may have been a suicide bombing by Islamic State militants. Television footage showed bodies lying beneath trees outside the building in the mostly Kurdish town in southeastern Turkey, some 10 km (6 miles) from the Syrian town of Kobani, where Kurdish fighters have been battling Islamic State. "Our initial evidence shows that this was a suicide attack by Islamic State," one senior official in Ankara told Reuters. A second official also said Islamic State appeared to have been responsible and that the attack was a "retaliation for the Turkish government’s efforts to fight terrorism". NATO […]

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Turkey Uneasy as U.S. Support of Syrian Kurds Grows

Photo Kurdish fighters on June 15 near Tel Abyad, a strategic Syrian border town near Turkey that the fighters seized from ISIS control. Credit Rodi Said/Reuters ISTANBUL — The United States has stepped up its military support for Syrian Kurdish militias fighting the Islamic State, efforts that have angered Turkey , a longtime ally and NATO member, which is now weighing new measures to contain the ambitions of the Kurds, including a buffer zone within Syria . Ankara sees the Syrian Kurds as a serious national security threat because of their links to Kurdish nationalists in Turkey , who have waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state. So it has looked on with growing concern at the expanding cooperation between the Syrian Kurdish militias and the United States military in the fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. The United States now maintains extensive […]

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Kurds Have Bigger Prize in Mind After Political Gains in Turkey

ISTANBUL — Late into the night on Sunday on the shattered streets of Kobani, the Syrian Kurdish city devastated last year by battles with militants affiliated with the Islamic State, residents celebrated the outcome of the recent Turkish parliamentary election results , honking horns, cheering and firing their guns. The election, in which the Kurdish party surpassed a threshold for the first time to enter Parliament, was the latest milestone in a broader trend: As the Middle East unravels, at great human cost, from wars and sectarian strife, the Kurds have moved doggedly through the chaos to secure more rights and autonomy for themselves. Their electoral victory in Turkey was a historic watershed, a moment of political empowerment for the long-suppressed Kurdish minority, which fought a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state. The victory was celebrated in Kurdish areas across the Middle East, reverberating in the mountains of northern […]

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Turkish Election Signals That Erdogan’s Power May Have Peaked

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked Turkey for a mandate to reshape the country’s political system and give him more power. On Sunday, Turkish voters replied with a no. Preliminary results showed the ruling AK Party, which Erdogan led for more than a decade before becoming president last year, short of the majority needed for a single-party government. The results are a a blow to Erdogan, who turned the vote into a referendum on his rule, and suggest that after more than a decade as the nation’s most influential politician, he may have over-reached. “This is a major defeat both for Erdogan and the AK Party,” Ozer Sencar, head of MetroPOLL Strategic and Social Research, said Sunday by phone from Ankara. “It’s a clear sign that his power is in decline.” Erdogan argued on the campaign trail that a strong presidency was necessary for Turkey to become one of the […]

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Americans and Turks Discuss ISIS Threat

Photo Shiite militiamen clashed with members of the Islamic State in Fallujah, Iraq. Turkey wants to clear ISIS from its southern border. Credit Hadi Mizban/Associated Press WASHINGTON — American and Turkish officials are discussing a joint effort to clear Islamic State fighters away from Turkey ’s southern border, a senior State Department official said on Monday. The official did not provide details or explain what role American air power might play, but he said that discussions with Turkish officials had progressed after several rocky months. “We are looking for things we can do in a very material and tangible way,” the official said. “We want to get those extremists off their border. We want to look at a way that we can do that cooperatively with them.” Senior officials from the United States-led coalition that is fighting the Islamic State group are scheduled to meet in Paris on Tuesday […]

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Turkish Blackout Shows World Power Grids Under Threat

A massive power failure that crippled life in Turkey for almost 10 hours on Tuesday highlights the threats facing grids worldwide. Turkey’s most extensive power failure in 15 years, which left people stranded in elevators and traffic snarled, wasn’t the result of a lack of electricity. The prime minister said all possible causes — including a cyber-attack — were being investigated. While the source of the problem is still unknown, recent revelations that a 2008 oil pipeline explosion in Turkey was orchestrated via computer and the high-profile attack last year on Sony Pictures Entertainment demonstrate the increasing ability of hackers to penetrate systems. For power grids, technology being added to make them more reliable and productive is also giving attackers an entry point into vital infrastructure. “Every country, including the U.S., will be looking at it to see what the vulnerabilities were and learn some lessons about protection,” said […]

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Turkey Seeks to Replace Ukraine as Energy Hub

Russia says it will stop sending natural gas to Europe through Ukraine and will start sending it through Turkey. Turkey welcomes the decision. For ten years the country has aimed to be a major energy hub, or distribution center. But some critics say Turkey is not prepared to play such a role. Atilla Yesilada is a senior partner at Global Source Partners, a research group in Turkey. He says Russia’s decision is a major opportunity for his country. “Turkey simply becomes the next Ukraine and Turkey could become a major energy hub that supplies Europe.” But Mr. Yesilada says Turkey has a lot of work to do before that can happen. He says Turkey will need to understand the gas market, know the buyers, predict prices and build places to store natural gas. He says being an energy hub will require a big investment but it may also bring […]

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Moscow: Turkish Stream the new South Stream

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Europe needs Turkish gas project, despite abandoning larger network last year. UPI/Li Tao/Pool MOSCOW, Jan. 21 (UPI) — Moscow said Wednesday a Turkish gas project will help ensure European energy security, the same reason given for the abandoned South Stream pipeline. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the so-called Turkish Stream gas pipeline will do the same as a project the government in Moscow pulled off the table in late 2014. "We expect it to be realized and help enhance Europe’s energy security, therefore freeing it from problem transit states," he told reporters. Russia meets about a quarter of the natural gas needs for the European economy. The majority of that runs through the Soviet-era transit network in Ukraine, where lingering debt issues and ongoing conflict present risks to traditional energy routes. Russian officials in mid-December confirmed South Stream, touted as the answer […]

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Russia Presses Ahead With Plan for Gas Pipeline to Turkey

LONDON — President Vladimir V. Putin surprised the world in December when he aborted long-laid plans for a natural gas pipeline under the Black Sea to Europe, saying Russia would run pipes to Turkey instead. Many in the West thought it might be merely a bluff, to make the European Union reconsider its opposition to the pipeline project, known as South Stream. But in recent weeks, the Russian state-owned company Gazprom has shown signs that it is serious about proceeding with what it calls Turkish Stream. Gazprom quickly bought out its European partners in South Stream Transport, the Amsterdam company that was to build the Black Sea leg of the pipeline. And the chief of that Dutch company has petitioned the Netherlands government to let it keep working with Gazprom, despite European sanctions against Russia over the invasion of Ukraine. On the Turkish front, Gazprom is actively negotiating with […]

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