Category Archives: Turkey

Rick Perry: Trump energy secretary resigns amid Ukraine scandal – live

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Trump confirmed Perry is resigning, and said that his replacement will be announced ‘very shortly’

The mayor of Doral, Florida, a small town outside of Miami, was taken by surprise by the White House’s announcement that the G7 summit would be held at one of Trump’s own resorts there, the Washington Post reports.

The announcement, a clear example of using the power of the presidency to benefit Trump’s private interests, has sparked anger and widespread criticism.

I just talked to the mayor of Doral — who now needs to plan to host 8 world leaders and thousands of diplomats.
He learned this when we did, by watching Mulvaney on TV. He still hasn’t gotten a call from the White House. https://t.co/7A9AekUhoy

In his final hours, Elijah Cummings, the son of sharecroppers who became an influential Democratic congressman from Baltimore, was still working to help immigrants with chronic medical conditions.

That’s what members of his staff told Massachusetts congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, she tweeted today.

As I was paying my respects to our forever Chairman, his staff told me that in his final hours he signed subpoenas to USCIS and ICE, pursuing justice for immigrants in my district & across the country with chronic medical conditions. A man of his word every moment of his life. pic.twitter.com/igzUPl1yPF

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Pence and Erdoğan agree on ceasefire plan but Kurds reject ‘occupation’

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  • Mike Pence strikes deal with Turkish president in Ankara
  • Agreement appears to cement key Turkish objectives

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has agreed with the US vice-president, Mike Pence, to suspend Ankara’s operation on Kurdish-led forces in north-east Syria for the next five days in order to allow Kurdish troops to withdraw, potentially halting the latest bloodshed in Syria’s long war.

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters would pull back from Turkey’s proposed 20-mile (32km) deep “safe zone” on its border, Pence told reporters in Ankara on Thursday evening after hours of meetings with Turkish officials.

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Mike Pence: US and Turkey have agreed to a ceasefire in Syria – video

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US vice president Mike Pence on Thursday announced that the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had agreed to a ceasefire in Syria, where Turkey had launched an offensive on Kurdish forces once allied with the US in the fight against the Islamic State group. Ankara will suspend its operation on Kurdish-led forces in north-east Syria for the next five days in order to allow Kurdish troops to withdraw

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What his letter to Erdoğan tells us about Donald Trump

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US president’s letter to his Turkish counterpart is ‘the product of an amateur’, say critics

We now know – not that there was ever much doubt – that Donald Trump writes presidential letters like he talks – with a blustery mix of flattery and threats. His letter to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has all the charm and elegance of an eviction notice from a slumlord, but on White House stationery.

Those who have observed him the longest say this is how he has always expressed himself. The most remarkable aspect of the Erdoğan letter is arguably that it shows the extent to which the distinctions between Trump’s personality and the remaining formal trappings of the presidency have crumbled away.

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Trump’s bizarre, threatening letter to Erdoğan: ‘Don’t be a fool’

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President vows to destroy Turkish economy if Syria invasion is not resolved humanely, but brash language and diplomatic missteps draw confusion

Donald Trump warned his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “don’t be a fool” and said history risked branding him a “devil” in an extraordinary letter sent the day Turkey launched its incursion into north-eastern Syria.

The letter, first obtained by a Fox Business reporter, was shorn of diplomatic niceties and began with an outright threat.

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Trump calls decision to withdraw US troops from Syria ‘strategically brilliant’ – video

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Donald Trump on Wednesday played down the crisis in Syria touched off by Turkey’s incursion against US-allied Kurdish forces, saying the conflict was between Turkey and Syria and that it was okay for Russia to help Damascus. The US president, speaking to reporters at the White House, said the Kurds were ‘no angels’

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Erdoğan’s calamitous Syrian blunder has finally broken his spell over Turkey | Simon Tisdall

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The belligerent president has forgotten that his country is a democracy, not a dictatorship. It is time for him to go

If Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s belligerent president, were a true patriot with his country’s security and wellbeing at heart, he would resign immediately. He has made an appalling hash of things. His Syrian misadventure, while unusually calamitous, is but the latest in a long line of foreign blunders. Erdoğan abuses his position. He harms his country. He is still in office not because he is popular but because of the fear he instils and the power he crudely wields. It’s time for him to go.

Getting rid of Erdoğan is a matter for the Turks. And it wouldn’t be quite as difficult as it might sound

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Russian troops patrol between Turkish and Syrian forces on border

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Soldiers’ presence underlines Moscow’s role as power broker after evacuation of US personnel

Russian units have begun patrolling territory separating Turkish-backed Syrian rebels from the Syrian army around the flashpoint town of Manbij in north-east Syria, in a clear sign that Moscow has become the de facto power broker in the region after the evacuation of US troops.

Oleg Blokhin, a Russian journalist usually attached to mercenaries in Syria, posted a video on social media on Tuesday from a deserted US military base in the village of al-Saadiya, near Manbij.

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Trump asks Turkey for ceasefire and orders sanctions as violence escalates

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  • President freezes negotiations on $100bn trade deal
  • Trump vows to ‘swiftly destroy Turkey’s economy’

Donald Trump spoke directly to the Turkish president, Tayyip Erdoğan, on Monday to demand an immediate ceasefire in Syria while announcing a series of punishments for Ankara that critics saw as an attempt to save face.

The US president’s conversation with Erdoğan was revealed by the vice-president, Mike Pence, who said he would soon be travelling to the Middle East. “The United States of America did not give a green light for Turkey to invade Syria,” Pence insisted to reporters at the White House.

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Russian shadow falls over Syria as Kurds open door for Assad

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With the US gone, the implications of their departure is beginning to sink in across the Middle East

The moment that changed the Middle East arrived with a sudden silence. Just before 7pm on Sunday, the internet was cut across north-eastern Syria where, for half an hour, the Kurds of the region had been digesting a news flash. The Syrian government was returning to two towns, Manbij and Kobane. The implication quickly sunk in.

The regional capital, Qamishli, soon emptied; streets that had bustled with minibuses and shoppers became eerie and still. With the internet down phones were no help and nor were officials who had vanished along with the traffic. Air seemed to be suddenly vacuumed from the city, and the few people still around knew exactly what it meant: this was the moment power changed hands. It was a time to be scared.

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Orphans thought to be British rescued from Isis camp after Turkish attacks

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Children taken to safety in Raqqa after hundreds of people fled camp holding Islamic State affiliates in northern Syria

Three orphans believed to be British citizens have been evacuated from an area in northern Syria that was the focus of recent attacks by Turkish troops and their allies.

The Guardian understands that the three children, Amira, 10, her sister, Hiba, eight, and their brother, Hamza, were evacuated from a camp for people associated with Islamic State in Ain Issa on Sunday. They were part of a group of 24 children taken to safety by the UN refugee organisation.

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Syrian troops enter Kurdish fight against Turkish forces

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Deal to support Kurds in exchange for key cities set to open new front in civil war

Syrian troops have begun sweeping into Kurdish-held territory on a collision course with Turkish forces and their allies, a day after the beleaguered Kurds agreed to hand over key cities to Damascus in exchange for protection.

The deal, which Kurdish leaders emphasised they had made reluctantly after four days of bombardment by Turkish artillery and jets, threatens to open a new front in Syria’s nearly nine-year civil war, and signals the likely end of US and European military deployments in the country’s north-east.

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Trump and Syria: the worst week for US foreign policy since the Iraq invasion?

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A close ally is abandoned, and Isis is regrouping. The speed of the unravelling is breathtaking

In the week since Donald Trump’s fateful phone conversation with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the US has entirely abandoned the Kurds, its most effective allies in the Middle East, and with them a Syria strategy that was five years in the making.

The Islamic State flag has been raised once more and the last vestige of US credibility as a reliable partner lies crushed under Turkish tank tracks. It has arguably been the worst seven days for US foreign policy since the invasion of Iraq.

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Kurds reach deal with Damascus in face of Turkish offensive

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Agreement to hand over border towns comes after more than 700 Isis affiliates escape camp

More than 700 people with links to Islamic State have escaped from a detention camp in north-east Syria, as the Kurdish-led forces in control of the area reached a deal with the Assad regime to stave off a bloody five-day-old Turkish assault.

Kurdish fighters controlling the region would surrender the border towns of Manbij and Kobane to Damascus in a deal brokered by Russia, officials said on Sunday night.

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America’s origin myth, and its reputation at risk | Letters

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Contrary to popular belief, the Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci has little to do with the name of the modern-day continent, writes Colin Moffat. Plus Patrick Billingham says Donald Trump has brought the US into disrepute

I fear Thomas Eaton (Weekend Quiz, 12 October) is giving further credence to “fake news” from 1507, when a German cartographer was seeking the derivation of “America” and hit upon the name of Amerigo Vespucci, an obscure Florentine navigator. Derived from this single source, this made-up derivation has been copied ever after.

The fact is that Christopher Columbus visited Iceland in 1477-78, and learned of a western landmass named “Markland”. Seeking funds from King Ferdinand of Spain, he told the king that the western continent really did exist, it even had a name – and Columbus adapted “Markland” into the Spanish way of speaking, which requires an initial vowel “A-”, and dropped “-land” substituting “-ia”.

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Female Kurdish politician among nine civilians killed by pro-Turkey forces in Syria, observers say

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Rebels shot at least nine civilians in execution-style killings in Syria, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

Pro-Ankara fighters taking part in a Turkish offensive on Kurdish-held border towns in north-eastern Syria have killed at least nine civilians including a female politician, a human rights monitor has said.

“The nine civilians were executed at different moments south of the town of Tal Abyad,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

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Betrayal on the border: Kurds fear future as Turkish assault intensifies

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In the Kurdish heartlands in Syria, the sense of abandonment at the withdrawal of US troops is palpable as Erdoğan’s forces claim early successes

The lone road out of Ras al-Ayn was empty, except for one overladen lorry that slowly made its way along a lethal mile from war zone to exile. Shells thudded into buildings in the distance as Kurdish forces in vans prepared to race jets and sniper fire, trying to get to a battle that almost everyone else had left.

Those who remained in the border town at the frontline of the war for north-eastern Syria were there to fight; the Kurds rallying to defend it and the Arabs preparing to seize it from them. Early on Saturday, the Arab force, trained by Turkey, made its move. By the day’s end, the proxies claimed to have recaptured part of Ras al-Ayn, making good on Ankara’s threats to push Kurdish forces from one of their main enclaves.

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Erdoğan has managed the unthinkable: uniting all the other Middle East rivals

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Turkey’s Syria invasion following US withdrawal of its troops means that all bets are now off in the Middle East

By invading northern Syria last week, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan achieved what many thought impossible – uniting all the regional countries and rival powers with a stake in the country in furious opposition to what they see as a reckless, destabilising move.

A truculent nationalist-populist with dictatorial tendencies, Erdoğan has often cast himself as one man against the world during 16 consecutive years as Turkey’s prime minister and president. Now he really is on his own.

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Turkey’s ‘impulsive’ invasion of Syria will destabilize region, says US official

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Mark Esper, US defense secretary, insisted ‘we are not abandoning’ Kurds and that Turkey wasn’t given a ‘green light’

An “impulsive” decision by Turkey to invade northern Syria will further destabilize a region already caught up in civil war, the US defense secretary said on Friday, arguing that the withdrawal of US troops from the border does not mean America has abandoned its Syrian Kurdish allies.

Donald Trump’s decision to pull back troops from the Syrian border region has been widely criticized as a tacit “green light” for a Turkish offensive that intensified on Friday, with air and artillery strikes on Kurdish militia.

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