From reformer to ‘New Sultan’: Erdoğan’s populist evolution

The ‘inventor of 21st century populism’ moved Turkey away from EU to appeal to the base

It was a speech that would change the trajectory of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s life – and with it, Turkey’s future.

Istanbul’s first Islamist mayor had travelled to the poor, south-eastern town of Siirt in 1997 to speak at a rally. Dressed in his trademark working man’s jacket, Erdoğan recited an Islamic-nationalist poem, deploying a rhetorical style he had practised as a teenager, addressing imaginary audiences on the decks of abandoned ships on the Bosphorus.

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UN court judge quits The Hague citing political interference

Christoph Flügge warns over ‘shocking’ moves by Trump administration and Turkey

A senior judge has resigned from one of the UN’s international courts in The Hague citing “shocking” political interference from the White House and Turkey.

Christoph Flügge, a German judge, claimed the US had threatened judges after moves were made to examine the conduct of US soldiers in Afghanistan.

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UN executions expert to visit Turkey to lead Khashoggi inquiry

Investigation comes as Saudi efforts to normalise relations with west move on to Davos

A UN expert on executions is to travel to Turkey next week to lead an “independent international inquiry” into the death of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi Arabian journalist killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October.

Agnes Callamard, the special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said she would evaluate the circumstances of the crime and “the nature and the extent of states’ and individuals’ responsibilities for the killing”. She will report on the findings from her five-day visit to the UN human rights council in June.

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US-Kurdish patrol attacked in Syria as Erdoğan offers to step in

Turkish president tells Donald Trump he is ready to send troops into US-overseen areas

The threat of a growing security vacuum in Syria as a result of Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops has been underlined by an attack on a joint US-Kurdish patrol, which reportedly killed five people and injured at least two American soldiers.

The attack on Monday, in which a suicide bomber drove a car into a checkpoint, emphasised the vulnerability of American troops since the US president declared he was withdrawing 2,000 soldiers from northern Syria on the grounds that Islamic State has been defeated.

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Erdoğan chides Bolton and calls on US to hand over Syria bases

US security chief tempers withdrawal claims, jeopardising Turkey’s plans to target Kurdish groups

Turkey has asked Washington to hand over its bases in Syria as the Trump administration appeared to reverse plans to withdraw from the country’s north-east on Tuesday, jeopardising Ankara’s plans to launch a widespread military operation targeting Kurdish groups.

The fresh row between the two Nato allies broke out as the US national security adviser, John Bolton, visited Ankara to row back on a surprise announcement by Donald Trump in December that US forces would leave Syria imminently, abandoning Kurdish proxies who had led its ground war against the Islamic State terror group. Turkey views those same Kurdish groups as mortal foes.

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Bolton: US troops will not leave Syria till Isis beaten and Kurds protected

Adviser indicates long stay for troops while president claims he never said withdrawal would be quick

US troops will not leave north-eastern Syria until Islamic State militants are defeated and US-allied Kurdish fighters protected, national security adviser John Bolton said on Sunday, signaling a pause to a withdrawal abruptly announced last month and initially expected to be completed within weeks. Achieving such conditions will likely take months or even years.

Related: Trump: US has killed al-Qaida militant tied to USS Cole bombing

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Is the tide at last on the turn for the world’s ‘strongman’ leaders?

The fall of the Saudi crown prince after the Khashoggi affair is a cautionary tale for all authoritarian rulers

The trial of 11 people charged with the murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi opened and was quickly adjourned in Riyadh last week. It may be that the outcome is fixed in advance. Yet that the hearing took place at all could be seen as progress of a kind. It suggests even a state as autocratic, inward-looking and undemocratic as Saudi Arabia is not immune to international opinion and can be forced, in extremis, to respect the human right to justice.

The Khashoggi affair has provided a chastening lesson for Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, who is widely believed to have ordered the journalist’s slaying in Istanbul in October. Until then, Salman was riding high, courted by Donald Trump, lauded at home for modest social reform and feared, if not respected, across the Arab Middle East for his war of attrition in Yemen and determination to face down Iran.

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Pompeo meets Turkish leaders as account of ‘Saudi writer’s murder’ published

A Turkish newspaper has published an account of the alleged murder of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, as America's top diplomat arrived for talks over the Washington Post columnist's disappearance. The report by Yeni Safak adds to increasing pressure on Saudi Arabia to explain what happened to Mr Khashoggi, who vanished on October 2 while visiting the consulate to pick up paperwork he needed to get married.

Erdogan’s Turkey

Optimistic expectations that the Turkish system established by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, republican, nationalist, secular, and modernized, would continue have been frustrated. Hopes for a successful multiparty democracy ended because of chaotic politics and military coups.

US drops charges against Erdogan bodyguards over DC brawl

U.S. prosecutors said Thursday they have dismissed all criminal charges against seven of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's bodyguards stemming from a brawl in Washington last year in which protesters were beaten. The charges were dropped last month just a day ahead of a meeting between Erdogan and now-outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, but the State Department said the timing was coincidental.

Erdogan: Turkey carries out Operation Olive Branch successfully

News selected on topics and regions - oil and gas, business, politics, IT, the South Caucasus, the Caspian Sea region, Central Asia Ranking of the Azerbaijani banking sector CONTACT US E-MAIL: sales@trend.az PHONES: + 994 12 437 18 46 Azad Abdulrahimzade: +994 50 669-48-84 Aybeniz Askerova: +994 50 677-42-28 Operation Olive Branch is being carried out successfully, the Turkish media cited the country's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying Jan. 26. "If terrorists think that they can stop the Turkish army, they are mistaken," Erdogan said. "Turkey is committed to a decisive fight against terrorism in Syria.

Turkey: Trump told Erdogan won’t give Syria Kurds more arms

President Donald Trump told Ankara on Friday that the US will no longer supply arms to the Syrian Kurdish militia Washington has used against the Islamic State, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Friday. Trump delivered the message during what the Turkish presidency called a "productive" phone call with his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the White House hailed as reaffirming a "strategic partnership."

US lawmakers condemn Turkish president’s security detail for…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared to watch as members of his security detail attacked protesters on US soil during a demonstration in front of the Turkish Embassy in Washington, DC, on Tuesday. New video published Thursday shows Erdogan's black Mercedes sedan surrounded by agents as it sat parked near the demonstrations.

US officials criticize Turkey after attack on DC protesters

U.S. officials strongly criticized the Turkish government after video appeared to show its president's security forces pushing past police and violently breaking up a protest outside their diplomatic residence in Washington. Attacking the small group of protesters with their fists and feet, men in dark suits and others were recorded repeatedly kicking one woman as she lay curled on a sidewalk.

Erdogan to meet Trump in May: minister

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet Donald Trump in May, the Turkish foreign minister said Wednesday, after the US president congratulated the Turkish leader for winning a referendum on enhancing his powers. "We will determine a date for the two presidents to meet in May before the NATO summit as previously confirmed by the leaders," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara.

Turkey to ‘intensify diplomacy’ with US after Trump enters White House

Ankara is planning to engage in more intense diplomacy with the U.S. under Donald Trump's incoming administration, amid news that a Turkish presidential delegation is set to visit Washington D.C. in February to contact the new administration. President-elect Trump will take over the presidency from Barack Obama on Jan. 20, heralding a new and uncertain era in U.S. ties with the international community.

Erdogan’s Koza Group Power Grab Spills Into U.K. Courts

Koza Altin Isletmeleri AS sued its parent in British courts to block the Turkish government from taking control of the company after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan started to crack down on suspected sympathizers of a failed army coup. Akin Ipek, a tycoon whose family owns Koza Altin and other businesses in Turkey, claims that dozens of trustees with close ties to Erdogan were unlawfully appointed by the company in a plot to wrest control through orders from government-appointed judges.