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Sunday, 09 July

22:23

Bipartisan Group Wants Strings Attached to Sale of F-16s to Turkey "IndyWatch Feed Nthamerica"

You might think that, following Russias invasion of Ukraine and with an expansion of NATO on the table, the various member states of the alliance would be working together as much as possible to present a united front.

However, that is not the case. And, as per usual, Turkey is prominently involved as it tries to use its unique position within NATO to pursue its own agenda and exert pressure on the other members.

A great example is Swedens request to join the alliance, which has to be approved by all member countries. Turkey is withholding its consent to get something out of the deal.

Specifically, Ankara wants Sweden to stop harboring members of opposition groups that it considers to be terrorists.

In addition, Turkey is also trying to get the US to supply it with F-16 fighters and upgrade kits for its existing planes, and President Joe Biden has indicated that he is considering throwing such a deal in as sweetener.

However, Congress also has to approve the sale of the weapons, and different lawmakers, including Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, have already said they would block any deal unless Turkey supports Swedens bid to join NATO.

As though all of that were not complicated enough already, a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Friday wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and made it clear that the purchase of the F-16s must come with strings attached and should be reversed if Turkey steps out of line.

The lawmakers, all of whom are members of the Hellenic Caucus, are especially concerned about how the arms deal would affect Greece, a NATO member but also a traditional adversary of Turkey.

In the letter to Blinken, they point to Ankaras aggression in the Aegean region and say it must stop if the US supplies Turkey with new weapons.

There must be guarantees that preclude American weapons being used to provoke a conflict within NATO, the lawmakers wrote. Given Turkeys history of using....

15:59

What does Sweden have to do with whether or not Turkey will be accepted to the EU? "IndyWatch Feed Asia"

Political statements made before and after elections frequently diverge drastically. To a casual observer, it may appear that we are not discussing the same country. This is not even a matter of internal politics, where candidates lavishly spread slogans like power to the people, only the people are masters of the states fate, corruption is death, inflation will be defeated, life will become better, and so on to the electorate. There are situations when the results of elections also partially change the foreign policy emphases of the winning politicians, although before the vote they had said quite the opposite with a menacing look.

Today, we can see similar processes taking place in Turkey as a result of another victory for Recep Tayyip Erdoan in the most recent presidential election, although his victory against Kemal Kldarolu with a margin of less than 4% hardly qualifies as a victory. And, in fact, what are the more striking changes or contradictions in Erdoans politics today?

The Turkish president was compelled to appoint pragmatic technocrats, particularly Minister of Finance and Treasury Mehmet imek and the central bank governor Hafize Gaye Erkan to stabilize the Turkish lira and reduce inflation in the governments economic bloc after realizing the severity of the financial crisis, collapse of the national currency, and rising inflation combined with the tragedy of the devastating earthquake.

As much as the Turkish president wants to keep rates at the same level to boost domestic production, he must reach an agreement with his key ministers on changes in this area and refrain from interfering with the Central Banks policy. Previously, Erdoan intervened in this matter and kept bank lending rates for small businesses below 8.5%. In order...

04:29

Syrian army clashes with HTS in Latakia "IndyWatch Feed War"

JUL 07, 2023 Recent weeks have seen in increase in fighting between the Syrian army and Turkish-backed extremist groups occupying areas within the Latakia and Idlib countrysides, despite a three year old ceasefire News Desk The Syrian Defense Ministry reported that a unit of the Syrian army confronted armed militants from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), []

03:49

US-backed militia abducts young men in recruitment campaign in eastern Syria "IndyWatch Feed War"

The Cradle | July 8, 2023

Militants of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched massive arrest campaigns targeting young men in the areas under the groups control in northeast Syria, immediately taking them to compulsory recruitment camps, Sputnik reported on 8 July.

Civic and local sources told the Russian news agency that SDF militants loyal to the US army, are launching, for the third day in a row, campaigns of mass arrests and kidnappings of young men born between 1998 to 2005 in all the cities and towns of Hasakah and Raqqa governorates, where more than 500 young men were forcibly conscripted.

The sources added that SDF forces set up permanent and temporary military checkpoints in the cities of Hasakah, Qamishli, and Shaddadi, and arrested large numbers of young men, including university and institute students.

The sources indicated that Hasakah residents demonstrated on 5 July in front of the local SDF recruitment headquarters demanding the immediate release of their conscripted sons. In response, the SDF called in military reinforcements, including US-made armored vehicles, to disperse the sit-in.

In Raqqa, local sources told Sputnik that SDF militants set up a checkpoint near the old bridge in the city to stop passing cars in search of young men to conscript and take to the groups military camps.

Last month, Arab News reported that 13-year-old Kurdish girl, Peyal Aqil, went missing on her way home from a school exam, after being approached by a recruiter for the Revolutionary Youth, a group connected to the SDF and its parent group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). She followed him to one of the groups centers in the city of Qamishli.

Her friends waited for her outside, but she never emerged.

Peyals mother, Hamrin Alouji, said she and her husband complained to local authorities, who refused to help.

The Revolutionary Youth group later said Peyal joined willingly, a claim her mother rejects. We consider that at this age, she cannot give consent, even if she was convinced by the groups program, Alouji said.

A month after her disappearance in May, Peyal managed to run away from one of the training camps and return home.

Arab News notes that according to a UN report issued....

03:14

Ukraine 'deserves' NATO membership - Erdogan "IndyWatch Feed World"

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed that Ukraine "deserves" to join NATO. He was speaking at a joint press conference after meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in Istanbul on Saturday, and ahead of a major NATO summit in Lithuania next week. "There is no doubt that Ukraine deserves membership of NATO," Erdogan he told reporters, adding that Ankara had shown "solidarity" with Kiev and provided "concrete assistance." Zelensky said he was "pleased" to learn of Erdogan's support, adding that he "raised the issue of Ukraine's invitation to NATO" during their meeting.

Saturday, 08 July

23:28

Erdogan tells Zelensky Ukraine deserves Nato membership "IndyWatch Feed War"

Erdogan tells Zelensky Ukraine deserves Nato membership

Turkey's president offers Ukraine backing over membership of military alliance following meeting in Istanbul

MEE staff Sat, 07/08/2023 - 14:28

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, followed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, arrives to deliver a joint press conference at the Vahdettin Mansion in Istanbul on 7 July 2023 (AFP)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has backed Ukraine's bid to join Nato, following a meeting in Istanbul with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky's visit to Turkey on Friday was part of a tour of other Nato nations ahead of the North Atlantic alliance's two-day summit next week, at which the Ukrainian president hopes to get clarity on his country's bid to join.

At a televised press conference on Saturday morning, Erdogan said that "Ukraine deserves Nato membership with no doubt". But the Turkish leader also said he would be hosting Russian President Vladimir Putin in August.

Ukraine applied to join Nato last September, seven months after Russia launched its invasion of the country. The alliance has as its bedrock a commitment to mutual defence, which means that, if Ukraine were admitted as a member, Nato would be pulled into an active war with Russia.

In an interview to be broadcast by CNN on Sunday, US President Joe Biden said that he did not think "there is unanimity in Nato about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the Nato family now, at this moment, in the middle of a war".

10:59

Trkiyes Support for Ukraines NATO Membership Outlines a Dangerous Scenario Worldwide "IndyWatch Feed Africa"

Yoselina Guevara Lpez On July 7, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said we are the country that has made the most important efforts to end the war through negotiations based on international law between Moscow and Kiev, adding Ukraine deserves to join NATO. These statements of the Turkish leader were made during a press conference on...

01:52

Villagers turn to charcoal made from bamboo to save a protected forest in Madagascar "IndyWatch Feed Enviro"

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar Ankarafantsika, a primary forest in Madagascars northwest Boeny region, is the site of a vicious cycle where declining livelihoods and its environmental impact aggravate one another. Rice paddies, which form the base of local communities income, are silting up due to logging in the protected forest, pushing impoverished locals to turn further to the forest to make a living causing more silting. To protect the forest, locals have come together to grow exotic bamboo from Asia as a source of charcoal instead of the trees in Ankarafantsika, hoping to protect surrounding watersheds. The Boeny region is home to Madagascars second biggest rice bowl and the Ankarafantsika National Park, where logging is illegal. As the silting of the rice paddies has a considerable impact on communities, theyve had no choice but to illegally exploit the forests resources to make charcoal and earn some money, locals told Mongabay. However, as the forest dwindles, the alluvial plains and the Betsiboka River which feeds their paddies, silt up. Unfortunately, it is these same communities around the park that are destroying the forest. As their rice fields have silted up, they have turned to other activities, says Jean-Yves Razafindrakoto, director of the Valiha Diffusion, a reforestation association in Madagascar. Between 2000 and 2021, the Boeny region lost 117,000 hectares (nearly 290,000 acres) of tree cover, according to Global Forest Watch. According to Razafindrakoto, Ankarafantsikas main forest one of the regions biodiversity hotspots has suffered losses of up to 70%. Area identifiedThis article was originally published on Mongabay