Tag Archives: Turkey

Politico reports: President Donald Trump on Sunday vowed to “devastate Turkey economically” should the Turkish military attack U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters — a rare direct threat by Trump to a NATO ally as his administration grapples with the execution of its plan to withdraw American soldiers from Syria. The planned U.S. troop drawdown has provoked international uncertainty amid conflicting statements from …

“The way [Trump] did it in the face of the president of Turkey, basically abandoning our allies [the Kurds], who the Turks see as terrorists, is just a horrible piece of foreign policy. I am very disappointed in the president that he would do this in this fashion. We need to stand for our allies, particularly allies who have fought …

“There doesn’t seem to be any strategic rationale for the decision. And if there’s no strategic rationale for the decision then you have to ask, why was the decision made? People around the world are asking this and some of our friends and our allies in the Middle East are asking, did Erdogan blackmail the president? Was there a payoff …

Reuters reports: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed on Sunday to coordinate to prevent an authority vacuum from developing as the United States withdraws from Syria, the Turkish presidency said. In a phone call between the two leaders, Erdogan also expressed satisfaction with steps taken by Washington regarding combating terrorism in Syria and said Turkey was …

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops from Syria was made hastily, without consulting his national security team or allies, and over strong objections from virtually everyone involved in the fight against the Islamic State, according to U.S. and Turkish officials. Trump stunned his Cabinet, lawmakers and much of the world with the move by …

The New York Times reports: Two former business associates of Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s first national security adviser, have been indicted as part of a federal investigation into Turkey’s secret 2016 lobbying campaign to pressure the United States to expel a rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Charges against the two former associates, Bijan Kian and Ekim Alptekin, …

Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News reports: A German-born Turkish pop singer has been accused by dozens of complainants in Turkey of blackmailing them with their secret gay love affairs. According to court documents seen by Hürriyet, more than 50 people in the provinces of Istanbul, Bursa and Giresun have recently filed criminal complaints against pop singer Bulut Duman, 28, over similar …

CBS News reports: The Trump administration is still in a “fact-finding phase” to discover exactly what happened to Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, said Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner. Kushner, who has been a crucial figure in bridging the U.S.-Saudi relationship and relationship with 33-year-old Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in particular, emphasized in a forum with CNN’s …

CNN reports: One member of the 15-man team suspected in the death of Jamal Khashoggi dressed up in his clothes and was captured on surveillance cameras around Istanbul on the day the journalist was killed, a senior Turkish official has told CNN. CNN has obtained exclusive law enforcement surveillance footage, part of the Turkish government’s investigation, that appears to show …

USA Today reports: Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said Sunday that a “tremendous mistake” was made when Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and pushed back against the idea that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was linked to the journalist’s death. Adel al-Jubeir told Fox News host Brett Baier that Khashoggi was killed in …

The New York Times reports: President Trump broke with his own intelligence agencies on Friday, appearing to accept Saudi Arabia’s explanation that the journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed by accident during a fistfight, while the United States’ spy agencies are increasingly convinced that he was assassinated on high-level orders from the Saudi royal court. Mr. Trump, who has cultivated Crown …

The Guardian reports: Saudi Arabia has said the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who disappeared after visiting the country’s consulate in Istanbul on 2 October, is dead. The news, which cited preliminary findings from an official investigation, was announced on state television on Friday. It said a fight broke out between Khashoggi and people who met him in the consulate, leading to …

The New York Times reports: President Trump said on Thursday that he believes the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead, and he expressed confidence in intelligence reports from multiple sources that strongly suggest a high-level Saudi role in Mr. Khashoggi’s assassination. Mr. Trump stopped short of saying the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was responsible for Mr. Khashoggi’s death. …

The New York Times reports: This summer, Saudi Arabia promised the Trump administration $100 million for American efforts to stabilize areas in Syria liberated from the Islamic State. That money landed in American accounts on Tuesday, the same day that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, for discussions with the kingdom’s leaders about the fate …

Talking Points Memo reports: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced Thursday that he will not attend an upcoming conference in Saudi Arabia amid the fallout from the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Mnuchin has been facing mounting pressure to pull out of the conference following the disappearance of Khashoggi, a U.S..-based Saudi journalist, after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul …

Turkey’s Daily Hürriyet reports: A Turkish newspaper reported on Oct. 18 that one of the suspects involved in the disappearance of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi died in a “suspicious car accident” in Riyadh. Mashal Saad al-Bostani, a 31-year-old lieutenant of the Saudi Royal Air Forces, was among the 15 suspects who arrived and left Turkey on Oct. 2 after going …

The Guardian reports: Mike Pompeo’s visit to the region was supposed to be a face-saver that explained away the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, while sparing further blushes in Riyadh, Washington, and Ankara. It did not go to plan. The US secretary of state’s two-day trip has seemingly led Saudi Arabia and Turkey to dig further into positions that are starting …

Reuters reports: Saudi Arabia is preparing a report that would admit Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed as the result of an interrogation that went wrong, CNN reported on Monday, citing two unnamed sources. One source cautioned that the report was still being prepared and could change, CNN said. The other source said the report would likely conclude that the …

ABC News reports: Saudi Arabia has rejected threats to punish it over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, saying the kingdom would retaliate against any sanctions with tougher measures, the official state news agency reported. The comments came after US President Donald Trump threatened “severe punishment” for Riyadh if it turned out Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Saudi …

CNN reports: Missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi may have recorded his own death, a Turkish newspaper reported Saturday morning. Khashoggi turned on the recording function of his Apple Watch before walking into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, according to Sabah newspaper. The moments of his “interrogation, torture and killing were audio recorded and sent to both his …