Tag Archives: Erdogan

Ankara mayor quits in Erdogan purge of local government

Turkey's ruling AK Party (AKP) mayoral candidate and current Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek (C) attends an event as part of his election campaign in Ankara March 18, 2014. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

ANKARA (Reuters) – The mayor of Ankara said on Monday he will step down this week, the fifth mayor from the ruling party to quit in recent weeks in the face of demands for a purge of local politics by President Tayyip Erdogan.

Melih Gokcek, a staunch Erdogan loyalist who has been mayor of Ankara for 23 years and won five consecutive elections, said on Twitter on Monday that he would leave office on Saturday, after meeting with Erdogan at the presidential palace.

Four other mayors from the ruling party have already stepped down in recent weeks, including Istanbul’s Mayor Kadir Topbas, following demands that they resign from Erdogan, who says he is seeking a renewal of his ruling AK Party.

“Three mayors from our party have handed in their resignations so far, and there are three more. I believe they will hand theirs in as soon as possible,” Erdogan told a news conference in Ankara last week before Gokcek and one other mayor resigned.

Erdogan decision to target the mayors follows his narrow victory in a referendum to grant himself sweeping powers last year, which was more popular with rural than urban voters. Seventeen of the country’s 30 largest cities voted against it.

Since then, Erdogan has spoken of the need for renewal in local government and the ruling AK Party, citing signs of “metal fatigue” within administrations.

Gokcek, generally regarded as a staunch Erdogan loyalist, is well known in Turkey for tweets in which he has engaged in spats with journalists and with other senior members of the AKP.

In February he suggested the U.S.-based cleric blamed by Erdogan for a failed coup last year might be plotting an earthquake, with the help of foreign powers.

 

(Writing by Ece Toksabay; editing by Peter Graff)

 

Turkish banks could face big U.S. fines over Iran: report

Turkish banks could face big U.S. fines over Iran: report

ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Six Turkish banks face billions of dollars of fines from U.S. authorities over alleged violations of sanctions with Iran, the Haberturk newspaper reported on Saturday, citing senior banking sources.

The report could not be verified by Reuters. Two senior Turkish economy officials told Reuters that Turkey has not received any notice from the United States about such penalties, adding that U.S. regulators would normally inform the finance ministry’s financial crimes investigation board.

Turkish authorities are expected to issue a statement to issue the address the issue soon, the senior economy officials said.

The report comes as relations between Washington and Ankara have been strained by a series of diplomatic rows, prompting both countries to cut back issuing visas to each other’s citizens.

Haberturk did not name the six banks potentially facing the fines. One bank will face a penalty in excess of $5 billion, while the rest of the fines will be lower, it said.

U.S. officials will notify the banks of their penalties in the coming days and the banks are likely to be able to negotiate down the fines, Haberturk said.

U.S. authorities have hit global banks with billions of dollars in fines over violations of sanctions with Iran and other countries in recent years.

U.S. prosecutors last month charged a former Turkish economy minister and the ex-head of a state-owned bank with conspiring to violate Iran sanctions by illegally moving hundreds of millions of dollars through the U.S. financial system on Tehran’s behalf.

President Tayyip Erdogan has dismissed the charges as politically motivated, and tantamount to an attack on the Turkish Republic.

The charges stem from the case against Reza Zarrab, a wealthy Turkish-Iranian gold trader who was arrested in the United States over sanctions evasion last year. Erdogan has said U.S. authorities had “ulterior motives” in charging Zarrab, who has pleaded not guilty.

(Reporting by Orhan Coskun and Ebru Tuncay; Writing by Dirimcan Barut; Editing by David Dolan and Stephen Powell)

Kremlin says Putin, Erdogan discuss Syria in phone call

Kremlin says Putin, Erdogan discuss Syria in phone call

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan discussed an upcoming meeting of the Astana process on the Syrian conflict in the Kazakh capital in late October, the Kremlin said on Saturday.

During their phone conversation, Putin and Erdogan talked about joint efforts within the Astana process, including the creation of “de-escalation zones” in Syria, and further coordination towards resolving the Syria situation, the Kremlin said in a statement.

The Astana talks are brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran. In mid-September, the three countries agreed to post observers on the edge of a de-escalation zone in northern Syria’s Idlib region largely controlled by Islamist militants.

Putin and Erdogan also said the agreements reached between Russia and Turkey in Ankara in late September were being successfully implemented, particularly in trade and economic relations.

“Overall, the conversation was business-like and constructive, directed at strengthening bilateral cooperation and interaction on the regional agenda,” the Kremlin said.

The Russian-Turkish trade relationship has been affected by their dispute over supplies of Turkish tomatoes to Russia which Moscow is yet to fully restore. This dispute has been adding risks to Russian grain trade with Turkey.

Russia, once the largest market for Turkish tomato producers, said this week it will allow purchases of 50,000 tonnes of Turkish tomatoes from only four Turkish producers from Dec. 1.

The announcement came several days after Turkey, the second largest buyer of Russian wheat, said it had imposed a requirement for additional approval of Russian agriculture supplies by the Turkish authorities.

(Reporting by Polina Devitt)

Turkey’s Erdogan says may shut Iraqi border any moment: Hurriyet

Turkey's Erdogan says may shut Iraqi border any moment: Hurriyet

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey may shut its border with northern Iraq “at any moment” after closing its air space to the region, Hurriyet newspaper reported on Thursday, reviving a threat first made after Kurds there voted for independence.

“We have completely closed our air space to the regional government in northern Iraq,” the paper cited Erdogan as telling reporters on his plane returning from a trip to Poland.

“Talks are continuing on what will be done regarding the land (border) … We have not shut the border gates yet but this could happen too at any moment,” he added.

Turkey announced on Monday it was closing its air space to the semi-autonomous Kurdish region and said it would work to hand control of the main border crossing into the region to the central Iraqi government.

The Habur gate is the main transit point between Turkey and Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government.

A Sept. 25 referendum, in which Kurds in northern Iraq voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence, alarmed Baghdad, Iraq’s neighbors and Western powers, all of whom feared further regional conflict could arise from the vote.

Subsequently Kurdish Peshmerga forces retreated to positions they held in northern Iraq in June 2014 in response to an Iraqi army advance into the region after the referendum, a senior Iraqi commander said on Wednesday.

Ankara, which has been battling a three-decade insurgency in its own mainly Kurdish southeast, fears an independent Kurdish state on its borders would heighten separatist tension at home.

(Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Turkey orders detention of 100 former police officers in post-coup probe: Anadolu

Turkey orders detention of 100 former police officers in post-coup probe: Anadolu

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish authorities issued detention warrants on Saturday for 100 former police officers and have so far detained 63 of them, the state-run Anadolu news agency said, as part of a widening crackdown since last year’s failed coup attempt.

The suspects were believed to be users of ByLock, an encrypted messaging app which the government says was used by the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of orchestrating last July’s abortive putsch.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, denies involvement.

Anadolu said security forces were seeking the suspects in 19 provinces across the country.

Since the abortive coup, more than 50,000 people have been jailed pending trial over alleged links to Gulen, while 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from jobs in the military, public and private sectors.

Rights groups and some of Turkey’s Western allies have voiced concern about the crackdown, fearing the government is using the coup as a pretext to quash dissent.

The government says only such a purge could neutralize the threat represented by Gulen’s network, which it says deeply infiltrated institutions such as the army, schools and courts.

 

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Adrian Croft)

 

Turkey’s Erdogan blames U.S. envoy for diplomatic crisis

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Belgrade, Serbia, October 10, 2017. REUTERS/Marko Djurica

By Ercan Gurses

ANKARA (Reuters) – President Tayyip Erdogan blamed the U.S. ambassador to Turkey on Tuesday for a diplomatic crisis between the two countries and said Ankara no longer considered him Washington’s envoy.

In a blunt and personal attack on outgoing Ambassador John Bass, Erdogan suggested Bass acted unilaterally in suspending visa services in Turkey after the arrest of a U.S. consulate worker, and said “agents” had infiltrated U.S. missions.

The U.S. State Department defended Bass, saying he had the “full backing” of the U.S. government and his actions were coordinated with the State Department, White House and National Security Council.

“Our ambassadors tend not to do things unilaterally,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a briefing. “We have a very close coordination and cooperation with our ambassadors,” she added, saying Bass had done “a terrific job in Turkey.”

The dispute has plunged already fragile relations between the two NATO allies to a new low after months of tension linked to the conflict in Syria, last year’s failed military coup in Turkey, and U.S. court cases against Turkish officials.

The U.S. embassy said on Sunday night it was suspending visa services while it assessed Turkey’s commitment to the safety of its missions and its staff, a message reiterated in a video released by Bass late on Monday.

“An ambassador in Ankara taking decisions and saying he is doing so in the name of his government is strange,” Erdogan said. “If our ambassador did this, we wouldn’t keep him there even a minute.”

The embassy said allegations that the arrested employee had links to Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based Muslim cleric blamed by Ankara for orchestrating the failed coup against Erdogan last year, were baseless.

Nauert said Turkey, which has arrested two local U.S. embassy staff members this year, summoned a third local staff member for questioning over the weekend, a “deeply disturbing” move. Some of those targeted were responsible for law enforcement coordination between the countries, she said.

“Being able to have close security cooperation, especially with a NATO partner, is incredibly important,” Nauert said. “And when they start arresting, detaining our people, our people who are responsible for law enforcement coordination, that is a … major concern of ours. And so that is why we took these steps.”

But Erdogan said the arrest, and a police request to question a second consulate employee, showed “there is something cooking in the U.S. consulate in Istanbul … How did these agents infiltrate the U.S. consulate?”

He said Bass, who is due to leave the country within days to take up a posting in Afghanistan, had been making farewell visits to government offices.

“But our ministers, parliament speaker and myself did not accept and will not accept his request because we do not see him as a representative of the United States,” Erdogan told a televised news conference during a visit to Belgrade.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the visa suspension had punished citizens of both countries, and accused Washington of taking an emotional and inappropriate step against an ally.

“You are making your citizens and ours pay the price,” he said. “We call on the United States to be more reasonable. The issue must of course be resolved as soon as possible,” he said, describing U.S. behavior as “unbecoming” of an ally.

In a speech in Ankara to ruling AK Party parliamentarians, Yildirim also defended Turkey’s decision to retaliate with its own visa suspension after the U.S. embassy announcement.

“Turkey is not a tribal state, we will retaliate against what has been done in kind,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Daren Butler; writing by Dominic Evans; editing by Richard Balmforth and Tom Brown)

Turkey backs Syrian rebels for “serious operation” in Idlib

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York City, U.S., September 20, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

By Ece Toksabay and Angus McDowall

ANKARA/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian rebel fighters are launching a major military operation, backed by Turkish forces from inside Turkey, in a northern Syrian province largely controlled by jihadist militants, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday.

The rebels said they were preparing to start the operation in Idlib soon, and residents reported Turkish authorities removing sections of a border wall.

The operation, part of a deal between Turkey, Iran and Russia to reduce warfare between rebels and the government, appears aimed at crushing the Tahrir al-Sham alliance, which has taken over much of Idlib province and northwestern Syria.

The three countries have supported opposing sides in Syria’s six-year conflict, with Turkey backing rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, while Russian and Iranian military support helped Assad drive them back.

Erdogan’s comments, however, suggested Russia and Turkey would fight together against Tahrir al-Sham, an alliance led by the former al Qaeda affiliate in Syria that changed its name last year from the Nusra Front.

“There’s a serious operation in Syria’s Idlib today and it will continue,” Erdogan said in a speech to his AK Party, adding that Turkey would not allow a “terror corridor” on its border with Syria.

“For now Free Syria Army is carrying out the operation there,” Erdogan said. “Russia will be protecting outside the borders (of the Idlib region) and we will handle inside,” he said.

“Russia is supporting the operation from the air, and our armed forces from inside Turkey’s borders,” he added.

Mustafa Sejari, a senior official in the Liwa al-Mutasem Syrian insurgent group taking part in the operation, said Russian warplanes would not be militarily backing the rebels.

“As for the Russians, they will not have a role in the areas of our control at all. The role of the Russians is limited to areas under regime control,” he said.

Ankara, Moscow and Tehran announced a deal last month to establish and patrol a “de-escalation” zone in the Idlib region, where Erdogan has said Turkey will deploy troops, but Tahrir al-Sham pledged to keep on fighting.

FULL READINESS

Turkey already has troops stationed inside Syria after it launched an incursion east of Idlib last year, known as Euphrates Shield, to drive back Islamic State militants and prevent further gains by Kurdish fighters on the border.

Syrian rebel officials from factions which have fought alongside Turkey in Euphrates Shield said they were preparing to enter the area with the backing of Turkish forces.

“The Free Syrian Army with support from Turkish troops is in full readiness to enter the area but until this moment there is no movement,” said Sejari, the Liwa al-Mutasem official.

Tahrir al-Sham is well entrenched in the border area in Idlib and maintains a big military presence in nearby towns, a local rebel said. The jihadist group has not yet commented on the Turkey-backed operation on its usual social media channels.

Another FSA rebel told Reuters he believed an incursion into northwest Syria was imminent. The Hamza Brigade, also part of Euphrates Shield, posted a video online of what it said was a convoy of its forces heading for Idlib.

Residents near the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey in Syria sent Reuters photographs of what they said was a section of the frontier wall being removed by the Turkish authorities.

Idlib’s population has ballooned to at least two million as thousands of civilians and combatants have left areas seized by the Syrian army in other parts of the country, with the help of Russian jets and Iran-backed militias.

Asked how far Turkey might go in deploying troops inside Syria, Erdogan declined to give details. “When you enter a boxing match, you don’t count how many punches you throw,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, writing by Angus McDowall and Dominic Evans; editing by Clelia Oziel)

Turkish judge issues guilty verdicts against soldiers accused of trying to kill Erdogan

Supporters of President Tayyip Erdogan wave Turkish flags during a trial for soldiers accused of attempting to assassinate the president on the night of the failed last year's July 15 coup, in Mugla, Turkey, October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Osman Orsal

By Ece Toksabay

MUGLA, Turkey (Reuters) – A Turkish court started issuing verdicts on Wednesday in the trial of some 40 soldiers accused of attempting to kill President Tayyip Erdogan during last year’s coup, with the first defendants declared guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

The judge read out guilty verdicts for the first several defendants, according to a Reuters reporter at the court in Mugla, southwestern Turkey. Mugla is near the luxury resort where Erdogan and his family narrowly escaped a team of rogue soldiers who stormed his hotel during the night of the coup.

The trial, which started in February, is part of the sweeping crackdown that followed last year’s failed putsch and is the biggest such case to reach a verdict so far.

The court heard final statements from the defendants just before Emirsah Bastog, the main judge, began handing down his verdict. Some of the accused said they did not believe the court could deliver a fair verdict, saying it was under political pressure.

“From the moment I was arrested at the air base on July 16, I was treated like a criminal,” Ergun Sahin, a former air force lieutenant, told the court.

Pictures released in the aftermath of the coup showed some suspected coup plotters – including high-ranking military officers – stripped to their underpants, handcuffed and their faces bruised.

“Words don’t mean anything here as we didn’t have chance to a fair trial,” said another defendant, Gokhan Sen. “We are just the grass that elephants trampled on during their fight.”

More than 240 people were killed on the night of July 15 last year, when putschists commandeered tanks, warplanes and helicopters, attacking parliament and attempting to overthrow the government.

The government blames the network of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of Erdogan. Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, has denied involvement and condemned the coup.

A total of 47 defendants were on trial, 43 of whom have been held in detention during the 7-1/2 month hearing. Gulen was being tried in absentia. Most of the defendants were soldiers.

(Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Turkey’s Erdogan says Iraqi Kurdish authorities “will pay price” for vote

Turkey's Erdogan says Iraqi Kurdish authorities "will pay price" for vote

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday Iraqi Kurdish authorities would pay the price for an independence referendum which was widely opposed by foreign powers.

Iraq’s Kurds overwhelmingly backed independence in Monday’s referendum, defying neighboring countries which fear the vote could fuel Kurdish separatism within their own borders and lead to fresh conflict.

“They are not forming an independent state, they are opening a wound in the region to twist the knife in,” Erdogan told members of his ruling AK Party in the eastern Turkish city of Erzurum.

Erdogan has built strong commercial ties with Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq, which pump hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil daily through Turkey for export to world markets.

“We don’t regret what we did in the past. But since the conditions are changed and the Kurdish Regional Government, to which we provided all support, took steps against us, it would pay the price,” he said.

Turkey has repeatedly threatened to impose economic sanction, effectively cutting their main access to international markets, and has held joint military exercises with Iraqi troops on the border.

However, after Erdogan said that Iraqi Kurds would go hungry if Ankara halted the cross-border flow of trucks and oil, it has said that any measures it took would not target civilians and instead focus on those who organized the referendum.

Iraq’s Defense Ministry said on Friday it plans to take control of the borders of the autonomous Kurdistan region in coordination with Iran and Turkey.

Turkish Prime Minister Bin Yildirim, speaking on Saturday, did not refer specifically to those plans, but said Ankara would no longer deal with Kurdish authorities in Erbil.

“From now on, our relationships with the region will be conducted with the central government, Baghdad,” he said. “As Iran, Iraq and Turkey, we work to ensure the games being played in the region will fail.”

(Reporting by Dirimcan Barut; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Stephen Powell)

Turkey threatens sanctions over Kurdish independence vote

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signs a guest book just before a meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the sidelines of the 72nd United Nations General Assembly at U.N. Headquarters in Manhattan, New York, U.S., September 19, 2017. REUTERS/Craig Ruttle/Pool

By Umit Bektas

HABUR BORDER CROSSING, Turkey (Reuters) – Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan threatened to impose sanctions against Kurdish northern Iraq over a planned independence vote, piling economic pressure on Kurdish authorities after Turkish troops deployed near the main commercial border crossing.

Turkey, home to the largest Kurdish population in the region, has warned that any breakup of neighboring Iraq or Syria could lead to a global conflict, and is due to prepare a formal response on Friday, three days before the referendum.

Erdogan said the Turkish cabinet and security council would discuss Ankara’s options. They will “put forward their own stance on what kind of sanctions we can impose, or if we will,” he told reporters in New York, according to Anadolu news agency.

“But these will not be ordinary,” Erdogan said.

Iraqi Kurdish authorities have defied growing international pressure to call off the vote, which Iraq’s neighbors fear will fuel unrest among their own Kurdish populations. Western allies say it could detract from the fight against Islamic State.

On Monday, the Turkish army launched a highly visible military drill near the Habur border crossing, which military sources said was due to last until Sept. 26, a day after the planned referendum.

Around 100 tanks and military vehicles, backed by rocket launchers and radar, deployed in open farmlands near the frontier, guns pointed south toward the Kurdish mountains.

The military buildup hit the Turkish lira, which weakened on Tuesday beyond 3.500 to the dollar, before recovering on Wednesday to around 3.465. But it has so far had little impact on lines of trucks queuing to cross into territory controlled by the Kurdish Regional Government in north Iraq.

Turkey, for years the KRG’s main link to the outside world, has built strong trade ties with the semi-autonomous region which exports hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day through Turkey to international markets.

Russian oil major Rosneft will also invest in pipelines to export gas to Turkey and Europe.

SANCTIONS “DOOM”

Erdogan did not spell out what sanctions Turkey might be considering, but truck drivers waiting at Habur on Wednesday said they feared for their livelihoods if cross-border trade, crucial to the local economy, dries up.

“I have four kids, I am 35-years-old, and there is neither a job nor a factory in the region,” said tanker driver Abdurrahman Yakti, who carries crude oil from Iraq to Turkey’s Iskenderun Rafinery in the southeastern province of Hatay.

“We are stuck with this job. If this gate closes this would be our doom.”

Ferhat, who has transported dry cargo across the border for 10 years, said closing Habur would paralyze Turkey’s southeast.

“It would not affect only people like me who work for 1,500 lira ($430 per month), but also the businessmen. We bring crude oil from Iraq, but just as many trucks are carrying goods from Istanbul and all around Turkey to Iraq,” he said.

The show of military force at the border and the threat of sanctions reflects the depth of concern in Turkey that Monday’s referendum could embolden the outlawed Kurdish PKK, which has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey’s southeast since 1984.

The Turkish air force frequently strikes against PKK units operating from the mountains of northern Iraq, and limited detachments of Turkish infantry have made forays across the frontier in the past.

Turkey stationed troops in Bashiqa near Mosul, ignoring protests from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, ahead of the military campaign to drive Islamic State out of the northern Iraqi city.

Ankara also sees itself as protector of Iraq’s Turkmen ethnic minority, with particular focus on the oil city of Kirkuk which Kurds seized in 2014 as Iraqi troops retreated in the face of Islamic State advances.

Erdogan said Kurdish determination to hold the referendum disregarded Turkey’s support for KRG leadership until now.

“We will announce our final thoughts on the issue with the cabinet meeting and national security council decision,” Erdogan said. “I think it would be better if they saw this.”

(Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Dominic Evans, Editing by Angus MacSwan)