Author: Ugur Vural

Ankara (17/12 – 60). Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler said on December 15 that Turkey is willing to provide military training for Syria’s army if requested by the country’s new authorities. “[Turkey] is ready to provide the necessary support if the new administration requests it,” Guler said. Despite Ankara denying that it provided support for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) — a designated terrorist group that led the overthrow of former dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime earlier this month — President-elect Donald Trump characterized the post-Assad situation as an “unfriendly takeover” by Turkey during a news conference on December 16. In a…

International criminal court’s intervention must be supported if global rules-based order is to have a meaningful future The decision by the international criminal court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, and Yoav Gallant, Israel’s former defence minister, for alleged war crimes committed in Gaza has huge implications for Israel and Palestine, for international justice and the rules-based global order that the UK and its allies are pledged to uphold. This unprecedented, necessary and impartial supranational attempt to prosecute democratically elected western politicians accused of grievous wrongdoing is a test the international community dare not fail. Netanyahu’s reaction…

Despite public denunciations, Moscow has done little to dissuade Tel Aviv from expanding its wars across the Middle East After the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel, western analysts and media promoted the notion that Russia was attempting to exploit Tel Aviv’s confrontation with the Iranian-backed axis of resistance in order to undermine western support for Ukraine. Amid unconfirmed reports of Moscow’s military and intelligence assistance to Hamas and Hezbollah, an image of an anti-Israel Russian strategy emerged. A closer look at Russian actions in the region, however, reveals that this perspective is unfounded, and that Moscow has embraced an appeasement strategy in response to Israel’s aggressive regional behaviour. This appeasement strategy…

The Netanyahu administration appears intent on spreading Israel’s conflict with Hamas to wider regions. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan earlier this week warned that it may set its sights on Türkiye, one of the most vocal critics of Israel’s crimes against humanity. Sources from Türkiye’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday that the Turkish Armed Forces were powerful enough to stave off any threat and danger targeting the country. Answering questions regarding the possibility of a spillover of the conflict after Israel’s attack on Lebanon and Iran’s targeting of Israel with a barrage of missiles, sources said the ministry and the army…

The telecoms regular admitted in November that a staggering 95 percent of the country’s territory is covered by only outdated 2G mobile connections. Following up on a recent pledge to drastically improve internet services, Tajikistan’s communications regulator has begun working with several international companies to overhaul core infrastructure. The most notable conversation is happening with China’s Huawei. In the first half of December, the Tajik government and the Chinese company’s local representative office, Huawei Technologies Tajikistan, signed a memorandum of cooperation that will see the latter take the lead in a project to upgrade or install 7,600 base stations envisioned as the…

An easyJet flight from the UK to Turkey was diverted to Greece after two passengers became drunk and started shouting at fellow passengers and crew. The flight, which took off from Manchester on Saturday, was due to touch down in Dalaman, southwestern Turkey but instead was diverted to the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki. Two Russian passengers, both men aged 48 and 39, were arrested by police when the plane landed in Greece, authorities said. The pair were charged with disturbing the peace, disrupting transport and disobeying the crew’s instructions. There was no physical altercation on the flight, authorities said.…

Turkey’s central bank took fresh steps on Sunday in line with its goals to increase functionality of market mechanisms, after it hiked rates to 15% from 8.5% this week. Turkey’s securities maintenance regulation has been simplified to increase the functionality of market mechanisms and strengthen macro financial stability, the Turkish central bank said on Sunday. In a statement, it said the decision was part of policies announced after the recent monetary policy committee meeting on Thursday, and the simplification process would continue in a gradual manner. In a statement after the committee meeting, the bank said it would simplify and improve the…

A Moroccan migrant who was injured by gunfire while crossing from Turkey into Greece Thursday is being hospitalized with non life-threatening injuries, Greek officials said. A police statement said the 30-year-old man was found trying to cross the river Evros — Meric in Turkish — that runs along the land border, in a small boat with two other men. He had a gunshot wound in the back, apparently inflicted by somebody on the Turkish side. The boat reached the Greek side, where the man was taken to hospital. The other two were uninjured. Greek police said the Moroccan man told them he had been…

Istanbul Technical University (İTÜ)’s Urban and Regional Planning Department academics criticized the presidential decree on rapid construction after the Feb. 6 earthquakes by publishing a statement on the department’s website. After the move, the university administration blocked access to the website for hours and re-opened it after public backlash, online news outlet Diken reported on April 1. ITU’s Faculty of Architecture, Department of Urban and Regional Planning published the declaration of the “Union of Planning Schools of Turkey” on March 28 on the department’s website. The declaration criticized the “Presidential Decree on Settlement and Construction under the State of Emergency”…

Following the devastating earthquakes on February 6 that affected 11 provinces in Turkey, resulting in over 50,000 deaths and severe damage to over 227,000 buildings, KFC declared the closure of its stores in the impacted area. The fast-food chain unilaterally terminated the contracts of the workers and laid off more than 200 workers, without paying compensation. Stores will close on different dates in the provinces of Batman, Bingöl, Urfa, Antep, Elazığ, Malatya, Maraş, Diyarbakır, and Hatay, according to Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK) board member and Gıda-İş Union Chair Seyit Aslan, stating that some of the stores…