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President TrumpDonald John TrumpHouse Democrat slams Donald Trump Jr. for serious case of amnesia after testimony Skier Lindsey Vonn: I dont want to represent Trump at Olympics Poll: 4 in 10 Republicans think senior Trump advisers had improper dealings with Russia MOREon Thursdayhailed the closerelationship formed withhis Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during a bilateral meeting in New York.

"We have a great friendship, as countries and I think we're right now ascloseas we've ever been," Trump said, according to pool reports. His comments come a day after delivering his first address before the United Nations General Assembly.

Trump praises Erdoan, says US and Turkey relationship is closest that has never been pic.twitter.com/Ci4KTJ1IXm

Trump went on to say that Erdogan is running a very difficult part of the world. He has evolved very strongly, and frankly hes getting very high marks.

The Turkish presidentreciprocated Trump's sentiments, calling his counterpart "my dear friend Donald," according to the pool report.

Nine protesters were injured in a clash with Erdogan's bodyguards outside the Turkish Embassy in Washington in May, after the Turkish president met with Trump to discuss. fighting terror groups in the Middle East.

Read more:
Trump praises Erdogan: 'We have a great friendship' | TheHill

ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkey's state-run news agency says prosecutors are seeking more than four years in prison for NBA player Enes Kanter on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Anadolu Agency says an indictment prepared by the Istanbul chief prosecutor's office accuses the New York Knicks center of insulting the president in a series of tweets he posted in May and June 2016.

Kanter, who is in the United States, would be tried in absentia.

Kanter said on Wednesday that he isn't bothered by the potential indictment.

"You guys were seeing today that I was just out there having fun, playing basketball and practicing with my teammates," Kanter said. "... You guys are going to say, 'How do you get used to, like, prison, this and that, whatever?' I think it's just nothing to me, man, because I'm in America. I'm good. My focus right now is just going out there, playing basketball, having fun with my teammates and just winning, and just thinking about playoffs. I don't really think about all this stuff, whatever. They can do whatever they want to do."

Kanter, who grew up in Turkey, is a vocal supporter of Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based cleric blamed by Turkey for last year's failed military coup. Kanter was detained in Romania on May 20 because his Turkish passport was canceled. He said he was able to return to the United States after American officials intervened.

The Knicks center said he found out about the indictment on Wednesday morning.

"I was like, 'Oh, four years.' I was like, 'That's it? Only four years? All the trash I've been talking?' I said I promise you guys, it doesn't really bother me a little, even one bit," he said. "My thing is just going out there and just playing basketball."

Kanter was asked Wednesday if he hopes the situation in his country can change.

"The only thing you can do is just pray for all these innocent people in Turkey," he said. "People don't understand. They're saying your family is still back in Turkey -- why are you doing all of this? Why are you talking? I'm just trying to be the voice of all of these innocent people, man. Because all of these innocent people are just going through really tough times. Journalists, innocent people in jail getting tortured and killed and kidnapped. And it's pretty messed up."

He added that the Knicks' success on the court would be a good way to answer back to the government.

"If we make playoffs, then that will drive him crazy, so that's what I'm really focused on right now, just make the playoffs and drive this dude crazy," he said.

Of Erdogan, Kanter added: "That dude is maniac. Think about it. I mean, America ... you've got freedom of whatever you want to say. I mean, it's a free country. But it's not like that in Turkey. You cannot criticize or you cannot even say nothing bad about the dude, Erdogan. Just, like, say he's a bad guy and you're in a prison. It's politics. People can choose or say whatever they want to say. I think right now the situation there is pretty messed up."

ESPN's Ian Begley and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Turkey seeks jail term for Knicks' Enes Kanter for insulting ...

Its been more than a century since Arabs revolted against the rule of the Ottoman Empire. But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan thrust himself into the center of that World War I confrontation Wednesday to defend the honor of a legendary Turkish officer slighted in the U.A.E.

Erdogan lashed out at United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan for sharing a Twitter post accusing Fahreddin Pasha of thievery, kidnapping other crimes against the local population. These are Erdogans ancestors and their history with Arabs and Muslims, the post said.

The Turkish president was not going to take that jab at him and the fabled Ottoman governor lying down: Pasha is revered in Turkey for trying to prevent Arab forces backed by T.E. Lawrence from capturing Medina, one of Islams holiest cities and now part of Saudi Arabia.

Hey, the pathetic person who is slandering us: Where were your forefathers when Fahreddin Pasha was defending Medina? he told a meeting of village and neighborhood officials at the presidential palace in Ankara. Arab people are our brothers. That said, the enmity of some leaders in Arab countries is meant to hide their own incompetence and even treason.He didnt mention the foreign minister by name.

Erdogan may see some shared history with the historic figure to whose defense he rallied. Like Pasha, he, too, sometimes finds himself jousting with fellow Muslims. Gulf Arabs, for example, abhor his decision to draw closer to the Iranian-Russian alliance supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in.

He also has adopted the role of defender of Islam. Most recently, hes taken the lead in denouncing President Donald Trumps recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital, convening the Muslim worlds largest political bloc, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, for a high-profile extraordinary session in Istanbul.

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Tweet Over Legendary Turkish Officer Stirs Erdogan-U.A.E ...

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey intends to open an embassy in East Jerusalem, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday, days after leading calls at a summit of Muslim leaders for the world to recognize it as the capital of Palestine.

It was not clear how he would carry out the move, as Israel controls all of Jerusalem and calls the city its indivisible capital. Palestinians want the capital of a future state they seek to be in East Jerusalem, which Israel took in a 1967 war and later annexed in a move not recognized internationally.

The Muslim nation summit was a response to U.S. President Donald Trumps Dec. 6 decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital. His move broke with decades of U.S. policy and international consensus that the citys status must be left to Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

Erdogan said in a speech to members of his AK Party in the southern province of Karaman that Turkeys consulate general in Jerusalem was already represented by an ambassador.

God willing, the day is close when officially, with Gods permission, we will open our embassy there, Erdogan said.

Jerusalem, revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, is home to Islams third holiest shrine as well as Judaisms Western Wall - both in the eastern sector - and has been at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades.

Foreign embassies in Israel, including Turkeys, are located in Tel Aviv, reflecting Jerusalems unresolved status.

A communique issued after Wednesdays summit of more than 50 Muslim countries, including U.S. allies, said they considered Trumps move to be a declaration that Washington was withdrawing from its role as sponsor of peace in the Middle East.

Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Mark Heinrich

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Erdogan says Turkey aims to open embassy in East Jerusalem ...

TURKISH PRESIDENT Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his wife, Emine, arrive for the G-20 leaders summit in Hamburg, Germany.. (photo credit: REUTERS)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has emerged as the most vocal opponent of US President Donald Trumps long-overdue decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Erdogan being the poster boy of the campaign against Trumps decision says something about the moral weight of the cause.

Erdogan, as rotating president of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, organized an emergency summit to discuss the matter, which was attended by such moral luminaries as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, whose country is responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of Sunnis, and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide and war crimes.

Israel, railed Erdogan is a state of occupation...and the US is a partner in bloodshed.

This is the same Erdogan who exploited a failed coup in 2016 to launch a witch hunt against any and all political opponents. Reports quoted in September by the Brookings Institutes Amanda Sloat found that at least 150,000 people have been fired from government and academia, 50,000 or more have been jailed for alleged collusion and 150 journalists have been imprisoned. Sloat described her impressions from a visit to Turkey as a paranoid society living under a state of emergency that has had a chilling effect on public opposition.

The governments elastic definition of terrorism enables it to crack down not only on Turkish nationals, but also on foreigners such as Protestant US Pastor Andrew Brunson.

Under the pretext of public security, Erdogans Turkey has for an indefinite period banned, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights groups from holding panels, marches, film screenings and exhibitions.

And, of course, there is the ongoing US trial involving Reza Zarrab, an Iranian-Turkish gold trader, who has implicated Erdogan as one of the political officials involved in circumventing US sanctions against Iran in a gold-for-oil scam.

Erdogans attack on Israel and the US is his way of shifting attention away from his many political problems.

By making himself out to be the champion of the Palestinian people and the enemy of Israel and the US the Turkish president has already succeeded in endearing himself to the Muslim world. While Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen are involved in sectarian clashes between Sunnis and Shiites, Erdogan is gaining points by chastising Arab nations for abandoning the Palestinians.

It is not the pursuit of liberty for Palestinians that motivates Erdogan. A man who denies basic freedoms to his own people has little interest in seeing the creation of a democratic Palestinian state that protects freedom of expression. Nor is there any real prospect that establishing a Palestinian state under current Palestinian rule would lead to such as state. Rather, his objective is to solidify an anti-Israel, anti-US axis.

Erdogan, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, Qatar and the mullahs of Iran share common interests, despite sectarian and cultural differences. Rallying around the Palestinian cause is a way of strengthening this alliance and affording it legitimacy in the eyes of Muslims.

In contrast, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States, as well as Egypt, Jordan and anti-Hezbollah forces inside Lebanon, rightly identify Israel and the US as important allies in the fight against Iran and ISIS, the two most destabilizing forces in the Middle East. Iran, not Israel, is responsible for the death and suffering in the region, by its expansionist meddling in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon.

We understand Erdogans endgame and the worldview that motivates him. He has never claimed to be a democrat who believes in Western ideals of freedom and human rights. He has never tried to hide his support for Hamas and his close ties with Iran.

What is truly incomprehensible is the stance of progressives in the US and Europe who have joined the Erdogan alliance in condemning Trumps decision.

What motivates them to align themselves with nihilistic Islamists against the US president and Israel?

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Erdogans alliance - Opinion - Jerusalem Post