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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Turkey Wednesdayreaffirmed their commitment to further reinforce the specialties and growing cooperation between the two countries.

The reaffirmation was made during a meeting betweenSpeaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, according to a statement.

Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq is visiting Turkey along witha parliamentary delegation on the invitation of TGNA SpeakerIsmail Kahraman.

President Erdogan was accompanied by Speaker of theTurkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) Ismail Kahraman,Chairman of Turkey-Pakistan Parliamentary Friendship GroupMuhammet Balta, and other senior Turkish officials.

Speaker Ayaz Sadiq was accompanied by Convener ofPakistan-Turkey Friendship Group in the National Assembly,Pervaiz Malik, and Pakistans Ambassador to Turkey SohailMahmood.

During the meeting, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq lauded the remarkable progress made by Turkey under PresidentErdogans stewardship, adding that it was a shining examplefor the Muslim Ummah to emulate.

He also conveyed best wishes from Pakistan for Turkeysenhanced political development and economic progress in thefuture.

Reiterating Pakistans strong solidarity with thegovernment and people of Turkey against the heinous coupattempt of July 15, the Speaker expressed deep admiration forthe historic resistance by the Turkish people led from thefront by President Erdogan against the illegal action, whichserved as an inspiration for people across the globe.

PresidentErdogan conveyed his greetings for President Mamnoon Hussainand Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Noting the consistent growth in the multifaceted Turkey-Pakistan relationship, President Erdogan stressed that stepsshould continue to be taken to take the political, economic,trade, defence, defence industry, and cultural cooperation tonewer levels.

Recalling his recent visit to Pakistan to attend the13th Economic Coordination Organization (ECO) Summit inIslamabad, he hoped that the momentum generated by it wouldenable the regional countries to impart further depth to theireconomic initiatives.

President Erdogan also reaffirmed Turkeys full supportand solidarity for Pakistan on all issues and reiterated theresolve to further fortify bilateral ties.

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Turkey's Erdogan reaffirms support to Pakistan on all issues - The News International

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avuolu sat down with Breitbart News for an exclusive interview at D.C.s National Press Clublast week.

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Free press is definitely necessary for democracies and democratic societies, avuolu said, noting that the media must be held accountable for their reporting. Press should be also, at the same time, much more responsible and they should tell the truth, he said.

Both U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoanhave pushed back against the medias allegedly biased coverage of events in their nations. Earlier this year, Erdoan praised Trump for putting CNN reporter Jim Acosta in his place during a news conference. Trump told Acosta, Im not going to give you a question. You are fake news in response to an article CNN had published alleging Russia had tried to compromise him.

Unlike Trump and his supporters, however, Erdoan fans have taken to violently attacking media outlets the headquarters of the newspaperHurriyetwere attacked twice by mobs chanting allahuakbar and Erdoans police forces have stormed and shut down broadcasters for alleged ties to terrorism.

Al-Monitor previously reported that the Cumhuriyet Dailys editor-in-chief Can Dundar and Ankara representative Erdem Gul landed behind bars Nov. 27 for reporting that Turkish intelligence shipped weapons to radical Islamists in Syria. Though theywerereleasedthree months later, they eventually receivedjail termsfor revealing state secrets. The piece titled How Erdogan Became Turkeys Biggest Media Boss also reports that 85 percent of Turkeys remaining news channels arestate-owned.

Unfortunately, the press is taking sides, and the role that press is playing in Western countries is not very constructive, avuolu told Breitbart News. He added his belief that the leftist media, especially in Europe, was responsible for a very dangerous trend which has taken the continent back to [the] pre-World War II era.

avuolu also blamed the media for fueling hateful sentiment towards migrants, refugees, Muslims, and Jews among other groups. Media should tell the truth. This is the main problem, unfortunately; both in your country and also in our region. Nevertheless, free media is essential for democracies.

Following the failed military coup against Erdoans government last July, Erdoans government shut down over 130 media outlets, arresting many of their highest-ranking journalists. However, on Tuesday, avuolu said, In Turkey, no media outlet or press has been shut down or closed by President Erdoan. And President Erdogan has no power to shut media down. Instead, avuolu suggested these actions were carried out by independent judiciaries in the country.

Nevertheless, there were some media outlets belonging to Fethullah [Gulen] terrorist organization, and they were involved in the failed coup in Turkey. And they were also involved in many illegal activities including fabricating false evidences against third persons. So those are the media outlets closed by the independent judiciaries in Turkey, not by President. The president has no authority to do so in Turkey.

However, the upcomingreferendum vote, taking place on April 16, will likely change that. At one pointduringthe interview, the foreign minister said that Erdoan has a lot of power now, noresponsibility but noted that if the referendum vote passes, the president will be [held] accountable and thathe will be vested with a great deal of responsibility. avuolu explained that currently, Turkey does not have a separation of power butbetween thegovernment and theparliament, but that with the new system, there will be a clear separation of power.

Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter and Periscope@AdelleNaz

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EXCLUSIVE: Turkish FM Claims Erdogan Has Shut Down 'No Media Outlet or Press' - Breitbart News

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The observers in question are a former Turkish intelligence official, a current legislator with Erdogans AKP party, and a representative of the National Council of Syrian Turkmen. The Turkmen are a sizable ethnic minority in Syria, supported by Turkey. The Turkmen played a role in the November 2015 Turkish downing of a Russian warplane on the Syrian border, an eventwhich provoked a diplomatic crisis between Russia and Turkey that was only recently ameliorated.

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The Turkmen were repressed by the Assad regime and joined the rebellion against him in 2011, but representative Abdurrahman Mustafa told Sputnik his group is now more concerned about the Kurds fragmenting Syria by forming an independent state.

The US goal is tosupport cooperation withthe Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the PKK, and tocreate a corridor underthe PYD, said Mustafa. The US have been trying to divide Syria from the very beginning. This is an American project. We, Syrian Turkmen, are against this.

The PKK is the violent separatist group Turkey has been fighting. As lawmaker Ahmet Berat Conkar stresses in the Sputnik piece, Turkeys official position is that Kurdish militia units in Syria are terrorist allies of the PKK. The United States officially regards the Syrian Kurds as battlefield allies against the Islamic State, independent of the PKK.

Former Turkish General Staff intelligence chief Ismail Hakki Pekin also made the charge that Americas plan is to turn Syria into a federation and include the Kurds in this federation.On the other hand, the Russian state publication quoted him lauding their employer, the Russian Federation, for trying to keep Syria together and advised the Erdogan government to accept the Assad regime as the lesser of two evils compared to Kurdish autonomy.

The main issue for Ankara is cooperation with Syria, said Pekin. If Turkey, having established contacts with the Syrian leadership, proves able to conduct a balanced policy in relations with both the US and Russia, the creation of an autonomous Kurdish region in northern Syria will become extremely difficult.

Russian media clearly wants to transmit that message to Turks, who have long been skeptical of the Syrian regime that Russia saved through military intervention. Moscow still has some problems with Ankara they are currently squabbling over grain exports but the Russians know the formation of an independent Kurdish state, or even Syrian Kurdish autonomy in close proximity to Turkeys PKK, is the deepest Turkish concern.

Russia also wants to hammer that U.S. has a secret plan to carve up Syria talking point to exploit tensions between Turkey and NATO. Turkey has lately been telling its longtime partners in NATO that it wants to see what China and Russia have to offer. President Erdogan is fresh off a war of words with Europe in which he used the word Nazi with abandon. Yesterday, he castigated the European Union for dragging its heels on Turkish membership and pugnaciously declared, Turkey is no ones whipping boy. He frequently threatens to carpet-bomb Europe with more refugees.

It is not difficult for Russia to see an opening there. Turkeys enmity for the Syrian regime is a major sticking point, but if the Russians can prod Turkey into measuring Bashar Assads survival against the specter of a Kurdish state midwived by the U.S., they know how the scales will tip.

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Russian Media: Turkish 'Observers' Warn Erdogan to Support Assad or Live with Kurdish Rule in Syria - Breitbart News

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Turkey could hold another referendum on whether to continue talks on accession to the EU after the nationwide vote on constitutional reform next month which could give him sweeping new powers.

Right now we are holding a referendum on 16 April, and after that we could choose to do a second one on the [EU] accession talks, and we would abide by whatever our people would say there, Erdogan told reporters in the southern city of Antalya at the weekend.

The suggestion comes amid highly strained relations with several EU member states.

Erdogan accuses Merkel of Nazi practices: Any country that harms a Turk will "face the consequences"

The Presidentis at loggerheads with both Germany and The Netherlands, countries which cancelled planned yes campaign rallies on their soil for dual nationals.

Both Berlin and Amsterdam said the rallies were cancelled due to security concerns, but Mr Erdogan accused them of impeding free speech and using Nazi methods.

Mr Erdogan commented last week that all non-financial ties with the bloc, including the landmark 2015 refugee deal, will be on the table for renegotiating regardless of the outcome of the April vote on extending his executive power.

Turkey has waited at the door [of the EU] for 54 years, he said on Saturday, referring to the 1963 trade deal between Ankara and the then purely economic union.

What? If a yes comes out on 16April, they would not take us into the European Union? Oh, If only they could give this decision! They would make our work easier, he continued.

We will put this [EU-Turkey] business on the table because Turkey is no ones whipping boy.

No EU leader has said that a yes vote which would give Mr Erdogan the power to appoint and dismiss government ministers and possibly stay in office until 2029 will spell the end of Turkeys accession to the bloc.

However, concerns over Turkeys human rights record, as well as the fate of Cyprus, have been contributing factors to the snails pace at which talks have progressed since 2005.

Reuters contributed to this report

Originally posted here:
Recep Tayyip Erdogan: Turkey could end decades-long EU bid because we are 'no one's whipping boy' - The Independent

BERLIN Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who accuses Chancellor Angela Merkel of using "Nazi methods" against Turks in Germany, is setting back their integration by years, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has said.

Berlin is growing increasingly frustrated about Erdogan repeatedly accusing it of applying "Nazi methods" by banning rallies aimed at drumming up support among Turks in Germany for a referendum that would strengthen the power of his presidency.

Turks workers began moving to Germany in the 1960s and the country now has about 3 million people of Turkish background. Some are fully integrated while others live in ethnic communities with less contact with the majority population.

"Erdogan's rhetoric makes me stunned," Schaeuble, a veteran member of Merkel's Christian Democratic (CDU) party, told the Welt am Sonntag weekly newspaper.

"In a short time, it wilfully destroys the integration that has grown over years in Germany. The repair of the damage will take years," he said.

Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul on Sunday: "You call the president of the Turkish Republic a dictator. When we call them fascists, they get annoyed. When we call them Nazis, they get annoyed."

"You are fascists, you are. Be annoyed as much as you want with Nazi practices. If you draw swastikas on the walls of our mosques and don't hold anyone accountable, you cannot take off this stain," Erdogan said.

Turkish voters living in Germany begin on Monday casting their ballots in the constitutional referendum.

Last Tuesday, organizers said Turkish leaders would hold no further campaign rallies in Germany before the referendum - to be held on April 16 in Turkey - after a Merkel ally said they were not welcome.

On Wednesday, Germany's Frank-Walter Steinmeier used his first speech as president to warn Erdogan that he risked destroying everything his country had achieved in recent years.

Erdogan responded by saying that Europeans would not be able to walk safely on the streets if they kept up their current attitude toward Turkey, his latest salvo in the row over campaigning by Turkish politicians in Europe.

(Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

BEIRUT The U.S.-led coalition said on Monday it saw no imminent danger to a major hydroelectric dam that allied Syrian militias are fighting to take from Islamic State, unless the jihadists planned to blow it up.

LONDON British police said on Monday they had found no evidence that Khalid Masood, who killed four people in an attack on Britain's parliament last week, had any association with Islamic State or Al Qaeda, but he was clearly interested in jihad.

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Erdogan setting back integration in Germany by years: Schaeuble | Reuters