Archive for the ‘Erdogan’ Category

Erdogan sues opposition rival in row over Iraq deaths – WION

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday sued his main opposition rival for claiming he was personally "responsible" for the deaths of 13 Turks in Iraq.

Turkey accuses outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants of executing the 13 police officers and security personnel, whom they had abducted in Turkey and held hostage in a cave in northern Iraq.

But the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and its Western allies, said the 13 were killed by Turkish bombs dropped during a rescue operation Ankara launched last week.

The failed rescue attempt has piled political pressure on Erdogan, who has ruled Turkey as prime minister and president since 2003.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), said in parliament on Tuesday that it was "Erdogan who is responsible for our 13 martyrs".

"You are launching an operation but all the hostages died," Kilicdaroglu said.

His comments infuriated Erdogan, whose lawyers are now seeking 500,000 Turkish liras ($72,000, 60,000 euros) in compensation for "moral damages", the Anadolu state news agency reported.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), parliament's second-largest opposition group, also criticised Erdogan for the failed operation, arguing that negotiations would have been more effective.

But Erdogan's right-wing allies, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), threw their support behind the government.

"Turkey is a rising power which fought in (northern Iraq) not only against the PKK but also against strategic threats," MHP leader Devlet Bahceli tweeted.

The Turkish army regularly conducts cross-border operations and air raids on PKK bases in northern Iraq.

On Wednesday, Erdogan said more than 12,900 Kurdish militants -- 6,000 at home and 6,900 abroad -- have been killed since a ceasefire with the PKK broke down in July 2015.

The PKK have been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 that is believed to have left more than 40,000 dead.

Turkey's botched rescue attempt also caused a diplomatic spat between Ankara and Washington, which initially said it was waiting for official confirmation before blaming the deaths on the PKK.

Washington blamed the group after Erdogan accused the United States of siding with "terrorists".

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Erdogan sues opposition rival in row over Iraq deaths - WION

Turkey to land on moon by 2023: Erdoan | Daily Sabah – Daily Sabah

  1. Turkey to land on moon by 2023: Erdoan | Daily Sabah  Daily Sabah
  2. Turkey Aims to Reach Moon in 2023, Erdogan Says  U.S. News & World Report
  3. Merkel tells Erdogan she welcomes eastern Mediterranean progress  DW (English)
  4. Erdogan untamed | Comment  www.ekathimerini.com
  5. Erdogan charm offensive falls on stony ground in White House  The Times
  6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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Turkey to land on moon by 2023: Erdoan | Daily Sabah - Daily Sabah

Erdogans take on the Holocaust is cynical, selective and self-serving – Haaretz

At first glance, thethree-minute video featuringTurkeys President Recep Tayyip ErdoganmarkingInternational Holocaust Remembrance Dayseems indistinguishable from the many messages of commemoration and solidarity offered by world leaders.

Erdogan describes how the racism and hate crimes that led to the genocides of the Holocaust, Bosnia, Rwanda and Cambodia are still thriving today; he mentions the UN Genocide Convention; he ends with the hope for a future without discrimination and crimes against humanity.

But on further examination, its clear Erdogans words were far less anodyne, and far more cynical. Erdogan commemorated the Holocaust in order to instrumentalize its usefulness to his own stark political agenda.Rather than engaging with the Holocaust per se, he presented it in such a generalized context that he didnt even mention the word "Jew."

The same definitional revisionism, of a "Holocaust" alienated from its Jewish victims, is repeated on Turkey's new state "We Remember" website: Its prcis of the Holocaust is "the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately11 million peopleby the Nazi regime in Germany and its collaborators during the Second World War."

And, of course, one genocide was notably missing from Erdogan's conveniently selective framing of history: that of the Armenians, by the Turkish states predecessor, the Ottoman Empire.

Sp what were Erdogans "real" messages?

First, part of Erdogans efforts to be recognized as the de facto leader ofthe Islamic world requiresan overarching narrative of Europes hostility to Muslims, and of Erdogan as the savior of suffering Muslims.

That fuels his ongoing campaign to prioritize combating Islamophobia in the West, and his aggressive diplomatic language particularly against the EU In the video, he specifically referred to online hate crimes against Muslims. Why now?

Its not only becauseofErdoganspragmatic approach, which takes advantage of any event that advances his agenda,butalsobecause he is still surfing on the wave he helped incite of anti-French, anti-European feeling in parts of the Muslim world triggered by claims of blasphemy against Islam.

The latest wave began when French teacher Samuel Patti showed cartoons of Muhammad in his class; his throat was then cut by an outraged Muslim extremist. The teachers "provocation" provided a ready opportunity for Erdogan to intensify his criticism of Europe and strengthen his fearless, defender of the faith legacy at home and abroad.

An integral part of Erdogans assault on Europe and social media companies has been his equation of contemporary Islamophobia with the Holocaust, the same form of soft revisionism, if not supersessionism, evident in the Holocaust Day video. Indeed, Erdogan has declared that Muslims in Europe are subject toa "lynch campaign similar to that against Jews before World War II."

Secondly, as is now a mainstream convention, Erdogan mentioned in his addresstheBosnian, Rwandan,andCambodian genocides alongside the Holocaust,while noting that "all of these genocides remind the international community of its responsibility." That was a nod to the failure of the West to prevent those atrocities, some of which were products of European colonialism and imperialism.

Thirdly, what is most striking about Erdogans address is what he chose to omit: the Armenian genocide of 1915. The Ottoman Empires dislocation, ethnic cleansing and mass killing of approximately 1.5 million Armenians, acknowledged by many historians and parliaments worldwide, has been denied by Turkey ever since.

Ironically,Erdogan called for embracing the 1948UNGenocideConvention,a convention drafted by Rafael Lemkin, whose initial motivation was outrage over the Armenian genocide.

The legalistic logic of Turkish denialism rejects ex post facto recognitions of pre-WWII events as genocides, as the Convention was not yet in force. But it encourages the noisy virtue-signaling of outrage over subsequent genocides just as long as the Armenians are out of the equation.

Turkeys new "We Remember" website doesnt just deny the Armenian genocide but seeks to whitewash wholesale the Ottoman Empires behavior towards minorities, with the modern Turkish state as an equal beneficiary: It reads, "Turkey is firmly dedicated to the legacy of multi-faith tolerance and cultural pluralism inherited from the Ottoman Empire."

Fourthly, Erdogan puts his finger firmly on the scale towards a universal, not particular, understanding of the Holocaust.

In Israel, which marksYom HaShoah(the national day ofHolocaust remembrance) in late April every year,the Holocaust is commemorated as a "unique" genocide: it is almost impossible in Israels memory culture and public sphere to compare between the Holocaust and Jewish suffering to other genocides and their victims. In other words, there is a hierarchy of genocide victims. Jews first, and then all the rest.

In contrast, powerful vectors of international commemoration, such as the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and, to a lesser extent, Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, lean towards the universalistic: That the lasting lessons of the Holocaust are its similarities with other mass atrocities, and the similar role of stoking racial hatred and both stand as a warning to the future. This was exactly the stated objective of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

That Erdogan doesnt mention that the Holocausts victims were Jewish is clearly an extreme take on this universalizing dynamic. But when he flattens the "hierarchy of victimhood," equalizing all victims of genocide, he is less distorting Holocaust memory than joining a mainstream view of the purposes of commemoration comparative, not hierarchical, focusing on the threat and prevention of genocide against any group albeit with a spin that suits him.

Finally, Erdogan talked with pride about Turkeys "open-door policy" for refugees. His immediate reference point is to the over three million Syrian refugees fleeing civil war who found sanctuary in Turkey. Erdogan famously used the Syrian refugees as political capital against Europe. As is his wont, Erdogan referred to the glorious heritage of the Ottoman Empire which, he declared, had an open-door policy for refugees.

Spanish and Portuguese Jews, given shelter by the Sultan after their 1492 expulsion from Spain are often used as a prime example that Turkey has not only never countenanced antisemitism, but that it protects its minorities; the Turkish state has often used this as a counter-argument against Armenian genocide "allegation" and an explanation for why Israel has never formally recognized the Armenian genocide as such.

Clearly, the diplomatic history is somewhat murkier; Israeli governments and the Knesset have, despite pushback from opposing politicians, serially refused to discomfort Turkey by endorsing that recognition. Specific incidents have fortified that position: for instance, Turkeys political elite claim they helped Jewish refugees fleeing the 1979 Iranian Revolution to cross the Turkish border, with the trade-off:that Israel would not recognize the Armenian genocide, to which Israel complied.

Inathree-minute video addressing International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Erdogan barely engaged with Holocaust memory or with antisemitism. But he engaged abundantly with the selective values framed as universalism and respect for human rights that bolster his own Islamist global leadership ambitions, while controlling the genocide "canon" to exclude whatever doesnt fit that narrative.

But although Erdogans video was both contradictory and cynical, the Turkish president was knocking on an open door. Commemorating the genocide of one group as a global lesson always runs the risk that it will be exploited for totally different objectives, even by antisemites.

Paradoxically,global Holocaust memory, especially during the age of pandemic, is ripe tobe leveraged by authoritarian leadersto justifybothrepressive policiesand historical revisionism.

Dr. Eldad Ben Aharon is a Minerva Fellow and Associate Researcher at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF) and a lecturer at Leiden University. His research focuses on Israel's diplomatic history, Turkeys foreign policy, intelligence history and counter-terrorism, Jewish and Armenian transnationalism and memory of the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide. Twitter:@EldadBenAharon

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Erdogans take on the Holocaust is cynical, selective and self-serving - Haaretz

‘Dear Tayyip’: Erdogan and Macron exchanged letters to repair ties – Middle East Eye

The presidents of Turkey and France have exchanged letters to address their personal and regional differences, helping to create a roadmap to improve relations, Turkish Minister of Foreign AffairsMevlut Cavusoglu told a group of journalists on Friday.

Cavusoglu said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan first sent a letter to his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, to wish him a happy new year and convey his sadnessover recent terror attacks.

Following the letter, the French governmentproposed four areas of collaboration: bilateral consultations, counter-terrorism, regional issues such as Syria and Libya, and a partnership on education, Cavusoglu added.

"Earlier this week we received Macron's letter. Very positive. Macron started his letter with a Turkish salutation, handwritten, 'Dear Tayyip'," Cavusoglu said. "Macron expressed his willingness to meet the president to deepen relations and discuss European [affairs]."

Biden cold shoulders Erdogan as request for call left unanswered

Erdogan, according to Cavusoglu, would like to meet Macron in person, but first the two leaders are expected to talk soon via videoconference.

The move itself is a stark change for both sides, considering the personal attacks they levied on each other throughout the last year.

Erdogan just last month said that France needs to immediately get rid of Macron. He twice suggested the French presidentneeded to undergo a mental health check becausehe was getting France involved in regional conflicts in which it had no interests.

And Macron over and over called for sanctions against Turkey's actions in Libya and the Eastern Mediterranean, where Turkish ships last year conducted seismic research in disputed seawaters.

The dispute intensified in October with Erdogan's call for a boycott of French products, following Macron's apparent support for Charlie Hebdo magazine's caricatures about the Prophet Muhammad.

Turkish officials would like to improve their ties with France due to the incoming Biden administration in the US, which is expected to have friendlier relations with Paris.

Erdogan hasalready made a series of overtures towards Israel, the European Union, Saudi Arabia and Greece to make room for manoeuvre, ahead of Biden's swearing in on Wednesday.

This article is available in French onMiddle East Eye French edition.

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'Dear Tayyip': Erdogan and Macron exchanged letters to repair ties - Middle East Eye

Turkey’s Erdogan, EU’s Michel discussed EU summit in call – Reuters

FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan arrives for a meeting with EU Council President Charles Michel in Brussels, Belgium March 9, 2020. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

ANKARA (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan told European Council President Charles Michel in a call that Turkey wants to build its future with the EU, calling for Ankara and the bloc to move on from a vicious cycle in ties, the Turkish presidency said late on Tuesday.

At a summit on Friday, EU leaders agreed to prepare limited sanctions on Turkish individuals over a row with members Greece and Cyprus over hydrocarbon exploration in the eastern Mediterranean, but postponed discussions on any harsher steps until March.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after the summit that EU leaders planned to discuss weapons exports to Turkey with NATO allies following a Greek push for an arms embargo on Ankara.

The Turkish presidency said that Erdogan urged Michel to take a more constructive approach toward Turkey.

During the call, President Erdogan stated that Turkey aimed to build its future with the EU, and that they considered every positive step in Turkey-EU ties as a window of opportunity, the presidency said.

Erdogan also reiterated that Turkey was ready to launch bilateral talks with Greece on their maritime claims, but accused Athens of running from talks. He repeated a call for a regional east Mediterranean conference.

Turkey sent a seismic exploration vessel into waters also claimed by Greece in August, stoking tensions. The EU, led by Germany, has sought without success to resolve the dispute. Turkey has repeatedly accused the bloc of being biased.

Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Dominic Evans

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Turkey's Erdogan, EU's Michel discussed EU summit in call - Reuters