Tag: turkey

U.S. Ambassador Barrack: Israel Bombed Syria During Election Cycle — Without Warning Turkey, Despite Intelligence Clearance

U.S. Ambassador to Türkiye Tom Barrack stated that the Israeli strikes on Syrian airfields had been conducted without the knowledge or consent of the Turkish government. Ambassador Barrack revealed that, via their respective intelligence services, the Syrian government and the Israeli Mossad had ascertained prior to the strikes that there were no Turkish military assets in the area.

Barrack laid out the diplomatic efforts the U.S. took to facilitate peaceful Israeli monitoring of Syrian activities — efforts that ultimately fell apart.

“Israel had told us for a preceding five days they were concerned about what was going on,” Barrack stated. “We went to our intelligence agencies. Syria talked to Mossad, gave them the information that there were no Turkish military, there were no Turkish convoys, there were no Turkish armaments, and that there was nothing adversarial or offensive going on. That was on Friday. They were supposed to meet again the next week.”

Despite that, Israel struck — without warning Ankara.

“Something went wrong,” Ambassador Barrack continued. “And they decided in the last minute to bomb the craters on the two runways. The problem was that the Turkish side was not notified.”

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Turkey Issues Arrest Warrant For Netanyahu, Seeks Interpol Red Notice

Turkey has escalated its anti-Israel actions, after months of denunciations connected to its Gaza, Syria, and Iran policies – and is once again taking things to new levels.

The Erdogan government has just issued an international arrest warrant for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of an investigation into Israel’s interception of an aid flotilla for Gaza, which happened in mid-May and involved over 50 vessels and nearly 500 international activists.

Justice Minister Akin Gurlek announced Friday on X that Netanyahu and another top official are wanted for “genocide” related to military actions in Gaza.

“We categorically reject the notion that the Netanyahu administration, which is implementing a genocide policy in Gaza, is untouchable and unaccountable,” Gurlek said.

“We will not allow the crimes committed in Gaza to be covered up or the perpetrators to be shielded by impunity. We will resolutely utilize all possibilities of national and international law,” the Justice Minister added.

 Gurlek vowed that Turkey will continue to support the Palestinian people and won’t halt its pursuit of justice until “those who commit crimes against humanity are held accountable before the law.”

Israeli official Afek Moskovitch has also been named as part of the anti-flotilla crackdown, which Ankara says was a severe violation of international law and maritime norms. Turkey has asked Interpol to issue red notices for the Israeli officials’ arrest.

Israeli media has picked up on the provocation from Turkey, and details the following:

Gurlek said arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Moskovitch were issued on July 14 on a genocide charge, prompting the Justice Ministry to ask the Interior Ministry to pursue the Interpol notices. The case before Istanbul’s 11th High Criminal Court names 35 defendants.

The proceedings concern the interception of activists seeking to deliver aid to Gaza and their subsequent detention. Gurlek said the charges include crimes against humanity, genocide, unlawful deprivation of liberty, torture, intentional injury, property damage, aggravated robbery and hijacking.

This is not the first time that Turkey has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu. It did so in 2025 related to supporting the International Criminal Court (ICC) case targeting Israeli leaders.

Given years of ratcheting tensions between the two countries, it remains extremely unlikely that Israeli leaders would ever travel to Turkey anyway, but this will continue to also cause problems and create pressures for regular Israeli tourists.

This past week, Israel attacked a northern airbase in Syria, and reports speculate that it was really about pushing back Turkish military forces, and to ensure that no Turkish foothold could be established there. The destroyed base is in Idlib province, and is believed to have been abandoned since Assad’s overthrow.

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Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan Sign Islamic NATO-Style Defense Pact Amid Iran War

On Friday Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed a major defense agreement as leaders gathered in the city of Makkah, Saudi Arabia. It seeks to strengthen joint deterrence and expanding defense cooperation, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

It is essentially a NATO-style agreement for the ‘Muslim world’ – given that it stipulates and formalizes that an armed attack on any of the countries will be treated as an attack against all of them.

Formally called the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement, it “reflects the three nations’ commitment to bolstering their collective security and promoting peace, security and stability in the region and the wider world,” SPA reported.

The combined estimated population of these Muslim-majority countries is 380 million people, or according to the high estimates… approaching 400 million.

Al Jazeera comments on the significance of the historic pact as follows:

This is more than a diplomatic get-together and the signing of an agreement.

This essentially puts three of the largest Muslim populations together on the roadmap for joint peace, for deterring any act of aggression against them, for making sure that they are in tune with each other when it comes to intelligence sharing, gathering all of the information that is required, and also enhancing cooperation in all sorts of spheres – whether it’s energy, defence expenditure or manufacturing, among others.

Pakistan brings with it, obviously, its nuclear arsenal, battle-hardened military, and munitions it has been supplying. Turkiye, with its advanced drone and munitions systems, is a NATO member, combined with the economic power of Saudi Arabia.

The three of them combined now present a force that will take this region towards a different security architecture than the one in place over the last few decades, especially in the wake of the Iran war.

Indeed this further formalizes Pakistan’s nuclear umbrella for Saudi Arabia, which lacks atomic weapons. Turkey does not have its own nukes either, but plays host to US nuclear weapons as part of NATO. Turkey maintains the second-largest military within the NATO alliance, behind the United States.

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia already have a bilateral defense pact, somewhat recently inked, which has lately seen Islamabad deploy 8,000 troops, a ​squadron of fighter jets, and an air defense system to Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi kingdom has lately been subject of sporadic ‘retaliatory’ attacks from Iran in the context of the war, and has earlier even responded by launching numerous unpublicized strikes on Iran.

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Trump Responds to Netanyahu Opposing Sale of F-35 Jets to Turkey: “Nobody Tells Me What We Should Be Selling or Not”

President Trump on Monday responded to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for criticizing his plan to sell F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, saying, “Nobody tells me what we should be selling or not.”

Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Trump on Tuesday at the White House during a visit to the United States, where he will also attend the wake for late Senator Lindsey Graham. Trump told reporters that he and Netanyahu are “pretty close” to the same page. “We have a little difference, but pretty close,” Trump said.

But he made it clear that they’re not on the same page regarding Turkey.

Earlier this month, Netanyahu appeared on CNN with Dana Bash hours after Trump said he would sell F-35s to Turkey during the NATO Summit in Ankara, overturning a ban from his first term.

“He’s not exactly a model ally of the United States,” Netanyahu said, asserting that the move “doesn’t make Turkey a friendly state to the United States.”

“It would destroy the power balance in the Middle East,” he continued. “This is not a force for peace and stability… When you give them that power, you’re going to see aggression in its wake.”

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Ukraine Drones Hit Blue Stream Pipeline Compressor — Targeting Russia’s Gas Lifeline To Turkey On Day One Of NATO Summit In Ankara

Ukraine struck the Krasnodarskaya compressor station in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai on the evening of July 7 — timed, whether by design or coincidence, to the opening day of the NATO summit hosted by Turkey in Ankara. The Krasnodarskaya station is a critical node in the Blue Stream pipeline, which carries Russian natural gas directly to Turkey under the Black Sea. Gazprom confirmed the attack in an official statement, saying deliveries were not disrupted. That claim should be treated as a floor, not a ceiling — Gazprom has institutional incentive to minimize the incident and a track record of doing so.

The strategic geometry is deliberately provocative. Ukraine is attacking infrastructure that supplies gas to Turkey — the very country hosting the NATO summit where Erdogan is simultaneously positioning himself as both NATO convener and back-channel broker with Russia. At the summit, Erdogan separately announced new arms supplies to Ukraine while thanking the US, Spain, Germany, and Italy for air defense assistance during the Iran conflict — a performance of omnidirectional relevance that only Erdogan could plausibly sustain.

The Kremlin’s response was predictable: calling the strike “terrorism against critical global energy infrastructure.” What is less predictable is Turkey’s actual long-term posture. Ankara depends on Russian gas via Blue Stream and Turkish Stream, is courting Ukraine with weapons, is hosting the NATO summit, and is negotiating quietly with Moscow. Ukraine’s targeting of the Blue Stream compressor — reportedly guided by Palantir’s Maven targeting system — puts Erdogan in a genuinely uncomfortable position: his NATO allies’ weapons are striking infrastructure that heats Turkish homes.

Gazprom said exports were unaffected. This is the second reported attack on Blue Stream infrastructure in recent weeks, suggesting Ukraine has identified the pipeline as a pressure point specifically because it hurts both Russian revenue and Turkish dependency simultaneously — a two-for-one leverage play. There has been no indication Kyiv offered Turkey any advance warning….

President Trump has intentionally courted Turkey for its refusal to get involved on the side of Muslim Iran in the conflict, going so far as returning access to the F-35. Whether Anakara will remain in Trump’s camp as Russian gas is slowed is another issue entirely.

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Turkish comedian Deniz Göktaş detained at Istanbul airport over political satire

Turkish stand-up comedian Deniz Göktaş was detained at passport control at an Istanbul airport on Thursday while returning to Türkiye from abroad. Since June 24, Göktaş had been targeted by pro-government media and right-wing circles, with open calls for his arrest over his widely acclaimed political comedy special “Ölü Deniz” (Dead Sea). His detention marks a dangerous escalation of attacks on art and freedom of expression in Türkiye.

The World Socialist Web Site and the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi – Dördüncü Enternasyonal (Socialist Equality Party – Fourth International) demand the immediate release of Deniz Göktaş, the dropping of the investigation against him and a halt to all attacks on art and freedom of expression.

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office had launched an investigation into Göktaş on the baseless charge of “publicly denigrating the religious values embraced by a section of the population” over jokes in the show, which was staged on June 1 at the Harbiye Cemil Topuzlu Open-Air Theatre and released on YouTube on June 24. The prosecutor’s office publicly announced the investigation, describing Göktaş as a “suspect” in whose social media content “elements of a crime” had been identified. Earlier, posts on X containing excerpts from the show had been blocked by court order on the grounds of “protecting national security and public order.” In a statement before his detention, Göktaş said that “no official information” had reached him and that he had no plans to live outside Türkiye.

The roughly 90-minute show was viewed more than 1 million times within 24 hours of its release and had surpassed 8.5 million views as of July 2. Notably, Göktaş made the show freely available to everyone on YouTube rather than on a paid digital platform, with monetization turned off and no ads. Reaching millions of workers and young people, the show became “dangerous” in the eyes of the ruling elite. At the same time, this immense public interest was itself a mass response to the attempt to suppress Göktaş.

“Ölü Deniz” is a satire directed not at individuals but at the political and media establishment as a whole. Göktaş’s subjects included the 32-year political career of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; the revocation of the university diploma of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the jailed Istanbul metropolitan mayor from the Kemalist Republican People’s Party (CHP); the police raid on the CHP’s headquarters following a court’s “absolute nullity” ruling against the party; the mass protests that erupted against İmamoğlu;s arrest; the ensuing widespread arrests; and mainstream media figures. While directing his sharpest political barbs at Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), in power since 2002, he did not spare the CHP, and he also satirized Turkish nationalism and its contradictions on the Kurdish question.

One of the most striking features of the show was that censorship is itself its subject. Göktaş recounts that the legal opinion he received from lawyers on “Selam Selam,” his first show, was: “Never release it.” On stage, he satirizes a nightmare in which he sees himself on the gallows, and the ranks of the “intellectuals” in his family—the intellectual in exile, the intellectual in prison, the dead intellectual. He is fully aware of the historical price of being a dissident artist in Turkey.

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Turkish Expansionism: The Central Threat To Stability In The Eastern Mediterranean And The Balkans

The Turkish government is methodically advancing a revisionist maritime agenda that threatens to upend decades of relative stability in the Eastern Mediterranean. Through its newly prepared draft “Law on Turkish Maritime Jurisdiction Areas,” Ankara aims to enshrine expansive EEZ and continental shelf claims into domestic legislation. This move represents the institutionalization of the controversial “Blue Homeland” (Mavi Vatan) doctrine, aggressively promoted by Prof. Cihat Yaycı. In public appearances and analyses, Yaycı insists that international law favors Turkey, sharply distinguishing between continental shelf rights linked to the mainland and the allegedly limited role of Greek islands, while accusing Greece of unjustified expansionism. What is presented as a technical legal clarification is, in reality, a calculated political act intended to legitimize unilateral Turkish claims over vast maritime areas long considered Greek under international norms.

Greece is bearing the brunt of this sustained pressure. With thousands of islands scattered across the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, many of them close to the Turkish coast, Athens faces systematic attempts to diminish or eliminate the maritime zones these islands are entitled to generate. Turkish research vessels repeatedly enter disputed waters, fighter jets violate Greek airspace on a near-daily basis, and official Turkish maps increasingly portray large parts of the Aegean as Turkish. This is not abstract posturing. It directly threatens Greece’s sovereignty, its exclusive economic rights over potential hydrocarbon resources, and the security of its island populations. In this environment of constant tension, Greece quite naturally turns to its traditional allies in Europe and the United States, hoping they will uphold the rules-based international order and defend the principle that islands fully generate territorial waters and EEZs under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Unfortunately, the Western response has been fragmented and often self-defeating. While the European Union issues occasional statements supporting Greece and Cyprus, several member states continue to expand military, technological, and economic cooperation with Turkey. Defense industry partnerships, drone acquisitions, migration control agreements, and energy transit projects proceed apace. This pragmatic engagement bolsters Turkey’s economic and military capabilities at a time when Ankara is using that strength to challenge the territorial integrity and maritime rights of an EU member state. Such policies send a dangerous signal: revisionist behavior carries few meaningful costs. Instead of deterring Turkish assertiveness, Europe risks rewarding it, thereby weakening the collective security architecture it claims to uphold.

Turkish expansionism stands today as the single greatest source of instability across the Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans. It extends far beyond the Aegean dispute. The 2019 Turkey-Libya maritime memorandum attempted to erase Greek rights in the Mediterranean; continued provocations around Cyprus perpetuate the island’s division; and assertive naval exercises regularly demonstrate Ankara’s willingness to project power. In the Balkans, Turkey pursues growing political and religious influence, often leveraging historical ties in ways that unsettle regional balances. This pattern reflects a broader neo-Ottoman strategic vision that seeks to reshape the post-World War II order according to Turkish preferences rather than accepted international law and mutual respect for sovereignty.

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Is A New Iron Curtain Inevitable?

Russia’s consequent focus on the western front might embolden US-backed NATO member Turkiye to accelerate its power play in the south at the risk of sparking another regional crisis after Ukraine.

Russian Ambassador-at-Large Artyom Bulatov warned in a recent interview that “Westerners, with energy worthy of a better cause, are erecting a new ‘Iron Curtain’, seeking to make irreversible the rupture – provoked by themselves – of socio-economic, trade, transport, interpersonal, cultural, and historical ties that have been built in the region not over years, but over centuries.” He also condemned the weaponization of regional interaction mechanisms like the Council of the Baltic States against Russia.

Truth be told, a new Iron Curtain is inevitable and has been since summer 2024 when the Baltic States and Poland combined their respective border fortification plans along NATO’s Eastern Flank to unveil what they now officially refer to as the “EU Defense Line”, which readers can learn more about here. This initiative will likely be expanded to include Finland too, thus stretching from the Arctic to Central Europe. Even in the event of a Russian-US rapprochement, which is now unlikely, these barriers will still remain.

Russian experts, who operated for so long under the influence of the wishful thinking fantasy that the EU is challenging Russia at its senior US patron’s behest and not due to its own ideologically driven hatred of Russia (contrary to its objective interests), are finally waking up to reality. New President of the Russian International Affairs Council Dmitriy Trenin, who issued an unprecedented clarion call in April for correcting foreign policy misperceptions, published a relevant piece in parallel with Bulatov’s interview.

Titled “The EU, Like ‘NATO 3.0,’ Will Remain Our Adversaries”, it dramatically begins by informing readers that “For the first time since 1945, the most pressing military threat to Russia is coming from Europe—European states themselves. This represents the most significant military-political shift for Russia since the victory in the Great Patriotic War.” The goal, Trenin believes, is “to split the Russian Federation into externally controlled components and turn them into semi-colonies of the European Union.”

This will be pursued through indefinitely perpetuating the NATO-Russian proxy war in Ukraine together with ramping up sanctions and military pressure for undermining domestic political stability.

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The international significance of Erdoğan’s preemptive coup against the CHP in Türkiye

The regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Türkiye is staging a preemptive political coup before the eyes of the entire world. Erdoğan first removed the elected leadership of the Republican People’s Party (CHP)—the main parliamentary opposition party and leading party in the polls—through a politically motivated court ruling, then ordered riot police to forcibly seize the party’s headquarters.

What is unfolding in Türkiye is not a purely national event but a manifestation of an international collapse of democratic forms of rule rooted in the deepening crisis of the capitalist system. US President Donald Trump, having lost the November 2020 elections, mounted a failed coup on January 6, 2021, seeking to remain in power illegally. Erdoğan, for his part, is attempting to forestall a likely defeat in the next elections by neutralizing his principal rival.

Workers and youth must oppose this preemptive coup—which threatens fundamental democratic rights and whose target is ultimately the working class.

The Turkish working class is entering this struggle in a mood of explosive opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the US war against Iran. In the first days of the war against Iran, workers at the Polyak mine in İzmir tore down a gendarmerie barricade and seized control of the mine. Last month, Turkish politics was dominated by the struggle of Doruk Mining workers in Ankara.

Though polls show that more than 90 percent of the Turkish population opposes the war against Iran and the presence of US military bases in Türkiye, Erdoğan has effectively aligned himself with the Trump administration’s aggression in the Middle East and continues to facilitate the flow of oil from Azerbaijan to Israel. Across the Middle East, the overwhelming majority of the population is seething with anger at their ruling elites’ collaboration with US imperialism and Israeli Zionism.

Erdoğan and his allies are working to suppress the emergence within the Turkish, Middle Eastern and international working class—already battered by a severe cost-of-living crisis—of a movement against genocide and imperialist war.

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Turkish Police Storm Opposition Party HQ, Fire Tear Gas and Rubber Bullets at Supporters

Erdogan is moving against opponents.

Today (24), Turkish Police stormed the offices of the country’s main opposition CHP party.

The shock troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets at party supporters and officials hiding inside for the last three days.

Associated Press reported:

“It was a violent end to a standoff between members of the Republican Peoples’ Party, or CHP, and a leadership team appointed by an appeals court.

Footage taken by local media Sunday in the courtyard and inside the building showed clouds of tear gas as riot police stormed through the premises, before journalists were removed by the police. Supporters initially attempted to resist the police by spraying them with fire extinguishers, but were quickly stopped. Doors, furniture and the ground floor windows were destroyed.”

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