Tag: turkey

Türkiye Prepares To Deploy Military Personnel To Saudi Arabia Under Defense Pact

Reuters reported that Türkiye is set to deploy military personnel to Saudi Arabia under an agreement to provide joint defense to Türkiye, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Once the agreement is ratified, the mandate to deploy will be sent to Türkiye’s parliament, Reuters reported.

Türkiye, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement on August 7 under which armed attacks on any of the three countries would be considered attacks on all three of them. The agreement aims to promote closer defense cooperation, share intelligence and conduct joint training, and a Turkish official described it as purely defensive in nature.

Amid Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabian airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea, officials from the three countries met in Riyadh on October 5 and agreed to put their collective defense commitments into action, including the rapid sending of armed forces to Saudi Arabia in accordance with each of the countries’ national laws.

Türkiye’s parliament was submitted the pact in full on October 20 for ratification, according to sources in the Turkish parliament. It is expected to go to the foreign affairs committee and then to a full parliament vote.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the role Türkiye plans to play would be limited to a defensive one, and that Türkiye will not launch attacks against Yemen from bases in Saudi Arabia. Türkiye’s constitution states that sending troops abroad requires the approval of the Turkish parliament.

Türkiye’s contribution is expected to include air defense systems, electronic warfare systems, technical personnel and intelligence, and possibly a limited number of pilots and special forces. In the past, Türkiye already deployed technical personnel to Saudi Arabia within the scope of previous bilateral agreements.

Pakistan is also a full signatory to the agreement and already has armed forces stationed in Saudi Arabia. Iran’s reaction to the three-way security deal, signed in Mecca, has been strongly worded, with one senior Iranian lawmaker saying a paper agreement would not bring the Saudis security.

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Turkish Cargo Ship Sunk By Drone Strike Off Romania, Two Sailors Killed

There’s no doubt that the tit-for-tat war on Black Sea shipping is getting nastier. For several months now, both Russian and Ukrainian forces have traded drone and missile attacks on ports and ships, disrupting vital Black Sea trade.

For Ukraine this national transit lifeline is even more important amid its war time economy. A major incident has unfolded Monday after an alleged direct hit by Russian drone on a Turkish cargo ship carrying grain from a Ukrainian port.

Two crew members died, while eleven others were rescued, and with another reported missing. Ukraine quickly blamed Russia for the attack.

Romanian vessels and helicopters conducted the large rescue operation off national waters, some 20 miles from the NATO member’s shore.

The Saint Kitts and Nevis flagged ship – identified as the Royad Mammadov – eventually sunk as a result of the attack after catching fire in the wake of the initial drone impact and blasts.

It had reportedly been headed out of the Ukrainian port of Ismail in the Odesa region navigating towards Ravenna, Italy when it came under assault.

Ukraine’s President Zelensky laid direct blame on Russia. “A horrific strike by two Russian drones on a civilian vessel in neutral waters carrying corn and owned by Türkiye. Azerbaijani and Indian citizens were on board,” he wrote on X.

“As of now, unfortunately, we know that the ​ship’s captain was killed. My condolences. The fate of one other person is still being ‌established. Eleven ⁠crew members were rescued, one of them injured,” he added.

While Russian authorities did not comment or own up to the specific attack, the Russian Defense Ministry did announce hours earlier that its forces had struck two cargo vessels, according to Reuters.

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Turkey’s Fix For Its $20 Billion Hedge Fund Meltdown: Kindly Ask The Winners To Give The Money Back

Two weeks after a cluster of Istanbul asset managers stopped honoring redemptions, triggering a market-wide circuit breaker and the liquidation of 131 funds held by some 455,758 Turkish retail investors, Ankara has unveiled its plan to make everyone whole. Or at least, to make everyone a little bit less un-whole.

As Bloomberg reports, Turkey will start payments to investors caught in the fund crisis. The Capital Markets Board (SPK) approved interim payments of up to 1 million lira (about $20,400) per eligible investor in funds run by Tera, Pusula, Atlas and Hedef, calculated on each investor’s “net investment” as determined by the Central Securities Depository (MKK). Below a million lira, you get your money back; above it, you get a million and a place in the queue. Money market funds get paid first, the rest in descending order of investor count, with A1 Capital, Bulls and Pardus funds slotted in afterward. The interim payments are advances against whatever the liquidation ultimately recovers, which is a polite way of saying nobody knows yet.

Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek, meanwhile, insists that “we are not talking about a systemic problem,” pointing out that public debt is just 22% of GDP and the budget deficit is “roughly half the developing country average.” All true, and also not much consolation to the investor who, as Turkish Minute recounts, sold her Istanbul home before moving to Portugal, parked the proceeds in stock funds as an inflation hedge, and has watched her account fall ~90% while being unable to withdraw even that. “It is melting away before my eyes, and I can’t do anything about it.”

The “please give it back” account

The payouts are the boring part. The truly bizarre part is how Turkey – long the biggest banana in crowded bus of capital markets banana republics – plans to refill the pot.

Alongside the interim payments, the regulator announced the creation of “Voluntary Return Accounts” at Birlesik Fon Bankasi “for individuals seeking to return excessive profits obtained from pre-liquidation share sales.” Proceeds will be funneled to the fund liquidation estates and on to Ziraat and Isbank for distribution to investors. A separate “General Share Refund Account” has been opened for anyone who would like to hand back profits from speculative trading in listed stocks, and a new fund inside the deposit insurer TMSF will receive assets later determined to be proceeds of crime (details here).

To summarize: Turkey’s plan to compensate 455,000 losers is, in part, to ask the winners nicely.

Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas summed it up best: “Turkey wants investors who made a lot of money in market to gift excessive returns to the other investors who lost $20b.”

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Muslim-Majority Turkey Detains 26 People as Police Raids Target LGBTQI+ Groups

Allegations of homosexual prostitution and obscenity made against LGBTQI+ groups in Muslim-majority Turkey saw 26 people detained since Friday with offices of six allied associations also targeted in a series of police raids.

Reuters reports the protection of family values is behind the crackdown.

According to the outlet, the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office said “operations were carried out across 12 ​provinces against 38 suspects […] with authorities seizing ​drugs, digital equipment, smuggled alcohol and a firearm.”

Ankara-based gay association ⁠Kaos GL alleged some 50 activists had been detained – a ​higher figure than given by the chief prosecutor’s office – including ​more than 10 who were taken in police raids on their homes, Reuters added.

In addition, it said authorities blocked access to dozens of websites and social media accounts linked ​to LGBTI+ organisations, activists and rights advocates which have also been previously challenged by government authorities in the past.

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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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