Page 9 - While Turkey News Today

Turkey’s veto on Finland and Sweden joining the alliance is part of a complex political game being played by Ankara.

Ankara has sought to reset its ties with Israel and the Arab world

Garwood, N.J.: This letter is in response to Voicer Robert J. SanFilippo: Thank you for your letter. It made me smile. I could not finish reading Dr. Andrew Wickline’s op-ed (“The right way to curb opioid abuse by Americans,” May 16) because I was laughing, too.

It has been just six years since Russia’s Gazprom and its German partners announced plans to expand Russian gas imports into Europe via the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Greed motivated Germany, but Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interest went deeper. He understood the strategic value of a pipeline that would essentially unlink Ukraine from Europe.

Finland and Sweden have not joined NATO in the past, but Russia's invasion of Ukraine has led them to consider it.

The Ukrainian crisis has prompted many initiatives in the international arena and the situation in the South Caucasus is one of them. One chapter of the South Caucasus file is Russia’s relations with Georgia or its fait accompli to declare Georgia’s two autonomous republics — Abkhazia and South Ossetia — independent. Russia is not likely to backpedal from these initiatives

While Turkey has announced plans for the repatriation of around one million Syrian refugees to their homeland, refugee experts warn that the present security conditions in the conflict-ridden Arab country are not conducive for the asylum seekers to rebuild their lives.

As US officials visited Turkey and Greece, calling to end Europe energy imports from Russia, Turkey attacked PKK-linked forces in Iraq and Syria.

There was a time, many decades ago, when ruling elites in the Middle East, I am referring here principally to the Arab world, did not quite understand the United States. Almost 40 years ago, when I first set foot in the region as a young diplomat, you could see the curiosity and the illusions. But that has not been true for a very long time. Now when video appears on Twitter of President Biden seemingly wandering around aimlessly and confused at a White House event, Arabic-speaking elites not on...

Turkish drones have helped Ukraine defend against Russia's invasion. But the Bayraktar TB-2 has a darker history of civilian casualties and human rights violations.