As Turkey gets Biden backing for F-16s, Greece steals Erdogan thunder by moving for F-35s – bne IntelliNews

Turkey’s hopes that developments at this week’s Nato Madrid summit moved it closer to obtaining F-16 warplanes from the US were on June 20 tempered by an announcement that regional arch-rival Greece has sent an official request to Washington for the acquisition of 20 of the world’s most advanced fighter plane, the Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth jet.

Ankara remains unable to get its hands on the scores of F-35s it has ordered. It remains locked out of the F-35 development programme, with US and Nato officials saying they are concerned that S-400 advanced missile defence systems bought from the Kremlin by Turkey could pose a security threat to F-35 perfo

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The US did not offer Turkey anything to get Erdogan to drop his objections to allowing Sweden and Finland into the alliance, a trio of senior administration officials claim – The Pavlovic Today

A trio of senior administration officials detail the first day of NATO Summit in Madrid. Here’s what they told The Pavlovic Today. The new NATO strategic concept will be released shortly and focuses heavily on Russia. But it also, for the first time, mentions China. The document will note that China’s stated ambitions and challenge

The US did not offer Turkey anything to get Erdogan to drop his objections to allowing Sweden and Finland into the alliance, a trio of senior administration officials claim – The Pavlovic Today Read More »

EXPLAINER: How was Turkey’s veto of Nordic NATO bid avoided? – San Francisco Chronicle

Before the text was released, Turkish officials circulated to media outlets a note titled “Turkey got what it wanted.” Finland’s leading newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, wrote in an editorial that “Turkey got what it wanted – and so did Finland and Sweden.”

“The memorandum was the price that had to be paid for the weird style of dealings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that at the same time represents typical behavior to Turkey,” the Finnish newspaper said.

While arguing against making Sweden and Finland NATO members, Erdogan showed videos and photographs of PKK demonstrations in Sweden as evidence of his claim of Swedish indifference to terrorism.

EXPLAINER: How was Turkey’s veto of Nordic NATO bid avoided? – San Francisco Chronicle Read More »

Turkey: Cocaine Hub Between Europe and the Middle East – Insight Crime

In 2022, cocaine shipments heading to Turkey have been seized in Ecuador, West Africa, and Malta, as well as in Turkey itself.

Though the vast majority of this cocaine simply transits through Turkey, a growing minority now stays in the country, according to a 2019 EMCDDA report. The country’s domestic market saw a record expansion between 2007 and 2017, with drug seizures increasing tenfold during this time.

Turkey: Cocaine Hub Between Europe and the Middle East – Insight Crime Read More »

Is Turkey more trouble to NATO than it is worth? | The Economist

Aside from a few words of condemnation at the start of the war in Ukraine, Turkey has remained on good terms with Russia throughout. When Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, visited Ankara this month his Turkish counterpart kindly suggested that the West should ease sanctions against Russia if Russia relaxed its blockade of Ukrainian ports. When Mr Lavrov repeated his claim that Russia had invaded Ukraine to liberate it from neo-Nazis, his host said nothing.

Mr Erdogan’s move to block Sweden’s and Finland’s accession to nato has further damaged Turkey’s standing in the alliance. The strongman has signalled that he wants the Nordic countries to extradite several members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (pkk), an outlawed armed group, and to drop a partial arms embargo against his country. He may also be shopping for concessions from America in exchange for withdrawing his veto, or from Russia for doing the opposite. Mr Erdogan occasionally sounds hostile to nato enlargement as a matter of principle. In a recent guest column for The Economist, he went as far as to blame Finland and Sweden for adding an “unnecessary item” to nato’s agenda by asking to join the alliance.

Is Turkey more trouble to NATO than it is worth? | The Economist Read More »

Greece is already under occupation | Daily Sabah

The crisis culminated when Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis rushed to the United States recently and targeted Turkey in Congress. While the Turkish delegation was discussing the F-16s in the U.S., the Greek leader was trying to persuade Washington to embargo Ankara, a NATO ally and neighbor of Greece. It happened at a time when “third parties” were not included at the request of Athens in the mechanism between Greece and Turkey.

Following the move, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said “Mitsotakis no longer exists for me.” The president said that because he was clearly convinced that Athens did not have the will to conduct independent, equal diplomacy. Erdoğan’s harsh statement can also be seen as a reflection of his exhaustion in the face of such moves by Greek authoritie

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The new Western tool against Turkey | Daily Sabah

Nowadays, the only remaining problematic region in Turkish foreign policy is the Eastern Mediterranean, in which it conflicts with Greece. As a matter of the fact, the balance of power has changed in the region in favor of Turkey over the last two decades. Turkey has begun to play in a higher league, which creates more concerns in Greece, which has been exploiting the anti-Turkish perception in Western countries. Although Turkey has been insistently inviting Greece to the negotiation table in order to reach a peaceful solution in the region, Greece has been denying giving a positive answer. Instead, Greece has been trying to mobilize and provoke the Western world against Turkey.

The new Western tool against Turkey | Daily Sabah Read More »