From Foreign Waters

  A powerful earthquake struck north-west Turkey in the early hours of Wednesday morning, startling residents in an area previously devastated by tremors. The effects of the 5.9 magnitude quake were felt as far away as Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara. It hit Golyaka in the western province of Duzce, about 160 km east of Istanbul. The quake happened just after 4 a.m. Local time, the Turkish authorities said. There were no immediate reports of deaths, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said. In Duzce, electricity was cut off and schools were closed for security reasons, the provincial governor said. People were injured when they ran out of buildings and jumped from balconies in panic, the governor of the nearby city of Bolu said. Exit TRT Haber. More than 50 people are said to have been injured. The US Geological Survey recorded the earthquake as a magnitude 6. Dozens of aftershocks were reported in the hours that followed. The Turkish Red Crescent said it was helping reside...

  Turkey stated on Thursday that it needed to hold family members with Israel irrespective of the election final results as worries had been voiced in neighbouring Arab international locations over Benjamin Netanyahu's possibly go back to electricity . Early polls on Thursday morning counseled the previous high minister changed into set to be elected.  "Whatever the election result, we need to hold family members with Israel on a sustainable basis, primarily based totally on mutual recognize for sensitivities and not unusualplace interests," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan advised Turkish broadcaster ATV. his year, Israeli President Isaac Herzog travelled to Ankara withinside the first go to to Turkey via way of means of an Israeli chief considering that 2008. Mr Netanyahu seems probable to benefit electricity with one of the maximum right-wing coalitions in Israel's history, elevating worries amongst Palestinians and a f...

  We all love good news and this kind of progress is worth sharing. It’s how I observed that countries develop and arrive at their maximum capacity exclusively by common collaboration, particularly in reality as we know it where Internet and innovation assume focal part being developed. The UAE- Turkey relations are on the cusp of a significant jump as Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan showed up in Abu Dhabi for a two-day state visit. His excursion to the UAE follows a visit to Ankara by His Highness Sheik Mohamed receptacle Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces in November 2021. Mohammed meets Erdogan, says UAE-Turkey economic relations hold great prospects https://t.co/jWql1EuGAd — Gulf Today (@gulftoday) February 16, 2022   Subsequent to encountering quiet for some time, the UAE-Turkey relations have seen a tremendous increase after the milestone visit by the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince. The two nation...

European countries are committed to maintaining an agreement with Turkey on refugees and do not exclude the provision of greater financial assistance to Ankara.   This was stated at a press conference in Berlin by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, commenting on the videoconference talks that took place on Tuesday between her, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.   "We also discussed the topic of migration. Today, negotiations were held between the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and the European Union’s diplomacy Josep  Borrell. Here we do not lead the negotiations, but we clearly spoke out for maintaining the agreement between the EU and Turkey," Merkel noted.  "We also expressed our readiness to provide more financial assistance if necessary," she said.   According to the Chancellor, one should not “lose sight” of the possibility of negotiations with Ankara on the issue...

The Libyan National Army (LNA) spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari confirmed that a new shipment of weapons arrived at Misrata port from Turkey last week revealing that the cargo would have already been unloaded and reached the militias affiliated to the Government of National Accord (GNA) south of Misurata and Garabulli where violent clashes are still ongoing. The weapons and equipment arriving from Turkey to Misrata today aim at supporting the combat capabilities of terrorist organizations and armed gangs in the western region, Ahmed al-Mismari said. On Friday the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed for the first time that a number of Turkish soldiers had been killed in Libya. After revealing the presence of Syrian fighters among members of the Libyan military personnel training force, Erdogan announced the death of several of his soldiers in Tripoli. “Turkey is there in Libya with a training force. There are also people from the Syrian National Army,” Erdogan t...

Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not realize that his repressive policies towards the people and the violation of human rights are exposed to the countries of the world, until everyone described his statements on democracy as a political game, especially after his authorities arrested all opponents of him during the past years. This is confirmed by the report issued by the American human rights organization "Advocates of Silenced Turkey", which highlighted the mass arrests and torture in Turkey since the alleged coup attempt on July 15, 2016, revealing deaths due to torture. According to the American report, Turkish prisons currently contain more than 100,000 detainees, stressing the occurrence of torture and crimes of mistreatment systematically for the detainees who were arrested during the validity of the state of emergency since the coup in 2016 and for two years, indicating that most of the facts are documented By local and international human rights institutions. ...

Trump has indeed toppled the pillar of faith for the Palestinians; and in doing so, he has also forced the Middle Eastern leadership to side with him. What was earlier expected to become a part of the Palestinian bloc, has been given away to Israel. The leadership in Israel is quickly moving to concretize the plans stated in the Peace Proposal presented by Donald Trump this week. According to the new plan, the West Bank land will now be with Israel and not Palestine, a right that the latter had been rightfully asserting for a long time. Backed then by the Arab and Middle Eastern leadership, Palestine has been wishing for all Israeli forces to be removed and Palestine be given its sovereignty by acknowledging an independent Palestinian state with parts of East Jerusalem as its capital. But there has been a sad turnaround, with Arab leaders now siding with the new American plan, giving more teeth to Israel, something which will seem to work well for them to unite efforts ag...

The Peace Summit in Berlin is now seeing headway with the UN deciding to keep an arms embargo in Libya. Organised by the United Nations, leaders from Russia, France, Germany and the likes assembled in Berlin to pledge an end to all foreign involvement in the conflict in Libya. It was interesting to see Turkish presence at the summit, the main protagonist currently at Tripoli who has stationed its military personnel to support the UN recognized government in Tripoli. Macron has expressed deep concerns over this kind of ‘foreign’ involvement both in Syria and Libya. The UN has stated that the main concern currently is to curb the interference of foreign powers who wield influence in the region. It is imperative they stop supplying weapons, troops or finance — either to the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli or the rival Libya National Army (LNA) led by eastern military strongman Khalifa Haftar. The direct indication has been made to Erdogan’s recent penetr...

On Sunday, while speaking to London-based Al-Araby Al-Jadeed and Lebanon-based Al-Mudun, Qatar’s foreign minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, expressed his country’s indebtedness towards Turkey, especially for its support during the Arab boycott. Qatar faced economic blockade from the the regional powers, including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Bahrain, over its ties with terror groups including Brotherhood, Hamas (Brotherhood’s Palestinians wing) ISIS and Al Qaeda. Al Thani said, “Turkey has supported the people of Qatar in a very tough time when our neighbours acted against us and some other countries left us alone as a result of political pressure. Therefore, we will never forget this stance and we will side with them in the face of any difficulty." Al Thani told reporters, “Turkey is one of the leading countries that we prioritize our relations. We are in a consensus about many issues that we share the same political opinion on. One of them is to assist the Syria...

Ahmed Kamel Erozan, head of international relations of the opposition Turkish Al-Kheir party, said that the real reason for Turkey’s support of the so-called Libyan National Accord Government is lobbying for the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organization 1, as it is the last in the region.   “If the existing government of Libya (LNA) is a legitimate government, the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria is also legal.   Let the PNS go to Assad and shake his hand, ”Erosan said in an interview, commenting on the statement by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about additional military support to the Libyan LNA   militants.   in late November, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the head of the Libyan NA, Fayez Sarraj, signed agreements on military cooperation and the demarcation of maritime borders.   Most countries found such actions by leaders illegal, as the memorandum not only affects the interests of other countries, but also...

Donald Trump has finally signed the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), something that has become a great worry to Turkey. Turkey is now worried about the future of its gas pipeline project with RussiaIt is believed that the move will affect the nearly finished Nord Stream 2, which runs from Russia to Germany, and TurkStream, a Russian pipeline that traverses the Black Sea to Turkey. The act was passed as The US House of Representatives and Senate Arms Services Committee could come to a consensus on December 10. It had a purposeful clause of sanctioning Russia. According to this new act, the US now gets to decide how it uses its military resources regionally and its relations with other countries. So, as a part of the new NDAA, its first step is to impose sanctions related to Russia’s Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream pipelines and also bar military-to-military cooperation with Russia.  The result has been that the Swiss-Dutch company Allseas has promptly ann...

The possibilities for the practical implementation of the memorandum of understanding on the issue of marine zones, which Ankara and Tripoli signed, should be blocked.   This conclusion was reached by the President of Cyprus Nikos Anastasiadis and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during a telephone conversation between them on Thursday, which was reported by the official representative of the Cypriot government Kiriyakos Kushos.   According to the latter, al-Sisi condemned the memorandum, saying that this document does not have legal status, and agreed with Anastasiadis that "all necessary measures should be taken to stop the implementation of the provisions of the illegal agreement."   According to Kushos, the President of Egypt also told the head of Cyprus that a possible Turkish military presence in Libya would destabilize the region.   Anastasiadis and Al-Sisi also agreed that the foreign ministers of the three allied countries - Cyprus, Egypt...