Turkey

A prominent Turkish newspaper has demanded the eviction of U.S. troops and warplanes from Incirlik Air Base as fallout there worsens from the Trump administration’s controversial move to arm a Kurdish militia fighting the Islamic State in neighboring Syria. In a front-page editorial published Friday, the newspaper Sozcu called for Incirlik’s complete closure. It’s an […]

More details on the military base that Turkey has established in Qatar were revealed when a Turkish general disclosed to a parliamentary commission that up to 600 troops will be deployed there. Brigadier General Ihsan Bulbul, deputy undersecretary of the Turkish Ministry of National Defence, told parliament’s Foreign Affairs Commission on 4 May that a […]

American forces have started patrolling the Turkey-Syria border to prevent further clashes between Turkish troops and Kurdish fighters, which could undermine the fight against Islamic State, U.S. officials said Friday. The patrols are part of a far-reaching American effort to prevent the rival forces from targeting each other as the U.S. prepares to launch a major […]

A Saudi-led coalition force of 41 countries is now taking shape and has found a focus: protecting member nations against the threat from Islamic State as the militant group’s strongholds in Iraq and Syria disintegrate. The coalition, sometimes referred to as the “Muslim NATO,” is expected to have its first substantive meeting over the next […]

The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said Russia was setting up a military base in northwestern Syria under a bilateral agreement and will help train its fighters – a step that would anger Turkey as it tries to block Kurdish gains near its borders. The Russian defense ministry, however, said it had no plans to open […]

It was graduation day for several dozen newly trained fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces, and as they broke formation, they hurried to a white pickup truck that arrived with their graduation gift from their American trainers: new AK-47 rifles, ammunition, uniforms, and boots. The class had just finished a two-week training course run by […]

The Israeli Navy is expanding cooperation with the US Navy and other NATO maritime services and eventually aims to restore professional ties with Turkey after more than six years of estrangement, an Israeli officer said Thursday. “Maybe in the future, we’ll be able to see here Turkish ships in Haifa port for mutual exercises as […]

Turkey’s purge of its military since a botched coup in July has cut its armed forces by a third, the Council of Europe said on Monday, after NATO raised concerns that Turkey’s response to the failed coup has worryingly thinned its forces. The council, Europe’s leading human rights organization with 47 member states including Turkey, […]

Turkey’s air force in September made a public appeal to hundreds of former pilots to return to its depleted ranks to replace more than 350 airmen purged after July’s failed coup. The call has largely gone unanswered, according to military officials and former pilots, as the deep divisions exposed by the coup attempt in Turkey’s […]

The U.S. Air Force will continue to fly missions out of Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, despite ongoing turmoil following a failed coup there last month, Air Force officials said Wednesday. U.S. military leaders hope to restore or create new relationships with their Turkish counterparts, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told reporters at a State of the […]