urkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed on Thursday to improve strained ties between the two countries following months-long tensions between Ankara and Berlin.
According to Cologne police, rallies by PKK-affiliated organization NAV-DEM scheduled for today (Thursday) in Cologne and Leverkusen were forbidden due to repeated violations of the law and crimes committed by members of the group in recent weeks.
n Monday 12 February, the Turkish Armed Forces announced that a total of 1,369 PKK/KCK/PYD-YPG and Daesh terrorists have been “neutralized” since the launch of Operation Olive Branch in Syria’s Afrin region.
elations between Turkey and Europe were already strained and policies adopted by several European countries in regards to the July 15 coup attempt led to more of a crisis between Ankara and the western bloc.
he military operation Turkey launched in Afrin, Operation Olive Branch, officially kicked off on 20 January with air raids conducted by Turkish jets against the terror group, the PKK, and its Syrian offshoot, the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
he PKK’s Syrian branch, the Democratic Union Party (Partiya Yekîtiya Demokrat, PYD) has been elevated to the status of a major political actor just across the Turkish border.
ublished by the SETA Foundation and written by Sadik Unay and Serif Dilek, “Neo-Protectionism and Trade Wars” seeks to address neo-protectionist measures that have emerged following the Global Financial Crisis.
egardless of the fact that theEuropean Union recognizes the PKK as a terrorist organization, the bloc has continuously remained silent to Turkey’s concerns.
hile there were important developments transpiring in the cryptocurrency market throughout the last year, Bitcoin was the most prominent among these currencies.
urkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared the imminent start of the Afrin operation in order to cleanse part of its southern border from PKK-affiliated YPG terrorists.
n Wednesday 20 January, head of the Union of European Turkish Democrats (UETD) and former European Parliament member Zafer Sarikaya stated how Turkey’s military activity in Afrin is important for the security of Europe.
he significance of the Afrin operation for Turkey must be evaluated through two main aspects: The place of the operation in Turkey’s counter-terror efforts and Ankara’s role in the regional geopolitical equation.
ollowing Operation Euphrates Shield (OES), Turkey brought a new dimension to its military activity in Syria in order to minimize the PKK’s strength in northern Syria and to “de-territorialize” the terrorist group in the middle term.
urkey has been in a long on-going preparation process for an extensive military operation against the PYD/YPG, which the country deems as a threat to both its own national security and to the territorial integrity of Syria.