Tracking Turkey for the month of July ...

and waiting for the day Karma slaps Erdogan for what he has done to his neighbour Syria.

Erdogan slams CHP as opposition march nears Istanbul
CHP leader is marching to Istanbul where party member is jailed for leaking information on Syria arms transports.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticised Turkey's main opposition party over its protest march launched after a party deputy got 25 years in prison for espionage.
Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu began the march after the jailing of CHP lawmaker Enis Berberoglu, who was jailed for leaking information on the transportation of arms to Syria.....

Erdogan says Turkey to build aircraft carriers
Turkish President Erdogan talked on Monday about the future of Turkish defence industry and the aim to make the country self-sufficient in 2023.
Turkey's President Recep Tayipp Erdogan said the country was aiming to become militarily self-sufficient and said it would not be long before the country built its own aircraft carrier.
Erdogan made the comments during a speech at a naval ceremony to launch the locally manufactured Kinaliada Corvette in Tuzla near Istanbul.
The corvette was locally manufactured under Turkey's MILGEM project. MILGEM is an abbreaviation in Turkish for "national ship."
“We will build our own aircraft carriers,” he said....

Turkish forces kill 270 PKK terrorists in June
23 soldiers martyred and 48 injured in counter-terrorism operations last month
Turkish security forces killed 270 PKK terrorists in nationwide counter-terrorism operations in June, according to official data compiled by Anadolu Agency.
During air and ground operations, 23 security personnel were martyred and 48 are currently seeking treatment for injuries they received while on duty.
Security forces arrested 111 terror suspects during the operations. Meanwhile, 118 PKK shelters were destroyed in the southeastern Hakkari, Sirnak, Mardin, Diyarbakir and Siirt provinces......

Turkey's pro-Kurd party chief refuses to attend court in handcuffs
Selahattin Demirtas, co-chairman of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, said proposal to handcuff him was "illegal and immoral".
ANKARA - The jailed co-leader of Turkey's third largest political party refused to attend court on Friday because officers wanted to handcuff him on the way to the hearing....

Dutch govt opposes Turkish deputy PM visit
Government says plans by Turkes or any member of Turkish government to visit Netherlands 'undesirable'.
The Dutch government on Friday expressed opposition to plans by Turkey's deputy Prime Minister Tugrul Turkes to visit The Netherlands to address a gathering marking last year's failed military coup....

Huge protest against Erdogan


Turkey protest: Istanbul rally concludes anti-Erdogan march
Tens of thousands of people have gathered in Istanbul at the end of a 450km (280-mile) protest march against the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
More and more people have joined the "justice" march since it began in the capital Ankara on 15 June.
They are demonstrating against the mass dismissals and imprisonments that followed last year's failed coup.
President Erdogan has accused the marchers of supporting terrorism.
He said the Republican People's Party (CHP) - which has organised the march - had gone beyond political opposition and was "acting with terrorist organisations and the forces inciting them against our country". ...

Germany starts pulling out troops from Turkish base
German defense authorities have finally ordered the start of withdrawal of troops from a base in southern Turkey after the two countries failed to settle disputes on how Berlin could access the base.
A German defense ministry spokesman said Sunday that the pull-out had begun earlier in the day, adding that a German air tanker refueller left Incirlik for a new air base in Jordan.
The official said that German tornado jets were scheduled to be deployed in the Jordanian base by October. He said the jets were due to keep operating out of Incirlik at least until the end of July as Germany continues to contribute to an alleged military fight against Daesh in Iraq and Syria, an operation which is led by the United States. German authorities would move the necessary material to Jordan in the meantime, the official added....

Terrorism: 5,000 foreign IS terrorists arrested in Turkey: French 804, Russians 435 pic.twitter.com/8xOidALLs3
via @OlivierGuitta

— MESP (@mestrate) July 12, 2017

Germany Warns Its Citizens: They Risk Arrest If Traveling To Turkey
Escalation of the diplomatic row between Berlin and Ankara ended in a clear message. Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel warned German citizens that they risk arrest if they travel to Turkey.
Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Germany had revised its travel advice in the wake of the recent arrests of several human rights activists, including German national Peter Steudtner.

Turkey formally arrests producer of Erdogan film 
A Turkish court ordered the formal arrest of a film producer after he made a controversial movie showing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held at gunpoint in a bloody coup d'etat, reports said Wednesday.
Ali Avci was detained by police last week on suspicion of links to the group blamed by Ankara for the -- real life -- failed coup in July 2016 that tried to overthrow Erdogan.....

Turkey's Erdogan tells Germany to "pull itself together"
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Friday condemned comments by Germany's economy minister warning companies off investing in Turkey and said the country should "pull itself together" as a dispute between the NATO allies escalates.
In a speech in Istanbul, Erdogan also said that a German foreign ministry travel warning against Turkey was baseless and malicious and that the German government should give account for terrorists which he said the country was harbouring...

Turkish President Erdogan calls on all Muslims 
to 'protect' Jerusalem holy site known as Temple Mount and Noble Sanctuary
Several Israelis and Palestinians have been killed in violence sparked by Israeli decision to implement new security measures limiting Muslim access to sacred compound
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged Muslims across the world to “visit” and “protect” Jerusalem, slamming what he said was an “unacceptable” infringement on Palestinians’ rights to a holy site.
The leader’s comments on Tuesday came after days of violence sparked over access to the al-Aqsa mosque in the city’s Noble Sanctuary, known as the Temple Mount in Judaism....

Turkish MP says 'no use in teaching maths to a child who doesn't know jihad'
'Jihad comes before prayer'
A member of the Turkish parliament's national education commission has said there is no use teaching maths to students who don't know jihad.
Ahmet Hamdi Camli, a member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), praised the education ministry for including teaching the concept of jihad in the school curriculum.
Mr Camli said "jihad is Islam's most prior element," Turkish daily newspaper Haberturk reported.....