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Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on US President Joe Biden to reverse a decision to name the 1915 massacreof Armenians by the former Ottoman Empire genocide,warning that the declaration would harm bilateral ties.

In a statement on April 24, Biden honored all those Armenians who perished in the genocide that began 106 years ago today,becomingthe first US president to formally refer to the killings as genocide.

The US president has made baseless, unjust and untrue remarks about the sad events that took place in our geography over a century ago, Erdogan said after a cabinet meeting onMonday.

I hope the US president will turn back from this wrong step as soon as possible, he added.

Erdogan stressed that the move would hinder ties, advising the United States to look in the mirror.

If you say genocide, then you need to look at yourselves in the mirror and make an evaluation. The Native Americans, I dont even need to mention them, what happened is clear, he said, in reference to the treatment of indigenous people by European settlers at the end of the 15th century as they colonized North America.

According to a team at University College London, back then, some 55 million indigenous people died during the European conquest of America.

The majority of the deaths occurred by diseases brought over from Europe. War, slavery, and displacement also contributed to the decline of the populations of the indigenous community.

Erdogan said, While all these truths are out there, you cannot pin the genocide accusation on the Turkish people.

The Turkish president said his country still sought to establish good neighborly ties with Armenia, reiterating his call on Turkish and Armenian historians to form a joint commission to investigate the events in 1915.

Erdogan also contested the death toll and said some 150,000 people had been killed, as opposed to the roughly 1.5 millionArmenia says were massacred.

The toll was exaggerated by adding a zero to the end, he said.

Ankara acknowledges that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces duringWorld War Onebut denies that the killings were systematically orchestrated and constitute genocide.

Turkey also argues that such accusations do not take into account the number of the Turkish deaths during the conflict.

On Sunday, Erdogans spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Ankara would respond to Bidens simply outrageous statement in coming days and months.

According to Turkeys Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop, Turkish lawmakers are due to respond to Bidens remarks on Wednesday.

Bidens decision came amid already strained ties between Ankara and Washington over a host of issues, including Turkeys acquisition of Russian S-400 missile defense systems.

Erdogan said he expected to open the door for a new period in relations and to discuss all disputes with Biden at a NATO summit in June, but warned of a further deterioration in ties unless the allies can compartmentalize issues.

Earlier on Monday, angry Turks gathered outside the American consulate in Istanbul to protest Bidens statement.

The demonstrators chanted slogans such as Genocide is a lie, its an American plan,and also called for an end to the American militarys use of the Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey.

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Erdogan to Biden: US must look in mirror before accusing ...

Devlet Bahceli, leader of the M.H.P., one of the right-wing nationalist groups allied with Mr. Erdogan, denied any links to the mafia in comments on Tuesday.

Mr. Peker is not the only one with allegations of dirt against the government. Mr. Erdogans political opponents, sensing his growing vulnerability, have sought to expose allegations of corruption or abuse of power at every turn.

But Mr. Peker, with as many as four million viewers tuning in to his rambling, hourlong videos, is by far the most trenchant and damaging.

Among the unproven accusations he has tossed out are the illegal seizure of a marina by a government insider and the subsequent use of it for drug trafficking; the death of a woman who filed a complaint of sexual assault against a well-placed A.K.P. lawmaker; and even crimes that he said he committed himself at the behest of senior officials, such as instigating the assault of a former A.K.P. lawmaker, threatening university academics who signed a peace petition, and aiding Mr. Soylu, the interior minister, in his rivalry against Mr. Albayrak, Mr. Erdogans son-in-law.

Many of the allegations were directed against the former interior minister, Mr. Agar, and his son, who have both rejected the claims as baseless. The police have said that the woman who filed the sexual assault case had died in a suicide.

In an interview with the Turkish daily Cumhuriyet, Fikri Saglar, a former lawmaker, said, We can call this the second Susurluk incident. Mr. Saglar was a member of the parliamentary committee that investigated the 1990s scandal.

It may be more serious, he added. Susurluk was like the foundations of exposing relations between politicians-mafia-the state, now traces of what this establishment has been doing are revealed.

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Claims From an Organized Crime Boss Rock Turkeys Government - The New York Times

GAZA CITY:As a ceasefire took hold in Gaza on Saturday, Palestinians began to count the cost of Israels 11-day war.

Airstrikes and artillery shelling destroyed or damaged nearly 17,000 homes and businesses, 53 schools, six hospitals, four mosques, and 50 percent of Gazas water supply infrastructure, leaving 800,000 people without regular access to clean piped water.

Naji Sarhan, an official at Gazas Works and Housing Ministry, estimated the financial losses from the Israeli attacks at $150 million. However, it is the human cost that is the most devastating. The Israeli onslaught killed at least 248 Palestinians, including 66 children, and a refugee agency in Gaza has launched a special program to help young people traumatized by the violence.

Among them are the survivors of a devastating Israeli attack last week on Al-Wehda Street in Gaza City, in which at least 42 people were killed and more than 50 were injured. Three sisters Hala, Yara and Rola Al-Kulak and their father Muhammad died under the rubble of their home, which, along with several others on Al-Wehda Street in Gaza City, was hit by Israeli airstrikes, leaving at least 42 killed and more than 50 wounded. The mother of the three daughters, Dalal, and her only son, Abdullah, aged just 2, survived.

Abdullah and Dalal have been in shock since the airstrikes, Dalals father, Ahmed Al-Maghribi, told Arab News. His daughter is being treated with sedatives. Sometimes she does not believe that she lost her husband and daughters, while at other times she asks why they killed them, he said.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said in a statement that the three sisters and eight other children out of the 60 who lost their lives in the first week of the war were participating in its psychological and social program aimed at helping them deal with trauma.

The children, aged 5 to 15, were killed in their homes in densely populated areas along with countless relatives, according to the council.

We were shocked to learn that eight children we were helping were bombed while they were at home and thought they were safe ... They are now gone, killed with their families, buried with their dreams and the nightmares that haunt them, said NRC Secretary-General Jan Egeland.

HIGHLIGHTS

Hundreds of Hamas fighters paraded in Gaza and the groups top leader made his first public appearance on Saturday, in a defiant show of strength.

Several thousands marched on Saturday in France, Britain and Pakistan in support of Palestinians.

The UN Security Council calls for the full adherence to the ceasefire.

Qatar will pursue efforts to stop Israeli aggression against Palestinians and Al-Aqsa Mosque with concerned parties, emir tells President Abbas.

Dalal was very attached to her daughters. She gave them a lot of attention that helped them in school, Al-Maghrabi told Arab News.

Hudhaifa Al-Yaziji, director of the NRC in Gaza, said the organization works with 118 schools in the Gaza Strip, and that their psychological and social services reach more than 75,000 students as part of the Better Learning Program.Al-Yaziji believes that the war will increase the number of children and students who need psychological and social interventions.

He told Arab News that Al-Kulaks children and others who were killed were receiving the councils services to deal with previous traumas they suffered as a result violence endured in Gaza. Al-Yaziji said that the most prominent symptom that requires treatment is nightmares.Sumaya Habib, a doctor at the Ministry of Health, and a team of specialists are busy treating children traumatized from previous Israeli wars and rounds of violence.

Habib told Arab News that the current war has been extremely harsh and will have negative effects on the majority of the children in Palestine.She believes that children like Abdullah Al-Kulak, who escaped with his mother from under the rubble, will have more severe traumas.According to Habib, the mental scars that will affect children have many forms, most notably the loss of sense of safety and security, panic attacks and aggression. For females, they will lose, in varying degrees, a part of their femininity and display violent characteristics and practices.The council said 80 percent of Gazan students had a positive outlook for the future in 2019, but by September 2020, that had dropped to just 29 percent.The war will make more children lose their positive outlook on the future, as they see death with every raid and with every explosion, Habib said.

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Erdogan rivals surge in polls ahead of 2023 Turkey election - Arab News

On June 20, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan will go to the Occupied Territories of Cyprus in order to announce, as he stated, an essential message to the whole world.

What is it?

Erdoan curses Austria and starts a new vendetta with U.S. President Joe Biden, as, according to the Turkish president, his American counterpart has bloody hands in Palestine.

On the other hand, the only protector of the Palestinians, the supreme leader of the Muslims, is going to send an essential message to Turkish-speaking Cypriots on June 20, during his visit to Occupied Cyprus.

The message will be addressed to the whole world!

Do not be surprised if you soon receive good news about gas and oil fields in the Eastern Mediterranean, Erdoan said.

Analysts link the statement to energy deposits found in the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the plan to create a maritime border with Palestine at the expense of Cypriot maritime space, something deniedby the Palestinian ambassador to Greece.

What is happening is that, having distanced himself from the West, Erdogan wants to emerge as a leader of the Muslim world, a diplomatic source told Sputnik Hellas.

Since 2009-2010, he has taken positions in favor of Gaza and the Palestinians, the source said, adding: Let us not forget that the ship to Gaza started from Istanbul.

So dont expect him to announce anything serious from the Occupied Territories, the source estimated.

Curses may erupt, the source concluded.

However, this view is also shared by influential Turkish academic lhan Uzgel..

The Palestine is a great theme to the Turkish president to boost declining public support, he said.

What he is seeking at the moment is to strengthen his profile regionally by presenting himself as the only Muslim leader to support the Palestinian cause, he continued, adding: But I do not think that will work.

If he is going to announce something resounding, it may be a leak in the Turkish media, namely the declaration of the Gaza EEZ with Turkey.

READ MORE: Erdoan: Others are jealous of Turkey, we have a drone base in Cyprus.

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What is Erdoan's upcoming "message to the world" he will deliver from occupied Cyprus? - - GreekCityTimes.com

Ankara wants to improve ties with Riyadh after relations were rocked by Khashoggi murder by Saudi hit squad in Istanbul.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Saudi Arabias King Salman bin Abdulaziz have discussed bilateral ties in a call, the second conversation between the two leaders in less than a month.

In a brief statement late on Tuesday, Turkeys communications directorate said the two leaders evaluated matters on issues affecting both countries and steps to be taken to further the cooperation.

Turkey is seeking to improve ties with Saudi Arabia after they were thrown into crisis by the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by a Saudi hit squad inside the kingdoms consulate in Istanbul.

Last year, Saudi businessmen endorsed an unofficial boycott of Turkish goods in response to what they called hostility from Ankara, slashing the value of trade by 98 percent.

Erdogans spokesman Ibrahim Kalin last month said that Erdogan and King Salman had a good call in April and that the foreign ministers of the two countries had agreed to meet.

Tuesdays conversation came a day before a meeting between Turkish and Egyptian officials in Cairo, the latest step in Turkeys push to mend relations with another United States-allied Arab power.

Turkey said in March it had started talks with Egypt to try to improve relations which collapsed after Egypts army overthrew a democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood president close to Turkey in 2013, in what Ankara said was a military coup.

Egypts restoration of ties with Qatar, after a four-year Gulf blockade along with the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, has also boosted efforts towards more regional diplomacy.

Cairo has not appeared to share the same level of enthusiasm for rapprochement as Turkey. Words are not enough, they must be matched by deeds, Egypts Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry had said in March.

Theres a great deal of mistrust fuelled by eight years of open hostility, and so Egypt feels hesitant, said Nael Shama, the author of a book on Egypts foreign policy under deposed leaders Mohamed Morsi and Hosni Mubarak.

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Turkeys Erdogan and Saudi King Salman discuss ties over phone - Al Jazeera English