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Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left) issending a stern warning to US President Donald Trump (right) over US support for Kurdish fighters whom Ankara tags as terrorists. INQUIRER FILES

ISTANBUL, Turkey By launching air strikes against Syrian Kurdish fighters and threatening more action, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seeking to send a tough message to Donald Trump in the hope of bringing about a major U-turn in US Syria policy.

Turkey last week bombed targets of the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) in Syria, earning the wrath of its Nato ally Washington and on Sunday Erdogan warned more action could be imminent.

We can come unexpectedly in the night, said Erdogan. We are not going to tip off the terror groups and the Turkish Armed Forces could come at any moment.

The YPG has been seen by the United States as the best ally on the ground in the fight against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) jihadists in Syria and Trump has inherited a policy from Barack Obama of actively supporting the group.

But Ankara says the YPG is a terror outfit and the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who have waged an insurgency since 1984 inside Turkey that has left tens of thousands dead.

Analysts say the dispute will be the number one issue when Erdogan meets Trump for the first time as president on May 16 in the United States. Failing to resolve the problem could seriously harm US efforts to destroy ISIS in Syria.

The strikes are manifestly a sign of impatience by Turkey and part of a long line of appeals telling the US to stop supporting the YPG, said Jean Marcou, professor at Sciences Po Grenoble and associate researcher at the French Institute of Anatolian Studies.

Since Trumps election, Turkey had indicated it wanted a change in US policy on the YPG support. But in reality Erdogan has obtained nothing for now, he said.

The cooperation between Washington and the YPG, which saw the United States send a limited number of forces to work with the group, led to bitter tensions between Ankara and Washington in the dying months of the Obama administration.

The US backed the formation of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), dominated by the YPG but also including Arab fighters, yet Ankara contends it is merely a front from the Kurdish group.

In an unusual move after days of border clashes between the Turkish army and YPG that followed the air strikes, the US sent military vehicles to the Syrian side of the frontier to carry out patrols in an apparent bid to prevent further fighting.

Erdogan said the sight of American flags in the convoy alongside YPG insignia had seriously saddened Turkey.

The Turkish president, fresh from winning the controversial April 16 referendum on enhancing his powers, has indicated that the rewards for Washington in breaking up with the YPG could be high by spurring Turkish involvement in a joint operation to take the ISIS fiefdom of Raqa.

Together the United States can turn Raqa into a graveyard for Daesh (ISIS), Erdogan said on Saturday.

But Ankara has made clear it will have nothing to do with any operation involving the YPG and analysts say Turkey could even be a threat to a Raqa operation if it is not included.

Washington was reluctant to launch the Raqa operation before Turkeys April 16 referendum to avoid potential complications with Ankara, said Aykan Erdemir, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

He said the Turkish air strikes which were combined with strikes against the PKK in Iraq brought another unanticipated challenge to coalition efforts against the jihadists.

Tensions among coalition members have been one of the key factors for the Islamic States continued survival, he said.

The International Crisis Group (ICG) said in its latest report on the Syria crisis that the US had a singular dilemma on the future of its relationship with the YPG

It said the YPG is indispensable to defeat ISIS but there is also no avoiding the fact that the US is backing a force led by PKK-trained cadres in Syria while the PKK itself continues an insurgency against a Nato ally.

It said that Turkey had pressed ahead with the air strikes despite US objections and this should serve as a warning for what could lie in store.

But it said while the YPG was counting on American and also Russian support as a bulwark against Turkey, the importance of the country will mean Trump will have an ear for Erdogans concerns.

Ultimately Washington will likely view relations with Turkey - a Nato member and critical ally - as more important to its broader strategic interests, it said. CBB/rga

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Original post:
Erdogan sends Trump stern message on Syrian Kurds - Inquirer.net

3 hours ago.

The decision of New Delhis Jamia Millia Islamia to confer an honorary doctorate on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is extremely disturbing. The fact that he is not an academic is not the basis for the protests against the decision: there have been numerous occasions when personalities who are not professional academics have been recognised by universities for their work. Around the world, actors, business persons, journalists, writers and politicians have been honoured by universities for their achievements.

This is done on the premise that they have chosen excellence as their pursuit and have made the world more humane through their work. These are the two values universities seek to inculcate in a society: excellence and humanity.

The university seeks to teach young people to do things with perfection. Success cannot be a matter of chance: things have to be done methodically. Training in method is important for scholarship. Even more important is the love or passion for the work that has been chosen as vocation. We gain our individuality at universities but also learn that knowledge cannot be created in isolation.

Universities value these principles and go out of the confines of their campuses to invite people who embody them. They seek to make them exemplars for their young scholars. This is the reason for the Dalai Lama or cricketer Rahul Dravid being honoured by universities. These people have made the world a better place, more beautiful, inviting and exciting. They give young people reason to believe in the possibilities of life. The business of scholarship or knowledge is also a quest for this possibility.

No doubt, Erdogan is also a successful man. He is the head of a state. He has just secured for himself a mandate from the people of Turkey that gives him sweeping powers and makes it possible for him to be their dictator.

However, under Erdogan, scholarship and the creation of knowledge has become a risky business. Under his leadership, Turkey has become one of the most dangerous places in the world for students, teachers and researchers. After thwarting a coup attempt in July, Erdogan ordered a crackdown on schools and universities (along with institutions in several other sectors, including the military, media, civil service, police and judiciary) on suspicions of having links with Fethullah Gulen, an exiled Islamic cleric living in the US whom Erdogan believes was behind the coup.

More than 1,300 teachers in universities across Turkey have been identified and penalised in different ways. Criminal cases have been filed against them and many have been jailed. Hundreds of teachers have been dismissed and expelled. Scholars from other countries who have lived and taught in the universities of Turkey for more than quarter of a century have been asked to leave the country.

In Turkey, education and higher education in particular has traditionally been under strict state control. There are areas that scholars cannot even touch. But under Erdogan, things have taken a dangerous turn. After the coup attempt, a shadow of suspicion has engulfed Turkish society. Educational institutions are being targeted because Gullens network runs its own chain of institutions. Erdogan fears that conspirators are hiding in these institutions and other universities as well. As a consequence, he has closed down thousands of them and put others under strict vigil.

But if one looks at the record of academic freedom in Turkey before the attempted coup, it becomes clear that suspected conspiracy against the elected government is only a new cover to impose such restrictions. In a piece titled Why Turkeys government is threatening academic freedom, the Washington Post reported in January last year:

Emboldened by his partys electoral victory in November, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has set out on a crusade against academics. After 1,128 academicssigned a petitionto the Turkish government imploring an end to the violence in southeastern Turkey, prosecutorslauncheda criminal investigation against all signatories. University administrations have begun investigating these academics, who have in some cases beendetained orsuspended.

The peace petition asked the Turkish government to stop persecuting the Kurdish population. All the signatories were declared to be enemies of the Turkish state.

The article explained that this persecution of the academics had to be seen in the wider context of Erdogans attempt to bring higher education under his control. The article states that the Council of Higher Education, under which all the universities come, enforced a regulation which gave it powers to take over private universities (called foundation universities in Turkey), suspend their activities, and even shut down an entire university indefinitely on the grounds of violations against the indivisible integrity of the Turkish state. Such violations can be triggered by failure to provide YK [the Council] with documentation for its inspections.

Calls have been made to raze universities to the ground and shower in the blood of dissenters. Erdogan has also been contemptuous of intellectuals . The signatories of the petition asking for peace have been called fifth columns of foreign powers and so-called intellectuals.

It is time for the academic community world wide to stand in solidarity with their Turkish fellows. How can they do that? At the very least, they could show their disapproval for the man responsible for this atrocity. Globalisation of a different kind is the necessity of our times, one that creates an international community of justice and peace.

Honouring state leaders is often not the decision of the universities, they do it on behalf of their governments. But diplomacy is not the business of universities. They do create friendship among nations and different peoples but not by being agents of their states.

We should also ask: why Jamia and not Delhi University? Is it because an Islamist dictator can be honoured only by an Islamic institution? Have we forgotten how a smear campaign was launched against Jamia and Aligarh Muslim University, calling them dens of terrorists, by those who hold power today?

Why are the teachers and students of Jamia silent? Why is the larger academic community of India unwilling to even take note of this decision?

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By conferring a doctorate on Erdogan, Jamia is celebrating a regime that attacks academic freedom - Scroll.in

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday that the May Day would be an occasion for talking about workers problems and exploring possible solutions.

In his May 1 message issued ahead of International Labor Day, Erdogan said he hoped the occasion would strengthen work, peace and unity while warning against what he called provocations, Anadolu Agency reports.

Erdogan described the day as a symbol of workers democratic, peaceful quest for their rights.

"I am pleased that every sector of society is expressing their views on democratic platforms," the president said, adding that talks to solve problems should be characterized by mutual dialogue and reconciliation.

May 1 is celebrated by many labor unions and workers worldwide. May Day is an official holiday in many countries, including Turkey.

This year, demonstrations in Istanbul have been allowed to take place in an open market area in the Bakirkoy district on the city's European side.

However, gatherings in the city's famous Taksim Square site have been banned by the authorities.

According to a statement issued by the Istanbul Governor's Office, the annual celebration of workers' rights will see tight security measures across the city.

More than 30,000 police officers will be on duty across Turkey's largest city, the statement said.

Public transport will be also affected, with several roads to Bakirkoy closed to traffic. Taksims metro station will be also shut down.

News.Az

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Erdogan stresses work, peace in May Day message - News.Az

A laptop computer displays Wikipedia's front page showing a darkened logo on January 18, 2012 in London, England.

Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

The Turkish government, known to censor social media sites in the country, blocked access to Wikipedia, a media watchdog organization reported Saturday. The government blocked the user-written online encyclopedia under the auspices of a law allowing the government to take down sites it considers obscene or a threat to national security. The state-run Anadolu news agency reported that Wikipedia was running a smear campaign against the Turkish government. Wikipedia refused to take down content that suggested government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in cahoots with terrorist organizations, according to Al Jazeera, prompting the site to be blocked temoporarily.

The move was condemned by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales:

The Erdogan regime is in the midst of a systemic crackdown on dissent in the country and the removal of Wikipedia, one of the most visited websites on the internet, again raises concerns about access to information and freedom of speech. Erdogan has in the past blocked a host of social media sitesincluding Facebook and Twitteras well as YouTube and WhatsApp. The AK Party has accelerated its efforts to centralize power and control around Erdogan, its leader. The government has jailed dozens of journalists and shut down news organizations it considers unfriendly to the regime, citing security concerns and often leveling charges of aiding and abetting terrorism.

Along with the media crackdown, Erdogan has stepped up the Turkish governments offensive on minority Kurdish groups in the country, which it considers terrorist organizations, as well as the followers of U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen. Tens of thousands of civil servantsfrom professors to judges and police officershave been removed from the state bureaucracy over fears of a deep state. The ramshackle July 2016 coup attempt was pinned on Gulen and his followers, the Gulenists, and has been used to justify the sweeping crackdown at all levels of Turkish society.

On Saturday, the government purged 4,000 more officials from the state bureaucracy and, [i]n another restriction announced this weekend, the government decreed that television channels could no longer broadcast dating programs, a staple on Turkish daytime television and a major source of advertising revenue, according to the New York Times. The shows had been criticized by people from across the countrys liberal-conservative divide, with over 120,000 people signing a petition against the format.

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Turkey Blocks Access to Wikipedia as Its Assault on Dissent and Free Speech Continues - Slate Magazine (blog)

April 28, 2017 Updated: April 28, 2017 2:04pm

Photo: Lefteris Pitarakis, AP

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, gestures as he delivers a speech at an Atlantic Council event in Istanbul, Friday, April 28, 2017.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, gestures as he delivers a speech at an Atlantic Council event in Istanbul, Friday, April 28, 2017.

Erdogan: 'Fresh page' for US relations with Trump

ISTANBUL (AP) Turkey's president says a "fresh page" in Turkish-American relations can be opened with President Donald Trump's administration, as high-level dialogue has intensified since January.

Speaking in Istanbul on Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he sees "signs that Mr. Trump will exhibit a more decisive stance than the previous administration in terms of combatting terror."

Erdogan repeated his criticism of the U.S. alliance with Syrian Kurdish militias that Turkey deems "terrorists."

He says that giving the Kurds concrete support "is damaging the spirit of alliance and partnership."

Erdogan adds: "Now Turkey, the Free Syrian Army, along with the coalition led by America, can clear these 2,500-5,000 terrorists. It's not difficult for us and we would succeed."

Erdogan and Trump are scheduled to meet in Washington on May 16.

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Erdogan: 'Fresh page' for US relations with Trump - San Francisco Chronicle