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Turkey has threatened potentially crippling restrictions on oil trading with Iraqi Kurds after they backed independence from Baghdad in a referendum that has alarmed Ankara as it faces a separatist insurgency from its own Kurdish minority.

Most oil that flows through a pipeline from Iraq to Turkey comes from Kurdish sources and a cut-off would severely damage the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), which relies on sales of crude for almost all its hard currency revenues.

Iraq’s Kurds endorsed secession by nine to one in a vote on Monday that has angered Turkey, the central government in Baghdad, and other regional and world powers who fear the referendum could lead to renewed conflict in the region.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s office said on Thursday he had been told by Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim in a call that Turkey would break with past practice and deal only with the Baghdad government over oil exports from Iraq.

So far the pipeline is operating normally despite Turkish threats to impose economic sanctions on the Kurdish autonomous region in Iraq. Turkish officials, however, have ramped up pressure on the Kurds.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin the Kurdish government “made a big mistake by holding the referendum” and must be prevented from “bigger mistakes”.

He said Turkey and Russia agreed the territorial integrity of Iraq and Syria must be preserved.

Yildirim said separately that Turkey would respond harshly to any security threat on its border after the referendum, although that was not its first choice.

Yildirim also said he agreed with Abadi to coordinate economic and trade relations with the central government in Baghdad. He said Turkey, Iran, and Iraq may meet to discuss the referendum.

Turkish government spokesman Bekir Bozdag said Turkish armed forces would stop training Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces, which protected oil fields from capture by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

With the region’s largest Kurdish population, Turkey has been battling a three-decade insurgency in its largely Kurdish southeast and fears the referendum will inflame separatist tensions at home.

The United Nations offered on Thursday to help solve the problem between the KRG and Baghdad, the Iraqi foreign ministry said following a meeting between Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari and Jan Kubis, the top UN envoy in Iraq.

The United States was willing, if asked, to help facilitate talks to try to ease tensions between the two sides, US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

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Turkey has told its citizens visiting or living in Germany to “be careful” and keep their composure against “racist and xenophobic slurs” ahead of the country’s upcoming federal elections.

“It is advised for our citizens in Germany or planning to visit this country to be even-tempered, keep themselves out of political discussions and absent themselves from rallies held by terrorist groups ahead of the elections,” said the Turkish foreign ministry in a statement published on its official website on Saturday.

It also said political leaders in Germany were using anti-Turkey rhetoric in their election campaigns and voiced the aim of blocking Turkey from becoming a member of the European Union.

“The political atmosphere in the aforementioned country is under the influence of far-right and racist propaganda,” said the ministry.

“It is worrying that a chancellor-candidate political leader in Germany has recently made statements including clear racist elements and German officials took no measure about it.”

Almost two weeks before the September 24 general elections, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her centre-left rival Martin Schulz clashed over Turkey policy in a TV debate on Sunday night.

During the televised event, Schulz made a proposal to halt Ankara’s EU membership talks and freeze €4bn ($4.68bn) in pre-accession funds.

Last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on ethnic Turks living in Germany to vote for those who are “not hostile to Turkey” in the elections.

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Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to begin his two-day trip to the Gulf in an effort to help resolve the dispute between Qatar and four other Arab states.

Erdogan is expected to arrive in Saudi Arabia’s port city of Jeddah on Sunday for a meeting with King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to his office.

He will then depart for Kuwait – the main mediator in the Gulf crisis – and later Qatar.

“We will work until the end for the solution of the dispute between the brotherly nations of the region,” he said in comments after prayers on Friday.

“Political problems are temporary, whereas economic ties are permanent, and I expect the investors from Gulf countries to choose long-term ties.”

Turkey has stood firmly by Qatar since Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties and imposed air, sea and land blockade on Doha last month.

They also issued a list of 13 demands that included closure of a newly-opened Turkish military base.

Erdogan has said the demands are unlawful and has called for an end to the crisis, citing the need for Muslim solidarity and strong trade ties in the region.

The dispute has so far proven intractable and Erdogan has said Saudi Arabia should solve the crisis.

On Friday, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani called for dialogue to resolve the crisis but stressed that any talks must respect his country’s sovereignty.

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Dozens were detained by police in Istanbul on Monday after clashes broke out between demonstrators and authorities during May Day protests in the Turkish metropolis, a report said.

It said that police deployed tear gas in the Mecediyekoy district of the city after clashes with protesters who were trying to reach Taksim Square, which was the centre of widespread anti-government protests in 2013.

About 70 people were separately detained in the city’s Besiktas district.

May Day demonstrations at Taksim Square have been banned in recent years, although unions with ties to the government were allowed to appear there to make short position statements.

The Anadolu news agency reported that more than 30,000 members of the security forces were guarding the square.

Thousands of union members in opposition to the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, along with other protesters – gathered in the district of Bakirkoy, where a protest had been approved by officials.

Ever since an attempted coup in July, thousands of people have been detained in Turkey or removed from their jobs on allegations of working to destabilise the government.

Source – NAN

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The founder and chairman of the Persian-language Gem TV company has been killed in Istanbul.

Saeed Karimian was shot dead in the Maslak neighbourhood, along with his Kuwaiti business partner.

The vehicle used in the apparent assassination was later found burnt out. Turkish police are investigating.

Mr Karimian had previously been tried in absentia by a Tehran court and sentenced to six years in prison for spreading propaganda against Iran.

Gem TV dubs foreign and Western shows into Persian and broadcasts them into Iran.

Gem Group was initially established in London, but later expanded to Dubai. According to the group’s website, it has 17 Persian-language channels, plus one each in Kurdish, Azeri and Arabic.

Source – BBC

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed victory in the referendum on granting him sweeping new powers, saying it was won by a clear majority.

He was speaking in Istanbul as the count neared completion. With more than 99% of ballots counted, “Yes” was on 51.35% and “No” on 48.65%.

Erdogan supporters say replacing the parliamentary system with an executive presidency will modernise the country.

The two main opposition parties are challenging the results.

If confirmed, the “Yes” vote could also see Mr Erdogan remain in office until 2029.

Three people were shot dead near a polling station in the south-eastern province of Diyarbakir, reportedly during a dispute over how they were voting.

Supporters are streaming into the governing AK party’s headquarters here in Ankara, car horns and campaign songs blaring – they are convinced the “Yes” side has won and that President Erdogan now has a mandate for the biggest political reform in Turkey’s modern history.

The president has claimed victory but the opposition disputes it, complaining of massive irregularities with the voting, suggesting the state news agency manipulated results and vowing to challenge them with the supreme election board.

Turkey has shown itself more polarised than ever tonight. And if the protests gather steam, this could get ugly.

Source – BBC

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U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met Thursday in Ankara with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, opening an overseas trip that comes as the U.S. examines its next steps in the campaign to defeat Islamic State militants and stabilize the refugee crisis with allies in the region.

Tillerson was also scheduled to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. The talks are expected to include Turkey pressing its case for the U.S. to extradite cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkish authorities accuse of being behind a failed coup attempt last year.

Later in the trip, the top U.S. diplomat will press NATO allies to demonstrate a clear path to increase defense spending, in his first meeting with counterparts from this security bloc.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson speaks at the Meeting of the Ministers of the Global Coalition on the Defeat of ISIS, March 22, 2017, at the State Department in Washington.

Returning refugees

U.S.-led forces are increasing their campaign to retake the Syrian city of Raqqa from Islamic State militants.

Stabilizing areas where militants have fled and allowing refugees to return home are high on the agenda for the U.S. and its anti-Islamic State coalition partners.

Tillerson is looking to build on progress from last week’s meeting of coalition partners in Washington.

“While a more defined course of action in Syria is still coming together, I can say the United States will increase our pressure on ISIS and al-Qaida, and will work to establish interim zones of stability through cease-fires to allow refugees to go home,” he said, using a common acronym for Islamic State, which is also known as ISIL and Daesh.

But it could be a tall order, according to Middle East expert Daniel Serwer.

“The Turks would like to have safe zones; they have been proposing them for years,” he said. “But they are in fact extraordinarily difficult to create, and to defend, and to maintain.”

NATO

Days before Tillerson’s first meeting with NATO foreign ministers, he met with his counterparts from the Baltic states. They expressed confidence in Washington’s support for NATO.

“We’re passing what we consider very important messages of the need to develop transatlantic security and economic links, so it was overall a very good introductory meeting,” Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics told VOA’s Ukrainian Service.

Estonian Foreign Minister Sven Misker, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius, are seen before their meeting at the Department of State in Washington, March 28, 2017.

After Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea, NATO agreed to send troops to Lithuania and to Estonia, Latvia and Poland, in a move to deter potential Russian aggression.

“I wouldn’t say the military presence is insignificant,” Estonian Foreign Minister Sven Misker told VOA’s Russian Service. “These are very well-trained, well-equipped forces. But when you look at the numbers, the presence is slightly modest compared to what Russia has in place on the other side of the border. So it shouldn’t be viewed as escalatory in any way … but I think it’s sufficient to make Russia change its calculus. It makes clear to Russia that they should not launch a provocation and think that they can do it with impunity.”

Tillerson is going to the NATO talks before he goes to Moscow, a move that ends the controversy over his earlier decision to skip the event.

“[NATO allies] want the commitment by Tillerson to maintain sanctions [on Russia for its actions] on Ukraine; they want a commitment from Tillerson that his president isn’t gonna sell out the alliance to the Russians,” Serwer said.

Tillerson will make it clear that it is no longer sustainable for the United States to maintain a disproportionate share of NATO’s defense spending. He also will consult with allies about their shared commitment to improve security in Ukraine and the need for NATO to push Russia to end aggression against its neighbors.

NATO member states have until 2024 to meet a shared pledge to contribute 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense.

Estonia is the only Baltic nation to spend 2 percent of the GDP for defense purposes. Lithuania and Latvia have pledged to reach that level by 2018.

Source – VOA

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ISTANBUL — The Turkish foreign ministry says it has summoned Russia’s top diplomat in Turkey over the killing of one of its soldiers that has been blamed on a Syrian Kurdish group that Moscow is supporting. The dispute is putting increasing strain on rapprochement efforts between the countries.

The Russian charge d’affaires was summoned Thursday by the Turkish foreign ministry and warned that Turkey will retaliate against a Syrian Kurdish group if there is a repeat of Wednesday’s cross-border attack. The Turkish military claims that a sniper of the the YPG, a Syrian Kurdish militia, killed one of its soldiers.

Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu said in his weekly press briefing that Moscow was responsible for preventing such instances as its forces are deployed in the Kurdish-controlled Afrin region to monitor and prevent such occurrences.

“Steps that should be taken in order to prevent similar cases in the future” and a reprisal would be aimed at the Syrian Kurdish group if such an attack was repeated, said Muftuoglu.

A general view shows the Kurdish city of Afrin, in Aleppo’s countryside, March 18, 2015.

Russian troops sent to Afrin

The Turkish army regularly shells Afrin, accusing the YPG and its political wing the PYD, of being terrorists, affiliated with the PKK, which is fighting the Turkish state. But Moscow has been courting the Syrian Kurdish groups.

This week, Russian forces were deployed in Afrin, despite protests by Ankara. The deepening dispute is casting a shadow over efforts to foster reconciliation between Ankara and Moscow, following a collapse in relations in 2015 after Turkish jets downed a Russian bomber operating from a Syrian airbase.

Former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who served widely in the region, says the latest dispute over Afrin reveals the limitations of rapprochement efforts.

“Ankara is quite active in promoting the positive progress in relations.” Selcen said. “But practically speaking, there is no progress. In fact, we can even speak of deterioration with what we can see in Afrin.”

Peace talks set for Geneva

Turkish displeasure reportedly also was expressed to Russia’s charge d’affaires over pictures of senior Russian officers in Afrin wearing YPG insignias on their uniforms. Moscow’s deepening relations with the Syrian Kurds are causing growing unease in Ankara. Foreign ministry spokesman Muftuoglu also called on Moscow to close the political offices of the PYD in the Russian capital.

Ties could be further strained with Moscow lobbying for the inclusion of the PYD at next week’s U.N.-sponsored Syrian peace talks in Geneva. Ankara has been at the forefront of trying to block their participation, asserting that the PYD is a terrorist organization.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that it is very important to overcome Turkey’s resistance and include the Syrian Kurds in upcoming talks.

Source – VOA

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Leaders of European Union countries have criticized Turkey, while the dispute over the Turkish government’s attempts to hold rallies in European countries has been growing since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Germany and the Netherlands of “Nazism” and “fascism” because officials blocked rallies there.

Erdogan warned the Netherlands Sunday it would “pay a price” for refusing to allow Ankara’s foreign minister into the country and expelling another minister to keep them from holding rallies with Turkish immigrants.

Ankara wants to drum up support among millions of Turks who live and work in Europe to vote to give Erdogan more powers, which could lead to him remaining in office until 2029.

Officials slam Erdogan remarks

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte called Erdogan’s comments “unacceptable,” and his Nazi comment “a crazy remark.”

“Turkey is a proud nation; the Netherlands is a proud nation,” Rutte said.”We can never do business under those sorts of threats and blackmail.”

German ministers have also hardened their remarks against Turkey.

Despite a statement by Chancellor Angela Merkel that her government was not opposed to Turkish ministers attending rallies in Germany – as long as they are “duly announced” – Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said he was opposed to Turkish political gatherings in Germany. “A Turkish campaign has no business being here in Germany,” de Maiziere told local media.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said he hoped Turkey would “return to its senses.” Separately, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Turkey had “destroyed the basis for further progress in co-operation.”

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said Erdogan was not welcome to hold rallies there as this could increase friction and hinder integration.

Denmark’s prime minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, said he was concerned that “democratic principles are under great pressure” in Turkey.Rasmussen also postponed a planned meeting with Erdogan, saying “with the current Turkish attacks on Holland, the meeting cannot be seen separated from that.”

A gathering in France, however, went ahead after local officials said it did not pose a threat.

Dutch block Turkish ministers

The two Ankara officials – Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya – were trying to rally Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands with Turkish voting rights to support Erdogan’s bid to win a referendum next month to give him sweeping new powers.

The Dutch government, facing a tough re-election contest Wednesday against the anti-Islam party of Geert Wilders, barred Cavusoglu from flying to Rotterdam.It then blocked Kaya from entering the Turkish embassy in the port city before escorting her out of the country to Germany.

Dutch far-right leader Wilders waded into the debate this past week ahead of a planned rally in The Hague where the Dutch parliament is located.

“We are in Holland here, not in Turkey, and a Turkish minister has no room here to lobby for somebody like Erdogan, who is a mere dictator,” Wilders said.

An angry Erdogan told a ceremony in Istanbul, “Hey Holland! If you are sacrificing Turkish-Dutch relations for the sake of the elections on Wednesday, you will pay a price.”

Earlier Sunday, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in a statement that Turkey would retaliate against Amsterdam in the “harshest ways” and “respond in kind to this unacceptable behavior.”

Ankara barred the Dutch ambassador from returning to Turkey, with Cavusoglu saying, “we have other steps in mind.We’ve already begun planning them.We will certainly take those steps and more.”Turkish officials sealed off the Dutch embassy in Ankara.

Source – VOA

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ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey summoned the Dutch envoy in Ankara on Monday to complain about the actions of Rotterdam police against Turkish protesters over the weekend, foreign ministry sources said.

In a diplomatic note, Turkey’s foreign ministry said that the police intervention was disproportionate and called for legal action against police misconduct, the sources said.

Dutch police used dogs and water cannon on Sunday to disperse hundreds of protesters waving Turkish flags outside the consulate in Rotterdam. Some protesters threw bottles and stones and several demonstrators were beaten by police with batons, a Reuters witness said. Mounted police officers charged the crowd.

The protests were sparked after the Netherlands barred Turkish ministers from speaking in Rotterdam, fuelling a row over Ankara’s political campaigning abroad. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is looking to the large number of Turks living in Europe to help secure victory next month in a referendum that would give his office sweeping powers.

Source – Reuters

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned the Netherlands it will “pay the price” for harming ties after two of his ministers were barred.

Mr Erdogan said: “We will teach them international diplomacy.”

The two ministers were blocked from addressing Turkish expatriates in Rotterdam on Saturday, with one of them escorted to the German border.

The Dutch government said such rallies would stoke tensions days before the Netherlands’ general election.

The ministers were seeking support among expatriate voters for a referendum on expanding Turkish presidential powers.

Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya, Turkey’s family minister, had arrived by road on Saturday but was denied entry to the consulate in Rotterdam and was taken to the German border by Dutch police.

Image copyrightREUTERS

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tried to fly in but was refused entry.

Water cannon and riot police on horseback were deployed to disperse about 1,000 people protesting outside the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam overnight.

‘Capital of fascism’

Turkey’s relations with several EU countries are in the spotlight ahead of the referendum:

• Mr Cavusoglu called the Netherlands the “capital of fascism” after he was refused entry
• Mr Erdogan accused Germany of “Nazi practices” after similar rallies were cancelled – words Chancellor Angela Merkel described as “unacceptable”
• Denmark’s Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has proposed postponing a planned meeting with Turkey’s prime minister, saying he is “very concerned at current developments in Turkey, where democratic principles are under great pressure”
• Local French officials have allowed a Turkish rally in Metz, saying it does not pose a public order threat – while France’s foreign ministry has urged Turkey to avoid provocations

Mr Erdogan focused his rhetoric on the Netherlands on Sunday, accusing the Dutch of “sacrificing Turkish-Dutch relations for the sake of the elections on Wednesday”.

Threatening to travel to rallies abroad himself, he added: “The West has clearly shown its true face in the last couple of days. What we have seen… is a clear manifestations of Islamophobia.

“I have said that I had thought that Nazism was over, but that I was wrong. Nazism is alive in the West,” he said.

But he thanked France for allowing Mr Cavusoglu to travel to the northern city of Metz to address the rally there on Sunday, saying: “France was not deceived by such games.

At a protest outside the Dutch consulate in Istanbul, the Dutch flag was briefly replaced with a Turkish one, which was later removed.

The Netherlands’ foreign ministry responded by saying that the Turkish authorities were responsible for the safety of Dutch diplomats in Turkey.

‘Unacceptable blackmail’

Dutch PM Mark Rutte said Mr Erdogan’s comment on Saturday that the Dutch were “Nazi remnants and fascists” was “unacceptable”.

The Dutch government is facing a severe electoral challenge from the anti-Islam party of Geert Wilders in its election on Wednesday.

Image copyrightEPA

Reports say the owner of a venue in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, has also cancelled a pro-Erdogan rally on Sunday that was to have been attended by Turkey’s agriculture minister.

Sweden’s foreign ministry said it was not involved in the decision and that the event could take place elsewhere.

What is the row about?

Turkey is holding a referendum on 16 April on whether to turn from a parliamentary to a presidential republic, more akin to the United States.

If successful, it would give sweeping new powers to the president, allowing him or her to appoint ministers, prepare the budget, choose the majority of senior judges and enact certain laws by decree.

Image copyrightAFP

What’s more, the president alone would be able to announce a state of emergency and dismiss parliament.

In order to get it passed, Mr Erdogan needs the votes of citizens living within Turkey and abroad.

There are 5.5 million Turks living outside the country, with 1.4 million eligible voters in Germany alone – and the Yes campaign is keen to get them on side.

So a number of rallies have been planned for countries with large numbers of expat voters, including Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.

However, Mr Erdogan’s supporters have found themselves blocked from holding these rallies.

Why are countries trying to prevent the rallies?

Many of the countries, including Germany, have cited security concerns as the official reason.

Image copyrightAFP

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said Mr Erdogan was not welcome to hold rallies as this could increase friction and hinder integration.

Many European nations have also expressed deep disquiet about Turkey’s response to the July coup attempt and the country’s perceived slide towards authoritarianism under President Erdogan.

Germany in particular has been critical of the mass arrests and purges that followed – with nearly 100,000 civil servants removed from their posts.

Source – Reuters

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United Nations officials and international aid workers fear the Turkish government is gearing up to shutter more Western nongovernment organizations working with Syrian refugees and overseeing cross-border relief missions inside Syria following the expulsion Tuesday of Mercy Corps, one of the world’s biggest humanitarian nonprofits.

The offices of more than half-dozen major Western NGOs and aid organizations with offices in the southern Turkish border towns of Gaziantep and Hatay were visited this week by Turkish officials, who demanded registration documents as well as copies of staff lists. The officials also scrutinized the work permits of international employees.

At least two international NGOs have been ordered so far to undergo the laborious bureaucratic process of re-registering their presence in the country, according to several aid workers.

U.N. officials say they suspect all Western NGOs are likely to be instructed shortly to re-register and it is unclear whether they will be allowed in the meantime to continue working with more than 2 million Syrian refugees in Turkey or to transport relief supplies to hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians inside war-wracked Syria.

U.N. officials told VOA they are urgently seeking clarification from the Turkish authorities.

Internal ‘read-out’ leaked

According to an internal “read-out” by the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OHCA, Turkey’s interior ministry “is planning on canceling all existing INGO registrations and asking INGOs to resubmit registration requests following new rules and regulations within three months.”

The OHCA read-out, which was leaked to VOA, warns that the Turkish government is likely to use this process as a “way to choose which organizations they want to keep in country.”

According to OHCA, the interior ministry recently held a meeting of all Turkey’s regional governors to discuss new rules and regulations for INGOs — the first time, U.N. officials noted, that the Turkish government has organized a governor-level coordination meeting about international relief organizations.

Some of the most respected organizations on the international aid scene were among the agencies inspected this week, prompting mounting fears among aid workers that they are being targeted. They include: the International Rescue Committee, CARE International, Counterpart and Global Communities and International Medical Corps — all are U.S.-based. The British NGO Integrity also was inspected.

Several other NGOs have been inspected but asked not to be listed for fear of incurring Ankara’s wrath.

“Our offices in Gaziantep were visited this week,” confirmed Holly Frew, a spokeswoman for Care. “We have heard other international NGOs have been inspected as well,” she told VOA.

Frew said Care has not been asked to leave, but she said it is unusual for so many relief organizations to be inspected at the same time.

The spokeswoman for another aid organization confirmed her group had been visited, too. “Our offices were visited earlier this week by local authorities,” she said. “They were checking staff work permits.”

She said the organization’s staff in Turkey believe it was “a routine visit and one that the authorities have the right to perform. Our documents were in order, and we had no problems. We have traditionally had a good working relationship with Turkish authorities and at this moment there is no reason to believe that will change.”

‘This really is ominous’

According to another aid worker, inspections by Turkish authorities in the past have taken place on an annual basis. “Since the Mercy Corps expulsion there has been an escalation in INGO inspections,” he said. “This really is ominous,” he added.

Mercy Corps, which has been working in Turkey since 2012, was informed abruptly on Tuesday by the Turkish interior ministry that it no longer had permission to work in Turkey and was ordered to shut down its operations immediately. The aid group said Turkish authorities offered no reason for the sudden closure and noted it had been working in close cooperation with the Turkish government.

In recent months pro-government Turkish newspapers have rounded on Western NGOs, and amid a mounting press clamor alleged Mercy Corps and other international aid groups have been helping terrorists and conspiring against the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Mercy Corps, which is based in Portland, Oregon, and other relief organizations have vehemently denied the claims.

“We have every confidence in the impartiality and the integrity of our operations. We’re not a political organization and our reason for being is to deliver assistance to civilians who need it the most,” Christine Bragale, Mercy Corps’ director of media relations, told Britain’s Daily Telegraph earlier this week.

Mercy Corps, which has received funding for its Syria relief operations from the U.S. and European governments, spent $34 million last year on Syria-related missions. Mercy Corps has had to lay off 300 relief workers because of the expulsion.

U.N. officials say the anti-NGO press campaign, which they suspect is orchestrated, has grown in ferocity and has spread to local newspapers across the country.

In the OHCA report it is noted: “Negative articles about INGOs (similar to those printed in Hatay) are now being printed in Gaziantep.” Both Hatay and Gaziantep are relief hubs for Syria, and international NGOs organizing cross-border efforts generally base out of either town.

A Turkish government official told Reuters that the decision to expel Mercy Corps was “technical,” arguing the NGO failed to meet documentation requirements. But aid workers and U.N. officials fear there was nothing technical about the expulsion of Mercy Corps.

US concerns about expulsion

State Department spokesman Mark Toner midweek said U.S. concerns about the expulsion of Mercy Corps have been communicated to Ankara as well as anxieties about the “impact it will have on critical humanitarian assistance to vulnerable populations.”

Relations between international NGOs and Erdogan’s government have been fraught and often tense since the Syrian conflict started six years ago, aid workers say.

“The government has never wanted us in the country,” said an international aid worker, who asked not to be identified. “It is horrible when aid becomes a pawn in a political game.”

The registration process has often been difficult and Ankara has been strict about regulations governing what NGOs can do, where they can go and where they can send aid. The United Nations refugee agency has been blocked frequently from aiding Syrian refugees who are living outside official camps, U.N. officials say.

But relations have become much more fraught in recent months. Ankara has blocked international aid agencies from working in a Turkish-controlled zone carved out in northern Syria since August, preferring to work with Turkish NGOs favored by Erdogan, many of which are Islamist in ideology.

Analysts have noted that the press campaign against international relief organizations and Western NGOs tends to become more vehement when the Turkish government comes under criticism for alleged human rights abuses by Western governments.

Turkish nonprofits shuttered

The Erdogan government has targeted also domestic NGOs, shuttering hundreds of Turkish nonprofits since last July’s failed coup attempt, claiming they are linked to the coup plotters, including exiled cleric Muhammed Fethullah Gulen, who lives in the U.S. and is accused by Erdogan of masterminding the military coup bid.

While acknowledging the latest moves against international NGOs may be part of what critics argue is a general crackdown on civil society in Turkey, Bassam al-Kuwaitli, a former member of the opposition Syrian National Council, suspects Ankara is determined to control international relief missions inside northern Syria.

“I think a lot of this has to do with Western relief assistance going to areas inside Syria controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces,” he said. He notes pro-government Turkish newspapers this week accused Mercy Corps of assisting Turkey’s banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. The Erdogan government views U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militias fighting in Syria just as PKK offshoots.

An international aid worker noted the increased friction coincides with the arrival this week of a contingent of U.S. Marines, pre-positioning for an SDF assault on Raqqa.

Ankara has demanded that a Turkish-led Syrian Arab force mount the assault on Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State terror group, rather than Kurdish-led militias.

Source – VOA

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ISTANBUL/BERLIN – Tayyip Erdogan’s portrayal of a Germany mired in its Nazi past was calculated to infuriate Berlin while swaying Turks at home and abroad to vote “yes” to sweeping new presidential powers he seeks.

Erdogan certainly achieved the first aim, with one German politician dubbing him the “despot on the Bosphorus” and Chancellor Angela Merkel declaring that the remarks only trivialised Nazi crimes against humanity.

“With his foolish and absurd Nazi comparison, Erdogan has left the realm of rational discussion,” Juergen Hardt, a lawmaker from Merkel’s conservative CDU party, said of Erdogan.

“While Germany sticks to democratic standards…President Erdogan is trying to disempower the Turkish parliament through a constitutional change.”

Erdogan’s fury was triggered by decisions to cancel planned rallies in support of his referendum in several German towns.

Events have so far been cancelled in the cities of Gaggenau, Cologne and Frechen, with local authorities or venue operators citing concerns about safety or the size of the crowd. Turkish officials said a fourth event in the town of Kelsterbach was cancelled on Monday.

Merkel has said her federal government played no part in the decisions. Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Germany would allow Turkish politicians to speak, as long as they were open about their intentions, announced them in a timely manner and did not import Turkish conflicts to Germany.

The faithful at Erdogan’s Istanbul rally registered their support for Erdogan’s blustering speech with familiar chants of “Stand up straight! Don’t bow down! The nation is with you!”   Continued…

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An explosion outside a chamber of commerce building in Turkey’s southern resort city of Antalya wounded several people on Tuesday but the mayor said there were no life-threatening injuries and the blast may have been an accident.

Turkey is on high alert after repeated bombings blamed on Islamic State and Kurdish militants this year. Authorities in the capital Ankara banned public meetings this month for fear of further attacks, and the U.S. State Department has urged U.S. citizens to carefully consider the need to travel to Turkey.

The cause of the blast a few kilometers from the airport in Antalya, a major tourist resort on the Mediterranean coast, was not immediately clear. In August, two rockets hit a commercial facility near a resort town in the province, but caused no casualties.

“It could be an explosion caused by an accident. Initial information suggests there are no life-threatening (injuries),” Antalya Mayor Menderes Turel told broadcaster CNN Turk.

Smoke rose from the remnants of one vehicle in the car park outside the chamber of commerce and industry building and surrounding vehicles were damaged. The blast left cracks in the facade of the building and blew out windows, TV footage showed.

There was no claim of responsibility for the August rocket attack, but Kurdish and far-left militants have staged similar strikes, mostly against the security forces, in the past.

In August, a suicide bomber thought to have links to Islamic State killed at least 50 people in an attack on a wedding party in the southeastern city of Gaziantep. Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed more than 40 people in a gun and bomb attack at Istanbul’s main airport in June.

Source: Reuters 

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By Daren Butler and Humeyra Pamuk

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey would be ready to join any initiative proposed by the United States to capture an Islamic State stronghold in Syria, President Tayyip Erdogan said in remarks published on Wednesday, as Turkish-backed forces took more Syrian land from jihadists.

Obama floated the idea of joint action with Turkey to capture Raqqa during talks between the two leaders at a G20 summit in China, Erdogan said, according to Wednesday’s edition of Turkey’s Hurriyet daily.Turkey launched an offensive in northern Syria on Aug. 24 to clear Islamic State from its border and to prevent territorial gains by the Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara believes has links to Kurdish insurgents fighting on its soil.

“Obama wants to do some things together concerning Raqqa in particular,” Erdogan told reporters on his plane that arrived early on Tuesday, referring to Islamic State’s de facto capital. He was speaking after meetings in China with Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other world leaders.

“We stated that would not be a problem from our perspective. We said, ‘Let our soldiers come together, whatever is necessary will be done’,” the Turkish president said, adding that a specific Turkish role would depend on further talks.

U.S. officials have welcomed Turkish efforts to dislodge Islamic State from Syrian strongholds but voiced concern when Turkish troops engaged fighters aligned to the YPG, a force Washington sees as a valuable ally in battling jihadists.

Turkish-backed forces clashed with YPG fighters in the initial stages of the two-week old Turkish incursion into Syria, but have since shifted their focus onto territory held by Islamic State and captured a string of villages.

Turkey’s military said late on Tuesday that three Turkish soldiers were killed when two tanks were hit by rockets fired by Islamic State. Four others were wounded, it said.

The military also said the Free Syrian Army, a loose-knit rebel force backed by Turkey, had taken six more villages, also located in Islamic State-held areas.

Turkey and its rebel allies now control a 90-km stretch of land on the Syrian side of the border and are pushing south.

Ankara wants international support to take control of a rectangle of territory stretching about 40 km into Syria, creating a buffer between two Kurdish-held cantons to the east and west and against Islamic State to the south.

Turkey says such a “safe zone” would help stem the flood of Syrian refugees. But the idea has yet to gain traction from the United States and Russia, both engaged in Syria, because of the military demands of policing such a zone.

Turkey, meanwhile, has been sending more military hardware south. The army sent 15 more tanks to the Islahiye district near the border, bringing the total number of tanks and armoured vehicles in that area to 90, Dogan news agency reported.

“We do not have the chance to take a backward step. If we take a backward step terror groups like Daesh, PKK, PYD and YPG will settle there,” Erdogan said, according to Hurriyet.

Daesh is another term for Islamic State, while the PYD is the political wing of Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara says is an extension of Turkey’s outlawed PKK, a Kurdish militant group that is fighting for autonomy in Turkey’s southeast.

(Writing by Humeyra Pamuk and Edmund Blair; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Raissa Kasolowsky)

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By Umit Ozdal and John Davison

ELBEYLI, Turkey/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Turkey and its rebel allies opened up a new line of attack in northern Syria on Saturday as Turkish tanks crossed the frontier from Kilis province, making a western thrust in an operation to sweep militants from its border.

The incursion from Kilis – which has been repeatedly targeted by Islamic State rockets from inside Syria over the last year – coincided with a push elsewhere in the region by the Turkish-backed Syrian rebels, who seized several villages further east from the Sunni hardliners.

By supporting the rebels, mainly Arabs and Turkmen fighting under the loose banner of the Free Syrian Army, Turkey is hoping to push out Islamic State militants and check the advance of U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters.

The rebels last week took the frontier town of Jarablus with Turkish support. The operation, called Euphrates Shield, is Ankara’s first full-scale Syrian incursion since the start of the five-year-old war.

On Saturday the tanks crossed the border and entered the Syrian town of al-Rai to support the new offensive, a rebel spokesman and monitors said. Now under rebel control, al-Rai had previously been in the hands of Islamic State.

Al-Rai is about 55 km (34 miles) west of Jarablus, and part of a 90-km corridor near the Turkish border that Ankara says it is clearing of jihadists and protecting from Kurdish militia expansion.

A rebel commander said they would aim to push east from al-Rai, in the direction of Jarablus, which would put pressure on Islamic State from both east and west of a stretch of territory it controls along the border between the towns.

“The operations are to work from al-Rai towards the villages that were liberated to the west of Jarablus,” Colonel Ahmed Osman of the Sultan Murad rebel group told Reuters, adding that the offensive was backed by Turkey.

VILLAGES CAPTURED

The Hamza Brigade, part of the Free Syrian Army, said it had taken control of Arab Ezza, a village about 30 km west of Jarablus and near where Turkish warplanes carried out air strikes on Friday.

FSA factions had also captured the villages of Fursan, Lilawa, Kino and Najma just south of Arab Ezza, a source in the Failaq al-Sham rebel group said.

U.S. forces hit Islamic State targets overnight near Turkey’s border with Syria.

“U.S. forces struck ISIL targets near Turkey’s border in Syria last night via newly deployed HIMARS system,” Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy for the coalition fighting Islamic State, said on his Twitter account.

HIMARS refers to a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. It was not immediately clear where at the border the system had been deployed.

Turkey’s pro-government Daily Sabah newspaper said Turkish air strikes in support of the rebels continued on Saturday.

FOCUS ON KURDISH MILITIA

While Euphrates Shield initially targeted Islamic State in Jarablus, most of the focus since has been on checking the advance of U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters, to the alarm of NATO ally Washington.

Turkey disagrees with its ally’s support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which it considers a terrorist group. The YPG has been among the most effective partners on the ground in the U.S.-led fight against IS.

Turkey is worried that advances by Syrian Kurdish fighters will embolden Kurdish militants in its southeast, where it has been fighting an insurgency for three decades led by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

In China, to attend the G20 meeting of world leaders, President Tayyip Erdogan said there should be no support for any terrorist organisation – a reference to the United States’ backing of the Syrian Kurdish fighters.

“There is no good terrorist. All terrorists are bad. All organisations involved in terrorism are cursed. This is how we see things and how we put up our struggle,” he said, according to a transcript of an interview with China’s CCTV released by Erdogan’s office.

The United States has voiced concerns about Turkish strikes on Kurdish-aligned groups that Washington supports. Germany said it did not want to see a lasting Turkish presence in an already tangled conflict.

Turkey has said it has no plans to stay in Syria and simply aims to protect its frontier from the militant group and the Kurdish YPG militia.

Activists have reported protests in some Syrian towns near the Turkish border in recent days against what demonstrators have called Turkish imperialism. Turkish security forces used tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters along the border on Friday.

(Additional reporting by Yesim Dikmen and Asli Kandemir in Istanbul, Tom Perry in Beirut and Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Amman, Writing by David Dolan, Editing by Andrew Bolton and Angus MacSwan)

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By Lisa Barrington and Umit Bektas

BEIRUT/KARKAMIS, Turkey (Reuters) – Turkish-backed forces pushed deeper into northern Syria on Monday and drew a rebuke from NATO ally the United States, which said it was concerned the battle for territory had shifted away from targeting Islamic State.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter called on Turkey to stay focused on fighting Islamic State militants and not to target Kurdish elements of Syrian rebel forces, which Washington backs. The White House said a continued Turkish push would complicate the fight against Islamic State.

At the start of Turkey’s now almost week-long cross-border offensive, Turkish tanks, artillery and warplanes provided Syrian rebel allies with the firepower to capture swiftly the Syrian frontier town of Jarablus from Islamic State militants.

Since then, Turkish forces have mainly pushed into areas controlled by fighters aligned to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition that encompasses the Kurdish YPG militia and which has been backed by Washington to fight the jihadists.

“Turkey is determined to take steps to guarantee its citizens’ security at home and in neighbouring countries,” President Tayyip Erdogan said in a message on the eve of Tuesday’s national Victory Day holiday.

Operations would continue until all threats, including from the YPG, were removed, he said.

A group monitoring the tangled, five-year-old conflict in Syria said 41 people were killed by Turkish air strikes as Turkish forces pushed south on Sunday. Turkey denied there were civilian deaths, saying 25 Kurdish militants had been killed.

“We have called upon Turkey … to stay focused on the fight against ISIL and not to engage Syrian Defense Forces, and we’ve had a number of contacts over the last several days,” Carter said in a media briefing, using an acronym for Islamic State.

The Pentagon described the clashes, which it said were in areas where Islamic State is not located, as “unacceptable and a source of deep concern” and called on all sides to stand down.

Turkey, which is battling a Kurdish insurgency on its soil, has said its campaign has a dual goal of “cleansing” the region of Islamic State and stopping Kurdish forces filling the void and extending the area they control near Turkey’s border.

That has put Ankara at odds with Washington and adds to tensions when Turkey is still reeling from last month’s failed coup, which it says Washington was too slow to condemn. The White House said President Barack Obama would meet Erdogan on Sept. 4 ahead of a G20 summit in China.

At a news conference on Monday with a visiting European official, Turkish European Affairs Minister Omer Celik said: “No one has the right to tell us which terrorist organisation we can fight against.” He did not however mention the U.S. comments.

Turkish-backed forces advanced on Manbij, a city about 30 km (20 miles) south of Turkey’s border captured this month by the SDF with U.S. help. The Turkish military said it was also shifting operations westwards, which would take it into territory still under Islamic State control.

The army destroyed eight Islamic State targets with cross-border artillery fire after rockets from Syria hit the Turkish border town of Kilis, some 80 km (50 miles) to the west, a Turkish military source said.

The operations have left Turkey exposed to reprisal attacks by Islamic State and Kurdish militants, both blamed for a string of bombings over the past year. The U.S. State Department said on Monday it continues to warn U.S. citizens of an increased threat from terrorist groups throughout Turkey.

“ETHNIC CLEANSING”

SDF-aligned militia said they were reinforcing Manbij but insisted none of the troops in the region or the extra fighters heading to the city were from the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia.

Turkey has said its warplanes and artillery have bombarded positions held by the Kurdish YPG militia in recent days. It accuses the YPG of seeking to take territory where there has not traditionally been a strong Kurdish ethnic contingent.

“The YPG is engaged in ethnic cleansing, they are placing who they want to in those places,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in Ankara, demanding Kurdish forces withdraw east of the Euphrates river, a natural boundary with areas of eastern Syria under Kurdish control.

The YPG, a powerful Syrian Kurdish militia in the SDF that Washington sees as a reliable ally against jihadists in the Syrian conflict, have dismissed the Turkish allegation and say any of its forces west of the Euphrates have long since left.

“Turkey’s claims that it is fighting the YPG west of the Euphrates have no basis in truth and are merely flimsy pretexts to widen its occupation of Syrian land,” Redur Xelil, chief spokesman for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, told Reuters.

U.S. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said the United States had demanded the YPG return to the eastern side of the Euphrates but said Washington understood this had “largely occurred”.

Turkey has not spelled out if it wants to have a “buffer zone” in the region where it is fighting in north Syria. The region lies between two Kurdish-controlled cantons – one east of the Euphrates and the other to the west near the Mediterranean.

But Ankara fears that, if Kurdish militia create an unbroken swathe of territory, it could embolden the Kurdish militant PKK group which has fought a three-decade-long insurgency on Turkish soil to demand autonomy in Turkey’s southeast.

Turkish-backed forces say they seized a string of villages south of Syria’s Jarablus in a region controlled by groups aligned to the U.S.- and Kurdish-backed SDF. They also say they have taken a few settlements to the west in Islamic State areas.

(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, Roberta Rampton and Timothy Gardner in Washington, Tom Perry in Beirut, Orhan Coskun and Ece Toksabay in Ankara, and Can Sezer, Asli Kandemir, David Dolan and Nick Tattersall in Istanbul; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Richard Balmforth)

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Monitors from the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights say Turkish air strikes Sunday have killed at least 35 civilians in northern Syria.

The watchdog says 20 people were killed in the village of Jub-al-Kousa. Fifty people were wounded in the attack in an area controlled by militia allied to the Kurdish-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.

The Observatory says another air strike killed 15 civilians and wounded 20 others near the town of al-Armana.

Use of barrel bombs

Elsewhere, the Observatory says Syrian government helicopters dropped two explosive-packed barrel bombs on a funeral Saturday just minutes apart in the Maadi district of eastern Aleppo, killing at least 23 people.

The first bomb landed near a tent where people were mourning the victims of a barrel bomb attack earlier in the week. The second bomb landed as emergency workers arrived.

Barrel Bomb Attack in Aleppo, Syria

The attack Thursday in a neighboring district of the once-vibrant city killed 15 people, including 11 children.

The Syrian government routinely denies using barrel bombs. But analysts point out that Damascus and Moscow command the only forces operating helicopters over Aleppo.

Call for cease-fire

Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. special envoy for Syria, has called for a 48-hour truce in Aleppo. He said the world body has in place an emergency response plan to provide humanitarian relief to the besieged city, once a temporary cease-fire is in place.

In a statement, de Mistura said Russia has confirmed it will honor the proposed U.N. emergency response plan and is seeking the cooperation of the government of President Bashar al-Assad, Moscow’s long-standing ally.

The U.N. plan is aimed at providing emergency aid to tens of thousands of people trapped in Aleppo and to restore electricity to the city that was once home to 2.3 million residents.

Elsewhere, Syrian rebels and their families continue evacuating the long-besieged Damascus suburb of Daraya as part of an agreement reached late Thursday with the government after four years of airstrikes and a siege that left the suburb in ruins.

Rebels and their families arrive from the Damascus suburb of Daraya following a forced evacuation deal struck with the Syrian government that ends a grueling bombing campaign and four-year siege, in Babiska, Idlib province, Aug. 27, 2016.

Turkey vs. Kurds

Turkish-backed fighters skirmished Saturday with Kurdish forces in northern Syria, pushing the two U.S. allies in the war against Islamic State extremists closer to an all-out confrontation.

Turkey’s Anadolu news agency says one Turkish soldier was killed and three others wounded in a rocket attack by a Kurdish militia the Ankara government identifies as terrorists.

For its part, the Kurd-dominated U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said its fighters were hit by Turkish jets south of the border town of Jarabulus, which was stormed by Turkish forces Wednesday but is now reported in the control of the SDF. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Turkish troops head to the Syrian border, in Karkamis, Turkey, Aug. 27, 2016.

The clashes bolster Western concerns that Turkey’s military incursion into Syrian territory aims to target both Islamic State jihadists and the Kurdish military grouping known as the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, the YPG militia.

U.S. officials have described the YPG as one of its most effective allies in the fight against Islamic State, while Turkey is demanding a YPG retreat from all border territory seized from IS jihadists.

Some material for this report came from AFP and Reuters.

 – VOA

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In its assault against the Islamic State group this week, Turkey empowered an Arab rebel force that originally was formed to fight the Syrian regime, mainly in the city of Aleppo.

The offensive against the IS-controlled town of Jarablus included at least 10 rebel factions that have been involved in different battles against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces since the war in Syria broke out in 2012.

The factions are loosely known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which began as a secular force mainly composed of soldiers who had defected from the Syrian military.

“These are a combination of Sunni Arab and Turkmen groups that have been entirely supported by Turkey,” said Mustafa Abdi, a Syrian media activist who closely followed the Jarablus offensive.

The 1,500 rebels in the assaults included those from the al-Sham Legion, Levant Front, Nureddine al-Zanki Battalions, Jaish al-Tahrir and Ahrar al-Sham — Islamist groups that have fought under the umbrella FSA.

Competing forces

The battle against IS in northern Syria involves a complex array of competing forces, some of which have U.S. support.

The operation to liberate Jarablus from IS fighters came less than two weeks after the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces liberated the town of Manbij, another IS stronghold in the vicinity.

The Kurdish rebels have been a source of tension between the U.S., which views them as a key ally in the war in Syria, and Turkey, which sees them as terrorists allied with separatist Turkish Kurdish factions inside Turkey.

Fearing a Syrian Kurdish-led offensive on Jarablus, Turkey mobilized the rebels.

Jarablus, Syria

Sources told VOA that the operation was put together in less than 12 days and that rebels were taking instructions from the Turkish military. Turkish tanks led the way and were backed by U.S. bombers.

Kurdish forces retreated from the area, reportedly at the urging of U.S. officials. By Thursday, Kurdish forces had moved to their bases east of the Euphrates River, leaving Turkish forces and rebels to control the area around Jarablus.

“These Turkey-backed groups were deployed to the battle to push out IS and stop Kurdish advances at the same time,” said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-Assad group.

IS fighters gone

Most IS fighters had fled south to IS strongholds even before the Turkish operation reached the town.

There were small-scale confrontations between Syrian rebels and IS fighters, “with IS knowing that Turkey was there to win,” Abdulrahman said.

Turkish news reports said 46 IS fighters and two FSA fighters were killed.

The Turkish-backed FSA fighters are expected to move farther south into IS territory. They have announced plans to take control of the IS-held town of al-Bab.

“They have the capability to go after IS in the area,” Abdulrahman said, adding that they were fully trained by the Turks.

Rebel fighters reportedly were engaged in low-key clashes with Kurdish forces in southeastern Jarablus on Thursday. At some point, analysts say, Syrian rebel forces could confront Kurdish fighters.

“The Kurds lost hundreds of fighters in the Manbij [battle]. It would be difficult for them to withdraw after gaining all these vast territories from IS,” Abdulrahman said.

Kurdish forces said they were intent on protecting their territories.

“Regardless of what happens in Jarablus and elsewhere, Kurdish forces would continue defending our territories whether from IS, opposition groups or Assad military,” said Alan Shammo, a Kurdish official in northern Syria.

_{VOA’s Kasim Cindemir contributed to this story from Washington}

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ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Suspected Kurdish militants fired rockets at the airport in Turkey’s main southeastern city of Diyarbakir on Saturday, sending passengers and staff scrambling for shelter, Dogan news agency said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Four rockets were fired at a police checkpoint outside the VIP lounge, and passengers and staff were taken inside the terminal building for safety, the private news agency said. The attack happened not long before midnight (2100 GMT) on Saturday.

Broadcaster NTV said the rockets landed on wasteland nearby. There were no casualties and no disruption to flights, Diyarbakir governor Huseyin Aksoy told the news channel.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Diyarbakir is the main city in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast, where Kurdish militants have waged a three-decade insurgency. The attack comes days after Turkey launched a military incursion into Syria aimed at driving back Islamic State and preventing territorial gains by Kurdish fighters.

Rebels supported by Turkey fought Kurdish-backed forces in northern Syria on Saturday, and Ankara said it had launched air strikes against both Kurdish militia fighters and Islamic State.

Turkey fears Kurdish militia fighters will fill the void as Islamic State is pushed back. It wants to stop Kurdish forces gaining control of a continuous stretch of Syrian territory on its frontier, which it fears could deepen the insurgency by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants on its own soil.

Diyarbakir airport largely handles domestic flights and is served by carriers including Turkish Airlines.

The PKK, which first took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984, is considered a terrorist organisation by Ankara, the United States and the European Union. A ceasefire collapsed just over a year ago, and violence has since surged.

(Reporting by Yesim Dikmen; Writing by Nick Tattersall)

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The state-run Anadolu news agency blamed the attack on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a militant group which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy and has been involved in almost daily clashes with security forces since a ceasefire collapsed more than a year ago.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Large plumes of smoke billowed from the site in Cizre, located in Turkey’s Sirnak province bordering both Syria and Iraq, footage on CNN Turk showed. The broadcaster said a dozen ambulances and two helicopters had been sent to the scene.

Hospital sources initially told Reuters that nine people were killed and 64 wounded, but an official later said the toll was eight. It was not clear whether the casualties were civilians or police officers.

Photographs broadcast by private channel NTV showed a large three-storey building reduced to its concrete shell, with no walls or windows, and surrounded by grey rubble.

Turkish special forces, tanks and warplanes launched their first major incursion into Syria on Wednesday in support of Syrian rebels, in an operation President Tayyip Erdogan has said is aimed both at driving Islamic State away from the border area and preventing territorial gains by the Kurdish YPG militia.

Turkey views the YPG as an extension of the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. More than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have died since the rebels took up arms in Turkey in 1984.

Turkish troops fired on YPG fighters in northern Syria on Thursday.

Also on Thursday, Interior Minister Efkan Ala accused the PKK of attacking a convoy carrying the country’s main opposition party leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

The government has blamed the PKK for a series of attacks this month in the southeast. The group has claimed responsibility for at least one attack on a police station.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Akin Aytekin and Ayla Jean Yackley; Writing by Dasha Afanasieva; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Edmund Blair)

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The murder of Hande Kader, a transgender woman, has caused an outcry in Turkey’s biggest city Istanbul. Turkey remains conservative on LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) issues, but on Sunday activists will stage a rare protest in Istanbul, writes Rengin Arslan of BBC Turkish.

“Hande was one of the nicest people in the world. She was very calm normally but also hyperactive. She always went to the LGBTI marches. She pursued a cause that she felt right until the end.”

Davut Dengiler describes his 23-year-old flatmate, Hande Kader, whose body was found in a forest in Istanbul last week.

Ms Kader, a sex worker, was last seen entering a client’s car one night. Mr Dengiler had hoped she was still alive but he found her body in Istanbul’s morgue for unidentified persons.

“I was about to leave the morgue. I felt a sense of lightness for not having found her there. At the last minute, a doctor there said, ‘There’s also a burned body – look at that as well.’ I did. I told them identifying features. They then looked at the computer, at the report. The doctor put his hand on my back and gave his condolences. I lost myself,” he said.

He explained Ms Kader’s reaction to the deaths of other trans people: “She would go crazy when trans individuals were killed. She’d be so sad… She had been stabbed and beaten before. This didn’t happen only to Hande. It happens to all of them.”

LGBTI activists protest against violence towards trans people, but the rest of Turkish society rarely reacts.

Under the state of emergency, declared after the failed coup attempt of 15 July, restrictions on demonstrations are in place.

But for the first time, famous figures in Turkey have joined the calls to raise awareness of Ms Kader’s murder and to take part in a demonstration scheduled for Sunday evening in Istanbul.

Image copyrightHANDE KADER/FACEBOOK

According to data from the rights group Transgender Europe, Turkey has the highest number of trans murders in Europe.

But “there is no safe country for trans people” as the group’s 2016 report observes.

Ms Kader tried to call attention to trans murders in Turkey and the lack of justice. She was usually in the front at demonstrations.

Image copyrightREUTERS

But it is perhaps the images of Hande Kader that have been shared innumerable times on social media that best explain the trans woman who is still waiting to be buried due to the processes of identification, post mortem, and DNA testing.

In 2015, police had banned the annual LGBTI Pride march in Taksim Square in Istanbul. They tried to disperse the crowds, using water cannon, rubber bullets and pepper spray. But Ms Kader stood stubbornly against the police.

She reproached journalists: “You take pictures but you do not publish them. No-one is hearing our voices.”

Hande Kader’s voice was silenced finally by murder, in a way no one would want to imagine: she was burned.

She earned a living through sex work, always putting her safety at risk. Like other trans individuals forced into prostitution, she worked on the street.

She sought a way out but could not find it.

“She did not like this work,” her close friend Funda said, adding, “but who would like it, anyway?”

–  BBC

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By Umit Besktas and Tuvan Gumrukcu

ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Twenty-two people were killed and 94 wounded when a suspected suicide bomber targeted a wedding celebration in the Turkish city of Gaziantep on Saturday, adding to a surge in violence this week in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

Ambulances raced to the scene and video footage from broadcaster CNN Turk showed police and emergency services workers rushing through packed streets in the city.

The attack appeared to have hit when a large group of people from a wedding party took to the streets in celebration, security sources said.

Islamic State militants were believed to be behind the attack, Samil Tayyar, a member of parliament from ruling AK Party said on Twitter, while Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek told broadcaster NTV the blast appeared to be the work of a suicide bomber.

“We wish God’s mercy for those who have lost their lives in this cruel attack, and for the injured, a quick recovery,” the Gaziantep provincial governor’s office said in a statement, confirming the death toll.

“We strongly condemn this cruel terror attack and those carrying it out.”

Mahmut Togrul, a member of parliament for Gaziantep from Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, told Reuters it was a Kurdish wedding. Islamic State has been blamed for suicide bombings on Kurdish gatherings in the past.

Turkey faces multiple security threats from Islamic State militants at home and across the border with neighbouring Syria as well as from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

A group of rogue Turkish soldiers last month attempted to overthrow the government, commandeering tanks, helicopters and warplanes in an attempted putsch that killed 240 people. The Ankara government has blamed on followers of the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, but Gulen has denied the charge.

Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed 44 people at Istanbul’s main airport in June, the deadliest in a string of attacks in Turkey this year.

Violence flared up again this past week in the largely Kurdish southeast, with bomb attacks leaving 10 people dead in separate attacks, mostly police and soldiers, in an escalation that officials blamed on Kurdish PKK militants.

Turkey’s restive southeast has been hit by a wave of violence since the collapse of a 2-1/2-year ceasefire with the PKK in July last year. The PKK has since carried out dozens of attacks on police and military posts in the largely Kurdish region.

(Additional reporting by Gulsen Solaker and Daren Butler, writing by David Dolan; editing by Patrick Markey and G Crosse)

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ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish authorities detained 29 inspectors on Friday from the BDDK banking watchdog for “irregular inspections,” broadcaster NTV and other media reported, in what appeared to be the latest round-up related to the failed July 15 coup.

Turkey has so far detained around 40,000 people in its investigation following the attempted putsch, which it blames on followers of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who has denied the charge.

Around half of those detained have been formally arrested for links to the coup attempt when rogue troops attacked state institutions in a bid to overthrow the government.

The investigation has also lead to a sweeping purge of the military, civil service, police, and judiciary, with nearly 80,000 removed from public duty. The scope of the crackdown has unnerved Turkey’s NATO allies, who fear President Tayyip Erdogan is using the purges to stifle dissent.

The banking investigators were detained on suspicion of making “irregular investigations” into the account of a government-related foundation and those of business people, including targets close to Erdogan, NTV said.

A spokesman for the BDDK, which regulates Turkey’s banking sector, was not immediately available for comment.

Erdogan has long accused Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, of running a “parallel network” inside government institutions and the military. Gulen has denied that charge and condemned the coup attempt.

Gulen’s organisation, which has followers across society, helped Erdogan in the first years after his AK Party was elected in 2002. But the two later fell out after police and prosecutors seen as sympathetic to the cleric opened a corruption investigation into Erdogan’s inner circle in 2013.

(Reporting by Ebru Tuncay and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by David Dolan; editing by Patrick Markey)

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Two big car bombs have hit police stations in separate cities in Turkey, killing six people and wounding at least 219 others.

The first attack targeted a police station in the eastern city of Van, killing one police officer and two civilians. Some 73 people were hurt.

Hours later, a police station in Elazig was hit, killing at least three police officers and wounding 146 people.

Turkish officials blamed the Kurdish militant group, the PKK.

The PKK has carried a series of bombings targeting the police in the largely Kurdish south-east since a ceasefire with the government broke down last year.

Ongoing conflict

Television footage showed plumes of smoke rising above the destroyed police building in Elazig.

The force of the blast blew out nearby cars, uprooted trees and left a large crater outside the building.

At least eight people were killed in two attacks on police vehicles in nearby Diyarbakir and Kiziltepe last week.

Since last month’s failed coup in Turkey, there has been much talk of national unity.

But this has not included the pro-Kurdish political party which the Turkish authorities say supports the PKK, reports the BBC’s Turkey correspondent Mark Lowen. The pro-Kurdish HDP denies any link to the militants.

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Turkey will release some 38,000 prisoners under a penal reform announced on Wednesday as the arrests of tens of thousands of people suspected of links to last month’s attempted coup burden overstretched jails.

The reform, extending an existing probation scheme, was one of a series of measures outlined on Wednesday in two new decrees under a state of emergency declared after the July 15 failed putsch during which 240 people were killed. The government gave no reason for the reform.

Turkey’s Western allies worry President Tayyip Erdogan is using the crackdown to target dissent. Angrily dismissing Western concerns over stability in the NATO member, Turkish officials say they are rooting out a serious internal threat.

The decrees, published in the country’s Official Gazette, also ordered the dismissal of 2,360 more police officers, more than 100 military personnel and 196 staff at Turkey’s information and communication technology authority, BTK.

Those dismissed were described as having links to U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating the putsch when rogue troops commandeered tanks and jets in an attempt to overthrow the government. Gulen denies involvement in the coup.

Under the penal reform, convicts with up to two years left in sentences are eligible for release on probation, extending the period from one year. The “supervised release” excludes those convicted of terrorism, murder, violent or sexual crimes.

To be eligible for the scheme, prisoners must have served half of their sentences. Previously they were required to have already served two thirds of their sentence.

“This measure is not an amnesty,” Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag wrote on Twitter of the penal reform. “Around 38,000 people will be released from… jail in the first stage as a result of this measure.”

He did not say why the reform was needed but Turkey’s prison population has trebled over the last 15 years. There were 188,000 prisoners in Turkey as of March, some 8,000 more than the existing capacity.

Another measure said the president could appoint as head of the armed forces any general or admiral, removing the requirement that the military chief be a top commander of the army, navy or air force. Under another move, the TIB telecoms authority will be closed.

TEACHERS, JUDGES, EXECUTIVES

Alongside tens of thousands of civil servants suspended or dismissed, more than 35,000 people have been detained in the purge. Judges, journalists, police, and teachers are among those targeted for suspected links to Gulen’s movement.

Turkish police on Tuesday searched the offices of a nationwide retail chain and a healthcare and technology company, detaining executives who authorities accuse of helping finance Gulen’s network.

Erdogan, already accused by critics of creeping authoritarianism before the coup bid, says Gulen and his followers infiltrated government institutions to create a ‘parallel state’ in an attempt to take over the country.

Western criticism of the purge and Ankara’s demands U.S. officials extradite Gulen have already frayed ties with Washington and the European Union, increasing tensions over an EU deal with Turkey to stem the flow of migrants.

Incensed over a perceived lack of Western sympathy over the coup attempt, Erdogan has also revived relations with Russia, a detente Western officials worry may be used by both leaders to pressure the European Union and NATO.

Measures in Wednesday’s decrees will also enable former air force pilots to return to duty, making up for a deficit resulting from the dismissal of military pilots in the wake of the putsch attempt.

Turkey declared a three-month state of emergency on July 21.

Under previous emergency rule decrees, Turkey had already dismissed thousands of security force members as well as ordering the closure of thousands of private schools, charities and other institutions suspected of links to Gulen.

(Editing by Patrick Markey and Anna Willard)

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ISTANBUL, Turkey (Reuters) – Turkish special forces captured a group of rebel commandos who tried to seize or kill President Tayyip Erdogan during a failed coup, and a government minister said plotters would “never see God’s sun as long as they breathe”.

Drones and helicopters pinpointed the location of the 11 fugitive commandos in forested hills around the Mediterranean resort of Marmaris after a two-week manhunt, an official said on Monday. They were part of a group that attacked a hotel where Erdogan was holidaying on the night of the July 15 coup bid.

The operation took place overnight, after the government tightened its control over the military by dismissing over 1,000 more soldiers, widening the post-coup purges of state institutions that have targeted tens of thousands of people.

The coup attempt and resulting purges have shocked Turkey, which last saw a violent military power grab in 1980, and have shaken confidence in the stability of a NATO member key to the U.S.-led fight against Islamic State and to stopping illegal migration to Europe.

Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said coup plotters would bitterly regret trying to overthrow Turkey’s democracy, in words reflecting the depth of anger among the thousands of Turks who have attended rallies to condemn the coup night after night.

“We will make them beg. We will stuff them into holes, they will suffer such punishment in those holes that they will never see God’s sun as long as they breathe,” Zeybekci was quoted by the Dogan news agency as telling an anti-coup protest in the western town of Usak over the weekend.

“They will not hear a human voice again. ‘Kill us’ they will beg,” he said.

Erdogan blames followers of U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen for the coup bid and has vowed to rid state institutions of his influence. But the extent of the purges, and suggestions that the death penalty could be reintroduced, have sparked concern in Western capitals and among rights groups.

Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, has denied involvement.

Erdogan and his government have been angered by the response of Western allies to the abortive coup and its aftermath, accusing them of being more concerned about the rights of the plotters than the gravity of the threat Turkey has faced.

The United States’ top military official, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford, was due to meet Prime Minister Binali Yildirim in Ankara on Monday after visiting the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, used by the U.S.-led coalition for bombing raids in Syria.

SOLDIERS DISMISSED

More than 230 people were killed in the attempted coup, many of them civilians, and more than 2,000 injured. Erdogan was almost killed or captured, officials close to him have said, an outcome which could have tipped Turkey into conflict.

Since the coup bid, more than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and education have been detained, suspended or placed under investigation, leading to concern among NATO allies about the scale of the purges. Around 40 percent of Turkey’s generals and admirals have been dismissed.

Nearly 1,400 more members of the armed forces were dismissed and the top military council was stacked with government ministers on Sunday, moves designed by Erdogan to tighten civilian control over the military.

“Our aim is that we set up such a system that nobody within the armed forces would ever consider a coup again,” Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told a news conference in Ankara, explaining the latest reforms. He said a restructuring of Turkey’s intelligence structures may follow.

Similar “democracy demonstrations” to the one attended by Zeybekci, rallies called for by Erdogan, have been held in squares night after night across the country of nearly 80 million since the coup.

The foreign ministry summoned the charge d’affaires at the German embassy on Monday after German authorities prevented Erdogan from addressing such a rally by Turks in Cologne on Sunday by video link, a senior official in Ankara said.

The top German court ruled against the live link amid concerns that political tensions in Turkey could spill over into Germany, home to Europe’s largest Turkish diaspora.

“It would be absolutely unacceptable for Germany to even mention democracy, the rule of law, human rights and freedoms to Turkey after this point,” Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag wrote in a furious response on Twitter.

Turkey’s crackdown after the failed coup has made European leaders even more uneasy about their dependence on the country to help stem illegal migration, in return for which Turks have been promised visa-free travel to the European Union.

Turkey will have to back out of the agreement if the EU does not deliver visa liberalisation as promised, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as telling Germany’s daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

COMMANDOS SEIZED

Having been tipped off that he was in danger on the night of the coup bid, Erdogan had fled the hotel in Marmaris by the time the rogue commandos arrived in an attempt to capture him.

After a manhunt involving around 1,000 members of the security forces, the 11 were captured – dressed in camouflage and trying to cross a stream – after a tip-off from a man who spotted them as he was hunting wild boar, the Dogan agency said.

Video footage showed a dozen or so anti-coup demonstrators jeering the 11 detained soldiers, some of whom had swollen faces and bruises. The demonstrators waved Turkish flags and chanted “Traitors! We want the death penalty!”

More than 1,700 military personnel were dishonourably discharged last week for their role in the putsch, which saw a faction of the military commandeer tanks, helicopters and warplanes in an attempt to topple the government.

The new wave of army expulsions and the overhaul of the Supreme Military Council (YAS), announced in the official state gazette on Sunday, came hours after Erdogan said he also planned to shut down existing military academies and put the armed forces under the command of the Defence Ministry.

According to the gazette, the 1,389 military personnel targeted on Sunday were dismissed for suspected links to the Islamic preacher Gulen.

Erdogan has said that Gulen harnessed his extensive network of schools, charities and businesses, built up in Turkey and abroad over decades, to create a “parallel state” that aimed to take over the country.

The cleric has however condemned the coup.

“If there is anything I told anyone about this verbally, if there is any phone conversation, if one-tenth of this accusation is correct … I would bend my neck and would say, ‘They are telling the truth. Let them take me away. Let them hang me,'” Gulen said in an interview with CNN broadcast on Sunday.

(Additional reporting by Gareth Jones and Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul, Ercan Gurses in Ankara; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Gareth Jones and Pravin Char)

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[ Reuters ] The Turkish government dismissed nearly 1,400 military personnel for suspected links to a cleric it blames for an attempted coup, state media said on Sunday, hours after President Tayyip Erdogan announced sweeping changes to the armed forces.

The expulsions are the latest attempt by Erdogan to bring Turkey’s military – long seen as the guardians of the secular republic – firmly under government control. On Saturday he said he planned to shut down existing military academies and put the armed forces under the command of the Defence Ministry.

State-run Anadolu Agency said on Sunday that 1,389 military personnel had been dismissed for suspected links to the U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is accused by Turkey of orchestrating the July 15-16 failed putsch. Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, has denied the charges and condemned the coup.

Earlier this week, more than 1,700 military personnel were dishonorably discharged for their role in the putsch, which saw a faction of the armed forces commandeer tanks, helicopters and warplanes in an attempt to topple the government. Erdogan has said 237 people were killed and more than 2,100 wounded.

Erdogan, who narrowly escaped capture and possible death on the night of the coup, told Reuters in an interview last week that the military, NATO’s second-biggest, needed “fresh blood”. The dishonorable discharges included about 40 percent of Turkey’s admirals and generals.

So far, more than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and schools have been either detained, removed or suspended over suspected links with Gulen. Turkey’s Western allies condemned the attempted coup, but have been rattled by the scale of the resulting crackdown.

The aggressive cuts to the military come when it is stretched by heavy fighting with Kurdish insurgents in the mainly Kurdish southeast and threats from Islamic State militants at its border with Syria.

Turkey’s military is a member of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Its Incirlik Air Base is used by coalition forces for missions against Islamic State.

INCIRLIK SECURITY

Security was tight in the immediate area around Incirlik on Sunday, Turkish security sources said, before an expected visit by the U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joseph Dunford.

While there were rumors on social media that security forces were at the ready on worries about another coup attempt, a U.S. military spokesman at the base said they had not seen an increased Turkish police presence.

“It’s business as usual here,” he said, without giving his name. “We are not seeing anything like that.”

Incirlik has seen some scattered protests in the days since the coup, as pro-government supporters have called on the United States to extradite Gulen. Washington says it would only do so if it had has clear evidence.

Erdogan, meanwhile, has said it was “shameful” that Western countries showed more interest in the fate of the plotters than in standing with a fellow NATO member and has upbraided Western leaders for not visiting after the coup attempt.

In an unexpected move, he has said that as a one-off gesture, he would drop all lawsuits filed against people for insulting him. He said the decision was triggered by feelings of “unity” against the coup attempt.

It could also be aimed at silencing his Western critics.

Prosecutors have opened more than 1,800 cases against people for insulting Erdogan since he became president in 2014, the justice minister has said. Those targeted include journalists, cartoonists and even children.

It was not immediately clear whether Erdogan would also drop his legal action against German comedian Jan Boehmermann, who earlier this year recited a poem on television suggesting Erdogan engaged in bestiality and watched child pornography, prompting the president to file a complaint with German prosecutors that he had been insulted.

PUBLIC SECTOR

The number of public sector workers removed from their posts since the coup attempt is now more than 66,000, including some 43,000 people in education, Anadolu reported on Friday.

Interior Minister Efkan Ala said more than 18,000 people had been detained over the failed coup, and that 50,000 passports had been canceled. The labor ministry said it was investigating 1,300 staff over their possible involvement.

Erdogan has said that Gulen harnessed his extensive network of schools, charities and businesses, built up in Turkey and abroad over decades, to create a “parallel state” that aimed to take over the country.

The government is now going after Gulen’s network of schools and other institutions abroad. Since the coup, Somalia has shut two schools and a hospital believed to have links to Gulen, and other governments have received similar requests from Ankara, although not all have been willing to comply.

(Additional reporting by Yesim Dikmen, Gulsen Solaker and Humeyra Pamuk; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the nation Saturday that his government was working to crush a coup attempt after a night of explosions, air battles and gunfire across the capital that left dozens dead and at least 150 people wounded.

Government officials said the coup appeared to have failed as Turks took to the streets overnight to confront troops attempting to take over the country. However, the sounds of huge blasts, including at least one bomb that hit the parliament complex, continued to ring out in the capital, Ankara, and Istanbul throughout the morning.

Speaking on national television from Istanbul, Erdogan said the government was arresting coup supporters in the military and warned “they will pay a heavy price for their treason to Turkey,” according to a transcript of his remarks provided by his office. “Those who stain the military’s reputation must leave. The process has started today and it will continue just as we fight other terrorist groups.”

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, speaking to state-run Anadolu Agency, said more than 120 arrests were made.

Erdogan, who said his general secretary had been abducted by the coup plotters, flew into Istanbul’s Ataturk airport early Saturday and was greeted by large crowds. Hours earlier, as the coup attempt got underway, his office declined to say where he was, and he was forced to give an interview over FaceTime to a television station.

The chaos capped a period of political turmoil in Turkey which critics blamed on Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian rule, which has included a government shake-up, a crackdown on dissidents and opposition media and renewed conflict in the mainly Kurdish areas of the southeast.

Turkey, a NATO member, is a key partner in U.S.-led efforts to defeat the Islamic State group, and has allowed American jets to use its Incirlik air base to fly missions against the extremists in nearby Syria and Iraq. A coup against the democratically elected government could make it difficult for the United States to continue to cooperate with Turkey.

U.S. President Barack Obama urged all sides in Turkey to support the democratically elected government. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he spoke to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and called for respect for democracy.

The coup attempt began late Friday, with a statement from the military saying it had seized control “to reinstall the constitutional order, democracy, human rights and freedoms, to ensure that the rule of law once again reigns in the country, for law and order to be reinstated.”

Fighter jets buzzed overhead, gunfire erupted outside military headquarters and vehicles blocked two major bridges in Istanbul. Soldiers backed by tanks blocked entry to Istanbul’s airport for a couple of hours, before being overtaken by pro-government crowds carrying Turkish flags, according to footage broadcast by the Dogan news agency.

But the military did not appear unified, with top commanders taking to television to condemn the action and order troops back to their barracks.

“Those who are attempting a coup will not succeed. Our people should know that we will overcome this,” Gen. Zekai Aksakalli, the commander of the military special forces, told the private NTV television by telephone.

Fighter jets under the control of loyalist forces were flying over the capital to strike at helicopters flown by coup supporters, the Anadolu news agency said. NTV reported that one helicopter was shot down. Gunfire and explosions rang out.

Erdogan called on Turks to take to the streets across the country, and many did, marching through the streets of Izmir and Istanbul, waving Turkish flags and gathering in the main square in Ankara. The Dogan news agency reported that soldiers fired on a group of people trying to cross the Bosporus bridge to protest the attempted coup, and that some people have been hurt. TV footage showed people running for cover amid gunfire.

Troops also fired in the air to disperse a growing crowd of government supporters at the Taksim monument in Istanbul as military helicopters flew overhead. A nearby mosque made an anti-coup announcement over its loudspeakers. Several blasts and the screech of fighter jets were heard in central Istanbul as dawn approached.

At least 42 people were killed in the capital, NTV quoted the prosecutor’s office as saying. Parliament Speaker Ismail Kahraman said a bomb hit one corner of a public relations building inside the parliament complex, injuring some police officers.

In Istanbul, an official at Haydarpasa Numune Hospital said at least 150 people were admitted with wounds but would not comment on whether there were fatalities. NTV reported six dead had been brought to that hospital. An official at Istanbul’s Sisli Hamidiye Etfal Training and Research Hospital said they had also received dead and wounded. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to comment publicly.

Parliament Speaker Ismail Kahraman said a bomb hit one corner of a public relations building inside the parliament complex, injuring some police officers.

In his TV address, Erdogan blamed the attack on supporters of Fethullah Gulen.

Erdogan has long accused the cleric and his supporters of attempting to overthrow the government. The cleric lives in exile in Pennsylvania and promotes a philosophy that blends a mystical form of Islam with staunch advocacy of democracy, education, science and interfaith dialogue.

By Saturday morning, a top Turkish official said the coup attempt appeared to have been repelled. The senior official told The Associated Press that all government officials were in charge of their offices. The official requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

As the crisis unfolded, there were reports that access to popular social media sites like Twitter and Facebook had been blocked within the country. Facebook declined comment, but Twitter said it suspected “intentional” interference with its service.

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Soguel reported from Istanbul. Emrah Gurel and Cinar Kiper also contributed from Istanbul

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