Turkey kills two attackers during assault on Istanbul court | News

Ankara says the ‘terrorist act’ was carried out by the leftist armed group DHKP-C.

The Turkish police have killed two people who allegedly attacked a court in Istanbul in what authorities labelled a “terrorist act”.

The incident on Tuesday morning also saw six people injured, including three police officers, officials said, blaming it on the leftist armed group Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C).

Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X that the shooters were killed in a gun battle after they opened fire on a checkpoint near the Caglayan court in Istanbul.

The suspects, a man and a woman identified only as EY and PB, were alleged members of the DHKP-C, enlisted as a “terrorist group” in Turkey, he said.

The DHKP-C has waged a campaign against the Turkish state since the 1980s.

Footage from the scene in the aftermath of the incident showed a heavy police presence at the entrance to the court, with entry and exit points closed.

Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said prosecutors had launched an investigation into the attack.

Unrest

The attack is the latest to hit Turkey as the war in Gaza spreads tensions across the Middle East. It follows closely in the wake of several other armed attacks in Turkey.

Masked gunmen, purportedly members of ISIL (ISIS), stormed a church in Istanbul last month during Sunday mass and killed one person. Authorities have since arrested many people over suspecting their involvement in the attack or links to the group.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) armed group, which has also waged a bloody campaign against the Turkish government for decades, launched a suicide attack on the Ministry of Interior’s building in capital Ankara in October.

Authorities reacted by bombing Kurdish positions in northern Iraq and have since arrested hundreds with purported links to Kurdish groups.

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Syrian earthquake survivors still sleep outside one year on | Earthquakes

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Families in Syrian towns devastated by last year’s earthquake are still choosing to sleep in tents outside, one year on. They fear that another quake could strike at any moment and that they could be crushed in their sleep. The Turkey-Syria earthquakes struck the region on February 6, 2023, killed more than 50,000 people.

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Turkey appoints Fatih Karahan as new central bank chief after Erkan resigns | Business and Economy News

The appointment comes a few hours after the resignation of Hafize Gaye Erkan citing a media scandal.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has named the central bank’s Deputy Governor Fatih Karahan as its new head following the resignation of the chief, Hafize Gaye Erkan.

The appointment of the former senior economist at the US online retail giant Amazon was announced in the Official Gazette early on Saturday, hours after Erkan said she was stepping down partly due to the need to protect her family amid a media scandal.

Cabinet leaders quickly said the economic programme that had begun cooling inflation expectations after a years-long cost-of-living crisis would carry on under Karahan, who is seen as having played a key role in engineering the monetary tightening.

The first woman to lead the bank, Erkan began raising interest rates when she was appointed in June last year, launching a 180-degree pivot away from years of low rates under Erdogan that had sent inflation soaring and foreign investors fleeing.

Since then, the central bank has hiked its key rate to 45 percent from 8.5 percent. Last week, after another 250-basis-point rise, it said it had tightened enough to achieve disinflation, signalling a halt.

In her statement announcing the resignation, Erkan said “our economic programme has started to bear fruit”, citing rising foreign reserves and expectations that inflation will begin cooling around midyear “as proof of this success”.

“Despite all these positive developments, as is known to the public, a major reputation assassination campaign has recently been organised against me,” she added on X.

“In order to prevent my family and my innocent child, who is not even one and a half years old, from being further affected by this, I have asked our President to pardon me from my duty.”

Last month, the opposition newspaper Sozcu published an article about a central bank employee who said she was wrongfully dismissed from the bank by Erkan’s father.

In response at the time, Erkan said an “unfounded” news story targeting her, her family and the bank was “unacceptable” and said she would exercise her legal rights against those responsible.

Erdogan later decried efforts to spread “rumours” meant to undermine economic progress, in an apparent endorsement of Erkan, the bank’s fifth governor in as many years.

Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said Erkan’s resignation was her personal decision and the economic programme would continue uninterrupted.

Karahan has a doctorate in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and was also a former Federal Reserve Bank of New York economist.

Simsek said Erdogan continues to back the economic team and programme, a sentiment echoed in a separate statement by Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz.

Inflation neared 65 percent last month and is expected to begin dipping around June, spelling some relief for Turks after years in which rent and other basic needs became unaffordable for many.

Foreign investors, including world heavyweights Pimco and Vanguard, began buying Turkish assets late last year in a strong signal of confidence in Erkan and Simsek’s programme.

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US approves sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey | News

The $23bn deal was finalised after Turkey’s parliament ratified Sweden’s long-delayed NATO membership.

The United States has approved the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey after the Turkish parliament this week ratified Sweden’s NATO membership.

The US Department of State notified Congress of the $23bn agreement to sell the warplanes to NATO ally Turkey on Friday night, along with a companion $8.6bn sale of advanced F-35 fighter jets to Greece, also an ally in the Western military bloc.

The department’s notification came hours after Turkey deposited its “instrument of ratification” for Sweden’s accession to NATO with Washington, which is the repository for alliance documents and after several key members of Congress lifted their objections.

The sale to Turkey includes 40 Lockheed Martin F-16s and equipment to modernise 79 of its existing F-16 fleet. Greece will get 40 F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters and related equipment.

Turkey has long sought to upgrade its F-16 fleet and requested the jets in October 2021, but its delay in approving Sweden’s NATO bid became an obstacle to winning congressional approval.

Ankara had made its ratification of Sweden’s membership contingent on the approval of the sale of the new planes.

US concerns

President Joe Biden’s administration had supported the sale, but several lawmakers had expressed objections due to Turkey’s human rights record.

“My approval of Turkey’s request to purchase F-16 aircraft has been contingent on Turkish approval of Sweden’s NATO membership. But make no mistake: This was not a decision I came to lightly,” said Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, one of four key committees that needs to approve arms transfers.

“I look forward to beginning this new chapter in our relationship with Turkey, expanding the NATO alliance, and working with our global allies in standing up to ongoing Russian aggression against its peaceful neighbours,” he said.

Congress has 15 days to object to the sale, after which it is considered final.

Ankara had delayed its approval of Sweden’s NATO membership for more than a year, ostensibly because it believed Stockholm did not take Turkey’s national security concerns seriously enough, including its fight against Kurdish fighters and other groups it considers to be security threats.

The delays had frustrated the US and other NATO allies, almost all of which had been swift to accept Sweden and Finland into the alliance after the Nordic states dropped their longstanding military neutrality following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Finland became the alliance’s 31st member in April.

All eyes are now on Hungary, which is the only NATO member holding up Sweden’s bid. US and NATO officials have said they expect Hungary to act quickly, especially after Turkey’s decision.

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Turkey, Iran agree on need for regional stability amid Israel’s war on Gaza | Politics News

The war in Gaza topped the agenda as Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iran’s Ebrahim Raisi met in Ankara.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he and his Iranian counterpart have agreed to avoid steps that could threaten Middle East stability, during a visit to Ankara by Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi.

At a news conference after the meeting on Wednesday, Erdogan said the pair had discussed ending Israel’s “inhumane” attacks on Gaza and the imperative for fair and lasting peace in the region.

“We agreed on the importance of refraining from steps that will further threaten the security and stability of our region,” he said, adding that they had also agreed to continue cooperation against cross-border threats.

Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Ankara, said the main agenda of the meeting was Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.

“No one expects the two leaders to stop what’s going on in Gaza, but at least what they aim is to contain the escalation, the growing crisis in region, especially in Yemen, in the Red Sea areas,” Koseoglu said.

“President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said that they are committed to the fight against terrorism,” she added.

Turkey, which has been vocal in its condemnation of Israel’s attacks on Gaza, has called for an immediate ceasefire and backed legal steps for Israel to be tried for genocide.

However, Ankara has maintained its commercial ties with Israel, prompting criticism at home and in Iran.

Palestinians wait at a hospital to collect the bodies of their relatives killed in Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Israel has killed more than 25,700 Palestinians since October 7 [File: AFP]

Iran leads what it calls the “axis of resistance” that includes Hamas, Yemen’s Houthis, and other Shia Muslim groups in the region that have confronted Israel and its Western allies.

In a sign that the war on Gaza threatens to spill over into the wider region, the United States and United Kingdom have struck targets in Yemen in response to Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

The Houthis have said their attacks in the busy waterway are aimed at ships with links to Israel and they will continue as long as the war on Gaza continues.

Erdogan has condemned the US and UK’s attacks on Yemen and called them a disproportionate use of force.

Raisi accused the US of supporting what he referred to as Israel’s crimes against Palestinians in Gaza and repeated his call for Muslim nations to cut ties with the “Zionist regime”.

“What is happening in Palestine and Gaza is a crime against humanity … and the United States and the West are supporting these crimes,” he said on Wednesday.

“Cutting economic and political ties with this regime can certainly have an impact on the Zionist regime to end its crimes.”

Turkey and Iran have had complicated ties due to several issues, including the Syrian civil war.

Ankara-backed rebels have attempted to oust Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, while Tehran supported his government.

Recently, Turkey has taken steps to improve ties with Damascus.

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Turkey’s parliament set to vote on Sweden’s NATO bid this week: Reports | News

Turkey endorsed Finland’s membership bid in April but, along with Hungary, has kept Sweden waiting.

The Turkish parliament is set to debate Sweden’s NATO membership bid after months of delays that have strained Ankara’s ties with its Western allies, with a vote expected this week.

The debate in the Grand National Assembly is due to take place on Tuesday, state media reported, with a vote likely the same day. The AFP news agency reported that the vote could be held on Thursday.

Turkey’s ratification would leave Hungary as the last holdout in an accession process that Sweden and its neighbour Finland began in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.

However, on Tuesday, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he had invited his Swedish counterpart, Ulf Kristersson, for a visit to negotiate his country joining the military alliance.

Finland became the 31st member of the alliance last April. Its membership roughly doubled the length of NATO’s border with Russia and substantially strengthened the defences of three small Baltic nations that joined the bloc following the Soviet Union’s collapse.

Sweden and Finland pursued a policy of military non-alignment during the Cold War era confrontation between Russia and the United States.

However, Russia’s invasion of its western neighbour set off Europe’s biggest and most brutal land battle since World War II, upturning geopolitical calculations.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s resistance to Sweden’s NATO accession reflected his more nuanced stance towards Moscow.

Ankara has profited from maintaining – and even expanding – trade with Russia while at the same time supplying Ukraine with drones and other essential arms.

Erdogan has also been one of the few NATO leaders to hold regular meetings and phone conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Turkish media reported that Putin could make his first wartime visit to Turkey next month.

US fighter jets

Erdogan’s objections to Sweden’s bid initially focused on Stockholm’s perceived acceptance of Kurdish groups that Ankara views as “terrorists”.

Sweden has responded by tightening its antiterrorism legislation and taking other security steps demanded by Erdogan over the members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the European Union and the United States also list as a “terrorist” group.

Sweden and NATO members Finland, Canada and the Netherlands also took steps to relax Turkey’s arms export policies.

The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee approved the Swedish bid last month after Erdogan forwarded it to parliament in October.

However, Erdogan has since demanded that Washington follow through on its pledge to deliver a batch of F-16 fighter jets for Turkey’s ageing air force.

Erdogan last month discussed his demands by telephone with US President Joe Biden.

US officials argued that Turkey’s request could win the required congressional approval if Sweden’s NATO accession goes through – a position reaffirmed by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a visit to Istanbul this month.

“We have not parsed words about how ready we are for Sweden to formally join the alliance,” said US Department of State deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel after news emerged that Turkey was finally ready to ratify the Swedish candidacy.

“We have long felt that [Sweden] has met its commitment and we look forward to this process moving forward.”



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$900 fine for a delivery rider’s death: Do couriers have any rights? | Labour Rights

The death of a motorcycle courier in an Istanbul road accident and the light sentencing of the man who allegedly killed him have sparked a debate about the conditions of gig workers at a time when they are an increasingly crucial engine of the global economy.

Mohammed Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, a son of Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, was initially handed a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for the death of the courier, Yunus Emre Gocer, in a traffic accident. The sentence was immediately commuted on Tuesday to a small fine, though, in light of Mohamud’s good “behaviour” and “remorse”, according to the court.

The order sparked outrage after videos of the incident were shared on social media, prompting calls for better protections for couriers in Turkey. Since the pandemic, takeaway and delivery options have become integral to many economies, but thousands of delivery riders work with few or no physical or legal protections.

Here’s what we know about Gocer’s case, the conditions of delivery workers around the world — and just how much the modern economy relies on them.

What happened?

Gocer, 38, was riding his motorcycle on an Istanbul highway on November 30 when a car with diplomatic registration plates smashed into him from behind, severely injuring him. Gocer died of his injuries on December 5.

Mohamud, who was driving the car, left Turkey before an arrest warrant and travel ban could be issued. Officials said he returned to Turkey on January 12 to give a statement, at which point the arrest warrant and travel ban were revoked.

During the court proceedings on Tuesday, which Mohamud did not attend, Gocer’s lawyers argued that the accused was primarily at fault and that he failed to slow down and give space to the biker even though the victim had indicated he was braking.

The judge initially sentenced Mohamud to three years in prison, which was then reduced to two and a half years because of his “behaviour” and “remorse”, according to local reports, and then eventually commuted to a fine.

Prosecutors had charged Mohamud with causing death by negligence and asked for a six-year sentence. But on Tuesday, Istanbul’s 33rd Criminal Court of First Instance settled on a fine of 27,300 Turkish lira ($906). Mohamud also had his driver’s licence revoked for six months.

Videos of the accident have flooded social media as some people have called for a heavier sentence for Mohamud. In the clip, Gocer is seen on his motorcycle on the busy highway, which is the main road to Ataturk Airport. One video shows the rider slowing down for a few seconds before a car crashes into him from behind, pushing Gocer and the motorcycle off the road.

Mesut Ceki, head of Kurye Haklari, a courier rights group, told Al Jazeera that justice had not been served.

“Frankly, as motor couriers, we think this is not a punishment,” said Ceki, who was present at the sentencing. “What Turkey and the world witnessed through camera footage is a murder disguised as an accident. I am also a courier. If I die and if the person who is 75 percent responsible for my death will not spend even one day in prison, if he will walk around freely in exchange for money that will not even cost him a snack due to his position, it is not just me who dies, it is justice and humanity that die.”

How important are delivery riders?

Globally, delivery riders have become the heartbeat of a “quick commerce” market, which was crucial during the pandemic and is continuing to grow. About seven million people work as courier riders in China while about two million courier workers are employed in the United States and India combined.

In South Korea, one of the top five food delivery markets, courier riders working for food and grocery companies number nearly 800,000.

If these millions of delivery workers were to stop working, they would upset an online food delivery market that’s projected to hit $1 trillion in revenues this year and a grocery deliveries sector that is expected to grow to $80bn by 2028.

Customers in China would feel any upset the most. As of 2023, more than 500 million people used food delivery apps in China, the highest number worldwide. In the US, the second biggest market, a survey found that at least 60 per cent of the more than 2,000 people questioned had used one food app in three months.

In the United Kingdom, also one of the big five markets for the sector, 12.7 million people order food and groceries online, and the market is valued at 2.75 billion pounds ($3.4bn).

How risky is the job for couriers like Gocer?

There are an estimated 200,000 couriers using motorcycles or scooters in Turkey. They earn an average of $300 per month. Last year, at least 68 couriers were killed on the job, according to Kurye Haklari – well above one death a week. An estimated 58 riders died in 2022 and at least 30 in 2021. Some of them were teenagers.

Delivery workers’ deaths in Turkey are also often treated as accidents rather than “occupational homicides”, which could force vehicle drivers to be more careful, Ceki said.

If they were treated as occupational homicides, he added, “most importantly, employers could be held responsible as a party in courier accidents. They would see that it is their duty to take worker safety measures and develop policies in this regard.”

“Just as doctors work in hospitals, teachers work in schools and farmers work in the fields, we, as couriers, also work in traffic. Traffic is our workplace. Just as accidents at work are ‘work accidents’, deaths at our workplace should also be considered as such,” Ceki argued.

Gocer’s case has drawn widespread attention in Turkey and Somalia.

Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc told reporters a few days after Gocer died that “if there is a fault, if there is a crime, it will be pursued. He could be the son of the president of Somalia, or he could be a citizen.”

While Gocer was reported to have been delivering a package, most of the delivery workers killed while doing their jobs were delivering food, Kurye Haklari found.

“Our greatest wish is that the laws be regulated in favour of courier workers and that they make decisions on the side of the right, not on the side of the powerful and rich,” Ceki said.

What are working conditions like in other countries?

Like Turkey, conditions are poor for courier riders in several countries. Popular courier platforms like the German company Gorillas, which operates in six countries and promises “groceries at your door in minutes”, have been called out by workers for failing to pay on time, refusing to provide good protective gear and firing those who dare protest or unionise.

India, home to some of the most congested cities in the world, has perhaps one of the worst records. Several delivery apps have flooded the market, competing intensely and promising 10-minute drop-offs as a selling point. But riders, earning about $47 weekly, bear the brunt. Bonus weekly fees see drivers rush to make dozens of orders during “peak” lunch hours, resulting in road accidents or, worse, deaths. It is unclear how many delivery riders have died in the country.

In 2021, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded more than 1,000 deaths in its “driver/sales worker” category, which includes app-based delivery drivers. The deaths were mainly from road traffic accidents, but abuse from customers and assault were listed too – common problems for courier workers. In one case in April, a DoorDash worker making a delivery in Florida was forced back into her car, driven miles away and sexually assaulted.

Malaysia reported about 1,200 accidents involving delivery riders in 2023. In Australia, researchers found that one in three courier riders experience injury on the job but most continue working.

Better gear, better pay and health insurance would go a long way to protect delivery workers, experts said. But delivery companies are terrified of providing better equipment to riders because it could be classified as uniforms and would indicate that a worker is an employee rather than a contractor, says Mark Graham, a professor at the Oxford Internet Institute and director of the Fairwork Project, which rates companies in more than 30 countries on factors like pay and insurance management. An employee would have more rights and companies could be legally responsible if they get injured or die on the job.

“Most of the harms that workers experience can be traced back to the precarious position that they are put into by being classified as self-employed,” Graham said, emphasising the need for proper contracts. “If you take a relatively impoverished member of society and sign them up to work on your platform with no training, no safety equipment and no safety net, you are making an active choice to put a lot of risks solely on the shoulders of that worker.”

What happens next in Gocer’s case?

Metin Gocer, the late rider’s father, will appeal the sentence, a lawyer representing him told reporters at the court on Tuesday.

Turkey is one of Somalia’s strongest allies and aid donors. As officials investigate how Mohamud was able to leave the country after the accident, President Sheikh Mohamud told The Associated Press news agency in December that his son had not “fled” Turkey and that he had advised him to present himself to the court.

“Turkey is a brotherly country,” the president said. “We respect the laws and the justice and the judicial system. As president of Somalia, I will never allow anybody to violate this country’s judicial system.”

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Turkey frees Israeli footballer detained over October 7 reference in match | News

Turkish court releases player, pending trial, after he displayed bandage reading ‘100 days. 07/10’ while celebrating scoring a goal.

A Turkish court has released pending trial an Israeli footballer who was detained after displaying a message apparently marking 100 days since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7.

Sagiv Jehezkel, 28, displayed a bandage on his wrist reading “100 days. 07/10” next to the Star of David after scoring a goal for Antalyaspor against Trabzonspor during a match on Sunday.

Turkish authorities called the Antalyaspor club’s player for questioning after the incident and charged him with “openly inciting the public to hatred and hostility”, according to Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc.

In a post on X, Tunc said Jehezkel had engaged in “an ugly gesture in support of the Israeli massacre in Gaza”.

“We will continue to support the oppressed Palestinians,” he added, denouncing what he described as an ongoing “genocide” in Gaza.

NTV television reported that a private plane had been sent from Israel on Monday to pick up Jehezkel and his family so that they could return home.

In testimony to the police, Jehezkel said he “did not intend to provoke anyone”.

“I am not a pro-war person,” the private DHA news agency reported him as saying.

Jehezkel, capped eight times by the Israeli national team, celebrated scoring a goal against Trabsonspor by displaying the message on the bandage, believed to be a reference to Israel’s 100 days of war in Gaza and the captives held by Hamas in the coastal enclave.

On October 7, the Palestinian group launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing about 1,140 people and abducting 250 others, according to Israeli authorities.

Since then, a brutal Israeli military campaign has killed at least 24,100 Palestinians and wounded 60,834 others, while thousands of others remain trapped under the rubble.

Meanwhile, Antalyaspor said it had suspended Jehezkel, accusing him of having “acted against the values of our country”.

The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) added: “We condemn the completely unacceptable behaviour of footballer Sagiv Jehezkel during the match between Antalyaspor and Trabzonspor played today (…) and find Antalyaspor’s decision to exclude the player from its team appropriate.”

Jehezkel’s brief detention also sparked outrage in Israel. “Shame on you, Turkish government,” former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet wrote on X.

Since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a longtime supporter of the Palestinian cause, has repeatedly described Israel as a “terrorist state” and Hamas as a “group of liberators”.

In a separate incident, Istanbul’s top-flight side Basaksehir said it was launching a disciplinary investigation into another Israeli player, Eden Karzev, for reposting a social media message about the hostages, reading: “Bring Them Home Now”.

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Turkey launches air attacks against Kurdish rebels in Iraq and Syria | Conflict News

Defence ministry says 29 locations hit after attack on Turkish military base in Iraq killed nine Turkish soldiers.

Turkey has bombed multiple locations allegedly linked to Kurdish groups in Syria and northern Iraq in retaliation for the deaths of nine Turkish soldiers in Iraq, the defence ministry said.

The raids on Saturday came one day after an attack on a Turkish military base in Iraq resulted in the soldiers’ deaths.

The ministry said the attacks targeted 29 locations – including “caves, bunkers, shelters and oil installations” belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Syrian Kurdish group which has been a central element in the United States-allied coalition against ISIS (ISIL).

Turkey frequently carries out attacks against locations in Syria and Iraq that it suspects to be associated with the PKK.

The Kurdish separatist group, which is banned in Turkey, is considered a “terror” organisation by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.

The defence ministry said fighter jets struck targets in Metina, Hakurk, Gara and Qandil in northern Iraq, but did not specify which areas in Syria. It said the aim was “to eliminate terrorist attacks against our people and security forces … and to ensure our border security”.

The statement said that “many” armed fighters were “neutralised” in the attacks, a term Turkey uses to refer to killed or captured fighters.

On Friday night, attackers attempted to infiltrate a military base in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, killing five soldiers. Another four died later of critical injuries. The ministry said 15 fighters were also killed.

There was no immediate comment from the PKK, the government in Baghdad or the administration in the region.

Turkey launched Operation Claw-Lock in northern Iraq in April 2022, during which it established several bases in the Duhok governorate. Iraq has repeatedly protested against the presence of Turkish troops and called for their withdrawal.

“We will fight to the end against the PKK terrorist organisation within and outside our borders,” Turkey’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan posted on X.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was to hold a security meeting in Istanbul later on Saturday, said his communications director Fahrettin Altun.

Also on Saturday, 113 people were arrested for suspected links with the PKK in nationwide raids, interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X.

Continuing fighting

Three weeks ago, PKK-affiliated fighters tried to break into a Turkish base in northern Iraq, according to Turkish officials, killing six soldiers. The following day, six more Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes.

Turkey retaliated by launching attacks against sites that officials said were associated with the PKK in Iraq and Syria. Defence minister Yasar Guler said at the time that dozens of Kurdish fighters were killed in air strikes and land assaults.

It was not immediately clear if Friday night’s attack and the one three weeks earlier targeted the same base.

More than 40,000 people have been killed since the start of the conflict between the PKK – which maintains bases in northern Iraq – and the Turkish state since 1984.

Turkey and the US, however, disagree on the status of the Syrian Kurdish groups.

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US diplomat Blinken meets Turkey’s Erdogan, kicking off Gaza diplomacy tour | Israel War on Gaza News

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met senior Turkish officials in Istanbul, kicking off a week-long trip across the Middle East aimed at calming tensions that have spiked since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October.

In his meeting with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Blinken “emphasised the need to prevent the conflict from spreading, secure the release of hostages, expand humanitarian assistance and reduce civilian casualties,” US Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Saturday.

Blinken also stressed the need to work towards broader, lasting regional peace that ensures Israel’s security and advances the establishment of a Palestinian state, Miller added.

Erdogan, a fierce critic of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, had previously skipped a meeting with Blinken, when the US diplomat visited Ankara in November, over Washington’s staunch backing of Israel’s assault on Gaza.

On Saturday, Blinken also met Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and discussions focused on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Turkey’s foreign ministry said.

In his conversation with Blinken, Fidan pointed to Israel’s escalating aggression, saying it poses a threat to the entire region. He also underlined the necessity of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, allowing the permanent delivery of aid, and stressed the need to return to two-state solution negotiations as soon as possible, the ministry added.

‘Deescalation’

The US’s strained relationship with Turkey precedes the current war, with the two nations also feuding over foreign policy issues ranging from NATO to Iraq.

Ankara is frustrated by the delay in approval from the US Congress for a $20bn deal for 40 F-16 fighter jets. Washington is waiting for Turkey to ratify Sweden’s bid to join NATO.

On Saturday, Blinken and Fidan addressed Ankara’s process to ratify Sweden’s NATO membership, according to a Turkish foreign ministry statement.

US officials are confident Ankara will soon approve Sweden’s accession after it won the Turkish parliament’s backing last month, a senior State Department official travelling with Blinken told the Reuters news agency.

As part of Blinken’s whistlestop tour of several countries, he then travelled to the island of Crete on Saturday to meet Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Fellow NATO member Greece is awaiting the US Congress’s approval of a sale of F-35 fighter jets.

Post Greece, Blinken’s tour in the coming days will include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Israel and the occupied West Bank, where he will deliver a message that Washington does not want a regional escalation of the Gaza conflict. Blinken also hopes to make progress in talks about how Gaza could be governed if and when Israel achieves its aim of eradicating Hamas.

Blinken’s trip has “three main messages”, said Mahjoob Zweiri, a professor of Gulf studies at Qatar University: deescalation of the conflict; the humanitarian crisis; and what happens the day after the war ends.

“Washington doesn’t seem to be happy over the statements coming from the government of Netanyahu talking about the displacement of the people. They seem to want to put pressure on Netanyahu, especially with London, Paris and Germany saying the status quo of Gaza should not be changed,” Zweiri told Al Jazeera.

Blinken has said Washington wants regional countries, including Turkey, to play a role in reconstruction, governance and potentially security in the Gaza Strip, which has been run by Hamas since 2007.

At least 22,722 people have been killed and 58,166 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The revised death toll from the October attack on Israel stands at 1,139 people.



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