Turkey
Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan threatens to suspend diplomatic ties with the UAE and withdraw its ambassador • The deal is “one hundred percent wrong and condemned,” says Iranian premier.
France, which has called for E.U. sanctions on Turkey, just held training exercises with Greek forces near the island of Crete.
“Turkey must reverse course on this destabilizing action to renew the United States’ confidence in our defense relationship,” according to Michael McCaul (R-Texas).
The move comes amid heightened tensions between Ankara and Athens over oil and gas exploration rights • Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias is scheduled to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday to discuss the matter.
Church leaders in Greece and the United States announced a “day of mourning” over the transformation.
The Turkish president reciprocated by expressing support for the Palestinian cause.
The question is whether Turkey’s increasingly Islamist domestic and foreign policies, coupled with continued negative repercussions from the Hagia Sophia fallout, will cause voters to turn him out of power in the next elections, which are scheduled for 2023.
An ongoing escalation between Azerbaijan and its neighbor Armenia is threatening to spill over into an all-out conflict that could draw in regional powers like Russia, Turkey, Iran and maybe even Israel.
Erdoğan: Hagia Sophia ‘resurrection’ harbinger for Al-Aqsa ‘liberation’
The Turkish president, who often invokes the mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to rally the Islamic world, has aroused ire for his conversion of Istanbul’s ancient church into a Muslim house of worship.
Turkey is spending millions of dollars a year to gain influence on the Temple Mount in coordination with a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood known as the Islamic Movement in Israel.
“Our planes are bringing the caves down on the terrorists’ heads,” says Turkish defense minister.
The Pentagon blueprint for the upcoming year allocates $500 million towards missile-defense systems in Israel.
