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Tag: Turkey

  • Turkey presses on with mass arrests in post-coup purge

    Turkish prosecutors on Wednesday issued arrest warrants for 243 military personnel over the attempted coup throughout the country, a media report said.

    It said that the suspects were believed to have used by lock, an encrypted cell phone messaging application.

    The government said the by lock was used by Fethullah Gulen’s network, the U.S.-based cleric Ankara accuses of masterminding the coup attempt.

    Police forces launched operations across 54 provinces following the arrest warrants issued by prosecutors in Istanbul.

    Previously, the public prosecutor’s office also issued arrest warrants for 575 military personnel based upon the same allegations.

    A little over 350 suspects were detained by the police.

    Turkey has been conducting an extensive investigation of suspects with alleged links to Gulenists following the coup attempt on July 15.

    Report says operations are on-going in the military, police and judiciary fields, as well as in state institutions across the country.

  • Russia sends team to investigate Ambassador’s murder in Turkey

    Russia dispatched a team of investigators on Tuesday to investigate the killing of the Ambassador in Ankara, where officials have announced plans to name a street after the murdered diplomat.

    About 20 experts from Russia’s security services and Foreign Ministry are to work with Turkish counterparts as part of a probe into the killing of Ambassador Andrey Karlov at an art gallery on Monday evening, according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

    The assassin, identified as a Turkish law enforcement officer, shouted Islamist slogans and denounced Russia’s military support for the Syrian government in that country’s bloody civil war.

    Following a memorial ceremony attended by Turkish government officials and the wife of Karlov at Ankara airport, the body of the ambassador was being returned to Russia.

    Both countries have denounced the attack as a provocation intended to disrupt a rapprochement in bilateral relations.

    “We will never allow our relations with Russia to be destroyed or damaged,’’ Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Istanbul.

    Turkey and Russia support opposing sides in Syria and have been attempting to rebuild their relations in recent months after Turkish forces shot down a Russian warplane on the Turkish-Syrian border last year.

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu met in Moscow on Tuesday for a series of talks to focus on the fight against terrorism, particularly in war-torn Syria and Iraq.

    The talks, which included Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, resulted in several agreements on anti-terrorism measures and the pursuit of peace in Syria, Russian state media reported.

    Russia, Turkey and Iran have expressed hope that they can act as mediators between Syria’s government and opposition forces to bring peace to the country.

    Cavusoglu said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had accepted a recommendation from Russian President Vladimir Putin to establish the joint investigation into the attack.

    Turkish officials plan to rename the Russian embassy’s street in Ankara in honour of the ambassador.

    “His name will live on in Ankara and in our hearts,’’ Cavusoglu said.

     

    NAN

  • Russian ambassador shot dead in Turkey

    The Russian ambassador to Turkey was shot dead by a Turkish police officer at an art gallery in Ankara tonight.

    Ambassador Andrey Karlov, 62, was repeatedly shot in the back at close range by a gunman shouting: ‘Allahu Akbar (God is Great). We die in Aleppo, you die here!’

    The shooter has been named on social media as Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, 22, an off-duty police officer from the Ankara special forces department. Altintas was later shot dead by police, according to local media.

    Karlov died at the scene, which was later confirmed by the Russian foreign ministry.

    Local media, citing security guards at the scene, said the killer showed a police ID to enter the gallery. In video, he could be seen standing calmly behind Karlov before pulling out a pistol and opening fire.

    The Russian foreign ministry said it was in contact with Ankara over the events, and had received assurances that those responsible would be punished.

    Russia condemned the shooting as a ‘terrorist act’ in an official statement.

    Meanwhile, Russian president, Vladimir Putin, called an urgent meeting with his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the heads of the security services.

    Karlov had been part of discussions between Russia and Turkey that led to an evacuation of east Aleppo getting under way late last week. He had also been a central conduit to the Turkish government’s rapprochement with Moscow in April.

  • Coup: NATO retires 150 Turkish officers

    Coup: NATO retires 150 Turkish officers

    Over 150 Turkish officers, some responsible for training others, were recalled or retired from North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) high command in the wake of a July coup attempt, US Army General, Curtis Scaparrotti, told reporters on Wednesday.

    The top NATO commander said he lost 50 per cent of 300 Turkish officers in the alliance’s so-called Allied Command Operations in Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands.

    “You lose a good deal of experience, so we are seeing a bit of degradation,” Scaparrotti said, speaking on the sidelines of a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers at the military alliance headquarters in Brussels.

    Turkey’s government declared a state of emergency following the failed military coup and launched a crackdown on alleged supporters of US-based Islamic preacher, Fethullah Gulen, whom President Recep Tayyip Erdogan holds responsible for the putsch.

    Scaparrotti said he was in contact with Turkey’s head of armed forces, General Hulusi Akar, on a nearly weekly basis, and that Akar has been “very direct in his commitment to NATO” and to refilling positions with the right officers as quickly as possible.

    About half of the empty positions had been restaffed, Scaparrotti added.

    The U.S. general said he had no suspicions that any of the officers were involved with planning the coup and that he was concerned for the officers and their families.

    Last month, NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, confirmed that Turkish soldiers working in the military alliance have sought asylum in other countries in the wake of the Turkish government’s crackdown on the military and civil servants following the coup.