TURKEY

BERLIN — The Stockholm-based investigative reporting outlet Nordic Monitor reported that the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs is collecting information through espionage and intelligence operations against Turkish citizens accused of opposing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The report also stated that the Ministry has fabricated terrorism-related investigations against those perceived as…

ANKARA / MARDIN, Turkey – Independent Syriac member of Turkish parliament Tuma Çelik refuted writer Hulusi Şenel’s recent claim that the number of Syriacs living in the time of the Sayfo Genocide of 1915 was only 50,000. Çelik said in a post on Twitter that, “people lie, but a writer…

VIENNA — In response to Ankara’s increasingly combative rhetoric towards European immigration and refugee policy, Federal Minister for the EU and Constitution at the Federal Chancellery of Austria Karoline Edtstadler said that, “Turkey is using immigration and migrants as a tool to put pressure on the EU,” adding that the…

@gazetesabro – Classroom education, which had been suspended since the start of the pandemic in Turkey, resumed on September 6. Although measures are being taken against the spread of the coronavirus – classrooms and canteens are open but students are required to wear face masks at school – there is…

BSORINO / TUR ABDIN, Turkey – The village of Bsorino is one of the few remaining Syriac villages in Tur Abdin, southeastern Turkey, with a large Syriac population of 40 families. It also however, has a large diaspora in Sweden, Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany who regularly visit their relatives in…

CAIRO — The Arab League held a meeting of foreign ministers on Friday to discuss recent developments in the region. At the end of the meeting, Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League Hossam Zaki announced in the meeting’s final statement that a committee was formed on Turkish interference in the…

MAHRE, Turkey – The only detainee in the unsolved murder and disappearance case of Syriac Chaldean couple Hurmuz and Şhmuni Diril has been released. According to news outlet Gazete Karinca, Apro Diril, a relative of the retired couple and only fellow villager of Mahre in Turkey’s Kovankaya district (Şırnak), was…

TUR ABDIN, Turkey – Some of the roads in Syriac villages in Tur Abdin have been renewed and asphalted. It concerns village and access roads in Arbo, Ehwo, and Beth Debe (Badibe) in the pre-dominantly Syriac region Tur Izlo of Tur Abdin. According to a resident who returned from the…

AZAZ, Syria — Sources from Turkish-occupied Syria reported an unannounced visit of Turkish Defense Minister Khulusi Akar to the occupied city of Azaz yesterday morning. Akar arrived via a helicopter which landed at Bab al-Salam crossing on the Syrian–Turkish border. Strict security measures were reported, and hovering reconnaissance aircraft were…

ANKARA / DAMASCUS — In an interview with NTY, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu explained that negotiations between Turkey and the Syrian regime previously took place, during which security and counter-terrorism issues were discussed. Çavuşoğlu denied that the contacts constituted direct political negotiations. He pointed out that negotiations with Syria…