Turkish President Erdoğan has warned the world Jerusalem “belongs” to Turkey

Breitbart 4 Oct 2020

Erdogan made his public claim Thursday as he addressed Turkish lawmakers during a major policy speech in Ankara. He said:

In this city that we had to leave in tears during the First World War, it is still possible to come across traces of the Ottoman resistance. So Jerusalem is our city, a city from us. Our first qibla [direction of prayer in Islam] al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem are the symbolic mosques of our faith. In addition, this city is home to the holy places of Christianity and Judaism.

As the Times of Israel reported, the Ottoman Empire ruled Jerusalem from 1516 to 1917. Modern Turkey, its successor state, has long claimed a connection to the holy city, regularly condemning Israel for alleged attemtps to “Judaize” it and the U.S. administration’s December 2017 recognition of it as Israel’s capital.

Turkey’s claim to ownership and an Islamic proprietary interest in the city defies thousands of years of accepted wisdom that confirms some of Judaism’s holiest sites are located in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem.

These include the Temple Mount and Western Wall in Jerusalem; the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs in Hebron; and Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus.

That did not stop Erdoğan during his lengthy speech to the Turkish parliament lamenting the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinians and reaffirming his embrace of Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip, and is deemed a terrorist group by Israel, the E.U. and the U.S.

Turkey deploys tanks at border with Syria

Hurriyetdaily  January 14 2019

The Turkish military deployed tanks and armored vehicles to the border province of Hatay on Jan. 13, as Turkey continues its preparations for a planned military operation in the east of River Euphrates in Syria against ISIL and the YPG, which it sees as the Syrian branch of the PKK.

According to Demirören News Agency, several tanks and armored vehicles were dispatched from the eastern province of Erzurum to the border city of İskenderun by train.

The vehicles were unloaded from trains at İskenderun train station and were loaded on to trucks en route to border troops stationed around Cilvegözü border gate under heavy security measures.

Turkey is ready to cooperate with Russia on the fight against terrorist groups

Sputnik 17.09.2018
ANKARA (Sputnik) - Turkey is ready to cooperate with Russia on the fight against terrorist groups in the Syrian northwestern province of Idlib, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said ahead of his upcoming talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"If the situation in Idlib continues as is, the results will be heavy. We have to find a solution with Russia and the coalition forces without letting this happen. As you know, the US has a different position, however, we have previously held meetings with Germany and France. We are already in it together with Russia," Erdogan said on Sunday, as quoted by Daily Sabah, a Turkish newspaper.

Erdogan stated that he had noticed Putin's positive approach toward the resolution of the conflict during the trilateral summit held between the leaders of Iran, Russia and Turkey in the Iranian capital of Tehran on September 7.

"I hope he [Putin] will continue the positive stance also going forward," Erdogan stressed, adding that he considered it necessary to eliminate terrorists, but not the moderate opposition, which is also operating in Idlib.

Major Christian denominations unite in doctrine

CT  April 02, 2018

A joint commission of Turkey’s major Christian denominations has published a historic book of concise Christian doctrine, receiving the unprecedented endorsement of all the nation’s Orthodox, Catholic, Armenian, Syriac, and Protestant churches.

According to Armenian Bishop Sahak Masalyan, keynote speaker at the formal book launch in Istanbul of the English edition in February, the “most spectacular aspect” of the book is in fact its first page of endorsements, which he declared “akin to a miracle.”

This book “expresses the shared beliefs of the churches in Turkey. We approve its publication and recommend that it be widely read,” the statement says.

Undersigned are the ecclesiastical leaders of all mainstream branches of the Christian faith in Turkey: the Orthodox patriarch, Armenian archbishop, Syriac metropolitan, chairman of the Catholic bishops, and the church leader chairing the Turkish Association of Protestant Churches.

Ankara's outspoken mayor on Tuesday warned that outside forces could be using sophisticated technology to try to trigger a man-made earthquake

Ankara (AFP) - Ankara's outspoken mayor on Tuesday warned that outside forces could be using sophisticated technology to try to trigger a man-made earthquake in a deliberate bid to harm Turkey's fragile economy.

Melih Gokcek, who has been mayor of the Turkish capital since 1994, made the outlandish claims on Twitter where he regularly updates his more than 3.7 million followers, often writing in capital letters.

His comments were made after two quakes hit the western Canakkale province on Monday and Tuesday morning, measuring 5.3 and 5.2 magnitude respectively, the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said.

In these tweets, Gokcek shared a video which claimed there were tools for causing manmade quakes, and he called all submarines and ships with large equipment to be taken under control of the authorities.

Gokcek said he had "researched" the two quakes and suggested they could have been caused by possible foreign interference.

"There was a ship conducting seismic research nearby. What this ship was researching and what country it belongs to must be solved," he wrote.

The ultimate aim, he suggested, was to trigger an earthquake near Istanbul in a bid to stage an economic "coup".

"At this moment, the coup aimed at Turkey is an earthquake near Istanbul to cause Turkey's economic collapse," he claimed.     Yahoo News