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☆ Turkey Details Visits by Accused Moscow Attackers to Istanbul
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Ben Hubbard | More About Ben Hubbard | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Two men accused in the terrorist attack on a Moscow concert hall spent time in Istanbul just weeks before the assault, a senior Turkish security official said on Tuesday, adding that the shortness of the men’s visits suggested that they had not been radicalized in Turkey. The information came on the same day that the Turkish Interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, wrote on the platform X that the Turkish security services had caught 147 people alleged to have connections to the Islamic State since last June. Mr. Yerlikaya did not say how many of those suspects had been apprehended since the concert hall attack in Moscow last week or whether any of those previously arrested were believed to have links to that attack. Speaking on condition of anonymity because of government protocols, the senior security official said that one of the attack suspects who traveled to Turkey, Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, arrived in Istanbul on Jan. 5 and spent 16 days in a hotel in the city’s Fatih District. He left for Moscow on March 2, the official said.

Persons: Ali Yerlikaya, Yerlikaya, Saidakrami Rachabalizoda Organizations: Islamic, Mr, Moscow Locations: Moscow, Istanbul, Turkish, Turkey, Islamic State, Jan, city’s Fatih District

☆ Turkey’s Central Bank Chief Steps Down Amid Long Inflation Battle
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-03 | by ( Ben Hubbard | More About Ben Hubbard | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey appointed a new central bank governor early Saturday, hours after the abrupt resignation of his previous appointee, who said she was stepping down because of “a major reputation assassination campaign.”The departing central bank chief, Hafize Gaye Erkan, was the fifth in five years, and the first woman to hold the post. The bank’s deputy governor, Fatih Karahan, was swiftly promoted to take her place. The surprise change-up came about eight months into a shift in Turkey’s economic program aimed at taming a yearslong cost-of-living crisis that has been painful for many Turks. Annual inflation as of last month was about 65 percent. In an apparent effort to reassure investors, senior officials said that Ms. Erkan’s departure did not signal a change in policy.

Persons: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ”, Hafize Gaye Erkan, Fatih Karahan, Erkan’s Locations: Turkey

The measure passed after a vote of 287 to 55, with four abstentions in the 600-member body. It will go into effect once it is published in the country’s official gazette, usually a swift formality. That would make Hungary the only NATO member that has not approved Sweden’s accession, depriving the alliance of the unanimity required to add a new member. NATO’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said in a statement late Tuesday that he welcomed the news from Turkey, according to Reuters. But, he said, “I also count on Hungary to complete its national ratification as soon as possible.”

Persons: Jens Stoltenberg, “ Organizations: NATO, Nordic, Reuters Locations: Sweden, United States, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Turkey

A weeklong cease-fire in the Gaza Strip collapsed on Friday morning, with Israel and Hamas blaming each other for the breakdown of a truce that had allowed for the exchange of hundreds of hostages and prisoners, and that had briefly raised hopes for a more lasting halt to the fighting. The Israeli military said it had launched 200 strikes since the resumption of fighting, some of which the country’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, witnessed from a seat in an Israeli attack helicopter flying over Gaza. “This morning we returned to hitting Hamas with full force,” he wrote on the social media platform X. “The results are impressive.”“Hamas only understands force,” he added. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said in a statement that Israel was “committed to achieving the war aims — freeing our hostages, eliminating Hamas and ensuring that Gaza will never again pose a threat to the residents of Israel.” For days, he and other Israeli leaders had sought to quash any notion of extending the truce indefinitely, despite growing international pressure, stating repeatedly that even if the pause continued for a few more days, Israel’s offensive would resume.

Persons: Yoav Gallant, ”, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, “ Locations: Gaza, Israel

Thirty Palestinian women and minors were released from Israeli prisons on Tuesday as part of the agreement, according to an official list. It was the fifth exchange of hostages and prisoners since Friday. Since Friday, when a cease-fire deal covering hostages, Palestinian prisoners and aid for Gaza went into effect, Hamas has released more than 60 hostages seized in its Oct. 7 raid in Israel that set off the war. Egypt, Israel and the United States dispatched their top intelligence officials to Qatar to negotiate further exchanges. director, joined David Barnea, the head of the Mossad, Israel’s spy service, and Abbas Kamel, Egypt’s spy chief, for meetings with Qatari officials, including the prime minister.

Persons: Israel, William J, Burns, David Barnea, Abbas Kamel, Egypt’s Organizations: Hamas, United Locations: Gaza, United States, Israel, Egypt, Qatar

☆ The Man Who Blazed a Trail for Dictatorship in the Middle East
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Ben Hubbard | More About Ben Hubbard | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

And help he did. He sent arms, military experts and advice on how to talk to the West. He encouraged the officers to assure the United States, Britain and France that the coup posed no risk to their people or interests. His long reign is but one strand of Nasser’s disastrous legacy, according to “We Are Your Soldiers,” by the Lebanon-based journalist Alex Rowell. Rowell takes the reader on a historical tour of the Middle East to illuminate how Nasser contributed to the region’s “shared curse of political repression mixed with economic misery.”

Persons: Gamal Abdel Nasser, Alex Rowell, King Idris I, Muammar el, el, ” Nasser, “, Colonel el, Qaddafi, brutalizing, kook, Rowell, Nasser, ” Organizations: Libyan Army, United Nations General Assembly Locations: Egypt, United States, Britain, France, Libya, Lebanon

☆ With 102 Workers Killed, U.N. Agency in Gaza Struggles to Provide Aid
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Ben Hubbard | More About Ben Hubbard | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

At least 102 workers from the largest United Nations agency in Gaza have been killed in five weeks of heavy Israeli bombing. Most did not die in the line of duty but instead while at home, often in strikes that also killed members of their families, U.N. officials said. Others included school principals, warehouse workers, engineers, a software developer, a gynecologist and a man in charge of staff safety. Of all the places UNRWA works, Gaza is where it plays the largest role, given that 1.4 million of the territory’s 2.2 million residents are registered refugees. The soaring death toll has brought new attention to UNRWA, whose duties not only put workers in danger but also extend across much of Gazan life.

Persons: Juliette Touma, Ms, Touma, “, ” Organizations: United Nations, UNRWA, United Nations Relief, Works Agency Locations: Gaza, Israel

Hamas derided the Palestinian Authority for its cooperation with Israel, including the use of Palestinian police to prevent attacks on Israel. Instead of firing rockets over issues in Gaza, Hamas was fighting for concerns central to all Palestinians, including those outside the enclave. “The Israelis were only concerned with one thing: How do I get rid of the Palestinian cause?” Mr. Hamdan said. But inside Gaza, Hamas’s capabilities grew. That restoration deepened the relationship between Hamas’s military wing in Gaza and the so-called axis of resistance, Iran’s network of regional militias, according to regional diplomats and security officials.

Persons: Sinwar, Deif, Mohammed Deif, ”, “, Osama Hamdan, Israel, Mr, Hamdan Organizations: Palestinian Authority, West Bank, Israel, Hamas, Qassam, Agence France, National Security Council, Palestinian Locations: Israel, Gaza, Egypt, Italian, “, Qatar, East Jerusalem, Aqsa, Jerusalem’s Old City, Beirut, Lebanon, Jihad, Iran, Syria

“All of Lebanon, including Hezbollah — we don’t want a war,” said Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, who is in regular contact with Hezbollah. “There is Western pressure on the Lebanese government to apply pressure on Hezbollah not to go to war. But will Israel start a war? “If the situation gets really bad in Gaza, it will be really bad for the whole region — not just Lebanon and Israel,” Mr. Bou Habib said. Israel has responded with a vast bombing campaign on Gaza, a blockade on fuel and a ground invasion.

Persons: ”, Abdallah Bou Habib, ” Ron Dermer, we’re, Mr, Dermer, Bou Habib, ” Mr, Khaled Meshaal, Meshaal, Al Arabiya, Maha Yahya, Ms, Yahya, “, Hassan Nasrallah, Israel, Nasrallah Organizations: Hezbollah, Carnegie Middle East Center Locations: Lebanon, States, Israel, Gaza, United States, Beirut, Iran

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey signed the protocol approving Sweden’s bid to join the NATO military alliance and sent it to the Turkish Parliament on Monday, according to a brief statement from his office. It was not immediately clear why Mr. Erdogan, who had refused to officially endorse Sweden’s NATO bid for many months, suddenly decided to back it now, nor when Parliament would vote on it. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Sweden and Finland, which both have borders with Russia, applied to join NATO, a process that is subject to approval by all of the alliance’s members. Mr. Erdogan initially refused to back either of them, but later changed his stance on Finland, paving the way for it to join NATO in April. But he continued to hold out on Sweden, accusing it of not doing enough to crack down on Turkish separatists and other Turkish dissidents in Sweden that Turkey considers terrorists.

Persons: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Erdogan, Mr Organizations: NATO Locations: Turkey, Turkish, Ukraine, Sweden, Finland, Russia

Yet videos released by Hamas fighters themselves depict the brutal killing of unarmed civilians. Yaakov Peri, a former head of the Shin Bet, the Israeli security service, said Israel may have agreed to let humanitarian aid enter Gaza on Saturday morning in light of the hostages’ release Friday night. “But we cannot fall for this trap.”There are still many questions of why, of all the 200 or so hostages, the Raanans were released. Hamas might be trying to temper Israeli retaliation on Gaza by gaining some good will from the Biden administration. President Biden and his team have been closely advising Israel on how it is waging its war on Gaza, although it is not clear how much Israel actually listens to what the Americans say.

Persons: Gazans, —, Yaakov Peri, Shin, Mr, Peri, Robert D’Amico, ”, D’Amico, Biden Organizations: Hamas Locations: Israel, Gaza, California

Armed groups in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen that once largely fought separately now see themselves as being on the same team. Its members played a key role in helping Syria turn the tide against anti-government rebels during the country’s civil war, which began in 2011. And its operatives have increased the fighting abilities of pro-Iranian militias in Iraq and the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Israel, the United States and other countries have designated Hezbollah and some of its regional partners, including Hamas in Gaza, as terrorist organizations. Israel has viewed Hezbollah as its most formidable foe since they fought to a standstill in a monthlong war in 2006 that killed more than 1,000 Lebanese and 165 Israelis.

Organizations: Biden Locations: Israel, United States, That’s, Iran, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Islamic Republic

☆ East Libya Strongman Keeps Tight Control Over Aid After Floods
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Ben Hubbard | More About Ben Hubbard | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Days after a torrential downpour collapsed two aging dams and unleashed a rushing wall of water that swept parts of the Libyan city of Derna and thousands of its people into the sea, the military strongman who rules the area came for a quick visit. Khalifa Hifter, the 79-year-old renegade commander and longtime C.I.A. asset shook hands with soldiers, took a brief drive through Derna’s muddy streets and flew off in a helicopter. The disaster that struck Derna on Sept. 11 has drawn renewed international attention to Mr. Hifter and his so-called Libyan National Army, a military coalition that controls the eastern half of the divided North African nation with an iron fist. More than a week after the disaster, as rescue efforts shift to the long and costly work of caring for the displaced and helping the city recover, Mr. Hifter’s tight hold over eastern Libya has made it clear that he will be the overall arbiter of the aid operation in the oil-rich country.

Persons: Khalifa Hifter, Derna, Hifter, Hifter’s Organizations: Libyan National Army Locations: Libyan, Derna, Libya

Efforts to extract an American explorer who became ill more than 3,400 feet underground in a cave in southern Turkey expanded on Friday, as international rescue teams installed communications equipment and blasted open narrow areas to allow the passage of a stretcher, officials involved in the rescue said. The caver, Mark Dickey, 40, was part of an expedition exploring the Morca cave in southern Turkey when he suddenly suffered from abdominal bleeding last week. Unable to communicate from underground, one of his colleagues made the arduous, hourslong climb to the surface and sounded the alarm last Saturday. In the days since, more than 180 people from eight countries, including Turkey, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine and the United States, have joined the rescue effort, many of them camped out near the cave’s opening in a remote part of the Taurus Mountains in Turkey — and up and down the cave itself. Mr. Dickey’s medical condition and the depth and confines of the cave will make his rescue a highly complicated logistical feat.

Persons: Mark Dickey Organizations: Turkey — Locations: Turkey, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, United States

As the volleyball game neared its end, thousands of fans watching on giant screens in an Istanbul park rose to their feet and fell silent. The ball soared, a Turkish player set it up near the net, and her teammate spiked it. Her Italian opponents blocked the shot but knocked the ball out of bounds, handing victory to the Turks and causing the crowd to erupt into chants of “Turkey! Turkey!”The nail-biter victory on Friday by Turkey’s national women’s volleyball team in the Women’s European Volleyball Championship was the most recent conquest by the country’s most successful major sports team, a record that has turned it into a rare source of national pride that holds appeal across the country’s social divides. Affectionately referred to as “the Sultans of the Net,” the team won the Volleyball Nations League championship in July in Arlington, Texas, and became the world’s top rated women’s national team, according to FIVB, the sport’s international governing body.

Persons: laud Organizations: Turkey’s, volleyball, Volleyball, Volleyball Nations League, FIVB Locations: Istanbul, Turkish, Turkey, Arlington , Texas, Serbia, Brussels

Last fall, American diplomats received grim news that border guards in Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. partner in the Middle East, were using lethal force against African migrants who were trying to enter the kingdom from Yemen. The diplomats got more detail in December, when United Nations officials presented them with information about Saudi security forces shooting, shelling and abusing migrants, leaving many dead and wounded, according to U.S. officials and a person who attended the meetings, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to speak to journalists. In the months since, American officials have not publicly criticized the Saudis’ conduct, although State Department officials said this past week, following a published report of the killings, that U.S. diplomats have raised the issue with their Saudi counterparts and asked them to investigate. It remains unclear whether those discussions have affected Saudi actions. The Saudi security forces’ violence along the border came to the fore in a report by Human Rights Watch on Monday that accused them of shooting and firing explosive projectiles at Ethiopian migrants, killing hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of them during the 15-month period that ended in June.

Organizations: United Nations, State Department, Saudi, Human Rights Locations: Saudi Arabia, U.S, Yemen, Saudi

Border guards in Saudi Arabia have regularly opened fire on African migrants seeking to cross into the kingdom from Yemen, killing hundreds of men, women and children during a recent 15-month period, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Monday. The guards have beaten the migrants with rocks and bars, forced male migrants to rape women while guards watched and shot detained migrants in their limbs, leading to permanent injuries and amputations, the report said. The shooting of migrants is “widespread and systematic,” it said, adding that if killing them were Saudi government policy, it would constitute a crime against humanity. The Saudi government’s Center for International Communication did not respond when asked via email about the findings.

Organizations: Rights Watch, Saudi government’s Center for International Communication Locations: Saudi Arabia, Yemen

Years ago, when her sister was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, Mahire Turk sought divine intervention. She trekked to a shrine atop a hill overlooking the Bosporus, sat under an ornate dome close to the grave of a Sufi master who died nearly 400 years ago and prayed intensely for her sister to beat the disease. After chemotherapy, her sister was declared cancer free — and is now expecting a baby, said Ms. Turk, 40, who works in a pharmaceutical warehouse. So to this day, when worries cloud her mind, Ms. Turk, like many of her compatriots in this ancient, sprawling city of 16 million, visits one of its many shrines to long-dead religious figures to seek a spiritual boost.

Persons: Mahire Turk, Turk

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey on Wednesday tempered the expectation that his expression of support this week for Sweden joining NATO meant that he would swiftly push the approval through the Turkish parliament. In his first public comments on the issue since NATO announced his support for the proposal on Monday, Mr. Erdogan said that the final decision rested with the parliament and that Sweden needed to take more steps to win parliamentary support, without giving specifics. He also said parliament would not take up the matter until October, even though it is in session until July 27. Mr. Erdogan also said that Sweden needed to continue working to address Turkey’s security concerns, suggesting that he was not yet ready to give up his leverage. “The parliament is not in session for the next two months,” Mr. Erdogan told reporters in Vilnius, Lithuania, near the end of the annual NATO summit.

Persons: Recep Tayyip Erdogan of, Erdogan, Erdogan’s, ” Mr Organizations: NATO Locations: Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Sweden, Turkey, Vilnius, Lithuania

☆ Erdogan’s U-turn on Sweden could signal a warming of ties with the West.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Ben Hubbard | More About Ben Hubbard | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

ISTANBUL — Over the past year, the leaders of many NATO countries have viewed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey as an in-house spoiler. While they were trying to isolate President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for his invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Erdogan referred to Mr. Putin as “my friend.” While other leaders worked to enlarge the alliance, Mr. Erdogan held up the process by seeking concessions for Turkey. Then on Monday, suddenly, Mr. Erdogan flipped, dropping his objections to Sweden joining NATO and allowing the alliance’s summit to convene on Tuesday with a new sense of strength and unity. Mr. Erdogan’s about-face is consistent with his political style: He often doubles down on policies he expects to strengthen him, and then unapologetically throws them out once their worth has diminished, analysts said.

Persons: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vladimir V, Putin, Russia, Erdogan, Mr, ”, Erdogan’s Organizations: NATO Locations: ISTANBUL, Turkey, Ukraine, Sweden

☆ Erdogan Says E.U. Must ‘Clear the Way’ for Turkey Before It Will Support Sweden’s NATO Bid
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Ben Hubbard | More About Ben Hubbard | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

ISTANBUL — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said on Monday that the European Union should open the way for Turkey to join the bloc before Turkey allows Sweden to join NATO, adding a surprising new condition that could further stall the military alliance’s efforts to expand. Mr. Erdogan’s latest demand came a day before the opening of NATO’s two-day annual summit, where leaders, including President Biden, had hoped to secure unanimous approval from member states to allow Sweden to become the 32nd member. That outcome now appears increasingly unlikely, with Mr. Erdogan posing the main obstacle to Sweden’s membership. “First, clear the way for Turkey in the European Union, then we will clear the way for Sweden as we did for Finland,” Mr. Erdogan told reporters before traveling to the NATO summit.

Persons: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Biden, Erdogan, ” Mr Organizations: European Union, NATO Locations: ISTANBUL, Turkey, European, Sweden, Finland

When he learned that the Israeli army had launched a raid this week to comb for weapons and explosives in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, Mahmoud Sarahat and his friends mobilized to fight back. His comrades shot at Israeli soldiers, while he helped evacuate the wounded and the dead, he said, retrieving their guns to give to other fighters. After two days of violence left 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier dead, the Israelis pulled out on Wednesday, leaving behind damaged homes, broken infrastructure and renewed rage at Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. But it was mixed with frustration with the Palestinians’ own leaders for their failure to chart a better future for their people, much less to protect them. “We want the Authority to leave,” Mr. Sarahat, 23, said of the Palestinian Authority.

Persons: Mahmoud Sarahat, ” Mr, Sarahat, ” Organizations: West, West Bank, Palestinian Authority, “ Locations: West Bank, Jenin, ” Israel

For months, NATO leaders had hoped that when they convened for their annual summit next week, they could use the occasion to welcome Sweden as the alliance’s newest member. Now, that outcome appears all but impossible, as stalling by Hungary and continued objections by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey have drawn out the process, raising questions about when Sweden might be able to join and what sort of breakthrough would be necessary. All 31 member states must agree to admit new members, and the split over Sweden risks denting the alliance’s ability to project a united front against President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia as his forces seek to beat back a Ukrainian counteroffensive. NATO officials say the hope is to get all the alliance’s leaders to agree at the two-day summit set to begin on Tuesday in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, to let Sweden join. Then, the thinking goes, Mr. Erdogan and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary can push the approval through their respective parliaments.

Persons: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vladimir V, Putin, Russia, Erdogan, Viktor Orban Organizations: NATO Locations: Sweden, Hungary, Turkey, Ukrainian, Vilnius, Lithuanian

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