According to the Financial Times, the EU should not “step back” towards the Western Balkans, otherwise Russia and Turkey would “fill the gap”. The fact is that the Balkan countries start to “doubt the EU’s sincerity after waiting at the door for years”. For example, only 26% of Serbs think that the EU accession would be a good achievement, according to the newspaper.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met Pope Francis as part of his two-day visit to the Vatican which saw him being welcomed with an official ceremony at the Apostolic Palace. During the visit, they discussed the status of Jerusalem, regional issues, the humanitarian tragedy in Syria, and the fight against terrorism, xenophobia and Islamophobia. The two leaders underlined that “equating Islam with terror is wrong”, according to Turkish sources, with Erdoğan telling the pope that Turkey values people from all religions, including Catholics, living in harmony and peace. Turkish sources said Erdoğan and Pope Francis agreed that “joint steps are needed to mobilize the international community to forge regional peace and stability” and to not be silent to ongoing humanitarian crises. A Vatican statement said the talks “[included] the status of Jerusalem, highlighting the need to promote peace and stability in the region [Middle East] through dialogue and negotiation, with respect for human rights and international law”. In fact, Pope Francis was one of the international leaders criticizing the United States’ decision last December to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Following his visit to the Vatican, Erdoğan will meet his counterpart Italian President Sergio Mattarella at a working lunch in Rome. Italian Deputy Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni will also be present.During the meetings, the leaders will discuss cooperation in various areas, including politics, the economy and the defense industry. Some 3,500 police and security forces were Rome and authorities declared a no-go area for unauthorized demonstrations. An authorized demonstration of about 150 people including Kurds and their supporters outside nearby Castel Sant‘Angelo turned violent. Italian police said two people were detained after demonstrators tried to break through cordons to get closer to the Vatican from an authorized protest several blocks away.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said the U.S. has chosen the “wrong partner” in the fight against Daesh terror group in Syria as he referred to the YPG/PKK terror group. To the New York Times, Cavusoglu said: “American reliance on the People’s Protection Units (YPG) is a self-inflicted error when the United States already has a capable partner in Turkey. “We have no doubt that the United States will see the damage this policy is inflicting on the credibility of the NATO alliance and correct its policy by putting its allies and long-term interests first again”. He said Turkey, however, could not afford to wait for “eventual and inevitable course corrections”. Cavusoglu said: “The victory against the group could not have been possible without Turkey’s active contributions”. In the article, Cavusoglu talked about how an impasse between U.S. and Turkey. He said the YPG/PKK terrorists across the borders in Iraq and Syria were using weapons and training provided by the United States. About the Operation Olive Branch, he said that Turkey will continue the operation until terrorist are wiped out. Furthermore, according to Cavusoglu, Turkey will not consent to the creation of separatist enclave or terrorist safe heavens.
People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said that Turkish government should make contact with the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. “The way to make peace between Turkey and Syria, to create rapprochement between the two countries and to jointly focus on maintaining [Syria’s] territorial integrity is [to establish] dialogue between Turkey and Syria. We should engage with Syria one way or another if we do not want terror organizations finding shelter in this country”, Kılıçdaroğlu told the Ankara bureau chiefs of media outlets on Jan. 29. The CHP has announced its support to the operation but has also reiterated criticism of the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) policies since the beginning of turmoil in Syria in March 2011. Kılıçdaroğlu accused the AKP of jumping into what he calls “the Middle East swamp” by intervening into Syria’s internal affairs, accusing the government of helping the YPG gain international legitimacy. Kılıçdaroğlu also voiced discomfort for the participation of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), drawn from various opposition groups mainly of Sunni Arabs and Turkmens. His remarks followed CHP deputy Öztürk Yılmaz’s statement that the FSA is “partially made up of jihadist terrorists” including al-Qaeda and al-Nusra militants. Meanwhile, Kılıçdaroğlu revealed that he plans to visit to Damascus in the coming period, in order to help restore broken ties between Turkey and Syria. Kılıçdaroğlu reiterated his expectation that the government could opt to call early presidential and parliamentary elections this year, warning that “Operation Olive Branch” must not be “politicized” for political gain.
Turkey and Austria are trying to normalize relations after months of tension between Ankara and Vienna, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said. The two ministers discussed how they can start a new page on bilateral trade between the two countries. He said that Turkey has made efforts to improve relations with Europe and the rest of the world and has no hostility towards any nation. The ties between the two countries were tightened in 2016 when the Austrian authorities imposed restrictions on Turkish politicians who wanted to campaign in the country before a key referendum in Turkey. Kneissl said that he had also discussed Turkey’s offer to join the EU. “We know that Austria has a different position on the issue, which is not a secret, we have a lot of problems to discuss besides this” she said. Austria is one of Turkey’s main opponents of the country’s application for EU membership.
On Saturday Turkey started its second campaign in northern Syria. In their offensive against the Kurdish militia YPG also german Leopard 2 tanks are in use. An armament expert from the German Armed Forces confirmed that the tanks Leopard 2 A4 showed in the pictures are from German production. The federal government did not want to confirm the reports. “Apart from the images from the media that you all know, we have no own insights into the use of Leopard tanks”, said Defense Department spokesman Holger Neumann. From 2006 to 2011, Turkey received 354 Leopard 2 tanks and has more battle tanks than the German Army. The restraint of the Federal Government in view of the continuing Turkish offensive is increasingly met with criticism. “The federal government should unmistakably condemn the violent war of aggression of Turkey”, demanded the left-wing faction leader in the Bundestag, Sahra Wagenknecht.
The U.S. is willing to work with Turkey to adress its “legitimate” security concerns in northern Syria, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said. He was speaking after Turkey’s military incursion into northern Syria to fight the Kurdish YPG militia at the weekend. Turkey sees the group as terrorists, but they have been crucial in a US-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS) group. Ankara said the US had to stop backing the YPG if they wanted cooperation.
One person died and two others were injured Monday during a cross-border attack by PYD/PKK terror group in southern Turkey as Turkish army’s operation in Syria’s northwestern town of Afrin continues. According to a security source, PYD/PKK terrorists in Syria’s northwestern town of Afrin targeted the southern Hatay province with a mortar shell, killing one person and injuring two. Separately, a Turkish soldier was slightly injured in the border district of Ceylanpinar of the southeast province of Sanliurfa after being hit by PYD/PKK. Later on Monday, three rockets fired from across the border landed in southern Kilis province. On Monday afternoon, another rocket was was fired by PYD/PKK terrorists in Afrin.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said last week that after Afrin has been cleared of terrorists, Turkey will expand its operations to other critical areas. “Turkey’s measures against the YPG/PKK cannot be limited to Afrin alone. There is also Manbij and east of the Euphrates River”, Cavusoglu told reporters. According to the Turkish General Staff, the operation aims to establish security and stability along Turkey’s borders and the region as well as to protect the Syrian people from the oppression. Also Turkey reiterated that the terror group PYD/PKK should not attend the Jan. 30 Syria National Dialogue Congress in the Russian Black Sea resort.
Speaking to Alghad Press on Wednesday, Mohamed Dayfan al-Obeidi, the head of al-Azim City Council highlighted how people in the city suffer from a “severe drinking water shortage for the fifth day in a row due to power blackouts and damage to water pipelines”. He warned that if this situation continues, over 35,000 residents will be forced to leave their homes in al-Azim city in northern the province, blaming persistent power cuts for the failure of water pumps to supply the city with water. He also added that water pipelines coming from the Tigris River have also “sustained severe damage due to maintenance of optical fiber cables without our knowledge”. Al-Obeidi urged the government and the other bodies concerned to swiftly intervene to save the recently-liberated city from a great disaster that could force residents to leave their homes in search for water and other basic services. Also Iraqi water resources minister Hassan Janabi said that the amount of water flowing in key Iraqi rivers has fallen by at least 40 percent in recent decades due to construction of dams and other water-holding facilities in upstream Turkey and Iran, as well as increasingly erratic rainfall across the region. Damage to Iraq’s own dams and other infrastructures have been caused also by years of fighting and by a recent earthquake, making water supplies more irregular.
