News Scan for Turkey, July 09th 2016

Turkey Changes Tack on Foreign Policy to Win Back Friends

Turkey’s bid for regional greatness began with a vitriolic squabble with Israel in 2009 and, after a series of disasters, ended with a breakdown of relations with Russia last fall.

So it is only fitting that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is banking on resuming friendly relations with these two countries as he attempts to steer the country back to a more pragmatic foreign policy.

The shift, which Mr. Erdogan described last week as a “win-win,” comes at a trying time for Turkey, once seen across the region as a model of Muslim democracy.

Islamist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood that Mr. Erdogan backed across the region have either collapsed or morphed into radical violence. Meanwhile, the Syrian war that he stoked has now engulfed Turkey itself, with Islamic State repeatedly targeting the country and the new Kurdish statelet in northern Syria emboldening Turkey’s own Kurdish insurgency.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/turkey-changes-tack-on-foreign-policy-to-win-back-friends-1467883802

Two Syrians killed in blast while making bombs in Turkey’s south: media

Two Syrians accidentally blew themselves up while handling explosives in a house in the southern Turkish border town of Reyhanli, the privately owned Dogan news agency said on Thursday.

A woman who was at the scene at the time of the blast late on Wednesday was later detained by police, Dogan said, without giving her nationality.

Police were investigating whether the two Syrians had any links to militant groups or Syrian rebels, the agency said. A car believed to have been owned by the two had been seized for investigation.

A senior Turkish official confirmed the blast in Reyhanli in Hatay province bordering Syria but declined to give further information. Security was tightened in the neighborhood and bomb experts examined the house, the news agency said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-blast-syrians-idUSKCN0ZN1BG

Turkey’s Erdogan calls on NATO to do more on fighting militant attacks

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called on NATO to do more to fight the threat of global terrorism, saying the 28-nation alliance needed to “update” itself to better adapt to new security threats.

NATO leaders are meeting at a summit in Warsaw on Friday where they are expected to display their resolve towards a resurgent Russia – despite what some see as a weakening of the West due to Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.

Speaking to reporters before his departure to Warsaw late on Thursday, Erdogan said he would press the leaders of fellow NATO countries to do more to fight militant attacks like the triple suicide bombing last week that killed 45 people at Istanbul’s main airport.

“As we have seen from the terrorist attacks first in Istanbul and then in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, international security is becoming more fragile,” he said.

“The concept of a security threat is undergoing a serious change. In this process, NATO needs to be more active and has to update itself against the new security threats,” he said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nato-summit-erdogan-idUSKCN0ZO0KR

U.S. urges Turkey to step up fight against human trafficking

The United States Department of State has released its 2016 report on Trafficking in Persons (TIP), where it classified Turkey as a country making significant efforts in the fight against smuggling, urging Ankara to step up measures especially to prevent vulnerable groups from being subjected to sex trafficking or forced labor.

“We want to bring to the public’s attention the full nature and scope of the $150 billion illicit human trafficking industry,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in his statement published as part of the report, underlining there was “nothing inevitable about trafficking in human beings.”

Prepared by state department employees after a year-long process, the report summarized the state of human trafficking across the world and categorized states with respect to the progress they have made or are likely to make in the near future.

According to the report, Turkey was placed among second-tier countries, which included countries like Croatia, Greece and Singapore, in addition to others like Bangladesh, Cambodia and Nigeria.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/us-urges-turkey-to-step-up-fight-against-human-trafficking.aspx?pageID=238&nID=101375&NewsCatID=339

NATO’s AWACS surveillance jets to fly over Turkey against ISIL

NATO leaders agreed 9 July on a set of decisions to project stability beyond the Alliance’s borders, including starting a new training and capacity building effort in Iraq and the use of AWACS surveillance aircraft on the Turkish sky to support the strikes by the coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
“To the south we see failed and failing states. And millions left homeless and hopeless by terrorist groups like ISIL,” NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg told a news conference on day two of the NATO Summit.
“This instability has a direct impact on our societies. The scale of the challenge demands that we take action.”

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/natos-awacs-surveillance-jets-to-fly-over-turkey-against-isil.aspx?pageID=238&nID=101404&NewsCatID=359

3,000 abusers, rapists avoid jail time by marrying their victims in Turkey: Appeals court

The testimony of a Turkish Supreme Court of Appeals representative has revealed the sad truth about the practice of victims of sexual abuse being married to their assaulters.

Mustafa Demirdağ, the head of the Supreme Court of Appeals department which oversees sexual crimes, said the number of such marriages which were officially registered had reached nearly 3000, according to daily Milliyet.

Speaking to a parliamentary commission formed to investigate and prevent sexual crimes, Demirdağ said children from 5 to 18 years old could be subjected to sexual abuse, adding that girls between the ages of 12 and 15 were more easily tricked by abusers.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/3000-abusers-rapists-avoid-jail-time-by-marrying-their-victims-in-turkey-appeals-court.aspx?pageID=238&nID=101387&NewsCatID=339

First Russian charter flight carrying tourists lands in Antalya after Russia lifts ban

The first Russian charter flight carrying tourists to Turkey since the relations worsened with the downing of the Russian jet eight months ago, landed on Saturday in Turkey’s southwestern province of Antalya.

The plane carrying 189 tourists from Moscow landed at Antalya’s international airport at 10:30 after President Vladimir Putin last month officially lifted tourism restriction to Turkey.

The Kremlin had previously banned the sale of tour packages and charter flights to Turkey – as well as the importing of certain Turkish goods – after a Russian military jet was downed by a Turkish F-16 over the Turkish-Syrian border on Nov. 24 for repeatedly violating Turkish airspace.

http://www.dailysabah.com/tourism/2016/07/09/first-russian-charter-flight-carrying-tourists-lands-in-antalya-after-russia-lifts-ban

This is a news-scan from major Turkish papers and internet sites. However, we do not verify above stories neither do we vouch for their accuracy.

09.07.2016
compiled by Editor BTT