Category: 2022

Selçuk Bayraktar, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the Turkish drone magnate Baykar, flew over Baku during the Teknofest Azerbaijan – the first foreign edition of the leading Turkish aviation, space and technology festival – in a Mikoyan MiG-29 belonging to the Azerbaijani Air Force.

Bayraktar’s MiG-29 flight has been carried in the accompaniment of the Turkish combat drone Akıncı, developed nationally and originally by Baykar.

Selçuk Bayraktar performed the flight with the deputy commander of the Azerbaijani Air Combat Forces, Air Pilot Col. Zaur Rustamov.

Both holding special pilot licenses, Bayraktar and Col. Rustamov received a briefing from the first pilot of the Turkish aerobatics team SoloTürk, Air Pilot Col. Murat Keleş, before taking off from the Haydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku. They later switched to the Russian-made twin-seated MiG-29.

The formation flight of MiG-29 and Akıncı over Baku was watched with excitement from the city. Bayraktar commanded the MiG-29 during maneuvers and part of the formation flight.

Akıncı will also perform a show flight at Teknofest Azerbaijan.

The flight of Col. Rustamov, who received the Karabakh Medal for his duties in the 2020 war, and Bayraktar, who was awarded the Karabakh Order from the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for his contribution to end the 30-year occupation, took about one hour. After the flight, Bayraktar and Rustamov posed for a souvenir photo with the Azerbaijani Air Force personnel at the airbase.

Six years after the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) tried to seize power with a coup, the Turkish judiciary has managed to wrap up 289 trials against the putschists, sentencing 4,891 defendants. The lengthy appeals process has also concluded, with most trials seeking to overturn verdicts still playing out before higher courts.

On July 15, Turkey will mark the sixth anniversary of the coup attempt that killed 251 people and injured hundreds of others. The attempt was quashed thanks to strong public resistance, coupled with the actions of anti-putschist soldiers and law enforcement.

Determined to deliver swift justice, Turkey has set up new courts and massive prison complexes that also include spacious courtrooms. In the aftermath of the putsch bid, prosecutors’ offices across the country launched more than 100,000 investigations into coup-related crimes. They culminated in 289 trials, with the first verdicts handed out in the eastern province of Erzurum, hometown of FETÖ leader Fetullah Gülen.

A colonel and a major in the province were sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment on Jan. 5, 2017 on charges of violating the Constitution. Most recently, the final coup trial in the western province of Çanakkale concluded with prison sentences for several military officers.

Overall, 3,000 defendants were convicted of charges carrying life sentences. A total of 1,634 defendants, including 85 generals, were given aggravated life imprisonment, a sentence that rules out early release or parole. Another 1,366 defendants were sentenced to life, including 24 former generals and 536 high-ranking military officers. A total of 1,891 defendants were sentenced to lesser prison terms while 2,870 people were freed after they were not found guilty.

One of the most significant trials, which ended with hefty sentences, had to do with an assassination attempt targeting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the time of the coup bid. Thirty-one defendants, including a general accused of coordinating the assassination plot, were given multiple aggravated life imprisonment sentences in the trial that concluded in 2017.

Aggravated life sentences were also handed out in major trials dealing with a large number of defendants in the capital Ankara. Among them was the Akıncı base trial, named after the military base where the coup ringleaders planned and coordinated the attempt. It had the highest number of defendants in coup-related trials with 475 people facing charges. Fifteen military officers and four civilians were given aggravated life sentences in the trial that ended in 2020. In another big trial in the capital, in which 224 people were tried for planning and executing the plot to take over the army, 127 defendants were sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment and another 23 were given life sentences in 2019.

Although most military officers who took part in the coup bid were sentenced, the “civilian” members of FETÖ remain more elusive. Only a few were caught red-handed during the attempt, including executives and staff of a FETÖ-linked company who were apparently helping the putschists since they were caught at the Akıncı base when the attempt was quelled. They were sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment but Adil Öksüz, the alleged mastermind of the coup bid on behalf of ringleader Gülen remains at large. Öksüz, originally a theology lecturer, was also captured at the same base but a court released him shortly after in a controversial decision. Since then, he has disappeared and is believed to be abroad.

As for Gülen, the terrorist group’s leader continues his life uninterrupted in a posh residence in Pennsylvania in the United States. One of most wanted men in Turkey, he is the main defendant in a myriad of trials on FETÖ’s wrongdoings including the 2016 coup bid. Yet, the United States has so far dragged its feet extraditing him, despite multiple requests by Ankara.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signaled the launch of a new counterterrorism operation on northern Syria on May 23, to resume efforts to create a 30-kilometer (18.6-mile) wide safe zone south of its border. “The main target of these operations will be areas that are centers of attacks on our country and safe zones,” Erdoğan said following the Cabinet meeting and added that the details will be outlined in the upcoming National Security Council (MGK) meeting.

The safe zone project is not a new initiative. However, though some parts were established, including ensuring relative stability in the region and enabling civilian returns, it has not been completed. In addition to humanitarian aims and stability at the local level in northern Syria, the safe zone will also be an added level of security for Turkey against the terrorist threats posed by the PKK terrorist organization’s Syria affiliate, the U.S.-backed YPG.

Erdoğan’s announcement comes at a time when Turkey has been at the center of several regional and international debates: From Ankara’s efforts to normalize ties with several regional countries, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Israel, Armenia, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to mediation efforts between Ukraine and Russia. Now, a new debate has also emerged: Finland and Sweden’s application for NATO membership and Turkey’s position on the issue.

As the second-largest army of NATO, Turkey has, rightly so, voiced its concerns over the two states’ membership, saying that both countries support terrorist groups that target its very own sovereignty, namely the PKK and its affiliates and also the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).

Firstly, Ankara is not against NATO’s eastward enlargement, it does want to make the same mistake it did by saying an unconditional OK to Greece’s acceptance to NATO in 1980 during late Gen. Kenan Evren’s term.

Secondly, it argues that both Sweden and Finland must convince Turkey that they will halt support for the groups targeting Turkey. On the surface, time will show how the membership debate will turn out. While it is difficult to say that a genuine distance will be put between these two states and the groups Turkey highlights as security concerns, nevertheless their membership may be approved following a series of negotiations.

At a deeper level, however, Turkey’s position on the membership bid signals a new debate: A new language of Turkish diplomacy is emerging and being conveyed to Turkey’s Western allies. If we were to go back and take a look at a series of recent events, the new approach and diplomatic tone to relations with the West can become clearer.

Firstly, the new approach is beyond some of the cliche explanations, including axis-shift, neo-Ottomanism, etc. Instead, a pragmatic approach that compartmentalizes issues on the agenda has enabled Turkey to develop a new language in its relations. For example, its ability to establish and have a relatively working relationship with Russia in Syria has led to not stepping on each other’s toes in Libya and also when Turkey provided support to Azerbaijan against Armenia in Karabakh. Moreover, it enabled Turkey, perhaps the only country working to establish peace between Ukraine and Russia, to establish mediation grounds between top diplomats from both sides with summits first in Antalya and later in Istanbul.

In addition, its use of hard power in several successful counterterrorism operations in northern Syria against the PKK/YPG and Daesh, the use of its domestically produced weapons, including Bayraktar drones, in places like Libya, Karabakh and northern Iraq, has also shown its military maneuvering capability in a region where two superpowers – and other regional actors – compete for influence.

Having two failed states along its borders, as well as the war-torn Afghanistan in its region, Turkey has also been carrying the large burden of civilians fleeing the conflict zones. In other words, it is actually a de facto buffer zone between conflict zones and the West, or Europe.

Evaluating Turkey’s position on Finland and Sweden’s membership bid and Erdoğan signaling a new operation on northern Syria against the abovementioned background suggests that Turkey now sees itself at a table where it has confidence in its diplomatic and military capacity, particularly highlighting its defense industry capabilities.

While it wants to establish a humanitarian safe zone for Syrian civilians, Ankara asks that economic costs not be shouldered by Turkey alone. Furthermore, the possible operation points out that Turkey is noting the recent harassment attacks coming from the zones controlled by the YPG, which is supported by the West, including Sweden. The aggression will not be ignored and will face Turkey’s military muscle.

This means that decision-makers in Ankara’s foreign policy strategy and the country’s political leadership no longer accept the position Turkey was once in during the post-Cold war status quo and want its Western allies to come to realization of this new position. It simply expects to be treated as an equal among the members of the alliance.

Not surprisingly, critical voices have been emerging both domestically and internationally, including those who question whether Turkey should remain a member of NATO. These approaches are passe and fail to acknowledge Turkey’s new position, making it difficult for actors to adjust to the country’s new stance and preventing them from even trying to understand it. The intellectual block in their assessment of Turkey’s new position also leads them to blur NATO’s real purpose: Is it to provide security for the alliance through legitimate and sovereign states? Or is it to support illegitimate terrorist groups that target the members in the alliance?

Under Erdoğan’s leadership, Turkish diplomacy has transformed from being a mere puppet of the Western agenda to one that prioritizes the security and interests of its citizens, be it in Africa, the East Mediterranean region or elsewhere. Also, with Erdoğan’s famous “the world is bigger than five” motto, Turkey proposes a comprehensive reform in global governance for a more just international system. It is time Turkey’s Western allies also learn this new language and approach of Turkish foreign policy.

Turkey expects Sweden to provide concrete assurances under NATO’s “collective security principle” in order to ok the country’s membership bid in the bloc, the Presidential Communications Directorate said Monday.

The assurances Ankara expects from Stockholm would include the termination of political support to terrorism, eliminating the source of terrorism financing, cessation of arms support for the PKK terrorist group and its Syrian wings YPG/PYD, as well as the lifting of embargoes and sanctions against Ankara.

“Since 2017, our country has requested the extradition of PKK/PYD and FETÖ terrorists from Sweden but has yet to receive a positive response,” it said, adding that the Swedish authorities support terrorist groups’ activities within the country and receive terrorism affiliates that Ankara has been fighting at the ministerial level.

The Swedish administration pledged to provide $376 million “in support to the PKK/PYD,” which is a terrorist organization designated by 38 countries, including NATO and European Union members, and targets “the national security of alliance member Turkey,” the statement said.

As for the arms support for the terrorist group, the directorate said that the Swedish government provides military equipment, especially anti-tanks and drones, to the YPG/PKK and that such weapons were used to target the civilian population in Turkey.

The embargoes and sanctions imposed by Sweden on Turkey were also highlighted in the statement, which called them “unacceptable,” given Ankara’s “legitimate efforts to defend international rights in the Eastern Mediterranean and secure its borders with Syria.”

Although Turkey adopts the “open-door” policy of the alliance, it believes that “the alliance members and candidate countries should cooperate at a high level” in fighting terrorism, just like they do in other fields, according to the statement.

The statement concluded by noting that Turkey expects Sweden to take “principled steps and provide concrete assurances” on Turkey’s security concerns.

Earlier on Monday, President Erdoğan criticized NATO allies for turning a blind eye to Turkey’s security concerns, stressing that diplomatic statements do not contribute to a solution and calling for concrete action.

Last week, Sweden and Finland formally applied to join NATO – a decision spurred by Russia’s war on Ukraine, which began in February. But Turkey, a longstanding member of the alliance, has voiced objections to the membership bids, criticizing the countries for tolerating and even supporting terrorist groups.

Turkey, which has the second-largest army in NATO, also accuses the two Nordic countries of imposing restrictions on exports of defense industry equipment to Turkey and of failing to extradite suspects wanted by Turkish authorities.

Sweden and Finland had imposed arms export embargoes on Turkey after its military operation seeking to clear northern Syria east of the Euphrates of YPG terrorists, the PKK’s Syrian offshoot, in 2019.

In its more than 40-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the EU – has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people.

Kars Cheese Museum in northeastern Turkey attracts great attention from locals and foreign tourists as it is 18th cheese museum in the world and the first in Turkey. According to the data of the museum, 12,000 people visited the Cheese Museum within three months.

The museum, which is registered as the “18th Cheese Route of the World,” includes more than 30 types of cheese and it stands out as the new tourist destination point in Kars.

Museum Director Yeşim Koç stated that it is necessary to tell the history of the museum building and said: “This is actually a bastion built in 1734, and it was called the Cavalry Bastion. It is also known as the Dere Bastion. This building was especially important for us in terms of its history. When we go inside, we try to explain, especially Kars’ cheeses, from its production to the sale process. We have a plateau section, a milking area and an endemic plant section. We have sections where we introduce Ottoman houses and Russian buildings.”

Noting that the museum has attracted great attention, “We encountered a great deal of interest. In fact, this place has been very important in terms of tourism. We were met with great interest by the people of Kars as well. We are just a 3-month-old museum. Our museum has been open since February, and the number of visitors since then is over 12,000. We are proud of this, I hope it will be more, our number of visitors will increase even more,” she added.

In the museum, tools used in making cheese such as storage tanks, gruyere cooking apparatuses, casks for yeast, and salt molds have also been put on display while cheesemaking is animated as well.

The section of Dere Bastion’s history includes the representations of Kars Station, Kars’ vegetation, Ankara Gazi Station, gruyere production hall, cheese hall, Kars’ houses, chef’s working station and workshop areas.