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Posts Tagged ‘ Turkey ’

Turkey: Does Ankara Hold the Key to Ending Cyprus Financial Woes?

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April 4, 2013
TEST6cyprus

Turkey’s potential as a regional energy hub could help alleviate the financial turmoil hitting the divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus, analysts say. But before any steps are taken, Ankara would like to see movement toward a resolution of the decades-long conflict between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. And that is a long shot over the short term. The International Monetary Fund’s 1-billion-euro (over $1.28 billion) contribution to a 10-billion-euro (over $12.8 billion) rescue package, announced...
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Gas Starts Flowing from Israel’s Levant, Exports to Cyprus Next?

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April 4, 2013
TEST6gas cyprus

The first gas has started flowing from Israel’s supergiant Tamar gasfield in the Levant Basin. Where it will go will redraw the Mediterranean energy map and the geopolitics that goes along with it. The Tamar field stakeholders announced on 30 March that the gas had started flowing, raising the value of Texas-based Noble Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NBL), which holds a 36% stake, and Israel’s two Delek Group Ltd. (TLV:DLEKG) subsidiaries, which each hold a 15.6% stake. For...
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Soft Targets Back in Focus

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February 14, 2013
TEST6

From time to time, I will sit down to write a series of analyses on a particular topic, such as the fundamentals of terrorism series last February. Other times, unrelated events in different parts of the world are tied together by analytical threads, naturally becoming a series. This is what has happened with the last three weekly security analyses — a common analytical narrative has risen to connect them. First, we discussed how the Jan. 16 attack against the Tigantourine...
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Turkey to Stealthily Ban Abortion?

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February 13, 2013
TEST6Turkey Erdogan

After public pressure forced him to back away from a head-on effort to drastically curtail abortion rights in Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an is resorting to back-door methods to get his way, women’s rights activists assert. Turkey’s Women for Women’s Human Rights (WWHR) stood at the forefront of a massivepublic campaign against the prime minister when, in 2012, he declared abortion to be murder and pledged to curtail its use. Abortion for medical or economic reasons...
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Turkey Embassy Bombing: When Security Measures Work

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February 7, 2013
TEST6Turkey bombing

On Feb. 1, a Turkish national named Ecevit Sanli walked up to the side entrance of the U.S. Embassy in Ankara like many others had done that day. Dressed inconspicuously, he waved a manila envelope at the man inside the guard booth as he approached the entrance. The security guard had no reason to distrust the man approaching the checkpoint; the entrance is used to screen packages, and perhaps the guard assumed Sanli was...
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Turkey: Did Syria Play a Role in US Embassy Bombing?

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February 4, 2013
TEST6Turkey

Amid ongoing opposition to the Turkish government’s cooperation with Syrian rebels, speculation is growing in Turkey that Syria may have had a hand in the February 1 suicide bombing attack at the US Embassy in Ankara. An outlawed radical-leftist group, the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (known in Turkey by its acronym DHKP/C), has claimed responsibility for the attack. In a long, rambling statement posted on the DHKP/C’s website, the group cited the recent deployment of NATO’s...
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Turkey: Police Name Suspect in US Embassy Suicide Bombing

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February 1, 2013
TEST6Turkey bombing

An extreme leftist group is Turkish security forces’ chief suspect in the February 1 suicide bombing of the US embassy in Ankara that killed two people, and left several others injured. The bomber detonated his explosives while passing through an x-ray control room in the highly fortified embassy, killing himself and at least one Turkish security guard. Speaking to reporters at the scene, Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Güler claimed that the bomber, who died...
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Israel Has Potential Through Shale Oil to Rival Saudi Arabia

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January 28, 2013
TEST6Shale Gas

The Mediterranean has joined the shale game, but as most of Europe’s Mediterranean countries drag their feet, all eyes are on Israel, Turkey, and Algeria. For Israel, it will be a slow road without the majors. For Algeria, it’s full speed ahead, in theory—but the foreign interest is just dabbling for now due to a lack of shale infrastructure. For Turkey, the situation is more promising thanks to a renewed interest by the majors...
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Turkey: Denying Prisoners Medical Access as Disciplining Tool?

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January 21, 2013
TEST6Turkey Erdogan

Democratic Turkey may at times be touted as a model for the Middle East to follow, but, when it comes to Turkish prisons, there is little that ranks as exemplary, rights watchdogs say. Since 2001, Turkey’s prison population has increased by a whopping 124 percent, and stood at 124,677 prisoners as of October 2012, according to national prison administration data cited by the International Centre for Prison Studies (ICPS), a British research institute. Not...
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How Deep Are Azerbaijan-Israel Relations?

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January 18, 2013
TEST6

There has been much speculation surrounding Azerbaijan’s relations with Israel, including reports that Israeli warplanes might use Azerbaijani airfields as support bases during a potential attack against Iran. The reality of the bilateral relationship is not so dramatic, as it is pragmatic. We must keep in mind that neither country is an essential strategic asset for the other. From the Israeli point of view, relations with Azerbaijan represent the latest incarnation of a ‘periphery strategy’, under...
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Turkey: What is Iran Doing with Turkish Gold?

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January 15, 2013
TEST6Turkey

Turkey’s multi-billion-dollar gold sales to neighboring Iran could put the country on a collision course with its close ally, the United States, when high-ranking diplomats from the two countries hold talks in Washington. Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlio?lu was scheduled to be in Washington from January 14-16 for discussions with State Department officials, including US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns. The gold sales were expected to come up during the talks, which...
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