Today, 38 Nobel Laureates published an open letter in The Guardian urging Turkey’s President Erdoğan to reverse course on the steady erosion of civil liberties seen under his administration since an attempted coup in 2016. The letters signatories include 2015 Nobel Laureate in Literature Svetlana Alexievich, 2012 Nobel Laureate in Physics Serge Haroche, 2004 Nobel…
(JTA) — Leaders of the Jewish community of Turkey denied complaints by a gay Israeli diplomat serving in Istanbul, who said they ignore him because of his sexual orientation. Ishak Ibrahim Zadeh, the president of the Jewish Community of Turkey, responded in a statement Thursday to the complaints leveled at him by Yossi Levi Sfari,…
On November 20, JTA published a piece highlighting an Israeli research group’s findings that burning the excrement produced by turkey and other poultry could be a “greener” alternative to coal power. But burning poultry excrement to combat climate change is a load of chicken poop. To fight climate change and protect our environment, we have…
(JTA) — Bucking a slump in Western immigration to Israel under its law of return for Jews, movement from Russia has increased in 2017 and more than doubled from Turkey. In total, the 23,415 immigrants who have come to Israel from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30 constituted a 2 percent increase over the corresponding period…
Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was involved in an alleged plan to seize a Muslim cleric and deliver him to Turkey in exchange for millions of dollars, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. Under the plan, Flynn, who was fired by Trump after…
The aftermath of World War I had left the world’s 30-45 million Kurds split between four countries: Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. Since then, they have been clamoring for independence amidst oppression, marginalization and violent persecution at the hands of these four countries. The collapses of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq and Bashar al-Asad’s in…
(JTA) — President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey threatened to halt steps being taken toward normalization with Israel if it does not end its support for an independent Kurdish state. “If Israel does not reconsider its support for Kurdish independence, Turkey will not be able to take many steps we would have with Israel, too,”…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israel Security Agency uncovered a money laundering scheme that transferred funds to Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank from Turkey via Hebron. The fund transfers, which began in 2016, provided more than $210 million to Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza, according to the Israel Security Agency, also known…
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