#greece-turkiye border

[tearsofrefugees]

[darkmaga-returns]

NATO kicked off its annual Steadfast Noon nuclear exercises this week. What's important to know about them? What military assets could they involve? What are the dangers associated with them? Sputnik explores.

NATO's Steadfast Noon nuclear drills began on Monday and will run over the next two weeks, involving some 2,000 personnel from eight bases and over 60 aircraft from 13 bloc countries. The bulk of the drilling is expected to take place over the North Sea (about 900 km from the Russian border), as well as Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK.

Central to the exercises is drilling the concept of ‘nuclear sharing’ – which allows designated NATO allies’ jets to simulate combat missions using US nukes stored on their territory.

NATO’s nuclear sharing concept goes back to the Cold War, when the US deployed thousands of surface-to-surface, surface-to-air, air-tor-air and air-to-surface weapons with nuclear payloads to allied countries, including Canada, the UK, Greece, Turkiye, Italy, and West Germany. Guarded by US Air Force or Army personnel, the arms remained (and still remain) under the control of the US military, which has the codes needed to arm them.

By 1991, the USSR removed all its nuclear weapons from Eastern Europe, and urged the US to do the same. Washington never did, and today, keeps 100-150 B61 nukes in Europe and Turkiye, including:

10-15 bombs at Belgium’s Kleine Brogel Air Base – deliverable by F-16 MLU and F-35A jets.

10-15 B61s at Germany’s Buchel Air Base – carried by PA-200 Tornado jets and eventually, F-35As.

Up to 45 B61s at Italy’s Aviano and Ghedi air bases, deliverable by F-16 C/Ds, Tornados, and F-35As.

About 20 bombs at the Netherlands’ Volkel Air Base, delivered by F-16 MLUs and F-35As.

Up to 50 B61s at Turkiye’s Incirlik Air Base, deployed by unspecified US military aircraft.

Poland has expressed readiness to host US nukes under the Nuclear Sharing program. It’s likely the bombs would be deployed at Lask Air Base, central Poland, where the US Air Force has a forward presence, and has already participated in nuclear drilling.

[shahananasrin-blog]

[ad_1] ISTANBUL: The death toll from severe rainstorms that lashed parts of Greece, Turkiye and Bulgaria increased to 14 on Wednesday after rescue teams in the three neighboring countries recovered seven more bodies. A flash flood at a campsite in northwestern Turkiye near the border with Bulgaria killed at least five people - with three found dead on Wednesday - and carried away bungalow homes. Rescuers were still searching for one person reported missing at the campsite. Another two people died in Istanbul, Turkiye's largest city, where Tuesday's storms inundated hundreds of homes and workplaces in several neighborhoods. The victims in Istanbul included a 32-year-old Guinean citizen who was trapped inside his basement apartment in the low-income Kucukcekmece district, Turkish broadcaster HaberTurk TV reported. The other was a 57-year-old woman who died after being swept away by the floods in another neighborhood, the private DHA news agency reported. The surging floodwaters affected more than 1,750 homes and businesses in the city, according to the Istanbul governor's office. They included a line of shops in the Ikitelli district, where the deluge dragged parked vehicles and mud into furniture stores, destroying the merchandise, DHA reported. The floods also engulfed a parking area for containers and trucks on the city's outskirts where people found safety by climbing on top of the roof of a restaurant, Turkish media reports said. In Greece, record rainfall caused at least three deaths near the central city of Volos and in Karditsa, further to the west, according to the fire service. Three people were reported missing. Authorities banned traffic in Volos, the nearby mountain region of Pilion and the resort island of Skiathos, where many households remained without electricity and running water on Wednesday. Traffic was also banned in another two regions of central Greece near Volos, while the storms were forecast to continue until at least Thursday afternoon. In Bulgaria, a storm caused floods on the country's southern Black Sea coast. The bodies of two missing people were recovered from the sea on Wednesday, raising the overall death toll to four. Video showed cars and camper vans being swept out to sea in the southern resort town of Tsarevo, where authorities declared a state of emergency. Most of the rivers in the region burst their banks and several bridges were destroyed, causing serious traffic problems. Tourism Minister Zaritsa Dinkova said that about 4,000 people were affected by the disaster along the entire southern stretch of Bulgaria's Black Sea coast. "There is a problem transporting tourists because it is dangerous to go by coach on the roads affected by the floods," she added.!(function(f, b, e, v, n, t, s) ; var TimesApps = window.TimesApps; TimesApps.toiPlusEvents = function(config) var isConfigAvailable = "toiplus_site_settings" in f && "isFBCampaignActive" in f.toiplus_site_settings && "isGoogleCampaignActive" in f.toiplus_site_settings; var isPrimeUser = window.isPrime; if (isConfigAvailable && !isPrimeUser) loadGtagEvents(f.toiplus_site_settings.isGoogleCampaignActive); loadFBEvents(f.toiplus_site_settings.isFBCampaignActive); else var JarvisUrl=" window.getFromClient(JarvisUrl, function(config) if (config) loadGtagEvents(config?.isGoogleCampaignActive); loadFBEvents(config?.isFBCampaignActive); ) ; )( window, document, 'script', ); [ad_2]

[argus-news]

Turkey earthquake: Miracle rescue continues as 17-year-old girl pulled out alive after 10 days from rubble

Turkey-Syria earthquake: At least 41,000 people have died across Turkey and neighboring Syria following the powerful 7.8 magnitude quake, according to authorities.

A 17-year-old girl has been safely rescued and pulled alive from the rubble of a devastating earthquake, at least 10 days after it struck parts of Turkey and Syria.

Minor girl Aleyna Ölmez was called the miracle girl when she was pulled alive from the rubble in Turkey on Thursday (February 16), almost 248 hours after the February 6 quake, as rescue efforts shift to recovery operations ten days on from the disaster.

At least 41,000 people have died across Turkey and neighboring Syria following the powerful 7.8 magnitude quake, according to authorities. Efforts to retrieve survivors have been hampered by a cold winter spell across quake-stricken regions, while authorities grapple with the logistical challenges of transporting aid into northwestern Syria amid an acute humanitarian crisis compounded by years of political strife.

US State Secretary Antony Blinken to visit quake-hit Turkey on February 19:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Turkey on Sunday to view relief operations after a massive earthquake.Blinken will visit the Incirlik air base, through which aid is flowing, and then hold talks with senior Turkish officials in the capital Ankara, the US State Department announced. "Secretary Blinken will visit Incirlik Air Base in Turkiye on February 19 to see firsthand US efforts to assist the Turkish authorities responding to the devastation caused by the February 6 earthquakes," read the statement of US State Department spokesperson Ned Price.

He also informed that Blinken will then travel to Ankara, where he will meet with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and other senior Turkish officials "to discuss continued US support to Turkiye and the Turkish people after the devastating earthquakes, as well as ways to further strengthen our partnership with Turkiye as a valued NATO Ally."Secretary Blinken will also thank the Government of Turkiye for its support for cross-border aid to affected areas of Syria.Notably, Blinken will travel to Germany, Turkiye, and Greece February 16-22, 2023.

UN appeals for $1 billion to help Turkey quake survivors:

The United Nations launched a $1 billion appeal Thursday to help 5.2 million survivors of the most devastating earthquake in Turkey’s modern history, two days after starting a $397 million appeal to help nearly 5 million Syrians across the border in the rebel-held northwest.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric was peppered with questions about why the appeal for Turkey is targeted at only 5.2 million people when according to the U.N. and the government more than 15 million people were affected. He also was asked why the appeal for Turkey is 2½ times larger than the one for Syria to help almost the same number of people. He said the Turkish appeal “was designed in very close cooperation with the government of Turkey, which is leading the relief efforts.”

“This is the number they came up with for the focus on people who need the most humanitarian aid, most quickly, and where the U.N. can be most effective,” Dujarric said. He said Turkey has “a very efficient search and rescue and humanitarian system.”

As for the disparity in the amount of the appeals, he said, part of the reason is that “there is already a well-established humanitarian community which has been working in Syria,” and before the quake there was a $4.8 billion humanitarian appeal for Syria for 2023.

[mideastsoccer]

Turkey signals sweeping regional ambitions

By James M. Dorsey

A nationalist Turkish television station with close ties to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dug up a 12-year-old map that projects Turkey’s sphere of influence in 2050 as stretching from South-eastern Europe on the northern coast of the Mediterranean and Libya on its southern shore across North Africa, the Gulf and the Levant into the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Buoyed by last year’s Azerbaijani defeat of Armenia, TGRT, a subsidiary of Ihlas Holding, a media and construction conglomerate that has won major government tenders, used the map to advance a policy that has long constituted the agenda of some of Mr. Erdogan’s closest advisors.

The broadcasting of the map, first published in a book authored by George Freidman, the founder of Stratfor, an influential American corporate intelligence group, followed calls by pan-Turkic daily Turkiye, Ihlas’ daily newspaper that has the fourth-largest circulation in Turkey, to leverage the Azerbaijani victory to create a military alliance of Turkic states.

In a country that ranks only second to China as the world’s foremost jailer of journalists, Ihlas Holding media would not be pushing a pan-Turkic, Islam-laced Turkish regional policy without tacit government approval at the very least.

The media group’s push reflects Turkish efforts to capitalize on the fact that Turkey’s latest geopolitical triumph with Azerbaijan’s Turkish-backed victory is already producing tangible results. The military victory has positioned Azerbaijan, and by extension Turkey, as an alternative transportation route westwards that would allow Central Asian nations to bypass corridors dominated by either Russia or Iran.

Turkmenistan, recognizing the changing geopolitical map, rushed in January to end a long-standing dispute with Azerbaijan and agree on the joint exploitation of Caspian Sea oil deposits. The agreement came on the heels of a deal in December for the purchase from ENI Turkmenistan of up to 40,000 tonnes of petroleum a month by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR).

The agreement could boost the completion of a Trans-Caspian natural gas pipeline (TPC) that would feed into the recently operational Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), bypass Russia and Iran, and supply Greece and Bulgaria via the former Soviet republic.

Last month, Azerbaijan agreed with Turkmenistan and Afghanistan to develop the Lapis Lazuli transport corridor that would link the war-ravaged country to Turkey. At about the same time, Kazakhstan began exporting copper cathodes to Turkey via Azerbaijan in a first step intended to capitalize on the Caucasian nation’s position as a transit hub.

Azerbaijan and Turkey’s newly found advantage has rung alarm bells among Russian and Iranian analysts with close ties to their respective governments even though the TGRT broadcast may have been primarily intended to whip up nationalist fervour at home and test regional responses.

Russian and Iranian politicians and analysts appeared to take the broadcast in that vein. Nonetheless, they were quick to note that Friedman’s projection includes Russia’s soft underbelly in the northern Caucasus as well as Crimea while Iranians took stock of the fact that the Turkish sphere of influence would border on Iran to the north, south and west.

Turkey and Ukraine have in recent months agreed to cooperate in the development of technologies with military applications related to engines, avionics, drones, anti-ship and cruise missiles, radar and surveillance systems, robotics, space, and satellites. Turkey has refused to recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea, home to Crimean Tartars, and criticized Russian support for Ukrainian rebels.

Most Russian commentators sought to downplay the significance of the map, leaving Andrei Krasov, deputy chairman of the defence committee of the Russian parliament’s lower house to warn that “if they (the Turks) want to test the strength of the Russian spirit and our weapons, let them try.”

With Iran excluded from TGRT and Stratfor’s projection of Turkey’s emerging sphere of influence, Iranian officials and analysts have largely not responded to the revival of the map.

Yet, Iran’s actions on the ground suggest that the Islamic republic has long anticipated Turkish moves even though it was caught off guard by last year’s Azerbaijani-Armenian war.

For one, Iran has in the past year sought to bolster its military presence in the Caspian Sea and forge close naval ties with the basin’s other littoral states - Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan.

Viewed from Tehran, TGRT’s broadcasting of the Stratfor map was the latest in a series of provocative Turkish moves.

They include Mr. Erdogan’s recital of a nationalist poem while attending a military parade in Azerbaijan that calls for reuniting two Iranian ethnic Azeri provinces with the former Soviet republic and publication by state-run Turkish Radio and Television’s Arabic service of a map on Instagram, depicting Iran’s oil-rich province of Khuzestan with its large population of ethnic Arabs as separate from Iran.

The Instagram posting came days after the disclosure that Habib Chaab, a leader of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz, or ASMLA, had been kidnapped in Istanbul by an Iraqi Kurdish drug baron in cooperation with Iranian intelligence and transported to Iran. Mr. Chaab had been lured to Istanbul in October from his exile in Sweden.

While senior Iranian officials talked down the Turkish provocations, Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency left little doubt about what Iran’s true sentiments were.

“Those who have greedy eyes on the territories this side of the Aras River had better study history and see that Azerbaijan, specifically the people of Tabriz, have always pioneered in defending Iran. If Iran had not helped you on the night of the coup, you would have had a fate like that of former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi,’ protesters chanted in front of the Turkish consulate in Tabriz, the capital of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province.

The protesters were responding to Mr. Erdogan’s poem recital and referring to the failed military coup against him in 2016 as well as the toppling of Mr. Morsi in 2013 in a takeover by the Egyptian armed forces.

A podcast version of this story is available on Soundcloud, Itunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spreaker, Pocket Casts, Tumblr, Podbean, Audecibel, Patreon and Castbox.

Dr. James M. Dorsey is an award-winning journalist and a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute.

[libertariantaoist]

News Roundup 3/2/20

by Kyle Anzalone

US News

Mayor Pete will end his presidential bid. [Link]

Trump will invoke a federal defense law to increase the production of medical equipment needed to combat the coronavirus. [Link]

Trump wants to hold arms control talks with Russia, China, the UK, and France. [Link]

Ukraine

Ukraine and Russia are working to swap all remaining prisoners of the Ukrainian Civil War. Both sides hope that the swap will allow for talks to end the conflict. [Link]

Afghanistan Peace Deal

The Taliban and the US officially signed a “peace agreement.” The Afghan government was not a signatory of the agreement and did not participate in the negotiations. The agreement calls for a reduction in US forces from 13,000 to 8,600 within 135 days. During this phase of the withdrawal, NATO forces will be reduced from 16,000 to 12,000 troops. The deal also calls for the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban captives in exchange for the Taliban releasing 1,000 prisoners by March 10th. Afghanistan’s president says his government will not participate in the prisoner exchange. Taliban officials were able to meet with diplomats from several other countries as they look to increase their international legitimacy. [Link] The deal calls for a full withdrawal of US and coalition forces within 14 months. [Link]

Trump says he plans to meet with Taliban leaders soon. [Link]

Syria

Turkey wants world leaders to impose a no-fly zone over Idlib, Syria. [Link]

Russia hopes Turkey’s President Erdogan will meet him for talks in Moscow on March 5th or 6th. [Link]

Turkey briefly arrested the editor-in-chief of a Russian-state media organization based in Turkey. [Link]

Refugees who had been living in Turkey are now clashing with Greek police. Turkey had restrained the refugees from continuing their journey into Europe; however, Turkey started to allow the refugees to flow into Europe after they were denied European assistance in fighting Assad in Syria. Greek police fired tear gas to prevent refugees from crossing the border and refugees threw stones at police. [Link]

Turkey says it took out Syrian air defense systems, destroyed 100 tanks, and shot down two military planes. Turkey says 2,200 Syrian soldiers have been killed, wounded, or captured. Turkey named its operation Spring Shield. [Link]

A Turkish drone strike killed nine Hezbollah fighters in Idlib. [Link]

Syria says it has shot down 3 Turkish drones. [Link]

Secretary of State Pompeo said the US condemns the violence by Russia and Syria in Idlib. He also said the US is reviewing options to assist Turkey with the aggression. [Link]

Read More

[nuracell]

Nine years ago, i was on a short trip to Haleppo after a friends wedding near turkish syrian border… Written status: “On her way to Aleppo, Syria. I will be home in Istanbul late midnight tonight if i may… As the sun rises from east…” So sad what the middleast has become… My country just earned more and more money from iraq fighting iran, then syrian war etc. Some time ago tourism had boomed by egypt having cancelled tourist arrivals then it went the other way around. What goes around comes around. And Karma is pretty good mirror.

The religious corrupt government elected by majority and the war zone enlarging Turkey has lost almost all tourists to greece, europe and iran… Most of my collegues and people are declaring bankruptcy or can no longer pay their depths and morgages… The country is sinking more and more yet many have a schizophrenic attitude ignoring the truth… The world may have gone crazy all around the globe but yet it is very sad to be in this part of the map where contribution to war is a lot more than humanity and peace … As Mahatma Gandhi said : “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.” Blindness is spreading … This sunday, june 24th we have elections… The battle of the forces… In a nespotic corrupt country, where there is so much to explore where the ancient civilizations have widely changed the globe with erdoganism majority was constantly sinking the ship and claiming otherwise. For what we have become i am highly worried… Can we beat this monster? Neighter magic nor Iq maybe some sanity and mindfullness might do the trick but it looks pretty rough for the future… Bliss it was to be not part of second world war. Blessed we are to have survived… Hope lessens as fear grows… #verbavolantscriptamanent #nuracell #sunsolstice #karma Positive vibes we need at least to keep hope growing… as above so below… 🖋📸#nuracell #verbavolantscriptamanent #statusstateofmind #tamam #yeter #anatolia #anadolu #turkiye #türkiye #24haziran #seçim #election #24062018 #turkishpresidentialelection #homohominilupus #dumspirospero #humansofistanbul #democracynow #ellerartgallery peace at home peace on earth

[clinicoral-blog]

Borderline of Turkey & Greece. Coasts of Datça, Turkey ⛵ Visit for more: www.gezenpati.com 🐾 #gezenpati #turkey #turkiye #greece #yunanistan #coast #coastguard #boat #sail #border #holiday #vacation #photography #photo #travelblogger #gezi #travelanddestinations #travel #travelphotography #knidos @mountainstones #mountainstones @bbc_travel #mountain @lonelyplanet #lonelyplanet @travelanddestinations #traveltheworld @hello_worldpics #hello_worldpics @natgeo #natgeo @discoverearth #discoverearth @discoverychannel #discoverychannel @nature.geography #natureaddict @rural_love #earthofficial (at Datça, Mugla)

[shahananasrin-blog]

[ad_1] ISTANBUL: The death toll from severe rainstorms that lashed parts of Greece, Turkiye and Bulgaria increased to eight Wednesday after rescue teams located the body of a missing vacation who was swept away by flood waters that raged through a campsite in northwest Turkiye. A flash flood at the campsite near the border with Bulgaria carried away bungalow homes. Hundreds of homes and workplaces in several neighborhoods in Istanbul, Turkiye's largest city, also were inundated during Tuesday's storms. At least five people died, three at the campsite and two in Istanbul, authorities said. Rescuers were still searching for three people reported missing at the campsite. The victims in Istanbul included a 32-year-old Guinean citizen who was trapped inside his ground-floor apartment in the low-income Kucukcekmece district, Turkish broadcaster HaberTurk TV reported. The surging flood waters affected more than 1,750 homes and businesses in the city, according to the Istanbul governor's office. They included a line of shops in the Ikitelli district, where the deluge dragged parked vehicles and mud into furniture stores, destroying the merchandise, the private DHA news agency reported. The floods also engulfed a parking area for containers and trucks on the city's outskirts where people found safety by climbing on the roof of a restaurant, Turkish media reports said. In Greece, a record rainfall caused at least one death near the central city of Volos and at least five people were reported missing. The fire department said the man was killed when a wall buckled and fell on him. Authorities banned traffic in Volos, the nearby mountain region of Pilion and the resort island of Skiathos. In Bulgaria, a storm caused floods on the country's southern Black Sea coast, leaving two people dead. Three others were missing. TV footage showed cars and camper vans being swept out to sea in the southern resort town of Tsarevo. Authorities declared a state of emergency in the town and urged people to move upstairs as water swamped the ground floors of some hotels.!(function(f, b, e, v, n, t, s) function loadFBEvents(isFBCampaignActive) if (!isFBCampaignActive) return; (function(f, b, e, v, n, t, s) if (f.fbq) return; n = f.fbq = function() n.callMethod ? n.callMethod(...arguments) : n.queue.push(arguments); ; if (!f._fbq) f._fbq = n; n.push = n; n.loaded = !0; n.version = '2.0'; n.queue = []; t = b.createElement(e); t.async = !0; t.defer = !0; t.src = v; s = b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t, s); )(f, b, e, ' n, t, s); fbq('init', '593671331875494'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); ; function loadGtagEvents(isGoogleCampaignActive) if (!isGoogleCampaignActive) return; var id = document.getElementById('toi-plus-google-campaign'); if (id) return; (function(f, b, e, v, n, t, s) t = b.createElement(e); t.async = !0; t.defer = !0; t.src = v; t.id = 'toi-plus-google-campaign'; s = b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t, s); )(f, b, e, ' n, t, s); ; window.TimesApps = window.TimesApps )( window, document, 'script', ); [ad_2]

[shahananasrin-blog]

[ad_1] ATHENS, Greece - Authorities battling a major wildfire in northeastern Greece that has been described as the European Union's largest single recorded fire have recovered another body, the fire department said Friday, bringing the total death toll from wildfires in Greece this week to 21. The fire department said firefighters recovered the body of a man from the Dadia Forest National Park, which lies near the border with Turkiye, on Thursday. Eighteen bodies were discovered Tuesday near a shack in an area near the northeastern city of Alexandroupolis and the body of one more person had been found Monday in a forest. In central Greece, a man was found dead Monday in a sheep pen after reportedly trying to save his livestock from an advancing wildfire. With no reports of missing people in northeastern Greece, authorities suspect the bodies found in the area are those of migrants who may have crossed into the country recently from the nearby border with Turkiye. Greece's Disaster Victim Identification Team has been activated to identify the remains, and a telephone hotline has been set up, operating in English, Arabic, Pashto, Turkish and Urdu for potential relatives of the victims to call. Across Greece, hundreds of firefighters were making headway Friday in tackling multiple wildfires burning for days, including the major blaze near Alexandroupolis and one on the fringes of Athens. With gale force winds abating, the situation appeared improved, although neither of the two main wildfires had yet been brought under control, the fire department said. The Alexandroupolis region fire was burning for a seventh day after combining with smaller fires to create a massive blaze that consumed homes and vast tracts of forest. According to the European Union's Copernicus Emergency Management Service, the Alexandroupolis fire had scorched more than 772 square kilometres (nearly 300 square miles) by Thursday. Copernicus is the EU space program's Earth observation component and uses satellite imagery to provide mapping data. European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic described it as the largest wildfire on record in the European Union. Authorities were concentrating on two active fronts, the fire department said, with 295 firefighters backed up with 85 vehicles, four planes and two helicopters. To the south in Athens, a major fire that scorched homes on the fringes of the Greek capital and entered the national park on Mount Parnitha had one main active front, the fire department said. The blaze was being tackled by 260 firefighters backed up by 77 vehicles, 8 planes and five helicopters. Authorities have been faced with dozens of new fires each day, with the fire department saying its forces tackled 104 blazes in the 24 hours between Wednesday and Thursday evening. Officials have said arson has been to blame for some fires. On Thursday, police arrested a 45-year-old man on suspicion of arson for allegedly setting at least three fires in the Avlona area north of Athens. A search of his home revealed kindling, a fire torch gun and pine needles, police said. The fire department said Friday another man was arrested on the island of Evia for deliberate arson, while on Thursday a man was arrested for negligent arson after allegedly throwing a burning cigarette into a field of dried grass and olive trees, sparking a fire. [ad_2]