Istanbul

"There’s a giant bull in the [Turkey stock market] china shop," exclaims one trader, but (unsually for Turkey), "nobody knows anything for sure" about who he, she, or it is. As Bloomberg reports, a mystery investor who first appeared a year and a half ago with $450 million of bets on a single day, almost double the market average, is now executing major transactions with increasing frequency, scaring away competitors who can’t figure out when he or she will strike next, traders and bankers said.

On Tuesday, a suicide bomber detonated in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet Square outside the city’s Blue Mosque killing ten German citizens and injuring dozens.

Graphic images began to surface immediately on social media including the following two visuals which depict the moment of the explosion and the immediate aftermath:

There was little question that ISIS would be blamed. The PKK has largely eschewed civilian attacks of late, preferring instead to fight the army directly in the southeast.

Long before Turkey was flagrantly arming and funding the CIA-created "terrorist organization" known as ISIS, there was another, far more elaborate way in which Turkey was flaunting international sanctions against an ostracized state - in this case Iran - which involved an epic gold smuggling triangle of Hollywood-thriller proportions, all made possible thanks to the United Arab Emirate city of Dubai.

Submitted by Shoshana Bryen via The Gatestone Institute,

• Erdogan came to office in 2003 with a policy of "zero problems with neighbors," but has since led Turkey to problems with most, if not all, of them.

• Turkey's foreign policy choices and current crises have combined to make Erdogan reach out to Israel for help.