Turkey

Footage of a ‘UFO attack’ in Turkey sent social media users into a frenzy on Sunday night, as thousands of residents captured a cluster of UFOs in the night sky. The #ufoattackturkey hashtag began trending on Twitter as panicked users from different parts of the country shared images taken on their mobile phones of the unidentified flying objects. One user uploaded a video that appears to show a loud explosion occuring as they investigated the mysterious lights in the sky.

Not content with arresting or firing any potential source of domestic political opposition, Turkey's president Erdogan is targeting foreign journalists. Having previously arrested dozens of Turkish journalists after the failed July "coup" attempt led to a nationwide crackdown on the media, overnight the Turkish government detained reporters working for BBC and Voice of America in southeastern Turkey.

Turkey’s President Erdogan has vowed to open his country’s border and release hundreds of thousands of migrants into Europe if the European Parliament continues to halt EU membership talks. Yesterday the Euro Parliament voted for a temporary freeze on Turkey’s EU accession talks in response to concerns over Erdogan’s heavy-handed crackdown following July’s failed coup. Daily Mail reports: Turkey’s bid to join the EU now looks doomed after the European Parliament demanded that membership talks with Ankara are frozen.

Turkey has carried out a series of airstrikes on the Syrian city of al-Bab. According to the Turkish military, the airstrikes were conducted against alleged ISIS targets in the city of al-Bab, located some 40 kilometers northeast of Aleppo, shortly before 8 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) on Friday. The Turkish military also stated that three of its soldiers were killed and 10 more wounded in an air strike allegedly launched by Syrian government forces the day before.

When reporting yesterday on the abrupt deterioration in European-Turkish relations, in which the European Parliament voted Thursday in an overhwleming majority to impose a temporary, non-binding freeze on talks for Turkey's accession into the EU, we said that it "remains unclear if Turkey will proceed with releasing the nearly three million Syrian refugees allegedly contained within its borders as a result of the European Parliament vote." Today we have an answer: as the FT reports, Turkish president Erdogan warned Brussels on Friday he would allow 3 million refugees to cross over to Europe