Turkey

ISIS ‘Department of Artifacts’ documents reveal trade of looted Syrian cultural treasures via well-established oil and weapon smuggling routes with Turkey. An RT Documentary crew investigating illicit oil smuggling by ISIS via Turkey have come across new documents shedding light on Islamic State’s lucrative trade in looted antiquities. Russia Today reports: There is no official accounting that would illustrate the true scale of looting being undertaken in Syria, a land once rich with cultural treasures.

The Turkish Minister of Defence İsmet Yılmaz  has announced plans to continue Turkey’s aggressive military expansion in the Middle East, saying that a new multipurpose military base in Qatar will be opened within the next two years.  “This base will allow Turkey to participate in combat operations in the Red Sea, the North of Africa, and the Persian Gulf,” Yılmaz said.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has claimed that the Turkish army currently fighting on Syrian soil is “Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s own private army,” in an explosive new interview. Assad said that his country has no beef with Turkey but his army will respond to foreign aggressors. Russia Today reports: Turkey, as well as Saudi Arabia, have “crossed all possible red lines, possibly from the first weeks of the Syrian war,” Assad said. “Today, the war against Erdogan and against Saudi Arabia is a war against terrorists.

Submitted by Judith Bergman via The Gatestone Institute,

• Erdogan has boasted that he is proud of boldly blackmailing EU leaders into paying him protection money.

• Erdogan's threats were almost criminally sinister: "... the EU will be confronted with more than a dead boy on the shores of Turkey. There will be 10,000 or 15,000. How will you deal with that?"

In a few moments, Turkey's president Recep Erdogan will address the Brookings center with a speech titled "Global challenges and Turkey's goals for the year 2023." The speech can be watched below: