Ankara

Submitted by Mideast Discourse, authored by Jonathan Smith…

The Russian S-400 anti ballistic missile defense system is reputedly the most advanced on the planet at this time. Put against the American-made Patriot system, the Russian S-400 Triumf system offers both longer and shorter range intercept capabilities (both very important!) and it is one of the recent Russian-made weapons systems that shows a great deal of sophistication.

Rouhani, Putin and Erdogan say the end of the war in Syria is at hand [PPIO]
The Presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey have concluded a tripartite summit on Syria in Sochi and say there is a real chance for peace now that the Islamic State has been largely defeated.
With IS forces routed in Syria (and Iraq), a cessation of hostilities in full effect, and hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees returning home, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that there is a real chance a political settlement will end the seven-year civil war.

Turkey later said it will cease issuing non-immigrant visas to Americans in apparent tit-for-tat move.

(MEE) — The United States and Turkey on Sunday scaled back visa issuing services in each other’s countries in a deepening diplomatic row sparked by the arrest of a Turkish staffer at the American mission in Istanbul.

The Saudi monarch is in Moscow, as Iranian and Turkish leaders meet in Tehran
The visit of the Saudi monarch to Moscow all but cements Putin as the central figure in Middle Eastern politics [PPIO]
As US media continues to speculate on the motives behind the tragic mass shooting in Las Vegas and the press in the UK critique Prime Minister Theresa May’s latest policy speech, there have been significant changes in Middle Eastern alliances.

(COMMONDREAMS) — Turkey’s opposition leader declared a new beginning for the country and demanded reforms to the country’s current government at a huge pro-democracy rally in Istanbul on Sunday.

(ZHE) Just three days after Turkish warplanes killed at least 20 US-backed Kurdish fighters along the Turkey-Syria border, as well as several Kurdish peshmerga troops on Mount Sinjar in northwestern Iraq, footage posted by Syrian activists showed the US has deployed troops and APCs in the contested region, in a move that could potentially drag the US in a conflict where

(MEE) Turkey will not wait at Europe’s door forever and is ready to walk away from EU accession talks if rising Islamophobia and hostility from some member states persist, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Reuters in a wide-ranging interview on Tuesday.

21st Century Wire says…
President Tayyip Erdogan could be in office until 2029 if voters in today’s Turkish referendum give him the majority. Poll indications show a narrow lead but their reliability is questionable.

Russian ambassador Andrey Karlov has been assassinated.