There was a claim, implanted in the German media, that the S-400 deal between Turkey and Russia was off. That’s been rebutted.DW
In its Saturday edition, the German Bild newspaper quoted a high-ranking (no name?) Turkish diplomat as saying: "There will be no delivery of the S-400 in July, as the Turkish president had [earlier] announced."Turkey has dismissed a report in a German newspaper that claimed Turkish officials had canceled a deal to acquire a Russian anti-aircraft missile system due to US pressure."The S-400 delivery is a done deal," Fahrettin Altun, a spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wrote on Twitter.Turkey's plan to buy the air defense system has been a cause of tension within the NATO military alliance, which both the United States and Turkey belong to. The US and other member states fear that Russia could spy on NATO aircraft through the S-400 system.
Earlier this month it had been reported : Turkish servicemen to start training to operate S-400 systems this month — source
"At the end of May, around 100 Turkish servicemen will start training at a Russian military center to operate S-400 missile defense systems, a regiment of which will be delivered to Turkey in 2019 in accordance with the contract," the source said adding that "training will last for around five months."The source noted that Turkish servicemen will train to operate S-400 missile together with the second group of Chinese servicemen, who started their training in the same military center in mid-March. "Simultaneous training of anti-aircraft gunners from China and Turkey will represent an unprecedented case in the history of former USSR and modern Russia," he added.
MEHR - Turkey to continue buying Iranian oil despite US pressures
Hakki Uygur, Vice Director of Center for Iranian Studies (IRAM Center) in Ankara told Mehr correspondent Morteza Karimi that Turkey will continue buying oil from Iran because it is unable to replace Iran oil with oil from other countries in the short term as a result of technical issues as the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu recently said.Meanwhile, Uygur added that “but I think that the volume of oil purchased from Iran will be determined by the level of American pressure and the meetings between Turkey and the United States.”In response to a question regarding the reasons behind Turkey’s opposition to US’s oil sanctions on Iran, the IRAM Center vice director said that Turkey is concerned that the US sanctions will further destabilize the region as well as Iran, adding that the US administration’s Israeli-oriented approach will create other crises in the region.
In response to the question “what can Iran and Turkey jointly do tackle US sanctions?”, the Turkish expert said that if the two countries bring their stances closer to each other and take a closer approach towards issues such as Iraq and Syria, they will be able to form a regional coalition and also will be able to reduce the effects of the external threats.
Istanbul election: Istanbul dividedBased on my own reading of the news regarding the Istanbul election... It appears there was most probably election tampering. Western influenced. If it was set to occur anywhere it would be in Istanbul- which is more “European (EU) influenced” due to it's location.West in No Position to Lecture Turkey.. That’s a given.
"President Erdogan is going to do a re-run of elections in Istanbul.
But then the jaw dropping moment which follows is not what’s going on in Turkey, a country that certainly has a human rights issues, no question – but how the West lines up to chastise the country. The hypocrisy is quite amazing.And which particular moron should stand first in line with the hilarious opprobrium other than the European Union’s own clown MEP, Guy Verhofstadt a euro-elite type who is hard ignore but well worth the effort. This former Belgian PM recently ejaculated in the European parliament his important thoughts on Turkey and Erdogan, in line with former MEPs who jump on this bandwagon when it suits their federalist interests – before retreating and allowing the circus of EU accession to rumble on in Brussels when it also suits. Right now, with only days before EU elections and record gains expected for populist parties, it was hardly surprising the odious Belgian liberal would take the stage and dutifully pour scorn on Turkey.
The European Union has a shocking history of human rights abuses not only on its own turf but more poignantly around the world with the regimes it supports with aid. Most central African despots are supported by EU cash, which, in turn, leads to intensified human rights abuses on a grand scale – which then leads to an exodus of migrants who end up in Libya sold as slaves, raped and abused. In many country’s its own environmental programs are bogus so as to funnel slush funds to dictatorships it supports, like in Lebanon for example where its recycling and composting schemes are actually so bad that they are poisoning the country’s water and linked to increased numbers of cancer.This is the reality of the EU’s human rights record and its own check on democracy. The list just goes on and on and befittingly it is curious that the EU’s own ‘third word country’ (Belgium) which has a shocking deficit on press freedom and is a country infamous for industrial scale pedophilia which historically was the financial basis (blackmail) to fund political parties, is the very country which produced Verhofstadt and accommodates his pathetic ramblings in the European parliament, the only assembly in the world which is so useless that MEPs can’t even initiate legislation in it.
Verhofstadt is a signed up member of the Wet Dream Society, or as it is formerly know the ‘Spinelli Group’ – a sort of freemason’s talk shop of those who believe the EU could one day be a super power and have a real foreign policy. And so it is normal for him to take the floor and deliver such stupendously boring and utterly ludicrous speeches which are delusional at best and simply an old man’s fantasy at worse."
Only Trump can save Idlib- Washington PostMiami Herald
Two major highways that cut through rebel-held areas were also supposed to be reopened before the end of 2018 but remain closed.A large government military buildup and advances on key villages in nearby areas suggests an assault is already underway.But the current government offensive is likely to be limited in scope for now, aimed at regaining government control over the strategic M4 and M5 highways to open the way between the Mediterranean city of Latakia, a government stronghold which houses a huge Russian air base, Hama further to the north and the city of Aleppo.Fighting currently is concentrated in towns and villages in northern Hama and parts of southern Idlib, where the government has captured several villages.
The highways were mentioned May 07/19 and have been mentioned going way back into previous posts on this part of Syria Related
US Backed Kurds Kill Protestors- Idlib/Hama Update
"Russia and Turkey landgrab 'behind fresh Syria bombardment' "
3-Syria: Blow by Blow 3- Idlib, Opening Highways/Taking Higher Ground?
Appears a very targeted operation is going on at this moment.
I'm thinking a limited operation to take back specific territory.