Month: August 2018

Reports out of Turkey say a diplomatic delegation has already left and is set to visit Washington this week for discussions about the ongoing detention of U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson. The U.S. State Department could not confirm that such a meeting is planned. The conflicting reports come at a time of escalating U.S.-Turkish tensions, which are threatening to trigger a financial crisis in Turkey. VOA Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department. …

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Britain will always be a “tier one” military power, British Defense Minister Gavin Williamson told the Atlantic Council think tank Tuesday in Washington, contradicting recent comments by British Prime Minister Theresa May. In June, the prime minister asked Williamson to justify Britain’s role as a tier one military power at a Downing Street meeting, challenging Defense Ministry plans to modernize the armed forces just weeks before a NATO summit, according to the Financial Times. Underlying her statement, the report said, was a realization that Britain can no longer economically compete with top global powers. The following day, when asked to …

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A Turkish diplomatic delegation is visiting Washington Wednesday in a bid to to ease tensions between the two countires. Reports of the visit helped to stem a sharp drop in the value of Turkish currency. Analysts warn rising U.S.-Turkish tensions are threatening to trigger a financial crisis in Turkey. On Monday, the Turkish lira suffered its most significant drop in a decade. The sell-off triggered by reports that the Trump administration is considering ending Turkey’s duty-free access to the U.S. market. The lira recovered some of its heavy losses on news of the diplomatic visit. But the currency began to …

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An activist from Russian punk collective Pussy Riot has led a protest outside the headquarters of the state penitentiary agency to protest torture and slave labor in Russian prisons. Pussy Riot member Maria Alekhina and activist Dmitry Tsorionov put banners and photos of inmates who were reportedly beaten by prison personnel on the Federal Penitentiary Service building in Moscow.   Tuesday’s protest comes amid public outrage stoked by a recently released video of an inmate being beaten by men in guards’ uniforms while lying handcuffed on a table. Several guards have been put in custody while the 2017 beating is …

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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will pay a state visit to Germany on Sept. 28-29, a spokeswoman for German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Tuesday, amid efforts by the allies to improves ties strained by a number of disputes. The two fellow members of the NATO military alliance have differed over Turkey’s crackdown on suspected opponents of Erdogan after a failed coup in 2016 and over its detention of German citizens. The spokeswoman did not say if Erdogan would also hold talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel. Merkel’s office declined to comment. Germany’s mass-selling Bild newspaper reported last month that Erdogan would …

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Greece’s prime minister vowed on Tuesday that experts will investigate all aspects of the country’s deadliest forest fire in decades and that the seaside resort areas devastated by the blaze will be rebuilt to higher standards. Alexis Tsipras led a meeting about the fire on Tuesday with ministers and regional officials in Lavrion, a seaside town about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the areas burned. At least 91 people died in the July 23 fire. “My promise, from the first day of this tragedy, was that the `how’ and the `why’ will be investigated in depth and in all …

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Georgia on Tuesday condemned Russia’s continued “occupation” of its territory, a decade after the two countries went to war over the Kremlin-backed separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. “This is a war against Georgia, an aggression, an occupation, and a blatant violation of international law,” Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili told a round table meeting attended by Georgian government officials and visiting foreign ministers of Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine’s vice premier. “The aggressor’s appetite has only increased after the invasion,” he said. Georgia and its Soviet-era master Russia have long been at loggerheads over Tbilisi’s bid to join the …

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The chairman of Britain’s governing Conservative Party told former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to say sorry Tuesday for a newspaper column in which he wrote that burqa-wearing women looked like “letter boxes” and bank robbers. Johnson, who quit the government last month in a dispute over Brexit, made the remarks in a Daily Telegraph article published Monday. Johnson said he opposed banning burqas and other face-covering garments, but wrote that it was “absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes.” His article drew criticism from Muslim groups and fellow politicians — including some Conservatives. Mohamed …

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