Bulgaria announced they are sending their military to secure the border with Turkey as migrants continue to flood into the nation.
“There is a change in the situation in the past few days and it is hard to predict where the refugee wave will head…so we are standing ready,” Defence Minister Nikolay Nenchev told public BNR radio.
Nenchev said up to 1,000 troops could end up along the border.
The chief secretary to the interior ministry told reporters that around 660 migrants tried to illegally cross the nation’s border but turned back after they discovered it was heavily guarded.
Bulgaria is not the only nation bordering Turkey facing migrant problems.
Greece is blocking migrants at their border with Turkey, resulting in protests from the migrants who depend to be allowed to cross. Many are refusing the food given out by a Turkish agency and say they will conduct a hunger strike until they get their desires.
“We are not going back,” Ahmed El Latif told the AP. “Either we all die here or we will go to Greece.”
A group of masked terrorists kidnapped 14 Turkish construction workers from a site in Baghdad early Wednesday.
Iraqi and Turkish officials say the gunmen stormed the complex around 3 a.m. when the workers were sleeping. They specifically targeted the Turkish workers and separated them from the others before forcing them into SUVs.
“The Iraqi authorities for the time being do not have information on how the incident occurred or who captured them,” Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told reporters.
The gunmen were reportedly wearing military uniforms.
Local officials told Time that it’s likely the kidnappings were revenge because of Turkey recently agreeing to allow the U.S. to use their bases for drone strikes against ISIS.
The workers had almost finished construction on a sports complex that includes a 30,000 seat soccer stadium.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in China for an official state visit.
Erdogan will be meeting in Beijing with his counterpart, Xi Jinping.
The visit is the first for Erdogan since his election as president in 2014 and the first since Turkey agreed to work with the U.S. to eliminate terrorist group ISIS in parts of Syria.
Erdogan traveled to China with around 100 business owners and leaders in what’s expected to be a discussion of trade deals. The trade between the two nations has reached about $24 billion a year.
However, some believe that the current Syrian crisis will cause Erdogan to try and purchase a long-range missile system which has been a source of concern to Turkey’s fellow NATO members.
Turkey and China have also had issues regarding illegal immigration in southeast Asia of Muslims. Last month, there were protests in Turkey after a group of Muslims illegally crossed from China to Thailand and then were returned to China.
“It’s quite obvious that the current Turkish government is supporting illegal immigration of Uighurs by giving them passports and working with Southeast Asian countries,” said Yin Gang an expert on the Middle East with the government-supported Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “It would be hard for the relationship between China and Turkey to improve significantly unless Turkey makes serious promises on that issue.”
A Madison, Wisconsin man has been arrested on charges that he tried to travel to the middle east to join Islamic terrorist group ISIS.
Joshua Van Haften, 34, made his first appearance in federal court Thursday and did not attempt to contest his being held without bond.
Van Haften was arrested Wednesday night at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago and returning from Turkey. Federal investigators said that Van Haften talked to people about his desire to join ISIS before he left for Instanbul, Turkey in August.
The federal complaint says that Van Haften posted on Facebook that he was not able to cross the border from Turkey into Syria. He also said that the people who claimed to be able to help him just stole his money and left him on a country road.
Van Haften has a long criminal record, including convictions for battery and sexual assault. He spent over seven years in prison on the sexual assault conviction after his eight year probation was revoked in 2000.
Van Haften’s lawyer says that his client looks forward to “having all the facts brought to light.”
A U.S. Air Force veteran is jailed on charges of attempting to join the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.
Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh is facing charges of attempting to provide material support to terrorists and providing resources to a terrorist organization. He also was charged with obstruction of justice for destroying thumb drives containing evidence of his online interaction with the terrorist group.
Pugh had lost his job as an airplane mechanic, which was based in the middle east. After the job loss, he traveled from Egypt to Turkey with the intent of sneaking into Syria.
“Pugh, an American citizen and former member of our military, allegedly abandoned his allegiance to the United States and sought to provide material support to ISI[S],” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin said. “Identifying and bringing to justice individuals who provide or attempt to provide material support to terrorists is a key priority of the National Security Division.”
U.S. intelligence officials say that at least 150 Americans are fighting with the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria.
A man engaged in human trafficking for ISIS forcing Syrian refugee children into prostitution has been arrested by Turkish authorities.
Ahmet Yumusak, 29, was captured by Turkish authorities who were investigating an attack on a soldier and police officer that took place last year. During the investigation, they had Yumusak approach them to discuss paying for sex with underage Syrian refugee girls that were under control of ISIS.
After this arrest, authorities discovered he was sending young girls into Syria to be abused and married off to ISIS terrorists.
Authorities say they are unable to determine the total number of young girls that were forced into ISIS control by Yumusak but the number is well into the hundreds.
Police say that Yumusak also worked as a conduit for western girls and women that wanted to join the terrorist group.
Seeking the Lord for a word for the new year is always a very serious pursuit and this year is even more crucial as we see the “red lights of prophecy” flashing all around us and God’s plan unfolding at breakneck speed. The Lord began to speak to me while we were in Israel, and the word that I give to you I sincerely pray will resonate with your spirit and cause you to be more prepared for these times we see looming on the horizon. Remember that in the midst of all the turmoil there is a promise of His Return and that is cause for great rejoicing! Continue reading →
The last time Turkey allowed a new church to be built, Time Magazine was publishing its first issue, Warner Brothers established their movie studio and President Warren Harding was succeeded by Calvin Coolidge.
The Syriac Christian church will be built not far from Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Catholic churches in a suburb of Istanbul. Until this new construction was approved, the only construction allowed by the government was refurbishing established church buildings.
Only about 100,000 of the 80 million people in Turkey are Christian.
The move is seen as mainly political. Turkey has been under fire from the European Union after an ancient Byzantine church was converted into a mosque and all traces of Christian history wiped from the building.
The ruling party in Turkey has been working to align themselves with other Muslim-majority nations in the Middle East.
Turkish officials are seeking an arsonist who attached a building that contained thousands of New Testaments and other Christian documents.
The fire was noticed at 7 p.m. on December 7th at the offices of Bible Correspondence Course in Istanbul, Turkey. The BCC was located in a multistory building that also housed the Kadikoy church.
BCC Turkey says that no one was injured in the blaze and because of the concrete construction of the building there was no structural damage. However, everything inside the building was burned to ash.
“I think whoever did it knew something about what happens up here, because they kind of knew to come on a Sunday afternoon, and that if they were going to have an opportunity where there weren’t going to be a lot of people around, that’s probably the one that was most likely,” Paul Weaver of BCC-Turkey said.
“I think the firemen were genuinely surprised that when they got there they didn’t find a bigger fire, and I call that providence,” he said. “I don’t know what else to call it because I would agree, I think it should have been a bigger fire than what they actually found.”
BCC Turkey officials say that multiple groups within the city have wanted to stop the group from distributing the Bibles.
A former ISIS member has testified that a member of NATO is considered an ally of the terrorist organization by ISIS leadership.
Turkey, which has been dragging its feet in joining the world coalition to stop the terrorist group, is reportedly allowing the terrorists to freely cross their border and move supplies and weapons into Iraq and Syria.
The terrorist, calling himself “Sherko Omer”, is a former communications tech for ISIS. He said that Turkey is working with ISIS because of a common hatred for the Kurds.
“ISIS saw the Turkish army as its ally especially when it came to attacking the Kurds in Syria,” Omer said. “The Kurds were the common enemy for both ISIS and Turkey. Also, ISIS had to be a Turkish ally because only through Turkey they were able to deploy ISIS fighters to northern parts of the Kurdish cities and towns in Syria.”
Omer also said he has seen first hand the connection between the Turkish army and the terrorists.
“I have connected ISIS field captains and commanders from Syria with people in Turkey on innumerable occasions,” Omer said. “I rarely heard them speak in Arabic, and that was only when they talked to their own recruiters, otherwise, they mostly spoke in Turkish because the people they talked to were Turkish officials of some sorts because ISIS guys used to be very serious when they talked to them.”
