Several US-based Muslim NGOs sent a letter to Turkish PM Erdogan, expressing gratitude for his support to refugees across the world. Muslims living in the US sent a “thank-you letter” to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his support and help to refugees all around the world. The letter by “Muslim Americans and Friends of Turkey” was delivered to Namik Tan, Turkey’s ambassador in Washington.

ISTANBUL — Riot police fired tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets in day-long clashes that lasted into the early hours Wednesday, battling protesters who have been occupying Istanbul's central Taksim Square and its adjacent Gezi Park in the country's most severe anti-government protests in decades. The crisis has left Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan looking vulnerable for the first time in his decade in power and has threatened to tarnish the international image of Turkey, a Muslim majority country with a strongly secular tradition, a burgeoning economy and close ties with the United States.

Of all the variables that dictate the fate of nations, demography might just be the most decisive. The pace of populations—how they grow, change and decline—helps shape a country’s political outlook, its internal makeup, and its place in the world. It can also provide useful insights into a nation’s foreign policy priorities. Turkey is a case in point. In late April, TurkStat, Turkey’s official statistics agency, released its latest survey of the country’s population. That study found that the national fertility rate, at 2.08, remains more or less stable. The trend, however, isn’t uniform. In the country’s west, birth rates generally fall significantly below the 2.1 live births per woman needed for “replenishment.” Births in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast, by contrast, are significantly higher. In other words, Turkey’s Kurdish minority is growing, while the rest of the country is not.

The Turkish American leadership expresses its sincere commendations for the forthright action of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who apologized to the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a mishandled Israeli military operation that resulted in the deaths of nine Turkish civilians, including a Turkish American, on a cruise ship, Mavi Marmara, in the eastern Mediterranean.  The ship was heading for Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid.  We had called upon Turks to reserve judgement, neither condemning nor condoning Israel, and calling upon a multilateral commission of inquiry.  Please see ATAA Release.