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Ex-Ambassador: Don’t Do Prisoner Swap Deal With Turkey’s Erdogan

(CNSNews.com) – A former U.S. ambassador to Turkey is urging the Trump administration not to consider swapping a Turkish businessman facing Iran sanctions-busting charges in the U.S. with an American pastor incarcerated in Turkey for nine months. The pastor is accused of having links to “terrorists.” While exchanging Turkish-Iranian financier Reza Zarrab for Protestant pastor Andrew Brunson may hold appeal for the administration, Eric Edelman wrote in a Washington Post column, “a trade would be a grave mistake.”

July 12, 2017
Published in Politicians

The 81-foot fiberglass minarets flank the 12,000-square-foot mosque’s exterior, photographed from Weybosset Street in New Haven. Catherine Avalone / Hearst Connecticut Media

New Haven, Mosque Leaders Work to Resolve Zoning Dispute that Stalled Construction

NEW HAVEN >> A new engineering report is paving the way for resolution of a partially completed mosque, even as another cease and desist order and then a notice to vacate adds to the large city file on the long-delayed project. The problem remains the height of the two minarets on the mosque at 531 Middletown Ave., which exceed what was approved by the Board of Zoning Appeals 19 months ago.

July 13, 2017
Published in Life & Style

Turkish Trade Center in coordination with Turkish Exporter's Assembly (TİM) in New York.

Turkish Trade Center to Open in NYC Garment District on July 18

Istanbul Ready-Garment Exporters' Association (İHKİB), which provides 75 percent of Turkey's ready-to-wear export, has opened Turkish Trade Center in coordination with Turkish Exporter's Assembly (TİM) in New York in the region in the "ground zero" of the fashion world. The 4,000-square-foot showroom will operate at 10 East 34th Street in the heart of New York's garment district.

July 13, 2017
Published in Industries

Mr Erdogan, pictured with European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker, told the BBC most Turks did not want the EU

President Erdogan Tells BBC: EU Wastes Turkey's Time

Turkey will find it "comforting" if the EU says it cannot be accepted as a member, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told the BBC. Speaking to HARDtalk's Zeinab Badawi, he said Turkey was "able to stand on its own two feet". He also denied the country had jailed 150 journalists, saying only two people with press cards were in prison. Meanwhile, Turkey extended the detention of the local director of Amnesty International and nine others. Idil Eser was detained on 5 July during a digital security and information management workshop, along with seven other rights activists and two foreign trainers. The 10 are accused of being members of an "armed terrorist organisation" - although Amnesty says it is unclear which one. Their detention has raised alarm internationally, increasing fears that freedom of expression is being suppressed under President Erdogan.