NEW YORK CITY - The Washington, DC based Global Policy Institute, (GPI), a non-partisan think-tank, on September 23 held an event at the Harvard Club in New York City aimed at analyzing the July 15 failed military coup in Turkey. In front of a very large audience, Turkish senior policy-makers, along with Turkish and U.S. senior experts, discussed various aspects of the failed coup and the key role played in it by supporters of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric living in the U.S. now accused by Turkish authorities of being the master mind of the military action aimed at toppling the elected government.

20 September 2016 Drawing particular attention to the nearly six year crisis in Syria where hundreds of thousands have been killed and millions displaced, the President of Turkey called for urgent action to stop the conflict and persecution in the country. "When will the United Nations and the Security Council stop tolerating the [Syrian] regime's policy of 'either surrender or die,' which condemn the civilians to hunger" President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked world leaders in his address at the UN General Assembly. "Syrian people are being exhausted in the grip of proxy wars which have been shaped by a cruel administration, merciless terrorist organizations, global and regional competition," he added.

President Obama addressed the United Nations General Assembly this morning, his final speech before the international governing body. As he nears the end of his two terms in office, the president spoke about some of his administration's biggest foreign policy initiatives, including the importance of the Paris climate accord, the nuclear deal with Iran and fighting the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. He also talked about the ongoing, multisided war in Syria. His speech comes the day after a cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia collapsed, in part because of distrust sowed by an accidental strike by a U.S-led coalition aircraft that killed Syrian soldiers over the weekend. And on Monday, an aid convoy in Syria was attacked from the air.

A Turkish businessman who was living in New York has died after he was attacked with a baseball bat during a brawl that erupted over his decision to relieve himself on private property. Kayhan Som, 56, told his driver to pull over due to his need to use the bathroom while he was heading from Manhattan to Whitestone neighborhood last week.