Turkey

A 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey for around a minute before dawn on Monday -- late Sunday night on the East Coast -- killing at least 51 people in five villages and leaving another 34 injured.

Turkey recalled its newly minted ambassador to the United States, Namik Tan, on Thursday after the House Foreign Affairs committee narrowly passed a resolution that aims to ensure that the U.S. government formally refers to the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in World War I as a "genocide."

The 23-22 vote will likely harm relations between the United States and Turkey, according to Al-Jazeera.

Is Fethullah Gulen pulling the strings behind the Turkish coup investigation?

Gulen -- a Turkish preacher who heads the eponymous Fethullah Gulen Movement -- has long been a bogeyman to many American (and Turkish) conservatives, who view him as a sort of Turkish Ayatollah Khomeini, waiting in exile to swoop in and topple the Kemalist republic.

Is Turkey moving towards better civilian control over the military -- or sliding towards a serious confrontation between the government and the army?

Seven former senior officers -- including four admirals and an army general -- were formally charged and jailed today by a Turkish court. Police are still holding several other former high-ranking officers, including Gen. Ibrahim Firtina, the former head of the air force; and Cmdr. Özden Örnek, the former head of the navy. The officers' lawyers say that, because of their ex-military status, only chief prosecutors should be allowed to question them, not ordinary police.

The Pew Global Attitudes Project has some new polling data out from a survey of the Muslim world -- except it's not really new: These are the previously-unreleased results of a survey conducted in May and June of last year.

Remember that nine-month lag as you read the poll. It's great to have public opinion data on Hizballah and Hassan Nasrallah, but the polling in Lebanon ended on June 3 -- before the Lebanese election! So it doesn't account for March 14's victory, the months-long cabinet-making process that followed, Hizballah's new manifesto, the Syrian-Saudi reconciliation, etc.

And some of the poll's findings are just downright unbelievable. So let's take a look, shall we?

(Updated below) Wire services are buzzing this morning with news that Turkish police arrested 120 alleged al-Qaeda members during simultaneous predawn raids in 16 provinces.

Al-Qaeda has occasionally attacked foreign targets in Turkey -- the 2003 bombings in Istanbul, the 2008 U.S. consulate attack -- and police occasionally round up small cells. Today's raid is unusually large; unnamed security sources told the BBC police seized weapons, fake identity cards and "camouflage clothing."

"Sofagate" has largely dropped out of the news, though Turkish newspapers are still puzzling over what the incident says about the state of Israeli-Turkish relations. Hurriyet has a lengthy collection of articles, most of them predating last week's diplomatic Sturm und Drang, on what it calls a "troubled alliance."

Israeli media, meanwhile, have mostly focused on deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon's not-very-successful attempts to rehabilitate his image. In an interview with Channel 2 news, Ayalon claimed he never intended to humiliate the Turkish ambassador, Oguz Celikkol.

We've focused mostly on the Israeli and Turkish reactions to Sofagate -- but the diplomatic flap is getting quite a bit of attention from the Arabic press, too. Much of the coverage is favorable, and it's likely to boost Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's growing clout in the Arab world.

Cooler heads seem to have prevailed in Jerusalem: Israeli deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon apologized to Turkish ambassador Oguz Celikkol, and Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country accepted the apology. Hurriyet quoted a snippet of the apology letter.

Ha'aretz reported about two hours ago that Israeli deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon refused to issue a formal apology to Turkish ambassador Oguz Celikkol over "Sofagate."

But Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and president Shimon Peres apparently intervened: Both men ordered the foreign ministry to draft an apology, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.

That written statement has now been sent to the Turkish embassy; no word yet on whether it's enough to avert Turkish president Abdullah Gul's threat to withdraw Celikkol.

Update, 1:31 p.m.:  Ha'aretz may have jumped the gun in reporting Celikkol's withdrawal; new reports say the foreign ministry agreed to issue a formal apology. More details here.

Update, 11:34 a.m.: Israel's foreign ministry refused to issue a further apology, and Turkey has recalled its ambassador.

Original post: Turkish president Abdullah Gul delivered an ultimatum to Israel today, demanding an apology for Israeli deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon's public humiliation of the Turkish ambassador, Oguz Celikkol.

"Otherwise, our ambassador will be taking the first flight tomorrow to go back home for further consultations," Gul said.

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's foreign minister, didn't apologize for Ayalon's conduct during a press conference today in Cyprus. Ayalon said Israel "wouldn't tolerate anti-Semitic remarks" from Turkey, and asked the Turkish government to "resume the normal state of relations."

Israeli-Turkish relations have been deteriorating for months. The Turkish military has threatened to sue an Israeli defense contractor for failing to deliver drone aircraft on schedule; Israel was angry at being excluded from a joint military drill run by Turkey; Israeli officials have complained about Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's support for the Goldstone Report and his public condemnations of the Gaza blockade.

But the latest instigator, it seems, is television.

We're more than a week late on this news, but Turkey has appointed a new ambassador to the United States (h/t to the Politico's Laura Rozen). Namik Tan, a deputy undersecretary in the Foreign Ministry and former ambassador to Israel, has been tapped to succeed former Ambassador Nabi Şensoy, who resigned abruptly in the first week of December following a flap with his boss, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.

Tan, 53, had served as ambassador to Israel since 2006. Prior to that, he was the Ministry's spokesman. In his 27 years with the Ministry, he has worked in the Washington, D.C., embassy as well as in Moscow and Abu Dhabi.

We're a few days late on the story of Cihan Hayırsevener, but I feel it's important to note the real danger some journalists face, especially those working in the Middle East.  Hayırsevener, the 53-year-old editor in chief of the Güney Marmara'da Yaşam (Life in Southern Mamara) newspaper, was shot three times in the leg on Friday and later died of his wounds.

Hayırsevener had been reporting on a local corruption scandal and had received at least one death threat, Hürriyet reported. The assailant fled in a car immediately after the shooting. One of the shots ruptured a major artery in Hayırsevener's leg, and despite making it to a hospital in the town of Bursa, he died that night.

Meanwhile, a suicide bomber halted outside a press club in Peshawar by police blew himself up on Tuesday, killing himself, a policeman and a club employee, Al-Jazeera reported. After the jump, a photograph of Hayırsevener seconds after the shooting (warning: graphic).

Back in October we told you about a rumored military coup in Turkey -- the so-called Ergenekon plot -- allegedly organized by hundreds of military officers, journalists, politicians and academics opposed to prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party.

A military officer suspected of playing a leading role in the coup, Lt. Gen. Deniz Tatar, was found dead in his home on Saturday. He died of a single gunshot wound to the head; Turkish police are calling it suicide.

The Turkish government says it will continue pursuing reforms to expand the rights of the Kurdish population -- even as violence in eastern Turkey is leading to talk of a possible state of emergency.

Interior minister Beşir Atalay told reporters that his office will soon send legislation for parliament calling for an independent commission to investigate the torture of Kurdish prisoners. The commission has been a long-time demand of Kurdish activists, who say many detainees were tortured by the government.

Evan has been all over the palace intrigue behind Turkish ambassador Nabi Şensoy's resignation, so I thought I'd turn my attention to another important Turkish political story, one that will have deep implications for the government's relationship with its Kurdish minority.

Turkey's Constitutional Court voted late last week to ban the Democratic Society Party (DTP), the largest pro-Kurdish party in Turkey. Judges ruled that the DTP has links to the PKK, the banned Kurdish separatist group; the court's ruling went so far as to say the DTP "takes orders" from the PKK.

Majlis readers might recall that Turkish Ambassador Nabi Şensoy resigned last week sometime during Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's White House visit. I promised I'd follow up, and here's what we know now, a week later.

A protocol snafu appears to be the pretext behind the 65-year-old Şensoy's resignation. Today's Zaman reported on Friday that President Obama requested a one-on-one discussion with Erdogan following the two delegations' public meeting, while Erdogan asked Şensoy to relay his desire to bring in Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and his counterpart, Secretary of State Clinton as well.

Şensoy never told the U.S. organizers of Davutoğlu's request, leading to an embarrassing moment in the White House, when Davutoğlu assumed he would stay for the private meeting and had to be asked to leave. That led to an argument, during which Şensoy offered his resignation.

The Turkish Hurriyet newspaper paints a more sympathetic portrait of Şensoy.

As Majlis readers know, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan visited Washington, D.C., on Monday as part of a multi-day jaunt to the United States amidst "concern" that Turkey has been drifting a bit in its praise for Iran and coldness toward Israel. I've been poking around for some read-outs on Erdogan's meeting with President Obama, but I can't find any on the U.S. side.

But that's not for a lack of news: Hurriyet, Turkey's English-language newspaper, reports that Turkey's ambassador to the United States has resigned in the wake of the meeting.

Details are still pretty sketchy at this point. The New York Times reports that seven soldiers were killed earlier today in Tokat, a province in north-central Turkey. Nobody has claimed responsibility yet; al-Jazeera says the identities of the gunmen are still unknown. But Turkish news sources are already pointing to the PKK, the Kurdish separatist group that has carried out dozens of other attacks in Turkey.

I don't know anything more than what's been reported. But I would point out that Tokat is an odd location for a PKK attack. It's not unheard of -- but the PKK generally does not operate in that part of the country; their attacks are usually further south or east.

President Barack Obama and Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a press conference earlier this afternoon, but neither man mentioned the shooting.