United Arab Emirates carrier Etihad has broken off talks with German travel group TUI to jointly create a leisure airline, the companies said Thursday. Abu Dhabi-based Etihad and troubled Air Berlin, of which Etihad is a majority owner, had last October announced plans to form a new leisure airline by merging Air Berlin’s Austrian subsidiary … Read more
The German government decided Wednesday to withdraw its troops from Turkey’s Incirlik base near the Syrian border after last-ditch talks with Ankara failed to resolve an escalating row. The military personnel along with Tornado surveillance jets and other hardware — deployed as part of the international coalition against the Islamic State group — will be … Read more
The German government decided Wednesday to withdraw its troops from Turkey’s Incirlik base near the Syrian border after last-ditch talks with Ankara failed to resolve an escalating row. The military personnel, Tornado surveillance jets and other hardware — deployed as part of the international coalition against the Islamic State group — will be moved to … Read more
Turkey and Germany on Monday failed to reach an agreement over visits by German politicians to a key airbase used for raids against the Islamic State group in Syria, with Ankara standing firm on its ban. The Incirlik base in southern Turkey has been at the centre of a dispute between the NATO allies since … Read more
Turkey on Thursday hit back at German threats to pull its troops out of a key NATO base on its soil, saying it would “not beg” them to stay. Ankara and Berlin are locked in another spat over Turkey’s refusal to allow German lawmakers to visit the Incirlik base near Syria, which is used by … Read more
Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats party (CDU) has unseated rivals Social Democrats (SPD) in a key election, exit polls say. The CDU is projected to win 34.5% of votes in North Rhine-Westphalia, the country’s most populous state, compared with 30.5% for the SPD. The SPD has run the state for most of the post-war period. The … Read more
The populist, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) has rejected a bid by its co-leader to move the party closer to the mainstream. Frauke Petry had wanted the AfD to seek coalition with other parties and reject extremist views but delegates in Cologne rejected her approach. She has announced she will not contest general elections this … Read more
Thousands of police officers have been deployed in Cologne, Germany, as thousands of left-wing protesters gather to demonstrate against an Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) party conference. The AfD, a populist right-wing and anti-Islam party, will seek to choose a new co-leader to take it up to a general election later this year. Police have deployed … Read more
Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan has issued a chilling warning that Europeans ‘will not walk safely on the streets’ as tensions between Ankara and the EU escalated further today. Erdogan has been locked in a row with Germany and Holland after his officials were barred from drumming up support on the continent for an April referendum … Read more
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today voting ‘yes’ in next month’s referendum on expanding his powers was the best response to a ‘fascist and cruel’ Europe. He told a rally in the capital, Ankara: ‘This Europe, like before World War II, is a racist, fascist, cruel Europe…An anti-Islam and anti-Turkish Europe.’ ‘Give such a … Read more
A diplomatic spat between Turkey, the Netherlands and Germany spread online on Wednesday when a large number of Twitter accounts were hijacked and replaced with anti-Nazi messages in Turkish. The attacks, using the hashtags #Nazialmanya (NaziGermany) or #Nazihollanda (NaziHolland), took over accounts of high-profile CEOs, publishers, government agencies, politicians and also some ordinary Twitter users. … Read more
The representatives of a number of international press organizations have come together in a meeting in İstanbul, and urged the Turkish government to release the jailed journalists. The Turkish Journalists’ Association (TGC), the International Press Institute (IPI), Article 19, Swedish PEN, the Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and the Association of European Journalists (AEJ), joined the … Read more
The head of EU border agency Frontex on Monday criticised charities that rescue migrants off Libya, arguing that they encourage the traffickers who profit from the dangerous Mediterranean crossings. Such rescue operations “should be reevaluated”, Fabrice Leggeri told Germany’s Die Welt daily, also accusing the groups of not effectively cooperating with security agencies against human … Read more
Germany’s influential weekly news magazine Der Spiegel has come under fire for a cover image showing US President Donald Trump beheading the Statue of Liberty. Some German newspapers criticised the cartoon, while the German vice-president of the European Parliament called it “tasteless”. The cartoonist, Edel Rodriguez, said the image represented “the beheading of democracy”. US-German … Read more
German police are investigating a “probable terrorist attack” after a man ploughed a lorry into a Christmas market in the heart of Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 48. The driver is an Afghan or Pakistani asylum seeker, according to security sources cited by DPA news agency. He reportedly arrived in Germany in February as … Read more
German police are questioning a man they believe ploughed a lorry into a busy Christmas market in the heart of Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 48. The driver is an Afghan or Pakistani asylum seeker, according to security sources cited by DPA news agency. He reportedly arrived in Germany in February as a refugee. … Read more
An employee of the German intelligence agency (BfV) has been arrested after making Islamist statements and sharing agency material, German media report. A BfV spokesman quoted by Reuters news agency did not confirm a report in Die Welt newspaper that the man was suspected of planning a bomb attack on the BfV’s Cologne office. “There … Read more
Kurdish forces are rolling in from the east The EU should be prepared for returning jihadists if the so-called Islamic State (IS) is driven out of its Iraqi stronghold, Mosul, an official warns. Security Commissioner Julian King said even a small number of militants would pose “a serious threat that we must prepare ourselves for”. … Read more
Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn has called for Hungary to be suspended or even expelled from the European Union because of its “massive violation” of EU fundamental values. He cited the Budapest government’s treatment of refugees, independence of the judiciary and freedom of the press. “Hungary is not far away from issuing orders to open … Read more
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s allies have urged her to change course on refugees after her governing CDU party was beaten in a regional election by an anti-immigrant party. The right-wing AfD party, formed only three years ago, came second in the chancellor’s home state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, polling 21%. Mrs Merkel has defended her policies … Read more