Fdd's overnight brief

Turkey

Turkey supplies weapons and training to Azerbaijan, and there are signs that it is actively engaged in the fighting, which Ankara has denied. If Turkish involvement is confirmed, even in a supporting role, it would be just one of several fronts where Mr. Erdogan has deployed troops, ships and aircraft with increasing readiness this year. – New York Times

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday implied that Jerusalem belongs to Turkey, referring to the Ottoman Empire’s control over the city for much of the modern era. – Times of Israel

Turkish authorities detained 19 people including two Kurdish deputy mayors in the northeastern province of Kars as part of a terrorism related operation, state-owned Anadolu news agency said on Thursday. – Reuters

Greece and Turkey have set up a mechanism to avoid accidental clashes in the Eastern Mediterranean, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday, part of efforts to defuse a dispute over energy resources in the region. – Reuters

Congressional lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bipartisan resolution condemning Azerbaijan for an outbreak of violence against Armenia in the contested area of Nagorno-Karabakh, and calling out Turkey for interfering in the conflict. – The Hill

Iraq

A few hundred Iraqis gathered in Baghdad’s central Tahrir square on Thursday to mark the anniversary of anti-government unrest that erupted last year and to put pressure on the authorities to meet their demands. – Reuters

Washington warned Thursday that it would not tolerate attacks on US interests in Iraq by Iran-backed militias, as Baghdad worries about a possible US withdrawal. – Agence France-Presse

Most Arab regimes have dealt with covid-19 by tightening their grip. Not Iraq. It gave up on lockdowns long ago. The government seems powerless to enforce social distancing or the wearings of masks (some men see the coverings as an insult to their virility). It has little money to spend on a health service gutted by war and corruption. – The Economist

Ever since, Jasb’s father has been on a search for justice that has run repeatedly against one major obstacle: the increasing helplessness of Iraq’s government in the face of powerful, Iranian-backed Shiite militias. – Associated Press

Bobby Ghosh writes: The protesters will also require convincing that Kadhimi is not beholden to foreign powers. They are as suspicious of American influence as they are hostile to Iranian interference in Iraqi affairs. The Trump administration can help by dialing down its demands of the prime minister, and easing up on the threat to shut down the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. Washington should recognize that the embassy — and American interests more generally — will be better protected by a prime minister working with the protesters. – Bloomberg

Middle East & North Africa

Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper met with leaders in the capital of Algeria on Thursday, making a rare high-level American visit to the largely isolated North African nation. – Washington Post

The Egyptian government continues to target gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in a “systematic fashion” through arbitrary arrests, torture and other forms of abuse, including forced “virginity tests,” Human Rights Watch said Thursday. – Washington Post

Israel, the UAE and the US issued a joint statement on Thursday presenting a “strategic vision for energy partnership,” the Emirati state news agency WAM reported. – Algemeiner

Gerald M. Feierstein writes: Despite differences in perspective on elements of the regional situation, especially prior to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah remained a staunch partner of the U.S. in later years and the two countries worked closely together on issues of regional security and stability, GCC cooperation, and energy security. All signs are that these essential pillars of Kuwaiti foreign policy that Sheikh Sabah established in his over half-century of leadership will continue to guide Kuwait into the future. – Middle East Institute

China

The Chinese government has taken the rare step of formally confirming to the UN the death of a Uighur man whose family believe had been held in a Xinjiang internment camp since 2017. – The Guardian

Jonathan E. Hillman writes: As in so many earlier imperial adventures, China is struggling to cut its losses, even as fewer new projects are announced. A debt crisis in emerging markets is looming, and historically, most infrastructure booms go bust. But the Belt and Road is enshrined in the Chinese Communist Party constitution like a tattoo gotten during a drunken binge. It cannot be removed or even called ugly. It is Mr. Xi’s vision, and until he leaves power or says stop, Chinese officials will march forward with it. – Wall Street Journal

Harold Furchtgott-Roth and Kirk R. Arner write: None of this is to say that American wireless consumers won’t be harmed by a trade war with China, or that the quality, competitiveness, and timely rollout of American 5G networks won’t eventually be compromised as a result. But at least for now, thanks to open trade with other countries, 5G deployment by the major American carriers is roughly on pace with international competitors. – Hudson Institute

Asia

Hong Kong police arrested at least 86 people on suspicion of unauthorized assembly on China’s National Day holiday after crowds gathered on the streets of a popular shopping district and other areas chanting pro-democracy slogans. – Associated Press

Armenia’s military said its rockets shot down an Azerbaijani drone near the capital on Thursday night, as heavy fighting persisted in the conflict over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. – Associated Press

Azerbaijan’s general prosecutor’s office said Armenian shelling killed a civilian in its town of Terter on Thursday morning and badly damaged the train station there. – Reuters

Vietnam said on Thursday that military drills conducted this week by Beijing in the South China Sea will hurt negotiations on a regional maritime code of conduct (COC) for the disputed waters. – Reuters

France, Russia and the United States on Thursday demanded an immediate ceasefire between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces around the Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh, calling for a return to negotiations without delay. – Reuters

The Tokyo Stock Exchange has announced that trading will resume on Friday, after a hardware glitch caused equity trading to be suspended for a full day in the worst outage since the world’s third-biggest bourse shifted to a fully electronic system in 1999. – Financial Times

Europe

The European Union took legal action against Britain on Thursday over its plans to pass legislation that would breach parts of the legally binding divorce agreement the two sides reached late last year. – Associated Press

Police in Ukraine are investigating the death of an American woman who worked for the United States Embassy in Kyiv. – Associated Press

European Union leaders agreed early Friday to impose sanctions on dozens of senior officials in Belarus accused of falsifying presidential election results and leading a crackdown on peaceful protesters, after unblocking a veto against the move by one of the EU’s smallest member countries. – Associated Press

The U.S. and the Vatican butted heads over China on Thursday as the Holy See chafed at U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s public call to take a harsher stance against Chinese restrictions on religious freedom. – Associated Press

Police in Berlin have launched an investigation into officers suspected of using a chat group on their mobile phones to exchange racist messages about African and Muslim migrants, a police spokesman said on Thursday. – Reuters

The pope declined to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on his visit to the Vatican this week, claiming that a meeting before Election Day would be inappropriate. – The Hill

President Emmanuel Macron, trying to rid France of what authorities say is a “parallel society” of radical Muslims thriving outside the values of the nation, is laying the groundwork Friday for a proposed law aimed at helping remedy the phenomenon. – Associated Press

Long War

Counter-terrorism experts interviewed by The Media Line say that Islamic State is exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to plan and carry out attacks against Western targets. – The Media Line

Opposition leaders in Bahrain met last week in Beirut with senior officials from Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front and the PLO, the Al-Akhbar newspaper reported. – Arutz Sheva

The ongoing trial in Paris of 14 suspects in the January 2015 terrorist attacks heard testimony on Thursday from a far-right political activist and arms trafficker whose weapons were funneled to Amedy Coulibaly, the Islamist gunman who murdered a policewoman on Jan. 8 and four people in a kosher supermarket on Jan. 9 before he was shot dead by anti-terrorist police officers. – Algemeiner