Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is threatening to fight the Syrian army directly if Syrian President Bashar Assad does not stop his assault on Idlib, the last major zone controlled by the Syrian opposition. While Erdogan imagined himself a master tactician, he is now learning that it was Russian President Vladimir Putin who played him. Erdogan discarded decades of alliance with the United States for a brief fling, only to discover Putin’s professions of love were for more limited aims.

The immediate reaction of Greek National Tourism Organization (EOT) and its services, inside and outside Greece, was prompted by the inclusion of a photo from the Zakynthos shipwreck beach into a German travel agent's brochure advertising a trip to Turkey under the heading "Blue Trip to Turkey".

Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias met with his Lebanese counterpart Nassif Hitti, President of Lebanon Michel Aounthe and the president of the Lebanese parliament, Nabih Berri, in Beirut on Wednesday, and after these meetings he said that "Lebanese-Greek relations are based upon solid foundations of friendship and mutual respect."