“President Trump had been calling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s bluff for more than 2 years, and some senior administration officials thought Erdoğan would never actually go through with his long-threatened Syria invasion,” Axios reports.

“Trump would tell Erdoğan that if he wanted to invade Syria he would have to own whatever mess ensued… Erdoğan would have to take care of ISIS and manage international condemnation, trouble from Capitol Hill, and the quagmire with the Kurds. And when Trump put it in such stark terms to Erdoğan, the Turkish leader would demur. Until last Sunday, that is, when he told Trump he was moving ahead with the invasion of northern Syria.”

“This time, Erdoğan called Trump’s bluff, having waited for international forces to wipe out the ISIS caliphate.”

Authorities in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, have renamed the street where the new U.S. embassy is being built “Malcolm X Avenue,” after the civil rights leader, the Guardian reports.

“The move coincides with a period of fraught relations between Turkey and the US and comes after other politically charged name changes to streets in Ankara.”

“The White House expects North Carolina pastor Andrew Brunson to be released by the Turkish government and returned to the U.S. in coming days, two years after he was detained,” NBC News reports.

“Under an agreement senior Trump administration officials recently reached with Turkey, Brunson is supposed to be released after certain charges against him are dropped at his next court hearing, currently scheduled for Friday.”

“The Turkish government expanded its crackdown on dissent and free expression over the weekend, purging nearly 4,000 more public officials, blocking access to Wikipedia and banning television matchmaking shows,” the New York Times reports.

“The crackdown has also affected leftists, liberals and members of the secular opposition across most sections of public life, many of whom have long voiced their opposition to the Gulen movement. Those in jail or out of a job include academics, public transport employees, teachers and at least 120 journalists — more than in any other country in the world.”

President Trump “called to congratulate Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday after a referendum greatly expanding his powers… despite a more circumspect State Department response to Sunday’s vote, which international election observers declared unfair,” the Washington Post reports.