Istanbul

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP suffered their worst defeat in more than twenty years in local elections.

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s shooting at a Roman Catholic church in Istanbul, marking the first ISIS attack in Turkey since 2017.

Two masked assailants attacked a Roman Catholic church in Istanbul during Sunday services, killing one person, Turkish officials said.

Angry mobs throughout the Middle East and North Africa targeted Israeli, American, French, and other Western embassies on Tuesday night.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday bumped the June presidential election ahead to May 14, ostensibly to avoid conflicting with the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca and university entrance exams.

Thousands of women in Turkey defied an official ban to hold an International Women’s Day march in Istanbul on Wednesday.

Turkey for a second day on Friday railed against a group of Western countries that temporarily shut their consulates in Istanbul.

A bomb exploded on a major pedestrian avenue in the heart of Istanbul on Sunday, killing six people and wounding dozens more.

Satellite photos analyzed by the Associated Press on Tuesday revealed the much-celebrated first shipment of grain to leave Ukraine under a deal with its Russian invaders, officially bound for starving Lebanon, wound up in Syria instead.

The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, formerly Constantinople, held its first Ramadan prayers in 88 years on Friday to mark the start of the Islamic month of fasting, after being converted into a mosque in 2020.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew called on Christians Sunday to “fervent prayer with all our hearts for the preservation of peace in Ukraine.”

Turkish authorities detained Samir Handal, a “person of great interest” for his alleged connection to the July 7 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, on Sunday at Istanbul Airport, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported Tuesday.

Istanbul police arrested about 20 people gathered in the city’s Taksim Square on Saturday to participate in the city’s annual LGBT pride event, which was once the largest such event in the Muslim world, Euro News reported on Sunday.

The Turkish Interior Ministry announced on Tuesday that it had opened an investigation into Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu for allegedly disrespecting an Ottoman sultan’s tomb, Turkish news outlet Ahval reported.

ISTANBUL — Turkey withdrew early Saturday from a landmark European treaty protecting women from violence that it was the first country to sign 10 years ago and which bears the name of its largest city.

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey took offense at a U.S. statement that said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would promote religious freedom during an upcoming visit to Istanbul and called Wednesday on Washington to focus on racism and hate crimes in the United States instead.

The Greek Orthodox Church of the United States petitioned the United Nations on Tuesday to force Turkey into protecting Orthodox Christianity’s cultural heritage following the Turkish government’s unilateral decision to convert Istanbul’s landmark former cathedral Hagia Sophia into a mosque.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has ordered that a second ancient Christian church be turned into a fully functioning mosque, just one month after a similar decision to convert Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia for Muslim worship.

Over 30 suspected Russian mercenaries detained in Belarus last week were passing through the country en route to Latin America, a Russian diplomat said on Monday.

Thousands of Muslim faithful gathered outside the historic Hagia Sophia site in Istanbul on Friday ready for the first prayers since Turkish authorities ruled the building’s rich Christian heritage could be overturned and the building reconverted into a mosque.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has invited Pope Francis to visit Hagia Sophia, which will revert to being a full-time mosque on July 24.

A majority of Greeks have expressed dissatisfaction with the international response to the Turkish regime announcing it would be converting the Hagia Sophia into a mosque.

Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Ministry says it is setting up “a new museum” to house the Hagia Sophia’s “portable icons and Holy relics” indicating that the former cathedral’s Christian relics and iconography will be removed from the site, the Greek City Times reported Friday.

An Istanbul court on Monday sentenced three Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists to over 1,000 years in prison each for allegedly perpetrating a 2016 terror attack that killed 12 people, including six police officers, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) reported on Tuesday.

Pope Francis on Sunday expressed his dismay at Turkey’s decision to make Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia museum a mosque, joining a growing list of religious and political leaders to condemn the move.

The ancient cathedral of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul – the former seat of eastern Christianity – could now be dedicated to use as a mosque after Turkey’s high court on Friday ruled its conversion into a museum in 1934 was unlawful.

Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas has come out against the proposal from Turkey to convert Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia back into a mosque, saying such a move would strain relations between Christians and Turkey.

ISTANBUL — In its more than 1,400-year existence, the majestic domed structure of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul has served as the Byzantine Empire’s main cathedral, a mosque under the Ottoman Empire and a museum under modern Turkey, attracting millions of tourists each year.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is once again exploring ways to convert the Hagia Sophia Museum in Istanbul into a mosque, Kurdish news agency Rudaw reported on Tuesday.

Istanbul — Turkish people aged 65 and over on Sunday described their joy after the government allowed them to go outside for the first time in nearly two months in an easing of the coronavirus restrictions.

Istanbul — At the entrance of an Istanbul mosque, the racks usually reserved for the shoes of the faithful are loaded with pasta packages, oil bottles, biscuits — like a supermarket.

ISTANBUL — Turkey introduced a lockdown over the weekend that took many by surprise, since the country had previously adopted a more relaxed approach to fighting the coronavirus than its neighbors in Europe and the Mideast.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is under increasing pressure to impose a full lockdown as coronavirus cases mount in his country.

Istanbul — Turkey stepped up controls Saturday on crowded public spaces including markets and ferries in Istanbul, a day after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan imposed the use of face masks to curb the coronavirus outbreak.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced he will be hosting a migration summit with French and German, but not Greek leaders

A Saudi court sentenced five people to death on Monday for the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018.