After Turkey recalled its ambassadors to Israel and the United States on Monday to protest the Israeli response to riots along the Gaza border fence, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Israel a “terror state” and denounced its actions as “genocide.”
ISTANBUL (AP) – Turkey’s official news agency says the chief adviser to the prime minister has been detained for alleged links to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed by the government for last summer’s coup attempt. Anadolu news agency
The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) group, led by the Kurdish YPG but boasting a variety of Arab and Christian militias, is signaling that it can capture the city of Raqqa from the Islamic State with support from the United States and pointedly without help from Turkey.
Turkish officials said that an aircraft believed to belong to the Syrian military crashed near the Turkey-Syria border Saturday, with the Syrian opposition claiming to Turkish media they were responsible for shooting the plane down.
Turkey declared a day of national mourning on Sunday, after two bombs killed 29 people and wounded 166 others in a coordinated attack on police outside a soccer stadium in Istanbul after a match between two top teams.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Turks on Friday to convert their foreign currencies into gold and lira to stimulate the country’s economy as the lira continued its slide against the dollar.
Israel’s new ambassador to Turkey arrived in the capital Ankara on Thursday, an Israeli embassy official said, to serve as the first official envoy since a six-year spat put diplomatic relations on ice.
The UN children’s fund said Saturday it was “deeply concerned” over a draft bill in Turkey which would overturn a child sex assault conviction if the offender married his victim.
ANKARA (AFP) – Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Tuesday dismissed a “red line” warning on press freedom by the European Parliament’s president following the detention of several journalists from the opposition daily Cumhuriyet.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Tuesday that Turkey is considering reinstating limited use of the death penalty if there is an agreement between political parties.
Turkey’s airstrikes against Kurdish targets north of Aleppo have not been received well by the Syrian regime. On Thursday, the Syrian Defense Ministry accused Turkey of “flagrant aggression, which targeted innocent civilians” and warned that Turkish forays into Syria are a “dangerous development that could escalate the situation.”
Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Nayef is set to travel to Ankara, Turkey, this week to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim in a sign Saudi Arabia is looking to cement its alliance with the NATO power
Turkey, which patched up strained ties with Israel and Russia, aims to normalize relations with Egypt and even rebuild ties in future with Syria, where it has launched a cross-border offensive, the prime minister said on Friday.
US Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Turkey on Wednesday for critical talks with its leadership as Ankara launched a military operation to drive Islamic State jihadists out of a key Syrian border town.
Istanbul (AFP) – Turkey wants to repair its ties with Egypt, after relations soured over the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday.
Reuters reports that Vice President Joe Biden will visit Turkey on August 24, meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, in the first visit by a high-ranking U.S. official since the failed coup attempt in July.
ISTANBUL – Turkey’s prime minister said on Saturday that Ankara could not compromise with the United States over its request for the extradition of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen which it blames for orchestrating last month’s attempted coup.
Pennsylvania-based imam Fethullah Gulen, who is one of the primary individuals blamed by the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the attempt to overthrow him, weighed in on the matter with a New York Times op-ed this week.
Turkey pushed on Saturday with a sweeping crackdown against suspected plotters of its failed coup, defiantly telling EU critics it had no choice but to root out hidden enemies.
Turkey announced the restoration of diplomatic ties with Israel on Monday after a six-year rupture and expressed regret to Russia over the downing of a warplane, seeking to mend strained alliances and ease a sense of isolation on the world stage.