Turkey - Page 12

Armenia on Sunday observed the 108th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide with a procession of 10,000 torchbearers marching through the capital city of Yerevan.

Turkish opposition presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu canceled several upcoming campaign events this weekend after a mob of supporters of Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attacked his convoy.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov threatened to abandon a landmark grain deal with Ukraine if obstacles to Moscow’s exports remained.

Greece’s prime minister promised Friday to extend an existing wall across all of the country’s land border with Turkey as he campaigned for the country’s general election.

Swedish lawmakers voted in favour of Sweden joining NATO, signing off on the country’s membership along with the required legislation.

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.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has declared war on people smugglers pushing illegal migration, promising prison terms of up to 30 years.

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

Turkey’s fractious opposition parties united on Monday behind a single candidate, Kemal Kilicdaroglu of the Republican People’s Party (CHP).

Finland’s Parliament gave final approval to the bid to join NATO, with lawmakers signing off on membership and the required legislation.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan apologized on Monday to victims of this month’s series of earthquakes in the east of the country, conceding that emergency services were initially slow and vowing that his government would improve its performance.

The death toll from the massive earthquake that hit parts of Turkey and Syria on Feb. 6 continues to rise as more bodies are retrieved from the rubble of demolished buildings.

Journalists in Turkey, attempting to document or comment on the aftermath of a series of severe earthquakes that began on February 6, are facing both the hanging threat of government abuse and attacks from devastated earthquake victims, robbers, and assorted militias, multiple reports revealed on Tuesday.

At least six more deaths were reported by Turkish officials from Monday’s magnitude 6.4 earthquake in Hatay province, plus two deaths in Syria reported by the White Helmets civil defense organization.

The death toll rose to eight in a new and powerful earthquake that struck two weeks after a devastating temblor killed nearly 45,000.

An earthquake of magnitude 6.3 struck the Turkey-Syria border region on Monday afternoon, causing further damage in areas that were devastated by the more powerful quakes of two weeks ago

Police in the Swedish city of Stockholm have imposed an indefinite ban on granting permission for protests involving the burnings of the Islamic Qur’an, supposedly due to concerns over threats to Swedish security.

MUNICH (AP) — Finland’s defence minister said Saturday that his country will join NATO without waiting for Sweden if its Nordic neighbour’s accession is held up by the Turkish government.

A group of hackers linked to Sudan took credit for denial of service (DDoS) attacks on the websites of Swedish rail companies in revenge for burnings of the Islamic Qur’an.

Christian Atsu, the Ghana international forward who played for Premier League clubs Chelsea and Newcastle, has died in the earthquake in Turkey. He was 31.

A Turkish charity organization filed a criminal complaint on Friday in the name of orphans and lost children it claimed have been victims of human trafficking in the wake of the devastating earthquake that hit the country and Syria on February 6.

Authorities in Turkey revealed on Thursday that they had identified 613 people “accused of making provocative posts” on social media related to the devastating earthquake that hit that country this week, arresting 78 and starting legal actions against nearly 300.

Erzin, Hatay province, a town of about 40,000 people, experienced no deaths, injuries, or building collapses despite being in the heart of earthquake-devastated east Turkey and continues to operate in a relatively normal state as of Wednesday.

An 18-year-old was rescued Tuesday from beneath rubble in Adiyaman, Turkey, nearly 200 hours after devastating earthquakes.

The famed Syrian civil defense organization known as the White Helmets on Tuesday condemned the United Nations for its “shocking” decision to work with dictator Bashar Assad on earthquake relief.

A former deputy prime minister of Turkey and longtime ally to Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested on Monday that the nation should consider delaying this year’s presidential election in light of the country struggling to deal with the fallout from last week’s series of massive earthquakes.

The United Nations said on Sunday that disaster relief for quake-ravaged towns in Syria is being held up by a “hardline group” that refuses to allow aid convoys from government-controlled areas to enter its turf. The group in question soon revealed itself to be Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the rebranded Nusra Front, which was itself an offshoot of al-Qaeda.

Authorities in Turkey are struggling to house the thousands of people left destitute after a series of massive earthquakes in the country last week, rushing to build tents and transfer earthquake victims to shelters a week later.

The head of a mosque in the Swedish city of Gothenburg has called for a law to ban the destruction of holy books and texts in the aftermath of the burnings of the Islamic Qur’an.

Turkish officials have detained 130 people allegedly involved in illegal construction methods as rescuers on Sunday looked to extricate more survivors of last week’s devastating earthquakes now estimated to have claimed more than 33,000 lives.

Germany is using the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria as an excuse to weaken border controls, vowing to allow in many more migrants said to be fleeing the crisis.

The Finnish president said in an interview published Saturday that he trusts that Finland and Sweden will be admitted into NATO by July, and hinted that he wants the United States to put pressure on Turkey to approve their membership bids.

Bulgarian border guards have been accused of pushing back and even beating illegal immigrants by open borders activists and others, but the Bulgarian authorities deny any abuses have taken place.

The Turkish government pledged this week to investigate reports of negligent construction and maintenance in many of the buildings destroyed by Monday’s powerful earthquakes, whose death toll has now surpassed 22,000.