Tag Archives: turkey

Old foes Turkey and Greece will test a five-month-old friendship initiative Monday when Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visits Ankara. The two NATO members, which share decades of mutual animosity, a tense border and disputed waters, agreed to sideline disputes last December. Instead, they’re focusing on trade and energy, repairing cultural ties and a long list of other items placed …

A curator at the American Museum of Natural History was detained in Istanbul on Monday while allegedly attempting to smuggle spider and scorpion samples, Turkish media reported. The curator said he had permits from the government to conduct his research. Lorenzo Prendini, an expert on arachnids at the New York-based museum, was held by police at Istanbul Airport while allegedly …

Turkey has carried out a new round of airstrikes targeting Kurdish militants in neighboring Iraq, the Turkish defense ministry said Monday. Warplanes struck suspected positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in the regions of Hakurk, Metina and Gara in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, according to the statement. The airstrikes reportedly killed 16 militants, including some commanders, the ministry …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan formally opened a former Byzantine church in Istanbul as a mosque on Monday, four years after his government had designated it a Muslim house of prayer, despite criticism from neighboring Greece. Turkey formally converted The Church of St. Saviour in Chora, known as Kariye in Turkish, into a mosque in 2020, soon after it similarly …

Turkey reportedly cut off all trade with Israel on Thursday, the latest move in the nation’s protest against the war in Gaza. Turkey’s government, under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has yet to formally announce the move, but members of the Israeli government are already reacting to the potential fallout. Israel and Turkey traded some $6.8 billion worth of goods in …

The Netherlands’ outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte was in Turkey on Friday, seeking support from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the Dutch official’s bid for the position of NATO secretary general. Incumbent NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian prime minister who has been NATO’s top civilian official since 2014, is nearing the end of his term. His mandate …

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has accused the United States of exerting pressure on Turkey’s national airline to bar Russian citizens from flights bound to Mexico. His comments came after Moscow’s embassy in Ankara this week complained that some Russian airline passengers were being indiscriminately denied boarding while transiting on Turkish Airlines flights from Istanbul to some Latin American …

European Union auditors said on Wednesday that they are unable to establish whether some of the billions of euros the bloc has given to Turkey to help it cope with Syrian refugees is actually having any impact. Under a deal concluded between EU leaders and Turkey in 2016, the bloc committed to provide at least $6.4 billion to Turkey to …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived in Iraq on Monday for his first official visit in more than a decade as Ankara seeks greater cooperation from Baghdad in its fight against a Kurdish militant group that has a foothold in Iraq. Other issues also loom large between the two countries, including water supply and exports of oil and gas from …

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A moderately strong earthquake struck central Turkey on Thursday, the country’s disaster management agency said, causing damage to some buildings. There were no immediate reports of any deaths or serious injuries. The 5.6 magnitude quake hit in the town of Sulusaray, in Tokat province, some 450 kilometers (280 miles) east of the capital, Ankara, according to …