Ukraine said it hoped the two countries would discuss the release of prisoners and lay the ground for a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Turkey's parliament on Saturday passed a controversial bill that opens certain agricultural lands including olive groves to mining activities, local media reported, despite widespread opposition.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday accused Israel of using the Druze minority in Syria as a pretext for expanding into the war-torn country.

Baghdad, Iraq -- The Iraqi government announced Thursday an agreement to resume crude exports from the autonomous Kurdistan region after a more than two-year halt and amid drone attacks on oil fields. Lucrative oil exports have been a major point of tension between Baghdad and Arbil, with a key pipeline...

Founded in the late 1970s by Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK took up arms in 1984, beginning a string of bloody attacks on Turkish soil that sparked a conflict that cost more than 40,000 lives.

Paris, France - Europe and the Mediterranean basin has been hit by a long-lasting drought covering over 45 percent of the region since mid-March, according to AFP analysis of European Drought Observatory (EDO) data made available on Tuesday. It is the first time since data collection began in 2012 that...

Lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish DEM party were to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday for talks described by jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan as having a "historic nature".

Istanbul, Turkey - Turkey's competition authority has launched an investigation into Spotify for anti-competitive practices as a deputy minister demanded legal action over "provocative" playlists allegedly offensive to the president's wife and disrespectful of Islam. In a statement released on Friday, the competition authority said it had opened an investigation...

Britain's top diplomat David Lammy held top-level talks in Ankara Monday that touched on developments in the Middle East and stronger bilateral trade ties on his first visit to Turkey.

The Iran-Israel war has opened the way to a "new road" for the Middle East in which Turkey will have a key role to play, Washington's envoy to Turkey said Sunday.

Iran and Israel have been at war for nine days after Israel, claiming the Islamic republic was on the brink of acquiring a nuclear weapon, launched a massive wave of strikes on its arch-rival, triggering an immediate response from Tehran

Regional tensions, high-stakes defence deals, and new innovation-led collaborations defined the Middle East and North Africa landscape on Wednesday. Here’s your quick briefing:

Turkey's defence sector, including the famous Bayraktar drones, accounts for a significant share of the country's export revenues.

Trump, who wants a swift end to the three-year war, is "open" to a three-way summit "if it comes to that, but he wants both of these leaders and both sides to come to the table together", White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in Washington.

NATO member Turkey, which has strove to maintain relations with both Kyiv and Moscow, has become a key mediator amid US President Donald Trump's push for a deal to end the over three-year war.

The agreement was sealed at the presidential palace in Damascus in the presence of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and US ambassador Thomas Barrack. It aims to generate 5,000 megawatts. Syrian Energy Minister Mohammad al-Bashir called it a "historic moment" and a "turning point" for the country's shattered infrastructure.

Round and flat like a pancake, 12 centimeters (five inches) in diameter, the bread was discovered during excavations at Kulluoba, a site near the central Anatolian city of Eskisehir.

"When you try and explain peace to people, there is a very serious lack of trust," said Yuksel Genc, a former fighter with the PKK, which recently ended its decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state.

Syria's interim leader met with Turkey's president in Istanbul on Saturday, in an unannounced visit amid efforts by the new rulers in Damascus to rebuild the war-torn country.

Damascus, Syria -- Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said Thursday in Damascus that his country would ramp up energy exports to Syria to help boost electricity supplies as its neighbor seeks to recover after years of war. "We want to triple our current electricity exports to meet Syria's electricity needs,...

Turkey is deploying all-out diplomatic efforts to secure a Russia-Ukraine deal, to ease Syria's relations with the West and facilitate Iranian nuclear talks, its diplomatic standing burnished by Donald Trump's approval.

War rivals Ukraine and Russia are set to go into their first direct talks in more than three years on Thursday, with Russian President Vladimir Putin not included on the list of attendees.

Ankara, Turkey - After the decision by the Kurdish militant group PKK to disband, Turkey was eyeing Wednesday a raft of legal and technical measures to ensure its full implementation and finally end a four-decade insurgency. Monday's announcement sought to draw a line under a bloody chapter that began in...

Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed founder of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), is an icon to many Kurds but a "terrorist" to many within wider Turkish society.

Iraq welcomed Monday the Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) decision to disband and end its armed struggle against Turkey, saying it would strengthen regional stability.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday urged parties to take advantage of recent contacts to strike a deal toward peace in Ukraine, after speaking with the country's leader.

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) held a "successful" meeting this week with a view to disarming and disbanding, a Kurdish news agency close to the armed movement said on Friday.

Six months after Bashar al-Assad's fall, Turkey and Israel are both operating in Syria with starkly opposing agendas, stoking fears of a  confrontation unless they find a way to coexist.

NATO member Turkey has sought to maintain good relations with both of its Black Sea neighbors since the Russian invasion and has twice hosted talks aimed at ending the war.

Ankara, Turkey -Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel on Friday of sowing divisions in Syria in a bid to "dynamite" the "revolution" that toppled dictator Bashar al-Assad. Turkey is a key backer of Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led the rebel coalition...

The Turkish opposition will fight "until the end" against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of the opposition CHP party told AFP in an interview Wednesday, accusing the head of state of staging a "coup" with the arrest of Istanbul's opposition mayor.

The leader of Turkey's main opposition party on Sunday called for expected elections to be held "at the latest in November" following the country's most widespread unrest in a decade.

The leader of Turkey's main opposition party has called for a boycott on Wednesday to protest the detention of students rallying in support of Istanbul's jailed opposition mayor.

Istanbul, Turkey --  The Turkish opposition on Sunday worked to keep up the momentum of the protest movement triggered by the Istanbul mayor's arrest by pushing for early elections as well as his release, with a Swedish reporter the latest detained in a government crackdown. The arrest on March 19...

The protests erupted on March 19 after the arrest of Istanbul opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu as part of a graft and "terror" probe, which his supporters denounced as a "coup". Vast crowds have hit the street daily, defying protest bans in Istanbul and other big cities and the arrests.

Turkey was headed for a fourth straight night of protests late Saturday, as the biggest street unrest the country has seen in over a decade raged on over the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.

The Istanbul Bar Association's executive board was dismissed Friday on grounds of "terrorist propaganda" and "publicly spreading false information", according to a court ruling published online by a lawyers' association.

Istanbul, Turkey - Turkey's central bank on Thursday lowered its key interest rate for a third consecutive time as inflation has fallen below 40 percent for the first time since mid-2023. The monetary policy committee "decided to reduce the policy rate from 45 percent" in January to 42.5 percent, the...

Istanbul, Turkey - Outlawed Kurdish militants on Saturday declared a ceasefire with Turkey following a landmark call by jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan asking the group to disband and end more than four decades of armed struggle. It was the first reaction from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) after Ocalan...

The bank's monetary policy committee decided to reduce the policy rate from 50 percent to 47.5 percent, with a statement citing improvement in "inflation expectations and pricing behavior". The last cut was in February 2023.

Cairo, Egypt -- The leaders of Turkey and Iran were in Egypt on Thursday for a summit of eight Muslim-majority countries, meeting for the first time since the ouster of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad.Turkey historically backed the opposition to Assad, while Iran supported his rule.The gathering of the D-8 Organisation for...

Istanbul, Turkey -- Turkey's Pegasus Airlines said Thursday it would buy 200 Boeing 737 MAX 10 aircraft in its largest-ever order worth some $36 billion as it seeks to expand its service."Pegasus has signed an agreement with The Boeing Company for 200 Boeing 737-10 aircraft," the low-cost airline said in a...

Turkey's Foreign Minister warned Syria's new government to address Kurdish militancy, signaling potential intervention if unresolved with tensions rising with pro-Turkey fighters clashing against Kurdish-led forces despite a US-brokered truce.

United Nations' special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, referring to fighting between the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Turkish-backed groups who have captured several Kurdish towns in recent weeks and millions in refugees returning, said that conflict in Syria could re-emerge

The United States said Saturday it had made contact with Syria's victorious Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels, despite previously designating the group as terrorists, following Bashar al-Assad’s ouster last weekend

A meeting was expected on the forum's sidelines between Turkey, and Damascus allies Iran and Russia.

Extremist-dominated rebel alliance, including ISIS supporters, runs over Syrian city of Aleppo allegedly backed by Turkey. Russia and Iran push to keep Assad in power.

By Friday, the jihadists and their allies had taken more than 50 towns and villages in the north and entered western districts of Aleppo, a city of around two million people that was Syria's pre-war manufacturing hub.

As Israel continues to pound Gaza, Lebanon, and West Bank, Turkey's Erdogan conveys his condolences to Hamas officials over Sinwar's death and in a rare gesture Lebanon's caretaker PM Mikati rebukes Iran.

Israel attacks Lebanon killing dozens and injuring more than 100 people, while Joe Biden calls Netanyahu a "liar" and Amnesty says Israel evacuation orders are "misleading" and "inadequate".