Ankara, Turkey  - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday discussed over the phone with the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres the developments in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, and the ones in Syria and Sudan. Underlining the importance of the continuation of the Black Sea grain deal, Erdogan said that Turkiye...

Erdogan cut short a live television interview late on Tuesday after getting sick on air. His television appearance began more than 90 minutes behind schedule and then went to a commercial break in the middle of a question ten minutes into the show. The camera shook and the reporter asking...

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu hosted four-way talks aimed at normalizing ties between Ankara and Damascus, which were severed at the start of Syria's civil war in 2011. "Practical steps were discussed in the field of strengthening security in the Syrian Arab Republic and normalizing Syrian-Turkish relations," the Russian defense...

State media reported that police held people suspected of financing the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) or roping in new members to the group. The operation also involved suspects who transferred money to the PKK through from municipalities held by Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), report...

"We came to send a message to the whole world that with this normalization, you will gain Bashar al-Assad the criminal, and you will lose the Syrian people," said Abdel Salam Mohammed Yussef, who heads a camp for displaced people.

The facility will begin producing 10 million cubic metres of gas daily in a first phase - which Erdogan said is expected to reach 40 million cubic metres daily after other wells go into operation. Experts say 10 million cubic metres of gas per day would meet around six percent...

"We affirm our readiness to meet and talk with the Syrian government and with all Syrian parties to hold discussions and present initiatives for a solution," the Kurdish authorities said.

ISTANBUL, TURKEY -  President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's chief rival in next month's election defended Kurdish rights on Tuesday and accused the Turkish leader of inflating ethnic tensions for political gain. Kemal Kilicdaroglu's comments followed weeks of attempts by Erdogan to link the opposition with Kurdish militants who have been fighting against...

BAGHDAD, IRAQ -  Iraq's Minister of Water Resources Aoun Diab said on Sunday that the releases of the Tigris River will improve in the coming days. He also said that an invitation was extended to the Iranian Minister of Energy to attend the third Baghdad Water Conference. Diab said that...

The PKK, which Ankara and its Western allies classify as a "terrorist" organisation, operates rear bases in Iraq's north. Since 1984 the PKK has waged an insurgency in Turkey that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, and Ankara has long maintained military positions inside northern Iraq where it regularly...

Major cloud service providers such as Microsoft, Tencent Cloud, Oracle, Amazon Web Services, and Alibaba Cloud are establishing local cloud regions. 

Russia delivered a new warning to the West over a grain deal with Ukraine, saying a number of conditions must be met for Moscow to extend it beyond May 18. Negotiated in July by Turkey and the United Nations, the agreement has given Ukrainian grain shipments a safe corridor in...

Tunisia's Saied had said last month he planned to restore diplomatic relations with Syria. Tunisia expelled Syria's ambassador in 2012 over the government's repression of peaceful protesters that triggered more than a decade of civil war which has killed around half a million people and displaced millions more since 2011.

It's raining peace in the Arab world. Saudi Arabia has taken lead in normalizing ties with countries such as Turkey, Iran and Syria in the past few months.

BAGHDAD, IRAQ - Iraqi President Abdel Latif Rashid condemned Turkey on Saturday for bombarding an area near Sulaimaniyah airport in the autonomous Kurdish region, a flashpoint between the two governments. "Turkish military operations against the Kurdistan region continue to take place, the last being the bombardment (Friday) against Sulaimaniyah civilian airport,"...

Sleeping troubles, fear of spending time indoors and profound fear of the mountains are some of the symptoms survivors in Turkey are showing two months after the quake.

The Russian foreign ministry said Lavrov, who last visited Turkey in June, will discuss the grain deal, which Moscow says it extended "as a gesture of goodwill for another 60 days". Turkey is pushing for a 120-day extension in compliance with the original agreement, which was negotiated by Ankara and...

Condemning the storming of Al-Aqsa mosque by Israeli forces and the beating of worshippers inside, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan termed it as crossing a "red line." He said that Turkey cannot stay silent in the face of these attacks. He was speaking during a dinner for those breaking daytime...

The deal, thrashed out in talks between federal and regional officials, spells the end of independent oil exports by the Kurdish regional government and marks a clear limit to its autonomy.

Analysts warn that the economy may start heating up as the government rebuilds huge swaths of Turkey's southeast that were hit by a massive earthquake in February in which more than 50,000 people died. Erdogan, who will try to extend his rule into a third decade in the May 14...

Ankara, Turkey--Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday pledged to rebuild the country's southern region devastated by powerful earthquakes on 6th February, claiming the lives of more than 50,000 people. "Our aim is to restore our cities in the earthquake zone by handing over 319,000 residences and village houses to...

Spelling the end of independent oil exports by the regional government, Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region will resume oil exports through Turkey on Monday, but in the future they will be supervised by the federal government in Baghdad. The outcome was achieved in talks between federal and regional officials.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met with his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad in Cairo, a first since Syria's civil war broke out over a decade ago, Shoukry's office said. The meeting comes amid amplified Arab engagement with the Damascus government which has been politically isolated in the region since the...

Athens, Greece--Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday called on the European Union to "seriously consider" providing financial aid to help extend an anti-migrant steel fence along the border with Turkey. "I think it's about time for the EU to seriously consider providing European funds for these types of projects," the...

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said initial assessments in Turkey revealed "severe damage to agriculture, including crops, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture, as well as rural infrastructure in affected areas". It said more than one-third of the population in the hardest-hit areas relied on agriculture to survive.

Two weeks after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan publicly backed its bid, Turkish lawmakers unanimously supported Finland's membership of the US-led defense alliance after the Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Turkey was the final NATO nation to ratify the Nordic country's accession, which NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said will make the "NATO...

Finland and its neighbour Sweden ended decades of military non-alignment and decided to join NATO last May. Their applications were accepted at a June alliance summit but the bids still needed to be ratified by all the members' parliaments -- a process that stalled with Turkey and Hungary.

Ankara,Turkey - Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu discussed during a phone call with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres the deal to ship grain across the Black Sea.. Last week Turkey announced the extension of the deal that has allowed exports of Ukrainian grain to resume following Russia's invasion, but it was...

The Iraqi oil ministry said that Turkey stopped oil exports from Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on Saturday in the wake of arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce. It said that Baghdad's claims had been accepted in a dispute with Ankara over who had responsiblity for exporting the autonomous region's...

Six disparate parties have built an anti-Erdogan alliance and -- after a year-long debate -- rallied around the candidacy of secular CHP party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the May 14 vote. Most agree that anyone trying to single-handedly defeat Erdogan will not only fail but also hurt the opposition alliance.

Mohammed bin Salman has also worked to mend rifts with regional rivals like Qatar and Turkey, and even offered up the Gulf kingdom as a possible mediator for the war in Ukraine.

Washington, United States--Syria's economy is expected to contract 2.3% more than it otherwise would have due to the impact of last month's deadly earthquakes, the World Bank said on Monday. The earthquake and its aftershocks killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey and Syria, and displaced millions more. "The recent earthquake...

Brussels, Belgium--The European Investment Bank today pledged $535 million in earthquake reconstruction and recovery package for Turkey and Syria at the donors’ conference convened in Brussels by the European Commission and Swedish Presidency of the European Council. The EUR 500 million support from EIB Global, part of broader European Union...

Aid groups urged donors to step up their commitments after the UN complained of the poor level of response to a call it made in mid-February for urgent funding. The International Rescue Committee said they should at least ensure that the UN's emergency appeal for $1bn for Turkey and $397m...

BAGHDAD, IRAQ - Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani will visit Turkey on Tuesday for talks including on scarce water resources and the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a government source said. Sudani is set to meet Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his first visit to Iraq's northern neighbor since...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia--Saudi Arabia and Turkey have signed three agreements in the industrial sector during the Turkish Export Products Trade Fair in Riyadh. Saudi Minister of Commerce, who is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the General Authority for Foreign Trade, Dr. Majid bin Abdullah Al-Qasabi, met here...

Abu Dhabi, which normalized relations with Assad's government in 2018, has led aid efforts in the aftermath of the February 6 earthquake that struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria, killing tens of thousands. A diplomatic momentum generated by aid efforts in the quake's aftermath could bolster Damascus's relations with Middle...

"Canada is committed to providing relief to those impacted by the devastating earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria," said Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.

Turkey announced the extension of a deal that has allowed exports of Ukrainian grain to resume following Russia's invasion, but it was unclear if it had been prolonged for 60 or 120 days. Russia said it had agreed to a 60-day extension, while Ukraine's infrastructure minister said the deal had...

Turkey's top diplomat said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi would meet to mark the end of a decade of estrangement between the two countries. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, speaking alongside his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry during a visit to Cairo, said Ankara wanted to...

Ankara, Turkey--Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ended months of diplomatically charged delays on Friday and asked parliament to quickly back Finland's bid to join NATO. A simultaneous decision by fellow holdout Hungary to schedule a Finnish ratification vote for March 27 means the US-led defence alliance will likely grow to 31...

It follows a visit last month by Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry to Turkey in a show of solidarity after the devastating earthquake that claimed tens of thousands of lives in Turkey and neighboring Syria. Relations ran into trouble after the 2013 ouster of Egypt's Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, an...

The Syrian leader, who arrived in Moscow on Tuesday, demanded that Turkey end its "support for terrorism" alongside a withdrawal, a reference to rebel groups that control regions of northern Syria and oppose Damascus. "This is the only way in which my meeting with Erdogan could take place," Assad was...

Consultations to prolong Ukrainian grain exports deal are continuing, the UN said, after a Russian proposal for just a 60-day extension cast doubt over its fate. "The United Nations will do everything possible to preserve the integrity of the agreement and ensure its continuity," Jens Laerke, spokesman for the United...

Istanbul, Turkey - Turkey's current account deficit increased to $9.85 billion in January, the highest monthly deficit since 1984, the first year for which such a record is available, according to figures from the central bank released on Monday. The increase was caused by a rising energy cost and imports...

Russia has agreed to extend the Ukraine grain export deal following talks with the United Nations - but only for a further 60 days. Moscow said it wanted to see "tangible progress" on a parallel agreement on Russian exports before the deal comes up for renewal again.

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) president Filippo Grandi concluded a five-day visit to earthquake-devastated areas of Syria and Turkey. He visited survivors, affected people and humanitarian staff working at the ground. The earthquake has claimed 54,000 lives in the two countries and caused massive destruction...

TEHRAN, IRAN - Iran's judiciary on Sunday confirmed a death sentence for a Swedish-Iranian dissident for "terrorism" over two years since his disappearance at an airport in Turkey, the judiciary's Mizan Online website reported. Habib Chaab has been held in Iran since October 2020 after he vanished during a visit to...

More than 50 boys aged 11-17, some with parents hailing from Britain, France, Germany or the United States, live at the heavily guarded Orkesh rehabilitation center near the city of Qamishli, close to the Turkish border. Opened six months ago, it is the first facility seeking to rehabilitate foreign boys in...

Erdogan banned music from his campaign as he signed a decree on national television that kics off campaigning for what is widely seen as Turkey's most consequential vote of its pos-Ottoman history.