Tag Archives: Turkey

Saudi Arabia has blocked access to the online platforms of two Turkish state media outlets, as tensions continue to simmer between Riyadh and Ankara more than two years after the Saudi state-sponsored murder of a journalist in Turkey. Saudi authorities reportedly blocked the websites of Turkish Anadolu and TRT on …

Saudi Arabia and the UAE have adopted fresh measures to tackle the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic amid an uptick in the number of patients in both Persian Gulf countries. Saudi Interior Ministry announced a lockdown and a partial curfew in seven neighborhoods of the port city of Jeddah starting on …

Istanbul prosecutors said on Wednesday they had prepared an indictment against a close aide to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and a former deputy head of general intelligence over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The prosecutor’s office accused the two men of instigating Khashoggi’s murder at the …

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca confirmed on Wednesday that the first case of coronavirus was detected in Turkey. “A male citizen tested positive for the coronavirus in the evening,” Health Minister Koca said at a press conference in Ankara. “The infected individual – he added – contracted the virus after …

Syria’s war-torn northwestern Idlib province has reportedly witnessed “rare calm” following the implementation of a ceasefire agreement allowing the government to secure two strategic routes running through the province. A military source speaking to Russia’s RIA news agency on Friday said the truce, which was implemented at 00:01 am, is …

Greece will transfer migrants who arrived on its territory illegally after March 1 to the northern city of Serres and plans to deport back to their own countries, Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said late on Wednesday. Thousands of migrants have made for Greece since Ankara said on Feb. 28 …

Greek riot police and troops fired tear gas early on Wednesday at hundreds of migrants as they made another attempt to cross the border from Turkey into Greece. The air was thick with smoke on both the Greek and Turkish sides of the Kastanies border crossing, and fire engines were …

Moscow says Ankara has failed to live up to its commitments under a deal to enforce a demilitarized zone in Idlib, complaining that the Turkish military has allowed its observation posts to merge with terrorist fortifications in the northwestern Syrian province. In a statement released on Wednesday, Russian Defense Ministry …

A Turkish court on Monday remanded in custody four Iraqi nationals after they were arrested for their alleged links to Daesh/ISIS terrorist group, judicial sources said. The suspects were arrested by the provincial gendarmerie command and intelligence officials on Feb. 27 in simultaneous operations held in different parts of the …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, will hold talks this week in Moscow amid mounting tensions in Syria, Turkey’s presidency said March 2. Turkey confirmed on March 2 that it had launched a full military operation against Russian-backed Syrian forces following increasing clashes in the …

The Syrian parliament has overwhelmingly recognized the mass killings of more than 1 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire that took place a century ago, as tensions run high between Damascus and Ankara over the latter’s military campaign in Syria’s embattled northwestern province of Idlib. “The parliament… condemns and recognizes …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to target Syrian forces “everywhere” and “by any means” if Turkish troops in Syria are harmed. Erdogan issued the threat during a meeting of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party at the parliament in Ankara on Wednesday. The Syrian army and allied …

An Iraqi court has sentenced two suspects to death for the killing of a Turkish diplomat and two Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) citizens in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil. The 2nd Criminal Court in Erbil sentenced two people to death over the killing of diplomat Osman Köse and two …

At least 33 people were killed in eastern Turkey Wednesday by a second avalanche which buried a team of rescuers searching for people hit by the first the day before. The bodies of 33 rescue workers and civilians were discovered in Van province, where they had been helping dig out …

France has sent warships to the eastern Mediterranean to lend support to Greece against Turkey’s quest for energy reserves in the region, according to the Middle East Monitor news website. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who was on a visit to the French capital of Paris to gather support, has …

French President Emmanuel Macron has lambasted his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for sending warships and “mercenaries” to crisis-hit Libya, stressing that Ankara is breaching an agreement reached at a summit in Berlin earlier this month to halt foreign interference in the North African country. “These past few days we …

Authorities in Turkey have arrested at least 10 people for their alleged ties to the so-called Islamic State, security sources said. Police in Turkey’s capital Ankara “carried out raids” at specific addresses where the suspects lived, the sources said, according to state-run Anadolu Agency. “The suspects were in contact with …

Turkey has called off rescue operations in eastern areas hit by Friday’s earthquake after emergency workers recovered the body of a final person they were searching for in a collapsed building, bringing the death toll to 41, authorities say. The magnitude 6.8 quake caused 37 deaths in Elazig province, about …

The death toll from a powerful earthquake that struck eastern Turkey has risen to 31, as rescue efforts continue two days after the natural disaster. A magnitude 6.8 quake hit the small lakeside town of Sivrice, in Turkey’s Elazig Province, on Friday evening. It also affected neighboring cities. The Turkish …

At least 22 people died and hundreds were injured in eastern Turkey after an earthquake rattled the region on Friday evening, according to authorities. The 6.7-magnitude quake struck near the town of Sivrice, in eastern Elazig province, collapsing at least 10 buildings, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said. Eighteen people …