Turkey - Page 12

Members of the Armenian-American community told NBC News in a report published Tuesday that if Turkish talk show host Mehmet Oz is elected to the Senate, his election could grant Ankara a powerful ally across the planet in its campaign to deny the Armenian genocide.

The Turkish government has claimed to have stopped over 1,7000 illegal immigrants from reaching Europe in the month of March.

The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, formerly Constantinople, held its first Ramadan prayers in 88 years on Friday to mark the start of the Islamic month of fasting, after being converted into a mosque in 2020.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey told reporters Friday that joining other NATO countries in sanctioning Russia for its ongoing invasion of Ukraine was impossible because his economy is simply too dependent on Moscow.

An estimated 14,000 Russians have fled to Turkey since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last month, Turkey’s Hürriyet Daily News reported on Monday.

Turkish government authorities rejected the citizenship applications of Uyghur refugees fleeing genocide by China in occupied East Turkistan last year on the grounds they allegedly posed risks to Turkey’s “national security” or “social order,” Voice of America (VOA) reported on Wednesday.

U.S. Senate candidate and television celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz has flipped on his pledge to retain dual citizenship with Turkey.

Celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz, candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, told reporters he would forego specific security clearances provided to U.S. Senators in order to maintain his dual citizenship with Turkey.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters on Sunday Ankara “will not join the sanctions some Western countries have imposed on Russia” over its latest war with Ukraine, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declared following yet another round of failed peace talks between his country and Ukraine on Thursday that Russia had “not invaded Ukraine” and had no “plan to invade other countries.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog was greeted with pomp and ceremony at the palace of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday, marking the first time a leader from Israel has visited Ankara in nearly a decade and a half.

Baykar Defense, the Turkish company that manufactures the Bayraktar drones used to deadly effect by Ukraine’s defenders against the invading Russian army, on Tuesday anticipated booming sales across Asia for its already sizzling-hot weapon system. 

Turkey should not allow nearby Ukraine’s war with Russia to distract Ankara from its goal of regaining control over islets in the Aegean Sea disputed with Greece, Turkish journalist Hulki Tzevizoglou advised on Wednesday.

China came up about $6 billion short of the $40 billion in U.S. agricultural products it agreed to purchase in the two-year trade deal it signed in January 2020 – but suddenly began making up a bit of that deficit after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as Chinese buyers scrambled to cover potential shortfalls of Ukrainian corn.

Reports of Chechen involvement in Russia’s war on Ukraine are piquing interest among Chechens opposed to Moscow-supported warlord Ramzan Kadyrov to sign up on the Ukrainian side. Some of those vigorously anti-Russian Chechens are battle-hardened jihadi fighters from the Syrian civil war.

Turkish-made Bayraktar armed drones have proven to be a key weapon in Ukraine’s arsenal against the Russian invasion, helping the defenders take out armored vehicles, eliminate artillery positions, and disrupt supply lines.

The government of Turkey changed its view of Russia’s attack on Ukraine over the weekend, declaring the assault is “officially a war” and promising to limit the number of Russian warships that can pass through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits to enter the Black Sea.

Tensions have flared up between historic enemies Turkey and Greece following accusations that Greece is training terrorists, with four Turkish F-16 aircraft violating Greek airspace two days after the Greek coastguard fired warning shots at a Turkish vessel.

A petty article in China’s Global Times government propaganda publication celebrated the news, first shared by ESPN journalist Adrian Wojnarowski, that NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom had been traded from the Boston Celtics and has not yet landed on a new team.

Kyiv and Ankara signed a preliminary deal during bilateral talks this week to manufacture Turkish drones in Ukraine, Bloomberg reported.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will travel to Kyiv on February 3 where he will hold bilateral talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, amid recent political tension between Ukraine and Russia, Reuters reported on Monday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a press conference on Thursday that he believed a Russian invasion of Ukraine would be disastrous, and presented himself as a moderator who might be able to avert such a conflict by bringing the presidents of Russia and Ukraine together for negotiations.

SELCUK, Turkey — Black-eyed Nirvana and Mr. Isa, two male camels from the western Aydin province of Turkey and wearing colorful saddles, circled the grounds with their owners and then wrestled fiercely as thousands cheered.

The Turkish government muted its criticism of China’s horrendous abuse of the Uyghur Muslims on Wednesday, as Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu conveyed some vague “views, expectations and sensitivities” to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi but stressed Turkey’s full respect for China’s “sovereignty.”

Israel is using “killer dolphins” for espionage purposes, the Hamas terror group claimed on Monday, and went on to say that the aquatic attackers were also behind the death of a Hamas naval commando.

Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, whose country sits on the United Nations Human Rights Council, on Friday ordered his security forces – reinforced over the past few days with Russian paratroopers – to shoot demonstrators in cold blood, without warning.

EDIRNE, Turkey (AP) – Bulgarian shoppers are crossing Turkey’s western border in packed cars and buses, taking advantage of a declining Turkish lira to fuel their own shopping sprees.

At least 16 people died after a migrant boat capsized in the Aegean Sea late Friday, bringing the three-day death toll to at least 30.

Coast guard divers searched the hull of a submerged sailboat for passengers possibly trapped inside Friday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday invoked Islamic law to restate his promise to bring inflation under control without raising interest rates, even as Turkey’s economy teetered on the brink of a meltdown and its currency fell to an all-time low against the euro.

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s troubled lira nosedived Monday after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cited Muslim teachings to justify not raising interest rates to stabilise the currency.

ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described social media Saturday as one of the main threats to democracy.

A brawl broke out inside Turkey’s parliament this week after members of opposing political parties hurled insults at one another during a budget debate and the spat escalated into a melee, the Middle East Monitor reported Friday.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) accused authoritarian governments in a report published Thursday of using the Chinese coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to intensify repression, revealing that it had documented the highest number of imprisoned journalists globally for the second consecutive year in 2021.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) named China the world’s worst jailer of journalists on Thursday, the third year in a row that the host of the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics has taken the title.

(AFP) — Only a few times a year Ninos Josephides, a Greek Cypriot, is allowed to visit his home village in the Turkish-occupied part of divided Cyprus. But he can’t visit his house. It was destroyed long ago.