The foreign minister’s visits to Mali, Senegal and Niger leverage colonial-era hurts to pave the way for Turkey’s investment in francophone Africa
This year, an unprecedented fiscal crunch caused by low oil prices forced the government to suspend infrastructure investments. But new dams alone won’t save Iraq’s waterways, experts warn.
The two countries are in disagreement over the Syria conflict and over the fate of Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen
The Russian foreign ministry confirmed the death of envoy Andrei Karlov, which marked one of the most serious spillovers of the Syria conflict.
A court in Turkey has begun a trial against Sarah Ferguson for allegedly taking part in the secret filming of orphanages in the country.
Turkey told Israel that it would "suffer the consequences" after activists were killed when Israeli commandos boarded a convoy of aid ships.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s claim of personal success in sealing Russian-Turkish energy deals was exaggerated, Turkey said on Friday.
Turkey’s top court decided on Monday to put the Islamist-rooted ruling party on trial for alleged anti-secular activity, in a case that could threaten national stability and Ankara’s bid to join the European Union. The judges of the Constitutional Court agreed to accept the indictment against the Justice and Development Party filed by the country’s top prosecutor.
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/ 29 February 2008
All Turkish troops involved in a major ground offensive against Kurdish rebels inside northern Iraq have withdrawn to Turkey, Iraq’s foreign minister said on Friday. Turkey sent thousands of troops into remote, mountainous northern Iraq on February 21 to crush rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
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/ 28 February 2008
United States President George Bush urged Nato ally Turkey on Thursday to end its offensive against Kurdish PKK rebels in northern Iraq quickly, but Washington said it would not threaten to withdraw intelligence help. The United States fears prolonging the Turkish operation, which began on February 21, will undermine stability in the region.
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/ 28 February 2008
The Turkish army will remain in northern Iraq ”as long as necessary”, Turkish Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul said on Thursday, refusing to give a timetable for a troop withdrawal. ”Turkey will remain in northern Iraq as long as necessary,” Gonul told reporters after talks with United States Defence Secretary Robert Gates.
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/ 22 February 2008
Turkish troops have crossed into northern Iraq in their hunt for Kurdish PKK guerrillas, the military said on Friday, but the United States and the European Union urged Ankara to keep the campaign limited. The White House said the US had been informed in advance of the incursion and urged Turkey to limit the operation to ”precise targeting” of the PKK rebels.
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/ 9 February 2008
Turkish lawmakers were set to lift a ban on Islamic headscarves at universities on Saturday, as tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest the move as a threat to secularism. In separate votes, an overwhelming majority of lawmakers approved two constitutional amendments that would together lift the on-campus ban.
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/ 3 February 2008
About 125 000 flag-waving Turks, mostly women, denounced the Islamic-rooted government on Saturday over its plans to lift a decades-old ban on Islamic head scarves in universities — a move the foreign minister said would expand Turkish freedoms.
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/ 10 December 2007
At least 51 people drowned off the Turkish coast in one of three incidents that left at least 90 other hopeful migrants to Europe missing or presumed dead, officials said on Monday. As many as 85 people may have been aboard a 15m boat that capsized on Saturday in the Aegean Sea off the western Turkish town of Seferihisar, near Izmir.
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/ 10 December 2007
Thirty-one illegal immigrants drowned when their boat sank on the weekend in the Aegean Sea off western Turkey while trying to reach Greece, a local official said on Monday. An earlier death toll had stood at 20 people. Six other immigrants were rescued overnight off the town of Seferihisar near the city of Izmir.
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/ 1 December 2007
Turkey’s army said it entered northern Iraq on Saturday to tackle up a group of up to 60 Kurdish rebels, a day after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s Cabinet authorised a cross-border operation against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). It was not clear whether the incursion was a major operation by Nato member Turkey aimed at destroying bases of the PKK.
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/ 30 November 2007
Turkey’s prime minister said on Friday his Cabinet had authorised the armed forces to conduct a cross-border operation against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, but analysts said major action did not appear imminent. Tayyip Erdogan’s comments seemed chiefly designed to keep up pressure on United States and Iraqi forces to honour pledges to tackle the rebels.
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/ 30 November 2007
A Turkish airliner crashed near the town of Isparta in central Turkey on Friday, killing all 56 people on board, officials said. ”Rescue teams have reached the wreckage … There are no survivors,” the chief executive of the AtlasJet airline, Tuncay Doganer, told a televised news conference.
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/ 4 November 2007
Eight Turkish soldiers, kidnapped last month in an ambush by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, were released in northern Iraq, a PKK official said on Sunday. The release of the soldiers came a day after the Iraqi government vowed to hunt down Kurdish guerrilla leaders responsible for cross-border raids into Turkey.
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/ 2 November 2007
Turkey wants action and not words in dealing with Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said on Friday during a joint press conference with United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. ”We are where words have come to an end and action must begin,” Babacan said following talks with Rice on the threat posed by fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
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/ 1 November 2007
Turkey on Thursday stepped up pressure on northern Iraq, imposing economic sanctions over the safe haven Kurdish rebels enjoy, as Washington said it was supplying Ankara with intelligence on the separatists’ positions. "We have prepared a list of economic measures targeting the financial resources of the terrorist organisation," Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said.
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/ 31 October 2007
The Turkish army on Wednesday said it killed 15 Kurdish separatists near the Iraqi border, as ministers discussed possible economic sanctions against Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish government. The latest fighting took place in the Cudi Mountains in Sirnak province, where helicopters and artillery have been pounding Kurdish rebels since Monday.
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/ 29 October 2007
Helicopter gunships went into action against rebel Kurds in eastern Turkey on Monday while the government flexed its military muscle with massive national day parades and flypasts in major cities. Turkey has massed up to 100 000 troops, backed by tanks, artillery, war planes and combat helicopters, along the Iraqi border.
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/ 27 October 2007
Turkey on Friday rejected Iraqi proposals to stop Kurdish rebels making cross-border attacks as too little, too late and said it remained in a "constant state of alert". A visit for crisis talks to Ankara by a high-ranking Iraqi delegation led by its defence and national security ministers was "a positive effort", the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
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/ 25 October 2007
President Abdullah Gul warned Kurdish rebels on Thursday that Turkey’s patience is running out after Turkish forces said they repelled a guerrilla attack near the Iraqi border. Ankara has massed up to 100 000 troops along the mountainous border before a possible cross-border operation.
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/ 17 October 2007
The Turkish Parliament Wednesday voted to allow military strikes against Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq, despite stiff United States opposition and appeals from Baghdad for time to purge the rebels. A government motion seeking a one-year authorisation for one or more incursions into Iraq was approved.
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/ 16 October 2007
Turkey on Tuesday accused Washington of playing "petty" politics and threatened reprisals if the United States Congress votes on a motion branding the World War I massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks an act of genocide. "We see that common sense is gradually losing ground to petty political calculations," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
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/ 12 October 2007
A diplomatic rift between Turkey and the United States deepened on Friday after Ankara recalled its ambassador to Washington over a vote in the US Congress to label the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks an act of genocide. The envoy’s recall came as the White House sought to mollify its Nato partner.
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/ 11 September 2007
Turkish police foiled a bomb attack in the capital, Ankara, on Tuesday, the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 al-Qaeda attacks on the United States. Ankara’s governor Kemal Onal said police had found a van packed with explosives near a multi-storey carpark in a central district of the city of four million.
Turkish internet users have been blocked from accessing sites on the Wordpress.com hosting service. A court in Istanbul ordered the website be blocked after lawyers complained that a number of blogs hosted by Wordpress were libellous of Islamic creationist author Adnan Oktar.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan celebrated on Monday a decisive poll victory but now faces challenges over delayed presidential elections, Kurdish separatist violence and Ankara’s troubled European Union bid. His AK Party boosted its share of the vote in Sunday’s parliamentary elections to 46,5%