Turkey

ISTANBUL (AP) — A Turkish court accepted an indictment against suspects from a religious association Thursday in a case that could have political and legal repercussions on the opposition-held Istanbul municipality.

The trial against 23 people involved with DIAYDER, which stands for Religious Scholars Mutual Aid and Solidarity Association, for purported links to outlawed Kurdish militants will begin on Feb. 18. Nine of the defendants are in pre-trial detention and some are said to work for the Istanbul municipality.

ISTANBUL, Dec 29 (Reuters) - The Turkish lira weakened for the third consecutive day on Wednesday, tumbling 5.6% and eating further into the huge gains made the previous week, as worries persisted over soaring inflation and unorthodox monetary policy.

The losses gathered pace after little initial reaction to the central bank's (CBRT) 2022 policy document, in which it said it will monitor risks related to the foreign exchange market and do what is necessary to ensure it runs smoothly.

ANKARA, Dec 26 (NNN-ANADOLU) – The COVID-19 Omicron variant started to spread in Turkey, especially in crowded provinces, and it accounts for over 10 percent of the new cases in these cities, the Turkish health minister said yesterday.

“More than 10 percent of new cases in our crowded provinces are caused by Omicron,” Health Minister, Fahrettin Koca, tweeted.

“Nothing to worry about. We have the necessary knowledge and pandemic experience,” the minister said, and underlined the need for booster doses of the vaccine.

ANKARA, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Turkey has frozen the assets of 770 individuals and a U.S.-based foundation over their alleged links to terrorist groups, according to a decision published in the country's official gazette on Friday.

The list included 454 members of the Gulen Movement, whom the Turkish government accused of being behind the failed coup on July 15, 2016.

The assets of the U.S.-based Niagara Foundation were also frozen.

ANKARA, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Turkey on Friday emphasized the necessity to preserve calm in Libya after a delay in its presidential elections, noting all aspects related to elections should be decided by the Libyans through a legal framework and on the basis of common understanding.

23 Dec 2021; MEMO: Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received a delegation of rabbis at the Presidential Complex in Ankara yesterday as part of the first annual Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States summit. The alliance was founded in 2019, by rabbis living in Muslim-majority countries to promote tolerance and coexistence.

Among the Jewish leaders present were the Chief Rabbi of Turkey, Isaak Haleva, his Russian counterpart Berel Lazar and other foreign leading rabbinic authorities.

ANKARA, December 22. /TASS/: Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan strongly rejected the possibility of holding early presidential and parliamentary elections in the country amid a record fall in the Turkish lira exchange rate.

"I declare that the elections will be held in June 2023. There will be no early elections. I am putting an end to [this issue]," the Turkish leader said speaking at a meeting of the parliamentary faction of the ruling Justice and Development Party.

According to Erdogan, the republic’s authorities "know what they are doing and where they are going."

ISTANBUL/ADDIS ABABA, Dec 22 (Reuters) - U.S. authorities have taken issue with Turkey over its sales of armed drones to Ethiopia, where two sources familiar with the matter said there was mounting evidence the government had used the weapons against rebel fighters.

Washington has "profound humanitarian concerns" over the sales, which could contravene U.S. restrictions on arms to Addis Ababa, a senior Western official said.

22 Dec 2021; MEMO: A Lebanon-based US diplomat arrested in Turkey on suspicion of selling a Syrian national a fake passport for $10,000 has been remanded in custody, Turkish police said yesterday.

The arrest was made after a 11 November incident at Istanbul airport when the Syrian national tried to use another person's passport to travel to Germany, said an Istanbul Security Directorate statement.

That passport belonged to the remanded diplomat, who works at the US Consulate in the Lebanese capital Beirut, it said.

ANKARA, Dec 21 (NNN-ANADOLU) – Turkish and Qatari companies, inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), to jointly run five airports in Afghanistan, including Kabul airport, Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu said yesterday.

A Turkish delegation travelled to Doha late yesterday, to discuss the deal for operating the Afghan capital’s airport, and later they will head to Kabul together, to have talks with the interim Afghanistan government, Cavusoglu said, at a press conference.

“We will present joint proposals to the Afghanistan interim administration,” he noted.