Turkey

17 Nov 2021; MEMO: Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said on Tuesday that the two Israelis detained in Turkey last week "committed a crime of military and political espionage." The husband and wife were detained by the Turkish police after they were reported for taking photos of the presidential palace in Istanbul.

15 Nov 2021; MEMO: Turkey's central government budget balance saw a deficit of 17.4 billion Turkish liras ($1.7 billion) in October, the Treasury and Finance Ministry announced today.

This was up from 4.9 billion Turkish liras ($490 million) in the same month last year.

Turkey's budget revenues increased by 22.9 per cent year-on-year to 114 billion liras ($11.4 billion) in October.

The country's budget expenditures totaled 131.4 billion liras ($13.1 billion), up 34.6 per cent from a year ago.

15 Nov 2021; MEMO: Turkey did not reply to a request by Israel's consul to meet two Israeli citizens detained in Istanbul for allegedly spying, the Jerusalem Post reported today. The consul apparently submitted the request on Saturday for an urgent visit.

ISTANBUL, Nov 13 (Reuters) - The wife of prominent jailed Kurdish opposition figure Selahattin Demirtas has been sentenced in Turkey to 2-1/2 years in jail after being found to have provided inaccurate information over a date in a medical report, her lawyers said.

Lawyers for Basak Demirtas, 44, said she was sentenced by a court over an incorrect date on a medical report issued by a doctor in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir in 2015, which she passed to her employer while taking sick leave.

12 Nov 2021; MEMO: An Israeli couple detained in Turkey for photographing the palace of Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, are to be deported to Israel on Friday, following a court hearing in Istanbul, their lawyer told Hebrew media.

The pair, both Egged bus drivers in their 40s, were arrested after the woman filmed Erdogan's palace during a ferry ride, likely not knowing it was illegal.

They were identified by Hebrew media on Friday as Mordy and Natali Oknin, of Modiin.

12 Nov 2021; MEMO: Turkey's flights to the Belarusian capital Minsk will be reduced to zero for a limited time after a deal with Turkish Airlines to stop the flow of Middle Eastern migrants to Belarus and to stop them trying to reach Poland, the European Commission said today. Turkey also banned Syrian, Yemeni and Iraqi citizens from flights to Minsk, Reuters reports.

06 Nov 2021; MEMO: A Turkish charity has distributed food aid to some 360 needy families in Nepal, in the wake of deadly floods, an official said on Friday.

The aid was delivered to people in several villages of the eastern Morang province, Hasan Aynaci, Deputy Chair for Foreign Relations of the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), said in a statement.

06 Nov 2021; MEMO: The Turkish Coast Guard units, on Friday, rescued dozens of irregular migrants off western Izmir province after they were pushed back into Turkey's territorial waters.

According to a statement by the Coast Guard on its website, a total of 75 irregular migrants were saved amid three separate operations conducted off the districts of Cesme, Menderes, and Dikili.

They were later referred to the provincial migration office for official procedures.

05 Nov 2021; AA: Turkey’s first choice is to be in the US F-35 fighter jet program, and its exclusion from the program due to CAATSA sanctions is an unfair and unlawful practice, the country’s presidential spokesperson said Thursday.

Speaking to reporters following the opening ceremony of a fine arts university, Ibrahim Kalin touched on the decisions reached at the recent G20 summit meeting between US President Joe Biden and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

05 Nov 2021; AA: Since his elderly owner passed away last week, a loyal dog in Turkey's Black Sea region has been regularly visiting his master’s gravesite.

Omer Guven, who was 92 when he died, adopted Fero 11 years ago when he was a stray dog.

The owner’s daughter-in-law, Fatma Guven, said that  the old man and the former stray enjoyed a very close bond with each other.