Turkey

14 July 2023; MEMO: Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Friday, voiced hope that the parties to the Black Sea grain deal will extend the agreement set to expire on Monday, Anadolu Agency reports.

"We are preparing to host (Russian President Vladimir) Putin in Turkiye in August. We are of the same mind on the extension of the Black Sea grain corridor.

ISTANBUL, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Turkish police launched a counter-terror operation against alleged members of the Islamic State (IS) group and detained more than two dozen suspects, the local NTV broadcaster reported on Friday.

The police raided 15 hideouts of the suspects in the districts of Basaksehir, Esenyurt, and Beylikduzu in Istanbul, and detained 28 foreign suspects, without revealing specific countries of origin.

ANKARA, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Turkish lawmakers would make the right decision on Sweden's NATO bid in line with Türkiye's interests, semi-official Anadolu Agency reported Thursday.

"Our parliament will ... make the right decision in line with the interests of our country," Erdogan said when returning from the NATO summit held in Lithuania's capital Vilnius on July 11-12.

Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership in February 2022. Türkiye finally approved Finland's bid in March this year but has not yet ratified Sweden's.

11 July 2023; MEMO: Washington will move ahead with the transfer of F-16 fighter jets to Turkiye in consultation with Congress, US National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Tuesday, a day after Ankara gave the green light for Sweden to join NATO, Reuters reports.

ISTANBUL/WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden expressed a desire to see Sweden join NATO "as soon as possible" in a phone call with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in which they discussed Sweden's bid to become a member of the Western alliance, the White House said on Sunday.

Turkey, along with Hungary, has been a stumbling block to Sweden's bid, which requires unanimous approval by all NATO members.

06 July 2023; MEMO: A father and his two sons were arrested on Tuesday at Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen International Airport after attempting to stop a plane from taking off by jumping on the tarmac and getting onto the luggage cart.

07 July 2023; MEMO: Turkiye expects Gulf countries to make direct investments of about $10 billion initially in domestic assets as part of President Tayyip Erdogan's trip to the region in two weeks, according to two senior Turkish officials, Reuters reports.

According to the report, Erdogan is scheduled to visit leaders in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on 17-19 July, in part to drum up foreign funding that would boost Turkiye's strained economy after his re-election in May.

ISTANBUL, July 7 (Xinhua) -- The police have tightened the crackdown on undocumented immigrants in Istanbul, Türkiye's largest city, arresting 1,615 individuals over the last three days, local media reported Friday.

The police have carried out massive raids in several neighborhoods, including Esenyurt, Fatih, and Zeytinburnu, where illegal immigrants were found highly concentrated, the Hurriyet newspaper reported.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Egypt and Turkey took a further step toward restoring full diplomatic ties on Tuesday by dispatching ambassadors for the first time in years, the latest step in the reconciliation between the two regional powers.

In a joint statement, the two countries announced the appointment of Salih Mutlu Sen as Turkish ambassador to Cairo and of Amr Elhamamy as the Egyptian ambassador to Ankara.

30 June 2023; MEMO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday slammed Sweden after it allowed a copy of the Quran to be burnt in Stockholm and said Ankara would never bow down to a policy of provocation or threat, Reuters reported.

"We will teach the arrogant Western people that it is not freedom of expression to insult the sacred values of Muslims," he told party members on the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha.