Turkey

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee gave its consent to Sweden’s bid to join NATO on Tuesday, drawing the previously nonaligned Nordic country closer to membership in the Western military alliance.

Sweden’s accession protocol will now need to be approved in the Turkish parliament’s general assembly for the last stage of the legislative process in Turkey. No date has been set.

ISTANBUL, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Turkish police on Friday arrested 304 people over their suspected links to the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in an operation that targeted 32 cities.

In a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Yerlikaya said 86 out of the 304 suspects were detained in Istanbul and 20 in the western city of Izmir in the operation codenamed HEROES-34.

ANKARA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi called for intensifying efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, Erdogan's office said in a statement on Wednesday.

In a phone conversation, the two leaders talked about "Israel's attacks on Palestinian territory and efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza," according to the statement.

ANKARA, Dec 14 (Reuters) - An opposition Turkish lawmaker died on Thursday, two days after suffering a heart attack and collapsing in front of parliament as he finished a speech criticising the government's policy toward Israel.

Hasan Bitmez, 54, a member of parliament from the opposition Felicity (Saadet) Party, died in Ankara City Hospital, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca told reporters in televised remarks.

ANKARA, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- Türkiye's Akkuyu Nuclear Company announced Tuesday that it had received permission from Turkish authorities to commission the first power unit of the country's first nuclear power plant being built by Russia.

With the permission, the start-up, adjustment and operation processes, which are the final phase of the construction of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, can be started, according to a statement from the company.

ISTANBUL, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday called for the United Nations Security Council to be reformed, decrying the fact that the United States could veto a ceasefire proposal for Gaza despite huge support from other countries.

"The United Nations Security Council demand for ceasefire is rejected only by U.S. veto. Is this justice?," Erdogan said in a human rights conference in Istanbul.

"The U.N. Security Council needs to be reformed," he added.

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used a speech on human rights Saturday to accuse the West of “barbarism” for its stance on the Israel-Hamas war and what he alleged was its toleration of Islamophobia.

“Israel has carried out atrocities and massacres that will shame the whole of humanity,” Erdogan told a packed hall in Istanbul the day before the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

ANKARA, December 6. /TASS/: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is balancing on the verge of collapse, something that he may indicate any time soon, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

ANKARA, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Turkey rejects plans to establish a post-war buffer zone in Gaza because it would be disrespectful to Palestinians, President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

Reuters reported last week that Israel had conveyed plans for the buffer zone to several Arab states and Turkey.

Speaking to reporters on a flight from Doha, Erdogan said Gaza's governance and future after the war would be decided by Palestinians alone.

5 December 2023; MEMO: Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan, said on Monday that Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, would eventually be tried as a war criminal over Israel’s ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip, while slamming Western countries supporting Israel, Reuters reports.