Turkey

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Two opposing visions for Turkey’s future are on the ballot when voters return to the polls Sunday for a runoff presidential election that will decide between an increasingly authoritarian incumbent and a challenger who has pledged to restore democracy.

25 May 2023; MEMO: Turkish exports to Saudi Arabia amounted to $780.5 million in the first four months of the year, making up about one per cent of the country's total exports according to Anadolu Agency, which cited data by the Turkish Exporters Council.

Saudi is 22nd largest importer of Turkish goods.

Carpets topped the Turkish products exported to Saudi Arabia, at $109 million, followed by grains and legumes at $81 million, then chemicals at $77 million.

25 May 2023; MEMO: As part of racist electoral campaigns being witnessed in Turkiye ahead of Sunday's presidential election, Gacrux Game Studio launched the Zafer Tourism game, which is named after the extremist Turkish Zafer (Victory) Party.

The game, available on smartphones, focuses on throwing refugees who are trying to enter an unspecified country into trucks to take them back to the country they came from.

23 May 2023; MEMO: Eleven co-founding members of Turkiye's opposition Future Party, the main component of the Six-Party opposition coalition, have resigned in protest against the anti-refugee rhetoric of Nation Alliance candidate, Kemal  Kilicdaroglu.

24 May 2023; MEMO: Turkiye's National Intelligence Agency (MIT) has uncovered and arrested eleven people said to be part of an Israeli Mossad cell spying on individuals and entities related to Iran, Sabah reported on Tuesday. According to the Turkish newspaper, the mission was accomplished in cooperation with the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office in Istanbul.

ANKARA, May 23 (Reuters) - The man challenging for the Turkish presidency has accused President Tayyip Erdogan of being a "fabricator" after he cited a doctored video to allege opposition links to an outlawed militant Kurdish group ahead of a runoff election on Sunday.

Erdogan repeated the allegation and referred to the doctored video, splicing footage of Kemal Kilicdaroglu and a Kurdish militant, in an interview with state broadcaster TRT late on Monday, despite having been criticised by the opposition for showing it earlier in his campaign.

22 May 2023; MEMO: Sinan Ogan, who came third in last week's presidential election in Turkiye, has endorsed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the runoff vote scheduled for Sunday.

Speaking to reporters today, Ogan said: "I declare that we will support the candidate of People's Alliance, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the second round of the presidential election."

21 May 2023; MEMO: Nearly 500,000 million Turkish nationals have cast their votes abroad in the country's foreign missions and customs gates in the second round of Turkiye's presidential election scheduled for May 28, Anadolu reports.

Since overseas voting began Saturday, 452,257 voters cast ballots at Turkish diplomatic missions, while 19,477 voted at customs gates, for a total of 471,734 people, according to figures from the Supreme Election Council (YSK).

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main challenger in Turkey’s presidential race shifted gear and adopted a more nationalist and hard-line stance on Thursday, vowing to send back millions of refugees if he is elected and rejecting any possibility of negotiating for peace with Kurdish militants.

Voters in Turkey will head back to the polls on May 28 for a runoff election after neither Erdogan nor his rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, won more than 50% of the votes in Sunday’s first round.

17 May 2023; MEMO: Microalgae, which was collected by Turkish scientists in Antarctica, will be tested during Turkiye's first manned space voyage, Anadolu News Agency reports.

The Turkish Space Agency (TUA) and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkiye (TUBITAK) have announced that the microalgae experiments will be carried out in the 100th year of the Republic of Turkiye.