Turkey

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will to travel to Saudi Arabia on Thursday, his office announced, on the latest leg of Ankara’s bridge-building efforts with regional rivals.

It will be Erdogan’s first visit to the kingdom since Turkey dropped the trial of 26 Saudis suspected of involvement in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in October 2018.

ANKARA, April 27. /TASS/: Turkey hopes that a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky will take place in the next few days, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Wednesday following consultations on the West's military assistance to Kiev held at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

"We hope that despite some difficulties, the two leaders will be able to meet in the coming days thanks to the proposals of our president [Recep Tayyip Erdogan]," the Turkish defense ministry quoted him as saying.

ISTANBUL, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres discussed Guterres's visit to Russia over the phone on Wednesday.

Guterres briefed Erdogan about his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Turkey's Directorate of Communications said in a statement.

Before heading to Moscow and Kiev for talks on resolving the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Guterres met with Erdogan in the Turkish capital Ankara on Monday.

27 April 2022; MEMO: The Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce expected the kingdom's imports from Turkiye to increase in the near future, in the latest sign of the steady improvement of relations between two of the largest Islamic countries.

Sources in the Council of Chambers of Commerce, who requested to remain anonymous, told Anadolu Agency today that the import of Turkish goods by merchants will return to normal at an accelerated rate, as soon as the official announcement of the return of relations.

ISTANBUL, April 26 (Reuters) - Turkish opposition leaders vowed to overturn jail sentences against philanthropist Osman Kavala and seven others convicted at the end of a case that lawyers said showed courts had become the government's "vehicle for revenge."

Kavala was sentenced to life in prison without parole, while seven others got 18 years based on claims they organised and financed nationwide protests in 2013, charges from which they were acquitted two years ago. 

ANKARA, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday once again urged his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to hold a summit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

During a phone talk, Erdogan told Putin that the "continuation of the positive momentum achieved in the Istanbul talks" to reach peace in Ukraine is in the interest of everyone, the Turkish presidential press service said in a statement.

ISTANBUL (AP) — For months, Istanbul restaurant Tarihi Balikca tried to absorb the surging cost of the sunflower oil its cooks use to fry fish, squid and mussels.

But in early April, with oil prices nearly four times higher than they were in 2019, the restaurant finally raised its prices. Now, even some longtime customers look at the menu and walk away.

25 April 2022; MEMO: Turkiye is reportedly set to provide financial aid for Syrians who voluntarily return to their country, as the Turkish government continues to search for solutions to the presence of millions of Syrian refugees in Turkey, a decade on.

According to the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, Ankara has plans to provide transportation, shelter, and humanitarian aid to any Syrian refugees who voluntarily accept to settle in 'safe zones' that Turkiye has cleared of Kurdish militant groups in northern Syria in recent years.

25 April 2022; MEMO: The Turkish Foreign Ministry yesterday rejected US President Joe Biden's commemoration of the 107th anniversary of the Armenian genocide when 1.5 million Armenians were killed in World War I during the era of the Ottoman Empire.

"We reject such statements and decisions to distort historical facts for political motives, and we condemn those who insist on this mistake," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that Biden has repeated the same mistake he made last year.

ANKARA, April 23. /TASS/: Turkey closed its air space to Russian military and civilian planes flying to Syria, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told journalists during his Latin American tour.