Turkey

ANKARA, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Turkey has frozen the assets of 770 individuals and a U.S.-based foundation over their alleged links to terrorist groups, according to a decision published in the country's official gazette on Friday.

The list included 454 members of the Gulen Movement, whom the Turkish government accused of being behind the failed coup on July 15, 2016.

The assets of the U.S.-based Niagara Foundation were also frozen.

ANKARA, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Turkey on Friday emphasized the necessity to preserve calm in Libya after a delay in its presidential elections, noting all aspects related to elections should be decided by the Libyans through a legal framework and on the basis of common understanding.

23 Dec 2021; MEMO: Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received a delegation of rabbis at the Presidential Complex in Ankara yesterday as part of the first annual Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States summit. The alliance was founded in 2019, by rabbis living in Muslim-majority countries to promote tolerance and coexistence.

Among the Jewish leaders present were the Chief Rabbi of Turkey, Isaak Haleva, his Russian counterpart Berel Lazar and other foreign leading rabbinic authorities.

ANKARA, December 22. /TASS/: Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan strongly rejected the possibility of holding early presidential and parliamentary elections in the country amid a record fall in the Turkish lira exchange rate.

"I declare that the elections will be held in June 2023. There will be no early elections. I am putting an end to [this issue]," the Turkish leader said speaking at a meeting of the parliamentary faction of the ruling Justice and Development Party.

According to Erdogan, the republic’s authorities "know what they are doing and where they are going."

ISTANBUL/ADDIS ABABA, Dec 22 (Reuters) - U.S. authorities have taken issue with Turkey over its sales of armed drones to Ethiopia, where two sources familiar with the matter said there was mounting evidence the government had used the weapons against rebel fighters.

Washington has "profound humanitarian concerns" over the sales, which could contravene U.S. restrictions on arms to Addis Ababa, a senior Western official said.

22 Dec 2021; MEMO: A Lebanon-based US diplomat arrested in Turkey on suspicion of selling a Syrian national a fake passport for $10,000 has been remanded in custody, Turkish police said yesterday.

The arrest was made after a 11 November incident at Istanbul airport when the Syrian national tried to use another person's passport to travel to Germany, said an Istanbul Security Directorate statement.

That passport belonged to the remanded diplomat, who works at the US Consulate in the Lebanese capital Beirut, it said.

ANKARA, Dec 21 (NNN-ANADOLU) – Turkish and Qatari companies, inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), to jointly run five airports in Afghanistan, including Kabul airport, Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu said yesterday.

A Turkish delegation travelled to Doha late yesterday, to discuss the deal for operating the Afghan capital’s airport, and later they will head to Kabul together, to have talks with the interim Afghanistan government, Cavusoglu said, at a press conference.

“We will present joint proposals to the Afghanistan interim administration,” he noted.

21 Dec 2021; MEMO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged on Sunday that he will not allow Syrian refugees to be expelled from the country as long as he is president.

21 Dec 2021; MEMO: Turkish and Qatari companies have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly operate five airports in Afghanistan, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced yesterday.

"A delegation of experts will travel first to Doha and then to Kabul to discuss ways to operate Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport," Cavusoglu said during a meeting with his Malaysian counterpart on the sidelines of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in the Pakistani capital Islamabad.

ISTANBUL (AP) — The Turkish lira was making significant gains Tuesday after the country’s president announced new measures to safeguard deposits in the national currency against currency fluctuations.

The lira hit an all-time low of 18.36 against the U.S. dollar Monday but rebounded to a high of 11.09 Tuesday morning. It was trading at 13.75 at 0820 GMT Tuesday.

The currency has been on a rollercoaster ride since the central bank began lowering interest rates in September and saw extreme volatility in the past weeks when the lira kept hitting record lows.