Turkey

ISTANBUL, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated the country's first car manufacturing plant and rolled out the first domestically-produced car on Saturday, as the republic celebrates the 99th anniversary of its founding.

"As the foremost producer of commercial vehicles in Europe and one of the world's leading automobile exporters, not having a domestic car brand had long wrenched our hearts," Erdogan said at the opening ceremony of the factory of Togg, or Türkiye's Automobile Joint Venture Group.

29 October 2022; MEMO: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkiye will distribute natural gas from Russia to Europe through its TurkStream project.

Erdogan noted in a speech in Ankara on Friday that this will take place as a result of talks with Moscow.

28 October 2022; MEMO: Turkiye has ensured the voluntary return of an estimated 530,000 people to the safe zones in Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday, Anadolu News Agency reports.

"We have ensured the voluntary return of approximately 530,000 people to the safe zones we created in Syria," Erdogan said at an event in the capital, Ankara.

27 October 2022; MEMO: Turkiye's competition authority yesterday imposed fines of 346.72 million lira ($18.63 million) on Meta platforms, formerly known as Facebook, for its violation of the country's competition law, news agencies reported.

In a statement, the Turkish Competition Board said it found that Meta obstructed its competitors operating in social network services and online advertising markets as it merged data collected through Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

ANKARA, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Turkish prosecutors on Monday issued an arrest warrant for 11 suspects allegedly operating within the ranks of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the umbrella group of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, the state-run TRT broadcaster reported.

The Turkish police had detained nine of the suspects and continued to seek the others, the TRT reported.

21 October 2022; MEMO: Social media companies are unlikely to fully abide by Turkiye's new law requiring them to remove "disinformation" content and share user data with authorities, analysts say, raising the spectre of possible platform disruptions before elections next year.

23 October 2022; MEMO: A delegation from Finland will visit Turkiye next Tuesday to hold technical talks on the extradition of accused terrorists sought by Ankara, as stipulated in a recent treaty, reports Anadolu Agency.

Finnish Justice Ministry officials will meet in the capital Ankara with a delegation headed by Kasim Cicek, director general of foreign relations and the European Union at the Turkish Justice Ministry.

22 October 2022; MEMO: Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has stated that his country cannot accept US threats to Saudi Arabia after the OPEC+ decision to reduce oil production.

In a statement reported by Turkiye's Anadolu Agency, Cavusoglu announced: "We are seeing that a country is threatening Saudi Arabia, and this bullying is not correct."

ISTANBUL, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Sweden has taken "concrete action" to address Turkey's concerns over its NATO membership bid, including stepping up counter-terrorism efforts against Kurdish militants, Stockholm told Ankara in a letter dated Oct. 6 and seen by Reuters.

The two-page letter gives 14 examples of steps taken by Sweden to show it "is fully committed to the implementation" of a memorandum it signed with Turkey and Finland in June, which resulted in NATO member Turkey lifting its veto of their applications to the trans-Atlantic security alliance.

ANKARA, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Türkiye rejected Thursday the claim by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that the Turkish armed forces used chemical weapons in its recent operations in northern Iraq.

The Turkish Defense Ministry said in a statement that the allegations that chemical weapons are used by the Turkish armed forces are periodically brought to the agenda by circles who want to tarnish Türkiye's fight against terrorism,