Turkey

27 August 2022; AA: French President Macron's remarks on Türkiye during his current visit to Algeria were "unacceptable," said Türkiye’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday.

"It is extremely unfortunate that French President Emmanuel Macron made statements targeting our country, along with some other countries, during his visit to Algeria," ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic said in a written response to questions by reporters.

ISTANBUL, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Turkey's military and intelligence unit "neutralised" nine members of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in operations in northern Iraq, the Defence Ministry and state-run media said on Saturday.

Turkey regularly carries out air strikes in neighbouring Iraq as part of its offensive against PKK militants based there.

"Our operations will continue until the last terrorist is neutralised," the ministry said on Twitter, adding that the military targeted seven PKK members. It typically uses the word "neutralised" to mean killed.

26 August 2022; MEMO: Officials from Turkiye, Finland and Sweden agreed on Friday to continue talks in the coming months to discuss security concerns raised by Turkiye as a pre-condition of allowing the two Nordic countries to join NATO.

Officials from the three countries held the first of these meetings on Friday in the Finnish city, Vantaa.

ANKARA, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Concerns over the U.S. Treasury's warning about Turkish companies facing sanctions risk if they deal with sanctioned Russians was "meaningless," said Türkiye's finance and treasury minister on Friday.

Nureddin Nebati tweeted that "it is meaningless that the letter sent to Turkish business organizations causes concern in our business circles."

26 August 2022; MEMO: Officials from Turkiye, Finland and Sweden are expected to meet at an undisclosed location in Finland today to discuss security concerns which Ankara raised as a precondition for allowing the two Nordic countries to join the NATO military alliance, Reuters reported.

ANKARA, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- At least 13 foreign Islamic State (IS) suspects were detained in police raids in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Thursday, the state-run TRT TV reported.

Ankara police launched an operation against 15 foreign suspects, some of whom were allegedly in contact with IS members in the conflict zones, the report said.

Thirteen suspects were detained in the operation, while the police continue to search for the remaining two, it added.

24 August 2022; MEMO: Turkiye's Foreign Minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said Turkiye will not buy F-16 warplanes from the US if restrictions are imposed on their use, Haber Global TV reports.

According to the report, the US House of Representatives, in July, proposed allowing President Joe Biden to sell Turkiye upgraded F-16s on condition that Ankara will not deploy them for unauthorised territorial over-flights of Greece.

24 August 2022; MEMO: The United States has expressed its concerns to Turkiye over its ongoing business ties and trade with Russia, warning it of similar sanctions on Turkish businesses, if cooperation continues.

25 August 2022; MEMO: Turkiye's economy expanded 7.5 per cent annually in the second quarter of 2022, Reuters reports.

According to the report, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's new economic programme pushed the lira to end last year down 44 per cent against the dollar and shed another 27 per cent so far this year.

On the other hand, Turkiye's Erdogan said last week that Turkiye does not need interest rate hikes despite high inflation rates. Turkiye's inflation rate hit almost 80 per cent – a 24-year high – last month.

ANKARA, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian authorities, including Hamas that rules the Gaza Strip, welcome the normalization of relations between Türkiye and Israel because this helps Ankara better support the Palestinian cause, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday.

"Both the Palestinian president (Mahmoud Abbas) and Hamas side want our relations with Israel to be normalized. They also know that thanks to this dialogue, we will better defend the Palestinian cause," Cavusoglu said in a televised interview with the Haber Global TV channel.