Turkey

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - U.S. legislation to impose sanctions against Turkey will not impact Ankara’s use of the Russian S-400 missile defense system even if it passes Congress, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Wednesday.

A U.S. Senate committee backed legislation on Wednesday to sanction Turkey after its offensive in northern Syria and its purchase of S-400s, the latest move by lawmakers to push U.S. President Donald Trump to take a harder line against Ankara.

11 Dec 2019; MEMO: Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has announced that he is prepared to deploy Turkish soldiers to Libya, should the UN-recognised government make the request.

ANKARA, December 11. /TASS/: Turkey is ready to consider the possibility of closing its Incirlik Air Base to American servicemen if Washington imposes sanctions over Ankara’s purchase of Russia’s S-400 air defense systems, Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday on the A Haber TV channel.

"Turkey may ask the US to withdraw its military from the Incirlik Air Base," the Sabah newspaper quoted him as saying.

10 Dec 2019; MEMO: Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said Monday that the maritime agreement his country had signed with Libya does not pose any threat to neighbouring countries, but aims “to preserve the rights and interests of Turkey and Libya”.

Akar considered Greece’s request for the Libyan ambassador to leave the country against the background of the maritime agreement, “evidence of Athens’ failure”, stressing that this would not affect the agreement.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused the Nobel academy on Tuesday of rewarding human rights violations by awarding the prize for literature to Peter Handke, who has been criticized for backing late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.

Turkey has said it is joining Albania and Kosovo in boycotting the Nobel awards ceremony to protest the academy’s choice of Austrian Handke for the prize.

08 Dec 2019; MEMO: Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh arrived in Turkey on Sunday, the Palestinian resistance group said.

The visit is the first leg in a foreign tour that will also take Haniyeh to Malaysia, Russia, Qatar, Lebanon, Mauritania, and Kuwait.

A Hamas source said Haniyeh and his accompanying delegation arrived in Istanbul at dawn.

ANKARA, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- The maritime boundaries deal sealed between Turkey and the internationally recognized government in Libya has angered regional neighbors, inflaming tensions in eastern Mediterranean over energy resources.

The agreement, inked in Istanbul on Nov. 27 to delimit and especially extend maritime zones for Turkish energy explorations, is an attempt to block further Greek and Cypriot energy drilling activities in the Mediterranean, a move hailed as a "historic step" by the Turkish press and experts.

06 Dec 2019; MEMO: The Turkish president on Thursday said Turkey took NATO allies’ security concerns seriously and expected a similar policy toward Turkey from its alliance partners, Anadolu Agency reports.

Speaking to reporters about his meetings during Wednesday’s NATO leaders’ summit in London, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the main topics were the refugee crisis, fight against terrorism, burden sharing, cyber and hybrid threats, strengthening solidarity among allies, Russia and China.

ANKARA, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- Turkey repatriated five foreign terrorists to Germany on Tuesday, Turkish Interior Ministry said in a statement.

"Extradition of foreign fighters to their countries continues," said the statement carried by the official Anadolu Agency.

The five German nationals were sent back to their country of origin as part of the continued efforts to send back foreign fighters detained in Turkey, the ministry added.

ISTANBUL, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's blocking of a NATO defense plan for the Baltics in retaliation against the alliance's failure to recognize the Kurdish YPG militia in Syria as a threat to Ankara is a wrong move that risks alienation from the bloc, analysts said.

The dispute came at a time when Ankara's reliability as a defense partner is being questioned by the West amid its rapprochement with Moscow in recent years.