Turkey

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday the United States was not fulfilling its pledge to remove a Kurdish militia from a Syrian border region and he will raise the issue when he meets President Donald Trump next week.

A month ago, Turkey launched a cross-border offensive with Syrian rebels against Kurdish YPG fighters. After seizing control of a 120-km (75-mile) swathe of territory, it reached a deal with the United States to keep them out of that area.

6 Nov 2019; AA: Turkey's Foreign Ministry Wednesday announced it welcomed China's Railway Express to Ankara.  

The first freight train departing from Xi'an, China, which will travel to Europe using Marmaray [Istanbul's sub-sea tunnel] has made it to its destination in Turkey.

"This development is the latest example of our vision of enhancing the connectivity between the East and the West.

ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday the Kurdish YPG militia had not withdrawn from some Syrian border areas and that U.S. forces were still carrying out joint patrols with the group, contrary to an agreement between them.

He was speaking as Turkish and Russian soldiers in armored vehicles held their second joint ground patrol in northern Syria near the town of Kobani, under a deal to push the YPG some 30 km (19 miles) away from Turkey’s border.

4 Nov 2019; MEMO: A Turkish court ordered the release of journalists Ahmet Altan and Nazli Ilicak in a retrial on Monday due to the time they have already served in jail, the state-owned Anadolu news agency reported.

ANKARA (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan may call off a visit to Washington next week in protest at votes in the House of Representatives to recognize mass killings of Armenians a century ago as genocide and to seek sanctions on Turkey, three Turkish officials said.

Erdogan is due in Washington on Nov. 13 at President Donald Trump’s invitation, but said last week that the votes put a “question mark” over the plans.

4 Nov 2019; MEMO: Engaged in a fight against Daesh, Turkey on Saturday criticised countries striping citizenship of Daesh members to get rid of them.

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said foreign countries were taking the easy way out by stripping the citizenships of terrorists.

Soylu’s remarks came after Kaoutar S. and Fatima H. were arrested earlier this week in Turkey’s capital Ankara after they illegally entered Turkey and applied to the Netherlands Embassy in Ankara to return to their home country.

2 Nov 2019; MEMO: Official Turkish data has unveiled an unprecedented increase in the purchasing of real estate by Yemenis in Turkey in 2019, compared with 2015, Arabi21.com reported on Friday.

According to the data, Yemenis bought 170 homes between January and September in 2015, while they acquired 1,082 homes during the same period in 2019.

ISTANBUL, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signalled lately that he had second thoughts about his planned visit to the United States after the U.S. legislative adopted moves against Ankara, but analysts think the president would meet with his U.S. counterpart hoping a tete-a-tete could help settle thorny issues.

2 Nov 2019; MEMO: Some 11 suspects, including high-level targets, were arrested Friday in central Turkey over links to the Daesh terror group, according to a security source, Anadolu reports.

As part of efforts against Daesh, security teams conducted simultaneous operations at various addresses in the Cankiri province, said the source, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Saturday Turkey would send captured Islamic State members back to their home countries, and he complained about European inaction on the matter.

“That is not acceptable to us. It’s also irresponsible,” he said of Europe leaving Turkey to deal with the prisoners alone. “We will send the captured Daesh members to their countries,” he told reporters, using another name for Islamic State.