Turkey

ISTANBUL, Oct 16 (NNN-Xinhua) — Turkish police detained 14 people in Istanbul over their suspected links to the Daesh militant group, local media reported on Friday.

Police launched simultaneous operations in 17 locations across Turkey’s largest city to capture the suspects, who were believed to have financially supported the Daesh, the state-run Anadolu Agency said.

It added that those targeted in the operations were recruiting personnel for the group.

Several fake passports, digital materials, and cash were seized in the raids.

15 Oct 2020; MEMO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that his country will give Greece the “response it deserves” over the countries’ dispute in the eastern Mediterranean.

“We will continue to give Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration which fail to fulfil their promises in the European Union and NATO forums, the response they deserve on the ground” Erdogan told members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey has issued notices restricting air space and waters off its Black Sea coast to allow firing tests apparently on Friday involving its Russian-made S-400 missile defence units, a week after they were transported to the area.

While Turkey already tested the surface-to-air weapons last year, further exercises could stoke tensions with NATO ally the United States, which sharply opposed the purchase from Moscow on grounds the S-400s compromise NATO defence systems.

ANKARA, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that he would announce the size of new gas reserves off the Black Sea this week while visiting the Turkish drilling ship "Fatih".

"I will visit our drilling ship Fatih on Saturday to witness the work in person and announce the size of the new reserves," Erdogan said while addressing his lawmakers at the parliament.

Ankara has already announced 320 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves in the Sakarya Gas Field in the Black Sea.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey’s military exports to its ally Azerbaijan have risen six-fold this year, with sales of drones and other military equipment rising to $77 million last month alone before fighting broke out over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, according to exports data.

The figures compiled by the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly, which groups more than 95,000 exporting companies in 61 sectors, show Azerbaijan bought $123 million in defence and aviation equipment from Turkey in the first nine months of 2020.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has asked his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to press Armenia to abide by the terms of a Russian-brokered truce in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Turkish foreign ministry said on Sunday.

The ceasefire, clinched after marathon talks in Moscow advocated by President Vladimir Putin, was meant to halt fighting to allow ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh and Azeri forces to swap prisoners and war dead.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey said on Friday efforts by France, the United States and Russia to end violence between Azeri and Armenian forces over Nagorno-Karabakh were bound to fail unless they also ensured a withdrawal of Armenian forces from the enclave.

As the region’s deadliest battles for more than 25 years raged, Russia was set to host talks with the Azeri and Armenian foreign ministers on Friday, a day after France, Russia and the United States launched peace diplomacy in Geneva.

09 Oct 2020; MEMO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed that his country would not stay in Syria indefinitely, pointing out that the Turkish military presence in Qatar “serves the Gulf stability.”

09 Oct 2020; MEMO: Turkey’s Central Bank increased the Turkish lira interest rate for swap transactions by 150 basis points on Friday, Anadolu Agency reports.

The rate, the bank uses in weekly currency swaps, rose to 11.75 per cent from 10.25 per cent, according to information obtained by an Anadolu Agency reporter.

ANKARA, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he met with his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias on Thursday and they agreed to set dates for the start of a new round of exploratory talks of confidence-building between Ankara and Athens.

"We will determine dates of Exploratory Talks and meetings for Confidence Building Measures in the coming days," he tweeted after a brief meeting with Greek minister, which was the first after months of tension in the Eastern Mediterranean.