Turkey

ISTANBUL, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Turkish police detained three Syrians in northwestern Turkey over their suspected links to the Islamic State (IS) militant group, state-run Anadolu Agency said on Monday.

Police launched operations simultaneously in several locations in the Bolu province to capture the suspects who were believed to be IS members.

Many organizational documents and digital materials were also seized during the raids, it added.

The IS was blamed for a spate of deadly attacks over past years in Turkey, in which more than 300 people were killed.

28 June 2020; MEMO: The proposals of the EU on the Cyprus issue, "which have never referred to the equal rights of the Turkish Cypriots on the island's natural resources, are "far from serious", said Turkish Foreign Ministry's spokesman on Saturday.

In a written statement, Hami Aksoy responded to the High Representative of the EU Josep Borrell's proposal, which plans to bring together Turkey and the Greek Cypriot administration.

28 June 2020; AA: Turkey has the right to intervene if a ship under its protection is attacked in the Mediterranean Sea, said a Turkish expert.

As tensions heighten in the region every day due to the Libyan crisis and the hydrocarbon reserves in the Mediterranean, so have policies and interventions.

27 June 2020; MEMO: Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Yavuz Selim Kiran confirmed that Turkey will continue to protect the country’s cultural and religious heritage, and that any decision regarding Hagia Sophia is an internal Turkish decision.

23 June 2020; MEMO: A man who broke the cross off an Armenian church in Turkey’s commercial capital Istanbul has been jailed for five years and four months.

The Istanbul Anatolian Chief Public Prosecutor’s office on Friday sentenced Mazlum Serin to a jail term after he climbed the Surp Krikor Lusavoric Armenian Church’s fence and removed the cross from the property and threw it on to the pavement on 23 May.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish police stopped dozens of senior lawyers marching to the capital Ankara on Monday to protest a draft bill governing the organisation of bar associations that they say is aimed at silencing those critical of the government.

President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party has proposed changes to the associations’ election system that it says will make it more democratic and increase representation from smaller cities.

But the lawyers marching say the move would pave the way for the formation of government-friendly associations.

ANKARA, June 22 (NNN-ANADOLU) – Turkey’s confirmed COVID-19 cases increased by 1,192, and 23 more people died, taking the death toll to 4,950, Turkish Health Minister, Fahrettin Koca, said on Sunday.

The total number of confirmed cases stood at 187,685, the minister said.

Meanwhile, 1,412 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, making the total number of recovered cases to 160,240, he stated.

Koca said, 40,496 tests were conducted over the past day, and the overall number of tests reached 2,945,240.

ANKARA, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Turkey and Italy will work together to maintain peace in Libya, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday.

Ankara wanted to work together with Rome for a lasting peace and a political process in Libya, as well as on meeting Libya's energy requirements such as electricity, Cavusoglu said at a joint press conference with his visiting Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio.

The Italian minister, for his part, stressed that all the warring parties in Libya should respect the arms embargo and not deploy mercenaries.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey said Wednesday it has airlifted troops for a cross-border ground operation against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq.

The airborne offensive in Iraq’s Haftanin region, some 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the border, was launched following “intense” artillery fire into the area, a A Defense Ministry statement said.

ANKARA, June 16 (NNN-ANADOLU) – Italian and Turkish navies, conducted joint maritime training in the Mediterranean, the Turkish defence ministry announced on Monday.

“Italian and Turkish submarines, conducted maritime training in the Mediterranean. Two Navies, having the most effective submarine force in the Mediterranean, continue to improve the interoperability with maritime training,” the ministry tweeted on Monday.

The joint exercise came, after the Turkish army held offshore training with its air and navy elements, in the Mediterranean, last week.