Turkey

21 September 2023; MEMO: Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan, said he does not agree with the negative approach other leaders are showing towards his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, Turkish broadcasters quoted him as saying on Thursday, Reuters reports.

ISTANBUL, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The first cargo ship carrying Ukrainian grain arrived off Türkiye's Bosphorus Strait on Thursday using a temporary "humanitarian corridor."

The Ihlas news agency said the ship "Resilient Africa" anchored off the Sariyer district at the Black Sea entrance of the Bosphorus Strait.

The vessel will later pass through the strait, heading to Israel, according to the agency.

Ukraine announced in August a "humanitarian corridor" to allow grain shipment after Russia withdrew from a UN-brokered grain agreement.

ISTANBUL, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said that Türkiye may "part ways with the European Union (EU)," suggesting that his country may end the bid to join the European bloc.

"The European Union is trying to break away from Türkiye," Erdogan told journalists in Istanbul before leaving for New York to attend the annual UN General Assembly meetings.

ANKARA, September 14. /TASS/: Specific conditions necessary for the resumption of the grain deal will be on the agenda of the planned talks between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during the High-level Week of the UN General Assembly, a diplomatic source in Ankara told TASS.

12 September 2023; MEMO: Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday that plans announced by India, Saudi Arabia and the EU to create a trade corridor that would link South Asia to Europe and bypass Turkiye “will not work”.

Speaking to reporters upon his return from the G20 summit in India, Erdogan stressed that the most suitable traffic line from east to west is the line crossing from Turkiye.

13 September 2023; MEMO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated on Tuesday his call for a new and civilian constitution for his country, the local media reported widely. Erdogan made his call during a speech at a conference on Tuesday which considered the need for a “2023 constitution to replace the 1982 constitution”.

The president called upon all political parties, academics specialised in the field and other experts to help to draft the new document.

ISTANBUL, Sept 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — An international team of rescuers on Tuesday pulled to safety a US explorer who spent nine days trapped deep in the narrow tunnels of a Turkish cave with internal bleeding.

“Mark Dickey was removed from the last exit of the cave,” the Turkish Caving Federation said, adding that the “cave rescue part of the operation has ended successfully.”

The 40-year-old explorer developed stomach problems while examining the depths of the Morca Cave, a remote complex of twisting underground passageways in southern Turkey’s Taurus Mountains.

ISTANBUL, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Turkish police have detained 17 suspects in northwestern Türkiye over their alleged ties with a network believed to be behind a defeated coup in 2016, local media reported on Tuesday.

Gendarmerie command units rounded up the suspects when they tried to illegally flee to Greece from the border province of Edirne, according to the Ihlas news agency.

MERSIN, Turkey, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Rescuers raced on Sunday to rescue an American caver who had become trapped more than 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) underground in southern Turkey, moving him halfway to the surface.

Mark Dickey, 40, was on an international exploration expedition in the Morca cave in Mersin province's Taurus mountains when he began suffering from gastrointestinal bleeding at a depth of 1,040 metres.

More than 150 rescuers from Turkey and other countries have been working for days to rescue him from the country's third deepest cave.

ANKARA, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Türkiye welcomes the decision to grant the African Union (AU) in the Group of 20 (G20) as a full member, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

"We are pleased that the AU became a permanent member of G20 by the decision adopted at the G20 Summit in New Delhi," the ministry said in a statement.

"As a strategic partner of the AU, Türkiye spares no effort to enhance the representation of the AU in international fora and to make Africa's voice heard," it said.