Tag: Turkey

Turbulence over Turkey injures 12 on Qatar Airways flight

LONDON, May 26, 2024 (AFP) – Twelve people were injured during turbulence on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Ireland that landed safely on Sunday, Dublin airport authorities said. The incident comes a week after a passenger died and dozens were injured when a Singapore Airlines flight from London hit severe turbulence and was diverted to Bangkok. Six passengers and six crew members suffered injuries in the latest incident, when Qatar Airways flight QR017 […]

Passengers rescued from fatal Turkey cable car accident after 23 hours

ISTANBUL, April 13, 2024 (AFP) – Rescue workers finished evacuating dozens of passengers trapped for 23 hours mid-air Saturday after a cable car accident in southern Turkey that killed one person. Ten people were injured in the accident, which happened late Friday afternoon in the resort city of Antalya when a supporting pylon collapsed. One cable car in the Sarisu-Tunektepe system plummeted into a rocky area, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said. A total of 174 […]

Five things to know about Turkey’s momentous election

By Anne CHAON ISTANBUL, April 1, 2024 (AFP) – Turkey’s local elections on Sunday dealt the biggest blow in more than two decades to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AKP party. Here are five things to know about the poll that turned into a debacle for the country’s veteran leader. – More than a local poll – By throwing all his energy into campaigning for his party’s candidates for mayors, Erdogan gave the […]

Armed attacker takes hostages at P&G plant in Turkey: media

ISTANBUL, Feb 1, 2024 (AFP) – An armed assailant on Thursday raided a plant owned by the US consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble near Istanbul and took an undisclosed number of people hostage, Turkish media reported. The assailant appeared to be acting in protest at US support for Israel’s military assault in Gaza, the private DHA news agency reported. Turkish officials and police issued no immediate comment. It was not clear how many people […]

US warplanes shoot down Turkish drone in Syria, escalating tensions between NATO allies

By W.G. DUNLOP WASHINGTON, Oct 5, 2023 (AFP) – US warplanes on Thursday shot down a Turkish drone that was deemed a threat to American forces in Syria, the Pentagon said — an incident likely to raise tensions between the NATO allies. The shootdown came as Turkey targeted Kurdish forces in Syria following a suicide bombing in Ankara that was claimed by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). US troops observed drones carrying out strikes early […]

Trapped US explorer nears rescue from deep Turkish cave

ISTANBUL, Sept 11, 2023 (AFP) – A US explorer trapped for more than a week deep in a Turkish cave with internal bleeding could be pulled to safety as early as Monday night, rescuers said. Mark Dickey, 40, developed stomach problems on September 2 while exploring the depths of the Morca Cave, a remote complex of narrow underground tunnels in southern Turkey’s Taurus Mountains. The Morca Cave is Turkey’s third-deepest, according to the county’s caving […]

Syria opens key aid corridor to rebel-held areas

By Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS Agence France-Presse UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — Syria will let humanitarian aid flow through its main border crossing into rebel-held areas, reopening a conduit that had closed after a Security Council stalemate, the country’s UN ambassador said Thursday. Damascus has made a “sovereign decision” to let aid move overland from Turkey through the Bab al-Hawa crossing in northwest Syria for six months starting Thursday, ambassador Bassam Sabbagh told reporters. He said […]

Key aid route to rebel-held Syria closes as UN fails to extend authorization

UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — A UN-brokered agreement that allows for the delivery of aid overland from Turkey into rebel-held areas of Syria expired on Monday after the Security Council failed to hold a vote to reauthorize it. The 15 members of the council had been trying for days to find a compromise to extend the deal, which since 2014 has allowed for food, water and medicine to be trucked to northwestern Syria without […]

Ukraine in NATO ‘very negative’ for European security: Kremlin

MOSCOW, July 10, 2023 (AFP) – The Kremlin said Monday that Ukraine’s NATO membership would have “very negative” consequences for European security, ahead of the alliance’s summit in Lithuania this week. “Ukraine’s membership in NATO would have very, very negative consequences for the entire security architecture in Europe, which is already half destroyed,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. He added that Kyiv’s membership in the Western military bloc would represent “an absolute danger and a […]

Putin says has Turkey’s ‘full support’ after call on Wagner mutiny

MOSCOW, June 24, 2023 (AFP) – Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan voiced full support for Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phonecall to discuss the Wagner mercenary group’s armed insurrection in Russia, the Kremlin said Saturday. “The president of Russia gave information about the situation in the country in connection with an attempted armed rebellion. The president of the republic of Turkey expressed full support for the steps taken by the Russian leadership,” the Kremlin […]

NATO upbeat on Sweden bid as US urges Turkey to say yes

By Pierre-Henry Deshayes and Shaun Tandon Agence France-Presse OSLO, Norway (AFP) — NATO’s chief voiced guarded optimism Tuesday on welcoming Sweden to the alliance as the United States pressed holdout Turkey to drop its objections, two days after President Tayyip Recep Erdogan won re-election. Sweden and Finland last year reversed decades of hesitation and formally applied to join NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine, which had unsuccessfully sought to enter the alliance whose members promise to […]

Undefeated Erdogan extends two-decade rule in Turkey runoff

  By Remi BANET with Fulya OZERKAN and Burcin GERCEK in Ankara Agence France-Presse ISTANBUL, Türkiye, May 29, 2023 (AFP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appealed for national unity Monday after winning a historic runoff election that extended two decades of his transformative but divisive rule until 2028. The 69-year-old overcame Turkey’s worst economic crisis in a generation and the most powerful opposition alliance to ever face his Islamic-rooted party on his way to […]