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by Stuart WILLIAMS Agence France Presse ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits Turkey on Thursday for the first time since the failed July coup, seeking to keep a key partnership alive after a series of crises. Merkel is expected to meet both President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim during the hugely sensitive one-day visit to the capital Ankara. The relationship between the two NATO allies has been battered in […]
by Ben Simon / Fulya Ozerkan Agence France-Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) – A deal to end decades of division in Cyprus is close, UN chief Antonio Guterres said Thursday, as he led a crunch conference on solving one of the world’s longest-running political crises. Guterres was undertaking his first foreign trip as the United Nations’ secretary general seeking a breakthrough at a Geneva summit that involves rival Cypriot sides as well as Greece, Turkey and […]
by Ilgin KARLIDAG Agence France-Presse ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) – Turkish lawmakers on Thursday brawled and threw chairs as parliament approved three more articles in a hugely controversial bill bolstering the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Lawmakers have since the start of the week been debating the first reading of the 18-article bill to change the constitution to create an executive presidency. The articles approved covered lowering the minimum age limit of members of parliament […]
by Stuart WILLIAMS Agence France Presse ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — Turkey’s parliament on Monday begins debating a controversial new draft constitution aimed at expanding the powers of the presidency under Recep Tayyip Erdogan that is expected to be put to a referendum by the spring. The new constitution, which would replace the basic law drawn up after Turkey’s 1980 military coup, seeks to set up for the first time a presidential system for ruling the […]
by Raziye Akkoc with Stuart Williams in Istanbul Agence France-Presse ANKARA, Turkey (AFP) – A car bombing rocked the Turkish city of Izmir on Thursday, killing at least two people and triggering a shootout that left two suspected militants dead, as authorities chased the fugitive killer behind the New Year attack in Istanbul. Turkey is on edge after the shooting rampage at the Reina nightclub unleashed shortly after revellers rang in 2017 which killed 39 […]
by Stuart WILLIAMS Agence France-Presse ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) – Turkish authorities on Tuesday intensified efforts to identify a suspected jihadist from Central Asia behind the massacre of 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub who had reportedly fought in Syria for the Islamic State group. Police released pictures of the suspect who went on the rampage at the plush Reina nightclub on New Year’s night, spraying about 120 bullets at terrified partygoers before slipping away into […]
by Stuart WILLIAMS and Raziye AKKOC in Ankara ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — Islamic State jihadists Monday claimed the shooting rampage at a glamorous Istanbul nightclub that killed 39 on New Year’s night, while police arrested eight suspects but the attacker remained on the run. The statement by the extremist group — which Turkey is fighting in neighbouring Syria — was the first undisputed claim it has made for an attack in Turkey despite being blamed […]
by Stuart Williams with Raziye Akkok in Ankara Agence France Presse ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — Turkish police launched a massive manhunt Sunday for a gunman who killed 39 people, including several foreigners, in a rampage at an upmarket nightclub in Istanbul where revellers were celebrating New Year. After the latest in a string of deadly attacks to hit the country, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the carnage sought to sow chaos, but vowed Turkey […]
by Stuart WILLIAMS Agence France-Presse ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) – Turkish state media Wednesday said Turkey and Russia had agreed a nationwide truce plan for Syria but none of the key players in the conflict offered an immediate confirmation. The state-run Anadolu news agency said the plan aims to expand a ceasefire in the city of Aleppo — brokered by Turkey and Russia earlier this month to allow the evacuation of civilians — to the whole […]
ANKARA, Turkey (AFP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said the West was breaking promises in Syria, accusing Ankara’s partners of backing “terror groups” including IS jihadists in the country. At least 37 Turkish soldiers have died in Turkey’s major incursion inside Syria since it was launched in August to back pro-Ankara Syrian fighters battling IS and Kurdish militia. Casualties have mounted as the military seeks to take the town of Al-Bab from […]
by Stuart WILLIAMS / Clotilde GOURLET Agence France-Presse ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) – Twenty-nine Turkish police officers went on trial Tuesday accused of failing to defend President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the military’s failed coup in July, the first such case in Istanbul. The hearings follow a massive crackdown on alleged putschists — 41,000 are under arrest in a national state of emergency and the trials are set to be the most far-reaching legal process in […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — At least 88 civilians have been killed in 24 hours of Turkish air strikes on an Islamic State group bastion in northern Syria, a monitoring group said Friday. A barrage of raids hit Al-Bab on Thursday, killing 72 civilians including 21 children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Bombardment continued on Friday, leaving another 16 civilians dead, including three children. “Eighty-eight civilians have been killed in 24 hours,” Observatory […]
