ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AFP) — US President Joe Biden expects to meet with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of a UN climate summit in Glasgow next week, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Thursday. “I anticipate he will meet with the president of Turkey in Glasgow,” he told reporters aboard Biden’s plane headed to Rome for an earlier G20 summit. “I don’t have confirmation, but that’s the present expectation.” Biden […]
Tag: Turkey
Turkey to expel seven Syrians over banana posts
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — Turkey on Thursday announced the arrest and planned expulsion of seven Syrian migrants over social media posts showing them eating bananas. The state migration service said the posts were “provocative” because they allegedly made fun of the economic hardships being experienced by many Turks. The service said the seven have been arrested and will be deported back to Syria. The incident highlights rising anti-migrant sentiment in Turkey during a new wave […]
Turkish fires endanger world pine honey supplies
by Raziye Akkoc Agence France-Presse COKEK, Turkey (AFP) – Beekeepers Mustafa Alti and his son Fehmi were kept busy tending to their hives before wildfires tore through a bucolic region of Turkey that makes most of the world’s prized pine honey. Now the Altis and generations of other honey farmers in Turkey’s Aegean province of Mugla are scrambling to find additional work and wondering how many decades it might take to get their old lives […]
Severe droughts dry up dreams of Turkish farmers
by Raziye Akkoc Agence France-Presse AKKUZULU, Turkey (AFP) – Turkish farmer Hava Keles stares inconsolably at withered vines of rotting tomatoes in a field that has been devastated by a series of droughts blamed on climate change. “My tomatoes, my beans, my peppers are ruined. My watermelons didn’t even grow. The cucumbers I planted have shrivelled up on the branches,” lamented Keles, 58, standing in an arid Anatolian plot in Akkuzulu, north of Ankara. Keles […]
Severe droughts dry up dreams of Turkish farmers
by Raziye Akkoc AKKUZULU, Turkey (AFP) — Turkish farmer Hava Keles stares inconsolably at withered vines of rotting tomatoes in a field that has been devastated by a series of droughts blamed on climate change. “My tomatoes, my beans, my peppers are ruined. My watermelons didn’t even grow. The cucumbers I planted have shrivelled up on the branches,” lamented Keles, 58, standing in an arid Anatolian plot in Akkuzulu, north of Ankara. Keles is among […]
Turkey to ratify Paris climate agreement, Erdogan tells UN
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) – President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Tuesday that Turkey was ready to finally ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change. Erdogan’s announcement at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly followed a year of violent weather events in Turkey — including wildfires and flash floods — that have claimed some 100 lives. Turkey in April 2016 signed the landmark agreement on limiting the dangerous emissions that contribute to […]
Turkey’s Erdogan cool to Taliban securing Kabul airport
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan poured cold water Sunday over a plan in which Turkey operates Kabul airport and the Taliban provides security, adding Ankara would be in a tough position if another attack occurs. Turkey had long planned to help secure and run the Afghan capital’s airport, but appeared to drop the idea when it started Wednesday to withdraw its approximately 500 non-combat troops from Afghanistan. Erdogan on Friday said Turkey had held its first […]
No survivors of Turkey fire-fighting plane crash as floods kill 55
Turkey battled disaster on two fronts on Saturday with eight people dying when a fire-fighting aircraft crashed and rescuers racing to find survivors of flash floods in the north that have killed at least 55. Ankara and Moscow announced that all eight people on the Russian plane had perished on the fire-fighting mission. The air tragedy came just as Turkey was gaining control of hundreds of wildfires that killed eight people and destroyed swathes of […]
Erdogan visits Turkish flood victims as death toll hits 38
by Dmitry ZAKS ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — The death toll from Turkey’s flash floods soared to at least 38 on Friday as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited one of the hardest-hit cities to lead a prayer for the victims and pledge government help. The devastation across Turkey’s northern Black Sea regions came just as the disaster-hit country was gaining control over hundreds of wildfires that killed eight people and destroyed swathes of forest along its […]
Flash floods kill 17 as Turkey reels from multiple disasters
by Dmitry ZAKS ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — Turkish rescuers distributed food and relocated thousands of people into student dormitories Thursday as the death toll from flash floods that swept across several Black Sea regions rose to 17. The torrential rains descended on Turkey’s northern stretches just as rescuers reported bringing hundreds of wildfires that have killed eight people under near total control in the south. Turkey has been grappling with drought and reeling from a […]
Turkish hospital, villagers evacuated in flash floods
ANKARA, Turkey (AFP) — Turkish rescuers evacuated a regional hospital on Wednesday and plucked stranded villagers off rooftops as flash floods and mudslides swept across the Black Sea coast. Officials said one person died of a heart attack in the mayhem and an elderly women was swept away by the rushing water and remained unaccounted for. The health ministry said eight people were also rushed to hospital when a bridge collapsed. “From a meteorological point […]
Hundreds of families homeless as Greek fires rage, rain saves Turkey
Hundreds of firefighters fought fires that have devoured record numbers of woodlands in Greece on Saturday and left hundreds of families homeless, but heavy rains brought respite to hard-hit Turkey. More than 1,450 Greek firefighters backed by at least 15 aircraft were battling the blazes, with reinforcements arriving from abroad, the fire service said. In Pefkofyto, in the north of Athens, pensioner Tasos Tsilivakos struggled to contain his tears. “This is a horrible disaster,” he […]





