Turkey

Boncuk returned each day to hospital in Turkish city of Trabzon where her owner, Cemal Senturk, was being treatedA devoted dog has spent days waiting outside a hospital in Turkey where her sick owner was being treated.The pet, Boncuk, which means bead, followed the ambulance that transported her owner, Cemal Senturk, to hospital in the Black Sea city of […]

Boncuk, a devoted pet, spent days waiting outside a hospital in Trabzon, Turkey, where her sick owner Cemal Senturk was being treated. Boncuk followed the ambulance that transported Senturk to hospital before making multiple visits to front door. According to Senturk's daughter, Aynur Egeli, she would take Boncuk home but the dog kept going back. After six […]

Outgoing acting envoy Stephanie Williams also urges foreign powers to withdraw troops and mercenaries from countryA political class stretching across Libya’s east-west conflict lines is determined to maintain the status quo and privileged access to the coffers of the state, Stephanie Williams, the outgoing acting UN special envoy for Libya has warned.The […]

Water at critically low levels across Turkey after lack of rainfall leads to most severe drought in a decadeMajor cities across Turkey face running out of water in the next few months, with warnings Istanbul has less than 45 days of water left.Poor rainfall has led to the country’s most severe drought in a decade and left the megacity of 17 million people […]

Adnan Oktar was detained in 2018 along with more than 200 other suspects in his groupA Turkish court has sentenced a Muslim televangelist who surrounded himself with scantily clad women he called “kittens” to more than 1,000 years in jail for sex crimes.Adnan Oktar preached creationism and conservative values while women in revealing outfits – many of […]

SpaceX completed its first Falcon 9 launch for 2021 that sent a Turkish satellite to orbit, however the mission has been protested by Armenian activist who fear it will be used 'to kill' them.

Mammoth task to collate magical folklore of Anatolian plateau involves thousands of storiesOnce upon a time, in the old, old days when the mouse was a barber, and the donkey ran errands, and the tortoise baked bread, there was a great mountain called Kaf Daği on the border of the spirit realm, from which many of the fairytales and myths of the Middle East […]

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani says western democracy is brittle and weakIn much of the world, the scenes that played out in Washington on Wednesday prompted shock, horror and anguish.But in Moscow, Beijing and other capitals where autocratic governments have been subjected to frequent US criticism, there was a good dose of schadenfreude at the chaotic […]

Melih Bulu was assigned post at Boğaziçi University by Turkish president ErdoğanStudents and staff at an Istanbul university have clashed with police in rare protests sparked by the politically charged appointment of a state-approved rector with links to Turkey’s conservative ruling party.Melih Bulu – who stood as a Justice and Development party […]

The UK’s new deal with Turkey ignores appalling human rights abuses and should have been scrutinised by parliament The UK’s new trade agreement with Turkey, signed last week, ignores the Turkish government’s continuing human rights abuses, boosts its dangerous president, and undermines ministerial pledges that “global Britain” will uphold […]

Motorcycle bomber targets Turkish construction company, killed at least five people and injuring 14A suicide bombing in Mogadishu has killed at least five people, the Turkish health minister has said.The al-Shabaab group, which is linked to al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for the attack on Saturday in the Somali capital in a post from its Shahada news […]

Deal brings to 62 the number of agreements signed in preparation for UK’s exit from EU single marketThe UK has signed a free trade deal with Turkey, its first since agreeing a Brexit deal to leave the EU – a development that will strengthen ties between the two European outliers.The continuity agreement, signed by both trade ministers on Tuesday in a […]

Ankara has long welcomed Uighur and Turkic Muslims fleeing China but rights groups fear the treaty will endanger themBeijing has ratified an extradition treaty with Turkey that human rights groups warn could endanger Uighur families and activists fleeing persecution by Chinese authorities if it is adopted by Ankara.The treaty, signed in 2017, was formalised […]

Dissenters are facing persecution, with 16,000 HDP members arrested or detained. But hardcore support keeps the struggle alive It has been a lonely year for Adalet Fidan, the mayor of Silopi in Turkey’s Kurdish south-east – and not just because of the pandemic.In 2019, when she was elected, Fidan was among a solid cohort of 65 candidates from the […]

Norway extends UK travel ban; Japan refuses arrivals from South Africa; Turkey requires all arrivals to provide proof of negative test Japan and France report cases of coronavirus variant found in UKSee all our coronavirus coverageSouth Korea has posted its second-highest daily number of coronavirus cases, as outbreaks at a prison, nursing homes and […]

Ex-Cumhuriyet newspaper editor given verdict in absentia on charges described as politically motivatedA prominent Turkish journalist has been sentenced in absentia to more than 27 years in jail on terrorism-related charges that his legal team have described as politically motivated.Can Dündar, who edited Turkey’s Cumhuriyet newspaper before fleeing to […]

Detention of Selahattin Demirtaş contrary to ‘very core of the concept of a democratic society’The European court of human rights has ordered the immediate release of the prominent Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş from prison in Turkey, finding that his detention goes against “the very core of the concept of a democratic society”.The grand […]

Ten killed when ‘high pressure oxygen device’ exploded at Sanko University hospital in GaziantepAt least 10 people have died after an oxygen cylinder exploded at an intensive care unit treating Covid-19 patients in Turkey, the health minister said.The state-run Anadolu news agency said the fire took place at the private Sanko University hospital in […]

Number of journalists imprisoned globally for their work hits new record in 2020China is the world’s leading jailer of journalists for the second year in a row, according to an annual survey by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which also found that 2020 was a record year for the number of journalists imprisoned globally.As of 1 December, at […]

Bloc defers decision on trade tariffs and arms until consultation with Biden administrationEU leaders have agreed to impose sanctions on an unspecified number of Turkish officials and entities involved in gas drilling in Cypriot-claimed waters – but they deferred bigger decisions such as trade tariffs or an arms embargo until they have consulted with the […]