Turkey

Source : Agencies | 09 Aug 2012

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Wednesday departed for Myanmar for a series of formal talks and to oversee the distribution of Turkish humanitarian aid to the displaced Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists in the Arakan region.

"This is the first high level visit between Turkey and Myanmar and a large delegation of Turkish charity organizations are accompanying us," Davutoglu told reporters before his departure from capital Ankara to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis which mostly affected Arakan's Rohingya Muslims.

Source : Agencies | 06 Aug 2012

The unique architecture that ensured an equal distribution of sound throughout Mimar Sinan's Süleymaniye Mosque has been altered by a recent restoration of the mosque, the Radikal daily reported.

The number of loudspeakers used in the mosque has been increased by officials in order to make up for the problem. However, prior to the restoration project, the single voice of an imam was able to reach all the corners of the historical mosque whenever sermons were delivered or the Quran was read, without the usage of additional loudspeakers.

Source : Agencies | 27 Jul 2012

Israel has, for the first time, officially announced it is prepared to apologize to Turkey for the Mavi Marmara incident, Cihan news agency said.

“An agreement had been reached. The word ‘apology' was also present in the text,” Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Yigal Palmor has said, maintaining that Turkey's demand that the Gaza blockade be lifted is what has prevented the two sides from reaching an agreement.

Source : Agencies | 25 Jul 2012

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel and its former ally Turkey must repair their relationship because of the instability in their region.

Turkey cut its once extensive ties with Israel after Israeli marines killed nine Turkish activists in May 2010 on international aid vessel trying to break Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip.

Source : Agencies | 24 Jul 2012

The Arap Mosque, an eighth-century mosque in İstanbul's Karaköy neighborhood, was reopened for worship on Sunday following the completion of its restoration.

The restoration of the mosque, which is known to have been built in 717 A.D. by Islamic armies arriving to conquer İstanbul, was carried out by the Directorate General for Foundations (VGM) over a period of approximately three years.

Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç, who attended the inauguration ceremony at the mosque, described it as “a rare pearl.”

Source : Agencies | Moscow | 18 Jul 2012

A gleaming skyscraper rises from the ultra-modern financial centre in the heart of Moscow, dwarfing cathedral cuppolas and bombastic Stalinist highrises, a symbol of how far Turkish business has come in the former Cold War rival.

Source : Agencies | 14 Jul 2012

The Turkish military tried to damp down speculation about the loss of one of its warplanes last month, repeating its assertion the jet was shot down by Syria and by something other than anti-aircraft fire.

The statement, which added further confusion to the jet controversy, refuted the claims of Syrian officials, saying the criminal investigation revealed that the jet was not downed by anti-aircraft fire and that the cause of the incident will be clear once all the debris from the jet is brought up from the seabed.

Source : Agencies | 06 Jul 2012

Turkey's foreign minister hailed the opening of a warmer phase in relations with France on Thursday as a French law on Armenian allegations on 1915 incidents was abandoned, but he received no support for a Turkish bid to join the European Union.

Ahmet Davutoglu was visiting France for the first time since the election in May of President Francois Hollande, who Turkish officials hoped might be more open to the prospect of Ankara's EU bid than predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy.

Source : Agencies | 03 Jul 2012

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has told a Turkish newspaper he wished Syrian forces had not shot down a Turkish jet last month and that he would not allow the tensions between the two countries to turn into open combat.

"We learned that it (the plane) belonged to Turkey after shooting it down. I say 100 percent 'if only we had not shot it down'," the Cumhuriyet newspaper quoted Assad as saying in an interview published on Tuesday.

Source : Agencies | 01 Jul 2012

Tensions between Turkey and Syria rose yesterday, as Ankara scrambled fighter jets after Syrian helicopters flew close to the border, underlining the mistrust between the neighbors after the downing of a Turkish plane last month.

The fresh hostility came as Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted that a jet fighter shot down by Syria last month was in international airspace, dismissing a US newspaper report that it was downed inside Syria as untrue.