Turkey News

Iraqi ambassador to Turkey Sabah Umran has extended Iraq’s support to Turkey’s fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and said that his country is ready to cooperate with Turkey to that end.

Umran said Tuesday that Turkey’s Special Envoy to Iraq Murat Ozcelik held a series of contacts in Iraq with the bilateral relations and the issue of PKK high on his agenda.

Umran added that both the central government and the local administration in north of Iraq clearly condemned the PKK activities as acts of terrorism, Xinhua reports.

Turkey’s role as honorary guest at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair and the Culture Ministry’s massive translation project make historic moves toward introducing Turkish literature to the world.

Efforts to promote Turkish literature internationally gained momentum four years ago when the Turkish Culture Ministry launched TEDA, a project aimed at providing the world with more translations of Turkish literature. The fund it offered for the project was YTL 1 million. Numerous works of Turkish literature have been translated into 35 different languages, including more than 110 works into German. Professional translators from prominent publishing companies undertook most of the translation work.

Turkey will use “robots on duty” in the struggle against the PKK terrorists. IMTAX robot will define threats and send warnings to the system operator and open fire at last. The robot was engineered by the Defense Systems Company Yuksel Holding and the Company’s representative Hayri Esen said they were working on the IMTAX “robot on duty” project for a long time. “This is not weapon, but a system equipped with the weapons. There is no system, which is enough to work on its own against the terror. We hope to reduce our losses with this system, because soldiers die mostly as a result of first fire. This project aims to defend our soldiers from the first fire”.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said his country deserves a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council because of Ankara’s growing influence on international affairs.

Ali Babacan was speaking Sunday before departing for New York for a final round of lobbying for the seat which comes to a vote on Oct. 17, the AP reports.

The UN General Assembly will elect five nations to serve two-year stints on the council. Turkey is racing against Austria and Iceland for two Western European seats.

The mostly Muslim country which is seeking European Union membership has been acting as a bridge between the West and the Muslim world, is involved in peacekeeping missions and has been working toward Middle East peace.

A decision by the Greek Cypriot government to revise history textbooks to bolster peaceful coexistence between the island's Greek- and Turkish-speaking communities has enraged many clerics and politicians.

Critics have demonized Greek Cypriot Education Minister Andreas Demetriou for making such a bold proposal, which opponents say will undermine the heritage of the Mediterranean island.

Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot leaders have held direct talks in a bid to speed up slow-moving negotiations on reunifying the divided Mediterranean island.

Turkish authorities claimed to have foiled a probable suicide attack by a suspected Kurdish militant in Istanbul on Saturday as the military stepped up bombing raids on rebel hideouts in northern Iraq.

The inaugural meeting of foreign ministers between Arab nations and Turkey convened in the largest Turkish City of Istanbul on Saturday, marking the launch of the Turkish-Arab Cooperation Forum.

Turkish warplanes and artillery bombed dozens of Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq following an escalation in rebel attacks, the military said Saturday

'The warplanes successfully bombed all of the 31 targets in a midnight operation,' the military said. 'The targets were later shelled by artillery units.'

The offensive against rebel hideouts in Iraq's Hakurk area was the sixth cross-border Turkish bombing since the guerrillas killed 17 soldiers in a surprise attack on the border last week. The rebels ambushed a police bus on Wednesday, killing four policemen and the driver in the Kurdish-dominated city of Diyarbakir, further escalating tensions.

A new round of trilateral talks between Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan will take place after the Azeri presidential election, said Hulusi Kilic, Turkey’s Ambassador to Baku.

“Isolated Armenia will most benefit from normalization of relations and I am hopeful that we will resolve all problems jointly. Nevertheless, Turkey will always advocate Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said, Novosti Azerbaijan reports.

I recently wrote that Albania and Kosovo were the two most secular Muslim-majority countries I have ever visited. That is no longer true. Azerbaijan is the most secular Muslim-majority country I have ever visited.

Not once in a week did I heard the muezzin’s call to prayer. I saw only two or maybe three women wearing conservative Islamic clothing, and never anything more conservative than a headscarf.

Baku, though, seemed even more secular than Western Europe. The capital looks like a prosperous and mostly Westernized city-state that's slightly out-of-place in a world of the East, like what you'd get if you crashed Moscow and Istanbul together. It makes sense that Baku appears as it does.

Recent archaeological findings indicate that the Turkish city of Istanbul is 6,000 years older than what experts previously believed.

According to Al-Watan newspaper, excavations have yielded four skeletons, along with wooden and ceramic objects, which date back to 8,500 years ago.

It was previously believed that the city was founded 2,700 years ago by the Greeks and named Byzantium, RIA Novosti reported.

Historically known as Constantinople, Istanbul was Turkey's capital until 1923, when the government moved to Ankara.

A big terrorist group trying to pass into Turkish border from northern Iraq has been neutralized, Turkish General Staff said, APA reports. Metin Gurak, Spokesman for Turkish General Staff said that a big group of PKK terrorists had been determined to pass Turkish border and they were prevented. Majority of them was killed. Gurak added that the terrorists, who attacked on Aktutun border unit on October 3, had been followed. Seventeen Turkish soldiers were killed during terrorist attack on Aktutun unit bordering on Iraq.

MHP Chairman Head Advisor Hidayet Vahapoglu stated that if the Government wanted to save the country from terrorism, it should establish buffer zone in the northern Iraq.

“This zone will eliminate weak points occurred in Turkey-Iraq borders. There are the tallest sites, which are not under control. Terrorists should be prevented to pass our country from these sites. Our Chairman stressed necessity of establishment of national consensus. All parties should demonstrate will in this issue. AKP prolongs several serious measures to be taken against PKK terrorist organization because of several issues and make the US feel responsibility for all developments. The US controls Iraq at present. If Americans cannot prevent terrorist actions against our country, we have right to establish buffer zone in our border with Iraq.

Hidayat Vahapoglu said 150-200-man group composed of PKK members is in the occupied Azerbaijani territories. “I can exactly say that there are PKK terrorists in Karabakh. Turkish Armed Forces can not carry out operation in Nagorno Karabakh now. But if AKP government starts talks with Armenia, this issue should be certainly discussed, or it should be openly stated in the UN that Armenia supports PKK terrorist organization and sheltered the members of this organization in the occupied Nagorno Karabakh territory,” he said.

The Turkish parliament agreed to extend the government’s authority to deploy ground troops and conduct operations in northern Iraq to crush Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) hideouts in that country, but Turkey’s experience in the past year has shown that cross-border operations do not have a huge impact on Turkey’s fight against terrorism, Today’s Zaman reports.

A bill authorizing the government to launch military offensives in northern Iraq was passed in October of last year with 507 votes for and 19 against.

Since then Turkey has conducted ground operations in northern Iraq only once, but air strikes have been launched many times. An attack last Friday on the Aktutun military outpost located in Hakkari near the Iraqi border, taking the lives of 17 soldiers, shows that nearly a year after Parliament approved cross-border operations Turkey is still vulnerable to attacks by PKK terrorists.

Yesterday’s vote garnered more support than had been previously expected with 511 voting in favor and 18 against.

The decision to extend mandate was taken soon after at least three police officers and one civilian were killed with as many as 20 wounded in an attack on a Diyarbakir police station.

Turkeya s Energy Minister said on Wednesday that Turkey was going to push ahead with its deal with Iran to produce and export gas from Iran, saying cancellation of the deal was a oeout of the question,a Reuters ...

Italy's top diplomat in Ankara said Monday that Italy is on Turkey and the Turkish nation's side in the fight against PKK.

Officials found ten bodies washed up on the shores of the Gulf of Saros in the Aegean coast of Turkey over the past few days.

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Three police trainees and a civilian were killed and 22 other people were wounded in an attack on a police bus in southeast Turkey on Wednesday, police said.

Unidentified assailants armed with guns and explosives attacked the vehicle on a busy street on the outskirts of the city of Diyarbakir. At least 11 of the wounded were trainee police officers and the others were civilians, police said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the daylight attack. Kurdish separatist guerrillas frequently target Turkey's armed forces and police in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

“There is hostility against Turkey. If it is not prevented, treacherous criminals can pull Turkey into separation. Being Turkish state will impede it, because we have not other way out of situation”, Devlet Bahceli, leader of nationalist MHP told in his party group meeting.

"A buffer zone must be created in northern Iraq in order to prevent inflations into Turkey", Devlet Bahceli said. Turkey is face-to-face with an open terror threat managed by Iraq, he added. The Government would evaluate the proposal, Deputy Prime Minister and Government Spokesman Cemil Cicek told reporters.