For quite a while now Turkey has been debating whether the “Presidential System” would be suitable for the country. Opinion leaders have expressed that PM Erdoğan has made it clear he would be in favor of such a system switch in the Turkish democracy whereas many believe this would make the number one politician of Turkey even more authoritarian. The members of the ruling party have already started to talk ...

President Barack Obama sent a personal message to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan asking him to speak out against the violence. Obama has vowed to "stand fast" against spreading anti-US violence raging in the Arab world, as he mourned four Americans slain in Libya after their remains were flown home. In a heart-rending homecoming, four transfer caskets draped in American flags were slowly borne ...

On his trip to the USA, Turkish President Abdullah Gül has paid visits to major IT and High Tech companies in SILICON VALLEY which is located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California, USA. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations.President Gul paid visits to Facebook and Microsoft centers in Silicon Valley, California, on Thursday. Gul’s firs ...

Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Sunday met with his French counterpart Francois Hollande in Chicago on the sidelines of a summit meeting of NATO. CHICAGO - The meeting was held closed to news media it was also attended by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz. Turkish diplomatic sources said the two leaders expressed willingness to mend ties in bilateral relations to b ...

Top leaders accused of crimes against humanity for Uludere A lawmaker of the main oppostion Republican People’s Party (CHP) files a criminal complaint against the president, prime minister and the top commander over a botched air raid that resulted in 34 civilian deaths Main opposition deputy Mahmut Tanal has filed a criminal complaint against President Abdullah Gül, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and ...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called for a "new era" in Franco-Turkish relations in a congratulatory phone call to president-elect Francois Hollande, officials said today. In the call late on Thursday, Erdoğan said he hoped "Turko-French relations will from now on be free from artificial questions currently affecting them," an official in Erdoğan's entourage said. "I am confident on the su ...

President Musenevi calls on Turkish businesspeople to invest in Uganda Speaking at a meeting organized by the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) in the capital of Kampala, where representatives from 25 firms in Turkey met with more than 400 Ugandan businesspeople, Uganda's President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni called on Turkey's businesspeople to use the rich business opportunities ...

The meeting of Masoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan today, April 19, might hold key importance regarding the future of the Kurdish problem as a problem involving not only those two countries, but Iran and Syria as well. Barzani is on his way back from the United States where he had a series of talks, topped by one with U.S. Pres ...

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan met Iran's leaders on Wednesday amid signs Tehran might soften its stance on Syria after steadfastly supporting its closest Arab ally over more than a year of violent unrest. Erdogan arrived in Tehran before dawn, accompanied by a large delegation of ministers and officials, for discussions on Syria, Iran's nuclear programme and closer economic ties. While Turkey has re ...

No longer the supposed darling of the Arab world, Turkey finds itself on the outside looking in as the Arab League meets to discuss Syria without it due to the body’s unease over ‘non-Arab’ interference in the crisis The Arab League has shunned Turkey and Iran for its meeting today in Baghdad over Syria with the seeming intention of distancing itself from Ankara-led aggressive policies against Damascus that ...

President Abdullah Gul and First Lady Hayrunnisa Gul hosted a dinner yesterday in the honor of Czech Republic's President Vaclav Klaus and his spouse Livia Klausova paying an official visit in Turkey. "I believe that your visit will open new horizons for our countries' exemplary cooperation," Gul said, delivering a speech at the dinner. Before the dinner, Gul said in a joint conference with his Czech counte ...

President Abdullah Gül flew to the United Arab Emirates yesterday along with more than 100 business people. It was the first visit to the Emirates by a Turkish head of state in 15 years, with trade and economic cooperation topping his agenda. In remarks to reporters before his departure, Gül said there was “great potential” for stronger economic ties, emphasizing that the bilateral trade volume reached near ...

Turkey is ashamed of the verdict announced by the court which has sentenced one of the suspects to aggravated life imprisonment for “instigating” Hrant Dink’s (Turkish journalist of Armenian origin) murder. Another suspect was not sentenced in the case, however he was charged with ten years and six months in “the Mc Donald’s explosion” case. The court also ruled that all suspects in the case be exonerated f ...

The founder and the first president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Rauf Raif Denktaş, was born on Jan. 27, 1924, in Paphos to judge Raif Mehmet Bey and Enime Hanım, Turkish Cypriots. He graduated from The English School, Nicosia in Cyprus. Following his graduation, he worked as a translator in Famagusta, then as a court clerk and then as a teacher for one year in the English School. He later we ...

Rauf Denktaş was the first Turkish Cypriot president.Former Turkish Cypriot President Rauf Denktaş died due to internal organ failure in Nicosia today. He was 88 years old. Denktaş was first hospitalized in May 2011 following complaints stemming from high blood pressure and later underwent brain surgery in Ankara. He was admitted to a hospital in Nicosia on Jan. 5 following complaints of diarrhea and fatigu ...

As Turkey closes out 2011, a senior official expresses the ruling party’s New Year’s wish to see PM Erdoğan as president in 2014. The premier has long been tipped for the post, but no government member had yet spelled out such hopes A senior official and one of the prime minister’s closest aides declared the ruling party’s wish yesterday to see Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as president in 2014, becoming the first g ...

Answering to questions submitted by Internet users on YouTube World View, President Abdullah Gül criticizes the slow judiciary process in Turkey. ‘The lengthy detentions are becoming a punishment and I’m really disturbed,’ he says President Abdullah Gül has issued a strong appeal for an end to lengthy detention periods and the prosecution of journalists, warning that Turkey’s reform process is being oversha ...

Iran will target NATO's missile defense installations in Turkey if the U.S. or Israel attacks the Islamic Republic, a senior commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saturday. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Guards' aerospace division, said the warning is part of a new defense strategy to counter what he described as an increase in threats from the U.S. and Israel. Tensions have been r ...

President Abdullah Gul, and his wife, Hayrunnisa Gul, who paid an official visit to London completed their talks and returned to Turkey yesterday. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, and her husband, Duke of Edinburgh Philip, bid farewell to them at the main entrance of the Buckingham Palace. Later, Gul visited the Turkish Marines Cemetery in Portsmouth, where he laid a wreath over a stone placard carved in the m ...

Ankara could be forced to launch a cross-border operation against Syria if Damascus were to allow the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to attack Turkey from its territory, President Abdullah Gül has said during a state visit to Britain. “I don’t think the Syrian government would make that kind of mistake” in allowing the PKK to conduct attacks from the Arab republic’s territory, Gül told the daily Gu ...

Turkey and the U.K. are set to sign a military pact, President Abdullah Gul told reporters as he departed for an official visit to Britain. "The agreement on training in military, technical and scientific cooperation, along with a memorandum for cooperation in the defense industry will contribute to strengthening our cooperation with the U.K.," Gul told reporters yesterday. "Our relations with the U.K., our ...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Monday that his days as leader were numbered and he cannot remain in power indefinitely through military force. "You can remain in power with tanks and cannons only up to a certain point. The day will come when you'll also leave," Erdoğan told a meeting in Istanbul. "Someone shows up and says 'I'll fight and die. Against who ...

Turkey offers the EU more than just security, says the president on the eve of his UK visit and the EU minister adds: ‘Today’s Turkey is much better than yesterday’s.’ Turkish President Abdullah Gül said Turkey could offer the EU more than security assistance with its growing energy resources, population and dynamism, in an interview in Ankara with the British Sunday Telegraph newspaper released on Nov. 19. ...