Forming an international coalition to impose a partial no-fly zone over Syria, in order to provide protection for the Syrian population on the run from the civil war ongoing in the country, has been under discussion among Western allies for the last few weeks, Turkish official sources confirmed to the Hürriyet Daily News on Aug. 24. The confirmation came after French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had ...

Caterpillar executives in Turkey for investment talks Turkey’s new investment incentive scheme garnered attention from world’s leading companies in a variety of sectors including energy, construction, heavy machinery and petrochemicals that seek to establish a solid footing in one of the fastest growing emerging countries. Executives from US-based heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar and its local partn ...

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to pay a visit to neighboring Iran to discuss the results of an international nuclear security summit set to take place in South Korea in late March, which will focus on Iran's disputed nuclear enrichment program. Erdogan will meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran during the week following the 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit on March 26 ...

Chinese vice president holds talks in Ankara Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping visited Ataturk's Mausoleum--Anitkabir and the parliament in Turkish capital of Ankara on Tuesday. Turkish Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek had a meeting with Chinese Vice President Xi in the parliament. Close cooperation between Turkey and China would be to the interest of whole world, Cicek said. Turkish-Chinese relations have be ...

Iran announces that Istanbul will host expected nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 but there is no confirmation on the Turkish side, which previously feared that Tehran might use the talks to parry the West Salehi said yesterday that Istanbul will host talks between Iran and P5+1 on Islamic Republic’s nuclear program but Turkey did not confirm the next round of talks between Iran and six world powers o ...

What was expected to happen "did" happen and Sadrettin Sarıkaya, the Turkish prosecutor who called National Intelligence Agency (MİT) team that held talks with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to testify in an alleged terror case, was removed from the case. İbrahim Işık and Adem Özcan were chosen to replace Sarıkaya while Bilal Bayrakar will continue his task in the investigation, the reports sai ...

Ukrainian president: talks continue between Ukraine, Azerbaijan & Turkey for joint energy projects Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych said that there were trilateral talks going on between Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Turkey to implement joint energy projects. Following his meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Yanukovych said that Ukraine was in an active dialogue with Azerbaijan on implementi ...

Before arriving in Ankara for a two-day official visit, US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta had a stopover in Baghdad to join the flag lowering ceremony of the American forces there.  Panetta firstly met with Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz in Ankara yesterday. Reportedly, Panetta thanked Yilmaz for contributions made by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) to Afghanistan and discussed with his counterpart the iss ...

Several U.S. companies will hold talks in Turkey till December 9. A U.S. delegation consisting of representatives of 17 companies headed by Francisco J. Sanchez, U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, will hold talks in Turkey regarding business opportunities with Turkish companies. The delegation will hold talks in Turkish capital of Ankara today, in western province of Izmir on Wednesda ...

European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek said on Thursday that the EU needed Turkey, and Turkey needed the EU. Buzek addressed the Turkish parliament and said, "in the EU as well, Turkey has an important role to play. Cyprus remains the last divided country in the European Union - and we also look to you to constructively help end this dispute." "The tensions we have witnessed in the recent months between ...

Afghanistan and Pakistan held their first talks on Tuesday since the assassination of an Afghan peace negotiator, in a meeting hosted by Turkey to heal a rift undermining prospects of ending the Afghan war.    Hamid Karzai and Asif Ali Zardari met along with Turkish President Abdullah Gül while their army chiefs consulted ahead of an international conference on Afghanistan. Afghanistan accuses Pakistan's In ...

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has reiterated Turkey’s position on conflict surrounding the natural resources of the eastern Mediterranean and said all natural resources of the Cyprus island belong to all Cypriots without discrimination. “We are at a historical turning point in Cyprus,” Davutoğlu told reporters after his meeting with Turkish Cypriot Foreign Minister Hüseyin Özgürgün, adding that U ...

A senior US official has said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Turkey on Nov. 2 to attend a meeting for talks with Afghanistan’s neighbors to discuss ways forward for the war-battered nation. US special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman, who is on a visit to Turkey, told Turkish NTV broadcaster on Tuesday that Clinton positively responded Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet ...

No more talks will be held with PKK terrorists, PM Tayyip Erdoğan says, vowing to continue the fight until the militants lay down their arms Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan once again spoke to members of press he invited on his plane on the way back from New York to answer their questions and share his assessments. At times, he tends to be highly irritable and on the edge, according to what some friends who f ...

Intellegence chief Hakan Fidan is alleged to take part in secret talks with the PKK. AA photoThe leaking of an alleged recording of secret talks between Turkish officials and Kurdish militants fuelled political bickering in Ankara on Wednesday as the opposition accused the government of deception. Despite their critical stance on the leaked tape, however, none of the opposition parties have openly criticize ...

Turkey has not yet decided whether to resume negotiations with Japan on importing Japanese nuclear power generation technologies, a news report has said. A formal decision regarding the matter will be made at a meeting to be attended by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and other senior government officials, the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Daily News reported, quoting a source from the Turkish Ene ...

As first Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that relations would freeze with the EU during the Greek Cypriot presidency in the latter part of 2012 unless there was a solution to the decades-old Cyprus issue, Brussels concerns have recently increased that the already embattled accession talks would altogether ground to a halt after Turkey’s very bl ...

Turkey's Tekfen Holding (TKFEN.IS), which has interests in construction and agriculture, said it is in talks with European firms for projects in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Iraq to increase its backlog to $3 billion in five years from a current $2 billion. The company also may invest in an ammonia plant overseas, construction unit executive Umit Ozdemir and chief executive Erhan Oner told reporters late on Tues ...