Turkey

Since 1999, when Turkey was given the status of candidate country, Turkey’s European Union assession process lived through ups and, since 2004-2005, down, EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn said on December 21. The country had reached stability in the recent past and the opening of negotiations on the environment chapter …

Turkey and the European Union on Monday (21 December) opened the environment chapter of negotiations in the nation’s bid to join the bloc, EUobserver reports.With the move, the Anatolian state creeps further towards its goal, having now opened 12 out of the total of 35 negotiating chapters. Swedish Foreign Minister …

The 19 deputies of the now-defunct Democratic Society Party, or DTP, decided during an emergency strategy assembly on Monday to resign from the Turkish Parliament, DTP co-leader Ahmet Türk said after the party convened in Diyarbakır.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan spoke out on Monday against a court ban on a Kurdish party that caused angry protests and plunged the country into political uncertainty. The court ruling drew criticism from the European Union, dealing a new blow to Turkey’s faltering hopes of EU membership.

Armenia on Thursday threatened to walk away from a landmark deal to establish ties with Turkey if Ankara continues to link the agreement with the dispute over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region. “Armenia is prepared to honor its international commitments and we expect the same from Turkey,” President Serge Sarkisian said during …

Turkish President Abdullah Gul arrives on Friday on a two-day official visit to Montenegro. Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic and Gul are to meet in the Cetinje residence and then they will hold a press conference. A business delegation of some 100 members will arrive with the Turkish President to attend …

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Sunday at a meeting with his visiting Macedonian counterpart Nikola Gruevski in Istanbul reiterated his support for Macedonia’s Euro-Atlantic integration and backed the country in its “name” dispute with Greece. At the meeting Erdogan underlined that he felt Macedonia should be a fully-fledged NATO …

Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s new foreign affairs chief, said Wednesday that countries with different viewpoints needed to debate why only one chapter had been completed in Turkey’s accession bid.

The main opposition party in Greece has elected a former foreign minister and party rebel as its new leader, causing both concern and hope in neighboring Turkey. While giving a tacit support to Turkey’s EU membership bid, Antonis Samaras is also expected to purse hard-line foreign policy. The unexpected result …

Turkish-Armenian deals can only be ratified after the Nagorny Karabakh issue is resolved. This is according to Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who spoke at a meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov in Athens on Tuesday.