Turkey

Interior Minister Beşir Atalay said on Friday that the government’s much-debated Kurdish initiative would not divide the country but strengthen it under the slogan “more democracy for everyone.” In his address to Parliament, he said the government’s initiative, which the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, has billed as …

Bulgaria’s ambassador to Turkey, Branimir Mladenov, has filed his resignation, Bulgarian news agency BTA quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying on November 13 2009. The resignation comes a week after Foreign Minister Roumyana Zheleva and the Cabinet asked President Georgi Purvanov to recall Mladenov and Bulgaria’s ambassador to the US, …

Blocking Turkey’s progress toward European Union entry at a key December summit would not be in the interests of Greek Cyprus, according to the Greek Cypriot foreign minister. “As the situation stands today, we deem it would not be in our interest to halt Turkey’s accession process,” Greek Cypriot Foreign …

Greece will support any possible agreement that aims to resolve the longstanding dispute on Cyprus, the Greek prime minister has said. Prime Minister George Papandreou, who is also in charge of the Greek Foreign Ministry, called on his European counterparts to work together on the Cyprus dispute in a statement …

The ruling party’s Kurdish initiative heats up Parliament as the debate comes packed with plenty of criticism of the Justice and Development Party’s efforts and what many opposition leaders are calling intentionally bad timing. Tuesday was also the anniversary of the death of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern …

Turkish President Abdullah Gül formally inaugurated the 25th session of the Organization of Islamic States, or OIC, meeting of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation, COMCEC, Saturday morning in Istanbul. The 56 member organization is meeting in Istanbul this weekend to discuss greater cooperation in response to the …

Turkey and the European Union (EU) agreed to intensify cooperation to overcome the common problem on migration flow and to fight irregular migration, said a joint statement on Thursday.

Turkey expects to finish talks with Russia’s Atomstroiexport by next month on building its first nuclear power plant and will accelerate plans to construct more, Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said on Wednesday. Turkey has repeatedly pushed back a deadline to finish the tender, held in September 2008, at which Atomstroiexport …

Turkey is still anchored to the West and closer ties with neighboring Iran do not indicate a change of course in foreign policy, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Tuesday, brushing aside criticism of his recent trip to the Islamic Republic. Erdoğan’s visit to Iran in late October and his …

Current situation with Armenia-Turkey relations can’t last forever, so the perspective of rapprochement and border opening should be accepted. Scenarios of protecting regional interests should be developed, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Ambassador Peter Semneby stated. According to him, the war in Georgia has shown everybody there are …