Turkey

ANKARA, Turkey – Six people, including opposition Great Union Party (BBP) leader Muhsin Yazicioglu, died in a helicopter crash in the southern province of Kahramanmaras, Interior Minister Besir Atalay said on Friday (March 27th). Yazicioglu’s helicopter crashed Wednesday in bad weather. Searchers took two days to find the wreckage and …

BRUSSELS, Belgium/ANKARA, Turkey – Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Friday (March 27th) Ankara is not against “any candidate” for the post of NATO secretary-general. “Turkey does not have any particular objection [to Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s candidacy],” media reports quoted Gul as saying in Brussels.

MADRID, Spain – Spanish police have detained a alleged senior official of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), authorities announced on Friday (March 27th). The suspect is Remzi Kartal, a former lawmaker from Turkey’s disbanded Democracy Party (DEP) and allegedly a former PKK commander. He was apprehended last Monday in …

VATICAN CITY – Cypriot President Demetris Christofias met on Friday (March 27th) with Pope Benedict XVI as part of his four-day visit to the Holy See. Benedict XVI said he hopes the direct reunification talks between Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat will “bear fruit”. The Cypriot president …

Today, Kenan Evren, the leader of a 1980 military coup is falling from grace as are other coup-era generals in Turkey. For decades, he was the embodiment of a Turkish “pasha” general, one of those stern custodians of the republic’s secular principles, always ready to step in to salvage the …

The current NATO secretary general steps down on July 31 and his successor is expected to be named at a NATO summit on April 3 and 4. Turkey has not decided whether to back Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the next NATO chief, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said …

Turkey accuses the KRG of not doing enough to crack down on rebels from the Kurdistan Workers` Party (PKK). Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul urged the prime minister of Iraq’s largely autonomous Kurdistan region on Tuesday to take a clear position against Kurdish separatist rebels using Iraq as a base to …

NICOSIA, Cyprus – President Demetris Christofias expressed concern on Monday (March 23rd) that election results in the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) may harm ongoing reunification talks between the two Cypriot communities.

ANKARA, Turkey – Police arrested a senior military officer Monday (March 23rd) as part of an investigation of alleged killings of Kurds by Turkish security forces in the 1990s. They detained Colonel Cemal Temizoz in the central city of Kayseri, where he commands the local paramilitary gendarmerie.

Police across Turkey have arrested dozens of suspects in the Ergenekon probe over the past year. A Turkish colonel was arrested on Monday in connection with an investigation into alleged extrajudicial killings a decade ago in the mainly Kurdish southeast, Turkish media said. Authorities this month began excavating suspected mass …