Category Archives: Turkey

Turkey backs down on threat to expel foreign ambassadors

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President Erdoğan de-escalates diplomatic spat after declaring 10 envoys ‘persona non grata’

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has backed down from a threat to expel 10 ambassadors – including those from seven Nato allies – over their demands for the release of a prominent pro-democracy activist.

In comments on Monday Erdoğan said statements issued earlier in the day by the embassies in question, reaffirming that they will abide by a diplomatic convention not to interfere in a host country’s internal affairs, “show they have taken a step back from the slander against our country” and “they will be more careful now”.

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Turkey’s move to expel ambassadors over activist’s jailing risks widening rift with west

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Envoys from 10 countries – including US, Germany and France – to be declared persona non grata

A decision by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to declare 10 ambassadors – including those from seven Nato allies – as persona non grata threatens to open the biggest rift with the west during his two decades in power.

Representatives from the US, Canada, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and New Zealand issued a joint statement earlier this week demanding the urgent release of Osman Kavala, a prominent businessman and philanthropist who has been held in pre-trial detention for more than four years on charges related to the 2013 Gezi park protests and the 2016 coup attempt.

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Turkey threatens to eject 10 western diplomats over support for activist

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President Erdoğan says ambassadors from US, Europe and elsewhere are not welcome after call for freeing of Osman Kavala

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has said he has ordered the foreign ministry to declare 10 ambassadors from western countries persona non grata for calling for the release of philanthropist Osman Kavala.

Kavala has been in prison for four years, charged with financing nationwide protests in 2013 and with involvement in a failed coup in 2016. He denies the charges.

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Has Interpol become the long arm of oppressive regimes?

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Once used in the hunt for fugitive criminals, the global police agency’s most-wanted ‘red notice’ list now includes political refugees and dissidents

Flicking through the news one day in early 2015, Alexey Kharis, a California-based businessman and father of two, came across a startling announcement: Russia would request a global call for his arrest through the International Criminal Police Organization, known as Interpol.

“Oh, wow,” Kharis thought, shocked. All the 46-year-old knew about Interpol and its pursuit of the world’s most-wanted criminals was from novels and films. He tried to reassure himself that things would be OK and it was just an intimidatory tactic of the Russian authorities. Surely, he reasoned, the world’s largest police organisation had no reason to launch a hunt for him.

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Why are Britons so much more relaxed about Covid than Europeans?

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UK residents abroad are shocked at the lack of mask wearing back home, and point fingers at the government’s blase approach

Compared with some other countries, along with high numbers of Covid cases and deaths, the UK has relatively relaxed Covid restrictions, with no mandatory vaccine passports, no social distancing measures, and no mask mandate in England.

Four people from the UK and in Europe share their views on the country’s approach to Covid restrictions compared with others they are visiting or living in.

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Afghan refugees accuse Turkey of violent illegal pushbacks

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Migrants, many fleeing the Taliban regime, claim they are being beaten, harassed and turned back by Turkish border forces

As the sun sets over a dusty ravine on the outskirts of Van city in eastern Turkey, Muhammdullah Sangeen and dozens of other Afghans are preparing for another night sleeping rough.

The 22-year-old, who has a bruised left eye and fresh cuts all over his arms, arrived from Iran a few days earlier with the help of smugglers. “I am not OK,” said Sangeen, his legs trembling. “I’m not feeling human.”

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Saudi aide accused of directing Khashoggi murder edges back to power

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Saud al-Qahtani, aide to Mohammed bin Salman, hailed as patriot on pro-government social media

Three years after the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi royal court adviser accused of directing the murder is being quietly reintroduced by pro-government influencers as a patriotic figure who has served his country well.

Social media accounts that back the Saudi leadership have in recent months been posting tributes to Saud al-Qahtani, a chief aide to crown prince and Saudi Arabia’s effective leader, Mohammed bin Salman, in a move that is seen as marking his gradual return to the seat of Saudi power. Qahtani vanished from public view in the aftermath of the gruesome killing in Istanbul that shocked the world and almost derailed his boss’s path to the throne.

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Erdoğan and Putin hold face-to-face talks over Syria ceasefire

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Turkey’s president wants to shore up the truce because it has been ruptured repeatedly in the last 18 months

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian president Vladimir Putin have held face-to-face talks for the first time since the pandemic in which they discussed the future of the last pocket of Syria outside regime control.

The leaders met in Russia’s Black Sea resort town of Sochi for Wednesday’s summit, Erdoğan sought to shore up a March 2020 ceasefire deal which ended a bruising assault by Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies on Turkish-backed fighters in north-west Syria. The fighting last year brought Ankara and Moscow close to direct confrontation and threatened Turkey – which is already home to around four million Syrians – with a new wave of refugees.

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Afghanistan’s neighbours offered millions in aid to harbour refugees

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Bordering states such as Pakistan urged to temporarily take in Afghans bound for Europe and the US

Countries neighbouring Afghanistan have been offered millions in aid if they are prepared to temporarily harbour tens of thousands of refugees, prior to security checks clearing them for transit to Europe and the US, but Pakistan and other bordering states have warned they will not take more refugees permanently.

Iran could see a large influx of refugees – mainly Hazara Shias – reaching the country overland. Refugee specialists inside Iran have suggested as many as 7,000 people were crossing the border illegally a day, with no serious control over the entire 980km (608-mile) border, and very little international aid.

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International talks aim for consensus on Taliban government

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Western G7 powers are meeting Turkey, Qatar and Nato in Doha to discuss how Kabul airport could be reopened

Talks are due in Doha and New York to try to reach an international consensus on the conditions for recognising the Taliban government in Afghanistan. There are signs of tensions between superpowers after Russia called on the US to release Afghan central bank reserves that Washington blocked after the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul earlier this month.

“If our western colleagues are actually worried about the fate of the Afghan people, then we must not create additional problems for them by freezing gold and foreign exchange reserves,” said the Kremlin’s envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov.

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Cyprus: row erupts as passports of Turkish Cypriot officials rescinded

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Head of Turkish-controlled north, Ersin Tatar, calls move by Greek Cypriot government ‘racist’ and ‘anachronistic’

A war of words has erupted on Cyprus as the divided island’s two ethnic communities exchange barbs over the decision by the Greek Cypriot government to rescind the passports of senior Turkish Cypriot officials.

Ersin Tatar, who heads the Turkish-controlled north and is among those affected, described the policy as “an assault” on attempts to find a solution to the country’s partition. Previously he had called the move “racist” and “anachronistic”.

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Greece will not be ‘gateway’ to Europe for Afghans fleeing Taliban, say officials

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Athens calls for a united response, as refugees already in Lesbos hope their asylum claims will now be reconsidered

Greek officials have said that Greece will not become a “gateway” to Europe for Afghan asylum seekers and have called for a united response to predictions of an increase in refugee arrivals to the country.

Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has spoken to Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, about the developing situation in Afghanistan this week. Greek migration minister Notis Mitarachi last week said: “We cannot have millions of people leaving Afghanistan and coming to the European Union … and certainly not through Greece.” The country has just completed a 25-mile (40km) wall along its land border with Turkey and installed an automated surveillance system with cameras, radars and drones.

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Flooding death toll passes 57 in Turkey’s Black Sea region

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People thought to be trapped in collapsed buildings in Bozkurt as rescuers search for survivors

Families of those missing after Turkey’s worst floods in years anxiously watched rescue teams search buildings on Saturday, fearing the death toll from the raging torrents could rise further.

At least 57 people have died from the floods in the northern Black Sea region, the second natural disaster to strike the country this month.

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Turkey flooding death toll reaches 38 as Erdoğan tours disaster zone

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Rescuers sift through rubble for victims and survivors as country reels from floods and wildfires

The death toll from Turkey’s flash floods has risen to 38 as emergency crews searched for more victims and survivors in the devastated Black Sea region just as the country was gaining control over hundreds of wildfires.

The health minister, Fahrettin Koca, announced on Twitter late on Friday that 32 people died in Kastamonu province, along the Black Sea, and six in the neighbouring area of Sinop. The toll was also reported by the government’s disaster agency AFAD.

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Turkey flood deaths rise as fresh fires erupt on Greek island of Evia

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Twenty-seven killed in Turkish flash flooding, with southern Europe bracing for more extreme weather

The death toll from flash floods in Turkey has reached 27 and fresh wildfires erupted on the ravaged Greek island of Evia, as southern Europe braces for more extreme weather events caused by human-made climate change.

Record Mediterranean heatwaves fuelled blazes that have devastated parts of Italy, Turkey and Algeria, with Spain and Portugal on high alert, while Turkey’s Black Sea region has been hit by some of the worst floods in living memory.

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Drone footage shows devastation following floods in Turkey – video

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Heavy rains have triggered severe floods and mudslides in northern Turkey, killing at least one person and leaving others missing or injured. Turkey has been grappling with drought and a rapid succession of natural disasters that scientists believe are becoming more frequent and violent because of the climate crisis. The floods hit the Black Sea coastal provinces of Bartin, Kastamonu, Sinop and Samsun

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Turkey floods kill 17 as country battles fresh disaster

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Heavy rains and mudslides in northern regions come after devastating wildfires ravaged the south of the country

Heavy rains have triggered severe floods and mudslides in northern Turkey, killing at least 17 people and forcing thousands to leave their homes and shelter in student dormitories.

Rescue efforts continued on Thursday after torrential rain hit the Black Sea coastal provinces of Bartin, Kastamonu, Sinop and Samsun.

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