Turkey

 ISTANBUL/ATHENS, Feb 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Turkey accused neighbouring Greece of allowing 12 migrants to die in the winter cold after stripping them of their clothes and then pushing them back across the border.

   The charges from Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu — dismissed as “utter nonsense” by Greece — threaten to escalate simmering tensions between the rival members of the NATO defence alliance.

ANKARA, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Neither the United States nor other Western countries had not contributed to solving the crisis between Russia and Ukraine, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

"Unfortunately, the West has not contributed to the solution of this issue until now. I can only tell that they are creating difficulties," Erdogan was quoted as saying by the semi-official Anadolu Agency.

Even the U.S. could not achieve any progress to thaw the tension, Erdogan noted.

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish authorities on Thursday found seven more dead bodies near Turkey’s border with Greece, raising to 19 the number of migrants who have frozen to death at the frontier.

Turkey has blamed Greece for the deaths, accusing Greek border guards of illegally pushing the migrants back over the frontier. Greece has strongly rejected the accusation.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Thursday to expose what he said was Greece’s illegal pushback of migrants at every occasion.

ANKARA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Turkey and Ukraine will sign a free trade agreement during the Turkish president's visit on Thursday in a bid to meet the target of 10-billion-U.S.-dollar trade between the two countries, the Turkish trade minister said.

"We are taking a very important step in our trade relations with Ukraine in order to reach the 10-billion-dollar trade target set by the presidents of the two countries. Tomorrow, we will sign a new free trade agreement with Ukraine," Trade Minister Mehmet Mus said Wednesday at a press conference in the capital Ankara.

01 Feb 2022; MEMO: Turkiye (Turkey) is ready to undertake infrastructure projects, including rebuilding the Port of Beirut, the Turkish President said, Tuesday, at a news conference with the Lebanese Premier, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan received Najib Mikati in the Turkish capital of Ankara and held a joint news conference after a one-on-one talk and delegation-level discussions.

ANKARA, Jan 31 (NNN-ANADOLU) – Turkey’s security forces killed four members of Syria’s Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria, the Turkish Defence Ministry said, yesterday.

The Turkish forces “neutralised” the YPG fighters after they attempted to attack Turkey’s “Operation Peace Spring” zone in Syria, the ministry tweeted.

Three Turkish soldiers were killed on Jan 8, when an improvised explosive device exploded on Turkey’s border with Syria.

29 Jan 2022; MEMO: Proposals to Russia by the United States and NATO regarding the Black Sea do not violate Turkey's maritime rights, Turkish sources have confirmed.

Earlier this week, Russia released a series of security demands to NATO in continued negotiations over the Ukraine crisis. Those demands included guarantees that the alliance will never admit Kyiv and other former Soviet member states into NATO and that the deployment of western troops in those Eastern European counties will be withdrawn.

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s president has fired the head of the Turkish Statistical Institute, which is responsible for posting official inflation statistics among other data.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decisions were announced on the Official Gazette early Saturday. He replaced Sait Erdal Dincer, less than a year after his appointment, with Erhan Cetinkaya, who served as vice president of Turkey’s banking regulation agency. The reason for the move was unclear.

26 Jan 2022; MEMO: Turkish industry has been hit by power cut due to energy crisis between Iran and Turkey, Financial Times reports on Wednesday.

According to the report, the Turkish government said it would impose three days of power cuts on heavy industrial users this week.

Last week, it was announced by Turkish media that gas flow from Iran to Turkey had stopped due to technical problem.

24 Jan 2022; MEMO: Heavy snowfall hit Turkey's largest city, Istanbul on Monday, shutting shopping malls, disrupting traffic, and closing a mega-airport, Anadolu News Agency reports.

After landing in the city early in the morning, heavy snowfall caused traffic jams in the city's working-class districts of Zeytinburnu, Bahcelievler, Sariyer and Kagithane on the European side.

Some passengers, as well as vehicles, were stuck due to heavy snow.