Turkey

ANKARA, Jan 7 (NNN-ANADOLU) – Turkey yesterday reported, 68,413 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily figure since the outbreak, raising its tally to 9,787,274, according to its health ministry.

The number of daily cases in the country has about doubled since early Jan, as the Omicron variant rapidly increases.

The death toll from the virus rose by 156 to 83,231, while 25,502 more people recovered in the last 24 hours.

A total of 418,823 tests were conducted over the past day, the ministry said.

07 Jan 2022; MEMO: Weapons manufactured by Turkey have proven their effectiveness in the field, Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said yesterday.

Speaking during the inauguration ceremony of a new facility for a national fighter development project in Ankara, Akar said these projects will enhance the continuous localisation plan in the technological, defence and security fields, and will raise Turkey's position in the technologies field.

ISTANBUL, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Turkey's lira slipped as much as 1.7% on Thursday, and has shed some 22% in the last nine trading sessions, on persisting investor concerns about a surge in inflation to a 19-year high after a series of unorthodox interest rate cuts.

The currency weakened to 13.89 against the dollar, before trimming its losses to 13.745 by 0800 GMT. Last year it slumped 44% in its worst year since President Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party came to power in 2002.

06 Jan 2022; MEMO: Russia's Gazprom Export and Turkish state energy company BOTAS signed a four-year natural gas supply deal, Gazprom Export announced today.

The Russian company will send 5.75 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas a year to BOTAS via the TurkStream pipeline effective on 1 January.

Various agreements were signed between Gazprom Export and BOTAS for natural gas shipments on 30 December, according to Gazprom Export.

03 Jan 2022; MEMO: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday he will make a visit next month to Saudi Arabia, whose ties with Ankara have been strained in recent years, reports Reuters.

Asked about resolving issues in exports to Saudi Arabia as he left a trade event, Erdogan said he would travel to the Gulf state in February.

"He is expecting me in February. He made a promise and I will make my visit to Saudi Arabia in February," he said in a video posted on social media, without giving a name.

ISTANBUL, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Turkey's annual inflation rate surged to 36.1% last month, its highest in the 19 years Tayyip Erdogan has ruled, laying bare the depths of a currency crisis engineered by the president's unorthodox interest rate-cutting policies.

In December alone, consumer prices took a rare step into double-digits, rising 13.58%, Turkish Statistical Institute data showed on Monday, eating deeper into the earnings and savings of Turks rattled by the economic turmoil.

02 Jan 2022; MEMO: The Armenian government has announced that it is lifting its embargo on Turkish goods from the beginning of 2022, marking a new step in the thawing of relations between the two countries.

Armenia's economy ministry made the announcement in a Facebook post on Thursday, stating that "as a result of interdepartmental discussions, a decision was made not to extend the embargo on Turkish goods."

31 Dec 2021; MEMO: President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Turks should keep all their savings in lira in 2022 amid recent exchange rate volatility, Reuters reports.

According to the report, Erdogan called on Turks to keep their savings in local currency, Turkish liras, and to bring their gold savings into the banking system.

"I want all my citizens to keep their savings in our own money, to run all their business with our own money, and I recommend this," Erdogan said.

31 Dec 2021; MEMO: A group of Iranian doctors received training in heart valve replacement surgery at a hospital in southern Turkey, Anadolu News Agency reports.

In a statement, the City Training and Research Hospital in the province of Adana said that eight well-known cardiology specialists working in public, university and private hospitals in Iran, as well as two health institution managers from the country, received training on heart valve replacement by entering through the groin.

31 Dec 2021; MEMO: Turkey's Treasury and Finance Minister has claimed that the United States' Federal Reserve does not belong to the American public but is, instead, owned by five wealthy families, sparking criticism by economists.