Turkey

24 August 2022; MEMO: The United States has expressed its concerns to Turkiye over its ongoing business ties and trade with Russia, warning it of similar sanctions on Turkish businesses, if cooperation continues.

25 August 2022; MEMO: Turkiye's economy expanded 7.5 per cent annually in the second quarter of 2022, Reuters reports.

According to the report, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's new economic programme pushed the lira to end last year down 44 per cent against the dollar and shed another 27 per cent so far this year.

On the other hand, Turkiye's Erdogan said last week that Turkiye does not need interest rate hikes despite high inflation rates. Turkiye's inflation rate hit almost 80 per cent – a 24-year high – last month.

ANKARA, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian authorities, including Hamas that rules the Gaza Strip, welcome the normalization of relations between Türkiye and Israel because this helps Ankara better support the Palestinian cause, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday.

"Both the Palestinian president (Mahmoud Abbas) and Hamas side want our relations with Israel to be normalized. They also know that thanks to this dialogue, we will better defend the Palestinian cause," Cavusoglu said in a televised interview with the Haber Global TV channel.

ISTANBUL, Aug 20 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Saturday the United Nations is working with the United States and European Union to overcome obstacles to Russian food and fertilisers reaching world markets.

Guterres said that under a U.N.-brokered deal agreed in Turkey last month to resume Ukraine's grain exports cut off since Russia's invasion in February, more than 650,000 metric tonnes of grain and other food was already being exported.

ISTANBUL (AP) — A passenger bus collided Saturday with emergency teams handling an earlier road accident in southern Turkey, leaving at least 15 people dead and nearly two dozen injured, officials said.

Three firefighters, two paramedics and two journalists were among those killed on the highway between Gaziantep and Nizip, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu tweeted. The other eight fatalities were on the bus, he added.

Gaziantep Gov. Davut Gul said 22 other people were injured in the incident.

19 August 2022; MEMO: Turkiye's Central Bank shocked markets, Thursday, with a cut to its benchmark policy rate, despite inflation in the country sitting near 80 per cent, Financial Times reports.

According to the report, the Turkish Central Bank's statement, Thursday, said that the committee expects the "disinflation process to start" and that there are signals of a "loss of momentum in economic activity."

ANKARA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Türkiye and Russia have been in constant dialogue over the presence of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in Syria.

On his flight back home from Ukraine, Erdogan told reporters that a possible Turkish military operation against YPG was an important topic of his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia's Black Sea resort city of Sochi on Aug. 5, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

ANKARA, August 18. /TASS/: Turkey will go ahead with diplomatic efforts in a bid to resolve the Ukrainian crisis, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday following trilateral talks in Lvov with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

"Turkey will go ahead with diplomatic efforts for a peaceful ending of the war in Ukraine. I believe that sooner or later it will come to an end at the negotiating table. Both Zelensky and Guterres are unanimous in this respect," Erdogan said.

17 August 2022; MEMO: Israel and Turkiye announced the full normalisation of their relations on Wednesday, Anadolu Agency reports.

According to the report, the normalisation agreement was released by Israel's Prime Minister, Yair Lapid's office.

The agreement highlights the new appointments of the ambassadors and consuls to Tel Aviv and Ankara,  the report says.

15 August 2022; MEMO: The Turkish government will be hosting a panel of experts from 12 countries which will discuss the urgent need to reform the United Nations' Security Council (UNSC), based on Turkiye's long-held view that the current system is flawed and unequal.