Turkey

ANKARA, April 22 (Xinhua) -- A total of 21 "terrorists" were killed by Turkish troops over the past four days in northern Syria and Iraq, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Saturday.

Three of the "terrorists" were killed in Iraq's Zap region, semi-official Anadolu Agency quoted Akar as saying during an event in the Turkish central province of Kayseri.

Calling the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) a "tool in the hands of imperialists" to hinder Türkiye's development, Akar said that the Turkish government is determined to eliminate the PKK.

ANKARA, April 22. /TASS/: More than 50,000 people are listed as dead as a result of earthquakes in Turkey on February 6, the country's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Saturday.

"The death toll from earthquakes with an epicenter in Kahramanmaras has reached 50,783," he told the CNN Turk TV channel.

The earthquakes of magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 occurred on February 6 with nine-hour intervals in Kahramanmaras province in southeastern Turkey. Tremors, followed by hundreds of aftershocks, were felt in neighboring countries, of which Syria was the most affected.

21 Apr 2023; MEMO: President Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday flicked the switch on Turkey's first delivery of natural gas to an onshore plant from a reserve discovered in the Black Sea and promised to provide free natural gas for households before May 14 elections, reports Reuters.

The ceremony was the government's latest attempt to showcase large energy and infrastructure projects in the run up to the election, which opinion polls show Erdogan could lose after two decades in power.

21 Apr 2023; MEMO: Istanbul's Blue Mosque reopened fully on Friday, the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, following a restoration effort that began in 2018, reports Anadolu Agency.

Attending the mosque's opening ceremony, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described it as "one of the most important symbols of Istanbul."

FILYOS, Türkiye, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Türkiye on Thursday started the delivery of natural gas from its Black Sea field, as part of its flagship project aiming at reducing the country's dependence on energy imports.

The gas, shipped from a depth of 2,200 meters at the offshore Sakarya field via a 170-kilometer-long subsea pipeline and through various compression plants, was delivered to the newly constructed Filyos land facility located in the northern Zonguldak province.

Istanbul Police, Tuesday, seized unprocessed raw diamonds with a market value of TL 20 million ($1 million), estimated to be 61.38 carats, during an operation in the Grand Bazaar – one of the historical trade centres of Istanbul, local Turkish media reports.

According to the report, the Istanbul Police Department and the Department of Combating Financial Crimes received information about the smuggling of diamonds in the historic Grand Bazaar, Istanbul.

They detained four foreign national suspects, the report added.

April 19 (Reuters) - Russia on Wednesday accused Ukraine of sabotaging the Black Sea grain deal by demanding bribes from ship owners to register new vessels and carry out inspections under the cover of a deal the United Nations hopes could ease a global food crisis.

There was no immediate comment on the allegation, levelled by Russia's Foreign Ministry, from Ukraine which has blamed Moscow for problems with the agreement. Moscow did not immediately provide documentary evidence to back its assertion.

18 Apr 2023; MEMO: Turkish citizens will now be able to obtain a visa for Egypt on arrival, according to an announcement on Saturday by Turkiye's charge d'affaires in Cairo.

"Our citizens will be able to enter Egypt without obtaining a visa in advance," Salih Mutlu Sen said on Twitter, adding the following day that it will be "the first time in the last ten years."

18 Apr 2023; MEMO: Turkiye's child population, which was determined as 22,578,378 at the end of last year, constituted 26.5 per cent of the country's population, a local Turkish news outlet reports.

According to the report, it is estimated that the child population ratio will be 25.6 per cent in 2030, 23.3 per cent in 2040, 20.4 per cent in 2060 and 19 per cent in 2080.

18 Apr 2023; MEMO: Turkiye is considering petitioning a federal court in the United States to enforce an arbitration award amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars that it won against Iraq, amid a dispute over crude oil exports Ankara received from Iraq's autonomous northern Kurdish region.