Turkey

13 September 2023; MEMO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated on Tuesday his call for a new and civilian constitution for his country, the local media reported widely. Erdogan made his call during a speech at a conference on Tuesday which considered the need for a “2023 constitution to replace the 1982 constitution”.

The president called upon all political parties, academics specialised in the field and other experts to help to draft the new document.

ISTANBUL, Sept 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — An international team of rescuers on Tuesday pulled to safety a US explorer who spent nine days trapped deep in the narrow tunnels of a Turkish cave with internal bleeding.

“Mark Dickey was removed from the last exit of the cave,” the Turkish Caving Federation said, adding that the “cave rescue part of the operation has ended successfully.”

The 40-year-old explorer developed stomach problems while examining the depths of the Morca Cave, a remote complex of twisting underground passageways in southern Turkey’s Taurus Mountains.

ISTANBUL, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Turkish police have detained 17 suspects in northwestern Türkiye over their alleged ties with a network believed to be behind a defeated coup in 2016, local media reported on Tuesday.

Gendarmerie command units rounded up the suspects when they tried to illegally flee to Greece from the border province of Edirne, according to the Ihlas news agency.

MERSIN, Turkey, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Rescuers raced on Sunday to rescue an American caver who had become trapped more than 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) underground in southern Turkey, moving him halfway to the surface.

Mark Dickey, 40, was on an international exploration expedition in the Morca cave in Mersin province's Taurus mountains when he began suffering from gastrointestinal bleeding at a depth of 1,040 metres.

More than 150 rescuers from Turkey and other countries have been working for days to rescue him from the country's third deepest cave.

ANKARA, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Türkiye welcomes the decision to grant the African Union (AU) in the Group of 20 (G20) as a full member, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

"We are pleased that the AU became a permanent member of G20 by the decision adopted at the G20 Summit in New Delhi," the ministry said in a statement.

"As a strategic partner of the AU, Türkiye spares no effort to enhance the representation of the AU in international fora and to make Africa's voice heard," it said.

TASELI PLATEAU, Turkey (AP) — Rescue crews were waiting for doctors to give the go-ahead Friday for an operation to move out an American researcher who fell ill almost 1,000 meters (more than 3,000 feet) below the entrance of a cave in Turkey, officials said. The effort could last up to 10 days.

07 September 2023; MEMO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged on Tuesday to punish those who attack refugees, foreigners and scarfed women in Turkiye. In a message on social media platform X, Erdogan said that there had been increasing levels of “harassment” of people in shops, buses and other public spaces.

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Vladimir Putin on Monday, hoping to persuade the Russian leader to rejoin a deal allowing Ukraine to safely export grain. Moscow withdrew from the agreement in July. But Putin made it clear that the initiative would not be restored right now.

Here’s what’s at stake:

WHAT WAS THE OUTCOME OF THE TALKS?

Putin poured cold water over hopes for a revival of the grain initiative, saying the West must first meet its demands on facilitating Russian agricultural exports.

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet with Vladimir Putin on Monday, hoping to persuade the Russian leader to rejoin the Black Sea grain deal that Moscow broke off from in July.

Here are some key things to know and what’s at stake:

WHERE WILL THE TALKS BE HELD?

The meeting in Sochi on Russia’s southern coast comes after weeks of speculation about when and where the two leaders might meet.

Erdogan previously said that Putin would travel to Turkey in August.

ANKARA, Sept 2 (NNN-TRT) – The Turkish National Intelligence Organisation (MIT), killed a senior member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in a cross-border operation in northern Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah region.

The “neutralised” PKK member, Rezan Gungen, codenamed “Rezan Botan,” was allegedly trained in Sulaymaniyah, for assassination attempts against Türkiye’s security forces.

Turkish authorities often use the term “neutralised” in their statements to imply the “terrorists” in question surrendered or were killed or captured.