The State Department has notified Congress that it has approved a $23 billion sale of F-16 aircraft and related equipment to Turkey, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, following months of delays, signed off on Sweden’s membership bid to join NATO. The notification occurred Friday. It came after a vote by Turkey’s parliament Tuesday in … Read more
Residents waiting at a bus stop under a large Turkish flag in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sunday, April 30, 2023. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images Turkey’s central bank on Thursday hiked its key interest rate by another 250 basis points to 45%. The hike to the benchmark one-week repo rate was in line with economists’ expectations. … Read more
Turkey is investigating an Israeli professional soccer player for the Turkish soccer club Antalyaspor after he referenced the ongoing Israel-Hamas war during a match in the coastal city of Antalya on Sunday. After scoring a goal against rivals Trabzonspor, Sagiv Jehezkel celebrated by showing to the cameras and crowd his bandaged wrist, which had “100 … Read more
The Israel-Hamas war is affecting travel across the Middle East and beyond. International arrivals to the region grew in the fourth quarter of 2023 — mainly owing to an increase in visitors to Saudi Arabia — to a level that matched 2019 numbers, according to the travel data company ForwardKeys. But it’s a far cry … Read more
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish authorities have detained 33 people suspected of spying for Israel, Turkey’s state-run news agency reported on Tuesday. Authorities were still searching for 13 others believed to have links to Israel’s Mossad security service, the Anadolu Agency reported. The suspects were detained in raids in Istanbul and seven other provinces for allegedly … Read more
ANKARA, Turkey — The Turkish Parliament’s foreign affairs committee gave its consent to Sweden’s bid to join NATO on Tuesday, drawing the previously non-aligned Nordic country closer to membership in the Western military alliance. Sweden’s accession protocol will now need to be approved in the general assembly for the last stage of the legislative process … Read more
QAMISHLI, Syria — Turkey intensified its airstrikes against Kurdish groups in Syria and northern Iraq in retaliation for the deaths of 12 Turkish soldiers in Iraq over the weekend. The Turkish defense ministry said in a statement Monday that it had killed at least 26 militants in the strikes. In Qamishili, in northeast Syria, at … Read more
ANKARA, Turkey — The Turkish government is facing mounting pressure to seek the return of the Somali president’s son, who allegedly fled Turkey after causing a fatal traffic crash in Istanbul. Yunus Emre Gocer, a 38-year-old motorcycle courier, died of injuries in a hospital on Dec. 6, six days after he was hit by a … Read more
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (left) and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson shake hands in front of NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg prior to their meeting, on the eve of the NATO summit in Vilnius on July 10, 2023. Yves Herman | Afp | Getty Images BRUSSELS — Sweden expects Turkey to approve its NATO membership … Read more
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Hungary’s capital in December, his second trip to Budapest this year at a time when both countries remain the only NATO members not to have ratified Sweden’s accession into the trans-Atlantic military alliance. During his visit on Dec. 18, Erdogan will take part in a … Read more