Latest Turkey News
Turkey slams West for security warnings 'harming' tourism
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey on Thursday slammed a group of Western countries that temporarily closed down their consulates in Istanbul over security concerns, accusing them of waging “psychological warfare” and attempting to wreck Turkey’s tourism industry. Germany, the...
Iranian film director goes on hunger strike in prison
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Iranian director who was arrested last summer, weeks before his latest film was released to widespread acclaim, has gone on hunger strike to protest his continued detention amid more than four months of anti-government protests. Jafar Panahi,...
Erdogan: Sweden can't join NATO if Quran-burning is allowed
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reaffirmed Wednesday that Turkey won’t allow Sweden to join the NATO military alliance as long as the Scandinavian country permits protests desecrating Islam’s holy book to take place. Turkey, which had already been...
Hungary FM: Sweden should 'act differently' to join NATO
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Sweden's government should “act differently” if it wants to clinch Turkish support for its bid to join NATO, Hungary's foreign minister said Tuesday, adding that a recent Quran-burning protest outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm was “unacceptable." ...
Kurdish officials: Rockets hit Turkish base in northern Iraq
IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — A cluster of rockets targeted a Turkish military base in northern Iraq on Wednesday, officials from northern Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region said. An Iranian-backed militia promptly claimed responsibility for the attack. A Turkish defense ministry official...
Sweden PM says 'foreign actors' exploiting protests
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Tuesday denounced activists who burned the Quran and hanged an effigy of Turkey’s president in Stockholm as “useful idiots” for foreign powers who want to inflict harm on the Scandinavian country as it seeks to join NATO. ...
Turkey favors approving Finland's NATO bid before Sweden's
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey could greenlight Finland’s membership in NATO before that of Sweden, if the military alliance and both Nordic countries agree to it, the Turkish foreign minister said Monday. But Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haaivisto poured cold water on that...
Turkey begins child abuse trial that put spotlight on sects
ISTANBUL (AP) — The parents and husband of a woman who was forced into marriage when she was just six years old went on trial in Turkey on Monday on charges of child and sexual abuse, in a case that has shone a spotlight on the country's religious sects. The woman — now aged 24...
Turkey's opposition vows more democracy if it wins election
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A coalition of six Turkish opposition parties striving to end two decades of rule by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday reaffirmed a commitment for a return to parliamentary democracy should their alliance win elections that are likely to be held on May 14. ...
Indonesian Muslims protest Quran burning in Sweden
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Hundreds of Indonesian Muslims marched to the heavily guarded Swedish Embassy in the country’s capital on Monday to denounce the recent desecration of Islam’s holy book by far-right activists in Sweden and the Netherlands. Waving white flags bearing...
