Turkey

Jailed leader of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Öcalan called on PKK forces for a cease-fire and withdrawal from Turkey, in a long-awaited, historic announcement during celebrations of Nevruz, a spring festival, in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on Thursday.

Turkish Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek held meetings with Kosovo’s President Atifete Jahjaga and Speaker of the Parliament Jakup Krasniqi in Pristina on Wednesday. Cicek told reporters thatTurkey had always supported Kosovo on every platform

Turkey’s membership will contribute to EU growth, Turkish EU Minister Egemen Bagis said on Tuesday during a conference in Ankara on an EU project for capacity building in governorates. Bagis said Turkey would make the EU cake bigger, rather than reducing in size the slices of other EU member countries.

The next trilateral meeting of Azerbaijani, Turkish and Georgian Foreign Ministers Elmar Mammadyarov, Ahmet Davutoglu and Maya Panjikidze will be held in Batumi on March 28, Mammadyarov said at a briefing on Tuesday.

Turkey’s prime minister says he hopes this week’s Kurdish spring festival will herald the start of a peaceful resolution of the nearly 30-year-old conflict with Kurdish rebels. Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke Tuesday, ahead of Thursday’s spring festivities

Genc Mucaj, Albania’s new ambassador to Turkey, presented his credentials to President Abdullah Gul on Monday afternoon. The press was invited to attend the ambassador’s presentation of his credentials to the president.

The Turkish and American foreign ministers discussed the developments in Iraq and Cyprus over the phone on March 16. The Kerry-Davutoğlu talk was focused on the developments in Iraq as tension between Iraqi

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said that Turkey supports Tunisia’s democratic transitional process. The Turkish official headed to Tunisia on Sunday to meet and discuss formal topics with Tunisian officials. At his arrival, Bozdag stressed the rooted relations between two countries and said Turkey supports Tunisians during the democratic …

The Syrian opposition on Monday met in Istanbul to elect a prime minister which should run an interim government for the territory that was freed from regime control. Members of the opposition Syrian National Coalition attended the meeting, which is recognised by dozens of countries and organisations as a legitimate …

Ankara harbors hopes of a call by the outlawed PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan for a cease-fire before Nevruz, the spring holiday on March 21. “If the process continues on a positive course like it did initially, before March 21, a declaration, communication or – like how they [PKK members] …