DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

One presidential candidate from a small party, Muharrem Ince, withdrew on Thursday citing a faked "character assassination" carried out online. "We find it unacceptable for another country to interfere in Turkey's election process in favour of a political party. [1/4] FILE PHOTO-Kemal Kilicdaroglu, presidential candidate of Turkey's main opposition alliance, greets his supporters during a rally ahead of the May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections, in Tekirdag, Turkey April 27, 2023. Kilicdaroglu said a fundamental problem of Turkey's foreign policy in Erdogan's AK Party (AKP) tenure was the exclusion of the foreign ministry from the policy-making process. Turkey, Kilicdaroglu said, will pursue a peace-oriented foreign policy that prioritises its national interest and acts in line with the modern world.

☆ Erdogan challenger Kilicdaroglu wears bulletproof vest before vote
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

ANKARA, May 12 (Reuters) - Kemal Kilicdaroglu, main challenger of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, wore a bulletproof vest at an election rally on Friday, two days before a presidential election and in response to what a party source said was intelligence that he could be attacked. Footage also showed Kilicdaroglu's security detail carried assault rifles and were on the stage with him as he delivered his speech, the first time such protection was apparent during his election campaign. A source from Kilicdaroglu's Republican People's Party (CHP) said the 74-year-old main opposition leader wore the vest and security was ramped up after receiving "intelligence that he could be attacked". Kilicdaroglu, who has a narrow lead over Erdogan in the polls, was delivering a speech in the Black Sea city of Samsun. Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever Writing by Ece Toksabay Editing by Alexandra HudsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Turkey, Syria, Russia and Iran in highest-level talks since Syrian war
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ANKARA, May 10 (Reuters) - Foreign ministers for Turkey, Syria, Russia and Iran met on Wednesday in Moscow, marking the highest-level talks so far on rebuilding ties between Ankara and Damascus after years of animosity during Syria's civil war. NATO member Turkey has backed political and armed opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the 12-year civil war, and sent its own troops into the country's north. Cavusoglu said "taking the political process in Syria forward and protection of Syria's territorial integrity" were the other issues discussed. Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement there had been a "positive and constructive atmosphere" and that the countries' deputy foreign ministers would be tasked with preparing a roadmap to advance Syria-Turkey ties. Syrian and Turkish defence ministers had also held talks in Moscow in December.

☆ Sudan faces displacement crisis as truce talks yield no progress
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/5] Sudanese refugees, who fled the violence in their country, wait to receive food supplies from a Turkish aid group (IHH) near the border between Sudan and Chad in Koufroun, Chad May 7, 2023. The violence has accelerated a wave of people fleeing their homes, with the number of people internally displaced inside Sudan more than doubling in a week to more than 700,000 the U.N.'s migration agency said. Meanwhile there has been no outward sign of progress in the talks that have taken place in Saudi Arabia since Saturday despite their limited goal of a ceasefire to allow humanitarian access. "We believe the peaceful solution is the ideal route to handle this crisis," he said, but gave no indication he was ready to make concessions. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's office said he had spoken with Burhan on Tuesday and said Ankara was willing to host further talks on a more comprehensive settlement.

☆ Erdogan accuses opposition of provocations ahead of tight Turkish vote
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ANKARA, May 8 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused the opposition on Monday of provoking disorder and siding with terrorists, without providing evidence, in a fiery speech days before close and increasingly fractious elections. Opinion polls suggest Erdogan faces the biggest electoral challenge of his career in presidential and parliamentary votes due on May 14. The following day, on the other side of Turkey during a rally in the western town of Edirne, Erdogan accused the opposition of being "pro-LGBT" and "siding with terrorists". "They (the opposition) are trying to defame our cities shamelessly by making a scene with their own provocations," Erdogan said, without making direct reference to the events in Erzurum. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu also accused the opposition of inciting the violence in Erzurum.

It would ensure the central bank's independence and roll back measures such as allowing the cabinet to select its governor. FOREIGN POLICYIt would adopt the slogan of "Peace at Home, Peace in the World" as the cornerstone of Turkey's foreign policy. Judges' willingness to abide by Constitutional Court and European Court of Human Rights rulings would be considered when evaluating promotions. Measures would be taken to ensure courts quickly implement rulings by the two high courts. It would ensure that pre-trial detentions are the exception, a measure that critics say is abused under Erdogan's rule.

☆ Turkey's Erdogan cancels election rallies for a day for health reasons
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

[1/3] Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan greets his supporters during an election rally in Manisa, Turkey April 24, 2023. Presidential Press Office/Handout via REUTERSANKARA, April 26 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he cancelled his scheduled campaign rallies on Wednesday due to health reasons, ahead of landmark May 14 elections. "Today, I will rest at home with the advice of my doctors," Erdogan wrote on his Twitter account. Late on Tuesday, Erdogan cut short a live TV interview during which he said he felt sick due to an upset stomach. Reporting by Ece Toksabay and Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Jonathan SpicerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/4] Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, accompanied by his wife Emine Erdogan, greets the audience during a meeting of his ruling AK Party to announce the party's election manifesto ahead of the May 14 elections, in Ankara, Turkey April 11, 2023. Erdogan is facing the biggest political challenge since his AK Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, with polls showing support sagging in recent years after unorthodox economic policies hobbled the lira currency and sent inflation surging. Erdogan said last week a team was working on strengthening economic policies under the coordination of former economic tsar Mehmet Simsek, who is well respected by international investors. In the presidential election next month, Erdogan will be up against the main opposition alliance candidate, Kemal Kilicdaroglu. On foreign policy, Erdogan said the AKP would continue normalizing relations in the region and aim to build an "axis of Turkey".

☆ Ministers may meet in Moscow to advance Turkey-Syria ties
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

ANKARA, April 10 (Reuters) - The foreign ministers of Turkey, Russia, Iran and Syria may hold consultations in early May as part of Russia's attempt to help broker a rapprochement between the Turkish and Syrian governments, Turkey' foreign minister said on Monday. "The meeting will most probably take place in early May, in Moscow," Minister Mevlut Cavusoğlu told broadcaster A Haber, saying it could lead to a leaders' meeting. Syrian and Turkish defence ministers held talks in Moscow in December in the highest-level encounter since the war began. Moscow is Assad's main ally and Russia has encouraged a reconciliation with Ankara. But Damascus demands full withdrawal of Turkish troops for relations to be restored.

Separately, in a televised interview on Wednesday, Erdogan downplayed the significance of the meeting with Simsek, saying such meetings were ordinary. A senior government official told Reuters the AKP was somewhat divided with some members opposed to Simsek's return, and described the outcome of the Erdogan meeting as "undesirable". The party may now need to revise its economic platform ahead of the election campaign, he added. The AKP declined to comment on whether it was revising its economic strategy ahead of the vote. Two recent polls by MAK and Turkiye Raporu show the opposition presidential challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu between 4 and 9 percentage points ahead of Erdogan.

[1/3] Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan and Finland's President Sauli Niinisto shake hands during their meeting in Ankara, Turkey March 17, 2023. The parliaments of all 30 NATO members must ratify newcomers. "We have decided to initiate the ratification of Finland's accession process to NATO in our parliament," Erdogan told reporters after meeting with Niinisto, adding he hoped parliament would endorse the bid before May 14 elections. Amid simmering tensions with Sweden, Erdogan signalled in January that Turkey could endorse Helsinki ahead of Stockholm. Washington and other NATO members had hoped the two Nordic countries would join the alliance at a NATO summit set for July 11 in Vilnius.

[1/3] Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan and Finland's President Sauli Niinisto shake hands during their meeting in Ankara, Turkey March 17, 2023. The parliaments of all 30 NATO members must ratify newcomers. "We have decided to initiate the ratification of Finland's accession process to NATO in our parliament," Erdogan told reporters after meeting with Niinisto, adding he hoped parliament would endorse the bid before May 14 elections. Washington and other NATO members had hoped the two Nordic countries would join the alliance at a NATO summit set for July 11 in Vilnius. Turkey's parliament is expected to ratify Finland before it closes in mid-April ahead of the parliamentary and presidential votes scheduled for May 14.

The polls also show the opposition bloc, called the Nation Alliance, leading the parliamentary race, at least six points ahead of Erdogan's AK Party (AKP) and its allies. The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) remains comfortably above 10%. A poll conducted on March 6-7 by Alf Research showed Kilicdaroglu at 55.1% and Erdogan on 44.9%. Piar Research showed Kilicdaroglu winning with 57.1%, with Erdogan lagging on 42.9%. ORC Research showed Kilicdaroglu ahead with 56.8% and Erdogan on 43.2%, according to a poll conducted on March 4-6, before Kilicdaroglu was officially announced as the opposition candidate.

Under a new proposal following a weekend of political intrigue, two popular mayors would serve as vice presidents should the opposition win in the presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14. With polls showing a close race, the vote is the biggest challenge Erdogan has faced in two decades in power. Instead, Aksener proposed that either Ekrem Imamoglu or Mansur Yavas, mayors of Istanbul and Ankara, be the candidate. "She has conveyed the proposal that the two mayors serve as executive vice presidents," Zorlu said. The opposition has failed in previous national votes to pose a serious challenge to Erdogan, whose AKP came to power in 2002.

☆ New Turkey quake kills one person, flattens more buildings
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Timour Azhari | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The latest aftershock, with a magnitude of 5.6 and depth of 6.15 km, hit three weeks after a massive quake that killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey and Syria. Turkey has arrested 184 people suspected of complicity in the collapse of buildings in this month's earthquakes and investigations are widening, a minister said on Saturday. On Sunday, AFAD announced that the death toll in the devastating quake three weeks ago had risen to 44,374. More than 160,000 buildings containing 520,000 apartments collapsed or were severely damaged in Turkey by the disaster, the worst in the country's modern history. After the latest tremor, AFAD issued a fresh warning on Twitter telling people not to enter or even stand near damaged buildings in the earthquake zone.

☆ Turkey's NATO talks with Sweden and Finland to resume on March 9
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ANKARA, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday that talks with Sweden and Finland regarding their NATO membership bids would resume on March 9, after being suspended in January in the wake of a Koran-burning protest in Stockholm. "It is not possible for us to say "yes" to Sweden's NATO bid before we see these steps." Sweden and Finland applied last year to join the North Atlantic defence alliance after Russia invaded Ukraine, but Sweden in particular has faced unexpected objections from Turkey. Ankara accuses Stockholm of harbouring what it considers members of terrorist groups, and has demanded their extradition as a step towards giving Sweden's NATO membership its green light. The United States and other NATO countries are hoping that the two Nordic countries become members of the alliance at a NATO summit due to be held in July 11 in Lithuania's capital Vilnius.

☆ Turks protest over government's quake response in stadiums, on streets
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

At a separate demonstration in Istanbul, riot police moved swiftly to detain protesters, who were handcuffed and dragged into police buses. Following the Besiktas fans' protest, Bahceli cancelled his membership of the club, his party announced in a statement. Fans from Istanbul team Fenerbahce chanted similar anti-government slogans during Saturday's match against Konyaspor. "Twenty years of lies and cheating, resign," Fenerbahce fans shouted during their 4-0 win over Konyaspor. Dozens of members and supporters of the far-left opposition party Workers' Party of Turkey were detained in central Istanbul on Sunday at an anti-government protest, the party said.

Overnight, the death toll from the earthquakes, the most powerful of which struck at the dead of night on Feb. 6, rose to 44,128 in Turkey. That took the overall number of deaths in Turkey and neighbouring Syria to more than 50,000. More than 160,000 buildings containing 520,000 apartments collapsed or were severely damaged in Turkey by the disaster, the worst in the country's modern history. Many Turks have expressed outrage at what they see as corrupt building practices and flawed urban developments. Turkey and Armenia are still at odds over the 1.5 million people Armenia says were killed in 1915 by the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor to modern Turkey.

☆ Turkey quake survivors struggle to find shelter nearly three weeks on
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Ece Toksabay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ANTAKYA, Turkey, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Omran Alswed and his family are still living in makeshift shelters almost three weeks after the massive earthquake in southern Turkey, having been unable to find a place in an official camp. "Our houses are heavily damaged so we have taken shelter here, in a garden in our neighbourhood," said Alswed, who studied nursing at Siirt University in southeast Turkey. He was speaking after Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said overnight that the death toll in Turkey had risen to 44,218, bringing the total toll including Syria to 50,000. AFAD said over 335,000 tents have been erected in the quake zone in Turkey and container home settlements were being established at 130 locations. Nearly 530,000 people have also been evacuated from the quake zone.

☆ Turkey's last Armenian village fears for its future after quake
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Ece Toksabay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/5] A view of the damaged altar at the church in Vakifli, the last Armenian village in Turkey, in the aftermath of the deadly earthquake, in Samandag, Turkey, February 24, 2023. REUTERS/Eloisa LopezVAKIFLI, Turkey, Feb 25 (Reuters) - In Turkey's only remaining ethnic Armenian village, Vakifli, the elderly population thank God that not one of them died during the devastating earthquakes that struck the region. They gather at the tea house for shelter and warmth. "Vakifli is all we have, the only Armenian village in Turkey. Now our house is uninhabitable and we live half the time in the tea house and half the time in the tent."

☆ Ghanaian footballer Atsu's body found under rubble in Turkey quake, agent says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

ANKARA, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu has been found dead under the building where he lived in southern Turkey after last week's massive earthquake, the ex-Chelsea winger's Turkish agent said. "Atsu's lifeless body was found under the rubble," Murat Uzunmehmet told reporters in Hatay, where the athlete's body was found. "Currently, more items are still being taken out. Atsu had been scheduled to fly out of southern Turkey hours before the quake, but Hatayspor's manager said on Friday the Ghanaian opted to stay with the club after scoring the game-winning goal in a Feb. 5 Super Lig match. Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Editing by William MallardOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ NATO chief says 'time is now' for Turkey to ratify Finland and Sweden membership bids
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Huseyin Hayatsever | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ANKARA, Feb 16 (Reuters) - NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday the "time is now" for Turkey to ratify applications by Finland and Sweden to join the defence alliance. Finland and Sweden applied to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February last year and their membership bids have been ratified by all allies except Hungary and Turkey. Turkey says Sweden harbors members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is seen as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and others. "For me, this just demonstrates that Sweden and Finland understand and are implementing policies which recognize the concerns that Turkey expressed. Cavusoglu repeated Turkey's position that it could evaluate Finland and Sweden's bids to join NATO separately.

ANKARA, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Turkish police said they have arrested 78 people accused of creating fear and panic by "sharing provocative posts" about last week's earthquake on social media, adding 20 of them were being held in pre-trial detention. Turkey's General Directorate of Security said it had identified 613 people accused of making provocative posts, and legal proceedings had been initiated against 293. President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party had said a law was needed to tackle false accusations on social media, and it would not silence opposition. The government has also blocked social media in the past. Within a week of the earthquake, some 6,200 items of false information and news were reported to the government, Altun added.

[1/7] Children draw at a makeshift shelter that hosts about 250 people, half of whom are children, following the the deadly earthquake in Mersin, Turkey, February 13, 2023. Anti-Syrian slogans such as "We don't want Syrians," "Immigrants should be deported," and "No longer welcome" trended on Twitter. TENSIONS ON THE RISETurkey is home to nearly 4 million Syrian refugees, having opened its borders to those fleeing the civil war that erupted there in 2011. Turkey has spent more than $40 billion since 2011 accommodating the refugees at a time of intense economic hardship in the country. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday a new influx of refugees from Syria to Turkey was "out of the question".

[1/8] Seho Uyan, who survived a deadly earthquake, but lost his four relatives, sits in front of a collapsed building in Adiyaman, Turkey February 11, 2023. Turkey said about 80,000 people were in hospital, with more than 1 million in temporary shelters. U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths described the earthquake as the region's worst event in 100 years, predicting the death toll would at least double. He praised Turkey's response, saying his experience was that disaster victims were always disappointed by early relief efforts. It has killed 24,617 inside Turkey, and more than 3,500 in Syria, where tolls have not been updated since Friday.

Search resuls for: "Toksabay"

25 mentions found