Ankara

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has turned down a call by the U.S. to scrap a deal to buy the Russian S-400 missile defense systems, saying Washington should not conflate the issue of Ankara's procurement of defense systems with the two NATO allies' cooperation in Syria.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested over the weekend that a mosque in Athens should open with minarets if Greece wants to reopen the Halki Orthodox seminary near Istanbul.

During a trip to Turkey earlier this month, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras visited the shuttered seminary and called for a joint visit there with Erdogan next time to reopen it.

Turkey, Russia and Iran may conduct joint military operations against radical jihadist groups in Idlib province if needed, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, vowing that they will continue to work for the full implementation of an Ankara-Moscow protocol that brought about a partial ceasefire between the Syrian regime and the terror groups in the enclave.

In the wake of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's official visit to Turkey earlier this month, the neighboring country's ambassador in Athens has reiterated Ankara's demand for the extradition of eight military personnel who fled to Greece after the 2016 coup attempt.

The Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC) welcomed on Thursday the US Congress decision that blocks the sale of weapons and F-35 aircraft to Turkey until further notice.

An overwhelming bi-partisan majority both at the Senate and the House in Washington has passed a bill backed by HALC and the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) with two key provisions on Turkey.

Turkey is going ahead with a purchase of Russia's S-400 missile system, a Turkish parliamentarian said ahead of an informal Friday deadline which a US official said Washington has set for Ankara to respond to a rival US offer.

Turkey's government will sell cheaper vegetables and fruits online besides their sales at physical points-of-sale set up in a number of districts by municipalities in the capital Ankara and Istanbul as part of efforts to fight against excessive price hikes which President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently described as "food terrorism."

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar (L) met his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu in Ankara on Feb. 11.

Turkey's decision to set a bounty on the eight Turkish officers who were granted asylum in Greece after the botched coup attempt of 2016 on the day of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's visit to the country is a demonstration "of authoritarianism and aggressiveness," 14 former heads of Greek Bar Associations said on Monday.

Picking up where Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan left off last week, the defense ministers of both countries will continue exploring ways to keep channels of communications open between Athens and Ankara in the context of NATO's ministerial summit in Brussels on Wednesday.