Ankara

Four Turkish cities entered the list of the world's top 10 best performing cities economically in 2014, according to a report by the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program.

?zmir, Istanbul, Bursa and Ankara made the top 10 among 300 cities worldwide in the report, released as a part of the Global Cities Initiative, a joint project of Brookings and JPMorgan Chase.

Zübeyir Aydar, a leading outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) figure based in Brussels, has challenged the Turkish government on claims that Kurds are creating provocations in the southeast, describing Ankara's lack of steps in the peace process as a "provocation."

A suicide car bomb exploded at the gate of a Mogadishu hotel where Turkish delegates were meeting on Jan. 22, a day ahead of a visit by President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an to the Somali capital.
 
"The Turkish delegates are safe inside the hotel," police captain Farah Nur told Reuters. "The hotel was busy."

Sweden's ambassador to Ankara urges for a balanced approach in dealing with Islamist terror attacks, saying a distinction should be made between criticizing Islamist extremists and Islamophobia Nobody should stigmatize all Muslims for the crimes committed by fundamentalists, yet nobody should label criticism of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and its methods as Islamophob

French energy giant Total is expected to abandon its search for oil and gas off Cyprus, the island?s Energy Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis said on Wednesday.

He said the government had been informed last September that Total has failed to locate any targets to test drill in the blocks it is licensed to exploit.

Messages from President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an last year and Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu on Jan. 20 addressed to Armenians were not "tactical" steps taken for the 100th anniversary of the 1915 events, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç has said.

Two key suspects from Turkey's legal wiretapping body were detained on Jan. 21, as police staged an operation in six cities across Turkey as part of a vast spying case, which includes allegations of illegal wiretapping of top ranking state officials, including the prime minister.

An Ankara court has ruled to block the Twitter and Facebook accounts of notorious whistleblower Fuat Avni, who has revealed the details of a number of police and judicial operations before they happened through social media.

Turkey's foreign minister was in Doha on Jan. 20 to hold talks with Qatari leaders and put on a united front in the wake of the recent Qatari-Egyptian thaw, which seemed to mark a shift in the long-running foreign policy alignment of both countries.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu has called on all Armenians to jointly seek ways to resolve their historical differences with Turkey, stressing that it is a must for Turks and Armenians to "engage in humane relations and to recognize each other in light of 800 years of common history."