Iraqis

The Turkish government will provide substantial financial support to property companies for promotion activities abroad, according to a presidential decree published in the Official Gazette on April 22.

Marketing Turkish properties have been classified as "service exports," the decree said.

Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) increased monthly by 13.5 percent in February, while it recorded an annual increase of 96.4 percent in nominal terms and 26.9 percent in real terms, according to data released by the Turkish Central Bank yesterday.

The RPPI (2017=100), which measures quality adjusted price changes of dwellings in Turkey stood at 317.6 in February.

Turkey has denounced a bomb attack in the Syrian capital Damascus, which targeted religious sites that Shia pilgrims were visiting. 

"We strongly condemn an attack that killed and wounded many people in Syria's capital, Damascus, which targeted places that are considered sacred by Shia believers," said a Foreign Ministry statement on March 12. 

Twin bombs targeting Shiite pilgrims on March 11 killed at least 40 people in Damascus, most of them Iraqis, a monitoring group said, in one of the bloodiest attacks in the Syrian capital.

House sales in Turkey increased in a modest trend by 4 percent in 2016 compared to the previous year reaching 1.3 million, although sales to foreigners dropped sharply, according to a fresh data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK).

Sales to foreigners declined by 20.3 percent compared to the previous year, dropping to 18,189. 

Housing sales in Turkey surged for the third month in a row in October, although sales to foreigners continued to decline, data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) showed on Nov. 23. 

Property sales soared 25.1 percent year-on-year in October to 130,274 units after surging by 17.8 percent year-on-year in September to 108,818 units.  

Iraqis bought more properties in Istanbul last year than any other foreign buyers, while the biggest foreign buyers of property in southern Antalya province were Russians, according to Turkish Environment and Urban Affairs Minister Fatma Sar?.

The number of asylum-seekers in industrialized countries rose by nearly half last year, driven by the devastating conflicts in Syria and Iraq, with Germany the top destination and Turkey being in the top five of the target countries, the U.N. refugee agency said March 26.

The number of asylum-seekers in industrialised countries rose by nearly half last year, driven by the devastating conflicts in Syria and Iraq, with Germany the top destination, the UN refugee agency said March 26.