Iraq

Türkiye on Jan. 18 hailed the unexpected sighting of the leopard barbel fish, listed as one of the most endangered in the world, in the Tigris River.

Environmentalists say the spotted carp-like fish was last seen in the wild more than a decade ago and was feared to have become extinct.

The Greek cadet who worked onboard St Nikolas, the Greek-owned oil tanker seized by the Iranian navy last week, is being repatriated, the ship's managing company, Empire Navigation said Thursday.

The 19-year-old trainee captain will return to Greece accompanied by the Greek ambassador to Iran.

Türkiye has urged Iran and Pakistan to show restraint and called them to resolve their differences through dialogue and cooperation after the two neighboring countries hit targets on each other's soil in the context of anti-terror combat.

Pakistan launched deadly strikes Thursday against militant targets in Iran in apparent retaliation for Iranian air raids on its territory, further stoking tensions and prompting Tehran to summon Pakistan's envoy.

Nine people, including three women and four children, were killed in the Pakistani strikes in restive Sistan-Baluchistan province, according to Iran's IRNA news agency.

Turkish exporters will focus more on large economies, such as the U.S, China and India, this year, as they aim to boost goods and service export revenues to a total of $402 billion, says Mustafa Gültepe, the head of the Turkish Exporters' Assembly (TİM).

"We are shifting our focus to the alternative markets with large import potential," he told reporters.

Bulgarian border police successfully prevented approximately 180,000 attempts by migrants to enter the country illegally in 2023, according to recent data released by the Interior Ministry on Wednesday.

The purchase comes as French lawmakers express concern over a Franco-German project to develop a successor to the Rafale. The Future Combat Air system, as it is known, is not expected to enter service before 2045 or 2050, according to the French Senate's defense committee, writes Defense News.

The scope of Türkiye's military operations into northern Iraq and Syria will expand in the coming months to eliminate the presence of the PKK and the YPG, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, accusing the United States and Russia of not keeping the promises they had given to Türkiye to this end.

Pakistan said Wednesday that Iran carried out an air strike on its territory that killed two children, after Tehran launched attacks in Iraq and Syria against what it called "anti-Iranian terrorist groups".

Pakistan denounced the strike, near the nations' shared border late on Tuesday, as "completely unacceptable", saying it was unprovoked.

Türkiye's anti-terror strategy that aims to eradicate terrorists in their hide-outs in northern Syria and Iraq has succeeded and zeroed terrorist activities on Turkish soil, the defense minister has said, informing that 78 PKK members were neutralized in the Turkish army's strikes in retaliation to the PKK's recent attacks.