Tajikistan

Ambassador Öztürk Y?lmaz, Turkey?s former consul general to Mosul who was among 49 hostages held by extremist militants in Iraq for 101 days, has resigned from Foreign Ministry to run in the Nov. 1 snap parliamentary elections as a candidate lawmaker for the Republican People?s Party (CHP), Turkish media reports said.

The first phase of the joint U.S.?Turkey program to train and equip fighters to combat the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has ended in a scandalous failure. 

Nine suspects have been detained for allegedly recruiting militants and providing logistical assistance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in a police operation in the Central Anatolian province of Konya.

Turkish security forces over the last three days until July 12 detained 45 foreign nationals seeking to cross into Syria to join Islamic State ofIraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadists from the southeastern city of Gaziantep, Do?an News Agency has reported.

Nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India will start the process of joining a security bloc led by China and Russia at a summit in Russia later this week, a senior Chinese diplomat said on July 6, the first time the grouping has expanded since it was set up in 2001. 

A major reshuffle of some 40 ambassadors has gone into effect, with Öztürk Y?lmaz, the former Turkish consul general to Mosul who was taken hostage last year along with 48 others by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants for 101 days, appointed as ambassador to Tajikistan's capital of Dushanbe.

The US-based think tank IREX on June 24 presented in Belgrade its annual study on the media situation in 80 countries, stating that Serbia had recorded a downgrade in almost every measured category.

The Russian Red Army Choir, known as the Alexandrov Ensemble, will be in Istanbul and Ankara this month.  
The choir?s repertoire includes surprise Turkish songs. The Istanbul concert will be on June 13 at Zorlu PSM, while the Ankara concert will commence on June 15 at the Ankara Congresium.

The Department of Homeland Security said on May 29 it is considering expanding airline preclearance operations to 10 new foreign airports in nine countries, most of them in Europe.

A high level international conference on the implementation of the International Decade for Action "Water for Life", 2005-2015 will be held between June 9 and 11 in Tajikistan's Dushanbe.