Turkey

Turkey has said it supported the membership of Georgia into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and was promoting its entrance bid. 

The Turkish military has continued to shell the positions of the Syria's Democratic Union Party (PYD) in northern Syria for a fifth straight day, stating it was "retaliating" to fire coming from the region.

Individual applications by jailed Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Can Dündar and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gül have been directed to the general assembly of Turkey's Constitutional Court, with demands that the two men be tried without arrest.  

The applications state that the rights of Dündar and Gül were abused and the earlier decision on their arrest lacked sufficient justification. 

The heightened tension between Ankara and Moscow over Syria pushed Turkish bond yields to four-and-half-month highs and hit the Turkish currency, despite a general positive outlook among emerging markets. 

Turkey's lira dropped the most since the beginning of January and slid to a three-week low of 2.98 per dollar on Feb. 16, although it has rebounded later on Feb. 17 to 2.96. 

European football's governing body UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against Lokomotiv Moscow midfielder Dmitri Tarasov for wearing a T-shirt praising Russian President Vladimir Putin after a Europa League match in Istanbul. 

The !f Istanbul Independent Film Festival celebrates its 15th anniversary this year. The festival launches today and will come to Ankara and ?zmir on March 3 and 6 The !f Istanbul Independent Film Festival will take place from Feb. 18-28 in Istanbul, and on March 3 and 6 in Ankara and ?zmir.

A sculpture of the Aksaray Malakl?s?, a dog breed known as the Anatolian lion, has been erected in the Central Anatolian province of Aksaray. 

The fame of Aksaray Malakl?s? has been on the rise in recent years in Turkey and abroad, prompting the local municipality to initiate new work to promote the dog breed in Turkey and abroad. 

The Norwegian representative of Scandinavian music, indie musician Ane Brun will perform in Istanbul once again after her concert in 2014.
 
Organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (?KSV), the concert will be held on April 1 at Salon IKSV. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that Turkish forces will not stop bombing Kurdish fighters in Syria adding that US should decide on whether it wants to support Turkey or Kurdish insurgents.

Tekfen Construction has won a supply and construction contract worth $457 million from the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project (TANAP) project, it said in a written statement on Feb. 17.

The company will complete the project in 39 months.

A total 11 companies won the right to bid in the tender, which was opened on June 26, 2015, according to a statement from TANAP.