Turkey

I know I had promised last week an imaginary phone conversation between President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and a possible U.S. President Donald Trump for this article. But sometimes events take over, and that is what happened this time. After all, we have all the U.S. primaries ahead of us to speculate, don't we? So let us come back to our jungle, the Syrian crisis.

Turkey's ruling and main opposition parties have blamed each other for the dissolving of an inter-party parliamentary panel tasked with drafting a new constitution after just three sessions. The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) left the table on Feb.

Turkey's government will not send the country on an unpredictable adventure amid the continued shelling of Democratic Union Party (PYD) positions in northern Syria, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmu? said Feb. 16.

A Turkish sculptor has been acquitted on charges of insulting the Turkish president after he was tried for suggesting money won in compensation in a previous case against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an was "illicit."

Turkey's parliament has extended the deployment of the Turkish Naval Force in the Gulf of Aden, Somalian territorial waters and the Arabian Sea to halt piracy for another year.

Istanbul police seized 2,700 prescription drugs, including ones to treat cancer and diabetes, before the goods were smuggled to Egypt and Syria during a raid on Feb. 16 on an organized gang.

Turkey's shelling of Syrian Kurdish positions inside Syria is linked to President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an's drive to shift to a presidential system, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Figen Yüksekda? has claimed.

"This is not Turkey's war of independence. This is the Palace's war for supremacy," Yüksekda? said, referring to President Erdo?an.

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) head Kemal K?l?çdaro?lu has repeated accusations that the Turkish government has sent arms to jihadist groups in Syria. 

"Turkey should not lend armed support to jihadist groups in Syria such as [the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] ISIL," K?l?çdaro?lu said during his Feb. 16 address to the CHP's parliamentary group.

The 27th Ankara International Film Festival will bring film versions of William Shakespeare's classic tragedy "Hamlet" to the big screen.

In a section titled "There is Something Rotten in the World," Hamlet adaptations shot over the years in five different countries - Yugoslavia, Germany, Finland, France and Britain - will be screened at the festival. 

A Japanese actor has died after being stabbed in the stomach with a samurai sword during rehearsals.