Latest News from Turkey
Turkey prevented PM Tsipras from landing on Rhodes island
Turkey demanded the aircraft carrying Greek Prime Minister and government’s ministers to Iran not to be landed on the Greek island of Rhodes arguing that Rhodes is a demilitarized area. They even suggested prime minister’s aircraft Embraer to be refueled in Ankara so as to give an overflight permission to Embraer to fly over Turkish airspace.
Ankara confirms Turkish shelling of YPG forces in Syria for third day
Turkish officials have confirmed that its armed forces shelled positions of the military wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in northern Syria for a third straight day on Feb. 15, saying the move was retaliation against the PYD's military wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG).
Deputy PM says reforms needed for unemployment to drop from double-digit rates
Turkey's labor market needs reforms to become more flexible and bring the unemployment rate below 10 percent, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet ?im?ek said on Feb. 15.
Speaking after the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜ?K) released the unemployment rate for the October-December 2015 period, ?im?ek said he did not see a "bad trend" in unemployment.
Closing Greece-FYROM borders will stem refugee flow, Kurz says
If Europe closes Greece’s northern border with FYROM will stem the refugee flow into Europe, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz has said.
“If the norther border is shut down leaving Greece for more than 24 hours with the refugees on its territory then its interest in accepting European help will quickly change,” Kurz said in an interview with TA NEA newspaper.
Missiles hit school and hospital in Syrian border town, 14 dead: Residents
At least 14 civilians were killed when missiles hit a children's hospital, a school and other locations in the rebel-held Syrian town of Azaz near the Turkish border on Feb. 15, a medic and two residents said.
They said at least five missiles hit the hospital in the town center and a nearby school, where refugees fleeing a major Syrian army offensive were sheltering.
Turkey will not allow for Syria's Azaz to fall to PYD, Davuto?lu vows again
Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu has again vowed that Turkey will not allow for Syria's Azaz district, in the countryside north of Aleppo, to fall to the forces of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).
"We will not let Azaz fall," said Davuto?lu on Feb. 15 en route to Kyiv for a one-day official visit, according to Reuters.