Latest News from Turkey

When will the AKP provide the stability it promised?

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in November promising stability for Turkey. So far there is not even a semblance of that stability, as tensions rise domestically and Turkey's foreign relations are beset with serious problems.

Constitutional guarantees more important than presidential system

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an told us "Turkey should freely debate the new constitution."

And then he told the world "Oppressive regimes do not only threaten our region but the whole world."

He voiced the first sentence many times to us in Turkey.

He voiced the second sentence while addressing the world the other day in Chile at a United Nations conference.

All we need is money in the Cyprus love song

Ever since I started covering the Cyprus issue in 1990, I have heard two main things from Turkish officials, whom I considered to have the most rational and realistic approaches:

1 - The parameters of the solution are known to both sides, there's no need to discover America over and over again. What is needed is for the actors to take the bitter pill and go that last extra mile.

The Boys are Dead: The Roboski massacre and Turkey's Kurdish question

'The Boys are Dead: The Roboski Massacre and the Kurdish Question in Turkey' by Frederike Geerdink (Gomidas Institute, $22, 196 pages)

EU approves Turkey migration fund as Italy drops objections

European Union countries approved on Feb. 3 funds for Turkey to help refugees and migrants in the country in exchange for Ankara ensuring fewer of them venture out towards Europe .

All 28 EU countries signed off on the proposal at a meeting in Brussels on Feb. 3 after Italy dropped its opposition to the plan, which was first approved in November.

Arrested Istanbul deputy police chief acquitted of murder charges

An Istanbul court ruled on Feb. 3 for the acquittal of an Istanbul deputy police chief who was arrested on murder charges after killing a motorcyclist in Istanbul.

Celal Y?lmaz, 51, was arrested in November 2015 after he shot dead motorcyclist Ahmet Sülüso?lu during a quarrel in traffic.

Missing persons' panel in Cyprus finds 1,061 bodies

Some 1,061 missing people have been unearthed in the past 10 years in Cyprus, while around 700 of the bodies have been identified and handed over to their families, according to a Turkish Cypriot member of the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) in Cyprus.

UNICEF: Share Rises of Women, Children in Migration Flow to Europe

There are more children and women than adult males travelling along the so-called Balkan Route at present - for the first time since the refugee and migrant crisis in Europe started last year, UNICEF has said.

Children and women now make up nearly 60% of refugees and migrants crossing the border from Greece into Macedonia, UNICEF reported in a news note on Monday.

Harry Potter apparates in Japan as bug-eyed 'manga' figure

Harry Potter and his wizarding friends have been transmogrified into cartoon characters in Japan, a country which remains bewitched by the fantasy world of Hogwarts and its magical inhabitants.

Muslim butcher's shop sprayed with bullets in Corsica

The front window of a Muslim butcher's shop was sprayed with bullets during the night on the French island of Corsica, where communal tensions have flared in recent months, local prosecutor Eric Bouillard said Feb. 3.

Locals flee conflict-hit southeastern town as curfew lifted

Locals in the town of Sur in southeastern Diyarbak?r province began to flee their houses on Feb. 3, after a months-long curfew was lifted in nine neighborhoods, where clashes between the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Turkish security forces have been ongoing.