Department of State

Leaders from around the world condemned a terror attack at an Istanbul nightclub early on Jan. 1 that killed at least 39 people and injured 69 others.      
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Kremlin said in a statement.    
  

Leaders from around the world condemned a terror attack at an Istanbul nightclub early on Jan. 1 that killed at least 39 people and injured 69 others.      
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Kremlin said in a statement.    
  

The United Kingdom scolded U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for describing the Israeli government as the "most right-wing in Israeli history," a move that aligns British Prime Minister Theresa May more closely with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Dec. 28 said Israel's building of settlements on occupied land was jeopardizing Middle East peace, voicing unusually frank frustration with America's longtime ally weeks before he is due to leave office. 

NATO allies Turkey and the United States have engaged in a fresh spat after the former criticized its long-standing partner for providing weapons and thus supporting the Syria-based Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is considered a terror organization by Ankara. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said he has evidence that U.S.-led coalition forces have given support to terrorist groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Syrian Kurdish forces. 

Niloofar Rhmani is the first woman pilot of the Afghan air force. Her courageous decision was applauded by the western world and she was awarded U.S. State Department’s International Women of Courage Award in 2015.

Turkey and Russia "know" that a movement led by the U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen was behind the attack on the Russian envoy in Ankara, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavuşoğlu told his U.S. counterpart John Kerry in a phone conversation on late Dec. 19, according to a Foreign Ministry official.

The U.S. is not ruling out terrorist involvement in the assassination of Russian Ambassador to Ankara, the State Department said on Dec.20. 

World leaders and other members of the international community have expressed their condolences and condemnation following the Dec. 17 car bomb attack in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri which killed 14 soldiers and wounded 56 others.

The United States condemned the "cowardly attack," showing solidarity with the country against terror.