Turkish Foreign Ministry

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has condemned the parole of a convict in the U.S who murdered a Turkish diplomat in the 1980s. 

A court in Los Angeles accepted on Dec. 14 a defense attorney's demand for the conditional release of the Armenian-origin convict, Hampig Sassounian, who killed Turkish Consul General Kemal Arikan in Los Angeles on Jan. 28, 1982. 

Germany's ambassador to Turkey, Martin Erdmann, expressed his sorrow to Ayşenur Bahçekapılı, the deputy parliament speaker of the Turkish parliament, for the mistreatment she received by German police at Cologne airport, which fueled a diplomatic tension between the two countries.
 
Erdmann paid a courtesy visit to Bahçekapılı on Dec. 15 in parliament.
 

A delegation of Turkish and U.S. experts that traveled to Syria's Manbij will prepare a report on the visit, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hüseyin Müftüoğlu said on Dec. 15.  

During today’s press briefing, the Minister of State and government spokesman was asked by Avgi reporter Andreas Loverdos, Democratic Alignment MP, about Proto Thema’s Sunday publication.

Turkish and Russian officials will meet in Turkey on Dec. 14 to discuss a possible cease-fire and corridor to evacuate civilians from war-torn Aleppo, as Syrian pro-government forces march toward retaking the entire city.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned the Dec. 10 terror attack on a Coptic church in Egypt's capital that killed at least 25 people.

"We convey our condolences to the bereaved families of those who lost their lives in this heinous attack and wish a speedy recovery to the wounded," the Foreign Ministry stated on Dec. 11. 

The Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned German Ambassador to Turkey Martin Erdmann on Dec. 7 to convey Ankara's reaction after airport police in Cologne temporarily held Turkish Parliament Deputy Speaker Ayşenur Bahçekapılı due to a problem with her passport, diplomatic sources have told the Hürriyet Daily News. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan slammed Germany after the incident.

Turkey’s bellicose stance towards Greece on the status quo of islands in the Aegean Sea is not something that has emerged out of the blue. The adoption of of a well planned policy that disputes the sovereignty of Greece over a series of islands and island rocks in the Aegean Sea began after the two countries came close to a military conflict in 1996 over the rock island of Imia.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry doubled down on its position that the Aegean islands of Imia were Turkish territory, responding to the reaction by the Greek Foreign Ministry that the isles were Greek soil, by stressing that Turkey’s stance had been known to the international community since 1996.

Neither Syria nor Russia carried out an attack on Turkish soldiers in northern Syria on Nov. 24, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said, calling on Ankara "to continue to improve coordination to concentrate on the anti-terror fight."