Turkish military

After months of declarations from top Turkish government officials that Greece's sovereignty over a number of its islands in the eastern Mediterranean is contingent upon Athens demilitarising them, now Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar has reportedly decided that he wishes to forbid Deputy Defence Minister Nikos Hardalias from visiting the said islands without Ankara's permission.

Turkish and Russian top diplomats, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Sergey Lavrov will discuss the modalities of a secure corridor to be established through the Black Sea for the shipment of nearly 20 million tons of grain to world markets to avoid a major global food crisis.

The Turkish Navy and the Coast Guard have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of irregular migrants in the waters of the Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, vowing that the government's efforts to turn the Turkish Naval Forces into the strongest fleet of the world will continue uninterruptedly.

Greece has sent eight FETÖ members who fled Turkey after the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016, to Belgium, Germany and Canada, a Greek daily has reported.

Ankara long criticized Athens for failing to extradite fugitive FETÖ members. Greece's refusal to extradite fugitives added to the tensions between the two countries.

Turkey's fishing season closed on April 15 with a countrywide ban effective until Sept. 1, but some fishermen around the Black Sea ended their activities even earlier this year due to the threat from floating naval mines.

Defense Minister Hulusi Akar has expressed suspicion over the possibility of intentionally leaving mines in the Black Sea in a bid to pave the way for NATO minesweepers to enter these waters.

A court in the capital Ankara has accepted an indictment prepared by a public prosecutor's office against Metin Gürcan, a co-founder of the opposition Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) who was arrested on Nov. 26, 2021, on charges of "political and military espionage."

Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MİT) has 'neutralized' a senior PKK terrorist in an operation in northern Iraq, security sources have said.

Sileman Şemo Yusuf, code-named Azad, was neutralized when his vehicle was targeted in the Bab Silo region in the Sinjar area, which is controlled by the terrorist group PKK/KCK.

More than 1 million Syrian refugees have returned from Turkey to their country, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar has said.

The Turkish military has "neutralized" 831 terrorists in cross-border operations in northern Iraq since April, said the defense authorities on Nov. 20.

According to the Defense Ministry, Turkish soldiers have seized nearly 1,300 weapons and 316,000 ammunitions belonging to the terrorists since Operations Pençe-Şimşek and Pençe-Yıldırım were launched in April.