Turkish military

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."

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.

The Turkish parliament on Nov. 10 ratified a motion to parliament to extend the deployment of Turkish troops in Azerbaijan for one more year.

The Turkish presidency on Oct. 20 submitted a motion to parliament to extend the state's authority to launch cross-border military operations in northern Iraq and Syria for one more year.

Turkey will not accept fabricated maps in the eastern Mediterranean and it will take measures to prevent the establishment of terror corridors in its southern borders, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, suggesting that even the West has started to admit that its superior position in the international arena has come to an end.