Ahmet Davutoğlu

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has stressed on late Dec. 23 Ankara’s ambition to make the country a transit hub for all energy in the region.

“All energy will flow through Turkey just as all roads lead to Rome,” he said in a conference of ambassadors in the Macedonian capital of Skopje.

Turkey and its government are under siege of a massive smear campaign that began right after the Dec. 14 operation, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said, vowing they will take necessary measures to counter such attacks through public diplomacy.

The voting on four ex-ministers of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) government was to take place on Dec. 22.

A day before that, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu had said he would not think twice to “tear his arm off” if it was his own brother who attempted graft.

Turkey’s leaders never cease to invent new annals of black humor.

“Is that only two articles and a news item that you have against me?” Ekrem Dumanlı, the editor-in-chief of daily Zaman asked the judge. “Yes,” answered Bekir Altun, the Istanbul 1st Criminal Court judge.

After revealing the first nine on Nov. 6, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu unveiled seven more transformation programs of the government’s ambitious reform strategy at a press conference on Dec. 18.

Turkey’s prime minister has vowed to “cut off the arms” of those who attempt to engage in corruption, yet still describing last year’s graft probes as “coup attempts” during a speech Dec. 21.

Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani met with Turkish government figures in Ankara and Istanbul on Dec. 19, amid efforts to boost cooperation against Islamist jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

Shortly after announcing the first nine programs of a detailed economic transformation plan, the government has announced an additional set of macro-economic reforms, with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu putting particular emphasis on the need to reduce public expenditures.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan has been blasting European institutions, the EU and others over their criticism of media freedom, judicial independence and the general quality of democracy here.