Mehmet Yılmaz

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signed an appointment decree for Türkiye's ambassadors. Nine ambassadors are withdrawn back to the headquarters, according to the Official Gazette published on Dec. 31.

Within the scope of the "Fırat Fest," a 20-day spring festival organized by Fırat University, a "Color Festival" was held in the eastern province of Elazığ for the first time.

Some 5,000 university students participated in the "Color Festival," held in a social complex by the Lake Hazar and threw powdered paint at each other.

Turkey on March 24 voiced concern over the election impasse in Somalia, calling on stakeholders to resolve their disputes through constructive dialogue.

Turkish gold production by the end of 2021 is estimated to surpass the record high level in the history of the Turkish Republic that was made last year, Mehmet Yılmaz, president of the Turkish Gold Miners Association, told Anadolu Agency on March 3.

Production in 2020 peaked at 42 tonnes but is estimated to reach a volume of 45 tonnes at least by the year-end, Yılmaz said.

AT least 80 people, including two Turkish nationals, were killed and many more wounded in a suicide truck bomb attack on a security checkpoint in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Dec. 28, said Turkey's envoy to the country.

A suicide truck bomb targeted a busy security checkpoint in Somalia's capital on Dec. 28 morning, killing at least 61 people, authorities said. It was one of the deadliest attacks in Mogadishu in recent memory.

The attack took place at the junction called Ex-Control Afgoye in a southwestern suburb of the capital during the morning rush hour of Dec. 28.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appointed four members of the Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK) on May 19, three days after the parliament appointed seven members to the restructured board as part of the constitutional amendments approved on April 16.

Turkey's highest judicial regulatory body dismissed another 107 judges and prosecutors on May 5 over their alleged links to U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, who is accused of masterminding the July 2016 failed coup attempt, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported. 

A permit has been given to investigate three judges and one prosecutor who were temporarily suspended in a case into the Gülen movement due to "public indignation," the deputy chair of Turkey's Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) has stated.

Turkey's Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) announced on April 3 that it temporarily dismissed a court board and a prosecutor, less than a week after they ordered the release of some 21 suspects in a case into the media structure of the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ), which is accused of orchestrating the July 2016 failed coup attempt.