Tayyip Erdogan

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said he does not believe the Palestinian militant group Hamas will leave Qatar, where it is based, adding he had seen no such signs that Doha wished the group to leave, either.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan began a rare visit to Iraq on Monday aiming to reset ties between the Middle East neighbors by inking a raft of deals covering security cooperation against Kurdish PKK militants, energy and trade.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan discussed efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza and reach a fair and lasting peace in the region during a meeting with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul on Saturday, his office said.

Turkey will take steps to strengthen its medium-term economic program and the three main priorities are to increase public savings, prioritize investments and accelerate structural reforms, President Tayyip Erdogan said.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli leadership are solely responsible for the recent escalation of tensions in the Middle East, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.

"Israel is trying to provoke a regional conflict, and its attack on Iran's embassy in Damascus  was the last drop," he told a press conference in Ankara after a cabinet meeting.

The brother of an opposition candidate was killed and four other people injured in clashes between opponents and supporters of the newly elected ruling-party mayor of a city district in a predominantly Kurdish region of southeastern Turkey.

President and Chairman of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has convened his party's top executive body to analyze the local election results, which observed a decline in the ruling party's support.

President Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Monday to correct any mistakes that led to his party's defeat in Turkey's local elections where the opposition capitalised on economic woes and alienated Islamist voters, casting uncertainty over his reform plans.

Newly re-elected Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu has emerged as the main challenger to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's reign. But in some ways, he is following in the footsteps of the Turkish leader who ran the city in the 1990s.

Turks dealt President Tayyip Erdogan and his party their biggest electoral blow on Sunday in a nationwide local vote that reasserted the opposition as a political force and reinforced Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu as the president's chief rival.