Geography of Asia

Turkish aviation authorities prevented a chartered airplane carrying medical supplies from reaching Cyprus, Cypriot media reported on Wednesday.

Ankara on Tuesday described the bloc comprising Greece, Cyprus, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as an attempt to create an "axis of malice" led by France.

Turkey's juniors got their first chance to venture outside on May 13 after weeks of partial curfew, under relaxed coronavirus restrictions.

According to an Interior Ministry circular sent to governor's offices across Turkey, people aged 14 and under were granted the chance to go outside on May 13 between 11.00 a.m. and 15.00 p.m. local time.

Two lawyers from the capital Ankara have filed a lawsuit case against China, where COVID-19 first emerged, over "lost profit" damages on the allegation that the contagiousness of the virus was not made public initially and the country was hiding data from the World Health Organization (WHO).

An ongoing decision to keep the borders of the two administrations on Cyprus closed in an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus has irked the residents of the village of Pyla, which is located in the buffer zone.

The novel coronavirus outbreak has revealed how weak the immune system of the global order is, Turkey's presidential spokesperson said on May 12. 

"The global system has been locked for around two to two-and-a-half months. We have seen once again how the global order is disabled with many great weaknesses," İbrahim Kalın told a program broadcast on YouTube.

A joint declaration by the Greek Cypriot administration and non-regional countries will not have any impact on Turkish Cypriots' determination to protect their rights and interests, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) said on May 12.   

The U.S. decision to suspend Turkey from the F-35 program will likely compound its already beleaguered manufacturing process, a congressional watchdog warned on May 12. 

A declaration signed on Monday by the foreign ministers of Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, France and the United Arab Emirates denouncing "ongoing Turkish illegal activities" in Cyprus' exclusive economic zone (EEZ) "is a case in point of the hypocrisy of a group of countries who are seeking regional chaos and instability," Turkey's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hami Aksoy, said on Monday.

The Turkish Wealth Fund (TWF) announced late on May 11 that it will raise the core capital of three state lenders.

"To strengthen capital structures and support the adequacy of Ziraat Bank, Halkbank and VakıfBank, we have launched the necessary works to raise core capitals by a total of 21 billion Turkish liras [some $3 billion]," the TWF said in a statement.