Government of Turkey

The United States has offered to sell Turkey its Patriot missile defence system if Ankara promises not to operate a rival Russian system, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said, in what he called a significant softening in Washington's position.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is to meet on Wednesday with the country's regional governors in a bid to move forward with his government's plan to set up new reception centers for migrants on the mainland and relieve pressure on overcrowded camps on the Aegean islands. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said German and French leaders will visit Istanbul next week for talks on the migration crisis, local media quoted by the BBC reports.

Erdogan told reporters on his plane back from Brussels that he, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron "will meet in Istanbul next Tuesday", Anadolu news agency reported.

Nearly 1,000 migrants tried to cross into Greece from Turkey in the past 24 hours despite tight border security, Greek officials said on Tuesday, suggesting little respite in a nearly two-week diplomatic bust-up between Ankara and the European Union.

Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on March 10 criticized the cease-fire Ankara and Moscow brokered last week, saying there is "no truce" but a "cessation of military activities."

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey will host a summit in Istanbul on March 17 with the leaders of France, Germany and possibly Britain to discuss the migrant issue after Turkey started allowing them to try to cross into Europe late February.

Opposition İYİ (Good) Party leader Meral Akşener has criticized President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for a March 5 cease-fire deal agreed between Ankara and Moscow, suggesting it was Russia that gained an advantage in Idlib province of Syria.

Devlet Bahçeli, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), welcomed the March 5 cease-fire deal for Idlib between Russia and Turkey but warned that Ankara should hit back if the regime violates the truce.

The European Union should stop "stringing Turkey along" over helping out with the millions of migrants on its territory, the country's foreign minister said Tuesday, a day after the two sides agreed to review a four-year-old deal aimed at stemming refugee flows to Europe.

"Europe's border doesn't start at the Turkish-Greek border, it starts at Turkey's southern and eastern frontiers," Turkey's Anadolou Agency quoted Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu as saying on Tuesday.

Anadolou quoted the minister as saying in an interview given to the state-run Turkish agency earlier on Tuesday.