History of the Middle East

A 3,250-year-old seal belonging to a Hittite prince and an ancient cuneiform tablet dating back 3,400 years were discovered in Turkey's southern Hatay province.

The excavations in Accana Hoyuk of the Reyhanli district in Hatay on behalf of the Culture and Tourism Ministry with the support of the Turkish Historical Society, have been underway for six months.

Seals and prints determined to belong to a female administrator named Matiya were recently discovered during excavations carried out in the ancient city of Karkamış in southeastern Turkey's Gaziantep province.

Karkamış was the most important administrative center in the region of the Hittite Empire, which ruled over Anatolia and Mesopotamia for centuries.

Turkey will donate $10 million to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the country's UN envoy said on June 25.

Turkey, along with Germany, Japan, Sweden and EU will hold a meeting in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in late September in order to discuss the compensation of aid to Palestinian refugees after the United States canceled all funding to UNRWA, the U.N.'s cash-strapped Palestinian refugee agency.

A spokeswoman for UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Lebanon said that Turkey had quadrupled its contributions to the agency after Washington's funding cuts.

Turkey took over the chairmanship of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Advisory Commission for one year on July 1, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

It was the day before International Women’s Day when I heard the news about the funeral of our Hittite Queen Puduhepa.

Excavations in a Urartian necropolis in the eastern province of Van's Çavuştepe Castle, which has been plundered by treasure hunters in recent years, provide important details about Urartian burial customs. 

A major celebration will be held in the Malazgirt district of the eastern province of Muş on Aug. 26 to mark the 946th anniversary of the Battle of Manzikert ("Malazgirt" in Turkish), the victory of Seljuk Sultan Alparslan against the Byzantine Empire in 1071, with the participation of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım.

A 1,400 year-old gallery grave unearthed during archaeological works in the ancient city of Dara in the southeastern province of Mardin has been opened to visitors after necessary measures.