Turkey

Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos held a telephone call with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar on Thursday in which the two men highlighted the importance of keeping lines of communication between the two countries, as well as bilateral meetings, to create an environment of trust and co-operation.

A drone shot of collapsed buildings after an earthquake in Hatay, Turkey, 7 February 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/ERDEM SAHIN

The 74-year-old political veteran Kemal Kilicdaroglu may lack the charisma to unseat Turkey's strongman - but has gathered almost the entire opposition behind him on a mission to save democracy.

The Empire State Building, one of the landmarks of New York, the U.S., has been lit up with colors of the Turkish flag as a tribute to those who lost their lives in the deadly Feb. 6 earthquakes that ripped through Türkiye's south.

Turkey lifted the ban on tomato exports that was introduced last week, BTA reports. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry imposed the restriction because of the unusual increase in tomato prices in the country, as well as because of the earthquake, which caused tens of billions of dollars in damage.

Türkiye's competition watchdog said on March 6 it was fining Twitter owner Elon Musk for taking over the social media platform without first seeking the watchdog's permission.

The Turkish Competition board said the billionaire would be required to pay 0.1% of Twitter's gross revenues in Türkiye in 2022, without providing a figure for the fine.

Some 70 percent of buildings in Istanbul are not earthquake resistant, while about 90,000 buildings need to be demolished and rebuilt, a geoscientist has stated.

Following the 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes that shook the southern provinces and claimed more than 45,960 lives, a possible major quake in Istanbul has come back to the agenda.

Nearly 1 million euros is the amount collected in Bulgaria from donations on the account opened to help the victims of the earthquakes in Turkey last month, reported the Turkish TV channel CNN-Turk, quoted by BTA.

The TV channel presents a report on the financial aid collected in various European countries for the areas of Turkey destroyed by the February 6 earthquakes.

January 30th marked the 100 year anniversary of the signing of the Lausanne Convention, which led to the forced expulsion of 1.2 million Greek Orthodox Christians from Turkey and 400,000 Muslims from Greece.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Astana, Kazakhstan, October 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/VYACHESLAV PROKOFYEV / KREMLIN / SPUTNIK

The TurkStat figures show that in the January-December 2022 period, imports had a value of $363.71 billion, a 34 per cent increase on the previous year. Imports from Russia have doubled in value.