Turks in Europe

More than 3,000 Turkish nationals were repatriated from cities around the world April 23 as part of an initiative by
Ankara amid the coronavirus pandemic.

After routine health checks were coordinated by the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), they were brought to dormitories in several cities in Turkey to be quarantined.

A top Greek politician on Nov. 8 came under fire for comparing a Greek island favored as a destination by irregular migrants to a region of Greece with a large population of ethnic Turks dating back centuries.

Europeans across the world will not be able to walk the streets safely if they keep up their current attitude towards Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned.

Turkey has been mired in a diplomatic row with Germany and the Netherlands after they banned Turkish officials from campaigning in support of an April referendum on boosting the Turkish President’s powers.

French far-right lawmaker Marion Marechal-Le Pen has responded to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's call on Turks in Europe to "have five children," saying "the future of Turks in Europe is Turkey." 

"Dear Erdoğan, the future of Turkish people living in Europe is Turkey," Le Pen posted on her Twitter account, tagging Erdoğan's account. 

A new campaign urging Turks living abroad to spend vacations and hold weddings in Turkey will kick off in Germany next month, the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry said Feb. 25, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.      

Turks call northern Cyprus baby land, a term deriving from motherland. Whenever there is some progress in peace talks among the divided communities of the island, some in Turkey start talking about the threat of losing the "babyland." "We should not lose at the table what we gained by our blood," they would say.

Meskhetian Turks living in the United States commemorated their 72 years of exile from their then-Soviet homeland Georgia in front of the White House on Nov. 12. 

More than 600,000 Turkish citizens abroad have so far voted in the general election, due to take place in Turkey on June 7.

A total of 685,158 Turkish citizens had cast their votes in embassies and consulates abroad as of May 28. Voting first opened on May 8.

A recent report of the United Nations Security Council 1267/1989 Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee?s Monitoring Team estimates that 25,000 foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) from 100 countries are linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), with an overwhelming majority of those fighters in Iraq and Syria.

At least 300 people from the Turkish-speaking minority in eastern Ukraine, known as the Meskhetian Turks, have fled their houses in Slaviansk following clashes between government forces and pro-Russian separatists, a community representative has said.