President Tayyip Erdogan told Russia's Vladimir Putin on Friday that Syrian army attacks in northwest Syria are causing a humanitarian crisis and threaten Türkiye's national security, the Turkish presidency said. Syrian troops have encircled rebels and a Turkish military post in northwest Syria in an offensive to reclaim territory and towns they lost early in the war. The military observation post near the town of Morek is one of 12 which Türkiye established in northwest Syria under a deal with Moscow and Tehran two years ago to reduce fighting between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and rebels. Türkiye...
Türkiye in International Media
All of Türkiye's observation posts, formed under an agreement with Russia and Iran, will remain in place and support will continue to be provided to the posts, Turkish Presidential Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Wednesday. On Monday, a suspected Syrian army strike hit near a Turkish military convoy heading to an observation post near Idlib's Khan Sheikhoun. Damascus denounced what it said was a Turkish attempt to save routed rebels. Speaking to reporters after a cabinet meeting, Kalin said President Tayyip Erdogan would hold phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump in the...
Türkiye's foreign minister has warned Bashar al-Assad’s regime not to “play with fire” after a Turkish military convoy was bombed in north-west Syria. “These attacks could pave the way for a disaster,” Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday, adding that Ankara would “do whatever is necessary for our soldiers’ security”. The heightened rhetoric comes amid a dramatic escalation of violence in one of the last major battlegrounds of the Syria civil war, which has become a zone of proxy conflict embroiling international powers including Türkiye and Russia. Türkiye supports armed groups that oppose Mr Assad...
A Turkish military convoy was targeted by an airstrike in Syria on Monday, killing three civilians, Türkiye’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. Syria’s government said the convoy contained weapons bound for insurgents, without saying whether it was behind the strike, which took place in Idlib province. The attack threatened to set off a new round of violence between the governments of Syria and Türkiye and imperiled the fragile military cooperation between Moscow and Ankara in northern Syria, including agreements aimed at decreasing violence there. While Türkiye has been able...
Türkiye's defense minister says a Turkish-U.S. coordination center for a so-called "safe zone" in northern Syria will become fully operational next week. Hulusi Akar also said Friday that Türkiye and the United States had reached an agreement concerning the control of airspace over the planned safe zone but provided no further detail. Akar spoke during a visit to Sanliurfa province bordering Syria, where Türkiye and the United States agreed to establish a Joint Operation Center for the safe zone. Türkiye has been pushing for the establishment of a safe zone that would...
Türkiye's military pension fund OYAK has reached a provisional agreement to take over British Steel, it said on Friday, adding it planned to close the deal by year-end. Britain's second-largest steelmaker employs 5,000 workers and produces high-margin steel products used in construction and railways. It supports a further 20,000 jobs in its supply chain. The company was put into compulsory liquidation on May 22 after Greybull Capital, which bought the firm for one pound from Tata Steel three years ago, failed to secure funding to continue its operations. Ataer Holding, an affiliate of OYAK, will have the exclusive rights to carry out...
A U.S. delegation has arrived in Türkiye's southern province of Sanliurfa to start work on the establishment of a joint operations centre to coordinate a planned safe zone in neighbouring Syria, Turkish authorities said on Monday. The two NATO allies agreed in talks last week to establish the centre that would manage the zone in northern Syria though no agreement has been announced on key details of the zone, including the size of the area in question and the command structure of joint patrols that would be conducted there. There has been cautious progress on the centre despite...
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has hailed a decision by Turkish and U.S. officials to set up a joint operations center as a first step toward the creation of a safe zone in northeast Syria. The Turkish and American officials ended three days of talks in Ankara to discuss plans for a safe zone on Wednesday, saying they had agreed to set up an operations center in Türkiye "as soon as possible." They gave no details but said Türkiye's security concerns regarding the region would be addressed. Speaking at a joint news conference with his Ukrainian counterpart,...
Türkiye's defense minister says his country would like to establish a so-called "safe zone" in northeast Syria jointly with the United States but will act alone if necessary. Hulusi Akar made the comments on Wednesday as Turkish and U.S. military officials continued to hold talks in Ankara over the zone. He said the talks were progressing in a "positive" manner, adding that the American officials' views were "moving closer" to Türkiye's. Ankara wants to control — in coordination with the U.S. — a 19-25 mile-deep zone east of the Euphrates River in Syria, and wants no Syrian Kurdish...