Timeline Turkey (B) 2011-2020
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2011 Jan 5, In Turkey authorities searching for mass graves of Kurds, who disappeared in the 1990s, unearthed the bones of eight people in a field in Bitlis province in southeast Turkey.
(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 9, In Turkey PM Erdogan visited Kars and called for the destruction of a local monument near the Armenian border. The monument featured a divided human figure, with one half extending a hand to the other half. It was meant to symbolize the pain of division and the hope of reconciliation, and was sculpted from stone by Mehmet Aksoy, a prominent Turkish artist. Local authorities halted its construction on grounds that it was built on a historic military site, Timur Pasha emplacement, used to defend the city in the 16th century.
(AP, 1/10/11)(Econ, 1/15/11, p.56)(http://tinyurl.com/4g4kpya)
2011 Jan 18, It was reported that around 187,000 women in Turkey are in polygamous marriages even though polygamy is illegal.
(AFP, 1/18/11)
2011 Jan 21, Two-day talks between Iran and six world powers started in Istanbul. A senior Iranian official said suspending uranium enrichment is not up for discussion.
(AFP, 1/21/11)
2011 Jan 22, In Turkey talks meant to nudge Iran toward meeting UN Security Council demands to stop uranium enrichment collapsed, with Tehran shrugging off calls by six world powers to cease the activity that could be harnessed to make nuclear weapons.
(AP, 1/22/11)
2011 Feb 3, In Turkey a powerful explosion in Ankara collapsed two stories of a factory, leaving at least six people dead and injuring some 30 others. Hours later another explosion killed 6 more people at a paint shop in the same industrial district.
(AP, 2/3/11)(SFC, 2/4/11, p.A2)
2011 Feb 7, Iran and Turkey said they plan to triple two-way annual trade to $30 billion by 2015, ahead of a visit by Turkish President Abdullah Gul to the Islamic republic.
(AFP, 2/7/11)
2011 Feb 11, A Turkish court ruled that 133 current and former military officers must be jailed pending the outcome of their trial on charges of plotting to overthrow the government and issued warrants for the arrests of 29 other officers.
(AP, 2/12/11)
2011 Feb 13, Abdullah Gul arrived in Tehran on his first trip as Turkish president aimed at boosting economic and political ties with the Islamic republic.
(AFP, 2/13/11)
2011 Feb 14, Iran’s security forces cut phone lines and blockaded the home of an Iranian opposition leader in attempts to stop him attending a planned rally in support of Egypt's uprising. Eyewitnesses reported sporadic clashes in central Tehran's Enghelab or Revolution square between security forces and opposition protesters. Turkish President Abdullah Gul, who is on a visit to Iran, urged governments in the Middle East to listen to the demands of their people. Student Sanee Zhaleh (26) was shot dead during the opposition rally.
(AP, 2/14/11)(AP, 2/16/11)
2011 Feb 21, British-based Diageo announced the takeover of Mey Icki, Turkey’s largest maker of raki, an aniseed drink, for $2.1 billion.
(Econ, 3/5/11, p.70)
2011 Feb 27, In Turkey Necmettin Erbakan (85), a longtime leader of Turkey's Islamic political movement, died. He briefly served the country's prime minister (1996-1997) in the first Islamic-led coalition in Turkey's modern history.
(AP, 2/27/11)
2011 Mar 3, Turkish police detained 13 people, mostly journalists, in a crackdown on an alleged secularist network accused of conspiring to topple the Islamic-rooted government. Critics say the case is part of a government assault on press freedom. 4 of the journalists were released on March 12, 2012.
(AP, 3/3/11)(AP, 3/13/12)
2011 Mar 4, In Turkey several thousand demonstrators, some covering their mouths with black ribbons, protested against the detention of eight journalists in a case that has drawn expressions of concern from Western governments and international media rights groups.
(AP, 3/4/11)
2011 Mar 6, A Turkish court ordered Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener, two leading investigative journalists, jailed pending the outcome of a trial into an alleged plot to topple the Islamic-rooted government, raising further concerns over media freedom in the country. Ahmet Sik was arrested as he prepared a book about the alleged infiltration of Islamists into the Turkish police, a sensitive theme in a nation divided over the role of religion. Sener and three other journalists were freed on bail in March, 2012.
(AP, 3/6/11)(Econ, 3/12/11, p.61)(AP, 4/14/11)(Econ, 3/17/12, p.63)
2011 Mar 13, In Turkey hundreds of journalists, joined by members of some non-governmental organizations, protested the detention of reporters that the authorities allege were involved in an attempt to bring the government down in 2003.
(AP, 3/13/11)
2011 Mar 16, An Iranian cargo plane en route to Syria was forced to land in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir airport for an inspection. The plane was found to be carrying 150 tons of food but "no material contrary to international standards.
(AFP, 3/16/11)(AP, 3/23/11)
2011 Mar 19, An Iranian plane bound for Syria landed in Turkey’s southeastern city of Diyarbakir for a search of its cargo. The plane carried light weapons, including automatic rifles, rocket launchers and mortars, which were seized. The plane returned to Iran March 22 without the seized cargo.
(AP, 3/23/11)
2011 Mar 20, Britain said its air and sea strikes on Libya had been "very successful" and stressed it was doing everything it could to avoid civilian casualties as it enforces a UN-sanctioned no-fly zone. at least seven demolished tanks smoldered in a field 12 miles (20 km) south of Benghazi, many of them with their turrets and treads blown off. Turkey was blocking NATO action, which requires agreement by all 28 members of the alliance.
(AFP, 3/20/11)(AP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 21, A Turkish court ordered five military officers and two civilians jailed in a probe into the 2007 killing of three Christians, including a German national, over allegations that the attack was part of an alleged plot to topple the government.
(AP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 21, President Barack Obama, seeking to shore up participation and clarify leadership of the military attacks on Libyan forces, spoke with Turkish and Qatari leaders.
(Reuters, 3/22/11)
2011 Mar 24, Dubai police said the Gulf emirate has seized thousands of small arms being smuggled in a sea cargo shipment bound for Yemen. The weapons were discovered in a Dubai warehouse about two weeks ago. The shipment originated in Turkey.
(AP, 3/24/11)
2011 Apr 6, Turkey launched a probe into allegations that the state agency which makes the university entrance exams had devised a code so that students deemed to be pro-government could score high points. Some 1.7 million students took the exam March 27, and those who pass will take another exam in June.
(AP, 4/6/11)
2011 Apr 11, Turkey said it is willing to consider the idea of hosting a political office for Taliban militants from Afghanistan in order to promote talks to end the war there, and an Afghan official said Turkish planning is already in progress.
(AP, 4/11/11)
2011 Apr 13, The presidents of Turkey and Pakistan, meeting in Ankara, said they would support initiatives designed to end the war in Afghanistan, but they declined to confirm that a plan is under way to open a political office for Taliban in Turkey to promote peace talks.
(AP, 4/13/11)
2011 Apr 18, In Turkey Bedri Baykam, a prominent government critic, was hospitalized after a stabbing assault, which followed a speech in which he condemned plans to tear down the "Monument to Humanity," a sculpture near the Armenian border.
(AP, 4/19/11)
2011 Apr 19, In Turkey Kurdish protesters clashed with police in two cities and the main Kurdish party threatened to boycott the upcoming election because of a decision the previous day to bar some Kurdish candidates.
(AP, 4/19/11)
2011 Apr 20, In southeastern Turkey one person was killed when police opened fire on Kurdish protestors in Bismil town.
(AFP, 4/20/11)
2011 Apr 21, US helicopter maker Sikorsky Aircraft won a Turkish contract worth $3.5 billion (2.4 billion euros).
(AP, 4/21/11)
2011 Apr 26, Turkey began to demolish the 100-foot "Peace and Brotherhood" monument near its eastern border dedicated to friendship with Armenia after PM Erdogan called it a "monstrosity" on Jan 9. The statue was commissioned in 2006 to highlight friendship between Turkey and Armenia, two countries with a history of enmity and suspicion.
(AFP, 4/26/11)
2011 Apr 27, Turkey's PM Erdogan announced what he called a "crazy and magnificent" plan to build a new waterway to the Black Sea, to be completed by 2023, promising that the tanker-clogged Bosporus through Istanbul would soon be used for sports and boat trips.
(AP, 4/27/11)
2011 May 1, In Turkey activists flooded Istanbul‘s Taksim Square and marked international workers' day around the world with marches demanding more jobs, better working conditions and higher wages.
(AP, 5/1/11)
2011 May 4, A Turkish police officer was shot dead by unidentified assailants in the northern city of Kastamonu, where PM Tayyip Erdogan had been speaking earlier in the day.
(Reuters, 5/4/11)
2011 May 9, In Turkey a five-day UN-backed conference of the 48-member "least-developed countries" opened to address the problems of the world's poorest countries. The last such conference was hosted by the EU in Brussels in 2001. France hosted the two previous ones in 1990 and 1981.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 10, Two more top Turkish opposition politicians resigned, a month before the country's general election, over secretly filmed tapes posted on the Internet that reportedly showed them having extramarital affairs.
(AP, 5/10/11)
2011 May 11, Turkey announced plans to build two earthquake-resistant developments in the Istanbul area to lure residents away from dangerous neighborhoods.
(AP, 5/11/11)
2011 May 11, In Istanbul 13 European countries signed a Council of Europe convention on combating violence against women.
(Econ, 5/14/11, p.68)(https://wcd.coe.int/wcd/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1785485&Site=DC)
2011 May 14, Turkey's military in Sirnak province killed 12 Kurdish rebels over the last 24 hours who trying to infiltrate the country from northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/14/11)
2011 May 18, A Turkish website that posted compromising videos which forced four far-right politicians to resign threatened to post new sex videos that could hurt more opposition politicians ahead of next month's election.
(AP, 5/18/11)
2011 May 20, In western Turkey a 5.9-magnitude earthquake damaged buildings in Simav. At least three people were killed in the region.
(AP, 5/20/11)
2011 May 21, Six senior politicians in a Turkish opposition party resigned amid a sex video scandal that could have far-reaching consequences in elections on June 12.
(AP, 5/21/11)
2011 May 26, In Turkey a bomb mounted on a bicycle near a bus stop exploded during morning rush hour in Istanbul, wounding eight people, including a police officer.
(AP, 5/26/11)
2011 May 31, Turkey's government defended a new regulation that will filter the Internet and restrict access to websites that show pornography, bomb-making and violent content. The new regulation was set to come into effect in August.
(AP, 5/31/11)
2011 May 31, The Syrian military used heavy machine guns and artillery in renewed attacks on Rastan, a town in the country's turbulent heartland. At least one person was killed. Opponents of the Syrian regime gathered on Turkey's Mediterranean coast for a conference aimed at overcoming their differences and bolstering protesters who have endured a bloody crackdown under President Bashar Assad.
(AP, 5/31/11)
2011 Jun 1, The Syrian government freed hundreds of political prisoners in an amnesty and the president set up a committee for national dialogue in an effort to end the 10-week uprising. Syrian military forces killed 42 people in raids around Homs. Over 300 Syrian exiles gathered in Antalya, Turkey, to discuss alternatives to Bashar Assad’s rule.
(AP, 6/1/11)(AP, 6/2/11)(SFC, 6/2/11, p.A2)(Econ, 6/4/11, p.57)
2011 Jun 8, Turkey’s PM Erdogan said he would scrap the ministry for women along with 7 other cabinet jobs.
(Econ, 6/11/11, p.59)(http://tinyurl.com/3tw6omd)
2011 Jun 10, Libyan rebels staged an uprising in the western city of Zlitan. 22 fighters were reported killed. Turkey’s PM Erdogan said his country has offered to help Khadafy leave.
(SFC, 6/11/11, p.A4)
2011 Jun 12, In Turkey PM Tayyip Erdogan and his AK party won a decisive victory over rivals, as Erdogan was re-elected for the third consecutive time. The AK took nearly 50% of the votes, but failed to secure a two-thirds majority. This will force it to seek support for constitutional changes. The Republican People’s Party, the main opposition won 26%.
(Reuters, 6/12/11)(SFC, 6/13/11, p.A3)(Econ, 6/18/11, p.16)
2011 Jun 13, Police in Turkey rounded up 32 alleged members of Anonymous, hacker group, which had recently attacked a couple of official websites.
(Econ, 6/18/11, p.67)
2011 Jun 15, Turkey’s president Tayyip Erdogan held talks with an envoy of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad as a growing number of Syrians fled their country seeking safety in refugee camps. Relations between Turkey and Syria strained, as Turkey wants Syria to stop its brutal crackdown on protesters.
(Reuters, 6/15/11)
2011 Jun 18, Syrian troops backed by tanks and firing heavy machine guns swept into a village near the Turkish border, the latest in a series of intensified army operations in the northwest where there have been heavy clashes between loyalist troops and defectors. The number of Syrians who have taken refuge in Turkey to escape bloody unrest in their country increased to about 10,100.
(AP, 6/18/11)(AFP, 6/18/11)
2011 Jun 22, In Turkey Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal held talks with Turkish officials on efforts to achieve Palestinian unity during a two-day visit to Istanbul.
(AFP, 6/22/11)
2011 Jul 3, Turkey's foreign minister visited Libya and recognized the rebel leaders as the country's legitimate representatives and promised them an additional $200 million in aid.
(AP, 7/3/11)
2011 Jul 4, Turkey froze Libya's holdings in a Turkish bank, a day after it recognized Libya's rebel leaders as the country's legitimate representatives and quietly removed its ambassador from Tripoli.
(AP, 7/4/11)
2011 Jul 14, An umbrella group that includes Turkey's Kurdish party proclaimed Kurdish autonomy in Diyarbakir, hours after a clash left 13 soldiers and seven Kurdish guerrillas dead.
(AP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 15, Turkish prosecutors launched an investigation into a Kurdish proclamation of autonomy in the country's southeast as the military deployed elite forces to the region where tensions are running high following the deadliest clash between troops and rebels in about three years.
(AP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 15, A Turkish court charged 14 suspected al-Qaida militants for allegedly planning to attack the US Embassy in the Turkish capital.
(AP, 7/16/11)
2011 Jul 16, In Syria security forces continued a weekslong operation in the restive Idlib province, near the Turkish border. Authorities raided homes in the village Kfar Nabl and made scores of arrests. A civilian was killed in Al-Bukamal when security forces opened fire to break up a demonstration against the regime of President Assad. 3 security personnel were killed and two kidnapped in an attack on a government building. An opposition conference in Turkey, called the National Salvation Conference, was attended by some 400 dissidents looking to form a unified opposition to Pres. Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for more than 40 years.
(AP, 7/16/11)(AP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 29, Turkey’s top commanders suddenly quit to protest the arrest of dozens of generals as suspects in an alleged plot to overthrow the country's Islamic-rooted government. Gen. Isik Kosaner resigned as the military's chief of staff along with the commanders of the navy, the army and the air force.
(AP, 7/30/11)
2011 Aug 3, Turkey said it would put 106 more Kurdish politicians on trial for alleged terrorist propaganda, choosing to go ahead with prosecutions despite lingering tensions over the trial of dozens of others accused of fanning separatist violence.
(AP, 8/3/11)
2011 Aug 4, Turkey appointed commanders to posts left vacant by the resignation of the military's top brass in a dispute with the government that showcased the elected leaders' strengthening control over the once-mighty military.
(AP, 8/4/11)
2011 Aug 17, In Turkey Kurdish PKK rebels ambushed a military convoy in Cukurca township near the border with Iraq killing 9 soldiers. Officials vowed strong military retaliation. Turkey's air force attacked 60 suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq. The military it vowed to continue the assault until the guerrilla group is "rendered ineffective."
(AP, 8/17/11)(AP, 8/18/11)(Econ, 8/27/11, p.43)
2011 Aug 18, In southern Turkey the PKK attacked police and military stations in simultaneous overnight rocket strikes in Siirt province, killing two soldiers and wounding three civilians. Turkey's air force attacked 28 suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, in a second day of cross-border strikes in retaliation for stepped up attacks by the guerrillas.
(AP, 8/19/11)
2011 Aug 19, Turkey's military hit 85 rebel targets with artillery fire. Warplanes bombed 20 suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq in a third day of cross-border strikes.
(AP, 8/20/11)
2011 Aug 21, Turkish airstrikes on suspected rebel targets in northern Iraq killed seven Iraqi civilians, including five children and a woman, in an attack on Kortak mountain. Police used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse Kurdish protesters who tried to march to a main square in Istanbul to denounce the Turkish raids. In demonstrators marched to protest the PKK.
(AP, 8/21/11)
2011 Aug 23, Turkey's military said air strikes on suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq this week have killed an estimated 90 to 100 guerrillas and warned that it would press ahead with offensives against the group both inside Turkey and across the border.
(AP, 8/23/11)
2011 Aug 29, Turkey’s military said its air strikes and artillery fire on suspected Kurdish rebel targets this month killed up to 160 guerrillas.
(SFC, 8/30/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 2, Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador to Ankara and suspended all military ties with its one-time ally after a UN report slammed the "excessive" force used in the May 31, 2010, raid on a Gaza aid flotilla.
(AFP, 9/2/11)
2011 Sep 12, Kurdish rebels attacked a police station and a paramilitary police headquarters near Turkey’s border with Iraq killing 5 people including 3 civilians.
(SFC, 9/13/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 13, Syrian security forces riding in vehicles mounted with machine-guns raided neighborhoods outside the capital, Damascus, before dawn as Turkey's PM Erdogan said he was concerned Syria could descend into a sectarian civil war. Pro-democracy activists called a "day of anger" across Syria to protest against Russia's backing for President Bashar al-Assad. More than 20 people were reported killed throughout Syria. Syrian troops fired tear gas at a gathering of mourners just hours after U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford and other Western diplomats expressed their condolences to the family of a rights advocate killed last week.
(AP, 9/13/11)(AFP, 9/13/11)(AP, 9/14/11)
2011 Sep 14, Turkey’s foreign ministry announced that an early warning radar will be stationed in Kurecik in the southeast as part of NATO's missile defense system.
(AP, 9/14/11)
2011 Sep 16, In Turkey 3 Chechens were gunned down near a park in Istanbul. Chechen groups blamed Russia's secret service for the killings of the three, who were allegedly involved with Chechen militants.
(AP, 10/12/11)
2011 Sep 19, Turkey escalated a dispute with Cyprus over oil and gas drilling in the eastern Mediterranean, saying that it would send warships to protect its claims to resources off the coast of the divided island. US energy firm, Nobel Energy, had just exploratory drilling for oil and gas off the coast of Cyprus despite strong warnings from Turkey not to do so.
(AP, 9/19/11)
2011 Sep 20, In Turkey a car bomb went off near a high school in Ankara, killing 3 people in a nearby building and wounding 34 others. Soon after 4 women died in an attack Siirt province.
(AP, 9/20/11)(Econ, 9/24/11, p.63)
2011 Sep 21, Turkey’s Pres. Erdogan signed a deal with Turkish-controlled north Cyprus to begin drilling for oil and gas.
(Econ, 9/24/11, p.63)
2011 Sep 21, Turkey reportedly bombed the main Kurdish rebel base in northern Iraq and chased rebels in a mountainous area in the southeast in response to escalated attacks by the autonomy-seeking guerrillas.
(AP, 9/21/11)
2011 Sep 24, Kurdish rebels attacked a Turkish army outpost, killing 5 soldiers and wounding 10 in the country's southeast. Three rebels also were killed.
(AP, 9/25/11)
2011 Sep 28, In Turkey a pro-Kurdish party said it is ending its four-month-old boycott of parliament, even as tensions grew over a surge in attacks by Kurdish separatist rebels.
(AP, 9/28/11)
2011 Oct 2, Syrian dissidents meeting in Turkey formally announced the creation of a broad-based council designed to overthrow President Bashar Assad's regime in what appeared to be the most serious step yet to unify a fragmented opposition. The 21-year-old son of Syria's top Sunni Muslim cleric was killed in an ambush in a restive northern area.
(AP, 10/2/11)(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 4, Turkish police detained over 140 pro-Kurdish political activists in a nationwide sweep. The detainees included a number of elected mayors in the Kurdish southeast.
(SFC, 10/5/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 5, Turkey's PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government would announce a package of sanctions against neighboring Syria despite a UN resolution blocked by Russia and China.
(AFP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 10, Turkish air raids in northern Iraq reportedly killed 7 Kurdish rebels including three senior operatives.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 12, A Turkish court began questioning a man and three alleged accomplices suspected of attempting to kill Shamsuddin Batukayev (55), a former Chechen separatist leader, in Istanbul earlier this week.
(AP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 13, Turkey's foreign minister said that Iraq should move to prevent Kurdish attacks on his country from Iraqi soil as the two countries renewed their commitment to fight the rebels.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 18, Turkey shelled northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, in the first report of Turkish bombardment there in more than two weeks. The shelling began the previous evening. A roadside blast killed five policemen and 3 civilians in Turkey's southeast Bitlis province.
(AFP, 10/18/11)(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, Turkish soldiers, air force bombers and helicopter gunships launched an incursion into northern Iraq, hours after Kurdish rebels killed 24 soldiers and wounded 18 in attacks along the border. The United States and NATO both issued statements supporting the offensive, the largest in more than three years.
(AP, 10/19/11)(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 20, About 10,000 elite Turkish soldiers took part in a ground offensive against Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey and across the border in Iraq, making it the nation's largest attack on the insurgents in more than three years.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, Albanian port authorities said 3 sailors died and five others are missing after their Turkish merchant ship, Reina 1, collided with a passenger ferry and sank in the Adriatic some 20 miles (30 km) from the Albanian port of Durres. No injuries were reported on the ferry Ankara, which had left Durres en route for the Italian port of Bari with about 200 passengers.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 21, Turkish jets kept up bombing raids on Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq overnight, as the rebels confirmed that some Turkish troops crossed into Iraq. Turkey and Iran vowed to collaborate against the PKK and its Iranian wing, the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, or PJAK, during a visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.
(AFP, 10/21/11)(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 22, Turkey’s military said its troops over the last 2 days have killed at least 49 Kurdish rebels in a valley near the Iraqi border, as hundreds of troops also pursued Kurdish fighters within northern Iraq.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 23, A powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey, collapsing about 45 buildings. It was estimated that up to 1,000 people could have been killed. The worst damage was caused to the town of Ercis, in the mountainous eastern province of Van where 80 multi-story buildings collapsed with people trapped in 40 of them. By Nov 4 the death toll reached 603 with some 2500 injured and thousands homeless.
(AP, 10/23/11)(AP, 10/24/11)(AP, 11/4/11)
2011 Oct 25, In Turkey crowds of Kurds pelted journalists and police with stones in the quake-hit city of Van as their anger at the media's coverage of the disaster boiled over. The stoning of the reporters in the eponymous provincial capital, which left several people injured, was brought to a halt only after police used pepper-spray.
(AFP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 29, In Turkey a female suicide bomber killed two people in Bingol, in the southeastern Kurdish region and wounded 12 others.
(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Nov 1, Turkey hosted the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan for a trilateral summit designed to reduce tensions and promote cooperation between the two neighbors amid stepped-up Taliban attacks.
(AFP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 2, In Turkey regional leaders pledged to find ways to improve security and economic development in Afghanistan as international combat forces prepared to leave by the end of 2014. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari, discussed a joint inquiry into the Sept. 20 killing by a suicide bomber of Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former Afghan president and peace council leader.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 9, In eastern Turkey another earthquake, measuring 5.7, struck 9 miles (16km) south of Van. A Japanese aid worker was among 39 people killed by the earthquake. All the fatalities occurred in the Bayram Hotel and the low-budget Aslan Hotel. It hit the same region slammed by an Oct. 23 temblor that left 600 people dead.
(AP, 11/10/11)(AP, 11/11/11)(AP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 12, Turkish commandos in civilian clothes slipped onto the Kartepe, a hijacked passenger ferry, and posed as hostages before fatally shooting a suspected Kurdish rebel carrying explosives in a 12-hour drama that ended before dawn.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 13, Turkish warplanes bombed the Qandil border area in Iraqi Kurdistan for about an hour.
(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 13, In Syria tens of thousands of government supporters poured into the streets to protest an Arab League vote to suspend the country's membership, as Turkey sent planes to evacuate diplomatic staff and their families after a night of attacks on embassies. Activists reporting at least 11 people killed in shootings by security forces in several parts of the country.
(AP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 19, In Turkey delegates at an international conservation meeting agreed on a measure mandating that silky sharks accidentally caught in fishing gear be released back into the sea alive. The 48-member International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) failed to reach consensus on other threatened shark species. To fight illegal fishing, ICCAT members decided that vessels measuring 12 meters or more, instead of the previous 20 meters or more, would be inspected on arrival to port.
(AP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 20, Turkish President Abdullah Gul in published comments said there was "no place for authoritarian regimes" in the Mediterranean region, heaping more pressure on the embattled Syrian regime.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 21, Syria's security forces carried out a "qualitative" operation in the Bayada district of Homs in which they killed four terrorists and confiscated their weapons. A "top terrorist" nicknamed Bandar was among them. Syrian soldiers opened fire on at least two buses carrying Turkish citizens.
(AP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, Turkey's PM Erdogan said that Syria's Pres. Bashar Assad must step down over the country's crackdown on dissent. 6 children and 5 mutinous soldiers were among 34 people killed across Syria. 122 countries voted for a resolution at the UN General Assembly's human rights committee condemning the government crackdown.
(AP, 11/22/11)(Reuters, 11/23/11)(AFP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, Turkey's PM Erdogan apologized for the first time for the killings of nearly 14,000 people in a bombing and strafing campaign to crush a Kurdish rebellion in the 1930s. He offered his apology for the killings of 13,806 people in the southeastern town of Dersim, now known as Tunceli, between 1936 and 1939.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, Turkish President Abdullah Gul warned that President Bashar al-Assad's violent crackdown on an eight-month-old revolt in Syria threatened to "drag the whole region into turmoil and bloodshed."
(Reuters, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 30, Turkey slapped tough economic sanctions on Syria, freezing assets of officials involved in the government's crackdown on an 8-month-old uprising, suspending ties with the nation's central bank and banning all military sales.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, In Turkey a heavily armed man opened fire at Istanbul's Topkapi Palace, wounding a Turkish soldier and a security guard before police snipers killed the attacker. Hw was identified as Samir Salem Ali Elmadhavri (36), a Libyan with Syrian citizenship.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Dec 13, Turkey’s Anatolia news reported that court has jailed a policeman for four years and two months over the killing of Festus Okey (21), a Nigerian immigrant, who was shot Aug 20, 2007, while in custody.
(AP, 12/13/11)(http://www.hyd.org.tr/?pid=515)
2011 Dec 19, A Turkish news agency reported that security forces may have killed as many as 20 Kurdish separatist rebels in the country's southeast.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 20, Turkish police detained 48 people, including journalists, as part of a growing investigation into a Kurdish group that prosecutors accuse of links to Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 12/20/11)(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 22, Turkey's PM Erdogan said his country is recalling its ambassador to France and halting official contact in retaliation for a vote in the French Parliament making it a crime to deny the 1915 mass killings of Armenians was a genocide. The bill, just passed in France's lower house, still needed approval in the Senate.
(AP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 23, Turkey responded to French genocide allegations with a charge of its own, accusing France of committing genocide during its colonial occupation of Algeria. He alleged that beginning in 1945, about 15 percent of the population of Algeria was massacred by the French. He also said Algerians were burned in ovens. Most historians contend the Ottoman killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians constituted the first genocide of the 20th century.
(AP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 24, Turkish authorities released an AFP photographer, along with 12 other people who were detained as part of an investigation into a group prosecutors accuse of having links to Kurdish rebels. A court ordered 35 other suspects formally arrested pending trial over their alleged involvement in the Union of Kurdistan Communities.
(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 28, Turkish warplanes killed at least 34 people and 59 mules in an air strike on the Iraq border in an attack which a pro-Kurdish political party described as a "massacre" of civilians. Ankara's joint military command said in a statement that its jets bombed an area inside Iraq "regularly used" by PKK rebels. Those killed were smugglers aged 18-28, who routinely brought in Iraqi fuel and cigarettes with the full knowledge of local authorities. On Jan 2 Turkey said it will compensate the families of the civilians mistakenly killed in the airstrike in Uludere township.
(AFP, 12/29/11)(AP, 1/3/12)(Econ, 1/7/12, p.46)(Econ, 6/9/12, p.59)(Econ, 5/9/15, p.49)
2011 Turkey’s population was about 73 million.
(AFP, 1/18/11)
2012 Jan 3, In Turkey Kenan Evren (94), a former president (1982-1989), and former air force commander Tahsin Sahinkaya faced charges of crimes against the state. A court will now have to decide whether to accept the indictment and order a trial. Their trial began on April 4.
(AP, 1/3/12)(AP, 4/4/12)
2012 Jan 6, A former Turkish military chief, Gen. Ilker Basbug (68), suspected of leading an Internet campaign to stir revolt, was jailed in a sweeping investigation of alleged conspiracies to topple a civilian government that has stripped the armed forces of political clout.
(AP, 1/6/12)
2012 Jan 12, A Turkish court files charges against Britain’s Duchess of York for secretly filming orphanages in the country in 2008 for a British TV program.
(SFC, 1/13/12, p.A2)
2012 Jan 19, Turkish authorities exhumed the bodies of three Kurds near the village of Yagizoymak as part of their investigation into alleged extrajudicial killings by Turkish security forces in the 1990s. Lawyer Ridvan Dalmis, who witnessed the excavation, said the remains allegedly are those of civilians who were killed by security forces in June 1993 and hastily buried by Kurdish villagers before they were forced to evacuate the area.
(AP, 1/20/12)
2012 Jan 23, Turkey threatened more sanctions for France if the Senate in Paris votes later today to make it a crime to deny the 20th-century killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks constitutes a genocide. France's parliament approved the bill later in the day.
(AP, 1/23/12)(AP, 1/24/12)
2012 Jan 24, Turkey warned the French president against signing a law that makes it a crime to deny that the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago constituted genocide, saying such a move would deal a heavy blow to the relations between the two countries.
(AP, 1/24/12)
2012 Feb 7, Turkey's PM Erdogan announced a new initiative with regional players to halt the violence in Syria, saying the veto of a UN resolution had given President Bashar al-Assad a "license to kill."
(AFP, 2/7/12)
2012 Feb 10, Turkey Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said that five Turks, including a former intelligence officer, were being questioned for allegedly kidnapping and handing over to Damascus Lt. Col. Hussein Harmoush, a Syrian army officer, who had sought refuge in Turkey.
(AP, 2/11/12)
2012 Feb 11, Turkish warplanes bombed suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
(AP, 2/12/12)
2012 Feb 13, A clash in Turkey's mostly Kurdish southeast has left 15 Kurdish rebels and two Turkish soldiers dead.
(AP, 2/14/12)
2012 Feb 24, In Turkey doctors at Hacettepe University transplanted two arms and two legs on Sevket Cavdar (27). He had lost his arms and legs in 1998 when he was accidentally electrocuted. The world's 1st quadruple limb transplant soon failed due to tissue incompatibility.
(AP, 2/27/12)
2012 Feb, In Turkey followers of Fethullah Gulen, a Pennsylvania-base imam, were said to have infiltrated Turkey’s judiciary and police force. The Gulenists were reportedly now targeting Turkey’s MIT spy agency.
(Econ, 2/25/12, p.61)(http://tinyurl.com/7fde22d)
2012 Mar 6, Turkish Airlines started flying into Somalia's war-torn capital, becoming the first international company to fly passenger planes into Mogadishu in more than 20 years. Flights were scheduled for twice a week.
(AP, 3/6/12)
2012 Mar 8, Turkey's air force carried out air strikes on border areas of north Iraq.
(AFP, 3/9/12)
2012 Mar 10, Turkish journalist Adem Ozkose (34) and cameraman Hamit Coskun (21) reported from Idlib as Syrian forces with tanks and artillery were preparing to move against poorly armed rebels there. They were not heard from again until May 5 when they called their families while under Syrian detention. On May 11 Iran, acting as diplomatic go-between between Syria and Turkey, negotiated their release.
(AP, 5/11/12)
2012 Mar 12, Four Turkish journalists were freed from jail, a year after they were detained in a case that has raised fears for press freedom in the country. Two pledged to immediately tackle sensitive subjects again, including the killing of an ethnic Armenian journalist.
(AP, 3/13/12)
2012 Mar 15, Turkey’s deputy prime minister said Syria has planted landmines near its border with Turkey along routes used by refugees fleeing the regime's deadly crackdown on dissent. The foreign ministry said Around 1,000 Syrian refugees, including a defecting general, flocked into Turkey in the last 24 hours.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 16, Turkey urged its citizens in Syria to return home, saying some consular services will be halted in Damascus next week.
(AP, 3/16/12)
2012 Mar 16, In Afghanistan a Turkish helicopter crashed into a house on the outskirts of Kabul, killing 12 Turkish soldiers and two Afghan civilians.
(AFP, 3/16/12)
2012 Mar 18, In Turkey thousands of Kurds massed in Diyarbakir and Istanbul to celebrate the Kurdish new year (Nowruz). A Kurdish politician and Turkish policeman died as riot police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds.
(Econ, 3/24/12, p.54)
2012 Mar 22, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan on urged UEFA to award his country the right to host the 2020 European football championships.
(AFP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 23, Turkish police detained two people of Iranian descent after an attack on the Iranian embassy in the capital Ankara. The suspects are said to have carried out the attack because of slow processing of their visa applications by the embassy.
(AFP, 3/23/12)
2012 Mar 23, Turkish forces killed 15 female Kurdish rebel fighters in Bitlis province.
(SSFC, 3/25/12, p.A6)
2012 Mar 25, Pres. Obama met with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of a nuclear security conference in South Korea. Obama other key allies considered providing Syrian rebels with communications help, medical aid and other "non-lethal" assistance.
(AP, 3/25/12)
2012 Mar 26, Turkey closed its embassy in Damascus and recalled its ambassador as relations between the former allies continued to deteriorate.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 29, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan voiced his country's unwavering support for Tehran's nuclear ambitions in a meeting with Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Turkey relies on Iran for 30% of its oil imports, and has refused to go along with sanctions imposed by the US and Europe, saying it will observe only UN-mandated restrictions on Iran. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tehran strongly supports reforms in Syria under Pres. Assad, but visiting Turkish PM Erdogan said Assad can't be trusted and must step down.
(AFP, 3/29/12)(AP, 3/30/12)
2012 Apr 1, Syria blasted an international conference on the country's spreading crisis before it even started in Istanbul, calling it part of an international conspiracy to kill Syrians and weaken the country. Monitors said at least 16 people were killed, including eight soldiers who died during ambushes and gun battles in the east, northwest and near Damascus. Participants at the 60-nation “Friends of the Syrian People" meeting said Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries are creating a multimillion-dollar fund to pay members of the rebel Free Syrian Army and soldiers who defect from the regime and join opposition ranks.
(AP, 4/1/12)(AFP, 4/1/12)(SSFC, 4/1/12, p.A5)
2012 Apr 2, In Turkey Neslisah Osmanoglu (b.1921), an Ottoman princess who married an Egyptian prince (1940), died. She was twice forced into exile when both royal households were abolished.
(AFP, 4/3/12)
2012 Apr 4, British officials said a new batch of counterfeit cancer drug Avastin discovered in the United States was bought in Turkey and shipped through Britain by a UK-based business. Avastin, made by Roche, is a complex injectable biotech drug with annual sales of $6 billion.
(Reuters, 4/4/12)
2012 Apr 5, In south-eastern Turkey overnight blasts temporarily shut down a pipeline pumping oil from Iraq. Kurdish rebels were suspected to be behind the explosions.
(AFP, 4/5/12)
2012 Apr 5, In Syria fierce clashes between government forces and rebels erupted near Damascus ahead of an agreed truce. Some 2,500 crossed the border today, bringing to 24,000 the number of Syrian refugees now in Turkey.
(AFP, 4/5/12)(AP, 4/6/12)
2012 Apr 9, Syrian forces fired across the border into a refugee camp in Turkey, wounding at least five people. Lebanese journalist Ali Shaaban, who works as a cameraman for Al Jadeed TV station, was shot and killed as he was filming in the northern Wadi Khaled area on the Lebanese side of the border. 12 members of the Syrian security forces were killed as clashes ensued in several regions. Human Rights Watch said it has documented the killings by Syrian forces of 85 civilians, including women and children, and the summary executions of at least 16 wounded or captured opposition fighters. The Syrian rebel army said it is ready to respect an April 10 truce brokered by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan if the regime of President Bashar al-Assad abides by the peace deal.
(AP, 4/9/12)(AFP, 4/9/12)
2012 Apr 12, Turkish prosecutors ordered the arrest of dozens of former military officers, including four retired generals, over their role in forcing the resignation in 1997 of an Islamist PM Necmettin Erbakan.
(AP, 4/12/12)
2012 Apr 14, Iran and senior diplomats from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, known as the P5+1, gathered at the negotiating table in Istanbul for their first meeting in 15 months hoping to ease tensions over Tehran's nuclear program.
(AFP, 4/14/12)
2012 Apr 18, Turkey said it has intercepted an Antigua and Barbuda-flagged vessel in the Mediterranean suspected of carrying weapons and ammunition to Syria. The "Atlantic Cruiser" belonged to a German company. The ship was chartered by a Ukrainian firm, which said that the cargo contained no weapons, but legal goods for civilian use.
(AFP, 4/18/12)(AFP, 4/19/12)
2012 May 10, A Turkish court placed in custody six active and five retired generals as part of a widening probe into the 1997 bloodless coup that toppled the country's first Islamist-led government.
(AFP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 18, Leaders of Bulgaria, Qatar and Turkey agreed to study joint infrastructure projects like the construction of a new motorway from Istanbul across Bulgaria.
(AFP, 5/18/12)
2012 May 19, In northeastern Turkey a 22-meter (72-foot) high copper statue of Ataturk, the country's biggest of the iconic figure, was inaugurated in Artvin. It was a tribute to the near-mystical hold that Ataturk exerts over his fervent believers, whose admiration is rooted in his success in imposing secular values on a largely Muslim nation.
(AP, 6/10/12)
2012 May 25, In central Turkey a car bomb attack killed a policeman and wounded 17 people. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) later claimed responsibility.
(AP, 5/27/12)
2012 May 27, In southeast Turkey Kurdish rebels killed a soldier in a clash, prompting the military to launch a large-scale offensive in the area.
(AP, 5/27/12)
2012 May 29, Turkey’s PM Erdogan called for legislation to restrict women’s access to abortions.
(SFC, 5/30/12, p.A2)
2012 May 30, Turkey said it has ordered Syrian diplomats to leave the country within 72 hours following the massacre of more than 100 civilians in Houla which has triggered global outrage.
(AFP, 5/30/12)
2012 May 31, In Turkey representatives from 54 countries gathered in Istanbul for a 2-day conference to find a path towards a better future for Somalia for which the term "failed state" was coined two decades ago.
(AFP, 5/31/12)
2012 Jun 4, Turkish security officials said two security personnel were killed when they stepped on an improvised explosive device laid by PKK militants in the Lice district of Diyarbakir province. One of the men killed was the commander of Lice's military police force.
(Reuters, 6/4/12)
2012 Jun 5, Some 85 Syrian military defectors and their families crossed into Turkey.
(Econ, 7/7/12, p.46)
2012 Jun 12, Turkey announced plans to introduce elective Kurdish language instruction in schools, a step aimed at easing tension that Kurdish minority activists argued didn't go far enough. Activists and Kurdish politicians insisted on full Kurdish education in schools.
(AP, 6/12/12)
2012 Jun 13, A Turkish foreign ministry official said around 2,500 Syrians have fled to Turkey in the last 48 hours amid fresh attacks that even targeted UN observers.
(AFP, 6/13/12)
2012 Jun 17, In southeastern Turkey prison inmates set mattresses and blankets alight overnight, starting a fire that killed 13 prisoners in the mostly-Kurdish and Arabic-speaking city of Sanliurfa.
(AP, 6/17/12)
2012 Jun 19, In Turkey thousands of feminists and activists sent a petition to several government ministries to protest a bill that would ban abortions beyond the first six weeks of pregnancy.
(AFP, 6/19/12)
2012 Jun 19, Kurdish rebels attacked Turkish military units with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades in southeastern Turkey, sparking clashes in which 10 rebels and eight soldiers died.
(AP, 6/19/12)
2012 Jun 22, Syria’s state-run news agency, SANA, said terrorist groups had killed and mutilated at least 25 people in Daret Azzeh, a rebel-held area in the Aleppo countryside. A video emerged showing more than a dozen bloodied corpses, some of them piled on top of each other and in military uniforms, in what the government said was a "massacre" by rebels in the northern province of Aleppo. Activists reported that thousands of people rallied in various parts to protest the regime following afternoon prayers. Syria said it shot down a Turkish military plane that entered Syrian air space.
(AP, 6/22/12)(AP, 6/23/12)
2012 Jun 24, Turkey’s army said its warplanes have carried out strikes on suspected Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq. Air strikes had hit 9 PKK targets over the last 3 days. Kurdish rebels killed one policeman and wounded 3 others in a roadside bomb attack.
(AFP, 6/24/12)(SFC, 6/25/12, p.A2)
2012 Jun 25, Dozens of Syrian soldiers defected overnight to Turkey, crossing the border with their families. The state-run Anadolu news agency said 33 soldiers defected, including a general and two colonels. Syrian troops killed 10 "terrorists" in the Damascus suburb of Douma.
(AP, 6/25/12)(AP, 6/26/12)
2012 Jun 26, Turkey's PM Erdogan vowed to retaliate against Syria for its 'heinous' downing of one of its warplanes, as the head of NATO said such an attack on one of its members was unacceptable.
(AFP, 6/26/12)
2012 Jun 27, In eastern Turkey an explosion targeting a pipeline cut off Iranian natural gas shipments to the country. The pipeline was expected to be back in operation within 4 to 5 days. Turkey received 27 million cubic meters of gas a day via the Iranian pipeline. The gas flow was reported restored on July 3.
(AFP, 6/28/12)(AFP, 7/3/12)
2012 Jul 20, In Turkey an explosion and fire shut down twin pipelines that carry oil from Iraq to the Mediterranean.
(AP, 7/21/12)
2012 Jul 25, Turkey sealed its border with Syria to trucks, effectively cutting off a trade relationship once worth almost $3 billion with the embattled nation. A foreign ministry diplomat said 2 more Syrian brigadier generals crossed into Turkey, bringing to 27 the number of generals who have fled the unrest in Syria.
(AP, 7/25/12)(AFP, 7/25/12)
2012 Jul 29, Syrian troops, backed by air power and tanks, pushed on in the second day of an assault on Aleppo, sparking international fears of a humanitarian catastrophe. The Syrian regime accused regional powerhouses Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey of supporting a plot hatched by Israel to destroy the country. A group of 12 Syrian officers crossed into Turkey including a brigadier general who was deputy chief of police in Syria's Latakia region.
(AFP, 7/29/12)(AP, 7/29/12)(AP, 7/30/12)
2012 Aug 2, Turkish warplanes and attack helicopters are pounding Kurdish rebel positions in a major clash in a rugged area near Turkey's borders with Iraq and Iran. Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels have been clashing in the area for about two weeks.
(AP, 8/2/12)
2012 Aug 4, Turkish officials said the military has retired all 40 generals on trial on charges of plotting to overthrow the Muslim-led government.
(SSFC, 8/5/12, p.A7)
2012 Aug 4, Turkey reported the defection of another Syrian general, along with five colonels, who came over the border with a group of refugees.
(AP, 8/4/12)
2012 Aug 5, Turkey’s interior minister said security forces have killed as many as 115 Kurdish rebels during a major offensive over the past 2 weeks near the southeastern town of Semdinli. Rebels fired on military posts in Hakkari on the Iraq border triggering clashes that left dead 22 rebels, soldiers and village guards.
(AFP, 8/5/12)(SFC, 8/6/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 6, In southeastern Turkey an overnight blast interrupted oil flow from Iraq. Kurdish rebels were suspected to be behind the explosions. The blast hit the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline in Mardin province close to the border with Syria. Repairs were expected to take up to 10 days. The oil flow was reported restored on August 28.
(AFP, 8/6/12)(AFP, 8/28/12)
2012 Aug 7, In Syria total of 225 people, mostly civilians, were reported killed. A Turkish government official said 1,328 Syrian refugees had crossed the border by midmorning, nearly double the number of refugees who reached Turkey a day earlier.
(AFP, 8/8/12)(AP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 9, In Turkey 2 roadside bombs struck a bus carrying troops to a navy base, killing one soldier and wounding 11 people on the outskirts of the Aegean resort town of Foca.
(AP, 8/9/12)
2012 Aug 15, In Syria a bomb attached to a fuel truck exploded outside a Damascus hotel where UN observers are staying, wounding at least three people. Fierce fighting erupted between the Syrian army and rebels near the prime minister's office in Damascus. Activists reported shelling and clashes in Aleppo. Two Syrian fighter jets bombed the rebel-held town of Azaz. Human Rights Watch said over 40 people were killed. 757 Syrians fled into Turkey.
(AFP, 8/15/12)(AP, 8/15/12)(AP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 20, In Turkey a car bomb in a southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantap left 9 people dead. Authorities blamed rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) of being behind the powerful blast that went off close to a police station. The PKK denied the attack.
(AFP, 8/21/12)
2012 Aug 23, Turkish media reported that Kurdish rebels have ambushed a military convoy in the southeast, setting off clashes that killed 16 militants and five soldiers.
(AFP, 8/23/12)
2012 Aug 25, Turkish warplanes bombed areas of northern Iraq in a bid to target rear bases of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AFP, 8/25/12)
2012 Sep 2, In Turkey Kurdish militants killed 10 police and soldiers in an assault in Sirnak province. Some Kurdish guerrillas were also killed.
(SFC, 9/4/12, p.A2)
2012 Sep 5, In western Turkey an explosion and blaze triggered by an accidentally dropped hand grenade killed 25 soldiers during a stock check at an ammunition depot near the town of Afyonkarahisar.
(AP, 9/6/12)
2012 Sep 6, Off the coast of western Turkey 61 people drowned when a fishing boat carrying migrants that smugglers had promised refuge in Europe sank after hitting rocks. At least 46 survivors, mostly from Iraq and Syria, were able to swim through the Aegean waters to shore 50 meters away.
(AP, 9/6/12)(SSFC, 9/9/12, p.A4)
2012 Sep 10, Turkey’s military announced that it had conducted air strikes over the past week in northern Iraq, where Kurdish rebels have bases. Some 25 guerrillas were reported killed in the operation.
(AP, 9/11/12)
2012 Sep 11, In Turkey a suicide bomber threw a hand grenade and then blew himself up at the entrance to a police station in a suburb of Istanbul. One police officer was killed, and seven others were wounded. Police identified the bomber as a member of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C).
(AP, 9/11/12)
2012 Sep 12, In Turkey hundreds of Kurds began a hunger strike in prisons across the country.
(Econ, 11/17/12, p.2)
2012 Sep 15, In southeast Turkey an attack on a military convoy killed four soldiers and wounded five in Hakkari province.
(AP, 9/16/12)
2012 Sep 16, In eastern Turkey suspected Kurdish rebels detonated a landmine along a highway in Bingol province, killing eight police officers and wounding nine. Officials in southeastern Hakkari province said a total of 123 "terrorists," a reference to Kurdish rebels, had been killed in military operations in the past 10 days.
(AP, 9/16/12)
2012 Sep 18, In Turkey suspected Kurdish rebels in Bingol province attacked a military convoy with a rocket killing 10 soldiers and wounded over 70 others.
(SFC, 9/19/12, p.A2)
2012 Sep 18, In Syria fierce clashes broke out between rebels and regime forces battling for control of a border crossing on the frontier with Turkey. Turkish authorities told residents to evacuate the area.
(AP, 9/18/12)
2012 Sep 21, A Turkish court convicted 326 military officers, including the former air force and navy chiefs, of plotting to overthrow the PM Erdogan’s Islamic-based government in 2003.
(AP, 9/21/12)(Economist, 9/29/12, p.59)
2012 Sep 26, A Turkish court issued an order allowing authorities in the country to block Internet access to the "Innocence of Muslims," an anti-Islam movie that has sparked violent protests across the Muslim world.
(AP, 9/26/12)
2012 Sep 30, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Syria's allies to stop backing the Assad regime. "We call on Russia, China and Iran, please review your stance," Erdogan told a conference of his ruling Justice and Development Party.
(AP, 9/30/12)
2012 Oct 3, Turkish authorities arrested Ali Harzi for reported links to the Sep 11 attack on a US consulate in Libya. He was repatriated to Tunisia on Oct 11 and faced terrorism charges there. Harzi was one of two Tunisians reportedly arrested in Turkey when they tried to enter the country with false passports.
(AP, 10/25/12)
2012 Oct 3, Syrian-Turkish cross-border tensions escalated after a shell fired from inside Syria landed on a home in the Turkish village of Akcakale, killing two women and three of their daughters and wounding at least 10 others.
(AP, 10/4/12)
2012 Oct 4, Turkey's Parliament authorized military operations against Syria and its military fired on targets there for a second day after deadly shelling from Syria killed five civilians in a Turkish border town.
(AP, 10/4/12)
2012 Oct 5, Turkish troops fired at Syria again, responding to another mortar shell from Syria that struck Turkish territory.
(AP, 10/5/12)
2012 Oct 6, Turkish artillery fired into Syria for the fourth day in a row, retaliating for mortar shells that landed in Turkish territory. Rebels clashed with Syrian government troops in the border area, activists said, as fears revived that the Syrian crisis could spiral into a regional conflict.
(AP, 10/6/12)
2012 Oct 7, Turkish artillery fired toward Syria for a fifth day in a row, minutes after a Syrian shell landed on Turkish territory.
(AP, 10/7/12)
2012 Oct 7, Turkish jets struck suspected Kurdish rebel targets in two separate cross-border raids in northern Iraq.
(AP, 10/8/12)
2012 Oct 8, Turkey's state-run news agency said a Syrian shell landed on Turkish territory for a sixth day, but made no mention of any immediate Turkish retaliation.
(AP, 10/8/12)
2012 Oct 9, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said NATO is ready to defend alliance member Turkey amid artillery exchanges along its tense southeastern border with Syria.
(AP, 10/9/12)
2012 Oct 10, Turkey's military chief vowed day to respond with more force to any further shelling from Syria, keeping up the pressure on its southern neighbor a day after NATO said it stood ready to defend Turkey.
(AP, 10/10/12)
2012 Oct 10, A Syrian Air A320 from Moscow that was forced to land in Ankara. Turkish state-run television TRT reported the next day that the passenger plane was carrying military communications equipment. Damascus branded the incident piracy amid growing tensions between the two countries. The plane's 37 passengers and crew were allowed to continue to Damascus after several hours, without the cargo.
(AP, 10/11/12)
2012 Oct 13, Syria's state-run news agency SANA says Syria has decided to ban Turkish Airlines flights from Syrian airspace.
(AP, 10/13/12)
2012 Oct 14, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced that Turkey is barring Syrian civilian flights from Turkey's airspace, a day after Syria issued such a ban for Turkish commercial aircraft.
(AP, 10/14/12)
2012 Oct 18, Turkey's state-run news said security forces have killed 12 Kurdish rebels in clashes in the southeast, raising the two-day death toll in the fighting to 18.
(AP, 10/18/12)
2012 Oct 20, Turkey's state-run agency said clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish rebels in Hakkari province, have left nine people dead.
(AP, 10/20/12)
2012 Oct 22, The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report that 76 journalists are in prison in Turkey and at least 61 of them are held because for "their published work or newsgathering activities."
(AP, 10/22/12)
2012 Oct 29, In Turkey police used tear gas and water cannons to try to break up a demonstration by tens of thousands of pro-secular protesters, but the march to mark the founding of the Turkish republic went on in defiance of a government ban.
(AP, 10/29/12)
2012 Nov 6, A Turkish court opened a trial in absentia of four former Israeli military commanders in the killing of nine people aboard a Turkish aid ship that tried to break a Gaza blockade in 2010.
(AP, 11/6/12)
2012 Nov 6, Turkey's state-run news agency reported that seven Syrian generals have defected to Turkey.
(AP, 11/6/12)
2012 Nov 9, Turkey's state-run agency said a group of Syrian soldiers, including two generals and 11 colonels, have fled to Turkey with their families.
(AP, 11/9/12)
2012 Nov 9, In Turkey the office for the governor for Hakkari province said as many as 42 Kurdish rebels have been killed in the past three days in operations that were backed by airpower.
(AP, 11/10/12)
2012 Nov 10, A Turkish military helicopter carrying soldiers on a mission against Kurdish rebels crashed because of bad weather, killing all 17 troops onboard.
(AP, 11/10/12)
2012 Nov 12, A Syrian fighter jet bombed a rebel-held area near the Turkish border, killing at least six people and wounding a dozen others. One rocket-propelled grenade landed in Turkey. A Syrian helicopter bombed rebel positions in an area further south of Ras al-Ayn and the rebels could be heard responding with machine guns.
(AP, 11/12/12)
2012 Nov 15, Turkey endorsed the newly formed Syrian rebel coalition as the legitimate leader of Syria.
(SFC, 11/16/12, p.A2)
2012 Nov 16, A Syrian general and a dozen other officers defected with their families to Turkey.
(Reuters, 11/17/12)
2012 Nov 17, Cameraman Cuneyt Unal, captured while covering fighting in the city of Aleppo, was released returned to Turkey. Unal and reporter Bashar Fahmi, a Jordanian citizen of Palestinian origin, had been missing since August. Both were working for the US-based Alhurra TV and were believed to have been captured by Syrian government forces.
(AP, 11/17/12)
2012 Nov 21, Turkey's government requested the deployment of NATO's Patriot surface-to-air missiles to bolster its defenses along its border with Syria.
(AP, 11/21/12)
2012 Dec 4, Off the coast of Istanbul a cargo ship sank in a severe storm in the Black Sea and a Turkish rescue boat searching for its missing crew hit nearby rocks and also went down. At least three people were killed and 10 others were missing in the two sinkings.
(AP, 12/4/12)
2012 Dec 6, NATO moved forward with its plan to place Patriot missiles and troops along Syria's border with Turkey to protect against potential attacks.
(AP, 12/6/12)
2012 Dec 7, The Dutch government approved a NATO request to send two batteries of Patriot missile defense systems to Turkey, following in Germany's footsteps.
(AP, 12/7/12)
2012 Dec 14, The Pentagon said the US will send two batteries of Patriot missiles and 400 troops to Turkey as part of a NATO force meant to protect Turkish territory from potential Syrian missile attack.
(AP, 12/14/12)
2012 Dec 14, A boat capsized early today off the northeastern island of Lesvos, near the Turkish coast. Greek coast guard officials found the bodies of 18 Asian people who were trying to cross illegally into Greece.
(AP, 12/15/12)
2012 Dec 28, Officials at Turkey's Foreign Ministry said two Syrian air force generals have defected and crossed the border.
(AP, 12/28/12)
2012 Dec, In Turkey Huda-Par (Party of Allah) was launched on a platform of Islamic values and greater rights for the country’s 14 million Sunni Kurds.
(Econ, 11/23/13, p.55)
2012 State-run Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) withdrew from Eurovision after the contest, citing low ratings and dissatisfaction with the voting rules.
(AFP, 8/4/18)
2013 Jan 7, In northern Turkey a gas leak inside a coal mine killed five workers and injured one. Two other miners are missing and feared dead in Zonguldak province.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 7, The Dutch military shipped Patriot missiles to Turkey, a fellow NATO member, after the alliance agreed in December to deploy the anti-missile systems along Turkey's southern border with Syria. Fighting in Syria continued unabated.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 14, Turkish jets struck suspected Kurdish rebel targets in a cross-border raid in northern Iraq, even as Turkey prepared to start peace talks with the rebels' imprisoned leader.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 21, Turkey's state-run news agency said a court has charged 9 lawyers, including prominent human rights defenders, with membership in an outlawed leftist militant group and ordered them arrested pending trial.
(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 21, In Turkey Sarai Sierra (33) went missing, when she was supposed to return to New York City but was not on her flight back home. She had arrived in Istanbul on Jan 7. Her body was discovered Feb 2 evening near the remnants of ancient city walls. She had suffered a fatal blow to the head. On March 17 a suspect, identified only as Ziya T, was caught in Syria in a joint operation by Syrian rebels and Turkish officials.
(AP, 1/29/13)(AP, 2/3/13)(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Feb 1, In Turkey a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the entrance of the US Embassy in Ankara, killing himself and a guard.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 11, In Turkey a car bomb exploded at the Bab al-Hawa frontier post along Syria's border, killing 14 people. A Syrian opposition faction later accused the Syrian government of the bombing, saying it narrowly missed 13 leaders of the group. On March 11 Turkey’s police said five suspects have been detained.
(AP, 2/11/13)(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A2)(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Feb 25, In Turkey German Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks with Turkish leaders amid growing frustration in Turkey over its slow-moving EU membership and a perceived reluctance by European nations to crackdown on Turkish militants operating in their nations.
(AP, 2/25/13)
2013 Feb 28, A Turkish news agency said police have detained 11 people suspected of al-Qaida links and seized 25 kg (55 pounds) of plastic explosives. Police reportedly found charts and photographs of the US Consulate, a synagogue and a church in Istanbul.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Mar 13, Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq freed eight captured Turkish soldiers and officials as part of peace efforts between Turkey and the rebel group aimed at ending a decades-long conflict.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 19, In Turkey assailants fired a rocket at PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party headquarters and hurled two hand-grenades at the Justice Ministry's parking lot, wounding one person. The outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, soon said it carried out the attacks in retaliation for a recent police crackdown on its members.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 19, In Turkey Mohamed Mahmoud (27), an Islamic extremist wanted by Germany for allegedly calling for terrorist attacks, was arrested in Hatay province. Berlin soon began negotiating his extradition.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 21, Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan called for an immediate cease-fire and for thousands of his fighters to withdraw from Turkish territory, a major step toward ending one of the world's bloodiest insurgencies.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 22, Israel and Turkey agreed to restore full diplomatic relations after PM Benjamin Netanyahu apologized in a phone call for a deadly naval raid against a Gaza-bound international flotilla in a dramatic turnaround partly brokered by President Barack Obama.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Apr 8, Turkish police used water cannons, tear gas and pepper spray to disperse thousands of people protesting outside a court house in support of 275 people who are on trial for allegedly plotting to overthrow Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government.
(AP, 4/8/13)
2013 Apr 15, A Turkish court convicted Fazil Say (43), a top pianist and composer, of denigrating religion through his comments on Twitter. He was given a 10-month suspended prison sentence.
(SFC, 4/16/13, p.A2)(Econ, 4/20/13, p.58)
2013 Apr 21, In eastern Afghanistan a Turkish civilian helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing in a Taliban-controlled area of Logar province. Insurgents took all 11 people aboard the aircraft hostage, including 8 Turks, one Afghan translator and 2 foreign pilots. Four of the Turks were freed on May 12.
(AP, 4/22/13)(AP, 5/13/13)
2013 Apr 25, A pro-Kurdish news agency said Kurdish rebels will start withdrawing thousands of guerrilla fighters from Turkey on May 8 and retreat across the border to northern Iraq, in an important milestone toward ending the nearly three-decade old insurgency that has cost tens of thousands of lives.
(AP, 4/25/13)
2013 May 9, Iraq rejected a key element of an accord to bring an end to a long Kurdish uprising in Turkey — offering refuge to rebel fighters in country's north.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 11, In Turkey 2 car bomb explosions in a town across the border from Syria killed 51 people in Reyhanli, Hatay province, a main hub for Syrian refugees. 13 Turkish citizens, believed to have links to the Syrian intelligence agency, were soon detained.
(AP, 5/11/13)(AP, 5/12/13)(AP, 5/14/13)
2013 May 14, The first Kurdish fighters crossed from Turkey into northern Iraq as part of a peace deal to end a long uprising despite Iraqi objections to the transfer. The Iraqi Cabinet reiterated its rejection of the deal and of the presence of PKK fighters.
(AP, 5/14/13)
2013 May 17, In Turkey a container of fuel being smuggled into the country from Syria exploded, killing 10 people in Tunisma village, Hatay province.
(AP, 5/17/13)
2013 May 20, In Turkey a hot air balloon collided with another balloon mid-air during a sightseeing tour in the Cappadocia region and crashed to the ground, killing two Brazilian tourists and injuring 23 other people on board.
(AP, 5/20/13)
2013 May 24, Turkey's parliament passed legislation that would ban all alcohol advertising and tighten restrictions on the sale of such beverages.
(AP, 5/24/13)
2013 May 25, In Turkey some 100 people kissed for several minutes at a subway stop in Ankara after subway officials earlier in the week made an announcement asking passengers "to act in accordance with moral rules" after security cameras spotted a couple kissing.
(AP, 5/26/13)
2013 May 25, Syria's fractured political opposition met for a third day in Istanbul, Turkey, to elect new leaders, try to widen its base and forge a unified position ahead of possible peace talks with the regime.
(AP, 5/25/13)
2013 May 31, In Turkey riot police used tear gas and pressurized water in a dawn raid to rout a peaceful demonstration by hundreds of people staging a sit-in to prevent the uprooting of trees at Istanbul’s Gezi Park. Some 5,000 people gathered in Ankara in solidarity with those in Istanbul. In Izmir clashes broke out as thousands also marched in solidarity. The government planned to build a replica of ottoman-era army barracks and a mall atop the park.
(AP, 5/31/13)(SFC, 6/1/13, p.A3)(SSFC, 6/9/13, p.A4)
2013 Jun 1, In Turkey Ethem Sarisuluk (26) was shot in the head during protests in Ankara. He was kept alive but later declared brain-dead. A court later released his alleged killer on the grounds of self-defence.
(Econ, 6/29/13, p.49)(http://tinyurl.com/kztouxn)
2013 Jun 3, Turkey's Pres. Abdullah Gul defended the right of citizens to protest, in contrast to the dismissive stance of PM Erdogan, as police used tear gas for a fourth day in an attempt to disperse demonstrations that grew out of a sit-in to prevent the uprooting of trees at Istanbul's main square. A 20-year-old man died in a hospital in Istanbul from injuries after a vehicle slammed into a crowd of protesters a day earlier. By now most of Turkey’s 81 provinces had seen protests.
(AP, 6/3/13)(Econ, 6/8/13, p.25)
2013 Jun 4, Turkey's deputy prime minister Bulent Arinc offered an apology for a violent crackdown on an environmental protest, in a bid to appease days of anti-government rallies across the country as hundreds of riot police deployed around the prime minister's office in Ankara.
(AP, 6/4/13)
2013 Jun 5, Turkish activists presented a list of demands they said could end days of anti-government demonstrations, as police detained 25 people they accused of using social media to stoke the outpouring of anger. A protester was killed in Antakya from an apparent blow to the head.
(AP, 6/5/13)
2013 Jun 6, In southern Turkey a police officer died after falling into an underpass while trying to subdue a protest, bringing the death toll in a week of protests to three.
(AP, 6/6/13)
2013 Jun 7, Turkey's PM Erdogan took a combative stance on his return from a visit to Tunisia, telling supporters who thronged to greet him that the protests that have swept the country must come to an end.
(AP, 6/7/13)
2013 Jun 8, In Turkey police in Ankara fired tear gas and used water cannons to disperse thousands of people protesting near government buildings. Pro- and anti-government protesters also clashed in Adana.
(AP, 6/9/13)
2013 Jun 11, In Turkey hundreds of riot police overran improvised barricades at Istanbul's Taksim Square, firing tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon in running battles with protesters who have been occupying the area for more than a week. The raid came on the 12th day of nationwide protests. The Turkish Human Rights Foundation raised the number of deaths in more than a week of protests to four.
(AP, 6/11/13)
2013 Jun 12, In Turkey riot police clashed in the early hours with demonstrators occupying Istanbul’s Taksim Square. The government proposed a referendum on the development project that has triggered the protests. Thousands of black-robed Turkish lawyers stormed out of their courthouses, shouting about the rough treatment police dished out to their colleagues amid Turkey's biggest anti-government protests in years.
(SFC, 6/12/13, p.A3)(AP, 6/12/13)(SFC, 6/13/13, p.A5)
2013 Jun 13, Turkey’s PM Erdogan declared "lawbreakers" will be removed from Istanbul's Taksim Square." Ethem Sarisuluk (26), who had been on life support for days, was pronounced dead. He was believed to have been hit in the head by a tear gas canister on June 1 during protests in Ankara. This raised the death toll to 5 from the two-week standoff.
(AP, 6/13/13)
2013 Jun 14, Turkey’s state news reported that as many as 73 Syrian military officers — including seven generals and 20 colonels — have crossed the border into Turkey with their families "seeking refuge."
(AP, 6/14/13)
2013 Jun 15, In Turkey protesters at Istanbul's Gezi Park vowed to press on with their 2-week sit-in, defying government appeals and a warning from Erdogan for an end to the standoff. Tens of thousands of supporters of PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan rallied in Sincan, a suburb of Ankara. In the evening riot police cleared Gezi Park and Taksim Square of thousands of peaceful protesters in a swift but muscular operation.
(AP, 6/15/13)(AP, 6/16/13)
2013 Jun 16, In Turkey thousands of defiant protesters attempting to converge on central Istanbul's Taksim Square were kept away by police firing repeated rounds of tear gas, as the government maintained a hard line against rekindled demonstrations. Protesters vowed the group would retake Gezi Park.
(AP, 6/16/13)
2013 Jun 17, In Turkey labor unions and political foes of PM Recep Erdogan rallied by the thousands across the country, hoping to capitalize on weeks of initially small-scale protest to register broader discontent. The call to walk off the job had limited fallout beyond the demonstrations.
(AP, 6/17/13)
2013 Jun 17, In Turkey Erdem Gunduz, a choreographer, began a silent and motionless stand in Taksim Square to protest police use of tear gas and water cannon to clear both the square and Gezi Park of thousands of demonstrators.
(Econ, 6/22/13, p.56)(http://tinyurl.com/kh3yqve)
2013 Jun 18, Turkey’s PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended the nation's police and vowed to increase their powers to deal with unrest. News reports said police were carrying out raids and detaining people suspected of involvement in violence against police. 4 protesters and one police officer have been killed and Turkey's doctors association said an investigation was underway into the death of a fifth protester who was exposed to tear gas.
(AP, 6/18/13)
2013 Jun 22, Turkish police used water cannon to disperse thousands gathered in Istanbul's Taksim Square to observe a memorial for four people killed during recent anti-government protests. The officers later fired tear gas and rubber bullets, and in some cases beat people with batons, to scatter demonstrators who regrouped in side streets.
(AP, 6/22/13)
2013 Jun 25, Turkish police detained at least 20 people allegedly involved in violent protests, as the country's prime minister continued to lash out at protesters, and BBC journalist Selin Girit, he claimed were part of a conspiracy to harm Turkey.
(AP, 6/25/13)(SFC, 6/26/13, p.A2)
2013 Jun 28, Turkish security forces killed one person and wounded ten when they fired on a group protesting against the construction of a new gendarmerie outpost in Kayacik village, Diyarbakir province.
(Reuters, 6/29/13)
2013 Jun 29, In Turkey thousands of protesters marched to Istanbul's Taksim Square chanting slogans against the government and police after security forces killed a Kurdish demonstrator in the southeast.
(Reuters, 6/29/13)
2013 Jun 30, In Turkey police fired teargas and water cannon to disperse thousands of protesters in Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast, during demonstrations across the country to pressure the government to carry out reforms.
(Reuters, 6/30/13)
2013 Jul 4, Syrian opposition figures met in Turkey to elect a new leadership as President Bashar Assad claims his opponents have failed to overthrow his regime.
(AP, 7/4/13)
2013 Jul 6, Turkish police fired teargas and water cannon to disperse hundreds of protesters in an Istanbul square as they gathered to enter Gezi Park, the center of protests against PM Tayyip Erdogan last month.
(Reuters, 7/6/13)
2013 Jul 6, In Turkey Ahmad al-Jarba, a former Syrian political prisoner with close links to Saudi Arabia, was picked to lead Syria's main Western-backed opposition group, filling a post long vacant due to divisions among President Bashar Assad's opponents.
(AP, 7/6/13)
2013 Jul 8, Turkey reopened Istanbul’s Gezi Park at the heart of last month's demonstrations against PM Tayyip Erdogan. Protest leaders called a rally there for this evening in defiance of the city governor. Hours later police forced people out due to concerns about a planned protest rally. Clashes ensued in nearby streets before police allowed people back into the park around midnight.
(AP, 7/8/13)(Reuters, 7/9/13)
2013 Jul 9, In Turkey Gezi Park in Istanbul, at the center of protests against PM Tayyip Erdogan's government, reopened after a night of clashes between police and protesters, but the mood among the small groups of visitors was calm.
(Reuters, 7/9/13)
2013 Jul 13, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said the parliament has amended an internal armed forces’ regulation that further strips the military of its political influence.
(SSFC, 7/14/13, p.A5)
2013 Jul 13, Turkish police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters who gathered to march to Gezi Park, which has been at the heart of fierce unrest against PM Erdogan's rule.
(Reuters, 7/13/13)
2013 Jul 16, Turkish police arrested about 30 people in Istanbul after briefly detaining more than 1,000 in a widening crackdown after weeks of violent anti-government protests.
(Reuters, 7/16/13)
2013 Jul 16, A man and a 15-year-old boy were killed by stray bullets shot from Syria into a Turkish border town. Turkish troops returned fire, in the most serious spillover of violence in weeks.
(Reuters, 7/17/13)
2013 Jul 17, The Turkish military said a Syrian Kurdish party with links to Kurdish militants in Turkey has seized control of a Syrian border town after days of clashes with Islamist fighters.
(Reuters, 7/18/13)
2013 Jul 19, In Turkey a landslide triggered by heavy rains killed at least five people near Turkey's border with Syria.
(AP, 7/19/13)
2013 Jul 20, In Turkey police fired water cannon and tear gas in downtown Istanbul to disperse anti-government demonstrators after barring them from entering a park where they had hoped to celebrate the wedding of a couple who met during last month's widespread protests.
(AP, 7/20/13)
2013 Jul 23, A Turkish border patrol killed one of eight civilians trying to cross illegally from Turkey into Syria. The group had been trying to cross from Hatay province into northwestern Syria and had fired on the Turkish patrol after the troops had whistled a warning.
(Reuters, 7/23/13)
2013 Jul 27, In Somalia a Turkish security official and a Somali student were killed in a terrorist attack on the Turkish consulate and relief mission. Three suicide bombers also died in the attack in Mogadishu.
(AP, 7/28/13)
2013 Jul 30, Turkish soldiers shot into the air and fired tear gas to prevent hundreds of people, many of them believed to be smugglers, from trying to cross into Turkey from Syria.
(Reuters, 7/30/13)
2013 Aug 3, Turkish police fired teargas and water cannon to disperse small groups of anti-government protesters in central Istanbul.
(Reuters, 8/3/13)
2013 Aug 3, A Turkish man, Ramazan Zeybel (45) was killed by a stray bullet fired from Syria into the Turkish town of Ceylanpinar.
(Reuters, 8/3/13)
2013 Aug 5, Turkey's former military chief, retired Gen. Ilker Basbug, was convicted of trying to overthrow the government in 2002 and sentenced to life in prison. 18 other defendants were sentenced to life in prison, including 10 retired military officers, while 60 other defendants received sentences ranging from a year to 47 years.
(AP, 8/5/13)(Econ, 8/10/13, p.46)
2013 Aug 6, Eighteen Turkish soldiers were injured when a group of several thousand alleged smugglers clashed with the army as they tried to cross into Turkey from Syria.
(Reuters, 8/6/13)
2013 Aug 9, In Lebanon gunmen abducted a Turkish Airlines pilot and his assistant in Beirut, forcing them from a bus as it took them from the airport in the early hours of the morning. A group claimed responsibility for the abduction in the name of nine Lebanese Shi'ite Muslims kidnapped last year in Azaz near the Turkish-Syrian border.
(Reuters, 8/9/13)
2013 Aug 21, In Iraq two bomb attacks halted the flow of crude oil through a pipeline running from the Kirkuk oil fields to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan in Turkey, causing severe damage.
(Reuters, 8/21/13)
2013 Aug 26, In Turkey Western powers meeting in Istanbul told the Syrian opposition to expect a strike against President Bashar al-Assad's forces within days.
(Reuters, 8/27/13)
2013 Sep 2, The first of more than 100 senior Turkish army officers began testifying in court over their alleged role in ousting Turkey's first Islamist-led government in 1997.
(Reuters, 9/2/13)
2013 Sep 6, Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan said almost all leaders at the G20 summit in St. Petersburg accepted the need for an operation to be carried out against Syria following a chemical weapons attack there last month.
(Reuters, 9/6/13)
2013 Sep 9, Kurdish rebels announced they are suspending their withdrawal from Turkey into bases in northern Iraq over what they say is the Turkish government's failure to advance peace talks aimed at ending a nearly 30-year-old conflict.
(AP, 9/9/13)
2013 Sep 9, In central Turkey Japanese tourist Mai Kurkiharac (22) was stabbed to death and her friend seriously wounded in an attack in Cappadocia.
(Reuters, 9/10/13)
2013 Sep 10, Turkish police fired tear gas and plastic bullets at thousands of people who gathered in Istanbul to protest the death of a 22-year-old demonstrator. Ahmet Atakan died in hospital after being hit in the head by a tear gas canister during clashes between police and around 150 protesters in the southeastern city of Antakya in Hatay province.
(AFP, 9/10/13)
2013 Sep 16, Turkish warplanes shot down a Syrian helicopter after it crossed into Turkish airspace. Syria's army acknowledged the helicopter had strayed into Turkish airspace for a short time while monitoring "terrorists" moving across the border into Syria, but said it was an accident and that the aircraft was on its way back when it was shot down.
(Reuters, 9/16/13)
2013 Sep 20, Turkish authorities shot and killed one suspect and wounded another after a rocket attack on a police headquarters in Ankara. The suspects were believed to be members of the far-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C).
(AP, 9/21/13)
2013 Sep 25, In Turkey 18 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) escaped overnight from prison in the southeast by digging a 70-meter-long tunnel. All but one were caught by the next day.
(Reuters, 9/25/13)(Reuters, 9/26/13)
2013 Sep 30, Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan announced long-anticipated reforms seen as designed to salvage a fragile peace process with Kurdish insurgents, including changes to the electoral system and increasing language rights.
(Reuters, 9/30/13)
2013 Sep 30, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that his government would lift a ban on wearing headscarves in public institutions as part of reforms to boost rights.
(AFP, 9/30/13)
2013 Oct 8, Turkey lifted a 90-year-old ban on Islamic headscarves in the civil service as part of wide-ranging reforms driven by the Islamic-rooted government.
(AFP, 10/8/13)(SFC, 10/9/13, p.A2)
2013 Oct 9, Turkey’s Supreme Court upheld the convictions of 237 military officers accused of plotting to overthrow the government in 2003.
(SFC, 10/10/13, p.A4)
2013 Oct 15, Turkey for the first time fired four artillery rounds against a position near the town of Azaz, Syria, held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)," an Al-Qaeda affiliated group, in retaliation for a mortar round that fell on Turkish territory.
(AP, 10/17/13)
2013 Oct 28, Turkish police fired water cannon and teargas to break up a protest by around 2,000 people outside an Ankara court over the handling of the trial of a policeman accused of killing a demonstrator earlier this year. Officer Ahmet Sahbaz is accused of killing Ethem Sarisuluk, shot dead June 1 during a wave of nationwide anti-government demonstrations.
(Reuters, 10/28/13)
2013 Oct 29, Turkey opened its Marmaray tunnel, the world's first underwater rail link connecting Asia and Europe. The 8.5 mile tunnel allowed PM Tayyip Erdogan to realize a project dreamed up by Ottoman sultans more than a century ago.
(Reuters, 10/29/13)(SFC, 10/30/13, p.A3)
2013 Nov 5, The European Union resumed membership talks with Turkey. They were stalled for 3½ years mainly because of the country's ongoing dispute with Cyprus.
(AP, 11/5/13)
2013 Nov 7, Turkish riot police fired tear gas to disperse Kurdish protesters demonstrating against government plans to build a wall along part of the border with Syria.
(AP, 11/7/13)
2013 Nov 10, Turkey and Iraq pledged greater cooperation on trade and counter-terrorism while admitting to disagreements over Syria's war during a landmark visit to Baghdad by the Turkish foreign minister.
(AFP, 11/10/13)
2013 Nov 10, The main Western-backed Syrian opposition began the 2nd day of a two-day meeting in Istanbul to decide whether they will attend a proposed peace conference the US and Russia are trying to convene in Geneva by the end of this year.
(AP, 11/10/13)
2013 Nov 13, Turkey's parliament lifted a ban on women lawmakers wearing trousers in the assembly, in a further liberalization of dress rules following a landmark decision to allow female deputies to wear the Islamic headscarf.
(Reuters, 11/14/13)
2013 Nov 16, Masoud Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, called on Turkey's Kurds to back a flagging peace process with Ankara, making his first visit to southeastern Turkey in two decades in a show of support for PM Tayyip Erdogan.
(Reuters, 11/16/13)
2013 Nov 23, Egypt said it was expelling Turkey's ambassador and accused Ankara of backing organizations bent on spreading instability - an apparent reference to the Muslim Brotherhood of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Mursi.
(Reuters, 11/23/13)
2013 Nov 27, Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan signed a package of landmark contracts that will see the semi-autonomous region's oil and gas exported via pipelines through Turkey.
(Reuters, 11/29/13)
2013 Dec 2, Turkey said it stood by a bilateral oil deal with Iraq's Kurdistan region that bypassed central government but sought to appease Baghdad by drawing it into the arrangement.
(Reuters, 12/2/13)
2013 Dec 6, In southeastern Turkey two Kurdish protesters, aged 34 and 32, were shot dead in a violent confrontation with police. The clashes were sparked by claims that Kurdish rebel cemeteries had been destroyed.
(AFP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 9, Kurdish rebels freed four Turkish soldiers abducted in the southeast of the country in the worst flareup of violence since a fragile ceasefire nine months ago.
(AFP, 12/9/13)
2013 Dec 10, Officials in Istanbul, Turkey, said they plan to introduce floating car parks to try to resolve the chronic traffic problems. They will use out-of-service ferries anchored in the Bosphorus to create multi-storey lots near traffic hotspots.
(AFP, 12/10/13)
2013 Dec 16, Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News reported that Turkey has shipped 47 tons of weapons to Syrian rebels since June despite repeated government denials.
(AFP, 12/16/13)
2013 Dec 16, Turkey signed a long-awaited deal with the European Union to send back people who enter the bloc illegally from its territory in exchange for talks on visa-free travel for its citizens.
(AFP, 12/16/13)
2013 Dec 17, Turkish police detained the sons of three cabinet ministers and several well-known businessmen as part of investigations into alleged corruption. Police seized shoeboxes stashed with $4.5 million in cash at the home of Suleyman Aslan, a state-owned bank's chief executive. Police arrested some 50 people altogether on suspicion of tender rigging, covert gold transfers to Iran and bribery.
(Reuters, 12/17/13)(AP, 12/18/13)(Econ, 1/4/14, p.37)
2013 Dec 18, Turkey's PM Tayyip Erdogan denounced a corruption crackdown on his allies months ahead of elections as a "dirty operation" to smear his administration and undermine the country's progress.
(Reuters, 12/18/13)
2013 Dec 19, In Turkey Istanbul's most senior police official was dismissed, days after police launched raids that detained dozens of people.
(AP, 12/19/13)
2013 Dec 20, Turkey’s PM Tayyip Erdogan pressed a widening purge of the police command, tackling the biggest challenge of his rule from what he describes as a foreign-backed conspiracy to undermine him and create a state within a state.
(Reuters, 12/20/13)
2013 Dec 21, Turkey’s PM Tayyip Erdogan denounced "international groups" and "dark alliances" for entangling Turkey in a corruption scandal that has exposed deep rifts between him and Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Muslim cleric who helped him rise to power.
(Reuters, 12/21/13)
2013 Dec 22, Turkish media reported that authorities have removed another 25 police chiefs from their posts, widening a crackdown on the force since it launched a corruption investigation that PM Tayyip Erdogan has called a "dirty operation" against his rule. Turkey's interior minister said he has offered his resignation to PM Erdogan over a corruption scandal that has resulted in his son's arrest. Police in Istanbul clashed with protesters denouncing Erdogan's government over a corruption and bribery scandal targeting his allies.
(Reuters, 12/22/13)(AP, 12/22/13)
2013 Dec 24, Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul sought to salve furor over a high-level corruption case by assuring the public there would be no cover-up and that the courts were free to investigate.
(Reuters, 12/24/13)
2013 Dec 25, In Turkey three Cabinet ministers resigned, days after their sons were taken into custody in a sweeping corruption and bribery scandal that has targeted PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan's allies in one of the worst political crises of his more than 10 years in power.
(AP, 12/25/13)
2013 Dec 26, A Turkish prosecutor said he had been prevented from expanding a corruption investigation that has touched the heart of the government, alleging pressure on the judiciary.
(AFP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 27, In Turkey three lawmakers, including a former minister, resigned from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). A Turkish court blocked a government attempt to force police to disclose investigations to their superiors.
(AFP, 12/27/13)(Reuters, 12/27/13)
2013 Dec 31, In Turkey another lawmaker from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) announced his resignation amid a high-level bribery and corruption probe. Hasan Hami Yildirim had criticised the government forfor exerting pressure on the judiciary over the corruption.
(AFP, 12/31/13)
2013 Istanbul’s celebrated Haydarpasa railway station stopped seeing train traffic after being shut for restoration work and a major upgrade of Turkey's railway network.
(AFP, 2/15/18)
2014 Jan 3, A Turkish court ordered the release from jail of two Kurdish lawmakers being tried for links to militants in a potential boost to a fragile peace process. Turkish prosecutors said they have charged 36 protesters with terrorism over mass anti-government demonstrations that swept the country last year.
(Reuters, 1/3/14)(AFP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 4, A Turkish court ordered the release from jail of three Kurdish lawmakers, in addition to two freed a day earlier.
(Reuters, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 7, Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan's government purged hundreds of police officers overnight, as part of a crackdown on a rival he accuses of trying to usurp state power by tarring him with a specious corruption investigation. Despite the dismissals police and prosecutors continued arrests, targeting the state railway company and a western port. Police detained some 25 people in the city of Izmir for questioning over a new bribery and fraud investigation.
(Reuters, 1/7/14)(AP, 1/8/14)
2014 Jan 7, Turkey’s Anadolu state news said military prosecutors have dropped a case against five officers who were being investigated for negligence in the military air strike on Dec 11, 2011, that killed 34 smugglers mistaken for Kurdish rebels, saying there was no ground for any legal action.
(AP, 1/7/14)
2014 Jan 8, Turkey's deputy police chief was sacked overnight, the most senior commander yet targeted in a purge of a force heavily influenced by cleric Fethullah Gulen PM Tayyip Erdogan accuses of plotting to seize the levers of state power. The police chief of Izmir was among 16 senior police officials reassigned to new posts.
(Reuters, 1/8/14)(AP, 1/8/14)
2014 Jan 10, Turkey's top judicial body hit back at government's plans to curb its powers, adding fuel to a bitter row over a vast corruption probe engulfing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 1/10/14)
2014 Jan 11, Turkish politicians threw punches and water bottles during a debate about government control over the appointment of judges and prosecutors. Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Ankara in protest against PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government.
(Reuters, 1/11/14)(AFP, 1/11/14)
2014 Jan 14, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was ready to withdraw a contentious bill aimed at curbing the powers of the judiciary as he battled to contain the worst crisis of his 11 years in office.
(AFP, 1/14/14)
2014 Jan 14, Turkish anti-terrorism police carried out raids in six cities, detaining at least five people with alleged links to al-Qaida.
(AP, 1/14/14)
2014 Jan 15, Turkey's embattled Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared open war on what he labelled an "empire of fear" created by an Islamic rival at the heart of a deepening political crisis.
(AFP, 1/15/14)
2014 Jan 17, Turkish authorities seized the assets of the main opposition candidate for the post of Istanbul mayor in the run-up to local polls in March. Turkey's Savings Deposit Insurance Fund announced the decision after Mustafa Sarigul and nine other people failed to repay a loan worth $3.5 million (2.6 million euros) dating back to 1998.
(AFP, 1/18/14)
2014 Jan 18, In Turkey riot police in Istanbul used water canons against hundreds of people protesting a government plan to expand controls over the public’s use of the Internet.
(SSFC, 1/19/14, p.A6)
2014 Jan 18, State media said Turkey has extended a purge of official bodies to the banking and telecoms regulators and state TV, firing dozens of executives in moves that appear to broaden PM Tayyip Erdogan's backlash against a corruption investigation.
(Reuters, 1/18/14)
2014 Jan 23, In central Turkey at least 21 people were killed when a bus tipped over on an icy road.
(AFP, 1/23/14)
2014 Jan 28, Turkey's central bank hiked all of its key interest rates in dramatic fashion at an emergency midnight policy meeting, ignoring opposition from PM Tayyip Erdogan as it battles to defend the country's crumbling lira currency. The key rate rose from 4.5% to 10%.
(Reuters, 1/28/14)(Econ, 2/1/14, p.59)
2014 Jan 29, Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Iran to bolster trade and energy relations.
(Reuters, 1/29/14)
2014 Jan 30, In Turkey hundreds of police were transferred from their posts in Ankara and Izmir, and dozens more were affected in Istanbul and the southeastern city of Gaziantep. Altogether, more than 5,000 police officers have been dismissed or transferred since the graft inquiry became public on December 17 with the arrest of businessmen close to PM Tayyip Erdogan and three cabinet ministers' sons.
(Reuters, 1/31/14)
2014 Feb 3, Haaretz newspaper said Israel has offered Turkey $20 million in compensation to the families of those killed and wounded in its botched 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla.
(AFP, 2/3/14)
2014 Feb 5, Turkey's parliament approved internet controls enabling web pages to be blocked within hours in what the opposition decried as part of a government bid to stifle a corruption scandal.
(Reuters, 2/6/14)
2014 Feb 7, Turkish newspaper Today's Zaman said one of its journalists, Mahir Zeynalov (27) from Azerbaijan, has been ordered to leave the country for criticizing PM Tayyip Erdogan on Twitter.
(Reuters, 2/7/14)
2014 Feb 15, Turkey's parliament approved a law boosting government control over the appointment of judges and prosecutors, after a heated debate and a brawl that left one opposition lawmaker hospitalized.
(Reuters, 2/15/14)
2014 Feb 15, In Turkey thousands of Kurds demonstrated in towns across the south east, some clashing violently with riot police as they called for the release of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan on the 15th anniversary of his capture.
(Reuters, 2/15/14)
2014 Feb 22, Turkey's interior ministry said 1,000 police officers have been removed in the wake of a major corruption probe against key government allies but said these were only "routine" re-assignments.
(AFP, 2/22/14)
2014 Feb 24, A taped conversation of Turkey’s PM Erdogan speaking with his younger son Bilal was posted on You Tube. It dated to Dec 17 when police raided the homes of several members of Erdogan’s cabinet and business allies as part of a corruption probe.
(Econ, 3/1/14, p.53)
2014 Feb 25, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned leaked recordings of him and his son allegedly discussing how to hide large sums of money as a "vile attack" by rivals, as calls mounted for his beleaguered government to resign. Riot police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse several hundred people protesting against the government at an Ankara university.
(AFP, 2/25/14)(Reuters, 2/25/14)
2014 Feb 26, Turkey's president approved a controversial bill limiting the independence of the judiciary — a law that is widely interpreted as a government response to corruption allegations brought by prosecutors that have recently implicated PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Parliament approved a watered-down version of a new Internet law that would give Turkey's telecommunications authority the power to shut down websites for privacy violations, although it would have to obtain court approval within 24 hours.
(AP, 2/26/14)
2014 Feb 28, Turkey's state-run news agency said five remaining suspects jailed in a vast corruption investigation have been released on parole pending trial. Turkey's main opposition party asked the top court to overturn a law tightening government control of the judiciary, which it sees as a bid by PM Tayyip Erdogan to snuff out a corruption scandal.
(AP, 2/28/14)(Reuters, 2/28/14)
2014 Feb 28, Turkey's parliament passed legislation to shut down private preparatory schools many of which are an important source of income and influence for an Islamic cleric PM Tayyip Erdogan accuses of running a covert campaign to topple him. Lawmakers set a deadline of September 1, 2015, to close the schools.
(Reuters, 3/1/14)
2014 Feb 28, In southeastern Turkey suspected PKK gunmen abducted Abdurrahman Ecer (50), the top elected official of Cigli village.
(Reuters, 3/2/14)
2014 Mar 5, Turkey’s PM Erdogan confirmed the authenticity of a tape asking his then-justice minister Sadullah Ergin to pressure a court into convicting media mogul Aydin Dogan, a long-time foe. The tape included a slight to the country’s large Alevi community. The tape followed the publication last month in local daily Taraf of internal government documents that appeared to show anti-Alevi discrimination in the recruitment process for civil servants.
(AFP, 3/7/14)
2014 Mar 7, A Turkish court ordered the release of former army chief Ilker Basbug from a life sentence.
(Reuters, 3/7/14)
2014 Mar 11, In Turkey police and protesters clashed in Ankara and Istanbul following the death of Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old boy who suffered a head injury during anti-government demonstrations last summer. Elvan was the sixth person to die in violence surrounding nationwide protests in late May and June over Erdogan's plans to tear down a park in central Istanbul. In 2021 police Officer Fatih Dalgali was sentenced to 16 years and 8 months in prison for Elvan's murder.
(Reuters, 3/11/14)(AP, 6/18/21)
2014 Mar 12, In Turkey tens of thousands of mourners chanting anti-government slogans marched through central Istanbul for the funeral of a teenager wounded in street protests last summer whose death has sparked renewed unrest across Turkey. Police clashed with protesters in at least 11 cities and at least two people were killed.
(Reuters, 3/12/14)(SFC, 3/12/14, p.A2)(AFP, 3/13/14)
2014 Mar 13, Thai authorities detained 220 suspected Turkish migrants hiding in a secluded camp in the deep south and believed to be victims of a trafficking ring.
(AP, 3/13/14)
2014 Mar 19, In Turkey Veysi Erim, a worker at a statistics office in the eastern province of Kars, shot dead six people before committing suicide.
(Reuters, 3/19/14)
2014 Mar 20, Turkey’s PM Tayyip Erdogan's defiantly vowed, on the campaign trail ahead of March 30 local polls, to "wipe out" Twitter, whatever the international community had to say about it.
(Reuters, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 21, Turkey blocked access to Twitter after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to "rip out the roots" of the social network where links have proliferated to recordings that appear to incriminate him and other top officials in corruption.
(AP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 22, Turkish authorities sought to tighten a clampdown on Twitter after social media users easily evaded the government's attempt to block access to the service.
(AP, 3/22/14)
2014 Mar 23, Turkish fighter jets shot down a Syrian warplane after it violated Turkey's airspace. The pilot safely ejected from the aircraft.
(AP, 3/23/14)
2014 Mar 25, Turkish special forces raided buildings in Istanbul used by suspected members of an Islamist militant group active in neighboring Syria and Iraq, leaving three policemen and two suspects wounded.
(Reuters, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, A Turkish court ordered the telecommunications authority to restore access to Twitter, issuing an injunction five days after the government blocked access to the social network.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 27, In Turkey KanalTurk television station, linked to opponents of PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said authorities have withdrawn its license to broadcast nationally just days before crucial local elections.
(AP, 3/27/14)
2014 Mar 27, Israel said it will allow into the Gaza Strip construction materials and electric equipment to help build a Turkish-sponsored hospital, in a possible sign of improving ties with Ankara.
(Reuters, 3/27/14)
2014 Mar 30, In Turkey violent feuds broke out in local elections for village and neighborhood leaders, leaving 6 people dead in the village of Yuvacik, Sanliurfa province, and 2 dead in the southern city of Hatay. PM Erdogan’s AK Party led the polls with 46%, retaining control of the two biggest cities Istanbul and Ankara and increasing its share of the national vote.
(AP, 3/30/14)(Reuters, 3/31/14)(SSFC, 4/6/14, p.A4)
2014 Apr 1, In Turkey riot police fired water cannon in Ankara to disperse thousands of people protesting outside the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) against local election results which saw the ruling party dominate the electoral map. Election results in Ankara were particularly close.
(Reuters, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 3, Turkey's telecoms authority lifted a two-week-old ban on Twitter, after the constitutional court ruled the block breached freedom of expression.
(Reuters, 4/3/14)
2014 Apr 4, A Turkish court ruled that a blanket ban of social-media website YouTube violated human rights and ordered most of the restrictions be lifted, citing a top court ruling this week that scrapped a similar ban on microblogging site Twitter. But the court soon reversed the YouTube decision, saying the block would remain in place until the audio recordings allegedly showing top-level security talks on Syria are removed.
(Reuters, 4/4/14)(AFP, 4/5/14)
2014 Apr 9, Kuwait said three of its citizens have been kidnapped in Syria and it has asked Turkey for help in trying to secure their release. Kidnappers asked for a ransom of 1 million euros ($1.38 million).
(Reuters, 4/10/14)
2014 Apr 10, Turkey’s government said a charity at which PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan's son sits on the board received more than $100 million of aid over a four-year period. The government sought parliamentary approval to boost the powers of the secret service, a move seen by PM Erdogan's critics as a bid to tighten his grip on the apparatus of state as he wages a bitter power struggle.
(AFP, 4/10/14)(Reuters, 4/10/14)
2014 Apr 11, Turkey's constitutional court dealt another blow to PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan by annulling sections of a controversial law tightening the government's control over the judiciary.
(AFP, 4/11/14)
2014 Apr 11, Turkey condemned a US Senate committee resolution branding the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces during World War One as genocide and warned Congress against taking steps that would harm Turkish-American ties.
(Reuters, 4/11/14)
2014 Apr 12, Turkey's PM Erdogan said he will "go after" Twitter, accusing the site of tax-evasion, after it was used to spread damaging leaks implicating his inner circle in corruption scandals.
(AFP, 4/12/14)
2014 Apr 21, Turkey's energy minister said an oil pipeline carrying crude from Iraq's Kirkuk oil fields to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan is unusable because of persistent militant attacks.
(Reuters, 4/21/14)
2014 Apr 22, Turkey’s PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said number of Syrian refugees in Turkey has reached "almost one million," while pledging to keep accepting those fleeing the war.
(AFP, 4/22/14)
2014 Apr 23, Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan offered what the government said were unprecedented condolences on Wednesday to the grandchildren of Armenians killed in World War One by Ottoman soldiers on the eve of the 99th anniversary of the deeply contested deaths.
(Reuters, 4/23/14)
2014 Apr 26, Turkish President Abdullah Gul approved a controversial law expanding the powers of the spy agency, a move critics say will tighten the graft-tainted government's control over state institutions.
(AFP, 4/26/14)
2014 Apr 29, Turkey’s PM Tayyip Erdogan said he would ask the United States to extradite Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom he accuses of plotting to topple him and undermine Turkey with concocted graft accusations and secret wire taps. Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1997.
(Reuters, 4/29/14)
2014 Apr, Germany’s Pres. Joachim Gauck visited Turkey and criticized the erosion of civil liberties there.
(Econ, 5/24/14, p.45)
2014 May 1, Turkish police fired tear gas, water cannon and rubber pellets to stop May Day protesters, some armed with fire bombs, from defying PM Tayyip Erdogan and reaching Istanbul's central Taksim square.
(Reuters, 5/1/14)
2014 May 2, Turkish media said prosecutors have dismissed a case against 60 suspects, among them a former minister's son and a construction tycoon, in the graft scandal swirling around PM Tayyip Erdogan's inner circle.
(Reuters, 5/2/14)
2014 May 12, The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered Turkey to pay 90 million euros ($124 million) in damages for its 1974 invasion of Cyprus, the largest such ruling in its history. Turkish officials the next day said that the country will not pay the fine.
(CSM, 5/13/14)
2014 May 13, In western Turkey at least 282 people were killed underground after an explosion and fire at the Soma coal mine in Manisa province. The death toll soon rose to 302, making it the worst industrial accident in Turkish history.
(AP, 5/13/14)(Reuters, 5/14/14)(Reuters, 5/17/14)(Econ, 11/29/14, p.49)
2014 May 16, Turkish police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse a crowd of several thousand protesters in the town of Soma, where 301 people died in the country's worst ever mining disaster this week.
(Reuters, 5/16/14)
2014 May 18, Turkish police detained 24 people, including mining company executives and personnel, as an investigation into last week's mine disaster in Soma got underway. The last of 301 victims were buried.
(Reuters, 5/18/14)(SSFC, 5/25/14, p.A6)
2014 May 22, In Turkey violence erupted when police fired live ammunition as well as tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who denounced the death of a teenage boy who fell into a coma during anti-government unrest last year. At least one person was killed by gunshot and another died of wounds from a grenade explosion.
(AFP, 5/23/14)
2014 May 23, Iraq took legal action against Turkey after Ankara announced that oil from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region was being exported to international markets.
(AFP, 5/23/14)
2014 May 24, A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck northern Greece and western Turkey. Over 250 people were reported injured.
(SSFC, 5/25/14, p.A4)
2014 May 26, A Turkish court ordered the arrests of four former Israeli military commanders being tried in absentia over the killing of 9 people aboard a Turkish aid ship that tried to break a Gaza blockade on May 31, 2010.
(AP, 5/26/14)
2014 May 27, In Somalia a Turkish man, Saadettin Dogan, was shot dead in Mogadishu when gunmen attacked the car he was traveling in with a senior manager from Turkish Airlines.
(Reuters, 5/27/14)
2014 May 28, In southeast Turkey Kurdish guerrillas shot dead a state-sponsored militia member in the southeastern province of Mardin.
(Reuters, 5/29/14)
2014 May 31, Turkish police shut Gezi Park, the Istanbul square at the center of mass demonstrations in 2013, to prevent any efforts to mark the anniversary of the biggest anti-government protests in decades.
(Reuters, 5/31/14)
2014 Jun 7, In Turkey 2 people were killed in southeast Diyarbakir province as Kurdish protesters, demonstrating against the construction of new military outposts, threw petrol bombs at security forces who then opened fire.
(Reuters, 6/8/14)
2014 Jun 9, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani met with Turkish officials, including PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the first official Iranian presidential visit to Turkey since 1996.
(AP, 6/9/14)
2014 Jun 10, In Iraq ISIL militants seized 48 Turks from the Turkish consulate in Mosul, including the consul-general, three children and several members of Turkey's special forces. ISIL, numbering some 7-10 thousand fighters, was led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
(Reuters, 6/11/14)(SFC, 6/12/14, p.A8)(Econ, 8/2/14, p.41)
2014 Jun 14, Turkey said it has temporarily pulled its diplomatic staff out of the Libyan city of Benghazi and urged its nationals to leave the east of the country amid mounting security concerns.
(AP, 6/14/14)
2014 Jun 18, A Turkish court convicted the only two surviving leaders of the country's 1980 military coup of crimes against the state and sentenced them to life imprisonment. Kenan Evren (96), the military chief of staff who led the takeover and went on to serve as president until 1989, and Tahsin Sahinkaya (89), a former air force chief, had been on trial since 2012.
(AP, 6/18/14)(Econ, 6/28/14, p.45)
2014 Jun 18, A criminal court in Istanbul ordered the release of 230 military officers convicted of plotting to topple PM Tayyip Erdogan, a day after the country's top court ruled their trial was flawed. A retrial was ordered.
(Reuters, 6/19/14)(Econ, 6/28/14, p.45)
2014 Jun 18, The Indian government said 40 Indian construction workers have been seized near Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, which ISIL and allied Sunni fighters captured last week. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said its diplomats were investigating a Turkish media report that militants grabbed 60 foreign construction workers, including some 15 Turks, near the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 6/18/14)
2014 Jul 1, Turkey's ruling party nominated PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan to run in Turkey's first directly elected presidential race in August, announcing his candidacy to thousands of cheering supporters.
(AP, 7/1/14)
2014 Jul 3, The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant marched across eastern Syria near the border with Iraq, seizing towns, villages and the country's largest oil field as rival rebel factions gave up the fight. ISIL released 32 Turkish truck drivers who they captured during a lightning offensive across northern and western Iraq last month.
(AP, 7/3/14)
2014 Jul 5, Turkish media said Kurdish rebels will begin a stalled withdrawal from Turkey into their safe haven in northern Iraq after parliament passes reforms aimed at ending a decades-long insurgency.
(AFP, 7/5/14)
2014 Jul 21, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he has stopped talking to US President Barack Obama on the phone, amid growing strains between Ankara and Washington over Syria and the Gaza conflict.
(AFP, 7/22/14)
2014 Jul 22, Turkish authorities arrested dozens of senior police officers in a criminal probe over alleged illegal wire-tapping and forgery, the latest crackdown on opponents of PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of presidential polls.
(AFP, 7/22/14)
2014 Jul 25, Turkey inaugurated a high-speed rail service linking the capital Ankara to Istanbul which will cut travel time between the country's main two cities by half.
(AP, 7/25/14)
2014 Jul 26, A Turkish court ordered the formal arrest of 12 more police officers, including the former head of Istanbul's intelligence unit, pending charges they may have illegally wiretapped PM Tayyip Erdogan.
(Reuters, 7/26/14)
2014 Aug 5, In Turkey dozens of police officers were detained in a widening probe of wiretapping allegedly targeting PM Tayyip Erdogan.
(Reuters, 8/5/14)
2014 Aug 7, Turkish officials said up to 800 people from Iraq's Yazidi community have fled across the border to Turkey after escaping a lightning offensive by jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group.
(AFP, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan branded Amberin Zaman, a prominent female journalist, a "shameless woman" and told her "to know your place".
(AFP, 8/8/14)
2014 Aug 10, Turkey held presidential elections. PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan became Turkey’s first elected president and extended his domination despite warnings by opponents that the country is moving towards a one-man autocracy. Erdogan received 52% of the vote marking his 9th electoral victory during 12 years of power.
(AFP, 8/10/14)(AFP, 8/11/14)(Econ, 8/16/14, p.42)(Econ, 9/13/14, p.61)
2014 Aug 12, In northern Turkey a coal mine collapse trapped up to nine people inside.
(AP, 8/12/14)
2014 Aug 19, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said that Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is set to take over from Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the country's next prime minister.
(AFP, 8/19/14)
2014 Aug 24, In southeast Turkey Kurdish rebels abducted three Chinese workers and attacked a thermal power plant where they worked. They were seized while grocery shopping near the town Silopi and security forces soon launched an operation to rescue them.
(AP, 8/26/14)
2014 Aug 25, In Turkey hundreds of residents angered by the presence of Syrian refugees clashed with police in a violent protest in the Ikitelli district of Istanbul. Syrian refugees in Turkey have now swelled to 1.2 million.
(AFP, 8/25/14)
2014 Aug 28, Turkey's new Pres. Recep Erdogan took the oath of office. New PM Ahmet Davutoglu reappointed all key ministers who served under Erdogan, setting a course of continuity for the new government.
(AP, 8/29/14)(SFC, 8/29/14, p.A2)
2014 Sep 1, Turkish authorities detained at least 20 police officers in new nationwide raids over an alleged plot to overthrow the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Istanbul prosecutors announced they were dropping all legal proceedings against 96 people probed as a result of the corruption allegations, including Erdogan's son Bilal. Turkey's top judge issued a thinly-veiled warning to Erdogan to refrain from interfering in the judiciary.
(AFP, 9/2/14)
2014 Sep 3, Turkish policeman Ahmet Sahbaz was jailed for seven years and nine months after being convicted of shooting dead protester Ethem Sarisuluk (26), during 2013 anti-government protests. The court had agreed he was provoked by the protesters.
(AFP, 9/3/14)
2014 Sep 4, In Turkey Gaziantep province governor Erdal Ata said 19 militants affiliated with the Islamic State have been arrested. Ata also said police had caught suspected IS-linked jihadists coming from Europe or Caucasus, carrying backpacks, at the Gaziantep airport or at the border.
(AFP, 9/4/14)
2014 Sep 10, Turkey’s parliament approved legislation to tighten the government’s control over the Internet.
(Econ, 9/13/14, p.61)
2014 Sep 11, Turkey refused to sign the “Jeddah Communique," in which various Arab nations promised to back America’s military action against the Islamic State. On Sep 23 Pres. Erdogan said his country was ready to give necessary support to attacks on the IS.
(Econ, 9/27/14, p.24)
2014 Sep 18, Turkish PKK rebels, who have spent three decades fighting for autonomy for Turkey's Kurds, called for the youth of the country's mostly Kurdish southeast to join the fight against Islamic State militants in northern Syria.
(Reuters, 9/18/14)
2014 Sep 19, Turkey reopened its border with Syria to Kurds fleeing Islamic State (IS) militants, saying a "worst-case scenario" could drive as many as 100,000 more refugees into the country.
(AFP, 9/19/14)
2014 Sep 20, Turkish intelligence agents brought 46 hostages, seized by Islamic State militants in Mosul on June 11, back to Turkey after more than three months in captivity.
(Reuters, 9/20/14)
2014 Sep 20, In northern Syria the Islamic State executed at least 11 civilians, including at least two boys. It has seized at least 64 villages around Kobani since Sep 16, using heavy arms and thousands of fighters. At least 300 Kurdish fighters crossed from Turkey into Syria overnight to battle jihadists from the Islamic State group trying to seize Kobani, a strategic border town.
(AFP, 9/20/14)(Reuters, 9/21/14)
2014 Sep 21, Kurdish militants in Turkey issued a new call to arms to defend the border town of Kobani, Syria, from advancing Islamic State fighters. Turkish authorities and the UN prepared for a surge in refugees. Clashes overnight reportedly killed 10 insurgents, bringing the number of IS fighters killed to at least 39. At least 27 Kurdish fighters have died.
(Reuters, 9/21/14)
2014 Sep 22, Syrian Kurds battled to defend Kobani, a key border town from an Islamic State advance, as Kurdish youths from neighboring Turkey rushed to their aid, heightening the pressure on Ankara to act against the Islamist insurgents.
(Reuters, 9/22/14)
2014 Sep 26, Islamic State fighters tightened their siege of the strategic town of Kobani on Syria's border with Turkey, pushing back Kurdish forces and sending at least two shells into Turkish territory.
(Reuters, 9/26/14)
2014 Sep 27, Three Turkish police were killed after an ambush in the overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast, in an attack claimed by armed Kurdish militants despite a one-and-a-half-year ceasefire.
(AFP, 9/27/14)
2014 Sep 29, Turkish tanks and armored vehicles took up positions on a hill overlooking the besieged Syrian border town of Kobani as shelling by Islamic State insurgents intensified and stray fire hit Turkish soil.
(Reuters, 9/29/14)
2014 Oct 1, Turkish Pres. Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will fight against Islamic State and other "terrorist" groups in the region but will stick to its aim of seeing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad removed from power.
(Reuters, 10/1/14)
2014 Oct 2, The Turkish government won parliamentary approval to deploy troops against the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 10/3/14)
2014 Oct 7, Turkey's president said Kobani was "about to fall" after Islamic State fighters advanced into the south west of the Syrian Kurdish town, pressing home a three-week assault has cost a reported 412 lives. More than 2,000 Syrian Kurds including women and children were evacuated from the town after the latest fighting.
(Reuters, 10/7/14)
2014 Oct 7, In Turkey Kurdish protesters clashed with police. 20 protesters were killed in the clashes, mostly between sympathizers of rival Kurdish groups. Kurdish protesters also forced their way into the European Parliament in Brussels, part of Europe-wide demonstrations against the Islamic State group's advance on a town on the Syrian-Turkish border.
(AP, 10/7/14)(Econ, 10/11/14, p.59)
2014 Oct 7, Cyprus' president suspended talks on reunifying the ethnically divided island in response to Turkey's plans to search for oil and gas in waters where the Cypriot government has already licensed Italy's Eni and South Korea's Kogas to drill.
(AP, 10/7/14)
2014 Oct 8, In southeast Turkey at least 21 people were killed in riots, the deadliest street unrest in years, after the Kurdish minority rose up in fury at the government's refusal to protect a besieged Syrian town from Islamic State. US-led air strikes appeared to have pushed Islamic State fighters back to the edges of Kobani.
(Reuters, 10/8/14)(Reuters, 10/9/14)
2014 Oct 9, Islamic State fighters seized more than a third of the Syrian border town of Kobani, as US-led air strikes failed to halt their advance and Turkish forces nearby looked on without intervening. Two police officers were shot dead in an apparent attempt to assassinate a police chief in Turkey’s eastern province of Bingol. Four of the alleged attackers were later killed and two more caught after a shootout with security forces. In Gaziantep province 4 people killed and 20 wounded as armed clashes broke out overnight between protesters calling for solidarity with Kobani.
(Reuters, 10/9/14)(Reuters, 10/10/14)
2014 Oct 10, In Syria militants fought deeper into the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani in full view of Turkish tanks that have done nothing to intervene. At least 31 people have been killed in three days of riots and street violence across Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 10/10/14)
2014 Oct 11, Kurdish forces defending Kobani urged a US-led coalition to escalate air strikes on Islamic State fighters who controlled more than a third of the Syrian town at the border with Turkey. 36 jihadi fighters were reportedly killed in Kobani.
(Reuters, 10/11/14)(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 12, US Defense officials said Turkey will allow American and coalition troops to use its bases against Islamic State militants in Syria.
(SFC, 10/13/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 13, Turkish air force bombed Kurdish fighters furious over Ankara's refusal to help protect their kin in Syria. Bombs on PKK targets after they reportedly attacked a military outpost in the Daglica region.
(Reuters, 10/14/14)
2014 Oct 13, Kurdish fighters engaged in fierce clashes with jihadists on the Turkish border near Kobane, as Ankara denied allowing Washington to use its bases against the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 17, Prosecutors in Istanbul ruled that there were no grounds for legal action against 53 suspects, including the sons of two former government ministers and a prominent Iranian businessman, who were suspected of bribery and corruption in a case that shook the country in December.
(AP, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 18, Afghanistan’s leadership greeted the arrival of Turkish Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Pres. Ashraf Ghani and Erdogan signed an agreement on closer bilateral relationship between the two countries.
(AFP, 10/19/14)
2014 Oct 18, In Syria US-led coalition jets pounded suspected Islamic State targets at least six times in Kobani after the fiercest shelling in days by the insurgents shook the town's center and hit border areas within Turkey. Syrian government forces shelled neighborhoods in Damascus, the southern province of Deraa and the central province of Homs. Islamic State militants fired 44 mortars at Kurdish parts of Kobani. Two Islamic State car bombs hit Kurdish positions leading to casualties.
(Reuters, 10/18/14)(AP, 10/19/14)
2014 Oct 20, Turkey said it would allow Iraqi Kurdish fighters to reinforce fellow Kurds in the Syrian town of Kobani, while the US air-dropped arms for the first time to help the defenders resist an Islamic State assault. At least one cache of the US airdropped weapons were seized by Islamioc State fighters.
(Reuters, 10/20/14)(SFC, 10/22/14, p.A4)
2014 Oct 22, In southeastern Turkey suspected Kurdish militants kidnapped 10 power company workers. A politician from a Kurdish Islamist party was shot dead in the eastern city of Bingol.
(Reuters, 10/22/14)
2014 Oct 23, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that 200 Iraqi Kurd peshmerga fighters would travel through Turkey to join the battle in Kobane, where about 1,000 IS militants are believed to be fighting. US-led air strikes in Syria were reported to have killed more than 521 jihadists and 32 civilians over the last month.
(AFP, 10/23/14)(Reuters, 10/23/14)
2014 Oct 24, Turkey's president said that Ankara would allow hundreds of Syrian rebels to travel to the embattled border town of Kobani in order to help Kurdish fighters there fend off an Islamic State onslaught. During a state visit in Estonia, Erdogan said the Western-backed Free Syrian Army would send 1,300 fighters to the Syrian town. A spokesman for the Western-backed Syrian opposition in exile, Kenan Mohammed, said there were no plans to send fighters to Kobani.
(AP, 10/24/14)
2014 Oct 24, Turkey’s soldiers shot dead 3 PKK guerrillas after fighters from the outlawed group set fire to two vehicles and a power plant in the eastern province of Kars and shot at soldiers who returned fire.
(Reuters, 10/25/14)
2014 Oct 25, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants killed 3 Turkish soldiers.
(Reuters, 10/25/14)
2014 Oct 28, In southern Turkey a coal mine collapsed, trapping 18 workers underground at the Has Sekerler mine near the town of Ermenek in Karaman province. The bodies of the last 5 miners were recovered on Dec 4.
(AP, 10/28/14)(AP, 12/4/14)
2014 Oct 29, Iraqi peshmerga fighters arrived in southeastern Turkey en route for the Syrian town of Kobani to try to help fellow Kurds break an Islamic State siege. The US military conducted 14 air strikes over the last 2 days against the IS in Syria and Iraq. Eight of the strikes were near Kobani.
(Reuters, 10/29/14)
2014 Oct 31, In Syria US-led air strikes hit Islamic State positions around the border town of Kobani in an apparent bid to pave the way for heavily-armed Kurdish peshmerga forces to enter from neighboring Turkey.
(Reuters, 10/31/14)
2014 Nov 3, Turkish rescuers pulled 24 bodies from the sea at the mouth of Istanbul's Bosphorus strait and rescued seven people after the sinking of a boat carrying migrants including children. The capsized boat was loaded with 42 illegal migrants from Afghan and Syria.
(Reuters, 11/3/14)(SFC, 11/4/14, p.A2)
2014 Nov 4, Turkish politician Ahmet Karatas, a member of the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), was stabbed repeatedly in the capital Ankara, in an attack that his pro-Kurdish party blamed on a government-led 'lynch campaign' against it.
(Reuters, 11/4/14)
2014 Nov 12, Turkey's national election board said it has penalized the state-run broadcaster for favoring President Tayyip Erdogan in its coverage of the country's first popular vote for head of state.
(Reuters, 11/12/14)
2014 Nov 12, Members of the nationalist Turkish Youth Union attacked three US sailors on a crowded street in Istanbul, shouting "Yankee go home", throwing paint and trying to pull hoods over their heads. Twelve people were detained but released by an Istanbul court the next day.
(Reuters, 11/14/14)
2014 Nov 13, Turkey said it will issue work permits for some of the 1.5 million Syrian war refugees it is hosting, dismissing fears it would harm local workers.
(AFP, 11/13/14)
2014 Nov 15, Turkish media reported that Turkey and the United States have agreed a plan under which some 2,000 fighters from the moderate Syrian opposition would be trained on Turkish soil.
(AFP, 11/15/14)
2014 Nov 20, Iraq PM Haider al-Abadi said that Iraq and Turkey have agred on closer security and intelligence cooperation in the face of threats posed by the Islamic State group.
(SFC, 11/21/14, p.A4)
2014 Nov 21, In Turkey Marko Ivkovic (25), a Serbian basketball fan, was killed before a Euroleague basketball match between Turkish team Galatasaray and Serbia's Red Star in Istanbul. On Nov 26 Istanbul police arrested a Turkish man for the stabbing death.
(AP, 11/28/14)
2014 Nov 24, Turkey’s Pres. Erdogan set off a new controversy, declaring that women are not equal to men and accusing feminists of not understanding the special status that Islam attributes to mothers.
(AP, 11/24/14)
2014 Nov 28, Pope Francis arrived in Turkey to encourage Muslim leaders to take a stronger stand against extremists who twist religion to justify terrorism. He condemned the Islamic State group's assault on Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria.
(AP, 11/28/14)
2014 Nov 29, The Islamic State group launched an attack on the Syrian border town of Kobani. The latest fighting killed at least 8 Kurdish fighters and 17 jihadis. The US-led coalition launched an airstrike morning on the eastern side of the town. Turkey denied that IS fighters had used its territory for the raid.
(AP, 11/29/14)
2014 Dec 3, Human Rights Watch urged Turkey to remove from its border with Syria landmines which have killed 3 people and wounded nine among more than 2,000 Syrian refugees camped in a minefield.
(Reuters, 12/3/14)
2014 Dec 4, Kurdish sources said a second group of 150 Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces has entered the Syrian border town of Kobani from Turkey to replace a first group helping Kurdish forces fight off a siege by Islamic State militants.
(Reuters, 12/4/14)
2014 Dec 6, The leaders of Greece and Turkey glossed over key differences between the nations and expressed support for close affairs between the often irritable neighbors.
(http://tinyurl.com/nbyw5o6)
2014 Dec 13, Mehmet Gormez, the head of Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate, came under fire over reports that a luxury Mercedes had been purchased at public expense to serve as his official car. This came amid ongoing controversy over President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's new presidential palace, a 1,150-room complex in Ankara that cost taxpayers $615 million.
(AFP, 12/13/14)(Econ, 2/6/15, SR p.4)
2014 Dec 14, Turkish police arrested Ekrem Dumanli, the editor of the country's biggest selling newspaper (Zaman), and at least two dozen other media figures in a new crackdown on supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's exiled rival, Fethullah Gulen.
(AFP, 12/14/14)
2014 Dec 16, In Turkey dozens of football fans who took part in last year's mass anti-government protests went on trial accused of an attempted coup.
(AP, 12/16/14)
2014 Dec 17, German prosecutors arrested three Turkish men accused of spying on compatriots in Germany for Turkish intelligence.
(AP, 12/18/14)
2014 Dec 17, The UN Security Council renewed for 12 months its authorization for humanitarian access without Syrian government consent into rebel-held areas of Syria at four border crossings from Turkey, Iraq and Jordan.
(Reuters, 12/17/14)
2014 Dec 19, A Turkish court kept Hidayet Karaca, head of Samanyolu Television, and three other people in custody pending trial on accusations of belonging to a terrorist group.
(Reuters, 12/19/14)
2014 Dec 24, In Turkey a 16-year-old high school student was arrested in in the central Anatolian city of Konya for "insulting" President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by accusing him and his ruling party of corruption. Mehmet Emin Altunses was released on Dec 26 following a complaint by his lawyer, but he still faced trial in the future.
(AFP, 12/25/14)(AFP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 25, Turkish media reported that Mustafa Ali Tonbul (17), who survived a severe head injury from police in last year's anti-government protests, has been sentenced to more than three months in jail.
(AFP, 12/25/14)
2014 Dec 27, In Turkey 3 people, including a teenager (15), died and three others were wounded in clashes between Islamists and Kurdish youths in the southeastern town of Cizre.
(Reuters, 12/27/14)(Reuters, 12/28/14)
2014 Dec 28, The Turkish ship Gokbel with 11 crew members sank after the collision with the Belize flagged Lady Aziza in poor visibility a mile from the Italian Adriatic port of Ravenna. Two people drowned and four were missing at sea and feared dead.
(Reuters, 12/28/14)
2014 Dec, Turkey’s government officially declared Fethullah Gulen (74), a Pennsylvania based Muslim cleric, to be the head of a terrorist organization bent on establishing a “parallel state."
(Econ, 2/6/15, SR p.8)
2014 Charles King authored “Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul."
(Econ, 9/13/14, p.90)
2014 Turkish TV producers created the 15-part drama “Dragunov," named after a Soviet-made sniper rifle. They reportedly hoped it would act as a balm for Libya’s soul as it struggles in the aftermath of Qaddafi’s rule.
(Econ, 7/19/14, p.42)
2014 Turkish proverb: He who holds the money is bound to lick his fingers.
(Econ, 7/12/14, p.55)
2015 Jan 1, In Turkey a man carrying an automatic weapon was detained near the historic Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul after he threw a grenade at police. The Turkish far-left group DHKP-C soon claimed responsibility for the grenade attack.
(Reuters, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, In Turkey the main Western-backed Syrian opposition group opened a three-day meeting to discuss a range of issues, including a Russian initiative to hold peace talks in Moscow to broker a resolution to Syria's civil war.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 5, Police in Turkey detained 20 more police officers suspected of conducting illegal wiretaps in a new wave of raids in twelve cities.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 6, In Turkey a female suicide bomber entered a police station and blew herself up in Istanbul's historic Sultanahmet district, killing one officer and wounding another. The leftist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, said it carried out the attack.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 9, In Turkey security forces detained 13 foreigners and a Turkish citizen attempting to cross into Syria from a village in the southeastern province of Gaziantep to join the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.
(AFP, 2/11/15)
2015 Jan 14, A Turkish court ordered the telecommunications authority to ban access to websites showing Charlie Hebdo's front cover with the image of the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, In Turkey, a child (12) was allegedly shot and killed by security forces in the old southeastern Kurdish settlement of Cizre. 17 locals have been reportedly killed in fighting jihadists across the border in the Syrian town of Kobane.
(Econ, 2/14/15, p.46)
2015 Jan 17, A Turkish intelligence report said around 3,000 people in Turkey are believed to be linked to the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.
(AFP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 21, A Turkish court sentenced two police officers to 10 years in prison each for their involvement in the beating death of student Ali Ismail Korkmaz (19) during anti-government protests in 2013. Four other civilian defendants were sentenced to up to six years. The victim's supporters said the verdict was too lenient and staged immediate protests outside and inside the courthouse.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 24, In southeast Turkey some 70,000 Kurds staged a protest in Diyarbakir against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo's cartoon portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed.
(AFP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 28, Turkey informed US officials that it was revoking the passport of Fethullah Gulen because it was issued based on a "false statement". Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 2, In Turkey at least 8 people were killed and many more rescued from high winds and flooding caused by a huge storm, a southwesterly known locally as a Lodos.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 8, A Turkish court ordered the arrest of 21 police officers as part of an investigation into the illegal wiretapping of politicians, civil servants and businessmen.
(Reuters, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 9, In Turkey G20 finance ministers met in Istanbul. Britain and the United States called on leading world powers to overhaul their economies and keep budgets in line to encourage growth.
(AFP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 11, In Turkey female student Ozgecan Aslan (20) was raped and beaten to death by bus driver Ahmet Suphi Altindoken (26). Her body was burned in a wooded area in a bid to hide the evidence but the corpse was found by police on Feb 13.
(AFP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 13, Turkish police used water cannon in the western coastal city of Izmir to disperse scores of protesters boycotting schools over the growing influence of religion in the classroom.
(Reuters, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 16, Turkey said it was temporarily closing its embassy in Yemen, the latest foreign mission to do so following the takeover of power by Shiite Huthi militiamen.
(AFP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, The Armenian president asked the country's parliament speaker to withdraw his signature from a groundbreaking 2009 agreement with Turkey meant to restore ties between the two nations due to "preconditions" that Turkey put in place before it ratifies its part of the deal.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 17, Three British girls (Kadiza Sultana (16) and 15-year-olds Shamima Begum and Amira Abase) flew from London to Turkey in a suspected bid to join the Islamic State group. On March 12 Turkey announced the arrest of an agent who helped the girls cross into Syria. The agent also worked as a courier to transfer money to jihadists.
(SSFC, 2/22/15, p.A5)(AP, 3/15/15)(AFP, 3/15/15)
2015 Feb 18, The Turkish parliament descended into chaos when a furious brawl erupted as the country's ruling party sought to push through a controversial bill boosting the powers of police in protests.
(AFP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, In Turkey a snowstorm in Istanbul grounded planes, halted traffic and forced the closure of the Bosphorus Strait shipping channel.
(Reuters, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 19, Turkish media quoted the national intelligence agency (MIT) as saying that Islamic State militants have entered Turkey and are plotting to attack diplomatic missions in Ankara and Istanbul.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Turkish legislators scuffled for a second day in parliament over a new security bill which critics say aims to crush dissent.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 22, Almost 600 Turkish troops pushed deep into Syria evacuating Turkish soldiers guarding a historic tomb who had been stranded in territory controlled by Islamic State jihadists. They brought back the tomb containing the remains of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the Ottoman empire's founder, Osman I.
(AFP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, Libya's internationally recognized government said it will end all contracts with companies from Turkey, a country it has accused of supporting a rival administration.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 26, Libya's internationally recognized PM Abdullah al-Thinni said his government would stop dealing with Turkey as it was sending weapons to a rival group in Tripoli so "the Libyan people kill each other", ramping up his rhetoric against Ankara.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Turkey Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) imprisoned on an island near Istanbul, urged separatists to hold a congress on disarmament in the coming months.
(AFP, 3/1/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Turkey Yasar Kemal (91), one of the country’s best-known novelists with worldwide readership, died. His books included of "Memed, My Hawk" (1955) a story about feudal relations in Turkey's traditional southern regions. Nine of his novels were made into films. Kemal never promoted his Kurdish background. In the mid-1990s he was convicted for an article denouncing racism against minorities in Turkey, especially Kurds.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Mar 2, Turkey detained an intelligence agent working for one of the states in the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State (IS) for helping three British teenage girls cross into Syria to join the jihadists. This was only made public on March 12. Kadiza Sultana, 16, and 15-year-olds Shamima Begum and Amira Abase, crossed into Syria after boarding a flight from London to Istanbul on February 17.
(AFP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 3, Turkey's state-run news agency said a court has ordered President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to pay 10,000 Turkish Lira (US$ 4,000) in compensation to artist Mehmet Aksoy for calling his sculpture — meant to promote reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia — a "monstrosity." Erdogan expressed his dislike in 2011 of the giant "Monument to Humanity," which was being erected in the eastern city of Kars.
(AP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 11, Turkish authorities said they have detained 16 Indonesians from three families who were trying to cross into Syria, a route frequently used by sympathizers of Islamic State militants.
(Reuters, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 12, The Turkish coastguard opened fire to stop a cargo vessel carrying 337 mainly Syrian migrants heading towards European Union waters and arrested the suspected traffickers.
(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In Turkey three male British teenagers planning to join Islamic State militants in Syria were detained in Istanbul.
(Reuters, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 20, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Turkey has offered a $50 million loan to Ukraine to help cover its budget deficit in a joint press conference in Kiev with Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey also offered Ukraine $10 million in humanitarian assistance.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 21, Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan called for Kurds to hold a historic congress to end a decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
(AFP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 22, A Turkish opposition lawmaker said he is helping the families of nine British medical students and doctors of Sudanese origin believed to have crossed into Syria from Turkey.
(AP, 3/22/15)(AFP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 27, The Turkish parliament passed a stripped down version of its controversial homeland security bill that has enraged the opposition, after a 16-hour debate that lasted all night.
(AFP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 29, A Turkish court charged former policemen Sedat Zavar and Ilker Usta with illegally eavesdropping on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following their extradition from Romania.
(AFP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Turkey an Istanbul court acquitted 236 military officers of charges of plotting a 2003 coup to overthrow the government of then-PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Turkey a massive power cut caused chaos and shut down public transport across the country, with the government refusing to rule out that the electricity system had been the victim of an attack.
(AFP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Turkey two members of a banned left-wing group, DHKP-C, held prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz hostage in an Istanbul courthouse for six hours. All three died in a shootout between the hostage-takers and police.
(AP, 4/1/15)(SFC, 4/7/15, p.A2)
2015 Apr 1, In Turkey a militant tried to storm the police headquarters in Istanbul. Police opened fire in response, killing the female assailant who was armed with grenades and guns. Turkish media named the dead woman as Elif Sultan Kalsen (28), saying she was a known member of the DHKP-C.
(AFP, 4/2/15)
2015 Apr 2, Turkish police launched early morning raids against suspected members of an ultra-leftist group in Istanbul. At least 10 people were arrested in the raids in the Okmeydani district of Istanbul.
(AP, 4/2/15)
2015 Apr 6, A wooden migrant boat sank in the Aegean off the Turkish coast of Datca late today. The Turkish Coast Guard recovered 8 bodies, rescued nine people and three remained missing.
(AP, 4/7/15)
2015 Apr 7, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani agreed to boost trade and signed a slew of deals at a meeting, but steered clear of directly addressing differences over conflict-ridden Yemen.
(Reuters, 4/7/15)
2015 Apr 11, Turkish troops engaged in clashes with over two dozen rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). 5 Kurdish rebels and a civilian were reported killed at Yukari Tutek village.
(AFP, 4/11/15)(AP, 4/12/15)
2015 Apr 12, In the Vatican Pope Francis described the 1915 massacre of as many as 1.5 million Armenians as "the first genocide of the 20th century" at a 100th anniversary Mass. Turkey swiftly summoned the Vatican's ambassador in Ankara to protest.
(Reuters, 4/12/15)
2015 Apr 14, Turkey deported nine Britons, including the son of a local councilor, two weeks after arresting them for attempting to cross into Syria.
(AFP, 4/14/15)
2015 Apr 22, Austrian lawmakers condemned as "genocide" for the first time the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I, ahead of the 100th anniversary of the violence.
(AFP, 4/22/15)
2015 Apr 24, Turkey hosted leaders from the former Allied powers of World War I to pay tribute to the tens of thousands killed in the Battle of Gallipoli, drawing accusations from Armenians that it was deliberately overshadowing the Yerevan ceremonies.
(AFP, 4/24/15)
2015 Apr 24, In Armenia the leaders of France and Russia joined ceremonies marking the centenary of the massacre of some 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman forces.
(AFP, 4/24/15)
2015 Apr 29, A Turkish court acquitted 26 activists who helped launch mass protests in May-June 2013 against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after a trial slammed by rights campaigners.
(AFP, 4/29/15)
2015 Apr 30, Turkish authorities issued arrest warrants for two judges in a legal standoff over an order to release 75 suspects detained on suspicion of plotting to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 4/30/15)
2015 May 1, Turkish police fired tear gas and water cannon at hundreds of stone-throwing May Day protesters. Left-wing groups and trade unions staged rallies around the world to mark International Workers Day.
(Reuters, 5/1/15)(AP, 5/1/15)
2015 May 9, Turkish former president Kenan Evren (97), convicted last year for his key role in the country's bloody 1980 coup, died in Ankara.
(AFP, 5/10/15)
2015 May 16, Turkish military jets shot down a Syrian aircraft after it violated Turkey's airspace.
(Reuters, 5/16/15)
2015 May 18, In Turkey twin bomb attacks hit the regional headquarters of the main pro-Kurdish HDP party in two cities, injuring more than half a dozen people and escalating tensions ahead of June 7 legislative elections.
(AFP, 5/18/15)
2015 May 21, It was reported that testimony from Turkish gendarmerie officers in court documents alleged that Turkey's state intelligence agency helped deliver arms to parts of Syria under Islamist rebel control during late 2013 and early 2014. The witness testimony contradicted Turkey's denials that it sent arms to Syrian rebels.
(Reuters, 5/21/15)
2015 May 21, Turkey's main opposition party unveiled a plan to build a new mega-city in the center of the country, in a bid to outflank the ambitious infrastructure projects of the ruling party ahead of elections.
(AFP, 5/21/15)
2015 May 28, A US official said the US military has started training Syrian opposition fighters in Turkey to combat Islamic State, an expected expansion of a program that first launched in Jordan weeks ago.
(Reuters, 5/28/15)
2015 May 29, In Turkey the opposition daily Cumhuriyet published footage from January 2014 showing Turkish security forces discovering boxes of what it described as weapons and ammunition being sent to Syria on National Intelligence Organization (MIT) trucks intercepted near the Syrian border.
(AFP, 6/2/15)
2015 May 31, In northwestern Turkey 3 assailants opened fire at a street party celebrating the wedding of a Roma community couple, killing 3 guests near Bursa.
(AP, 6/1/15)
2015 May, Turkish police arrested 53 people on suspicion of pimping and prostitution in raids on 25 addresses in five provinces across the south and southeast, after receiving reports that patrons of swinger clubs were bringing prostitutes to the sex parties. On Aug 3 local media said prosecutors have demanded jail sentences of up to 177 years for 29 people in the southeastern province of Adana suspected of setting up swingers' clubs.
(AP, 8/3/15)
2015 Jun 2, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan filed a criminal complaint against the opposition daily Cumhuriyet newspaper and its editor for publishing images allegedly showing trucks belonging to the state intelligence service helping send weapons to rebels in Syria. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders condemned Erdogan over his recent attacks on the journalists.
(AFP, 6/2/15)
2015 Jun 3, In Turkey assailants fired on a campaign vehicle belonging to a pro-Kurdish party and killed its driver, in the latest violence against politicians or political parties ahead of the June 7 general election.
(AP, 6/4/15)
2015 Jun 4, Turkish government official said more than 3,300 Syrians have crossed into Turkey in the past two days fleeing fighting between Islamic State militants and Kurdish forces in northern Syria's Tel Abyad region.
(AP, 6/4/15)
2015 Jun 5, In Turkey two explosions tore through a rally of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Diyarbakir. 2 people were killed and some 200 wounded.
(Reuters, 6/6/15)
2015 Jun 7, Turkey held parliamentary elections. President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party lost its parliamentary majority. The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), crossed a 10 percent threshold to enter parliament for the first time. The HDP won 13% and an estimated 80 seats. The far right Nationalist Action Party (MHP) took 16% of the vote and 80 seats. The Republican People’s Party won 25% of the vote and 112 seats.
(Reuters, 6/7/15)(Reuters, 6/8/15)(Econ, 6/13/15, p.49)
2015 Jun 9, In southeastern Turkey an Islamic aid group leader was shot dead as he left his office in the Diyarbakir 3 people were killed in the mainly Kurdish southeast when a clash broke out after the head of an Islamic aid group was shot dead outside his office.
(Reuters, 6/9/15)
2015 Jun 11, Turkey said it was taking measures to limit the flow of Syrian refugees onto its territory after an influx of thousands more over the last days due to fighting between Kurds and jihadists.
(AFP, 6/11/15)
2015 Jun 13, Turkish security forces used water cannon and fired warning shots to push Syrians away from the frontier as thousands massed at a border crossing to escape escalating fighting.
(AFP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 13, In Azerbaijan Russian President Vladimir Putin met Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks expected to touch on energy issues and the Syria crisis. They met a day after attending the opening ceremony of the inaugural European Games, hosted by Azerbaijan.
(AFP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 14, Syrian state television said dozens of civilians were wounded when two bombs exploded in the central city of Homs. Kurdish forces advanced to the gates of Tal Abyad and clashed with Islamic State jihadists. The upsurge in violence saw Turkey open its border to fleeing civilians.
(Reuters, 6/14/15)(AFP, 6/14/15)
2015 Jun 16, Turkey accused Kurdish militia in northern Syria of persecuting civilians and said it saw signs of "a kind of ethnic cleansing", drawing a parallel to the actions of Islamic State militants and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
(Reuters, 6/16/15)
2015 Jun 17, In Turkey Suleyman Demirel (b.1924), a former president (1993-2000) and seven-time prime minister, died in Ankara.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%BCleyman_Demirel)(SFC, 6/18/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 19, Turkish authorities arrested two Georgian citizens who tried to enter the country with radioactive material, including 1.2 kilos of cesium.
(AP, 6/19/15)
2015 Jun 23, Turkey’s coast guard rescued 70 migrants off a sinking ship as 6 migrants drowned in waters off the Greek island of Kos.
(AP, 6/24/15)
2015 Jun 26, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey will never allow the establishment of a Kurdish state in Syria after major gains by Kurdish fighters.
(AFP, 6/27/15)
2015 Jun 28, In Turkey riot police in Istanbul used teargas and water cannon to disperse thousands of participants in the Gay Pride parade in the Turkish after demonstrators began shouting slogans accusing the social conservative President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of "fascism".
(AFP, 6/28/15)
2015 Jun 30, A total of 173 people, mostly women and children, from the minority Chinese Muslim community of Uighurs arrived in Turkey from Thailand, where they were being held after fleeing China. They were being resettled in the central city of Kayseri, which boasts a strong Uighur community.
(AP, 7/2/15)
2015 Jul 3, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated a mosque on the grounds of his gigantic palace complex naming it the "Bestepe People's Mosque" and opened it to the public in an apparent effort to stave off more criticism over his spending.
(AP, 7/3/15)
2015 Jul 7, Turkey's army said it had detained 768 people trying to cross illegally from Syria, including three suspected Islamic State militants, after bolstering security in border areas near where the radical Islamists hold ground.
(Reuters, 7/7/15)
2015 Jul 8, In Turkey Cilem Karabulut (28) killed her husband Hasan Karabulut (33) in the southern Adana region with a pistol stored at home. She was detained by police and admitted to murdering her husband out of "honor" after he repeatedly beat her and tried to force her into prostitution.
(AFP, 7/10/15)
2015 Jul 9, In Turkey protesters stormed the Thai Consulate in Istanbul early today to denounce Thailand's decision to deport 109 ethnic Uighur migrants back to China.
(AP, 7/9/15)
2015 Jul 10, Turkey's state-run news agency said police have carried out raids in Istanbul and three other cities, detaining at least 21 people suspected of being members of the Islamic State extremist group.
(AP, 7/10/15)
2015 Jul 11, Thailand sent eight more ethnic Muslim Uighur refugees to Turkey, days after the Thai government faced intense international criticism for deporting 109 refugees back to China despite fears they could face persecution there. 52 Uighurs remained in Thailand.
(AP, 7/11/15)
2015 Jul 14, Turkey’s PM Ahmet Davutoglu said the nationalist opposition does not want to share power in a government with the ruling AK Party, dealing a blow to his efforts to find a junior coalition partner.
(Reuters, 7/14/15)
2015 Jul 20, In Turkey a suspected Islamic State suicide bomber killed 33 people, mostly young students, in an attack on the town of Suruc near the Syrian border. The students from the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations had been planning a trip to Kobani to build a library, plant a forest and build a playground. The bomber was later identified as Seyh Abdurrahman Alagoaz (20) from Adiyaman.
(AP, 7/20/15)(AFP, 7/21/15)(AFP, 8/14/15)(Econ, 7/25/15, p.40)
2015 Jul 22, Kurdish militants claimed responsibility for today’s assassination of two Turkish police officers in what they said was retaliation for the July 20 suspected Islamic State suicide bombing which killed 32 mostly young students.
(Reuters, 7/22/15)
2015 Jul 23, In Turkey suspected Islamic State militants fired at a Turkish military outpost from inside Syrian territory, killing a Turkish soldier and wounding two others. 5 members of Islamic State were also killed during the exchange of fire.
(AP, 7/23/15)(Reuters, 7/24/15)
2015 Jul 23, US defense officials said that Turkey has agreed to allow manned US planes to stage air strikes against Islamic State militants from an air base at Incirlik, close to the Syrian border. US drones are already launched from the base.
(Reuters, 7/24/15)
2015 Jul 24, Turkish warplanes pounded Islamic State targets in Syria for the first time, with President Tayyip Erdogan promising more decisive action against both the jihadists and Kurdish militants at home. Police rounded up nearly 300 people in raids against suspected Islamic State and Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 7/24/15)
2015 Jul 25, Turkish fighter jets and ground forces hit Islamic State militants in Syria and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) camps in Iraq overnight, in a campaign Ankara said would help create a "safe zone" across swathes of northern Syria. Kurdish militants said the conditions for maintaining a ceasefire with Turkey were no longer in place, after Turkish warplanes bombed their stronghold in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 7/25/15)(AFP, 7/25/15)
2015 Jul 26, In Turkey an overnight car bomb and roadside explosives hit a passing military vehicle on a highway near Diyarbakir. Kurdish militants then opened fire with long-range rifles killing 2 soldiers, At least six people were detained in the attack.
(Reuters, 7/26/15)
2015 Jul 27, In Turkey a gendarmerie major in the eastern province of Mus died after being shot by suspected PKK militants. In the nearby province of Van a military unit came under fire.
(Reuters, 7/28/15)
2015 Jul 27, In northern Syria the YPG made further gains against Islamic State, capturing a town near the Euphrates River after a month-long offensive aimed at cutting their supply lines. Kurdish fighters in northern Syria accused the Turkish army of shelling their positions.
(Reuters, 7/27/15)
2015 Jul 27, A senior US official said United States and Turkey have agreed to work together to clear the Islamic State group from northern Syria.
(AFP, 7/27/15)
2015 Jul 28, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said it was impossible to continue a peace process with Kurdish militants and urged parliament to strip politicians with links to them of immunity from prosecution.
(Reuters, 7/28/15)
2015 Jul 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with top Chinese officials amid tensions over China's treatment of its Uighur minority and sensitive negotiations surrounding the possible purchase of a Chinese missile system.
(AP, 7/29/15)
2015 Jul 29, Turkey said it has formally signed a deal with the United States opening its Incirlik air base to the US-led coalition against Islamic State militants. In exchange the Americans agreed to help establish a 65-mile IS-free zone along a western section of the Turkish-Syrian border.
(Reuters, 7/29/15)(Econ, 8/1/15, p.42)
2015 Jul 29, Turkish jets launched their heaviest assault on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq overnight since air strikes began last week. A Turkish soldier was killed and three seriously wounded in the eastern province of Agri in what appeared to be a PKK attack.
(Reuters, 7/29/15)
2015 Jul 29, Turkey’s Deputy PM Bulent Arinc gave a breakdown of the terror suspects rounded up in the nationwide police operation, saying that of the 1,300 detained only 137 were suspected of links to IS. Some 31 have been charged so far, while 18 were released. In contrast, police detained as many as 847 PKK suspects. A total of 142 have been charged so far, while 120 were released.
(AP, 7/30/15)
2015 Jul 30, In southeast Turkey Kurdish rebels attacked security forces in two separate assaults in Simak province, killing 3 soldiers and an officer. One rebel was also killed. Kurdish rebels raided a Turkish police station and fired on railway workers in two separate attacks that left 5 dead.
(AP, 7/30/15)(AP, 7/31/15)
2015 Jul 30, Indonesia and Turkey agreed to strengthen their intelligence cooperation as a way to bolster their efforts to combat terrorism and prevent the spread of radicalism.
(AP, 7/31/15)
2015 Aug 1, Turkey’s official Anatolia news agency said around 260 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have been killed and hundreds more wounded in Ankara's week-long campaign of air strikes against targets of the group inside Turkey and in northern Iraq. Turkish war planes struck the village of Zarkel (Zergele in Kurdish) in northern Iraq killed at least 6 people.
(AFP, 8/1/15)(AFP, 8/3/15)
2015 Aug 1, Iraq's Kurdish regional government called on the Kurdistan Worker's Party to "withdraw" from Iraq's Kurdish territory to prevent civilian deaths amid a campaign of Turkish airstrikes targeting the group.
(AP, 8/1/15)
2015 Aug 2, Two Turkish soldiers were killed and 31 wounded in a suicide bombing overnight, as violence escalated following Ankara's air bombardment of Kurdish militants in northern Iraq. A day later the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 8/2/15)(AFP, 8/3/15)
2015 Aug 4, Two Turkish soldiers and an armed guard were killed in a blast from a homemade mine planted by Kurdish militants in Sirnak province. Turkish warplanes pounded suspected Kurdish rebel targets near Daglica, Hakkari province, in retaliation to a rebel mortar attack at a military base which wounded a 6-year-old girl. Kurdish militants attacked Turkey's Shah Deniz pipeline carrying natural gas from Azerbaijan, but the blast did not impact supply as flow had already been halted for maintenance.
(Reuters, 8/4/15)(AP, 8/4/15)
2015 Aug 4, The Arab League condemned Turkey's actions and called on Ankara to recognize the sovereignty of Iraq. The Arab League also called on Turkey and Iraq to increase cooperation in order to try and preserve peace. Qatar however, distanced itself from the Arab League declaration.
(AFP, 8/5/15)
2015 Aug 5, Turkey said a US-led coalition will soon launch a "comprehensive battle" against Islamic State militants from Turkish air bases, but Syria said any military action not coordinated with Damascus would breach its sovereignty.
(Reuters, 8/5/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Turkey 5 people including a Turkish soldier died and several others were injured in clashes in the restive Kurdish-majority southeast, as violence raged between Kurdish militants and security forces.
(AFP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, Turkey’s official Anatolia news agency reported that the government has frozen the assets of officials from Yemen's former regime including ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, along with Huthi rebel leaders. The freeze will be in place until February 26, 2016.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Turkey an Iranian bus was hit in Dogubayazit district of the eastern Agri province. The driver was fatally shot in the head. Turkish authorities blamed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants. The passengers were unhurt.
(AFP, 8/8/15)
2015 Aug 8, In southern Turkey Kurdish PKK rebels fired at a police vehicle, killing a policeman and wounding another.
(AP, 8/9/15)
2015 Aug 9, Turkey’s official Anatolia news agency reported that 390 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have been killed and hundreds injured in two weeks of Turkish airstrikes on positions in northern Iraq. Operations in the eastern Agri province killed 7 PKK militants.
(AFP, 8/9/15)(Reuters, 8/11/15)
2015 Aug 10, In Turkey two women shot at the US consulate in Istanbul. The Revolutionary People's Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C), considered a terrorist organization by the US and Turkey, said one of its members was involved in the attack. The bombing of an Istanbul police station left 4 people dead, 3 of them PKK attackers. At least 8 people were killed in a wave of separate attacks on security forces.
(Reuters, 8/10/15)(Reuters, 8/11/15)
2015 Aug 11, Turkish warplanes hit 17 Kurdish militant targets in the southeastern province of Hakkari over the last 24 hours.
(AP, 8/11/15)
2015 Aug 12, A Turkish soldier and two fighters from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed when militants attacked a military outpost in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 8/12/15)
2015 Aug 13, In Turkey efforts PM Ahmet Davutoglu to forge a coalition alliance with the country's pro-secular party failed, edging the country closer toward new elections.
(AP, 8/13/15)
2015 Aug 14, Turkish state media said the military has started building a concrete wall along the border with Syria following a series of attacks. Security forces said a soldier was killed after a mine laid by militants was detonated remotely in the eastern province of Bingol. 2 PKK fighters were killed during an operation in response to the attack.
(AFP, 8/14/15)(Reuters, 8/14/15)
2015 Aug 15, Turkey’s state news reported that Kurdish rebels detonated a roadside bomb between the eastern provinces of Bingol and Erzurum as a military vehicle was passing by, killing 3 soldiers. A police officer was killed after PKK rebels opened fire near the town of Semdinli.
(AP, 8/15/15)(Reuters, 8/15/15)
2015 Aug 17, Turkey’s Supreme Court ruled that the Turkish state should cover all the expenses of cemevis, the prayer houses of the Alevi community, as it does for mosques, churches and synagogues. Alevis revere Imam Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed. Theirs is a Turkish version of Alawism, prominent in neighboring Syria.
(AFP, 8/18/15)
2015 Aug 18, In Turkey Muslim scholars and environmental advocates from about 20 countries called for a global phase-out of greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century.
(AP, 8/18/15)
2015 Aug 19, Turkish police arrested two people after a hand grenade was hurled and shots were fired at officers guarding Istanbul's Dolmabache Palace. In the southeast PKK militants killed 8 soldiers in a bomb attack in Siirt province.
(AP, 8/19/15)(Reuters, 8/19/15)
2015 Aug 21, Turkey’s private Dogan news agency said 12 km (7 miles) of concrete barrier have already been erected along the border at Reyhanli town, in Hatay province, a main point for smuggling and border crossing from Syria.
(AP, 8/20/15)
2015 Aug 21, A Turkish captain, was killed in a rocket and long-range gun attack late today on a military post in Beytussebap district in southeastern Sirnak province.
(AFP, 8/22/15)
2015 Aug 22, Turkey's military said warplanes have conducted new air strikes against Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, killing 29 militants on Aug 20-21.
(AP, 8/22/15)
2015 Aug 22, Turkey said its security forces have detained 435 migrants and Syrian refugees along with three suspected people smugglers, before they embarked on an attempt to cross the Aegean Sea to Greece.
(AFP, 8/22/15)
2015 Aug 23, In Turkey Kurdish militants armed with assault rifles attacked a hydroelectric power station near the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, killing a soldier and wounding three others.
(Reuters, 8/23/15)
2015 Aug 24, In northeastern Turkey two buildings collapsed during heavy flooding, killing eight people in Artvin province.
(Reuters, 8/24/15)
2015 Aug 25, The Turkish military said 34 militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed in its latest air strikes on the group's camps in northern Iraq's Qandil mountain region.
(Reuters, 8/25/15)
2015 Aug 26, Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu invited three lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) to join an interim government to take Turkey to November 1 elections.
(AFP, 8/26/15)
2015 Aug 26, In Turkey Jamil Raadoun, the commander of Sukour al-Ghab from the rebel Free Syrian Army, died in a bomb attack on his car in the southern province of Hatay. Raadoun, who defected from the Syrian army early on in the four-year-old civil war, had been in Turkey for about a year.
(Reuters, 8/26/15)
2015 Aug 27, In southeastern Turkey 6 people were killed in street fighting between security forces and Kurdish rebels in a mainly Kurdish town of Yuksekova after authorities imposed a curfew in the town late the previous day.
(Reuters, 8/27/15)
2015 Aug 28, Turkish jets took part in US-led coalition air strikes against Islamic State in Syria for the first time.
(AP, 8/29/15)
2015 Aug 29, Turkish media reported that three attacks or clashes between security forces and Kurdish rebels have killed 5 people and injured 24 others in the southeast.
(AP, 8/29/15)
2015 Aug 30, In southeastern Turkey a child, 3 other civilians and 2 police officer were killed in violence following the breakdown of a ceasefire between the government and Kurdish militants in Diyarbakir province.
(Reuters, 8/30/15)
2015 Aug 31, Turkish authorities offered up to 4 million lira ($1.37 million) in rewards for those who help a crackdown on "terrorists", in a new ruling published today.
(AFP, 8/31/15)
2015 Sep 1, Turkish police raided the offices of the Koza Ipek group, a conglomerate linked to a US-based cleric accused of plotting against President Tayyip Erdogan.
(Reuters, 9/1/15)
2015 Sep 1, A Turkish soldier vanished and another was killed in cross-border shooting with Islamic State fighters near the town of Kilis, close to Syrian territory that has been under Islamic State control for months.
(Reuters, 9/5/15)
2015 Sep 1, Greek authorities said a coast guard special unit raid has found a shipment of weapons on board a foreign-flagged cargo ship sailing near Crete. The ship was en route from Turkey to Libya. A Turkish foreign ministry spokesman soon confirmed the cargo included weapons but said it was fully documented and was destined for the Sudanese police force.
(AP, 9/1/15)(AP, 9/2/15)
2015 Sep 2, An image of Aylan Kurdi (2), a drowned toddler washed up on the beach in one of Turkey's prime tourist resorts, swept across social media, after at least 12 presumed Syrian refugees died trying to reach the Greek island of Kos. Aylan, his brother (5) and mother were among the dead. In 2020 three Turkish men were sentenced to 125 years in jail for their part in the drownings.
(Reuters, 9/2/15)(SSFC, 9/6/15, p.A18)(SFC, 3/14/20, p.A4)
2015 Sep 2, In Iraq gunmen in military uniform seized 18 Turkish workers from a sports stadium they were building in northeastern Baghdad. Two of the workers were freed on Sep 15. The remaining sixteen were freed on Sep 30.
(Reuters, 9/2/15)(AFP, 9/16/15)(AP, 9/30/15)
2015 Sep 3, PM Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkey will continue to keep its doors open to refugees and urged European countries to take their share of the burden.
(Reuters, 9/3/15)
2015 Sep 3, Four Turkish police were killed in a bomb attack on their vehicle in the country's southeast blamed on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AFP, 9/3/15)
2015 Sep 4, Turkey imposed a curfew on Cizre, a city of 120,000 on the border with Syria and close to Iraq, in an effort to cripple the PKK. The curfew was lifted on Sep 12. The government said that up to 32 Kurdish militants were killed during the curfew and anti-terror operations. The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said 21 civilians were killed.
(AFP, 9/13/15)
2015 Sep 6, In Turkey the W-20 — a grouping of female leaders — was launched in Ankara, aimed at boosting the role of women in global economic growth, as G20 finance ministers and central bank governors met for talks on the global economy.
(AP, 9/6/15)
2015 Sep 6, In eastern Turkey 2 policeman were killed and three others injured in Diyarbakir when Kurdish militants clashed with security forces. Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels reportedly killed 31 members of the armed forces in an attack on a convoy and clashes in the mountainous Daglica area of Hakkari province. Turkey’s army statement said 16 had died.
(Reuters, 9/6/15)(Reuters, 9/7/15)
2015 Sep 7, Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish insurgent targets overnight after the militants staged what appeared to be their deadliest attack since the collapse of a two-year-old ceasefire in July. 16 Turkish soldiers were killed in the Kurdish-dominated southeast of the country in an attack blamed on the PKK.
(Reuters, 9/7/15)(AFP, 9/8/15)
2015 Sep 8, Turkish warplanes launched a massive air operation against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, killing as many as 40 rebels. Kurdish militants killed 14 police officers in a bomb attack on a minibus in a Turkish province bordering Armenia and Iran. Turkish ground forces crossed into northern Iraq for the first time since 2011 in a "short-term" operation to hunt down Kurdish rebels.
(AFP, 9/8/15) (Reuters, 9/8/15)(AP, 9/8/15)
2015 Sep 10, In Turkey suspected smugglers opened fire from Syria and shot dead a Turkish soldier, the second cross-border firefight to have killed a member of the Turkish security forces in as many weeks.
(Reuters, 9/10/15)
2015 Sep 11, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants fired on a restaurant frequented by police in Diyarbakir, killing a waiter and wounding three officers after Turkish jets bombed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq for a fifth straight night. Media reported that at least 60 PKK fighters were killed in the air strikes by F-16 and F-4 jets which hit 64 targets in the group's camps across the region.
(Reuters, 9/11/15)
2015 Sep 13, In southeast Turkey Kurdish militants killed 2 police officers in a car bomb attack on a checkpoint in Sirnak province. Turkish forces shelled a mountainous area where PKK fighters had fled after the checkpoint attack, killing 6 of them. The PKK also launched an attack with rocket-propelled grenades and rifles in the Silvan district of Diyarbakir province, killing one police officer and wounding another.
(Reuters, 9/13/15)
2015 Sep 14, Turkish police raided the liberal news magazine Nokta (Full Stop) and detained one of its senior editors over a photomontage on its cover portraying President Recep Tayyip Erdogan taking a selfie at a soldier's funeral.
(AFP, 9/14/15)
2015 Sep 15, At least 22 Greece-bound migrants drowned when their boat sank off Turkey. Police blocked hundreds of others seeking to find an alternative route to Europe by land.
(AFP, 9/15/15)
2015 Sep 19, Turkey’s state-run Anatolia news agency reported that Turkish fighter jets carried out a new barrage of cross-border airstrikes this week against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, killing at least 55 rebels.
(AFP, 9/19/15)
2015 Sep 20, In Turkey at least 10,000 demonstrators rallied in central Istanbul for a protest aimed at denouncing violence by Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 9/20/15)
2015 Sep 20, At least 13 migrants died off the coast of Turkey after the inflatable dinghy carrying them to Greece collided with a ferry.
(AFP, 9/20/15)
2015 Sep 21, The Turkish military said it has killed 5 Kurdish rebels in airstrikes on the southeastern province of Hakkari.
(AP, 9/21/15)
2015 Sep 24, Two Turkish soldiers and 34 Kurdish rebels were killed in fighting in Sirnak province.
(AFP, 9/25/15)
2015 Sep 25, In Turkey 4 civilians were killed after they were caught in clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants in the southeast. Turkish military killed more than 30 Kurdish militants in a cross-border operation.
(AFP, 9/26/15)(Reuters, 9/29/15)
2015 Sep 25, In southern Turkey 13 people were killed in a road accident as millions took to their cars for the annual Muslim holiday season of Eid.
(Reuters, 9/25/15)
2015 Sep 27, Seventeen migrants drowned when their boat sank off the Turkish coast while headed for the Greek island of Kos. 20 people were rescued.
(Reuters, 9/27/15)
2015 Sep 28, In southern Turkey 2 police officers were killed in an attack by suspected PKK militants in Adana province. 6 PKK militants were killed in operations carried out in the southeastern province of Hakkari.
(Reuters, 9/29/15)(AP, 9/29/15)
2015 Sep 29, Turkish warplanes late today struck 24 targets in a bombardment of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) positions in the southeastern province of Hakkari. 2 soldiers were killed when a bomb buried in the ground went off when a military vehicle passed by on a road between southeastern towns of Semdinli and Yuksekova.
(Reuters, 9/30/15)
2015 Oct 1, In Turkey prominent anti-government journalist Ahmet Hakan was attacked early today outside his home in Istanbul, raising fears over the security of media figures who taken a critical line against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Police reportedly detained all four suspects after a hot pursuit.
(AFP, 10/1/15)
2015 Oct 1, In Turkey 12 people were killed in Ankara when a bus ploughed into commuters waiting at a bus stop.
(AFP, 10/1/15)
2015 Oct 2, Turkish security forces killed more than 10 suspected Kurdish militants amid intensifying clashes in the country's southeast, while 44 people were arrested in Istanbul on suspicion of links with the rebels. Suspected militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) abducted two Turkish soldiers on a highway between the Tunceli and Erzincan provinces.
(Reuters, 10/2/15)(AFP, 10/3/15)
2015 Oct 4, Turkish warplanes struck Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq and eastern Turkey overnight, in a new air operation against the militant group.
(AFP, 10/4/15)
2015 Oct 7, Turkish officials said police have seized material allegedly used by Islamic State militants to produce coins for the group and arrested six foreign nationals in Gaziantep city.
(AP, 10/8/15)
2015 Oct 8, Turkey appealed to its NATO allies to shore up missile defenses in the country aimed at shooting down Syrian rockets, as Germany said again that it will withdraw its Patriot batteries and the United States was set to do the same.
(Reuters, 10/8/15)
2015 Oct 8, In southeastern Turkey a child was killed and three others wounded in the town of Silvan after munitions they found and were playing with on the street exploded.
(Reuters, 10/8/15)
2015 Oct 10, In Turkey as many as 128 people were killed when two suspected suicide bombers hit a rally of pro-Kurdish and leftist activists outside Ankara's main train station, in the deadliest attack of its kind on Turkish soil. On Oct 16 authorities raised the toll to 102. Hours after the bombing, the PKK ordered its fighters to halt operations in Turkey unless they faced attack. Turkey targeted the Islamic State in investigations of the bombing.
(AP, 10/11/15)(Reuters, 10/11/15)(AP, 10/16/15)
2015 Oct 11, Thousands of people took to the streets of Ankara to denounce the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after it said 95 people were killed in twin suspected suicide bombings on a peace rally a day earlier. Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), one of the groups that called the peace rally, issued a statement claiming the actual toll was far higher at 128, giving the names of 120 victims. 2 Turkish soldiers were reported killed during clashes with PKK militants in the Senkaya district of Erzurum province. The Turkish army said it killed at least 49 Kurdish rebels in a series of air strikes on the group's bases in northern Iraq as well as southeastern Diyarbakir province.
(AFP, 10/11/15)
2015 Oct 12, In Turkey hundreds of people marched through Istanbul and Ankara to condemn the slaughter by suicide bombers at a weekend peace rally.
(AP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 13, Turkish security forces killed ten Kurdish militants during ground and air operations in southeastern Turkey, days after the insurgents called a unilateral ceasefire.
(Reuters, 10/14/15)
2015 Oct 15, Turkey demanded that the European Union start easing restrictions next year on Turks traveling to the European Union if it wants full cooperation to stem the flow of Syrian refugees.
(Reuters, 10/15/15)
2015 Oct 15, Cyprus decried an undersea pipeline carrying fresh water from Turkey to the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north, saying it aims to further cement Ankara's grip on the ethnically-divided island.
(AP, 10/15/15)
2015 Oct 15, The European Court of Human Rights ruled Switzerland had violated Turkish politician Dogu Perincek's right to freedom of speech by convicting him for denying that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 amounted to genocide.
(Reuters, 10/15/15)
2015 Oct 16, Turkey shot down a drone in an incident highlighting the dangers of multiple air combat operations over Syria. Russian warplanes hit areas in support of the Syrian army's offensive south of Aleppo, around 35 km (20 miles) from the Turkish border.
(Reuters, 10/16/15)
2015 Oct 17, Turkey said 3 soldiers and 28 Kurdish militants have been killed in air strikes and clashes over the past two days in the predominantly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, The Turkish coastguard said 12 migrants thought to be from Syria and Afghanistan, including four children and a baby, drowned off the coast of Turkey as they tried to reach the Greek island of Lesbos.
(Reuters, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, In Turkey a British woman working for a London-based media charity who was heading to Iraq was found dead at Istanbul's Ataturk airport. Jackie Sutton (50) was reportedly found hanged in the toilets. There were no signs of foul play.
(AFP, 10/19/15)(AP, 10/21/15)
2015 Oct 18, Turkish police arrested around 50 foreign nationals in Istanbul early today in a sweep targeting jihadists of the Islamic State group suspected of involvement in last weekend's Ankara suicide bombings.
(AFP, 10/18/15)
2015 Oct 18, In Turkey 2 soldiers were killed when rebels set off a remote-controlled mine targeting an army vehicle in the eastern province of Tunceli. Security officials said 4 government soldiers and about 20 Kurdish rebels have been killed in several days of clashes in the mountainous Daglica region.
(AFP, 10/18/15)
2015 Oct 19, Turkey’s PM Ahmet Davutoglu confirmed that one of the suicide bombers in the Oct 10 attack in Ankara had been officially identified through DNA testing.
(AFP, 10/19/15)
2015 Oct 23, The United States, Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia met in Vienna to explore a political solution to the Syrian civil war despite the basic US-Russian disagreement over Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's fate.
(AP, 10/23/15)
2015 Oct 25, Turkish military shot at Kurdish forces deployed in the town of Tal Abyad, Syria, using mostly machine guns. There were no casualties in the shooting and the Kurdish forces didn't return fire.
(AP, 10/27/15)
2015 Oct 26, Two Turkish policemen and 7 Islamic State suspects were killed in a shootout in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. About 15 suspected militants were detained and the government labeled the raid as an important blow to an IS cell.
(AFP, 10/2615)(AP, 10/27/15)
2015 Oct 27, Turkish authorities took over the management of 22 companies including newspapers and TV stations linked to a US-based cleric and arch-enemy of President Tayyip Erdogan, intensifying a crackdown days ahead of an election. Police used tear gas to disperse hundreds of people protesting against the government's move to seize control of Koza-Ipek Holding.
(Reuters, 10/27/15)(AP, 10/27/15)
2015 Oct 28, In Turkey Istanbul police used tear gas in a dawn raid on the headquarters of Koza-Ipek Holding, a major media company linked to a government critic, enforcing a court order to seize the business just days before Turkey holds a national election. Riot police firing tear gas and water cannon stormed two opposition-linked television stations and forced them off air.
(AP, 10/28/15)(AFP, 10/28/15)
2015 Oct 29, Turkish media said 12 people have died and dozens have been hospitalized over the last three days after being poisoned by bootleg alcohol. Istanbul police detained 15 people in connection with the production and sale of the illegally produced raki.
(Reuters, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, The United States and its allies conducted 11 air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and one in Syria.
(Reuters, 10/30/15)
2015 Oct 29, The US Pentagon said Ahmed Abdel Aziz (45) has been sent back to his native Mauritania after 13 years in custody at Guantanamo. He was never charged with a crime.
(AP, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, In Central African Republic 4 people were killed by mobs in Bangui. 3 Muslims were attacked as they left the city's only Muslim enclave, PK5, to enter the Christian sixth district. Witnesses said 2 of them were killed immediately and their bodies chopped into small pieces. A third man escaped but was then stoned to death by a crowd. A Christian was killed later in the morning as he entered PK5.
(Reuters, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, China’s Communist Party said it will ease family planning restrictions to allow all couples to have two children after decades of a strict one-child policy, a move aimed at alleviating demographic strains on the economy.
(Reuters, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, The EU said it will suspended most sanctions against Belarus for four months as of Oct 31, citing "improving relations" after authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko released all remaining political prisoners.
(Reuters, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, German police said they have searched the homes of 13 people as part of an international swoop on users of the mobile phone malware DroidJack, which allows cybercriminals to assume control of Android smartphones without users being aware.
(AFP, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, Berlin police arrested a 32-year-old man suspected of abducting a 4-year-old migrant boy after a child's body was found in his car. Mohamed Januzi of Bosnia disappeared on Oct. 1 while waiting outside the offices of the government program for social care with his mother and two siblings. Police the next day said Silvio S. had confessed during questioning to killing both Mohamed Januzi, and six-year-old Elias from Potsdam, who went missing in July. On July 26, 2016, Silvio S. was jailed for life.
(Reuters, 10/29/15)(AP, 10/30/15)(Reuters, 7/26/16)
2015 Oct 29, Authorities on the Greek island of Lesbos searched for 38 people believed still missing after the sinking of a wooden boat carrying migrants. Greece rescued 144 refugees and recovered the bodies of 22, including 4 infants and 9 children, after their boats sank in two separate incidents in the Aegean sea.
(AP, 10/29/15)(Reuters, 10/30/15)
2015 Oct 29, In Iraq a barrage of rockets hit Camp Liberty, a former US military base near Baghdad housing an opposition Iranian refugee group (MEK). 3 Iraqi soldiers were killed and at least 20 Iranian exiles.
(SFC, 10/30/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 29, Israeli security forces shot dead 2 Palestinian assailants in Hebron in the occupied West Bank following knife attacks on Israeli soldiers.
(Reuters, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, Lebanese customs officials discovered 230 kg of Captagon amphetamine pills hidden inside tables prepared for export to the Gulf state of Qatar from Beirut international airport.
(Reuters, 10/30/15)
2015 Oct 29, Moldova's parliament backed a motion of no-confidence in the ruling pro-European coalition, increasing political turmoil following the fraudulent disappearance of $1 billion from the banking system. The vote signaled an end to the short-lived government of PM Valeriu Strelet.
(Reuters, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, Prominent Moroccan academic and rights activist Maati Monjib announced he had ended a three-week hunger strike after the judiciary lifted a travel ban against him.
(AFP, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, Four African migrants drowned and up to 35 were missing after their boat sank in the Mediterranean in the early hours around 40 miles (65 km) north of the Moroccan coast.
(Reuters, 10/30/15)
2015 Oct 29, Myanmar police arrested Kyaw Ko Ko (34), the leader of a student movement crushed in March, after he spent more than six months in hiding, amid increasing signs of a crackdown on dissent ahead of a Nov. 8 election.
(Reuters, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, In Russia 5 people were killed in a night-time blast of household gas in an apartment block in the Khabarovsk region of the country's Far East.
(AP, 10/30/15)
2015 Oct 29, Saudi blogger Raif Badawi (31), who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for insulting Islam, was awarded the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize.
(AFP, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there had been 595 deaths in Syria from Russian air strikes since September 30. Russian warplanes renewed strikes, including in the central province of Homs and the northwestern province of Idlib.
(AFP, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, Turkish media said 12 people have died and dozens have been hospitalized over the last three days after being poisoned by bootleg alcohol. Istanbul police detained 15 people in connection with the production and sale of the illegally produced raki.
(Reuters, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, In southern Turkey Syrian activists Ibrahim Abdelqader, aka Ibrahim Abdul-Qadir (22), and Fares Hamadi (20), journalists for the "Raqqa is being slaughtered silently" collective, were murdered by Islamic State operatives in Sanliurfa.
(AP, 10/30/15)(AP, 12/17/15)(AP, 8/14/17)
2015 Oct 29, Ukrainian armed forces and pro-Russian insurgents exchanged 20 prisoners in a goodwill gesture designed to get peace talks aimed at ending the 18-month crisis back on track.
(AFP, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, In Ukraine a series of blasts ripped through the military complex in government-controlled Svatove, a town around 100 km (62 miles) from the front line with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Luhansk region. 2 civilians were killed and the incident was being investigated as a "terrorist act."
(Reuters, 10/30/15)
2015 Oct 31, The US-led coalition conducted nine air strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria and 16 in Iraq. Air strikes by Turkish and US aircraft in Syria killed more than 50 Islamic State militants and wounded around 30.
(Reuters, 11/1/15)
2015 Nov 1, Turkey held parliamentary elections. The AKP won 49% of the vote, consolidating support from the right to claw back a parliamentary majority that will bolster Pres. Tayyip Erdogan's grip on power.
(AFP, 11/1/15)(Reuters, 11/2/15)(Econ, 11/7/15, p.48)
2015 Nov 2, Turkish airstrikes hit shelters, underground bunkers and weapon emplacements belonging to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in six locations in northern Iraq, including the Qandil mountains where the rebel leadership is based.
(AP, 11/3/15)
2015 Nov 2, The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) charged in a damning report that Turkey's election was marred by a media crackdown, violence and other security concerns.
(AFP, 11/2/15)
2015 Nov 3, Turkish police detained 44 suspects including high-ranking bureaucrats and police officers as part of a probe into supporters of a US-based cleric accused of plotting to bring down President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 11/3/15)
2015 Nov 3, Turkish authorities arrested two editors of a political weekly on charges of inciting an armed uprising against the government for suggesting on the magazine's front page that the aftermath of Turkey's election would mark the start of a civil war.
(AP, 11/3/15)
2015 Nov 3, Turkish security forces backed by helicopters imposed a curfew in parts of a town in the largely Kurdish southeast, where three people were killed in clashes.
(Reuters, 11/3/15)
2015 Nov 4, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for a new constitution that would give him greater powers, heightening opposition fears over authoritarian rule.
(AFP, 11/4/15)
2015 Nov 4, In Turkey 2 soldiers and 15 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants were killed fighting near the village of Daglica by the Iraqi border. A 20-year-old man was shot dead in the town of Silvan, where authorities ordered a round-the-clock curfew in three neighborhoods for a second successive day
(Reuters, 11/4/15)
2015 Nov 5, Turkey, said it was planning to soon launch a military campaign against IS. Turkey shares an 800-km (500-mile) border with northern Syria.
(AFP, 11/5/15)
2015 Nov 5, In southeastern Turkey 18 people were killed in clashes with the military, lifting this week's death toll to almost 40 in the mainly Kurdish area and dampening prospects for a ceasefire.
(Reuters, 11/5/15)
2015 Nov 5, Kurdish militants scrapped a month-old ceasefire in Turkey, a day after President Tayyip Erdogan vowed to "liquidate" them.
(Reuters, 11/5/15)
2015 Nov 6, Turkish Airlines canceled flights to Sharm al-Sheikh in Egypt on Friday and Saturday nights over security concerns.
(Reuters, 11/6/15)
2015 Nov 6, The US military deployed six F-15C fighter jets to Turkey's southern Incirlik air base to help defend Turkish airspace against potential intruders.
(AP, 11/6/15)
2015 Nov 9, In Turkey a taxi driver was killed and five other people, including a police officer, were wounded when security forces clashed with Kurdish militants in the southeastern town of Silvan.
(Reuters, 11/9/15)
2015 Nov 9, Turkish media reported that anti-terrorist police have detained 38 foreigners, including women and children, who were reportedly seeking to join the Islamic State group in Syria. The suspects included nationals from Iraq, Iran, Indonesia and several central Asian nations.
(AFP, 11/9/15)
2015 Nov 10, The EU accused Ankara of backsliding on rule of law, rights and the media and urged it to react swiftly, in a sensitive report on Turkey's candidacy for the bloc that Brussels had delayed until after elections.
(AFP, 11/10/15)
2015 Nov 10, Kurdish rebels detonated a bomb on a road in southeast Turkey, wounding six soldiers riding inside an armored military vehicle. 3 policemen were killed when PKK militants detonated an improvised explosive device on a road near the town of Silopi, in Sirnak province.
(AP, 11/10/15)(AP, 11/11/15)
2015 Nov 11, In Turkey a soldier was killed in a clash with Kurdish militants in the town of Silvan, in Diyarbakir province. PKK rebels detonated a car bomb on a road in the town of Dargecit, Mardin province, as an armored police vehicle was passing by. The explosion killed a road-sweeper and wounded a police officer.
(AP, 11/11/15)
2015 Nov 11, A wooden boat carrying dozens of migrants sank off the Turkish coast, killing 14 people including 7 children.
(AP, 11/11/15)
2015 Nov 13, Turkish officials said 14 people have been killed in clashes between Kurdish rebels and security forces days before a G-20 summit in Turkey.
(AP, 11/13/15)
2015 Nov 14, Turkish security forces killed 4 suspected IS militants near the Syrian border in the southeastern province of Gaziantep.
(AFP, 11/18/15)
2015 Nov 15, In Turkey a suicide bomber opened fire on police and then blew himself up during their raid on a suspect Islamic State militant hideout near the border with Syria, injuring five police officers.
(AP, 11/15/15)
2015 Nov 15, Speaking at a G20 leaders summit in Turkey US President Barack Obama vowed to step up efforts to eliminate Islamic State in Syria and prevent it from carrying out attacks like those in Paris, while European leaders urged Russia to focus its military efforts on the radical Islamists. Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on the need for UN-sponsored peace talks and a ceasefire to resolve years of war in Syria.
(Reuters, 11/15/15)(AFP, 11/15/15)
2015 Nov 17, Turkish security forces killed one suspected Islamic State (IS) militant seeking to cross into Turkey from Syria and arrested 21 others.
(AFP, 11/18/15)
2015 Nov 20, Turkish media reported that authorities have seized close to the Syrian border a record haul of almost 11 million pills of the synthetic stimulant drug captagon which is believed to play a crucial part in Syria's civil war. It has been repeatedly dubbed as the drug fueling Syria's civil war since its production provides income for the warring factions and also keeps fighters awake and energized over long periods.
(AFP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, Turkish army warplanes carried out a wave of air strikes on northern Iraq hitting 23 suspected targets of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AFP, 11/21/15)
2015 Nov 21, A Turkish official said a Belgian man of Moroccan origin has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in Islamic State's Nov 13 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people. Ahmet Dahmani (26) was arrested at a luxury hotel in the southern coastal city of Antalya after traveling from Amsterdam on Nov 14.
(Reuters, 11/21/15)
2015 Nov 21, Turkish warplanes struck Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant targets, part of an air and ground offensive against the group in southeast Turkey, where some areas have been under curfew for as long as ten days.
(Reuters, 11/22/15)
2015 Nov 21, Syrian rebels backed by Turkey and the United States seized two villages from Islamic State (IS) jihadists close to the Turkish border after fierce fighting.
(AFP, 11/21/15)
2015 Nov 24, Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu unveiled a new cabinet stacked with loyal allies of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, including his son-in-law who was named energy minister.
(AFP, 11/24/15)
2015 Nov 24, Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border, saying it had repeatedly violated its air space, one of the most serious publicly acknowledged clashes between a NATO member country and Russia for half a century. The pilot was shot dead by rebels as he parachuted to the ground.
(Reuters, 11/24/15)(Reuters, 11/25/15)
2015 Nov 25, The surviving crew member of a Russian warplane shot down by Turkey said the plane received no warnings from the Turkish Air Force and did not fly over Turkish air space. Navigator Konstantin Murakhtin was rescued by Russian and Syrian special forces after ejecting from the plane. The US said data showed the Russian aircraft had transited Turkish airspace.
(Reuters, 11/25/15)(SFC, 11/26/15, p.A4)
2015 Nov 26, Russia threatened economic retaliation against Turkey and said it was still awaiting a reasonable explanation for the shooting down of its warplane, but Turkey dismissed the threats as "emotional" and "unfitting".
(Reuters, 11/26/15)
2015 Nov 27, Turkish media said the government has "temporarily" suspended air strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria after the downing of a Russian warplane on the Syrian border sparked a major row with Moscow.
(AFP, 11/27/15)
2015 Nov 27, In Turkey hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Istanbul office of an opposition newspaper, accusing the government of silencing critics and attempting to cover-up a scandal after two journalists were jailed on terror and espionage charges for their reports on alleged Turkish arms smuggling to Syria.
(AP, 11/27/15)
2015 Nov 27, Russia said it would suspend its visa-free regime for Turkish nationals from January 1 as it retaliates against Ankara for the downing of a Russian warplane.
(AFP, 11/27/15)
2015 Nov 27, At least six children drowned in two separate incidents when their boats sank off Turkey while trying to make the risky crossing to Greece.
(AFP, 11/27/15)
2015 Nov 28, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed "sadness" over Turkey's downing of a Russian warplane that has severely strained relations. Erdogan said the climate change summit in Paris next week could be a chance to repair relations with Moscow.
(AFP, 11/28/15)(Reuters, 11/28/15)
2015 Nov 28, In southeastern Turkey police killed Tahir Elci (49), a prominent Kurdish lawyer, during a shootout between police and militants. The pro-Kurdish HDP Party called it a "planned assassination" and urged people to take to the streets in protest. Police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse around 2,000 people marching in Istanbul's Taksim Square after Elci was shot dead in Diyarbakir. Shortly before Elci's killing, two police officers were shot dead after they stopped a "suspicious vehicle" in a nearby street. In 2020 three police officers went on trial for the killing of Elci.
(Reuters, 11/28/15)(Reuters, 11/30/15)(AP, 10/21/20)
2015 Nov 29, Turkey recovered the body of Russian pilot Oleg Peshkov from northern Syria and presented it to Russian diplomats, five days after shooting down his warplane in an incident that wrecked relations between the two countries.
(Reuters, 11/29/15)
2015 Nov 29, Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu struck a deal with EU leaders to prevent migrants from traveling to Europe in return for 3 billion euros (dollars) in cash, a deal on visas and renewed talks on joining the 28-nation bloc.
(Reuters, 11/30/15)
2015 Nov 30, Turkish authorities rounded up some 1,300 migrants that they said were planning to sail to Greece from hideouts near secluded Aegean beaches and forests.
(Reuters, 11/30/15)
2015 Nov 30, Russia said it will restrict imports of Turkish fruit and vegetables as part of a package of new sanctions following the downing of a Russian warplane by Turkey last week. Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu said his country would not apologize to Russia for shooting down the warplane and said he hoped Russia would reconsider sanctions.
(AP, 11/30/15)
2015 Dec 1, In Turkey 6 children died in a fire that broke out at a school teaching the Quran in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir.
(AP, 12/1/15)
2015 Dec 1, NATO allies sought to strengthen Turkey's defenses along its Syrian border after the United States withdrew its missile defense battery for modernization.
(Reuters, 12/1/15)
2015 Dec 2, Russia's defense ministry said it had proof that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his family were benefiting from the illegal smuggling of oil from Islamic State-held territory in Syria and Iraq.
(Reuters, 12/2/15)
2015 Dec 3, A Turkish court sentenced three men to life in prison over the Feb 11 murder and attempted rape of female student Ozgecan Aslan (20.
(AFP, 12/3/15)
2015 Dec 3, Turkey said it has agreed with Azerbaijan to accelerate the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), with an aim to have the gas projected completed before the planned 2018.
(Reuters, 12/3/15)
2015 Dec 3, The foreign ministers of Turkey and Russia met in Belgrade in the first high-level bilateral talks since the downing of a Russian warplane by Turkish jets sparked an unprecedented crisis.
(AFP, 12/3/15)
2015 Dec 3, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters work on Turkish Stream, a pipeline intended to pump Russian gas into southeastern Europe via Turkey while bypassing Ukraine, had been suspended.
(Reuters, 12/3/15)
2015 Dec 4, Turkish media said authorities have rounded up in the past four days nearly 3,000 migrants planning to cross the Aegean Sea to EU member Greece.
(AFP, 12/4/15)
2015 Dec 4, Turkish media said more than 100 Turkish soldiers have been deployed to an area near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which is under Islamic State control, to replace a unit providing training to Iraqi troops.
(AFP, 12/4/15)
2015 Dec 5, In Turkey 3 members of the security forces were killed in clashes with militants the mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, Iraqi President Fouad Massoum called the deployment of several hundred Turkish troops inside Iraq near the northern city of Mosul "a violation of international norms and law".
(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 7, Turkey said it would not withdraw hundreds of soldiers who arrived last week at a base in northern Iraq, despite being ordered by Baghdad to pull them out within 48 hours.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, Lawyers hired by the Turkish government filed a civil suit against cleric Fethullah Gulen, a political enemy of President Tayyip Erdogan, in a US court alleging human rights abuses. Gulen has lived in Pennsylvania since 1999.
(Reuters, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 8, Six Afghan children drowned after a rubber dinghy carrying migrants to Greece sank off Turkey's Aegean coast.
(AP, 12/8/15)
2015 Dec 9, Turkey said its fighter jets carried out a new barrage of air strikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq overnight.
(AFP, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 10, A Turkish news agency said authorities have begun constructing a wall along a 82-km (50-mile) stretch of Turkey's border with Syria that is under the control of the Islamic State group on the Syrian side.
(AP, 12/10/15)
2015 Dec 11, President Tayyip Erdogan declared he would not bow to Iraqi demands he withdraw Turkish troops from a camp close to the Islamic State-held city of Mosul. Baghdad said it would ask the UN Security Council to order them to leave.
(Reuters, 12/11/15)
2015 Dec 11, Turkey issued arrest warrants for US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen and 66 others, pressing President Tayyip Erdogan's campaign to root out the influence of the former ally he accuses of trying to topple him.
(Reuters, 12/11/15)
2015 Dec 11, Turkey's state-run news agency said the country's communications authority has imposed a 150,000 Turkish Lira (US$51,000) fine on Twitter for failing to remove content it said praised terror and incited violence.
(AP, 12/11/15)
2015 Dec 12, Thousands of Iraqis protested against Ankara's deployment of troops to a base near the northern city of Mosul.
(Reuters, 12/12/15)
2015 Dec 13, Russia warned Turkey to stop staging what it called provocations against its forces in or near Syria after one of its warships fired warning shots at a Turkish vessel in the Aegean to avoid a collision.
(Reuters, 12/13/15)
2015 Dec 14, Turkey said it withdrew some of its soldiers from a camp in Iraq, days after Iraq had demanded that Turkish troops immediately leave its territory.
(AP, 12/14/15)
2015 Dec 14, In southeastern Turkey 2 protesters were killed in clashes with police in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir amid growing tensions over a days-long curfew.
(AFP, 12/14/15)
2015 Dec 15, In Turkey 8 Kurdish militants were killed in Cizre after they shot at the soldiers during an operation. A roadside bomb ripped through an armored vehicle and killed 3 policemen in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 12/16/15)
2015 Dec 16, Turkey's ambassador to Qatar said Turkey will establish a military base in Qatar as part of a defense agreement aimed at helping them confront common enemies.
(Reuters, 12/16/15)
2015 Dec 16, Turkish security forces stepped up operations targeting Kurdish militants in southeastern towns, as pro-government media detailed plans for a 10,000-strong force to restore state control in the region.
(Reuters, 12/16/15)
2015 Dec 17, Turkey said its security forces have killed 25 Kurdish militants this week as they battle suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the two flashpoint towns of Cizre and Silopi.
(AFP, 12/17/15)
2015 Dec 18, Turkish security forces pressed on with a relentless operation to root out Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels from two urban centers in the troubled southeast that has left at least 55 militants dead and angered Kurdish representatives.
(AFP, 12/18/15)
2015 Dec 18, A Turkish government official said authorities at Istanbul's main airport have detained two people suspected of attempting to smuggle 148 blank European passports concealed in pizza-making equipment.
(AP, 12/18/15)
2015 Dec 19, Turkey said 69 Kurdish insurgents and two Turkish soldiers have been killed in four days of fighting across the southeast as security forces ramp up operations against the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 19, Turkey said it would "continue" to pull its troops out of northern Iraq after US President Barack Obama urged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to do so in order to de-escalate tensions with Baghdad over the deployment.
(AFP, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 19, Turkish media reported that 18 people drowned overnight when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea as it was heading for the Greek island of Kalymnos.
(AFP, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 20, In southeastern Turkey armed clashes persisted, where an operation by Turkish forces intensified on the sixth day of a campaign that security sources said had resulted in the death of 110 Kurdish militants. Turkish police fired tear gas to disperse several hundred protesters in Istanbul's main Taksim square demonstrating against security operations and curfews in the southeast.
(Reuters, 12/20/15)
2015 Dec 22, Turkish tanks pounded Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in Cizre. The army said it has killed 127 Kurdish militants in a week.
(Reuters, 12/22/15)
2015 Dec 22, Turkish police killed two female "terrorists" in a pre-dawn raid on a cell of suspected militants in Istanbul.
(AFP, 12/22/15)
2015 Dec 22, Eleven migrants bound for EU member Greece, including 3 children, drowned off the Turkish coast.
(AFP, 12/22/15)
2015 Dec 23, In Turkey a female cleaner was killed and another wounded after an explosion near a plane at Istanbul's second international airport. A mortar attack was the cause of a deadly incident at Sabiha Gokcen airport.
(AFP, 12/23/15)(AFP, 1/7/16)
2015 Dec 24, Turkey said another 19 people, including 6 children, drowned in the waters of the Aegean off the coast of the Turkish city of Izmir after their boat capsized.
(AP, 12/24/15)
2015 Dec 24, Turkish Internet servers suffered a powerful cyberattack, slowing banking services and fanning fears that it could be a politically motivated attack from abroad.
(AFP, 12/25/15)
2015 Dec 25, In Turkey a three-month-old baby and her grandfather were killed when they became caught in the crossfire between security forces and Kurdish rebels in Cizre.
(AFP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 27, In Turkey 3 soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the town of Cizre in the Kurdish majority southeast.
(AFP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 27, In Turkey Naji Jerf, a Syrian journalist and filmmaker who documented atrocities by the Islamic State, was killed in Gaziantep. On Jan 10 state media reported the arrest of three people in relation to the killing.
(SFC, 12/25/15, p.A2)(AFP, 1/10/16)
2015 Dec 28, A Turkish court remanded in custody a 17-year-old construction worker on charges of "insulting" Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Facebook.
(AFP, 12/28/15)
2015 Dec 28, In Syria buses and ambulances carrying around 450 fighters and civilians evacuated from two besieged areas crossed into Turkey and Lebanon.
(Reuters, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the leader of the main Kurdish party Selahattin Demirtas (42) of "treason" over his call for autonomy for the country's Kurdish minority.
(AFP, 12/29/15)
2015 Dec 29, In Turkey a former soccer referee won a court case against Turkey's football federation which he has accused of outing him as a homosexual and stripping him of his license to referee games because of his sexual orientation. The court ordered the federation to pay Halil Ibrahim Dincdag 23,000 lira (US$8,000) in compensation.
(AP, 12/29/15)
2015 Dec 31, In Turkey hundreds of flights were cancelled from Istanbul's two main airports after the city was hit by a picturesque but troublesome snowfall.
(AFP, 12/31/15)
2015 Sean McMeekin authored “The Ottoman Endgame: War Revoloution and the Making of the Modern Middle East."
(Econ, 10/31/15, p.80)
2015 Eugene Rogan authored “The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East."
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.85)
2015 Thomas de Waal authored “Great Catastrophe: Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide."
(Econ., 4/18/15, p.75)
2015 Turkish businessman Akin Ipek, who built a multi-billion-dollar fortune in Turkey based on gold mining, left the country after relations between the government and followers of US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen soured.
(AP, 4/9/19)
2016 Jan 1, Turkish media reported that 2 police officers, a soldier and 12 Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters were killed in the southeast in the last 48 hours in operations to push back the militant group.
(Reuters, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 3, In Turkey more than 200 people in Istanbul protested peacefully against curfews and operations in mainly Kurdish cities and towns in the southeast, where security forces and Kurdish militants are locked in an intensifying conflict.
(AP, 1/3/16)
2016 Jan 4, Turkish security sources said 2 civilians, 2 soldiers and a police officer have been killed in the southeast over the last 24 hours as military operations to root out armed fighters focused on urban centers across the mainly Kurdish region. 3 female Kurdish political activists were killed in fighting in curfew-hit Silopi town as the authorities press an offensive against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 1/4/16)(AFP, 1/6/16)
2016 Jan 5, Turkey’s military said security forces have killed at least 14 militants in the mainly Kurdish southeast over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 1/5/16)
2016 Jan 5, In Turkey the bodies of 36 migrants, at least seven of them children, were found at two sites along the Aegean coast after they apparently tried to cross to the nearby Greek island of Lesbos.
(AP, 1/5/16)
2016 Jan 5, Turkish forces, acting on a tip, conducted an operation on a Bolivian-flagged ship in international waters off the coast of Libya and seized 13 tons of marijuana. It was Turkey's first anti-narcotics operation in international waters.
(AP, 1/6/16)
2016 Jan 7, In Iraq clashes between a joint Turkish-Iraqi force and Islamic State militants near the Bashiqa camp training camp outside the city of Mosul reportedly left at least 18 IS fighters dead. The commander of the training camp, Maj Gen. Mohammed Yahya, said there were no such clashes.
(AP, 1/8/16)
2016 Jan 8, Turkish police detained six people including local officials from the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) in a raid on one of its Istanbul offices.
(Reuters, 1/8/16)
2016 Jan 8, Turkey’s armed forces killed 16 PKK fighters in the town of Cizre, near the Syrian border. Another two rebels were killed in the historical Sur district of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 1/9/16)
2016 Jan 9, In Turkey 16 rebels were killed in the towns of Cizre and Silopi, near the Syrian and Iraqi borders, and another four were killed in Sur.
(Reuters, 1/10/16)
2016 Jan 10, In Turkey a soldier and a police officer were killed in Diyarbakir when they came under explosives and rifle fire in a clash with rebels in which 14 security personnel were also wounded. Police killed a further 12 PKK members after finding them in a house in the southeastern city of Van overnight.
(Reuters, 1/10/16)
2016 Jan 12, In Turkey a suicide bomber thought to have crossed recently from Syria killed himself and 10 German tourists, in Istanbul's historic heart. PM Ahmet Davutoglu blamed the attack on the Islamic State. Finger prints soon identified the bomber as Saudi-born Syrian Nabil Fadli. An 11th German victim died of wounds on Jan 26.
(Reuters, 1/12/16)(Reuters, 1/13/16)(SSFC, 1/17/16, p.A5)(AFP, 1/28/16)
2016 Jan 14, Turkey said that seven people have been detained in connection with the Jan 12 suicide bombing in Istanbul's historic district that killed 10 German tourists. PM Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkish ground forces have pounded Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria with intense shelling of some 500 IS positions over the last 48 hours.
(Reuters, 1/14/16)(AFP, 1/14/16)
2016 Jan 14, In southeast Turkey Kurdish militants attacked a police station overnight with a truck bomb, killing 6 people including a baby and two toddlers in Cinar.
(Reuters, 1/14/16)
2016 Jan 14, Turkish authorities discovered the bodies of seven would-be migrants to Greece on western Turkish beaches.
(AFP, 1/14/16)
2016 Jan 15, Turkey announced that it is to grant work permits to Syrian refugees, in a key move which could allow Syrians to build more prosperous and stable lives in the country.
(AFP, 1/15/16)
2016 Jan 15, Turkish police detained more than a dozen academics who signed a petition criticizing the military crackdown in the Kurdish-dominated southeast that angered President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, triggering new alarm about freedom of expression in the country.
(AFP, 1/15/16)
2016 Jan 18, In Turkey at least one person was killed and one more seriously wounded when a rocket fired from a jihadist-controlled area in Syria slammed into a schoolyard in the border town of Kilis. Turkey’s Anadolu Agency said the three officers succumbed to their wounds after being hit by a roadside bomb in Sirnak's Idil district, near the Syrian and Iraqi borders. Kurdish militants were blamed.
(AFP, 1/18/16)(AP, 1/18/16)
2016 Jan 20, German and Turkish police announced major coordinated raids against a criminal trafficking network that used unseaworthy ships to send more than 1,700 refugees to Europe.
(AFP, 1/20/16)
2016 Jan 22, At least 46 people, including 17 children, drowned when their boats capsized off two Greek islands near the Turkish coast.
(Reuters, 1/22/16)(SFC, 1/23/16, p.A2)
2016 Jan 23, A Turkish soldier was killed in a clash between the security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the southeastern town of Cizre. 7 PKK members were reported "neutralized".
(Reuters, 1/23/16)
2016 Jan 25, Turkey's foreign minister said any participation of Kurdish forces in planned Syria peace talks would be dangerous and spell the end of the UN-led initiative.
(AP, 1/25/16)
2016 Jan 26, Turkey’s security forces killed 11 PKK members in the town of Cizre, near the Syrian border, and nine more in Sur. 3 soldiers were killed in a militant attack in Sur.
(Reuters, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 27, In southeastern Turkey thousands of people fled a district of the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir after authorities fighting Kurdish militants there expanded a 24-hour curfew to include five more neighborhoods.
(AP, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 30, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan embarked on a major tour of Latin American countries in a bid to expand Ankara's ties outside its traditional sphere of influence.
(AFP, 1/30/16)
2016 Jan 30, Turkey said another Russian warplane violated its airspace a day earlier despite several warnings President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Moscow that it would be forced to "endure the consequences" if its jets continue to violate Turkish airspace, after Ankara reported a new border infringement incident by a Russian plane.
(AP, 1/30/16)
2016 Jan 30, At least 37 people drowned and 75 others were rescued after a boat carrying migrants to Greece sank off Turkey's western coast.
(AFP, 1/30/16)
2016 Feb 2, In Turkey Ismail Akkol of the outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) was detained with another militant on suspicion of planning a suicide bombing in the capital Ankara. On Feb 4 charged the radical leftwing militant was charged over the 1996 assassination of industrialist Ozdemir Sabanci.
(AFP, 2/4/16)
2016 Feb 2, Nine people, including two babies, were found drowned off the coast of western Turkey after a boat carrying people to Greece partly capsized.
(Reuters, 2/2/16)
2016 Feb 4, Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu said tens of thousands of Syrians are moving toward the Turkish border from the Syrian city of Aleppo due to increased aerial bombardment.
(Reuters, 2/4/16)
2016 Feb 7, Aid trucks and ambulances entered Syria from Turkey to deliver food and supplies to tens of thousands of people fleeing an escalating government assault on Aleppo, as air strikes targeted villages on the road north to the Turkish border.
(Reuters, 2/7/16)
2016 Feb 8, Twenty-four migrants, including 11 children, drowned in the Aegean Sea as they tried to cross from Turkey to Greece.
(AFP, 2/8/16)
2016 Feb 9, Turkish soldiers spotted seven PKK militants entering Sirnak province's Cizre district from Syria and, as they clashed, one soldier was killed and one wounded. Military officials have detained a group of 34 people at the border with Syria and seized luggage containing four suicide vests and explosives.
(Reuters, 2/10/16)
2016 Feb 10, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported that one police officer was killed and another wounded when PKK rebels launched a rocket attack on an armored vehicle in Sirnak.
(Reuters, 2/10/16)(AP, 2/10/16)
2016 Feb 11, Turkey said that its security forces have completed their operations against militants in Cizre after weeks of fighting. Turkish security forces killed 27 militants in the mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 2/12/16)
2016 Feb 12, A Turkish deputy prime minister said up to 40,000 refugees have settled in camps on the Turkish border inside Syria in the latest wave of migration.
(Reuters, 2/12/16)
2016 Feb 13, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Saudi Arabia will send aircraft to NATO-member Turkey's Incirlik air base for the fight against Islamic State militants in Syria.
(Reuters, 2/13/16)
2016 Feb 14, The Turkish army shelled positions held by Kurdish-backed militia in northern Syria for a second day, killing two fighters.
(Reuters, 2/14/16)
2016 Feb 15, Turkish security forces hit Kurdish militia targets in Syria for the third day in a row after a border security outpost on the border was attacked this morning.
(Reuters, 2/15/16)
2016 Feb 17, Police in northeastern Turkey clashed for a 2nd day with hundreds of activists and local residents trying to prevent the construction of a copper mine in the mountainous Cerattepe area.
(AP, 2/17/16)
2016 Feb 17, In Turkey a car laden with explosives detonated next to military buses as they waited at traffic lights near the armed forces' headquarters, parliament and government buildings in the administrative heart of Ankara. 28 people were killed. Within hours, Turkish warplanes bombed bases in northern Iraq of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which PM Davutoglu accused of collaborating in the car bombing. A Turkey-based Kurdish militant group later claimed responsibility. A 29th victim died of his wounds on Feb 23.
(Reuters, 2/18/16)(AP, 2/23/16)
2016 Feb 18, Six Turkish security force members were killed and one soldier was seriously wounded in a blast in the mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 2/18/16)
2016 Feb 19, Two Turkish soldiers and one police officer were killed in an attack by Kurdish militants in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 2/19/16)
2016 Feb 24, Turkish military helicopters killed 9 Kurdish militants in strikes near the southeastern Idil district of Sirnak province.
(Reuters, 2/24/16)
2016 Feb 25, NATO envoys set out how ships already sent to the Aegean will pass reconnaissance to Turkish and Greek coastguards and the EU border agency Frontex, as well as returning to Turkey any migrants in distress that NATO crews rescue.
(Reuters, 2/25/16)
2016 Feb 26, Turkey freed Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet, and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul, imprisoned for their reports on alleged government arms-smuggling to Syria, hours after the Constitutional Court ruled that their rights were violated. Both journalists faced possible life sentences at a trial due to start on March 25 and are banned from leaving the country.
(AP, 2/26/16)(AP, 2/28/16)
2016 Feb 27, Turkish police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters who demonstrated against a three-month military crackdown backed by a curfew in the mainly Kurdish southeastern city of Diyarbakir.
(AFP, 2/27/16)
2016 Feb 28, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he did not respect or accept a constitutional court ruling that the detention of two journalists from a leading opposition newspaper had violated their rights.
(Reuters, 2/28/16)
2016 Feb 28, Turkish security said a police officer was killed and two wounded when suspected Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants fired a rocket at their armored vehicle in the town of Nusaybin near the southeastern border with Syria.
(Reuters, 2/28/16)
2016 Feb 29, Turkey's justice minister said as many as 1,845 cases have been opened against people accused of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since he came to office in 2014.
(AP, 3/2/16)
2016 Feb 29, A Turkish stock exchange filing said authorities have shut down media businesses seized last year from Koza Ipek Holding, a conglomerate linked to a US-based preacher accused of plotting against President Tayyip Erdogan.
(Reuters, 3/1/16)
2016 Feb 29, Turkish armed forces shelled positions of the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria in coordination with the US-led international anti-jihadist coalition.
(AFP, 2/29/16)
2016 Mar 1, Russia called for the Syrian-Turkish border to be closed, saying arms were being hidden in humanitarian aid convoys and channeled to fighters of Islamic State and its allies.
(Reuters, 3/1/16)
2016 Mar 2, In southeastern Turkey residents of Cizre began returning home after authorities partially lifted a curfew in place since December for a controversial operation against Kurdish rebels which left many homes devastated. 3 soldiers and 10 Kurdish PKK militants were killed in clashes in Mardin province and Diyarbakir.
(AFP, 3/2/16)(Reuters, 3/3/16)
2016 Mar 3, Turkish police killed two female leftist militants who hurled grenades and opened fire at an Istanbul police station. The women were identified as members of the banned Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army (DHKP-C).
(AFP, 3/3/16)(SFC, 3/4/16, p.A2)
2016 Mar 4, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish rebels detonated a car bomb near a police station, killing two police officers and wounding some 35 people.
(AP, 3/4/16)
2016 Mar 4, An Istanbul court ordered into administration the Zaman daily newspaper, sharply critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, adding to growing alarm over freedom of expression in the country.
(AFP, 3/4/16)
2016 Mar 4, A Turkish court sentenced two Syrians to four years in jail over the drowning of five people including toddler Aylan Kurdi, the image of whose dead body sparked global sympathy last September over the fate of migrants.
(Reuters, 3/4/16)
2016 Mar 4, Turkey’s PM Ahmet Davutoglu visited Tehran with six ministers and discussed a high-speed rail link that might bridge Lake Van and triple bilateral trade.
(Econ, 4/2/16, p.51)
2016 Mar 4, Russia's Defense Ministry said Turkey is shelling Kurdish units fighting against the Nusra Front in Syria, while columns of trucks with various cargo and weapons for rebels cross into Syria from Turkey daily.
(Reuters, 3/4/16)
2016 Mar 5, Turkish police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters outside the country's biggest newspaper, Zaman, after authorities seized control of it in a crackdown on a religious group whose leader the government accuses of treason.
(Reuters, 3/5/16)
2016 Mar 5, Iran and Turkey said they aim to triple their annual trade to $30 billion within two years as Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu met Iran's first vice president Eshaq Jahangiri in Tehran. The two countries remained at odds over fighting in Syria.
(AFP, 3/5/16)
2016 Mar 6, A day after Turkey's top-selling newspaper Zaman was taken over by the state, it dropped its criticisms of the government and published flattering stories on President Tayyip Erdogan.
(Reuters, 3/6/16)
2016 Mar 6, The Turkish Coast Guard rescued 15 people and recovered 18 bodies in the Aegean Sea near the town of Didim. At least 25 people drowned including 3 children.
(Reuters, 3/6/16)(SFC, 3/7/16, p.A3)
2016 Mar 7, Turkey offered the EU greater help to stem a flood of migrants into Europe but demanded more money, faster accession talks and quicker visa-free travel for its citizens in exchange. EU leaders reached a tentative outline for a possible deal with Ankara and hoped to finalize a deal at 2-day summit beginning on March 17.
(Reuters, 3/7/16)(SFC, 3/8/16, p.A4)
2016 Mar 7, In southeastern Turkey 13 Kurdish militants were killed when a firefight broke out in the town of Idil. Two Turkish soldiers were killed in the last 24 hours, one in Idil and the other in Sur, a historic district in Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 3/7/16)
2016 Mar 7, An official in YPG, the Syrian Kurdish militia, said that Turkey was firing artillery shells at its fighters in northern Aleppo province.
(Reuters, 3/7/16)
2016 Mar 8, In southern Turkey 2 people, including a young child, were killed and another two people were wounded when the town of Kilis came under repeated rocket fire from across the Syrian border.
(Reuters, 3/8/16)
2016 Mar 8, Today marks the 108th annual International Women's Day. A rally in Istanbul ended violently when Turkish police fired rubber bullets into a crowd of hundreds of people and detained at least one woman.
(CSM, 3/8/16)
2016 Mar 9, Turkey ended its 3-month military operation against militants in mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.
(AP, 3/9/16)
2016 Mar 9, The Turkish military carried out air strikes against Kurdish rebel targets across the border in northern Iraq, killing at least 67 militants.
(AP, 3/12/16)
2016 Mar 9, Turkey's coastguard intercepted dozens of mostly Syrian migrants in coves along the Aegean coast as they continued to attempt perilous sea crossings to Greece despite Ankara's efforts to stem the flow under a deal with the European Union.
(Reuters, 3/9/16)
2016 Mar 9, Five Afghans, including two children and a six-month old baby, drowned late today in the Aegean trying to reach Greece as Turkey starts to implement an EU agreement to curb illegal migration.
(Reuters, 3/10/16)
2016 Mar 10, In southeastern Turkey 7 Kurdish militants were killed in a gun battle in Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 3/10/16)
2016 Mar 13, Turkey slapped a curfew on two border towns in the Kurdish-dominated southeast ahead of a looming military "clean-up" operation as it eased a lockdown in Diyarbakir. 37 people were killed in an Ankara car bombing that security officials said involved a female fighter of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(AFP, 3/13/16)(Reuters, 3/14/16)
2016 Mar 13, Russia accused Turkey of sending its military across the Syrian border to prevent Kurdish groups there from consolidating their positions.
(AP, 3/13/16)
2016 Mar 14, Turkey detained four suspects over the previous day’s suicide car bombing in Ankara, as warplanes pounded Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq over the attack. At least 45 Kurdish rebels were killed in the air strikes. Turkey declared a round-the-clock curfew in the southeastern town of Sirnak in order to carry out operations against Kurdish militants in the area.
(AFP, 3/14/16)(Reuters, 3/14/16)(AP, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 16, Turkish police detained eight lawyers as part of a crackdown on pro-Kurdish activists. At least 47 suspects were detained in anti-terror operations across the country.
(AFP, 3/16/16)(AP, 3/16/16)
2016 Mar 18, EU leaders approved a controversial deal with Turkey intended to halt illegal migration flows to Europe in return for financial and political rewards for Ankara.
(Reuters, 3/18/16)
2016 Mar 19, In Turkey a suicide bomber killed himself and four others in a central Istanbul shopping and tourism district, wounding at least 36 people in the fourth such attack in the country this year. Mehmet Ozturk (b.1992), a Turkish member of the Islamic State militant group, was responsible for the bombing that killed 3 Israelis and an Iranian.
(Reuters, 3/19/16)(Reuters, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 19, US FBI agents arrested Reza Zarrab (33), a Turkish-Iranian gold-trader married to a Turkish pop star, in Miami on charges he helped Iran process millions of dollars of transactions when it faced US sanctions for its nuclear program. Prosecutors later alleged that Zarrab had paid tens of millions to three Turkish ministers and the head of Halkbank tens of millions in bribes. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey were later hired to help defend Zarrab.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reza_Zarrab)(Reuters, 9/25/16)(Econ, 6/11/16, p.55)(AP, 4/3/17)
2016 Mar 21, Three Turkish soldiers were killed in a bomb attack on their military vehicle in the southeastern town of Nusaybin near the Syrian border. 23 Kurdish militants were killed in clashes in Nusaybin, Yuksekova and Sirnak.
(Reuters, 3/21/16)(Reuters, 3/22/16)
2016 Mar 21, In Turkey thousands of people gathered in the mainly Kurdish of Diyarbakir to celebrate the Newroz spring festival. The celebrations were banned in Ankara and in Istanbul, where security forces rounded up 164 people, including 12 minors, ahead of the festivities.
(AP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 22, In Turkey Kurdish militants killed 5 members of government security forces in three separate bomb attacks near the Syrian and Iranian borders.
(Reuters, 3/22/16)
2016 Mar 23, Turkish F-16 and F-4 jets raided 11 targets of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, including ammunition depots, bunkers and shelters late today.
(AP, 3/24/16)
2016 Mar 24, In Turkey 3 military police were killed and 22 injured in a car bombing on a barracks in in Mermer, Diyarbakir province, suspected to be the work of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AFP, 3/25/16)
2016 Mar 26, Turkish Air Force jets joined coalition forces in attacking Islamic State targets in northern Iraq, hours after a Turkish soldier was killed at a military base in the region from rockets fired by the extremist militants.
(AP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 29, In Turkey a fire at a refugee camp near the border with Syria killed three Syrian children and wounded six other people near the town of Derik, Mardin province.
(AP, 3/29/16)
2016 Mar 29, Turkey’s security forces killed 14 "terrorists" — a military reference to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party — in Mardin province, five in Sirnak and four in Hakkari. A total of 347 militants have been killed in those three regions since the start of security operations in July.
(AP, 3/30/16)
2016 Mar 31, In Turkey a car bomb attack killed 7 police officers and wounded 27 other people in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) soon claimed responsibility. On April 2 a suspect, named as A.C., was detained in the Kocakoy district of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 4/1/16)(AFP, 4/2/16)
2016 Mar 31, In Germany satirist Jan Boehmermann explained that he wanted to clarify the boundaries of free speech law and declaimed a series of fictional passages on TV depicting Turkey’s Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan engrossed in a series of athletically challenging sexual activities with barnyard animals.
(Econ, 4/16/16, p.43)
2016 Mar 31, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told Russia's RIA news agency that the army of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is fighting in Syria.
(Reuters, 3/31/16)
2016 Mar 31, US President Barack Obama reaffirmed the US commitment to Turkey's security during a meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, while also discussing both countries' efforts to fight Islamic State.
(Reuters, 3/31/16)
2016 Apr 1, Turkish warplanes carried out air strikes in northern Iraq, destroying ammunition depots and shelters in an areas where the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has camps.
(Reuters, 4/1/16)
2016 Apr 4, The Turkish military carried out airstrikes in northern Iraq against targets belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 4/5/16)
2016 Apr 4, It was reported that hackers have posted a database online the seems to contain the personal information of nearly 50 million Turkish citizens.
(SFC, 4/5/16, p.A2)
2016 Apr 4, Greece shipped 202 migrants back to Turkey, the first wave of deportations under a hugely controversial deal aimed at easing Europe's worst postwar migration crisis.
(AFP, 4/4/16)(Econ, 4/9/16, p.52)
2016 Apr 5, Turkish police detained almost 70 businessmen, local officials and teachers in a new nationwide sweep against supporters of Pres. Erdogan's arch foe.
(AFP, 4/5/16)
2016 Apr 7, In Turkey Mustafa Tanriverdi, who headed a factory run by the state-owned Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation, was arrested in Ankara as he left a restaurant after arranging to sell the designs to an official of a US-based company for a total of 1.2 million Turkish lira ($420,000).
(AP, 4/8/16)
2016 Apr 10, In Turkey the 13th annual meeting of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) opened in Istanbul.
(AFP, 4/10/16)
2016 Apr 12, Two Turkish soldiers were killed and more than 50 people wounded when a car bomb exploded at a military post in the restive Kurdish-dominated southeast.
(AP, 4/12/16)
2016 Apr 12, The Turkish army hit Islamic State targets in northern Syria, in response to cross-border rocket fire that struck a border town in southeastern Turkey for the second day in a row.
(Reuters, 4/12/16)
2016 Apr 12, Syrian journalist Mohammed Zahir al-Sherqat died from wounds after being shot April 10 in the Turkish city of Gaziantep. The shooting attack was claimed by the Islamic State.
(SFC, 4/13/16, p.A2)
2016 Apr 13, Turkey's armed forces launched new artillery strikes on jihadist positions in Syria, after three days of deadly fire on a Turkish border town that has left residents on edge.
(AFP, 4/13/16)
2016 Apr 14, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Muslim nations have agreed to establish a Turkey-based body to fight terrorism, as he urged the countries' leaders to examine the root causes of the migration crisis.
(AP, 4/14/16)
2016 Apr 16, In Turkey Iranian President Hassan Rouhani met with Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan. They vowed to boost trade between their two countries at talks following the lifting of most international sanctions on Tehran.
(AFP, 4/16/16)
2016 Apr 18, Turkish police detained at least 105 people, including top construction executives, in a new crackdown on supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's arch foe, the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.
(AFP, 4/18/16)
2016 Apr 18, In Turkey rocket projectiles fired from Syria killed 4 Syrians, three of them children, in the Turkish border town of Kilis.
(AP, 4/18/16)
2016 Apr 19, Turkish authorities detained 38 people suspected of "framing" soccer team Fenerbahce's players and directors in a match-fixing investigation in 2011.
(AP, 4/19/16)
2016 Apr 20, Turkish warplanes struck militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 4/20/16)
2016 Apr 21, Turkey's supreme court of appeals overturned the convictions of 275 people, including a former military chief, who allegedly plotted to overthrow the country's Islamist-leaning government. The decision opens the way for a re-trial and their possible acquittal.
(AP, 4/21/16)
2016 Apr 21, Turkish warplanes struck militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in southeastern Turkey.
(Reuters, 4/21/16)
2016 Apr 22, Disgraced tycoon Asil Nadir (74), jailed for stealing millions from his Polly Peck empire, was released from a Turkish prison just one night after being extradited from Britain. The Turkish Cypriot was convicted in 2012 of purloining nearly £29 million (37 million euros) -- the equivalent of more than £70 million in today's terms -- from the major UK conglomerate in the late 1980s.
(AFP, 4/22/16)
2016 Apr 23, Turkey said six foreign nationals were taken into custody in an overnight raid against Islamic State in the central Anatolian city of Konya.
(Reuters, 4/23/16)
2016 Apr 23, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and top European Union officials arrived near Turkey's border with Syria in a bid to bolster a troubled migration deal with Turkey as they face increasing pressure to reassess the agreement.
(AP, 4/23/16)
2016 Apr 24, Two rockets hit the Turkish town of Kilis near the Syrian border, wounding 16 people a day after the government promised to protect the area from repeated attacks by Islamic State militants.
(Reuters, 4/24/16)
2016 Apr 25, Turkey said it has deported more than 3,300 foreigners suspected of links to jihadi groups, particularly Islamic State militants, and another 41,000 foreigners have been barred from entering the country as part of its fight against the militant group.
(AP, 4/25/16)
2016 Apr 25, Turkey's military said it has destroyed Islamic State's missile launcher in Syria some 20 km from the border town of Kilis which has been repeatedly his by rockets from the border. 2 Turkish soldiers were killed and four wounded in an armed attack by Kurdish militants in the southeastern town of Nusaybin near the Syrian border.
(Reuters, 4/25/16)
2016 Apr 27, In Turkey a woman suicide bomber blew herself up in Bursa, killing herself and wounding at least 10 people.
(AFP, 4/27/16)
2016 Apr 28, In Turkey an Istanbul court sentenced two prominent journalists to two years behind bars for illustrating their columns with a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed published by French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.
(AFP, 4/28/16)
2016 Apr 30, The Turkish military says it conducted overnight airstrikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey.
(AP, 4/30/16)
2016 May 1, Turkish police clamped down on unauthorized protests during a tense May Day in Istanbul, using tear gas and water cannon against demonstrators and imposing a heavy security blanket on the city.
(AFP, 5/1/16)
2016 May 1, In Turkey a car bomb struck the entrance of a police station in the southern city of Gaziantep, killing 2 officials and injuring 23 other people. 3 Turkish soldiers were killed and 14 others wounded in an attack in the Kurdish-dominated southeast blamed on militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(AP, 5/1/16)(AFP, 5/1/16)(Econ, 5/21/16, p.48)
2016 May 2, Turkish warplanes pounded Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq, killing 18 militants.
(AP, 5/3/16)
2016 May 4, Turkey said its warplanes have destroyed targets belonging to the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in southeast Turkey.
(Reuters, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, The European Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation EU, gave conditional backing for Turks to get visa-free travel as part of a deal to solve the migrant crisis.
(AFP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 5, In Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu announced that he was stepping down as leader of the ruling AK Party and therefore as prime minister, bowing to President Tayyip Erdogan's drive to create a powerful executive presidency.
(Reuters, 5/5/16)
2016 May 6, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the European Union that Ankara will not change its anti-terrorism law, despite it being a condition laid down by Brussels to ensure visa-free travel for Turks.
(AFP, 5/6/16)
2016 May 6, The US government said it has suspended millions of dollars in funding to several organizations providing aid for Syria after discovering they were systematically overpaying Turkish companies for basic goods with the collusion of some of their staff.
(AFP, 5/10/16)
2016 May 7, Turkish artillery fired at the Islamic State group across the border in Syria, killing 55 militants and destroying three rocket launchers and three vehicles.
(AP, 5/8/16)
2016 May 8, In southeastern Turkey 9 PKK members were killed in the towns of Nusaybin and Sirnak.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, A Turkish soldier was killed in clashes in Nusaybin, located at the Syrian border and under a round-the-clock curfew since mid-March, as fighting continued in both Nusaybin and Sirnak throughout the day.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 10, In southeastern Turkey 3 people were killed and 23 wounded when a bomb-laden car detonated near a police vehicle in the strife-hit city of Diyarbakir. The state-run Anadolu news agency said the attack was carried out by the PKK.
(Reuters, 5/10/16)(SFC, 5/11/16, p.A2)
2016 May 12, In Turkey 15 militants were killed in clashes in Sirnak province. 4 suspected bomb makers were killed and 23 people were wounded when an explosion ripped through a village in the southeast as PKK militants loaded explosives onto a small truck. Authorities later identified the remains of 13 people from two families killed from more than 15 tons of explosives in the truck raising the death toll to 16.
(Reuters, 5/13/16)(AP, 5/17/16)
2016 May 13, In Turkey 6 soldiers were killed and eight were wounded in clashes with militants in the southeastern Hakkari province near the border with Iraq. A military helicopter sent to the area crashed due to a technical fault killing 2 pilots. 6 PKK militants were also killed in an operation in that region.
(Reuters, 5/13/16)(SFC, 5/14/16, p.A3)
2016 May 13, Turkish fighter jets carried out nine airstrikes against Kurdish rebels in the southeast of the country and northern Iraq. The warplanes reportedly destroyed 98 targets of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party.
(AP, 5/14/16)
2016 May 14, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported that Turkish military and US-led coalition forces killed 45 Islamic State militants in shelling and an air strike north of the Syrian city of Aleppo.
(Reuters, 5/14/16)
2016 May 15, A Turkish soldier and six members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed in the largely Kurdish southeast. The Turkish military killed 16 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters in an operation backed by air power near the Iranian border.
(Reuters, 5/15/16)(Reuters, 5/16/16)
2016 May 15, Turkish and US-led coalition forces struck Islamic State targets north of the Syrian city of Aleppo, killing 27 fighters. The United States and its allies conducted 14 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
(Reuters, 5/16/16)
2016 May 18, Turkish warplanes hit PKK targets overnight in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq, killing at least 10 fighters. 4 Turkish soldiers were killed and nine wounded when a bomb was detonated as their vehicle traveled past in the mainly Kurdish southeast of the country. Earlier today a soldier was killed in Nusaybin, situated at the Syrian border some 500 km (310 miles) away, when militants opened fire on him.
(Reuters, 5/18/16)
2016 May 19, Turkey's ruling party named Transport Minister Binali Yildirim, a loyal ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as the new prime minister.
(AFP, 5/19/16)
2016 May 20, Turkey's parliament approved a bill to amend the constitution to strip lawmakers of immunity, a move that paves the way for trials of several pro-Kurdish and other legislators. The bill put 138 lawmakers, the vast majority of them from two opposition parties, at risk of prosecution. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed the bill on June 7.
(AP, 5/20/16)(AFP, 6/8/16)
2016 May 22, Turkey's Transport Minister Binali Yildirim was formally appointed as head of the ruling party and as the new prime minister, strengthening the grip on power of his mentor President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 5/22/16)
2016 May 22, Turkish authorities lifted a long-standing curfew from parts of a historic neighborhood in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.
(AP, 5/22/16)
2016 May 23, In Turkey a new fund which aims to raise more than $3.8 billion for children's education in war zones and natural disasters was launched at the first ever World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul.
(Reuters, 5/23/16)
2016 May 27, US-led coalition airstrikes and Turkish artillery fire against the Islamic State group in Syria killed 104 militants.
(AP, 5/28/16)
2016 May 31, In Turkey a court convicted Merve Buyuksarac (27), a former Miss Turkey (2006), of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan through social media postings and gave her a 14-month suspended sentence.
(AP, 5/31/16)
2016 May 31, Turkey's President Recep Teyyep Edorgan arrived in Uganda to promote trade and tourism opportunities between the two countries.
(AP, 6/1/16)
2016 Jun 2, Turkey recalled its ambassador to Germany in protest against a parliament resolution declaring the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces a "genocide" at a time when Europe is looking for Ankara's help in the migrant crisis.
(Reuters, 6/2/16)
2016 Jun 3, A court in Turkey sentenced a Turkish man, Erdal E. (29), to 108 years in jail for sexually assaulting at least eight Syrian children while working as a cleaner at the refugee camp in Nizip in the southern Gaziantep province near the Syrian border.
(AFP, 6/4/16)
2016 Jun 3, In Somalia Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened a new Turkish embassy in Mogadishu on his third visit to the country.
(AP, 6/3/16)
2016 Jun 4, Turkey’s military said cross-border shelling by the Turkish army and air strikes by US-led coalition aircraft have killed 14 Islamic State militants in Syria.
(AP, 6/4/16)
2016 Jun 4, Turkish warplanes struck Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey and the army killed 27 fighters near its borders with Iraq and Iran.
(Reuters, 6/5/16)
2016 Jun 5, In Turkey more than 1,000 people attended a rally of a pro-Kurdish, opposition party in Istanbul to protest against the abolition of immunity of some Turkish members of parliament.
(AP, 6/5/16)
2016 Jun 5, In southern Turkey a bus carrying school children, teachers and parents plunged into an irrigation canal in Osmaniye province, killing 14 people including 6 children.
(AP, 6/6/16)
2016 Jun 6, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported that shelling by Turkey's military and attacks by US-led coalition aircraft have killed 7 Islamic State militants in Syria.
(Reuters, 6/6/16)
2016 Jun 7, In Turkey a rush-hour explosion killed 11 people and wounded 36 others in an attack on a bus carrying riot police in Istanbul. Police detained four people in connection with the attack.
(AP, 6/7/16)
2016 Jun 8, In Turkey a Kurdish rebel suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle outside a police headquarters near the border with Syria in Midyat, Mardin province. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group claimed responsibility for the bombing that killed six people.
(AP, 6/8/16)(Reuters, 6/9/16)
2016 Jun 8, In Syria US-led coalition airstrikes and Turkish artillery fire against Islamic State group targets reportedly killed 18 militants.
(AP, 6/9/16)
2016 Jun 8, RIA news agency, citing the Russian coordination center in Syria, reported that Russia's Defense Ministry has spotted the movement of over 160 Nusra Front fighters from Turkey into Syria to reinforce "terrorists" around the city of Aleppo.
(Reuters, 6/8/16)
2016 Jun 9, Turkey suspended the sale of fertilizers containing nitrate that are used to make explosives following car bombings this week that killed 17 people.
(SFC, 6/10/16, p.A2)
2016 Jun 10, Turkey's Justice Ministry said it has sent dozens of cases involving 57 lawmakers to public prosecutors after the president lifted their legal immunity. Most of the lawmakers at risk of prosecution belong to the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party, HDP, or the opposition Republican People's Party.
(AP, 6/10/16)
2016 Jun 10, In southern Turkey a truck slammed into a van carrying agricultural laborers, killing at least 10 people and injuring four others near the town of Eregli, in Konya province.
(AP, 6/10/16)
2016 Jun 11, Turkish warplanes killed 13 suspected Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the southeast province of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 6/11/16)
2016 Jun 12, In Turkey an explosion in central Istanbul killed one person and injured another. A gas leak was suspected.
(Reuters, 6/12/16)
2016 Jun 13, In Turkey a car-bomb attack apparently targeting court officials in the mainly-Kurdish southeast region injured at least 9 people in Ovacik, Tunceli province.
(AP, 6/13/16)
2016 Jun 13, In Turkey Ahmed Abdulkader, a Syrian journalist campaigning against Islamic State, was shot in the head by two Islamic State militants riding a motorcycle and is being treated in the intensive care unit of Sanliurfa state hospital.
(Reuters, 6/13/16)
2016 Jun 13, In Germany the chief editor of Turkish newspaper Hurriyet was presented with a Freedom of Speech award by German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle as concerns grow over press freedom in Turkey.
(AFP, 6/13/16)
2016 Jun 17, In Turkey the governor of Istanbul banned gay, lesbian and transgender individuals from holding pride parades at their usual venue, citing security concerns.
(AP, 6/17/16)
2016 Jun 18, Turkish fighter jets hit 16 PKK targets early today in the district of Lice, including shelters and ammunition depots.
(AP, 6/18/16)
2016 Jun 18, At least 8 Syrian refugees, including four children were allegedly shot dead by border guards while trying to cross the frontier into Turkey’s Hatay province.
(AP, 6/19/16)
2016 Jun 18, In Syria US-led coalition jets and Turkish artillery killed 13 Islamic State militants.
(Reuters, 6/18/16)
2016 Jun 19, In Turkey riot police in Istanbul fired rubber bullets and tear gas to prevent a "Trans Pride" event taking place during Ramadan.
(AFP, 6/20/16)
2016 Jun 26, Talks between Turkey and Israel to normalize relations advanced in talks as officials said a deal had been reached to end a rift dating back to 2010.
(Reuters, 6/27/16)
2016 Jun 27, Russia said Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has written to Russian leader Vladimir Putin to apologize over the shooting down of a Russian air force jet by Turkey's military last November.
(Reuters, 6/27/16)
2016 Jun 28, A Turkish official said military rules of engagement have been adjusted to allow NATO allies to carry out more patrol flights along its border with northern Syria. NATO was told about the move around three weeks ago.
(Reuters, 6/28/16)
2016 Jun 28, In Turkey a police officer was killed and seven people were wounded in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir when a bomb exploded as an armored police vehicle was passing.
(Reuters, 6/28/16)
2016 Jun 28, In Turkey three suspect Islamic State suicide bombers killed 41 people with gunfire and explosives at the Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport. Turkish Airlines resumed services in and out of Europe's third-busiest airport within 12 hours. The death toll soon rose to 44 as some of the wounded died. The suicide bombers were later identified as Russian, Uzbek and Kyrgyz nationals.
(Reuters, 6/29/16)(AP, 6/30/16)(Reuters, 6/30/16)
2016 Jun 28, Turkey and Israel signed a deal to restore ties after a six-year rift. Terms of the deal included the transfer of $20 million by Israel to a humanitarian fund that will compensate families of Turkish nationals killed and wounded during a 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
(Reuters, 6/28/16)(SSFC, 7/3/16, p.A6)
2016 Jun 29, In southeast Turkey a roadside bomb planted by Kurdish PKK militants ripped apart a military armored vehicle, killing 2 soldiers and wounding three others.
(Reuters, 6/29/16)
2016 Jun 30, Turkey's parliament approved sweeping plans late to restructure the high courts, in a victory for President Tayyip Erdogan that critics say will allow him to remove troublesome judges and tighten his grip over the judiciary.
(Reuters, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, A Turkish official said Mehmet Sirin Kaya, a mastermind of the February 17 suicide attack against military personnel in Ankara, has been killed in counter-terrorism operations in the Lice district of Diyarbakir province.
(AFP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 2, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Syrians could eventually be granted Turkish citizenship "if they want it", in remarks which were met with anger from opposition politicians and social media users.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 3, Turkey delivered humanitarian aid and other non-military products to Gaza. The Panama-flagged Lady Leyla landed in the Israeli port of Ashdod with 11,000 tons of supplies, including food packages of flour, rice, and sugar, as well as 10,000 toys.
(SFC, 7/4/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 4, Turkey charged thirteen suspects, including three foreign nationals, in connection with the June 28 suicide assault.
(AFP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, Turkey’s Dogan news agency reported that seventeen people including 11 Russians have been charged over the Istanbul airport attack, bringing to 30 the total number charged in connection with the suicide assault.
(AFP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 6, In Turkey 2 Syrians accidentally blew themselves up while handling explosives in a house in the southern border town of Reyhanli.
(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 8, Turkish fighter jets struck Kurdish militant targets in southeastern Hakkari province and northern Iraq. The Turkish Army reportedly "neutralized 17 separatist terror organization members" in Hakkari province and two militants in Van province.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)(AP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants carried out a car bomb attack on a military outpost and then opened fire on the facility, killing two soldiers and a civilian and wounding dozens in the town of Cevizlik.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 10, In Turkey two Kurdish militant bomb attacks ripped through a military outpost and an army vehicle, killing 5 members of the armed forces in Hakkari province.
(Reuters, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 11, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended his plan to give Syrian refugees Turkish citizenship in comments published today, arguing the country has ample space after a backlash against the suggestion.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Human Rights Watch said Turkey's government is blocking access to independent investigations into alleged mass abuses against civilians in southeast Turkey, where security forces are fighting Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 15, Turkey foiled a coup attempt by a faction of the army against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rule. 161 people, not including the putschists, were reported killed in the coup attempt, with 2,839 soldiers detained on suspicion of involvement. More than 230 people were killed among them 145 civilians who had taken to the streets to confront the rebellious soldiers.
(AFP, 7/16/16)(Econ, 7/23/16, p.14)
2016 Jul 15, In Turkey Gen. Zekai Aksakalli ordered Sgt. Omer Halisdemir to kill Brigadier General Semih Terzi, one of the suspected coup ringleaders. By shooting Terzi dead outside special forces headquarters in Ankara, Halisdemir broke the putschists' chain of command although he was subsequently killed by the plotters.
(Reuters, 8/21/17)
2016 Jul 16, Turkish authorities imposed a security lockdown at the Incirlik air base in the southern province of Adana. Many international flights to Turkey were cancelled despite efforts by the Ankara authorities to get life back to normal following an abortive coup attempt. NTV reported that Turkish authorities have arrested 10 members of the Council of State, the country's top administrative court, and were searching for 140 members of the court of cassation in a probe related to the failed overnight coup. NTV also reported that authorities have removed 2,745 judges from duty.
(AFP, 7/16/16)(Reuters, 7/16/16)
2016 Jul 16, Turkish military helicopter landed in Greece carrying eight officers seeking asylum after a coup bid. Greece arrested all eight men.
(AFP, 7/16/16)(Reuters, 7/16/16)
2016 Jul 17, The Turkish government accelerated its crackdown on alleged plotters of the failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with the justice minister saying that 6,000 people had been detained in the investigation, including three of the country's top generals and hundreds of soldiers.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, The US-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS) group resumed air strikes from a Turkish air base that were suspended after a failed military coup d'etat.
(AFP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 18, Turkey launched fresh raids and sacked almost 9,000 officials in a relentless crackdown against suspects behind an attempted coup that left over 300 people dead, as Western allies warned against reinstating the death penalty. Turkish PM Binali Yildirim said a total of 232 individuals were killed during the failed coup attempt. He put the total numbers of detentions since July 15 at 7,543, including 6,030 military.
(AFP, 7/18/16)(TIME, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, In Turkey an unknown assailant shot deputy mayor Cemil Candas of Istanbul's Sisli district in the head and he was in a critical condition.
(Reuters, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 19, Turkey’s education ministry said 15,200 state education employees have been suspended after last week's attempted coup. Turkey's High Education Board ordered the resignation of 1,577 deans at all universities.
(AFP, 7/19/16)(Reuters, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, Turkey's central bank cut a key interest rate for the fifth month in a row, days after an attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan triggered concerns over the country's economic outlook.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, WikiLeaks released nearly 300,000 emails from Turkey’s AK Party dating from 2010 to July 6 this year. Obtained before the attempted coup, the date of their publication was brought forward "in response to the government's post-coup purges". In response Turkey blocked access to the WikiLeaks website.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Turkey’s government declared a state of emergency for at least three months. State-run Anadolu news agency said the country's defense ministry has sacked at least 262 military court judges and prosecutors. An investigation was launched on all military judges and prosecutors as authorities continued with a crackdown on people suspected of backing a failed military coup, which the government has blamed on a US-based cleric.
(AP, 7/20/16)(Econ, 7/23/16, p.14)
2016 Jul 20, Turkish broadcaster NTV said Turkey’s military has carried out air strikes against members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, killing 20 militants.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 21, Turkey said it will follow France's example in suspending temporarily the European Convention on Human Rights following its declaration of a state of emergency.
(Reuters, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, A Greek court sentenced eight Turkish military officers, who fled last week's failed coup, to suspended two-month prison terms. The officers have requested asylum and will remain in police custody until their cases on that issue are heard in August.
(AFP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 22, The UN World Tourism Organization signed an agreement with Turkey to help the country boost its ailing tourism sector, which has suffered due to a string of bombings and a failed coup.
(AFP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 23, Turkey pushed on with a sweeping crackdown against suspected plotters of its failed coup. Using new emergency powers, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's cabinet decreed that police could now hold suspects for one month without charge, and announced it would shut down over 1,000 private schools it deems subversive.
(AFP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 23, Turkey said it has detained Hails Hanci a senior aide to the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom it blames for the coup attempt aimed at ousting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Hanci was described as a "right-hand man" of Gulen and responsible for transferring funds to him. Gulen has denied being behind the failed coup.
(AFP, 7/23/16)
2016 Jul 23, In Turkey Muhammed Wisam Sankari, a gay Syrian refugee, went missing. His body was found mutilated and beheaded two days later in central Istanbul.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Jul 25, Turkish Airlines said it has terminated the contracts of 211 employees, joining a government purge of people suspected of links to a US-based cleric. Turkey also ordered the detention of 42 journalists, drawing fire from the European Union.
(AP, 7/25/16)(Reuters, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 26, Turkey detained prominent journalists and two top generals serving abroad in a widening of the relentless legal crackdown after the July 15 coup that has caused growing alarm in the West.
(AFP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, Two Turkish soldiers were killed in separate incidents involving Kurdish militants in the Kurdish southeast region.
(Reuters, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 27, Turkish authorities issued warrants for the detention of 47 former executives or senior journalists at the Zaman newspaper, which was associated with the US-based Muslim cleric who the government says is behind Turkey's failed July 15 coup.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 29, Turkey’s Interior Minister Efkan Ala said authorities have detained more than 18,000 people following the July 15-16 failed coup attempt.
(Reuters, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, In Turkey 8 government soldiers were killed in a clash with Kurdish militants at a checkpoint in the southeastern Hakkari province. A subsequent operation against the Kurdish rebels left eight Kurds dead.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, A senior Turkish official said the country’s National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) intercepted encrypted messages sent by followers of US-based Fethullah Gulen well before the July 15 coup attempt, giving Ankara names of tens of thousands within the preacher's network.
(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Turkey 27 fighters from the Kurdish Workers' Party, or PKK, were killed in Hakkari province when Turkish troops launched an air-and-ground operation against groups of PKK fighters attempting to infiltrate.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 31, Turkey's government dismissed 1,389 military personnel, including a top aide to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for suspected links to the Islamic preacher Gulen.
(AFP, 7/31/16)(Reuters, 8/1/16)
2016 Jul 31, In Turkey 4 government soldiers were killed in two separate clashes with militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In Germany thousands of demonstrators from the Turkish community turned out in Cologne to show their support for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan at a rally that ratcheted up diplomatic tensions between Ankara and Berlin. Germany is home to around 3 million people of Turkish origin. A regional court ruled, however, that no messages from speakers elsewhere, such as politicians in Turkey, could be shown on a video screen at the rally.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Jul, Turkey closed 131 media outlets late this month linked to the Gulen community (cemaat).
(Econ, 8/6/16, p.39)
2016 Aug 1, Turkish special forces captured overnight eleven rebel commandos who tried to seize or kill President Tayyip Erdogan during the failed July 15 coup.
(Reuters, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 2, Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan said the country’s intelligence apparatus will be restructured following a failed military coup last month because it was under the control of the US-based cleric blamed for staging the putsch.
(Reuters, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 4, A court in Turkey issued a formal warrant for the arrest of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who the government accuses of being behind the failed July 15 coup that left more than 270 people dead.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 5, Turkey's ruling AK Party ordered a internal purge of members with links to Fethullah Gulen, the US-based cleric whom the government holds responsible for last month's failed coup. Industry Minister Faruk Ozlu said 167 staff from the Scientific and Technological Industry Minister have been dismissed.
(Reuters, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Turkey hundreds of thousands gathered in Istanbul summoned by President Tayyip Erdogan to denounce a failed coup.
(Reuters, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 9, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held their first meeting since the two leaders began healing a bitter feud over Ankara's downing of a Russian warplane.
(AFP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 10, In Turkey Kurdish rebels attacked soldiers near the border with Iraq, killing four of them in Sirnak province. Evening bomb blasts in two cities in the southeast killed 9 civilians and wounded dozens.
(AP, 8/10/16)(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Turkish police detained 17 suspected militants in a sweep in Istanbul that included a raid on offices of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), hours after twin bomb attacks hit the mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Turkey's foreign minister said two Turkish military attaches in Greece fled to Italy, others were caught overseas and some diplomats were on the run after being recalled as part of an inquiry into last month's failed military coup.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Turkish jets raided suspected Kurdish rebel targets across the border in northern Iraq, following a wave of attacks that killed at least 12 people.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 12, Turkey said thirty-two of 208 diplomats recalled by the government after a failed coup last month are still at large and Ankara has received information that they have fled to various countries.
(Reuters, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 15, Turkish police raided offices at three Istanbul courthouses after detention warrants were issued for 173 judicial personnel as part of an investigation into last month's failed coup attempt.
(Reuters, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 15, Can Dundar, the editor-in-chief of Turkey's top opposition daily Cumhuriyet, announced he was stepping down, saying he no longer had faith in the judiciary after the failed coup. Dundar was believed to be in Germany. An Istanbul court had in May sentenced Can Dundar to five years and 10 months in prison for allegedly revealing state secrets in a story that infuriated President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 16, Turkish police launched simultaneous raids on 44 companies in Istanbul and had warrants to detain 120 company executives as part of the investigation into last month's attempted military coup.
(Reuters, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 17, Turkey said it will release some 38,000 prisoners under a penal reform as the arrests of tens of thousands of people suspected of links to last month's attempted coup burden overstretched jails. A car bomb killed 2 police officers and a civilian in Van province.
(Reuters, 8/17/16)(Reuters, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, Turkey ordered the seizure of the assets of 187 businessmen suspected of links to US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of masterminding last month's attempted coup. Police detained 10 senior figures of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), a far-left militant group that has in the past targeted Turkish and US interests.
(AFP, 8/18/16)(Reuters, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, In Turkey 3 police officers were killed and 170 people wounded by a car bomb at a police station in the eastern city of Elazig.
(Reuters, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 19, Turkey detained dozens of academics suspected of backing Fethullah Gulen, the alleged mastermind of last month's failed coup, while pressing ahead with raids on businesses linked to the US-based Muslim preacher.
(AFP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, The Turkish parliament approved a deal to normalise ties with Israel after a delay caused by last month's attempted coup. Under the deal, Israel will pay Turkey $20 million (17.7 million euros) in compensation for a botched Israeli commando raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship in 2010 that left 10 Turks dead.
(AFP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 20, Turkish PM Binali Yildirim said Turkey will take a more active role in addressing the conflict in Syria in the next six months to prevent the war-torn country being divided along ethnic lines.
(Reuters, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 20, In southeastern Turkey an apparent suicide bombing at an outdoor wedding party in Gaziantep killed killed 51 people, including 22 children. Turkey blamed the Islamic State. By August 22 death the toll rose to 54.
(AP, 8/21/16)(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, Turkish officials said 2 security force members and 5 PKK militants were killed in clashes and attacks in three eastern areas over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 23, Turkish media reported that a military vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device in southeast Sirnak province, killing two soldiers.
(Reuters, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, Turkey's artillery shelled Islamic State group targets across the border in Syria for a second consecutive day. Two mortar shells fired from Syria hit the border town of Karkamis. Three rocket shells fired from Syria hit the border town of Kilis.
(AP, 8/23/16)(Reuters, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 24, Turkish counter-terror police launched dawn raids targeting Islamic State members across Istanbul.
(Reuters, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, Turkish tanks and armoured vehicles crossed into the Islamic State group-held border district of Jarablus with air cover from the US-led coalition in “Operation Euphrates Shield." The Syrian government and Syrian Kurdish officials condemned the incursion.
(AFP, 8/24/16)(Reuters, 8/24/16)(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 25, At least nine more Turkish tanks entered northern Syria as part of an operation aimed at driving Islamic State out of the border area around Jarablus and stopping Kurdish militia fighters from seizing territory.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 26, In Turkey 11 police officers were killed and 78 people injured in a suicide truck bombing in Cizre. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Turkish counterterrorism police conducted simultaneous operations at 20 locations early today, detaining 17 suspected IS members. Police "liberated" over two dozen students in one of their schools.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Istanbul inaugurated the $3 billion Selim Bridge, named after the 16th-century Ottoman sultan. The third bridge spanning the Bosphorus Strait was touted as the world's widest suspension bridge, featuring 10 lanes including two rail lines and spanning over 1,400 meters.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 27, Turkish authorities arrested three former top diplomats over the failed July 15 coup, including a senior official who brokered a meeting between the then premier and the US-based preacher blamed for the plot.
(AFP, 8/27/16)fs
2016 Aug 27, Turkey sent more tanks into Syria to bolster a military offensive against jihadists and Kurdish fighters. One Turkish soldier was killed and three more wounded in a rocket attack by Kurdish militia on two tanks taking part in the offensive.
(AP, 8/27/16)(AFP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 28, Turkey's army and its allies thrust deeper into Syria, seizing territory controlled by Kurdish-aligned forces on the fifth day of a cross-border campaign that a monitoring group said had killed at least 35 villagers.
(Reuters, 8/28/16)
2016 Aug 29, Turkey’s military said its armed forces carried out 57 artillery strikes on 16 militant targets in northern Syria over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 8/29/16)
2016 Sep 1, Turkey's NTV television reported that the country’s top judicial board has dismissed 543 more judges and prosecutors, the latest purge of officials suspected of sympathizing with those behind a July 15 failed coup. The government's Official Gazette announced that nearly 43,000 people have been expelled from their jobs in public institutions for alleged ties to terror organizations endangering national security since the failed coup.
(Reuters, 9/1/16)(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, Turkey's Anadolu state-run news agency said one Turkish soldier was killed and six wounded in clashes with Kurdish militants. 20 Kurdish fighters were also reported killed during the clashes in Hakkari province that included Turkish airstrikes.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 21, In Turkey Osman Nuri Caliskan (41), reportedly mentally disturbed and wielding a knife, tried to storm the Israeli embassy in Ankara but was shot before reaching the building.
(Reuters, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, Italian prosecutors said they have dropped a money laundering case against the son of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. The allegation that Bilal Erodogan, 35, was involved in money laundering while studying in Italy last year was first made by Murat Hakan Uzan, an exiled member of one of Turkey's richest families and an opponent of the president.
(Reuters, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 22, In Turkey six people were wounded when a rocket fired from an area of Syria under the control of Islamic State hit the border town of Kilis.
(Reuters, 9/22/16)
2016 Oct 2, In northern Syria at least 21 Syrian rebels fighting alongside Turkish troops against the Islamic State were killed by landmines laid by the jihadist group.
(AFP, 10/3/16)
2016 Oct 3, Turkish military officials said 15 Syrian opposition fighters were killed and about 35 wounded over the last 24 hours in fighting to capture seven residential districts south of the town of al-Rai.
(AP, 10/3/16)
2016 Oct 10, In Turkey Russia’s President Vladimir Putin met counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul, pushing forward ambitious joint energy projects on his first visit to Turkey since a crisis in ties. Erdogan and Putin reached a deal to proceed on the Turkish Stream project to carry Russian natural gas to Turkey and on to the EU.
(AFP, 10/10/16)(SFC, 10/11/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 12, In Syria rebels supported by Turkish tanks and US-led coalition air strikes pushed toward the Islamic State stronghold of Dabiq. Turkey’s military said clashes and air strikes over the past 24 hours have killed 47 jihadists. An airstrike hit the biggest market on the rebel-held side of Aleppo, killing at least 15 people and leveling buildings. Shelling on government-held parts of Aleppo killed 8 people.
(Reuters, 10/12/16)(AP, 10/12/16)(Reuters, 10/13/16)
2016 Oct 16, In Syria Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces captured the town of Dabiq from the Islamic State group as government forces reversed recent rebel advances in the center of the country.
(AP, 10/16/16)
2016 Oct 22, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the country will be expanding its operations in north Syria, including entering the cities of al-Bab, Manbij and Raqqa.
(AP, 10/22/16)
2016 Oct 31, Turkish police detained the chief editor and at least 12 senior staff of Turkey's opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, in a widening crackdown on dissenting voices.
(AP, 10/31/16)
2016 Nov 3, In Turkey hundreds of academics, students and union members staged a protest against a government purge of thousands of educational staff since the attempted military coup in July.
(Reuters, 11/3/16)
2016 Nov 4, In Turkey a car bomb attack in Diyarbakir killed at least nine people. The attack came just hours after authorities detained at least 12 pro-Kurdish lawmakers for questioning in terror related probes. PM Binali Yildirim said the bombing was carried out by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Two more people soon succumbed to their wounds. A news outlet linked to the Islamic State said its fighters staged the bombing that killed 11 people.
(AP, 11/4/16)(AFP, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, Turkey's military said it hit 71 Islamic State targets in Syria over the last 24 hours, intensifying strikes against the militant group.
(Reuters, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, In Turkey an Istanbul court ordered the imprisonment of nine staff from the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper. Authorities detained nine officials from the country's main pro-Kurdish opposition party. Police used water cannon and tear gas against crowds of protesters in Istanbul, in an attempt to block them from marching to the office of an opposition newspaper whose staff had been arrested.
(AFP, 11/4/16)(Reuters, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, In southeastern Turkish two children were killed when a bomb planted by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) exploded in the province of Sirnak.
(Reuters, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 6, Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party said it was pulling out of parliament after nine of its MPs including the two co-leaders were arrested in an unprecedented crackdown. The state-run Anadolu Agency said police have detained 15 suspects in an operation involving raids across the southeastern province of Adana targeting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group.
(AFP, 11/6/16)(Reuters, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 15, Israel appointed an ambassador to Turkey, its first since both countries recalled their envoys five years ago amid a spat over a deadly Israeli raid on a Turkish vessel trying to reach the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 16, Pakistan ordered 400 Turkish nationals to leave the country ahead of a visit by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, Turkish police detained the pro-Kurdish co-mayor of the southeastern city of Van, expanding a crackdown on municipal chiefs throughout the region that has sparked international concern.
(AFP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, In Turkey a copper mine collapsed near the town of Sirvan, Siirt province. At least 6 miners were killed and 10 remained missing. Six people were later detained in the investigation of the mine collapse.
(AP, 11/18/16)(AP, 11/19/16)(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 18, In Turkey 76 academics were detained at a university in Istanbul as part of the ongoing investigation into the movement allegedly responsible for an attempted coup. Detention warrants were issued for 103 employees Yildiz Technical University on charges of "membership in an armed terrorist organization."
(AP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 18, A bill in Turkey that would overturn men's convictions for child sex assault if they marry their victim provoked fury with critics accusing the proposals of encouraging rape.
(AFP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 19, In Turkey two homemade pipe bombs were thrown by two children around about 12 or 13 years old during a performance by singer Aleyna Tilki at a cafe in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. Six people were injured, none seriously.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 19, A Turkish soldier was killed and two others wounded in a bomb attack by Islamic State militants near the northern Syrian city of al-Bab.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 21, Turkish authorities detained Ahmet Turk (74), a Kurdish politician and mayor in the southeastern province of Mardin. He was reported released on Feb 3 because of deteriorating health.
(Reuters, 2/3/17)
2016 Nov 22, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said government-backed forces have besieged the Islamic State-held Syrian town of al-Bab from the west and have set their sights on Manbij for their next offensive.
(Reuters, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, Turkish authorities issued an arrest warrant for Salih Muslim, a leader of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), in relation to a February bomb attack on military buses in Ankara. The arrest papers also mentioned 47 other people, including leading members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group.
(Reuters, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, Turkey dismissed 15,000 more state employees, from soldiers and police officers to tax inspectors and midwives, and shut 375 institutions and several news outlets, deepening purges carried out since a failed coup.
(Reuters, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, The leaders of the European Parliament's two largest groups called for the EU to halt membership talks with Turkey because of its post-coup purges.
(Reuters, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 23, Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces clashed with Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria, where both are fighting the Islamic State group. Kurdish-affiliated forces entered the IS-held town of Arima, near al-Bab.
(AP, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 24, In southern Turkey a car bomb exploded in the car park of the governor's office in Adana killing two people and wounding 33. Police shot and captured a suspect. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) later claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 11/24/16)(AP, 11/24/16)(Reuters, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 24, The European Parliament voted to freeze membership talks with Turkey over its "disproportionate" post-coup crackdown, further escalating tensions with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, In northern Syria three Turkish soldiers were killed in what the military said was a suspected Syrian air strike. Turkey said it would retaliate.
(Reuters, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 25, Turkish media reported one soldier killed and five lightly wounded in the fight against the Islamic State group in al-Bab, northern Syria. Four opposition fighters were also reported killed in the clashes.
(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 26, Turkey's state-run news agency said a Turkish soldier was killed and three wounded in an attack during an anti-IS operation in north Syria, raising to five the number of Turkish troops killed in Syria this week. Turkish warplanes destroyed 12 Islamic State targets during the offensive.
(AP, 11/26/16)(Reuters, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 26, Turkish authorities detained two reporters working for the BBC and Voice of America in the town of Sirvan, the latest journalists taken into custody in the government's sweeping crackdown following July's failed coup.
(AP, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 27, The Turkish army said 22 pro-Ankara Syrian rebels were hit by an Islamic State (IS) gas attack east of Al Rai in northern Syria, the first time Turkey has accused the jihadists of chemical warfare.
(AFP, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 28, Two Turkish soldiers were reported killed after clashing with Kurdish militants in the eastern province of Tunceli.
(Reuters, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov 29, In Turkey a deadly fire at a dormitory for schoolgirls left 12 people dead in the southern region of Adana. Twelve people were detained the next day as anger grew over possible negligence that caused the tragedy.
(Reuters, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov, In Turkey pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-leader Selahattin Demirtas was detained on charges of links to Kurdish militants. He was detained along with another nine HDP lawmakers and his female co-leader Figen Yuksekdag.
(AFP, 1/17/17)
2016 Dec 2, Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged his citizens to give up the dollar and euros at a time the economy is teetering. Erdogan called on Turkish citizens to convert savings held in foreign currencies into gold and Turkish lira to help boost the ailing currency, which recently dropped above 3.5 lira per dollar, the weakest exchange rate in more than a decade.
(http://tinyurl.com/j9uebpr)(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 3, The Turkish military said it has killed 20 fighters from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) after they tried to attack army bases in the southeastern Hakkari province.
(Reuters, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 5, Officials said a Greek court has refused to extradite the first three of eight Turkish servicemen who fled to Greece after the failed July 15 military coup.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 6, A Greek court agreed to extradite three Turkish servicemen who were part of an eight-person helicopter crew that fled to Greece after a failed military coup, a decision that came a day after it refused to send three others back to Turkey.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 7, NATO’s top military officer said that about 150 Turkish officers have been recalled or retired from the alliance’s high command since Turkey’s July 15 failed coup.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 8, A Greek court rejected Turkey's extradition request for the last two of eight Turkish servicemen who fled to Greece after a failed July military coup.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 9, Turkish jets carried out air strikes against Kurdish militants in the Gara region of northern Iraq and killed 19 militants.
(Reuters, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 10, Turkey said its warplanes have destroyed 39 Islamic State targets and killed four militants in northern Syria.
(Reuters, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 10, In Turkey twin bombings killed at least 44 people and wounded 155 outside an Istanbul soccer stadium. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) soon claimed responsibility and the Turkish government vowed vengeance.
(Reuters, 12/11/16)(Reuters, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, Turkey detained over 200 people including dozens of officials from pro-Kurdish parties and struck Kurdish militants in Iraq in response to this weekend's twin bombings claimed by a radical Kurd separatist group.
(AFP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 13, Turkish police detained two female pro-Kurdish lawmakers as a crackdown intensified after a deadly Istanbul bombing that raised questions about Ankara's strategy in fighting separatist militants. Turkey's Interior Ministry said 568 people have been detained on account of their alleged affiliation with the PKK.
(AFP, 12/13/16)(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 17, In Turkey a suicide car bomber set off an explosion that demolished a public bus transporting off-duty soldiers in the central province of Kayseri, killing 14 troops and wounding 55 others. In response dozens of nationalist protestors stormed the headquarters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Kayseri. Turkish authorities detained seven people and searched for another five in relation to the attack. The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, or TAK, later claimed responsibility.
(AP, 12/17/16)(AFP, 12/17/16)(Reuters, 12/17/16)(AP, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 17, Turkey’s military said its warplanes have pounded Islamic State targets in northern Syria in the last 24 hours, killing at least 20 militants.
(Reuters, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 19, In Turkey Russian ambassador Andrey Karlov was shot and killed by Mevlut Mert Altintas (22) at an art gallery in Ankara. Altintas, who had worked for Ankara riot police, was killed minutes later by Turkish special forces. Turkish authorities later alleged that Karlov's killer had links to Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Muslim cleric, accused of masterminding the failed July 2016 coup. On Nov 23, 2018, a Turkish prosecutor charged 28 suspects including US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, over the murder of the Russian ambassador.
(Reuters, 12/20/16)(AP, 4/2/18)(AFP, 11/23/18)
2016 Dec 20, Turkish officials inaugurated the Eurasia Tunnel, crossing the Bosporus Strait, linking the European and Asian sides of Istanbul.
(AP, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 20, In Syria President Bashar al-Assad's army closed in on the last rebel enclave in Aleppo. Russia, Iran and Turkey said they were ready to help broker a Syrian peace deal. They adopted a document they called the "Moscow Declaration", which set out the principles that any peace agreement should follow.
(Reuters, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 21, In northern Syria clashes escalated around the town of al-Bab with Turkish soldiers and 138 jihadists killed.
(Reuters, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 22, Turkey's defense minister said the number of Turkish soldiers killed in recent attacks by Islamic State militants near the northern Syrian town of al-Bab has risen to 16, adding that three other soldiers were seriously wounded. He said a total of 35 Turkish soldiers have been killed since the start of Turkey-backed rebels' incursion into northern Syria that began on August 24.
(Reuters, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 22, The Islamic State released the video late today which purports to show the burning of two Turkish soldiers captured near the northern Syrian town of al-Bab. The two soldiers went missing in the area of al-Dana, northwest of al-Bab, in late November.
(AP, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 23, Turkish warplanes pounded the extremist-held Syrian town of al-Bab.
(AP, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 24, Turkish authorities said they are investigating some 10,000 people on suspicion of using social media to support terrorism. Turkish authorities have formally arrested 1,656 people in the past six months for allegedly supporting terrorist organizations or insulting officials on social media.
(Reuters, 12/24/16)(AP, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 24, Turkey’s military said 68 Islamic State militants have been "neutralized" in fighting and air strikes near al-Bab over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 28, Turkish state media said Turkey and Russia have agreed a ceasefire for all of Syria that should come into force at midnight, but rebel groups said no such official truce had been agreed.
(AFP, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, Turkish security said one Turkish soldier and two Kurdish militants died as a result of clashes overnight in the eastern province of Tunceli.
(Reuters, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 29, An Istanbul court ordered the release of Asli Erdogan, one of Turkey's most celebrated novelists after over four months in jail on charges of terror propaganda, along with Necmiye Alpay, an internationally prominent linguist and author of widely praised translations of Western novels into Turkish. She has been held behind bars for 120 days. Zana Kaya, editorial director of the pro-Kurdish newspaper Ozgur Gundem was also ordered released. Authorities detained prize-winning journalist Ahmet Sik in a separate case over a succession of tweets and articles for an opposition daily.
(AFP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 30, A Turkish parliamentary commission cleared a set of draft constitutional amendments that would greatly expand the powers of Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AP, 12/30/16)
2016 Dec 30, In southern Turkey police detained some 40 suspected Islamic State group militants in raids in Adana.
(AP, 12/30/16)
2016 Dec 30, The Turkish military said Russian fighter jets have hit three Islamic State targets around the northern Syrian town of al-Bab over the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 12/30/16)
2016 Kaya Genc authored “Under the Shadow: Rage and Revolution in Modern Turkey."
(Econ, 11/12/16, p.74)
2016 Surveys in 2017 said some 6,000 millionaires had left Turkey this year.
(Econ, 3/11/17, p.52)
2017 Jan 1, In Turkey 39 people were killed and dozens wounded when a gunman stormed the popular Reina nightclub in Istanbul and sprayed bullets at revelers celebrating the New Year. The gunman was later identified as an Uzbek jihadist with the IS code name of Ebu Muhammed Horasani. In 2020 Albulkadir Masharipov of Uzbekistan was sentenced to life in prison.
(AFP, 1/1/17)(AFP, 1/8/17)(SFC, 9/8/20, p.A2)
2017 Jan 5, Two senior Turkish military officers were jailed for life for involvement in July's failed coup attempt that killed almost 250 people, marking the first conviction related to the putsch.
(Reuters, 1/5/17)
2017 Jan 5, In western Turkey a car bombing outside a courthouse in Izmir killed two people. The Kurdish PKK militant group was suspected. Turkish police shot dead two assailants. A day later police detained 18 people in connection to the attack.
(Reuters, 1/5/17)(SFC, 1/7/17, p.A2)
2017 Jan 7, Turkey ordered the dismissal of almost 8,400 civil servants and the closure of over 80 associations, including sports clubs, in the latest round of purges after the July failed coup.
(AFP, 1/7/17)
2017 Jan 7, Turkish PM Binali Yildirim commenced a two-day visit to Iraq, the first since the two governments quarreled over the presence of unauthorized Turkish troops in northern Iraq.
(AP, 1/7/17)
2017 Jan 7, In Turkey a heavy snowstorm paralyzed life in Istanbul, with hundreds of flights cancelled and the Bosporus closed to shipping traffic.
(AFP, 1/7/17)
2017 Jan 9, Turkish Airlines canceled 277 domestic and international flights to and from Istanbul's two airports due to heavy snow.
(AP, 1/9/17)
2017 Jan 10, In Turkey a man suspected of trying to force his way into a police station in Gaziantep, a city near the Syrian border, was shot dead.
(AFP, 1/10/17)
2017 Jan 12, Turkish lawmakers brawled and threw chairs as parliament approved three more articles in a hugely controversial bill bolstering the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 1/12/17)
2017 Jan 15, Turkey's state-run news agency said nine Turkish colonels have been detained in northern Cyprus as part of the investigation into the movement allegedly responsible for a failed coup in July.
(AP, 1/15/17)
2017 Jan 16, In Turkey Abdulkadir Masharipov, the Uzbek gunman who carried out the New Year’s attack on Istanbul’s Reina nightclub, was detained in Istanbul.
(AP, 1/17/17)
2017 Jan 16, In southeastern Turkey a roadside bomb in a pre-dominantly Kurdish city killed three policemen and wounded three others.
(AP, 1/16/17)
2017 Jan 16, A Turkish cargo jet crashed near Kyrgyzstan's Manas airport, killing at least 37 people including 4 crew members. Most of the dead were residents of a village struck by the Boeing 747 as it tried to land in dense fog. 23 of 43 houses in the village were destroyed.
(Reuters, 1/16/17)(SFC, 1/17/17, p.A3)
2017 Jan 16, Lawyers at a UN court urged Turkey to release Judge Aydin Sedaf Akay, who is being held in connection with July's coup attempt, saying his detention was delaying a Rwandan politician's conviction for genocide.
(Reuters, 1/17/17)
2017 Jan 17, In Syria Russian warplanes carried out air strikes on Islamic State targets south of al-Bab in coordination with Turkey.
(Reuters, 1/18/17)
2017 Jan 18, Turkey's parliament embarked on a second round of voting on a contentious package of constitutional amendments that would give President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office new executive powers.
(AP, 1/18/17)
2017 Jan 18, Turkish police rounded up 27 people linked to Abdulkadir Masharipov, the suspected gunman in Istanbul’s New year’s Eve nightclub attack.
(SFC, 1/19/17, p.A2)
2017 Jan 19, Turkey’s government extended emergency for another three months.
(Econ, 1/21/17, p.41)
2017 Jan 20, In Turkey rocket attacks hit the Istanbul police headquarters and the offices of the ruling AK Party. There were no reports of casualties.
(Reuters, 1/22/17)
2017 Jan 21, Turkey parliament adopted a block of constitutional amendments intended to cement Pres. Erdogan’s grip over the country.
(Econ, 2/4/17, p.46)
2017 Jan 21, Turkish broadcaster Haberturk said prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for more than 400 people, including soldiers and security officers, in 48 provinces across the country following July's failed coup. Zulfukar Sukru Kanberoglu of the TMSF fund was one of 367 people dismissed from state institutions under the latest four decrees, which also reinstated 124 civil servants.
(Reuters, 1/21/17)(Reuters, 1/23/17)
2017 Jan 22, Turkish authorities said they have captured two men believed to be among those responsible for rocket attacks on the Istanbul police headquarters and the offices of the ruling AK Party on Jan 20. One of the assailants was captured by police early today, while the other was shot dead later in the day in the northwestern province of Tekirdag. Police identified them as a members of the outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C).
(Reuters, 1/22/17)
2017 Jan 23, In Kazakhstan indirect 2-day talks began in Astana between the Syrian government and rebels. The talks were hosted by Russia, Turkey and Iran.
(Reuters, 1/23/17)(Econ, 1/28/17, p.39)
2017 Jan 23, In Tanzania Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked Pres. John Magufuli to take action against the network of an exiled cleric he blames for last year's failed coup.
(AFP, 1/23/17)
2017 Jan 24, Turkey said it would not hand over al-Bab to Syrian forces after driving out Islamic State. The Turkish-backed rebels are closer to doing so than the Syrian army, having already reached the town's outskirts.
(Reuters, 1/25/17)
2017 Jan 24, In Mozambique Turkish Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on leader Filipe Nyusi to take action against the exiled cleric he blames for last year's failed coup.
(AFP, 1/24/17)
2017 Jan 24, In Kazakhstan Russia, Turkey and Iran backed a shaky truce between Syria's warring parties and agreed to monitor its compliance. On the ground rebels faced continued fighting on two fronts, which could undermine the deal.
(Reuters, 1/24/17)
2017 Jan 25, Syrian government forces and their allies drove Islamic State militants out of several villages northeast of Aleppo over the last 24 hours. One Turkish soldier was killed and five were wounded in a clash with Islamic State militants near al-Bab.
(Reuters, 1/25/17)
2017 Jan 26, Greece's Supreme Court ruled against the extradition of eight Turkish soldiers who fled to Greece in July after a failed coup attempt in Turkey, a decision which angered Ankara and further strained relations between the two neighbors. Turkey issued an arrest warrant for the eight former army officers.
(Reuters, 1/26/17)(AFP, 1/26/17)
2017 Jan 27, Turkey's top diplomat threatened punitive measures against Greece, including scrapping an agreement on the return of migrants, after the Greek Supreme Court ruled against extraditing eight Turkish officers who escaped from their country by helicopter after the failed coup attempt.
(AP, 1/27/17)
2017 Jan 28, In Turkey British PM Theresa May signed a $125 million defense equipment deal with Turkey and promised to push for more trade between the NATO allies, but cautioned Ankara on human rights following last year's failed coup.
(Reuters, 1/28/17)
2017 Jan 28, Germany confirmed that high-ranking Turkish soldiers, who worked at NATO facilities in Germany but were suspended after the failed coup in Turkey in July, have requested asylum. Der Spiegel and broadcaster ARD reported that about 40, mostly high-ranking Turkish soldiers, have requested asylum.
(Reuters, 1/28/17)
2017 Jan 29, In northern Syria a Turkish soldier was killed in clashes with Islamic State militants near al-Bab.
(Reuters, 1/29/17)
2017 Jan 31, Turkey arrested two MPs from the main pro-Kurdish party, including its chief spokesman, the latest move in a crackdown on the group ahead of a vote on changing the constitution.
(AFP, 1/31/17)
2017 Feb 2, In Turkey German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Turkey to uphold democracy as the country heads toward a critical referendum on boosting the powers of the presidency, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took offense at her reference to "Islamist terror," saying the words cannot be placed together.
(AP, 2/2/17)
2017 Feb 4, The Turkish military said it has hit 59 Islamic State targets and killed 51 militants in northern Syria as part of its ongoing incursion.
(Reuters, 2/4/17)
2017 Feb 5, Turkish police detained 448 suspected Islamic State group members in nationwide raids just over a month after an attack on an Istanbul nightclub claimed by the jihadists.
(AFP, 2/5/17)
2017 Feb 5, The website of Austria's parliament was brought down for 20 minutes. A Turkish hackers' group, Aslan Neferler Tim (ANT), or Lion Soldiers Team, whose website says it defends the homeland, Islam, the nation and flag, without any party political links, claimed the attack.
(Reuters, 2/7/17)
2017 Feb 6, Turkey said it has now detained nearly 750 suspects in a police operation against the Islamic State group.
(AP, 2/6/17)
2017 Feb 8, Turkey said Syrian rebels backed by the Turkish military have captured the outskirts of the Islamic State-held city of al-Bab in northern Syria.
(Reuters, 2/8/17)
2017 Feb 8, Turkish presidency sources said President Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump agreed in an overnight phone call on joint action against Islamic State in the Syrian towns of Raqqa and al-Bab, both held by the militants.
(Reuters, 2/8/17)
2017 Feb 9, Turkish officials said police have detained four Islamic State group suspects who were allegedly planning to carry out a "sensational" attack and seized 24 suicide attack belts during an anti-terror operation in Gaziantep.
(AP, 2/9/17)
2017 Feb 9, In northern Syria a Russian warplane "accidentally" hit a building on with Turkish soldiers inside, killing at least three troops and wounding 11 near al-Bab. Russia intervened to halt a clash between Syrian government forces and Turkey-backed Syrian rebels, the first confrontation between them as both sides fight Islamic State in the area.
(AP, 2/9/17)(Reuters, 2/10/17)
2017 Feb 10, In Turkey police used tear gas to disperse protesters trying to enter Ankara University to denounce a government decree that dismissed 330 academics. At least five protesters were detained.
(AP, 2/10/17)
2017 Feb 11, In northern Syria Turkish troops and Syrian rebels entered the Islamic State-held town of Al-Bab, as government forces moved closer to the jihadist bastion. one Turkish soldier was killed and another wounded in clashes with IS fighters.
(AFP, 2/11/17)
2017 Feb 11, In France some 15,000 people marched in the eastern city of Strasbourg demanding that Turkey release Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan, as Europe's Kurds held their biggest annual gathering.
(AFP, 2/11/17)
2017 Feb 12, Turkey's president said his troops and allied Syrian fighters have reached the heart of the Islamic State stronghold of al-Bab in northern Syria and will eventually march on the extremists' de facto capital, Raqqa.
(AP, 2/12/17)
2017 Feb 14, Turkish PM Binali Yildirim said Turkey-backed rebels have largely taken control of Syria's al-Bab from Islamic State militants, but a war monitoring group said the jihadists still controlled most of the town.
(Reuters, 2/14/17)
2017 Feb 14, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Saudi Arabia's top leadership during a visit to further strengthen ties as part of a Gulf tour ahead of Syria peace talks.
(AFP, 2/14/17)
2017 Feb 17, Turkey's military said it was close to taking Syria's al-Bab from Islamic State, but a war monitor said the jihadists still controlled 90 percent of the town itself and that shelling and air strikes had killed dozens of civilians in recent days. Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Turkish shelling and air strikes had killed 45 civilians, including 18 children, during the past 48 hours.
(Reuters, 2/17/17)
2017 Feb 17, In Turkey publishers closed down Girgir magazine, established in 1972 and a once top-selling satirical magazine, following a Moses cartoon that was deemed to be offensive to Jews and Muslims.
(AP, 2/17/17)
2017 Feb 17, In Turkey a car bomb exploded near the lodgings of judges and prosecutors in the mainly Kurdish town of Viransehir in Sanliurfa province. 26 people were soon detained following the attack.
(AP, 2/18/17)
2017 Feb 20, Turkey dismissed 227 more judges and prosecutors as part of investigations into last July's failed coup, meaning close to 4,000 members of the judiciary have now been purged.
(Reuters, 2/20/17)
2017 Feb 21, In Turkey Figen Yuksekdag, the co-chair of the opposition pro-Kurdish party, lost her seat in parliament after an appeals court confirmed her conviction on terrorism-related charges. The party has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights seeking the lawmakers' release, so that they may be allowed to campaign ahead of a referendum on expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's powers.
(AP, 2/21/17)
2017 Feb 22, Turkey’s defense ministry officials said they will allow female soldiers to wear a headscarf with their uniforms, marking a symbolic shift for a military that has traditionally seen itself as a guardian of state secularism.
(Reuters, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 24, Two Turkish soldiers were killed while clearing mines in the town of Tadef south of al-Bab, Syria.
(Reuters, 2/24/17)
2017 Feb, Turkish authorities arrested Deniz Yucel, a journalist for Germany’s Die Welt newspaper, on charges of propaganda in support of a terrorist organization and inciting the public to violence. Yucel, a dual Turkish and German national, was initially detained after he reported on emails that a leftist hacker collective had purportedly obtained from the private account of Berat Albayrak, Turkey's energy minister and Erdogan's son-in-law.
(Reuters, 3/19/17)
2017 Mar 1, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan agreed to improve ties, including in the fight against terrorism, on the sidelines of an economic cooperation summit in the Pakistani capital Islamabad.
(Reuters, 3/1/17)
2017 Mar 1, In northern Syria the Turkish army and allied Syrian rebels attacked villages held by US-allied militias near the city of Manbij. Russian-backed Syrian government forces and their allies recaptured the historic Palmyra citadel, on the city's western outskirts, from Islamic State fighters.
(Reuters, 3/1/17)
2017 Mar 3, Turkey accused Germany of scandalous behavior in cancelling rallies of Turkish citizens in two German towns due to be addressed by Turkish ministers and said Berlin provided a "shelter" for people committing crimes against his country.
(Reuters, 3/3/17)
2017 Mar 4, A Syrian military jet crashed in Turkey’s southern border province of Hatay. The pilot was rescued after a nine hour search and had "a few" broken bones and was receiving treatment at a local hospital, but wasn't in critical condition.
(AP, 3/5/17)
2017 Mar 6, Turkish security forces launched one of their largest "anti-terrorist" operations in recent years in the restive south-east against Kurdish militants.
(AFP, 3/6/17)
2017 Mar 7, In Turkey the top generals of the Turkish, Russian and US military met in Antalya in a bid to step up coordination in Syria and avoid clashes between rival forces in the fight against IS.
(AFP, 3/7/17)
2017 Mar 8, US-based Mercy Corps, one of the largest humanitarian organizations delivering aid to Syria, said Turkey has ordered it to immediately shut down its Turkish operations.
(Reuters, 3/8/17)
2017 Mar 10, In Turkey seven people were killed including four Russians when a privately-owned helicopter crashed in Istanbul after hitting a television tower.
(AFP, 3/10/17)
2017 Mar 10, In Austria four planned Turkish political meetings were canceled in the latest signs of unease across Europe over a series of campaign events to rally support among expatriate Turks for President Tayyip Erdogan.
(Reuters, 3/11/17)
2017 Mar 10, The UN accused Turkish security forces of committing serious abuses during operations against Kurdish militants in the southeast after a ceasefire collapsed in July 2015.
(AFP, 3/10/17)
2017 Mar 11, Turkish journalists and opposition lawmakers protested in Istanbul against the detention of reporters, as a crackdown on the media has accelerated after the failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 3/11/17)
2017 Mar 11, The Netherlands barred Turkey's foreign minister from landing in Rotterdam in a row over Ankara's political campaigning among Turkish emigres, and President Tayyip Erdogan retaliated, branding his NATO partner a "Nazi remnant". Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said family minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya will travel to the Dutch city of Rotterdam by land. Dutch authorities expelled Kaya for seeking to woo the vote of expatriate Turks for a key referendum at home.
(Reuters, 3/11/17)(AFP, 3/12/17)
2017 Mar 12, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on international organizations to "raise their voices" against the Netherlands after it escorted a minister out of the country and prevented another one from landing in the country.
(AP, 3/12/17)
2017 Mar 14, The small western German state of Saarland said it is banning political campaigning by foreign politicians saying internal Turkish conflicts have no place in Germany.
(Reuters, 3/14/17)
2017 Mar 14, Hundreds of Twitter accounts were hijacked amid the ongoing diplomatic feud between Turkey and two European nations, Germany and the Netherlands. Most if not all high-profile accounts soon returned to normal.
(AP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Turkey said its red meat association has ordered a consignment of prize Dutch cattle to be sent back to the Netherlands, saying it no longer wants to farm the cows due to the diplomatic crisis between the countries.
(AFP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 16, Turkish police detained two suspected members of the Islamic State group who were allegedly planning a "sensational attack" similar to the massacre at an Istanbul nightclub on New Year's night.
(AFP, 3/16/17)
2017 Mar 18, Turkish media said authorities have detained 740 people for suspected links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) over the last three days.
(Reuters, 3/18/17)
2017 Mar 18, In Germany around 9,000 Kurdish supporters demonstrated in Frankfurt against Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and an April referendum that would give him sweeping new powers.
(Reuters, 3/18/17)
2017 Mar 21, In Turkey tens of thousands of people celebrated the New Year festival of Newroz in the overwhelmingly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, even as police killed a man who claimed to be carrying a bomb.
(AFP, 3/21/17)
2017 Mar 22, Turkey fired into Kurdish-controlled Syria after saying one of its soldiers was killed in Hatay province by a sniper from across the border in Afrin.
(Reuters, 3/22/17)
2017 Mar 22, Norway granted political asylum to a group of Turkish military officers based in Norway who had refused to return home after the failed July 15 coup attempt.
(AP, 3/22/17)
2017 Mar 24, Five children were among 11 Syrians killed after their plastic boat sank off Turkey's Aegean coast.
(Reuters, 3/24/17)
2017 Mar 28, German prosecutors announced an investigation into claims that Turkish agents are spying on alleged followers of exiled preacher Fethullah Gulen in Germany.
(AFP, 3/28/17)
2017 Mar 31, In Turkey a court in Istanbul released singer Atilla Tas and 20 others from jail pending an outcome of their trial on terrorism charges. Five of them will remain in prison while two of the defendants are at large and being tried in absentia.
(AP, 3/31/17)
2017 Mar 31, In Turkey Selahattin Demirtas, the jailed leader the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), said he has begun a hunger strike to protest prison conditions.
(AP, 3/31/17)
2017 Apr 1, Turkey's foreign minister said tens of thousands of displaced Syrians and refugees have returned to an area controlled by Turkey and Turkish-backed opposition fighters in northern Syria. US-backed Kurdish-led fighters pressed their offensive in the north near a town held by the Islamic State group.
(AP, 4/1/17)
2017 Apr 6, Turkey said that autopsies of Syrian victims from the April 4 assault in Syria's Idlib province show they were subjected to chemical weapons. Russia's Defense Ministry said the toxic agents were released when a Syrian airstrike hit a rebel chemical weapons arsenal and munitions factory on the town's eastern outskirts.
(AP, 4/6/17)
2017 Apr 6, Dutch public broadcaster NOS reported that as many as 100 Dutch citizens of Turkish descent are being prevented from leaving Turkey. NOS said those affected, many of whom had been to Turkey on holiday or to see their families, had all been publicly critical of President Tayyip Erdogan.
(Reuters, 4/6/17)
2017 Apr 9, Italian Gabriele Del Grande (34) was clapped in cuffs by Turkish police during interviews with people who had fled Syria for a book he is writing on the conflict and the birth of the Islamic State (IS) group. Grande was released after two weeks and returned home on April 24.
(AFP, 4/19/17)(AP, 4/24/17)
2017 Apr 9, In central Turkey a hot air balloon hit a high-voltage transmission line and crashed in Cappadocia, killing a French tourist and injuring at least seven people.
(AP, 4/9/17)
2017 Apr 11, Turkey said that tests proved the deadly nerve agent sarin was used in a suspected chemical attack in northwestern Syria which killed 87 people on April 4.
(AFP, 4/11/17)
2017 Apr 11, In Turkey a police officer and two civilian employees were killed in an attack at a police station in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir. Authorities said it was carried out with a ton of explosives planted inside a tunnel. A day later Kurdish rebels claimed responsibility.
(AP, 4/12/17)
2017 Apr 13, A panel of United Nations human rights experts condemned Turkey for violating the right to work and education through blanket dismissals of civil servants and school teachers under a state of emergency.
(AP, 4/13/17)
2017 Apr 16, Turkey held a bitterly-contested referendum on whether to give Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expanded powers. Final results later showed 51.41 percent of voters had backed the referendum with an 87.45% turnout.
(AFP, 4/16/17)(AP, 4/17/17)(SFC, 4/28/17, p.A2)
2017 Apr 16, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants killed a guard in an overnight attack on a vehicle carrying a district official from the ruling AK Party.
(Reuters, 4/16/17)
2017 Apr 17, Turkey's government extended the state of emergency to July 19. The main opposition party urged the country's electoral board to cancel the results of a landmark referendum that granted sweeping new powers to the nation's president, citing what it called substantial voting irregularities. A mission of observers from the 47-member Council of Europe said Turkey’s April 16 referendum was an uneven contest.
(AP, 4/17/17)(Reuters, 4/17/17)(Econ, 4/22/17, p.44)
2017 Apr 17, Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition said that the number of unstamped ballots counted as valid in the April 16 referendum had been enough to swing the outcome of the vote and decried what it described as a "coup" by electoral authorities.
(Reuters, 4/17/17)
2017 Apr 17, US President Donald Trump congratulated Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on his referendum campaign in a phone call and vowed close cooperation on Syria, Iraq and the fight against Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 4/18/17)
2017 Apr 19, Turkey's electoral board rejected petitions by opposition parties to annul the outcome of a recent referendum on expanding presidential powers because of voting irregularities. Some 38 members of the political opposition were arrested in dawn raids.
(AP, 4/19/17)(AFP, 4/19/17)(SFC, 4/20/17, p.A2)(Econ, 4/22/17, p.44)
2017 Apr 18, In Turkey a police helicopter carrying officers, a judge and a soldier crashed due to bad weather in a mountainous southeastern region, killing all 12 people on board.
(AP, 4/18/17)
2017 Apr 19, Turkey's electoral board rejected petitions by opposition parties to annul the outcome of a recent referendum on expanding presidential powers because of voting irregularities. Istanbul police detained 16 leftist activists involved in demonstrations against the 'Yes' victory in the referendum on expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's powers.
(AP, 4/19/17)(AFP, 4/19/17)
2017 Apr 21, Turkey’s main opposition party took its petition to annul the referendum on boosting the president's powers to the nation's highest administrative court.
(AP, 4/21/17)
2017 Apr 21, Two Turkish soldiers died and two more were wounded in a clash with Kurdish militants in a rural area of southeast Turkey near the Iraqi border. The military said six militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) had been "neutralized" in the ensuing operation in Sirnak province.
(Reuters, 4/21/17)
2017 Apr 24, A migrant boat from Turkey sank in the eastern Aegean Sea and left at least 16 people dead, including two children. Two people were rescued.
(AP, 4/24/17)
2017 Apr 25, Turkish warplanes killed at least 28 Kurdish fighters in strikes in Syria and Iraq, where the Kurds are key players in the battle against the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 4/25/17)(AFP, 4/26/17)
2017 Apr 25, The 47-member Council of Europe put Turkey on a watchlist over the crackdown on dissent since last year's coup attempt, rights violations and concerns about President Tayyip Erdogan's increased grip on power.
(Reuters, 4/25/17)
2017 Apr 25, A Greek court ruled against the extradition of three of eight Turkish soldiers who fled to Greece last July following a failed coup attempt against the Ankara government.
(Reuters, 4/25/17)
2017 Apr 26, Turkish police launched simultaneous operations across the country, detaining more than 1,000 people with suspected links to US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. Warrants were issued for the detention of some 2,200 other suspects.
(AP, 4/26/17)
2017 Apr 26, Turkey's main opposition party said it would challenge the outcome of the country's April 16 referendum on expanding the president's powers at the European Court of Human Rights a day after a high court rejected its appeal.
(AP, 4/26/17)
2017 Apr 26, Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq and killed six militants, in a second day of cross-border raids.
(Reuters, 4/26/17)
2017 Apr 28, Turkey's military said that one of its outposts in the southeastern town of Ceylanpinar bordering Syria came under rocket attack early today from Syrian territory held by the Kurdish militia YPG. The army returned fire killing 11 YPG militants.
(AP, 4/28/17)
2017 Apr 29, Turkey's military reportedly killed 14 members of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in air strikes in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 4/29/17)
2017 Apr 29, Turkey Blocks, an internet censorship monitor, said users in Turkey have been unable to access all language editions of Wikipedia since 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) today. Access to Wikipedia was blocked in Turkey for content presenting the country as supporting terror.
(AP, 4/29/17)
2017 Apr 29, In Turkey the head of an Iranian satellite television network was shot dead in Istanbul together with a business partner. GEM TV founder Saeed Karimian was sentenced last year in absentia to six years in prison by a Tehran court. Karimian and an associate were driving in Istanbul's Maslak neighborhood after 8 p.m. (1.00 p.m. ET) when their car was blocked by a jeep and shots were fired.
(Reuters, 4/30/17)
2017 May 1, Turkish police fired tear gas and plastic bullets at protesters seeking to march to Istanbul's Taksim Square to celebrate May Day, in defiance of an official ban.
(AFP, 5/1/17)
2017 May 2, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejoined the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) he co-founded in a step on his path toward solidifying his grip on power, following his narrow victory in last month's referendum.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 4, Iran, Russia and Turkey signed an agreement calling for the setting up of four "de-escalation zones" in war-torn Syria at the cease-fire talks in Kazakhstan and said that President Bashar Assad's air force would halt flights over the designated areas in the country's north, center and south. Members of the Syrian opposition delegation shouted in protest and walked out of the conference room in Astana. The opposition said it could not accept creating safe zones in Syria because it threatens the country's territorial integrity and said it would also not recognize Iran as a guarantor of the peace plan.
(AP, 5/4/17)(Reuters, 5/4/17)
2017 May 5, Turkish televisions reported that the government has dismissed 107 judges and prosecutors over alleged links to a failed coup in July last year, further widening a purge during which it dismissed around 145,000 civil servants, security personnel and academics. Detention warrants were issued for the dismissed judges and prosecutors.
(Reuters, 5/5/17)
2017 May 5, In France the Cartooning for Peace group, founded by French cartoonist Plantu, said cartoonists were increasingly becoming the victims of repressive crackdowns on free speech. Ten countries including Russia, Turkey and India were condemned for censoring, locking up or threatening cartoonists in a new report published by the group.
(AP, 5/5/17)
2017 May 6, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said warrants were issued for 17 judges and six prosecutors for "membership in an armed terror organization." They are suspected of being followers of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen who the government says is behind the July 15 coup attempt.
(AP, 5/6/17)
2017 May 8, Istanbul-based French freelance journalist Mathias Depardon was taken into custody by police in Batman province. He was held at a deportation center in the border province of Gaziantep and on May 24 began a hunger strike to protest his detention.
(Reuters, 5/24/17)
2017 May 8, In Malaysia the wife of a Turkish businessman detained in Malaysia last week for alleged terrorism offences made a tearful appeal to the government to release him. Ihsan Aslan was arrested together with another Turkish national, Turgay Karaman, last week under a security law which allows detention without trial for 28 days. Two days later Turkish academic Ismet Ozcelik was also detained. Rights groups feared Malaysia may be responding to pressure from Turkey.
(AFP, 5/8/17)
2017 May 10, Turkey said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Pakistan for the sale of four Turkish made corvette warships and 52 Pakistan-made training planes for Ankara's armed forces.
(Reuters, 5/10/17)
2017 May 10, Turkey warned the United States that a decision to arm Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State in Syria could end up hurting Washington, and accused its NATO ally of siding with terrorists.
(Reuters, 5/10/17)
2017 May 12, Turkish police detained Oguz Guven, the editor of pro-secular Cumhuriyet newspaper's online edition, for a news article on the death of prosecutor Mustafa Alper in a traffic accident on May 10. Alper, chief prosecutor of Denizli province in southwest Turkey, had filed the first indictment against the network of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen following last summer's coup attempt.
(AP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, In Turkey the domed Zeynel Bey Tomb, weighing 1,100 tons, was moved in one piece in four hours, traveling two km (more than a mile) on a large wheeled platform to make way for a hydroelectric dam on the Tigris river. The monument, around 550 years old, was located in the ancient settlement of Hasankeyf, where the majority of villages and historic sites are at risk of being submerged in water when the Ilisu Dam is completed.
(AP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, Malaysia said it had deported three Turkish men to Ankara over suspected links to a group blamed by Turkey for a failed coup last year. Authorities had detained school principal Turgay Karaman (43), businessman Ihsan Aslan (39) and academic Ismet Ozcelik (58) last week, saying they posed a threat to national security.
(Reuters, 5/12/17)
2017 May 13, In Turkey at least 23 people died and 11 others were in critical condition after a tour bus tipped over, fell 15 meters (50 feet) down a cliff and then hit a car on a serpentine mountain road in Mugla province.
(AP, 5/13/17)
2017 May 15, In Turkey Oguz Guven, the editor of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper's online edition, was formally arrested after being detained on May 12.
(AP, 5/16/17)
2017 May 16, President Donald Trump held his first face-to-face meeting with Turkey's president amid accusations that Trump gave Russian officials classified intelligence from a foreign ally. Trump and Erdogan vowed to repair the a relationship battered by years of disputes over Syria’s civil war and its various fighting groups. Elsewhere in DC Turkish security guards beat Armenian and Kurdish protesters.
(AP, 5/16/17)(SFC, 5/17/17, p.A2)(Econ 5/20/17, p.45)
2017 May 19, In Turkey detention warrants were issued against the nationalist Sozcu newspaper's owner and three others were for committing crimes on behalf of the network of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen without being members.
(AP, 5/19/17)
2017 May 20, Turkey’s opposition Sozcu newspaper carried empty columns with writers' names and also left the weather blank in a "May 19 Press Freedom Special Edition".
(AP, 5/20/17)
2017 May 20, Turkey's pro-Kurdish party elected a new co-leader to replace Figen Yuksekdag, who has been in jail on terrorism charges since November and was stripped of her parliamentary status three months ago. Serpil Kemalbay was chosen as joint leader, alongside Selahattin Demirtas, who is also in prison over terrorism-related charges but remains a member of parliament.
(Reuters, 5/20/17)
2017 May 21, Turkey’s Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that a state of emergency, introduced as a temporary measure after last year’s failed coup, would continue until the country achieved “welfare and peace."
(SFC, 5/22/17, p.A2)
2017 May 21, Turkish police in Ankara killed two suspected members of the Islamic State jihadist group believed to have been planning an attack in the capital.
(AFP, 5/21/17)
2017 May 22, Turkey and Russia signed a memorandum on lifting trade restrictions against each other, after Ankara and Moscow agreed at a meeting this month to settle trade disputes.
(Reuters, 5/22/17)
2017 May 22, Turkish police detained overnight literature professor Nuriye Gulmen and primary school teacher Semih Ozakca, who have been on hunger strike for more than two months protesting against a government crackdown in which they lost their jobs following last year's failed coup.
(Reuters, 5/22/17)
2017 May 25, Four Turkish soldiers and a village guard were killed in two separate clashes with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in eastern Turkey. Three PKK militants, believed to be preparing for an attack, were killed in air strikes targeting the Metina region of northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 5/25/17)
2017 May 27, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the European Union had presented Turkey with a new 12-month timetable for renewing their relations. Erdogan said Turkey and the EU had agreed on giving a new impetus to relations and added Turkey's foreign and EU affairs ministries would work towards the timetable.
(Reuters, 5/27/17)
2017 May 27, In Turkey two journalists from a pro-secular opposition newspaper have been arrested and accused of aiding a terror organization. The nationalist Sozcu newspaper published today’s edition with the headline "A dark day for Turkish media and journalism," protesting the arrests of online editor Mediha Olgun and reporter Gokmen Ulu.
(AP, 5/27/17)
2017 May 27, In Turkey an air strike in the southeastern province of Van late today killed 10 PKK militants.
(Reuters, 5/28/17)
2017 May 28, Turkey's military killed 13 members of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in air strikes in northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/28/17)
2017 May 31, In Turkey three soldiers were killed in clashes with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir. Earlier in the day, the army said airplanes had killed two PKK militants in the Lice district of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 5/31/17)
2017 May 31, A Turkish military helicopter crash killed all 13 personnel on board. Kurdish militants soon claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 6/3/17, p.A2)
2017 Jun 2, Turkish police and coast guards seized more than a ton of heroin in a raid on the Commander Tide ship, a Congo-flagged ship in international waters. Nine crew members were detained.
(AP, 6/7/17)
2017 Jun 3, In Turkey Birol Erdem, who currently advises PM Binali Yildirim, was taken into custody in Ankara along with his wife. They are being investigated for their suspected membership in Gulen's movement, which Turkey considers a terror group.
(AP, 6/3/17)
2017 Jun 4, Turkey's state-run news reported that PM Binali Yildirim said the battle to capture the Islamic State group's Syrian bastion Raqa started late on June 2. He appeared to contradict comments a day earlier from the Kurdish-Arab alliance battling the jihadists that the push into the northern Syrian city would "begin in a few days".
(AFP, 6/4/17)
2017 Jun 4, Turkish security forces killed eight militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in eastern Kars province.
(Reuters, 6/4/17)
2017 Jun 5, Turkey said it would strip citizenship from 130 people suspected of militant links, including the US-based cleric it blames for orchestrating last July's failed coup, unless they return to the country within three months.
(Reuters, 6/5/17)
2017 Jun 7, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Cabinet decided to pull German troops and reconnaissance aircraft out of Turkey's Incirlik air base after Turkish officials refused to let lawmakers visit them. The 270 troops and 7 planes participating in the international coalition against the Islamic State group will redeploy to Jordan.
(AP, 6/7/17)
2017 Jun 9, In southeastern Turkey two suspected Kurdish rebels opened fire on a car belonging to a local mayor, then blew up their vehicle near a military police station. One person was killed and four people were wounded in the attacks and one of the assailants was killed in Batman province.
(AP, 6/9/17)
2017 Jun 9, French photographer Mathias Depardon was reported freed after a month in custody in Turkey.
(AP, 6/9/17)
2017 Jun 12, An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 shook western Turkey and the Greek island of Lesbos, injuring at least 10 people and damaging buildings.
(AP, 6/12/17)
2017 Jun 13, Turkey's PM Binali Yildirim said his country wants to continue membership talks with the European Union, in an effort to ease months of tension.
(AP, 6/13/17)
2017 Jun 14, A Turkish court sentenced a Republican People's Party (CHP) lawmaker to 25 years jail for leaking classified material to the press, the first time a main opposition party deputy has been arrested in an ongoing crackdown. CHP lawmaker Enis Berberoglu was immediately placed under arrest at the Istanbul criminal court.
(AP, 6/14/17)
2017 Jun 14, A Turkish court in Ankara sentenced Aydin Sefa Akay, a Turkish national and UN judge, to seven and a half years in prison for "membership in an armed terror group." The conviction drew a rebuke the next day from the UN court he works for.
(AP, 6/15/17)
2017 Jun 15, Turkey's main opposition party set off on a 425-km (265 mile) march from the capital to an Istanbul prison to protest the conviction of one of lawmaker Enis Berberoglu. Thousands began walking from Ankara, with police at the scene.
(AP, 6/15/17)
2017 Jun 16, Turkey's main opposition leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, accused Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan of staging a "second coup" with the crackdown that followed last July's failed putsch, as he pressed on with a protest march to Istanbul from Ankara.
(AFP, 6/16/17)
2017 Jun 17, In Turkey 731 soldiers at a western base were sent to the hospital with food poisoning. 21 people from the company that provided the food were soon detained.
(AP, 6/18/17)
2017 Jun 18, Turkish troops began taking part in joint training exercises in Qatar, as a diplomatic crisis in the Gulf enters its third week.
(AP, 6/19/17)
2017 Jun 19, Greece's PM Alexis Tsipras told visiting Turkish counterpart Binali Yildirim that airspace violations over the Aegean must stop as they increase the risk of a military accident in the sea between the two uneasy neighbors and NATO allies.
(AP, 6/19/17)
2017 Jun 22, Turkish defense ministry sources said the US has told Turkey it will take back weapons supplied to the Kurdish YPG militia in northern Syria after the defeat of Islamic State seeking to address Turkish concerns about arming Kurds on its border.
(Reuters, 6/22/17)
2017 Jun 22, Turkey sent a first ship loaded with aid for its embattled regional ally Qatar, which has been hit by sanctions from Gulf powers led by Saudi Arabia.
(AFP, 6/22/17)
2017 Jun 23, Turkey rejected a call from four Arab states to shut down its military base in Qatar, saying the base was a guarantor of security in the Gulf and demands for its closure represented interference in its ties with Doha.
(Reuters, 6/23/17)
2017 Jun 24, Istanbul's governor banned a gay and transgender pride march for a second year running, citing security concerns after threats from an ultra-nationalist group. It was due to take place in the city on June 25.
(Reuters, 6/24/17)
2017 Jun 25, In Turkey activists for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex rights said they will march for LGBT pride in Istanbul, despite a ban by the governor. Turkish police thwarted the parade attempt. 44 people were detained during the march.
(AP, 6/25/17)(AFP, 6/25/17)(AP, 6/26/17)
2017 Jun 28, Turkey’s military said its forces retaliated with an artillery barrage overnight and destroyed Kurdish YPG militia targets after the group's fighters opened fire on Turkey-backed forces in northern Syria.
(Reuters, 6/28/17)
2017 Jun 30, In Turkey Orhan Mercan, the AKP's deputy head in the Lice district of Diyarbakir province, was shot in front of his home this evening and died of his wounds in hospital. Turkey blamed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.
(Reuters, 7/2/17)
2017 Jun, In Turkey a counterterror captured Abdulkerim Cakar (32), the alleged commander of an Adana-based IS cell, and 10 others. Their testimony led to the August arrest of Russian national Renad Bakiev, who planned a drone attack on US aircraft at Turkey's Incirlik air base.
(AP, 8/10/17)
2017 Jul 1, In Turkey militants killed Aydin Ahi, deputy head of the AKP in the Ozalp district of Van province. Turkey blamed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants. An airstrike by the Turkish military killed five PKK militants preparing an attack on an army base in Mardin province. In separate air strikes the army also five PKK fighters in southeast Bingol province and another four militants in the Metina region of northern Iraq. Another three PKK militants were killed in clashes in the southeastern provinces of Diyarbakir, Hakkari and Sirnak.
(Reuters, 7/2/17)
2017 Jul 2, Turkish police chased away a small group of transgender activist who tried to march to Istanbul’s main square despite an official ban on the event. Seven people were detained.
(SFC, 7/3/17, p.A2)
2017 Jul 4, Turkish Transport Minister Ahmet Arslan said the United States is set to lift a ban on carrying large electronic devices, such as laptops, in the cabin of US-bound flights from Turkey's main international airport.
(AFP, 7/4/17)
2017 Jul 5, Turkish police detained six suspected members of the Islamic State extremist group planning a bomb attack on an opposition protest march.
(AFP, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 5, Turkish and Emirates Airlines said the United States has lifted the in-cabin ban on laptops and other large electronic devices on US-bound flights from Dubai and Istanbul.
(Reuters, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 5, The head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said that Turkish military deployments near Kurdish-held areas of northwestern Syria amounted to "a declaration of war", signaling the risk of a major confrontation.
(Reuters, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 6, The European Parliament called for Turkey's European Union accession talks to be suspended if Ankara fully implements plans to expand President Tayyip Erdogan's powers, in a vote which Turkey dismissed as flawed and wrong.
(Reuters, 7/6/17)
2017 Jul 7, Turkey's main opposition leader said his three-week "justice march" from Ankara to Istanbul had helped Turks "cast off a shirt of fear" under emergency rule, and vowed to stiffen his party's challenge to the government once the protest ends.
(Reuters, 7/7/17)
2017 Jul 7, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said police detained overnight 29 suspected Islamic State militants in Istanbul, 22 of them foreign nationals, believed to be preparing to travel to Syria.
(Reuters, 7/7/17)
2017 Jul 9, In Turkey hundreds of thousands of people rallied in Istanbul at the culmination of 25-day march that has grown into the biggest protest against a government crackdown following last July's failed military coup.
(Reuters, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 9, Germany began to pull its troops out of Turkey’s Incirlik air base where they have supported international operations against Islamic State following a row with Ankara over access.
(Reuters, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 10, Turkey’s state media reported that the government has detained 42 staff of two Istanbul universities including a prominent academic as part of an investigation into the group blamed for last year's failed coup. Anadolu news agency also said authorities have issued a total of 72 arrest warrants for people suspected of links to the group of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.
(AFP, 7/10/17)
2017 Jul 11, Turkish authorities issued detention warrants for 105 information technology experts suspected of aiding last year's failed coup. Turkey kicked off a week of events commemorating the July 15 anniversary of the thwarted coup and remembering about 250 people who were killed. Officers launched raids against IS across 29 different provinces, detaining 233 suspects.
(AP, 7/11/17)(AP, 7/12/17)
2017 Jul 12, Turkish police killed five suspected Islamic State jihadists in the central province of Konya.
(AFP, 7/12/17)
2017 Jul 13, Turkish police detained Ali Avci, the producer of a film on the life of President Tayyip Erdogan, accusing him of ties to the Muslim cleric Ankara says orchestrated last year's attempted coup. Anti-terror police seized Avci at his Istanbul home and also seized another man identified as a fugitive sought for being a user of ByLock, an encrypted messaging app.
(Reuters, 7/13/17)
2017 Jul 15, In Turkey thousands of people marched from several Istanbul neighborhoods to converge at the iconic July 15 Martyrs' Bridge in a "national unity march" to commemorate the one year anniversary of Turkey's failed coup attempt.
(AP, 7/15/17)
2017 Jul 17, Turkish-backed rebels clashed with Kurdish fighters from a US-backed alliance in northwestern Syria in escalating violence between the two sides.
(Reuters, 7/17/17)
2017 Jul 18, Turkey announced a new school curriculum that excluded Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, feeding opposition fears President Tayyip Erdogan is subverting the republic's secular foundations.
(Reuters, 7/18/17)
2017 Jul 18, A Turkish court jailed Amnesty International's Turkey director Idil Eser and five other human rights activists pending trial for allegedly aiding an armed terror group.
(AP, 7/18/17)
2017 Jul 18, In Turkey people had to swim to safety in the flooded streets of Istanbul after heavy rain and storms brought chaos to the city and caused shipping traffic on oil and grain routes through the Bosporus Strait to be suspended for some hours.
(Reuters, 7/18/17)
2017 Jul 21, A magnitude 6.7 earthquake killed two people on the Greek holiday island of Kos, also causing disruption in the Turkish tourist hub of Bodrum, whee 80 people were injured. A Turkish and a Swedish tourist, aged 39 and 22 years, died when the roof of a popular bar collapsed.
(Reuters, 7/21/17)(AFP, 7/21/17)
2017 Jul 24, Turkey's president has arrived in Qatar on the final leg of a Gulf tour aimed at forging a resolution to the diplomatic standoff gripping the nation and four fellow Arab countries.
(AP, 7/24/17)
2017 Jul 25, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged all Muslims to visit and protect Jerusalem after violence broke out over metal detectors that Israel installed and later removed from the Temple Mount, a sensitive holy site in the city.
(AFP, 7/25/17)
2017 Jul 27, Turkey's parliament stripped two pro-Kurdish lawmakers of their parliamentary status, further reducing the presence of the HDP, the second-largest opposition party in the general assembly.
(Reuters, 7/27/17)
2017 Jul 28, Turkish authorities detained former national team soccer player Bekir Irtegun (33) as part of the sweeping crackdown following last year's failed coup attempt.
(Reuters, 7/28/17)
2017 Jul 28, Turkish authorities arrested British citizen Joe Robinson (24) while he was holidaying on the country's western coast on charges of working with a Kurdish militia. Robinson had served with British forces in Afghanistan in 2012 and travelled to Syria in 2015 to work as a combat medic in the YPG.
(AFP, 7/29/17)
2017 Jul 28, Britain lifted a ban on passengers carrying electronic devices in the cabin on some flights to the UK from Turkey after new security measures were introduced, saying other restrictions would be looked at on a case by case basis.
(Reuters, 7/28/17)
2017 Jul 29, In Turkey seven staff from the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet walked free from jail after over eight months behind bars, expressing hope four colleagues still in prison would be released soon. Those freed were released under judicial control, meaning they will have to report regularly to the authorities and remain charged.
(AFP, 7/29/17)
2017 Jul 29, Hundreds of Turkish women marched in Istanbul to protest against the violence and animosity they face from men demanding they dress more conservatively.
(Reuters, 7/30/17)
2017 Jul, In Turkey a heavily-pregnant Syrian refugee was raped and bludgeoned to death by rock-wielding attackers at her home, just days before she was due to give birth. Her 10-month-old baby boy was strangled to death in a brutal double murder that sparked shock and outrage.
(AFP, 9/22/17)
2017 Aug 1, A Turkish military vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device in southeast Diyarbakir province, killing two soldiers. Separately three PKK militants were killed in the southeastern province of Tunceli after being identified by a drone.
(Reuters, 8/1/17)
2017 Aug 2, Turkey's top military body replaced the land, air and naval commanders of the military at a critical meeting just over a year after the failed coup bid.
(AP, 8/2/17)
2017 Aug 3, In China Turkey's top diplomat vowed to root out militants plotting against China, signaling closer cooperation against suspected Uighur militants hailing from China's far west who have long been a sore point in bilateral relations.
(AP, 8/3/17)
2017 Aug 3, Spanish police arrested Hamza Yalcin, a Turkish-Swedish reporter and writer in Barcelona, on an international arrest order from Turkey for alleged terrorism.
(AP, 8/8/17)
2017 Aug 8, A Turkish media report said Turkey has begun construction of a wall along the country's frontier with Iran, mimicking the Turkish barrier along the Syrian border.
(AP, 8/8/17)
2017 Aug 10, Turkish police said authorities have detained Renad Bakiev, a Russian national, and suspected Islamic State group militant for allegedly planning a drone attack on US aircraft at Turkey's Incirlik air base.
(AP, 8/10/17)
2017 Aug 11, Turkish police detained Muaz El Ahsin while he was trying to cross into the country illegally. A court soon charged Ahsin with murder for allegedly slitting the throats of Syrian journalists Ibrahim Abdul-Qadir and Fares Hamadi on October 29, 2015.
(AP, 8/14/17)
2017 Aug 13, In Turkey police Officer Sinan Acar (24) was stabbed to death by a suspected member of the Islamic State (IS) group, who had been arrested for allegedly planning a suicide attack. The suspected IS member was shot dead on the spot by other police officers.
(AFP, 8/14/17)
2017 Aug 19, Spanish police in Granada arrested German-Turkish author Dogan Akhanli after Turkey issued an Interpol warrant for the writer, a critic of the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Akhanli was conditionally released the next day following a court hearing, but ordered to stay in Madrid while Turkey's extradition request is considered.
(Reuters, 8/19/17)(AP, 8/20/17)
2017 Aug 21, In southeastern Turkey a US MQ-1 Predator drone crashed. The cause of the crash was being investigated.
(Reuters, 8/21/17)
2017 Aug 25, In Turkey an emergency decree published today said over 900 public sector officials have been dismissed in the latest wave of the purge that followed last year's failed coup. A second decree said the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), which was previously under the prime minister, would now report to the president, expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's powers over public institutions.
(AFP, 8/25/17)
2017 Aug 26, Qatar said that Turkey has arrested five people in connection with the alleged hack of Doha's state news agency, an incident which sparked the current Gulf political crisis. The alleged hack of the QNA website took place on May 24, attributing explosive political remarks to Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.
(AFP, 8/26/17)
2017 Aug 27, Ebrahim Yazdi (85), a dissident Iranian politician and a former foreign minister (1979), died at the age of 85 in Izmir, Turkey, where he was being treated for complications from cancer after being denied a US visa for follow-up treatment in Houston.
(AP, 8/31/17)
2017 Sep 6, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will provide 10,000 tons of aid to help Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in Myanmar.
(Reuters, 9/6/17)
2017 Sep 6, Turkish police shot dead an Islamic State militant who was set to carry out a suicide bomb attack on a police station in the Mediterranean city of Mersin.
(Reuters, 9/6/17)
2017 Sep 8, Turkey's pro-Kurdish political party announced the release from prison of lawmaker Ayhan Bilgen, a former spokesman for the People's Democratic Party (HDP), pending a trial on terror charges.
(AP, 9/8/17)
2017 Sep 9, Turkey said its security forces have killed 99 Kurdish militants, including a high-ranking one, in operations in the southeast over the last two weeks.
(Reuters, 9/9/17)
2017 Sep 11, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Berlin had suspended major arms exports due to deteriorating human rights in Turkey and increasingly strained ties between the NATO allies.
(Reuters, 9/12/17)
2017 Sep 12, Turkey’s Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a deal to purchase a Russian surface-to-air missile system.
(SFC, 9/13/17 p.A2)
2017 Sep 12, Turkish authorities detained on "terror" charges at least 15 lawyers from the legal association representing two imprisoned teachers on a hunger strike to protest their sacking in an ongoing purge.
(AFP, 9/12/17)
2017 Sep 14, Turkish police detained 24 protesters outside a courthouse where two dismissed public employees, who had launched a hunger strike, are on trial on terror charges. Academic Nuriye Gulmen and teacher Semih Ozakca were detained in May on the 76th day of their hunger strike.
(AP, 9/14/17)
2017 Sep 15, Turkey detained Celal Celik, the main opposition leader's lawyer, for alleged links to the network accused of carrying out last year's failed coup, in a widening government crackdown.
(Reuters, 9/15/17)
2017 Sep 15, Turkey’s foreign ministry said Russia, Iran and Turkey have agreed to post observers on the edge of a de-escalation zone in northern Syria's Idlib region, which is largely controlled by Islamist militants.
(Reuters, 9/15/17)
2017 Sep 16, Turkey’s official news reported that police have detained 74 people believed to be members of the Islamic State group in simultaneous operations in 15 locations in Istanbul.
(SSFC, 9/17/17 p.A3)
2017 Sep 19, Nigeria intercepted 470 rifles from Turkey, which had been falsely declared as elbow joints for plumbing. That shipment was uncovered barely a week after a 20-foot container-load of 1,100 pump-action rifles was impounded at the same port. According to Nigeria Customs Service a total of 2,671 action pump rifles allegedly imported from Turkey have been seized in Lagos since January.
(AFP, 9/22/17)
2017 Sep 21, A Turkish court jailed on terror charges 14 lawyers representing two detained teachers who have been on hunger strike for six months after being sacked in a mass crackdown.
(AFP, 9/21/17)
2017 Sep 21, The foreign ministers of Turkey, Iran and Iraq voiced concerns that a Kurdish referendum on independence would endanger gains Iraq has made against Islamic state, and reiterated worries of potential new conflicts in the region and agreed to consider counter-measures against the planned independence referendum.
(Reuters, 9/21/17)
2017 Sep 22, Turkey reported that veteran Syrian opposition activist Aroubeh Barakat and her journalist daughter Halla Barakat (22) were found stabbed to death at their apartment in Istanbul, in a crime supporters decried as an "assassination" to avenge their work.
(AFP, 9/22/17)
2017 Sep 22, Miss Turkey organizers dethroned Itir Esen (18), a day after she won the contest and the right to represent Turkey at the Miss World contest in China, over a social media posting that was deemed insulting to the memory of the 250 people killed while opposing last year's failed military coup.
(AP, 9/22/17)
2017 Sep 22, At least 21 people drowned and 5 others were missing after a fishing boat carrying migrants sunk off Turkey's Black Sea coast. Forty migrants were rescued.
(AFP, 9/22/17)(SFC, 9/23/17 p.A2)
2017 Sep 23, Turkey said it would take security and other steps in response to a planned independence referendum in northern Iraq's Kurdish region that it called a "terrible mistake", as a Kurdish delegation was in Baghdad for talks on the crisis.
(AP, 9/23/17)
2017 Sep 23, Turkey's official news agency said Istanbul police have detained 36 people at 15 different addresses as alleged members of the Islamic State group.
(AP, 9/23/17)
2017 Sep 25, Turkey took the Kurdish television channel Rudaw off its satellite service TurkSat, in the country's first response to a Kurdish independence referendum in northern Iraq. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara would close its border with Iraq's Kurdistan region over an independence referendum and threatened the Iraqi Kurds with blocking their key oil exports.
(Reuters, 9/25/17)(AFP, 9/25/17)
2017 Sep 26, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Iraqi Kurds would go hungry if his country halts the flow of trucks and oil across the border with northern Iraq and warned that all military and economic measures were on the table against its neighbor.
(Reuters, 9/26/17)
2017 Sep 27, Turkey said it will suspend flights to the northern Iraqi cities of Erbil and Sulaimaniya starting on 1500 GMT on Sep 29, in response to a Kurdish independence referendum held earlier this week.
(Reuters, 9/27/17)
2017 Sep 28, Turkey advised its citizens to leave Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region before flights to the area are suspended. Turkey said it had stopped training peshmerga forces in northern Iraq in response to a Kurdish independence vote there. Turkey also threatened potentially crippling restrictions on oil trading with Iraqi Kurds.
(AP, 9/28/17)(Reuters, 9/28/17)
2017 Sep 28, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the United States that Turkey could release a jailed American pastor if Washington handed over the Pennsylvania-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen who Ankara blames for last year's failed coup. US pastor Andrew Brunson has been held by Turkish authorities since October 2016 on charges of being a member of Gulen's group.
(AFP, 9/28/17)
2017 Sep 28, Russia’s Pres. Vladimir Putin visited Turkey for talks that focused on Iraq, Syria and bilateral trade.
(SFC, 9/29/17, p.A2)
2017 Sep 30, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said Iraqi Kurdish authorities would pay the price for an independence referendum which was widely opposed by foreign powers.
(Reuters, 9/30/17)
2017 Sep 30, Turkish police arrested a suspect in the killing of a Syrian opposition activist and her journalist daughter in Istanbul. Security cameras led police to a Syrian citizen in the western province of Bursa. The main suspect is allegedly the grandson of Arouba Barakat's uncle. Police also detained the suspect's former roommate, another Syrian. The main suspect travelled from Bursa to Istanbul on Sept. 19 by boat and took public transportation to the district where the victims lived. He returned to Bursa the following day.
(AP, 9/30/17)
2017 Sep 30, The Turkish government opened a military training base, its largest in Africa, in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
(AP, 9/30/17)
2017 Sep, Turkey's board of education instituted a new curriculum scrapping all references to Darwin and education.
(Econ, 9/30/17, p.49)
2017 Oct 3, Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region said it is calling presidential and parliamentary elections for Nov. 1, as the Kurdish leadership cements its case for independence. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would impose further sanctions on northern Iraq over the vote.
(Reuters, 10/3/17)
2017 Oct 4, A Turkish court found 42 former soldiers guilty of trying to kill President Tayyip Erdogan during last year's failed coup, and handed most of them life sentences in the highest profile case related to the attempted putsch so far.
(Reuters, 10/4/17)
2017 Oct 4, The presidents of Iran and Turkey vowed during talks in Tehran to work closely together to prevent the disintegration of Iraq and Syria and to oppose the Iraqi Kurds' drive for independence.
(Reuters, 10/4/17)
2017 Oct 5, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Turkey would "soon" close its border crossing with Iraqi Kurdistan and airspace after the disputed referendum on independence. Turkey's state-run news agency said security forces have killed five suspected Kurdish militants in an operation close to a tourist resort near the Mediterranean coast. Two militants escaped.
(AFP, 10/5/17)(AP, 10/5/17)
2017 Oct 6, In Turkey Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro met with Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks on bilateral relations and international issues.
(AP, 10/6/17)
2017 Oct 7, Turkey's president announced that the country has launched a "serious" operation in Syria's northwestern Idlib province with Turkey-backed Syrian opposition forces, following international efforts for de-escalation in the war-torn country.
(AP, 10/7/17)
2017 Oct 7, In Turkey a tourist bus tipped over after hitting a palm tree on a traffic island in the southern Antalya province, killing three German tourists.
(AP, 10/7/17)
2017 Oct 8, Turkish forces shelled areas along its border with Syria's northwestern province, an area dominated by al-Qaida-linked militants. President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey was implementing a deal agreed with Russia and Iran to reduce violence in Syria's northern province of Idlib, in cooperation with Free Syrian Army rebel fighters.
(AP, 10/8/17)(Reuters, 10/8/17)
2017 Oct 8, The Istanbul prosecutor's office charged Amnesty International's Turkey chief and 10 others for allegedly belonging to and aiding terror groups with the completion of an indictment.
(AP, 10/8/17)
2017 Oct 8, The US embassy in Turkey said it was suspending visa services while it assessed Turkey's commitment to the safety of its missions and its staff after the arrest of Metin Topuz, a Turkish US consulate worker over allegations that he had links to US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.
(Reuters, 10/10/17)(SFC, 10/10/17, p.A3)
2017 Oct 9, In Turkey an appeals court annulled the 25-year prison sentence of opposition lawmaker Enis Berberoglu, but he will remain in custody and face a retrial.
(Reuters, 10/9/17)
2017 Oct 10, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks with Serbia's president as Ankara stepped up efforts to increase its clout in the Balkans.
(AP, 10/10/17)
2017 Oct 10, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed that Turkish officials would boycott the US ambassador to Ankara, stepping up one of the worst rows in decades between the two NATO allies.
(AP, 10/10/17)
2017 Oct 10, Turkey’s police launched operations in seven provinces to catch 70 active duty officers, from the air force, navy, army, and gendarmerie, over suspected links to cleric Fethullah Gulen's movement. Police in Ankara used tear gas to disperse crowds hoping to commemorate the second anniversary of a terror attack that killed 102 people.
(AP, 10/10/17)
2017 Oct 10, Iraq's Oil Ministry ordered the restoration of an oil pipeline from the city of Kirkuk to Turkey that would bypass the country's northern Kurdish region in the wake of the area's pro-independence referendum.
(AP, 10/10/17)
2017 Oct 11, In Turkey an explosion in a storage tank at the Tupras refinery killed four people in the western province of Izmir. Authorities the next day detained seven people over the blast, of which four have been formally arrested and three released on probation.
(Reuters, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 13, Spain's government says that Turkish-born writer Dogan Akhanly, who has German citizenship, won't be extradited to Turkey for his alleged involvement with an outlawed group.
(AP, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 14, Turkish authorities issued detention warrants for 100 former police officers and have so far detained 63 of them, as part of a widening crackdown since last year's failed coup attempt. The suspects were believed to be users of ByLock, an encrypted messaging app which the government says was used by the network of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.
(Reuters, 10/14/17)
2017 Oct 16, Turkey announced that it is closing its airspace to flights to and from Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region and have Baghdad take control of the Iraqi side of its main border crossing.
(AP, 10/16/17)(Reuters, 10/16/17)
2017 Oct 16, Turkey’s interior ministry said security forces detained 1,210 people over the last week for suspected links to militant groups or last year's failed coup.
(Reuters, 10/16/17)
2017 Oct 16, Two Turkish soldiers were killed in the southeastern province of Hakkari after an improvised explosive device detonated.
(Reuters, 10/16/17)
2017 Oct 17, In southern Turkey a bomb exploded as a bus carrying police was passing by in Mersin.
(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, In Turkey seven miners were killed and another was missing after part of a coal mine collapsed in the southeastern province of Sirnak.
(Reuters, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, Officials said an EU-funded project that provides cash assistance to the most vulnerable refugee families in Turkey has reached 1 million beneficiaries a year after its launch.
(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, In Warsaw Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with his Polish counterpart, his first official bilateral visit to an EU country since the failed 2016 coup in Turkey. President Andrzej Duda said he hopes Turkey will eventually join the EU. They discussed defense cooperation through NATO, and the issue of energy as both countries count on coal for part of their energy needs.
(AFP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 18, Turkish police detained prominent activist and businessman Osman Kavala at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport.
(Reuters, 10/19/17)
2017 Oct 19, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and visiting Nigerian Pres. Muhammadu Buhari vowed to ramp up security and economic cooperation between Ankara and Africa's most populous nation.
(AP, 10/19/17)
2017 Oct 20, The European Union said it will cut some of the money earmarked for Turkey to join the bloc, reflecting increasingly sour ties with Ankara but stopping short of killing membership bid of the country it still sees as a strategic partner.
(Reuters, 10/20/17)
2017 Oct 23, In Turkey Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek announced that he would step down on Oct. 28 following a meeting with Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Gokcek became the fifth elected mayor to leave office under pressure from Pres. Erdogan.
(SFC, 10/24/17, p.A2)
2017 Oct 23, A Turkish military vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device in the southeastern province of Hakkari, killing one soldier.
(Reuters, 10/23/17)
2017 Oct 25, In Turkey Meral Aksener, a former interior minister seen as a potentially strong challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, delivered a defiant speech in Ankara promising a "strong, happy" Turkey at the official launch of the Iyi ("Good") Party.
(AFP, 10/25/17)
2017 Oct 25, Crimean Tatar activists Ilmi Umerov and Ahtem Chiygoz, who opposed to Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region, were released from prison and flown to Turkey. Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko thanked Turkey's president for helping broker the release.
(AP, 10/25/17)(Reuters, 10/27/17)
2017 Oct 26, A Turkish court in Izmir ordered Taner Kilic, the head of Amnesty International in Turkey, to remain in pre-trial detention, after he denied allegations of links to the Muslim cleric Ankara blames for last year's failed coup.
(AFP, 10/26/17)
2017 Oct 27, In Myanmar reporters Lau Hon Meng from Singapore and Mok Choy Lin from Malaysia were arrested in Naypyidaw for flying a drone over a parliament building while on assignment for Turkish state broadcaster TRT.
(AFP, 10/28/17)
2017 Oct 28, Turkey arrested 49 alleged members of the Islamic State group, some of whom were suspected of planning an attack the next day on celebrations for the 94th anniversary of Republic Day.
(AFP, 10/28/17)
2017 Oct 29, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency said police have detained 143 people over suspected links to Islamic State in anti-terror operations in eight cities over the weekend.
(Reuters, 10/29/17)
2017 Oct 30, In Turkey Ahmet Edip Ugur, mayor of the northwestern province of Balikesir, announced he had quit his post and left President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party after pressure and threats "beyond unbearable", becoming the sixth mayor in recent weeks to fall victim of a purge of local government.
(AP, 10/31/17)
2017 Nov 1, The 78-meter (256-foot) Turkish-flagged Bilal Bal cargo ship, which had 10 crew members aboard, disappeared in the Black Sea after issuing a distress signal. Divers on Nov. 3 located two bodies.
(AP, 11/3/17)
2017 Nov 2, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed into law controversial legislation to let state-approved clerics conduct marriage ceremonies, a move critics claim risks undermining Turkey's secular foundations.
(AFP, 11/3/17)
2017 Nov 2, Turkey’s defense industry executive board said it is planning 22 new defense projects worth a total of $5 billion and spanning the development of air defense missile systems, ammunition and arms systems.
(Reuters, 11/2/17)
2017 Nov 2, In southeastern Turkey clashes between Turkish security force members and Kurdish militants in three mainly Kurdish provinces killed eight security force members and 31 militants.
(AP, 11/2/17)
2017 Nov 3, The Greek coast guard rescued 15 people after a boat carrying migrants from Turkey sank off the island of Kalymnos. At least three people died and several more were believed to be missing.
(AP, 11/3/17)
2017 Nov 6, President Tayyip Erdogan announced plans to demolish the Ataturk Culture Center in Istanbul, named after the founder of modern secular Turkey, in a move critics see as another attempt by the Islamist-rooted ruling party to roll back secularism. The AKM has been closed to the public for the past 10 years over disagreements regarding its renovation and infrastructure.
(Reuters, 11/6/17)
2017 Nov 6, The United States embassy in Turkey confirmed that it has resumed processing visas at its missions on a "limited basis".
(Reuters, 11/6/17)
2017 Nov 7, A Turkish court rejected an appeals court order to retry Enis Berberoglu, a lawmaker from the main opposition party, upholding his 25-year jail term.
(Reuters, 11/7/17)
2017 Nov 8, A Turkish court ordered the release of opposition newspaper journalist Bekir Gokmen Ulu from the Sozcu daily, accused of links to the group blamed by the government for last year's failed coup.
(AFP, 11/8/17)
2017 Nov 9, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the main opposition party of moving away from the country's moral values after a small opposition-run municipality installed a quota for LGBTI candidates running for a neighborhood committee.
(AP, 11/9/17)
2017 Nov 9, Turkish media reported that police have detained 165 people over suspected links to Islamic State in Ankara and have arrest warrants for a total of 245 suspects in the capital and surrounding province.
(Reuters, 11/9/17)
2017 Nov 10, Turkey's official news agency said police have detained at least 100 people suspected of links to the Islamic State group.
(AP, 11/10/17)
2017 Nov 10, In Turkey six women in a jail in the eastern province of Elazig went on hunger strike to protest against a rule obliging them to wear an ID while outside their living quarters. Four more women joined them on Dec. 10. On Dec. 30 The Diyarbakir Bar said the prisoners were losing weight and starting to have serious health problems.
(Reuters, 12/30/17)
2017 Nov 10, The Wall Street Journal reported that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was investigating an alleged plot involving former US National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and his son to forcibly remove cleric Fethullah Gulen and hand him over to Ankara for as much as $15 million.
(AP, 11/12/17)
2017 Nov 12, Turkey dismissed as "ludicrous and groundless" a report that Turkish officials may have discussed kidnapping US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen in exchange for millions of dollars.
(AP, 11/12/17)
2017 Nov 12, Turkey said its purchase of Russian S-400 surface-to-air missiles has been completed. Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli said Ankara is still discussing a further deal with a European consortium to help it develop its own missile defense system.
(Reuters, 11/12/17)
2017 Nov 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks focusing on the situation in Syria.
(AP, 11/13/17)
2017 Nov 14, In Kuwait Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks with Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, as a crisis that has split Qatar from its Gulf neighbors entered its sixth month.
(AFP, 11/14/17)
2017 Nov 15, Turkish authorities in Ankara banned a German gay film festival the day before it was due to start, citing public safety and terrorism risks.
(Reuters, 11/19/17)
2017 Nov 15, Syrian rebel officials said a senior commander has defected to Turkey from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a leading combatant in the fight against Islamic State. Brigadier General Talal Silo handed himself in at dawn to the Free Syrian Army (FSA), an adversary of the SDF, and was escorted to Turkey.
(Reuters, 11/15/17)
2017 Nov 16, Turkey detained 136 people, including former police, teachers and soldiers, in four separate operations over suspected links to last year's attempted military coup.
(Reuters, 11/16/17)
2017 Nov 16, In Turkey four militants were killed in the southeastern province of Tunceli.
(Reuters, 11/16/17)
2017 Nov 16, In northern Iraq two Turkish soldiers were killed and one was wounded in northern Iraq's Avasin Basyan region by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.
(Reuters, 11/16/17)
2017 Nov 17, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey is pulling 40 soldiers out of a NATO exercise in Norway, after his name appeared in a list of enemies on a poster at the drill, an incident that drew an apology from both the military alliance and Oslo.
(Reuters, 11/17/17)
2017 Nov 18, Turkish prosecutors launched an investigation into two US prosecutors involved in trying a Turkish-Iranian businessman for violating US sanctions against Iran. Gold trader Reza Zarrab (34) is charged in the US for evading sanctions on Iran.
(AP, 11/18/17)
2017 Nov 18, The Turkish capital Ankara banned the public showing of films and exhibitions related to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues.
(Reuters, 11/19/17)
2017 Nov 18, Naim Suleymanoglu (50), a Bulgarian-born Turkish weightlifter who won three Olympic gold medals and was known as "Pocket Hercules," died following a liver transplant last month. He won three straight Olympic gold medals for Turkey between 1988 and 1996.
(AP, 11/18/17)
2017 Nov 19, In Turkey top diplomats from Iran, Russia and Turkey met in Antalya to discuss the civil war in Syria ahead of a three-way summit in the Russian city of Sochi Nov. 22.
(AFP, 11/19/17)
2017 Nov 20, Turkish authorities issued arrest warrants for 107 teachers for suspected ties to the US-based cleric Ankara blames for orchestrating last year's coup.
(Reuters, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Turkey said Syrian Kurdish fighters have attacked a Turkish observation post in the northern Syrian province of Idlib with mortar rounds. There were no casualties.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 21, A Syrian Kurdish militia accused Turkish forces of "aggression and escalation" in the Afrin region, which it controls, on Syria's northwestern border with Turkey.
(Reuters, 11/21/17)
2017 Nov 22, Vladimir Putin called for "concessions and compromise" from all parties in Syria's six-year conflict as he kicked off a key summit in Sochi with the leaders of Turkey and Iran aimed at reviving stuttering peace negotiations.
(AFP, 11/22/17)
2017 Nov 24, Turkey said that US President Donald Trump told President Tayyip Erdogan he had issued instructions that weapons should not be provided to Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria, and that the Turkish government hoped to see that order carried out.
(Reuters, 11/24/17)
2017 Nov 24, US President Donald Trump said that he had informed Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a call that Washington is adjusting military support to partners on the ground in Syria.
(Reuters, 11/25/17)
2017 Nov 24, In Turkey an Istanbul district authority banned a one-day festival that had been set to showcase short films on gay issues the next day, claiming the event posed a threat to public order.
(AFP, 11/25/17)
2017 Nov 27, Turkish and Sudanese intelligence agencies returned to Turkey Memduh Cikmaz, a man believed to be a financier for the US-based cleric accused of orchestrating a failed coup in Turkey, following his capture in Sudan.
(Reuters, 11/27/17)
2017 Nov 29, Turkish police staged an operation to detained 360 people, including 333 soldiers, as part of a probe into the Gulen network in the armed forces.
(AFP, 11/30/17)
2017 Nov 29, In NYC Turkish-Iranian mogul Reza Zarrab (34) admitted he bribed former Turkish economy minister Zafer Caglayan in order to facilitate illegal gold transactions with Iran. His testimony implied that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan knew how he and defendant Mehmet Hakan Atilla, deputy chief executive of Turkish lender Halkbank, circumvented sanctions on Iran and laundered money from Iranian petroleum sales.
(AFP, 12/1/17)
2017 Nov 30, Turkey’s parliament, dominated by ruling party members, rejected an opposition motion for an inquiry into allegations that Pres. Erdogan’s family members have evaded taxes by transferring millions of dollars to offshore accounts.
(SFC, 11/30/17, p.A2)
2017 Nov 30, Turkish police detained 50 people including soldiers and air force pilots in raids in 11 cities against those accused of links to the group blamed for last year's failed coup.
(AFP, 11/30/17)
2017 Nov 30, Turkish lender Aktif Bank said it had not violated any US or international sanctions, after it was mentioned in the US case regarding Iran sanctions violations.
(Reuters, 11/30/17)
2017 Dec 1, Turkish media reported that Istanbul police have detained 62 foreigners suspected of having links to the Islamic State group in overnight raids.
(AFP, 12/1/17)
2017 Dec 1, Turkey’s Hurriyet daily said authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Graham Fuller, a former officer of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), over suspected links to last year's failed coup. Hurriyet also said prosecutors had also issued an arrest warrant for Henri Barkey, a prominent Turkey scholar based in the United States, on suspicion of involvement in planning the coup.
(Reuters, 12/1/17)
2017 Dec 1, Turkey's official Anadolu Agency said that Istanbul prosecutors have demanded the seizure of the assets of gold trader Reza Zarrab and 22 others as they investigate claims of "espionage for a foreign country" and an "attempt to smuggle assets."
(AP, 12/2/17)
2017 Dec 1, Turkish academic Nuriye Gulmen, on hunger strike for nearly nine months to protest her dismissal after last year's failed coup, was released from jail. She had been sentenced to six years and three months in prison for "membership in an armed terror group," referring to a left-wing militant group.
(AP, 12/2/17)
2017 Dec 3, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said businessmen who attempted to move assets abroad were "traitors", and called on his cabinet to block any such moves.
(Reuters, 12/3/17)
2017 Dec 4, A Greek court ordered the detention of nine Turkish citizens pending trial for terrorism-related offences, including links to a banned militant group behind a series of suicide bombings in Turkey.
(AP, 12/4/17)
2017 Dec 5, Turkey’s state media said 17 suspects have been detained in an investigation into Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold trader who was once a close ally of the government but is now testifying against officials as a star witness in a high profile US case. Pres. Erdogan said that the case was a "plot" aimed at hurting Turkey.
(AFP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Turkish prosecutors launched an investigation following media reports that 11 members of a Turkish folk dancing group were seeking asylum in Hungary.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 7, In Turkey Selahattin Demirtas, the jailed co-leader of the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), was remanded in prison for at least two more months at the opening of his trial on terrorism-related charges.
(Reuters, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 8, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with members of Greece's Muslim minority, ending a landmark visit to Greece that sharply divided opinion in the country and saw tensions in relations resurface.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 11, Turkey's armed forces said its warplanes hit Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq and killed 17 of the group's militants.
(Reuters, 12/11/17)
2017 Dec 13, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan convened in Istanbul an emergency summit of the world's main pan-Islamic body, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Islamic leaders urged the world to recognize occupied East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, as Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas warned the United States no longer had any role to play in the peace process.
(AFP, 12/13/17)
2017 Dec 17, Turkey's president slammed a US-backed Syrian Kurdish militant group and said he'll clear his country's border with Syria of "terrorists".
(AP, 12/17/17)
2017 Dec 18, Turkish authorities issued detention warrants for 106 people believed to have worked as matchmakers for a network accused of orchestrating last year's failed military coup.
(Reuters, 12/18/17)
2017 Dec 18, German government officials said Turkey has released German journalist Mesale Tolu after nearly eight months in prison on the condition that she does not leave the country.
(AP, 12/18/17)
2017 Dec 20, Turkey's state-run news agency said prosecutors are seeking more than four years in prison for NBA player Enes Kanter on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Kanter, who is in the United States, would be tried in absentia.
(AP, 12/20/17)
2017 Dec 20, In Bangladesh Turkey's visiting PM Binali Yildirim dubbed the killing of minority Muslim Rohingyas in Myanmar by its security forces "genocide" and urged the international community to ensure their safety back home.
(Reuters, 12/20/17)
2017 Dec 21, Turkish police said they had rescued thousands of artefacts dating back to Anatolian, Greek and Egyptian civilizations in the largest operation to combat smuggling of ancient treasures in the country's history.
(Reuters, 12/21/17)
2017 Dec 24, Turkey's PM Binali Yildirim said that Turkey would employ an additional 110,000 public servants in 2018 including teachers, medical and religious personnel.
(Reuters, 12/24/17)
2017 Dec 24, In Turkey two government decrees published in the Official Gazette said 2,756 more people have been fired from the public service sector for alleged links to terror groups. The Gazette also said the government has closed down two local newspapers, 14 associations and one health clinic. At least 115 people who were previously dismissed were reinstated to public sector jobs.
(AP, 12/24/17)
2017 Dec 25, In Turkey two soldiers were killed and another was wounded in an attack by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the southeastern province of Hakkari. Separately, one soldier was killed and two others were wounded in northern Iraq when a grenade detonated by accident.
(Reuters, 12/25/17)
2017 Dec 25, A judge ejected Ahmet Sik, one of Turkey's most respected investigative journalists from court, and ruled that he and three other suspects should remain in jail, in the controversial trial of staff from the main opposition newspaper.
(AFP, 12/25/17)
2017 Dec 25, Serbia extradited to Turkey a Kurdish political activist, defying a recommendation by the UN Committee against Torture. Cevdet Ayaz had requested asylum in Serbia earlier this year after fleeing Turkey, where he had been sentenced to 15 years in prison over alleged activities against the constitution.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Myanmar police said they would drop pending charges against two journalists working for Turkey's state broadcaster, their interpreter and driver, who were jailed in November for violating an aircraft law by filming with a drone.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Sudan's foreign minister said Turkey will rebuild the ruined Ottoman port city of Suakin on Sudan's Red Sea coast and construct a naval dock to maintain civilian and military vessels. The restoration was agreed during a visit to the ancient port by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 27, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called Syrian Pres. Bashar al-Assad a terrorist and said it was impossible for Syrian peace efforts to continue with him.
(Reuters, 12/27/17)
2017 Dec 27, Turkish prosecutors said they will review legal cases against 11,480 people after finding they had been re-directed unwittingly to the ByLock messaging app linked to suspects in last year's failed coup.
(Reuters, 12/27/17)
2017 Dec 27, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said police had arrest warrants for a total of 171 academics and staff from Istanbul's former Fatih University, which was regarded as having close ties to US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen.
(Reuters, 12/27/17)
2017 Dec 27, Russia said it will supply Turkey with four batteries of S-400 surface-to-air missiles for $2.5 billion under a deal that is almost complete. The deal has caused concern in the West because Turkey is a member of NATO, but the Russian missile system cannot be integrated into NATO's military architecture.
(Reuters, 12/27/17)
2017 Dec 28, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denied that his country is constructing a naval base on Sudan's Red Sea coast, saying Turkey plans to restore Ottoman-era ruins in the area.
(AP, 12/28/17)
2017 Dec 28, Turkey’s state media said police have detained 120 people with suspected links to Islamic State (IS) in the countdown to New Year's Eve, part of a tightening of security one year after a gunman killed 39 people in an Istanbul night club.
(Reuters, 12/28/17)
2017 Dec 28, The United States and Turkey lifted all visa restrictions after Washington said Ankara had kept to assurances no further U.S. mission staff would be targeted for performing official duties, following detention of two earlier this year.
(Reuters, 12/28/17)
2017 Dec 29, Turkey and Russia signed an accord for Moscow to supply Ankara with S-400 surface-to-air missile batteries, finalizing a deal set to deepen military ties between NATO member Turkey and the Kremlin.
(Reuters, 12/29/17)
2017 Dec 29, Turkish police detained 75 suspected Islamic State members in two operations, after arresting about 120 such suspects across Turkey a day earlier, tightening security ahead of the New Year.
(Reuters, 12/29/17)
2017 Dec 29, Turkish media outlets reported that authorities have begun freeing some suspects arrested for involvement in a coup attempt after they found that thousands had been unwittingly re-directed to a messaging app used by the plotters.
(Reuters, 12/29/17)
2017 Dec 31, Turkish authorities, fearing an attack over the New Year, detained 20 suspected IS members in Istanbul, 15 of them foreigners, who are believed to have spent time in Syria or Iraq. Three Syrians, an Iraqi and a Russian Chechen were detained in Ankara.
(AFP, 12/31/17)
2017 Dec 31, Greece dismissed Turkish anger over its decision to grant asylum to a soldier who Ankara accuses of involvement in the abortive coup against President Tayyip Erdogan in July 2016. The soldier was one of eight who fled after the July 15 coup attempt.
(Reuters, 12/31/17)
2018 Jan 3, In NYC Mehmet Hakan Atilla (47), a deputy general manager of Turkey’s state-run Halkbank, was found guilty of five counts including bank fraud. Atilla was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the US. He was acquitted of a money laundering charge.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, It was reported that Turkey's broadcasting watchdog has fined a TV station nearly one million lira ($266,000) over footage of young girls dancing in shorts in a talent competition after viewers complained of "child abuse".
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 5, In France protests over press freedom and the deteriorating state of human rights in Turkey greeted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he arrived in Paris for talks with President Emmanuel Macron.
(AP, 1/5/18)
2018 Jan 6, Germany and Turkey's foreign ministers agreed to pull out all the stops to improve ties that have soured due to disputes over Ankara's post-coup crackdown and the arrests of German citizens in Turkey, but they stressed differences remain.
(Reuters, 1/6/18)
2018 Jan 8, Turkey said it will extend a state of emergency imposed after the July 2016 coup attempt for another three months.
(Reuters, 1/8/18)
2018 Jan 8, Greece won a temporary injunction suspending the asylum status granted to a Turkish soldier who fled with seven others to the country after a botched coup attempt against Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.
(Reuters, 1/8/18)
2018 Jan 11, Turkey’s Constitutional Court ordered the release of journalists Mehmet Altan and Sahin Alpay, ruling their rights had been violated. The two, in prison for more than year, have been accused of links to terrorist groups and attempting to overthrow the government, charges they deny.
(Reuters, 1/11/18)
2018 Jan 11, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will not extradite any suspects to the United States if Washington does not hand over the cleric Ankara blames for orchestrating a failed 2016 military coup.
(Reuters, 1/11/18)
2018 Jan 13, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will oust Kurdish militants from Afrin, northern Syria, as the military shelled the area from across the border.
(AP, 1/13/18)
2018 Jan 13, In northern Turkey a plane with 168 people aboard skidded off a runway onto a seaside cliff after landing at the Trabzon airport late today, but no one was injured in what one passenger called a "miracle".
(AFP, 1/14/18)
2018 Jan 14, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the country will launch a military assault on a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria "in the coming days" and urged the US to support its efforts.
(AP, 1/14/18)
2018 Jan 15, Turkey announced the route for a planned canal that would reduce shipping traffic on the busy Bosphorus Strait and transform the European half of Istanbul into an island.
(Reuters, 1/15/18)
2018 Jan 15, It was reported that the US-led coalition, that has been fighting Islamic State in Syria since 2014, is building a new 30,000-strong border force with its Syrian militia allies in the north. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the US was trying to create a "terror army" and pledged to crush the new force before it came into existence.
(Reuters, 1/15/18)
2018 Jan 17, A Turkish Air Force cargo plane crashed in southwest Turkey during a training flight, killing two pilots and a technician on board.
(AP, 1/17/18)
2018 Jan 19, Turkish artillery fired into Syria's Afrin region in what Ankara said was the start of a military campaign against the Kurdish-controlled area. Turkish newspapers said 20 buses carrying Free Syrian Army rebels crossed from Turkey into a Turkish-controlled part of northern Syria, on Afrin's eastern flank.
(Reuters, 1/19/18)
2018 Jan 20, The Turkish military launched operation "Olive Branch", its second major incursion into Syrian territory during the seven-year civil war. Turkish jets bombed the Kurdish-controlled city of Afrin in northern Syria. Afrin is now home to at least 800,000 civilians, including many who arrived fleeing the fighting in other parts of Syria.
(AP, 1/20/18)(AFP, 1/22/18)
2018 Jan 20, In Turkey eleven people were killed and 44 injured in Eskisehir province when an intercity bus taking families bound for a half-term skiing trip crashed into trees while travelling on a motorway to Bursa.
(AP, 1/20/18)(SSFC, 1/21/18, p.A4)
2018 Jan 21, Turkish warplanes hit 45 targets in northern Syria's Afrin region. Turkish ground forces pushed into Afrin province, after launching artillery and air strikes on a US-backed Kurdish militia it aims to sweep from its border.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 21, In Syria a rebel commander said around 25,000 Free Syrian Army rebels are joining the Turkish military operation in northern Syria with the goal of recapturing Arab towns and villages seized by the YPG Kurdish militia almost two years ago.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 21, A missile fired across the border from Syria hit the Turkish border town of Reyhanli, killing a Syrian national and wounding 32 people.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 21, An avalanche in Turkey's southeastern province of Bitlis killed five soldiers and injured another twelve during a military operation.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 21, France called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over Syria following a Turkish incursion into northern Syria's Afrin province.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 22, Turkey intensified its offensive against Kurdish militia targets in Syria as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed there would be no stepping back in a campaign that has stoked concern among Ankara's allies and neighbors.
(AFP, 1/22/18)
2018 Jan 22, A 2nd Turkish soldier was killed in action in Turkey's military offensive on a Kurdish-held enclave in northern Syria. Turkish shelling killed three people in the Syrian town of Ras al-Ayn.
(AP, 1/23/18)(Reuters, 1/23/18)
2018 Jan 22, In Cyprus dozens of people waving the Turkish flag smashed windows and hurled stones, eggs and other items at the office of Afrika, A left-wing Turkish Cypriot newspaper in Nicosia. Editor Sener Levent said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had incited supporters to attack the publication's office because the paper had criticized Ankara's military offensive in Syria.
(AP, 1/22/18)
2018 Jan 22, The spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia alliance said the death toll from a Turkish offensive in the Afrin region of northwestern Syria stands at 18 civilians, including women and children.
(Reuters, 1/22/18)
2018 Jan 23, Turkey arrested dozens of people overnight for "spreading terrorist propaganda" about its Syrian incursion, raising to nearly 100 the number of such detainees, including politicians, journalists and activists.
(Reuters, 1/23/18)
2018 Jan 23, Turkey shelled Qamishli and other towns along the Syrian-Turkish border as Turkish forces press into a Syrian Kurdish enclave for the fourth straight day. 24 civilians, 24 Kurdish fighters, and 25 Turkish-backed Syrian militiamen have been killed in the clashes in Afrin since January 20.
(AP, 1/23/18)
2018 Jan 24, Turkey's president vowed to expand its operation against Kurdish forces in northern Syria toward the town of Manbij, which would bring Turkish troops and their Syrian allies closer to US forces supporting the Kurds against the Islamic State group.
(AP, 1/24/18)
2018 Jan 24, In Cyprus some 350 Kurds burned images of the presidents of Turkey and Russia as they marched on the US and Russian embassies in Nicosia to protest Turkey's "invasion" of a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria.
(AP, 1/24/18)
2018 Jan 24, Two rockets fired from Syria’s Afrin region hit a mosque and a home in the Turkish border town of Kilis. At least 13 people were hurt.
(Reuters, 1/24/18)
2018 Jan 25, Turkey and Austria vowed to work to improve relations battered by the opposition of the new conservative far-right Austrian government coalition to Ankara ever joining the EU. Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl held talks in Istanbul with Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, in the first high-level contact between the two sides since the new Austrian government came to power.
(AFP, 1/25/18)
2018 Jan 25, It was reported that Germany's caretaker government has decided to put on hold any decision on upgrading German-made tanks in Turkey as requested by its NATO ally Ankara.
(Reuters, 1/25/18)
2018 Jan 26, Turkish teachers Nuriye Gulmen and Semih Ozakca ended an almost 11-month hunger strike, vowing legal action to get their jobs back after their appeal against dismissal under the government's state of emergency decree was rejected.
(Reuters, 1/26/18)
2018 Jan 27, Turkey said the United States has pledged to stop supplying weapons to a Kurdish militia in Syria, calling on Washington to immediately remove its troops from a Syrian town of Manbij that Turkish forces plan to target.
(Reuters, 1/27/18)
2018 Jan 28, Turkey seized a strategic outpost from Kurdish militia in Syria. Turkish air strikes killed three people in one family early in Afrin. President Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey will "clean" its entire border with Syria in a sign that the Turkish offensive on the Syrian Kurdish YPG group in northern Syria's Afrin region could be extended further. The Syrian government said that Turkish shelling of the Kurdish-held Afrin region of Syria had seriously damaged the ancient temple of Ain Dara.
(AFP, 1/28/18)(Reuters, 1/28/18)
2018 Jan 29, Turkey’s government said more than 300 people have been detained for social media posts criticizing its military offensive in Syria, a day after President Tayyip Erdogan accused doctors who opposed the campaign of betrayal.
(Reuters, 1/29/18)
2018 Jan 30, Turkey detained 11 top members of the country's main medical association, including its chief, in a nationwide sweep after they criticized Ankara's offensive against Kurdish militia in Syria.
(AFP, 1/30/18)
2018 Jan 30, The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) said German-Kurdish player Deniz Naki (28), previously convicted of support for Kurdish separatists in Turkey, has been banned for life and charged 273,000 liras ($72,000) for "separatist and ideological propaganda".
(AP, 1/30/18)
2018 Jan 31, An Istanbul court ordered the release of Taner Kilic, the head of rights group Amnesty International in Turkey, who had been held on terror charges that his supporters long dismissed as "baseless".
(AFP, 1/31/18)
2018 Jan 31, A Turkish court sentenced two Syrians, Atala el-Hasan el-Mayyup and Fevzi Muhammed Ali, and a Turkish man, Halil Dervis, to multiple life sentences in connection with a bombing that killed 12 German tourists in Istanbul on Jan 12, 2016.
(Reuters, 1/31/18)
2018 Jan 31, In Syria the head of the Afrin city hospital supplies are dwindling in the main hospital, which has taken in 48 people killed and 86 wounded in recent Turkish attacks. Kurdish authorities in Afrin district called for Bashar al-Assad's government to send troops to help defend them from a six-day-old Turkish assault. Rockets fired from northern Syria into the Turkish border town of Reyhanli killed a teenage girl and wounded another person. The Kurdish militia accused Turkey of firing Katyusha rockets into Afrin, and reported that at least 12 people were wounded from the shelling that targeted the neighborhood of Ashrafieh.
(AP, 1/31/18)(Reuters, 1/31/18)
2018 Feb 1, A Turkish court overturned its decision to release the chairman of the local arm of Amnesty International, in a case that has caused international outrage.
(Reuters, 2/1/18)
2018 Feb 1, Syrian government forces pushed into an opposition stronghold in Idlib province, as Turkish troops and allied Syrian fighters battled with Kurdish militants in a nearby area. Syria’s government described a Turkish offensive in the Afrin region as an illegal "aggression" and said it would deal with it accordingly.
(AP, 2/1/18)(Reuters, 2/1/18)
2018 Feb 2, Turkish authorities detained 13 people for supporting the country's main medical association whose top members are in custody for criticizing Ankara's offensive against a Syrian Kurdish militia.
(AFP, 2/2/18)
2018 Feb 2, In Turkey two people were killed after rockets were fired at two border towns in Hatay province from the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin across the border.
(AP, 2/2/18)
2018 Feb 2, Weekly magazine Der Spiegel reported that Germany has granted asylum to four Turkish soldiers, including one Ankara accuses of playing a leading role in the failed military coup of July 2016, in a new setback for relations between the two countries.
(Reuters, 2/2/18)
2018 Feb 2, A Greek court ruled against the extradition of a Turkish man wanted by Ankara over links to a banned militant group blamed for suicide bombings in Turkey. The court said Mehmet Dogan (60), although still being held in Greece, had been granted political asylum in France.
(AP, 2/2/18)
2018 Feb 3, The Turkish military said two of its soldiers have been killed in Syria and a third was killed on the Turkish side of the border in an attack by Syrian Kurdish militiamen. Five more Turkish soldiers were killed in a single attack on a tank.
(AP, 2/3/18)(AFP, 2/3/18)(SSFC, 2/4/18, p.A4)
2018 Feb 3, Human Rights Watch said Turkish guards at the border with Syria are indiscriminately shooting at and summarily returning asylum seekers attempting to cross into Turkey.
(Reuters, 2/3/18)
2018 Feb 5, Turkey’s government said 573 people have been detained so far for social media posts and protests criticizing its military offensive in Syria.
(Reuters, 2/5/18)
2018 Feb 5, Turkey’s army said it has set up a military post southwest of the Syrian city of Aleppo, the deepest position they have established so far inside northwest Syria under a deal with Russia and Iran aimed at reducing violence there.
(Reuters, 2/5/18)
2018 Feb 5, In Lebanon hundreds of Kurds protested against Turkey's military offensive in Syria's Kurdish enclave of Afrin.
(AFP, 2/5/18)
2018 Feb 5, In northwestern Syria a Turkish soldier was killed in a rocket and mortar attack as Turkish forces were setting up a military post in Idlib province, the largest remaining stronghold of opposition to Pres. Bashar al-Assad.
(Reuters, 2/6/18)
2018 Feb 5, At the Vatican Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Pope Francis to discuss the status of Jerusalem, human rights and refugees while Kurdish and Italian protesters clashed with police a short distance from Vatican City.
(AP, 2/5/18)
2018 Feb 6, In Syria shells hit a camp for internally displaced Syrians near the Syrian-Turkey border in Idlib province, killing at least one person. The Kurdish YPG said in a statement posted on its social media networks that Turkey was behind the attack and that accusations that the YPG had carried it out were lies.
(Reuters, 2/6/18)
2018 Feb 7, A Turkish court sentenced 64 military academy officers and trainees to life in prison for involvement in a failed military coup in 2016. Another 100 defendants were acquitted.
(Reuters, 2/7/18)
2018 Feb 7, A senior Turkish official said that the country has fulfilled all 72 requirements set by the EU to secure visa-free travel for Turkish citizens to the 28-nation bloc.
(AP, 2/7/18)
2018 Feb 9, The United States said it had imposed sanctions on three people and three companies in the Philippines, Turkey and Somalia that supported the Islamic State militant group, including a business that procured parts for unmanned aircraft.
(Reuters, 2/9/18)
2018 Feb 9, It was reported that Turkey has launched a domestic messaging app to rival Facebook's popular WhatsApp Messenger service, raising concerns among government critics that Ankara could use the new platform to tighten surveillance and bolster an 18-month-old crackdown.
(Reuters, 2/9/18)
2018 Feb 9, Turkish warplanes bombarded Kurdish militia targets in Syria's Afrin region. A monitor said the strikes killed seven fighters and two civilians. A Kurdish official and top member of Afrin's civil administration, Hevi Mustafa, said the Turkish offensive had killed 160 people so far.
(Reuters, 2/9/18)
2018 Feb 9, Turkish warships stopped a rig belonging to the Italian energy firm ENI as it headed toward an area southeast of Cyprus.
(AP, 2/11/18)
2018 Feb 10, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said Turkish police have detained 48 suspected Islamic State members who were preparing to launch an attack.
(Reuters, 2/10/18)
2018 Feb 10, A Turkish military helicopter was "downed" and two soldiers killed in northern Syria during Ankara's offensive on Syrian Kurdish militia there. Kurdish fighters downed the chopper in Raju, northwest Afrin.
(AP, 2/10/18)
2018 Feb 10, In Syria 11 Turkish soldiers were killed. Two of them were aboard a Turkish attack helicopter that crashed while on a mission over Afrin.
(AP, 2/11/18)
2018 Feb 11, Turkey continued its operations in northern Syria, targeting YPG areas with air and artillery strikes. Turkey's military announced the death of another soldier in its operation against a Syrian Kurdish militia. The announcement brought to 31 the number of Turkish soldiers killed since the operation started on Jan. 20.
(AP, 2/11/18)
2018 Feb 12, A dispute between Turkey and the United States over control of the northern Syrian town of Manbij has put the NATO allies on opposing sides of the conflict's front line, deepening a diplomatic rift ahead of a visit to Turkey by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
(Reuters, 2/12/18)
2018 Feb 13, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a warning to neighboring Greece, Cyprus and international companies exploring for gas in the eastern Mediterranean not to "step out of line" and encroach on Turkey's rights.
(AP, 2/13/18)
2018 Feb 13, Turkey's anti-terrorism police detained Serpil Kemalbay, a former leader of the country's pro-Kurdish party, for opposing Ankara's military offensive in Syria. This came days after prosecutors issued detention warrants for her and 16 other activists.
(AP, 2/13/18)
2018 Feb 13, In northwestern Turkey three people died and four were missing after a refugee boat carrying eight people capsized in the Maritsa river that flows between Turkey and Greece.
(AP, 2/13/18)
2018 Feb 13, Shells hit the center of a Syrian Kurdish enclave where Turkey is carrying out an offensive, landing near the area's only hospital and killing one person.
(AP, 2/13/18)
2018 Feb 16, In Turkey US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced the creation of new "mechanisms" to improve relationships, starting with the question of American support for Kurdish rebels in northern Syria.
(AP, 2/16/18)
2018 Feb 16, A Turkish court sentenced six journalists, including two prominent brothers, to life in jail for aiding plotters of a 2016 failed coup, a sharp turnaround after the country's highest court ordered one of the men released. Mehmet Altan, an economics professor and journalist, and his brother Ahmet, also a journalist, were accused of giving coded messages on a television talk show a day before the abortive military putsch. Nazli Ilicak, another well known journalist, was also among the sentenced.
(Reuters, 2/16/18)
2018 Feb 16, A Turkish court freed German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel pending trial after indicting him for alleged security offences.
(Reuters, 2/16/18)
2018 Feb 16, In Syria six civilians suffered breathing difficulties and other symptoms indicative of poison gas inhalation after an attack launched by Turkey on the Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin.
(AP, 2/17/18)
2018 Feb 19, In Greece seventeen Turkish nationals landed on a beach on an island close to Turkey. Greek media said they had asked for political asylum.
(Reuters, 2/20/18)
2018 Feb 19, Turkey's foreign minister warned that Turkey's military would confront any Syrian government forces entering the northwest Afrin province to protect Kurdish YPG fighters.
(Reuters, 2/19/18)
2018 Feb 19, Syrian media reported that militias allied to the Syrian government will enter the Afrin region to help Kurdish forces end a Turkish offensive.
(Reuters, 2/19/18)
2018 Feb 20, Turkey's state-run news agency said pro-Syrian government forces have turned back 10 km (6 miles) from Afrin city following shelling by the Turkish military.
(AP, 2/20/18)
2018 Feb 22, Turkey said it will not allow Cyprus' government to carry out a "unilateral" gas search off the east Mediterranean island as long as breakaway Turkish Cypriots don't also reap the benefits.
(AP, 2/22/18)
2018 Feb 22, The Turkish army struck a convoy entering Syria's Kurdish-held Afrin region, which Ankara said carried fighters and weapons, but Kurdish forces said was made up of civilians entering with food and medicine. At least ten people were wounded and one passenger was killed.
(Reuters, 2/23/18)
2018 Feb 22, In northern Syria hundreds of people gathered in the main square in the town of Afrin celebrating the arrival of hundreds of pro-government fighters into the area. Turkish warplanes could be heard flying overhead making some of those gathering to flee the area.
(AP, 2/22/18)
2018 Feb 23, In Turkey a court in Istanbul ruled that three academics who signed a peace petition committed terror propaganda. The court originally sentenced the three to 15-month prison terms but revised the sentences to five years of probation because of the defendants' good behavior and lack of prior records.
(AP, 2/23/18)
2018 Feb 24, Czech authorities arrested Saleh Muslim (67), a top Kurdish politician, at the behest of Turkey, where a court has charged him with sedition.
(Reuters, 2/25/18)
2018 Feb 25, An Iraqi judiciary spokesman said a local court has sentenced 16 Turkish women to death by hanging for joining Islamic State. All the verdicts are subject to appeal.
(Reuters, 2/25/18)
2018 Feb 26, Turkey formally asked for the extradition of one of the most prominent leaders of the Syrian Kurds, who was detained by Czech police at the weekend at Ankara's request.
(AFP, 2/26/18)
2018 Feb 27, A Czech court released prominent Syrian Kurdish leader Saleh Muslim, wanted by Turkey on terror charges, prompting outrage in Ankara which said the move showed "support for terrorism".
(AFP, 2/27/18)
2018 Feb 28, Turkish television anchor Ahmet Keser was charged with inciting hatred over comments defending Turkey's Syria operation, saying if the military had wanted to kill civilians it would have started with staunchly-secular areas in Istanbul.
(AFP, 2/28/18)
2018 Feb, In Turkey a man entered a child’s house in Adana during a wedding outside the home and reportedly raped a sleeping girl (4). He was beaten as he fled unclothed and relatives of the girl tried to burn his house down. The suspect was arrested. The attack ignited a national discourse about child abuse.
(SFC, 3/5/18, p.A4)
2018 Mar 1, Turkey’s state broadcaster faced accusations of imposing censorship reminiscent of a military coup after admitting it had banned over 200 songs from being played on air.
(AFP, 3/1/18)
2018 Mar 1, Armenia scrapped a peace agreement it signed with Turkey in 2009 in what turned out to be a failed attempt to normalize relations between the two countries.
(Reuters, 3/1/18)
2018 Mar 2, Turkey arrested two Greek soldiers for allegedly entering a Turkish military zone and on suspicion of attempted espionage. Greece said the two soldiers on a patrol of the Greek-Turkish border accidentally strayed into Turkey because of bad weather.
(AP, 3/2/18)
2018 Mar 2, The Arab world's largest private broadcaster stopped showing Turkish television programs, as tensions rose between Ankara and some Arab states. Dubai-based MBC Group is which is controlled by Saudi businessman Walid al-Ibrahim and other Saudi investors.
(Reuters, 3/5/18)
2018 Mar 2, Turkey requested that German authorities detain and extradite wanted Syrian Kurdish politician Salih Muslim, the former co-chair of the Democratic Union Party, or PYD.
(AP, 3/5/18)
2018 Mar 3, Turkey's PM Binali Yildirim said Turkish troops have captured a strategic village in the Kurdish-held enclave in northwestern Syria, tightening the grip on the area in the sixth week of its offensive on the area. Turkish air strikes killed at least 36 pro-regime fighters backing Kurdish militia in Syria's northwestern Kurdish enclave of Afrin.
(AP, 3/3/18)(AFP, 3/3/18)
2018 Mar 5, Turkish police detained four Iraqi nationals on suspicion of planning an attack on the US Embassy in Ankara, hours after the mission temporarily closed due to a security threat.
(Reuters, 3/5/18)
2018 Mar 5, In northwest Syria at least 13 civilians were killed in Turkish shelling on the town of Jindaris, as Turkish forces try to press their advances on the Kurdish-held Afrin enclave. Another 3 civilians were killed in Turkish shelling near Rajo, also in Afrin.
(AP, 3/5/18)
2018 Mar 6, Greece rejected a Turkish extradition request for Naci Ozpolat (48), the second of nine Turkish citizens who were arrested on terror charges in Athens, days before a visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AP, 3/6/18)
2018 Mar 6, In Syria a US-backed alliance of Syrian fighters announced it would redeploy around 1,700 members from front lines against the Islamic State group to the Kurdish enclave in Afrin under Turkish attack.
(AFP, 3/6/18)
2018 Mar 6, Turkey said it is working to set up camps to settle 170,000 displaced people near the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib and in Turkish-controlled areas to the east of it.
(Reuters, 3/6/18)
2018 Mar 7, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani agreed in a phone call to speed up efforts for the implementation of a ceasefire in Syria’s eastern Ghouta region.
(Reuters, 3/7/18)
2018 Mar 7, Turkey’s police in the southern city of Adana detained 13 Islamic State suspects, including 12 Syrian nationals, who were allegedly plotting attacks on a number of buildings in the city, including the US Consulate.
(AP, 3/7/18)
2018 Mar 8, Turkish media reported that the government has asked Sweden to arrest Syrian Kurdish leader Saleh Muslim, Ankara’s third attempt to get a European state to detain and extradite him in just over a week. A Swedish source said Muslim had been in Stockholm but had already left the country.
(Reuters, 3/8/18)
2018 Mar 8, Turkish troops and allied Syrian opposition forces entered the town of Jinderes, in the southwest of the Afrin enclave, where they were engaged in street clashes with Syrian Kurdish forces.
(AP, 3/8/18)
2018 Mar 9, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey's military and rebel allies have besieged the northern Syrian town of Afrin and were nearing its town center. Turkey now controls five out of seven of the settlements in the northwest Afrin region.
(Reuters, 3/9/18)
2018 Mar 9, Turkish state news said prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for 243 people, including 92 teachers, in operations targeting suspected followers of the Muslim cleric the government blames for a failed 2016 coup.
(Reuters, 3/9/18)
2018 Mar 9, Turkey’s highest court overruled a five-year jail sentence against prominent journalist Can Dundar, saying he should face up to 20 years in prison on espionage charges. Dundar and his colleague from the Cumhuriyet newspaper, Erdem Gul, were both sentenced in 2016 to five years in prison for publishing a video purporting show Turkey's intelligence agency trucking weapons into Syria. They were later released pending appeal.
(Reuters, 3/9/18)
2018 Mar 9, Turkish Airlines confirmed plans to buy at least 50 wide-body aircraft from Airbus and Boeing as the flag carrier ramps up its ambitions ahead of a move to a new Istanbul airport.
(AFP, 3/10/18)
2018 Mar 10, Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels battling Kurdish militia in northern Syria advanced to less than two km from the flashpoint town of Afrin. Turkey and allied Syrian opposition factions now held 60 percent of the Afrin region.
(AP, 3/10/18)
2018 Mar 10, Syrian government forces succeeded in their deepest push yet into the eastern suburbs of Damascus, cutting off a major highway that made it hard to move between three parts of the rebel-held area, and inflicting a major blow to opposition fighters who have vowed not to surrender.
(AP, 3/10/18)
2018 Mar 11, Turkish warplanes reportedly destroyed at least 18 targets belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/11/18)
2018 Mar 11, In Iran a private Turkish jet carrying a group of young women flying from the United Arab Emirates to Istanbul crashed into a mountain in Shahr-e Kord, killing all eleven people on board.
(SFC, 3/12/18, p.A2)
2018 Mar 12, In Syria thousands of people fled the northwestern town of Afrin as Turkish troops and Turkey-backed opposition fighters inch closer to completely besieging it.
(AP, 3/12/18)
2018 Mar 13, Turkey's military said Turkish troops and allied Syrian opposition fighters have begun a siege of the Syrian Kurdish-held town of Afrin.
(AP, 3/13/18)
2018 Mar 13, Turkey's parliament passed a law revamping electoral regulations, backing legislation the opposition said could open the door to fraud and jeopardize the fairness of 2019 polls, and triggering a brawl on the floor of the chamber.
(Reuters, 3/13/18)
2018 Mar 13, In central Turkey a passenger bus hit a truck and burst into flames, killing at least 11 people, including a number of children.
(AP, 3/13/18)
2018 Mar 14, Turkey turned up the heat on Syria's Afrin, launching deadly strikes on Damascus loyalists deployed around the Kurdish enclave and closing in on its main city. Turkish bombing raids killed 10 fighters loyal to the regime.
(AFP, 3/14/18)
2018 Mar 14, In Turkey Alessandro Fiori (33) of Milan was last spotted on a CCTV camera in Istanbul's busy Beyoglu district. His phone, wallet and other belongings were found later in a hotel trash bin.
(AP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 14, A Greek court rejected a Turkish extradition request for Halaz Secer (21). She was among nine suspected Turkish militants arrested in Athens ahead of an official visit by Turkey's president late last year.
(AP, 3/14/18)
2018 Mar 15, In northern Syria hundreds of residents of the Kurdish enclave under Turkish assault trickled out of Afrin's center toward neighboring villages amid an intensifying offensive. Senior Kurdish official Omar Alloush, who played a key role with the United States in implementing its post-Islamic State policy in northern Syria, was found dead in his apartment in northern Syria.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 16, A Greek court dismissed a Turkish demand for the handover of eight Turkish soldiers accused by Ankara of having played a direct role in the abortive coup against President Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.
(Reuters, 3/16/18)
2018 Mar 16, In Syria thousands of civilians fled from besieged enclaves on opposite ends of the country as two major battles in the multi-sided civil war entered decisive phases. Air strikes killed at least 76 people in eastern Ghouta. Turkish and allied Syrian rebel forces shelled the northern Kurdish-held town of Afrin heavily, killing 36 people and forcing 2,500 people to flee. A Turkish bombing raid struck the Afrin's main hospital, killing 16 civilians. Turkey's military denied hitting the hospital.
(AP, 3/16/18)(AFP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, In Turkey prominent journalist Sahin Alpay (74), accused of supporting Turkey's failed coup, was released from prison after a court ruling. The Anadolu news agency said he has been banned from leaving his house and the country.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 18, Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies swept into the northwestern Syrian town of Afrin, raising their flags in the town center and declaring full control after an eight-week campaign to drive out Kurdish YPG forces. The Kurdish administration of the Afrin region indicated that Kurdish-dominated forces fighting Turkey-backed groups in the area will shift from direct confrontation to guerrilla tactics.
(Reuters, 3/18/18)
2018 Mar 19, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to expand Turkey's Syria campaign to other Kurdish-held areas up to the Iraqi border, a day after ousting Kurdish militia from their former enclave of Afrin.
(AFP, 3/19/18)
2018 Mar 20, Turkish authorities detained more than 100 suspected Kurdish militants on suspicion of planning illegal demonstrations or plotting attacks for the Newroz spring festival.
(Reuters, 3/20/18)
2018 Mar 20, Turkey's state-run news agency reported that American pastor Andrew Brunson has been charged in Turkey with engaging in espionage and having links to terror groups, crimes that carry a potential sentence of up to 35 years in prison.
(AP, 3/20/18)
2018 Mar 20, The UN called on Turkey to end its 20-month-old state of emergency and accused Ankara of mass arrests, arbitrary sackings and other abuses.
(Reuters, 3/20/18)
2018 Mar 21, Turkish lawmakers passed a new law giving the communications watchdog the power to block internet broadcasts, raising fears of a new curb on freedom of expression.
(AFP, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 22, Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper reported that singer and actress Zuhal Olcay has been sentenced to 10 months in prison for insulting President Tayyip Erdogan during a performance in 2016.
(Reuters, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 22, Turkish jets attacked suspected Kurdish rebel camps across the border in northern Iraq, in an operation that reportedly "neutralized" nine militants.
(AP, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 22, In northern Syria three Turkish soldiers were killed in an explosion in the town of Afrin during a mission to clear it of explosives believed to have been left behind by retreating Syrian Kurdish fighters.
(AP, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 23, Turkish authorities began rounding up 155 suspected followers of the cleric Fethullah Gulen. The roundup included warrants for 55 employees in 13 provinces of Isik Publications, a publishing company that printed Gulen's books. Warrants were also issued for 38 former police officers in six provinces who were accused of being members of Gulen's purported network. Police also targeted 62 executives of five labor unions in a third operation spread across seven provinces.
(Reuters, 3/23/18)
2018 Mar 23, Turkey opened its airspace to flights from northern Iraq's Erbil. Flights from Sulaimaniya were not included in the plan.
(Reuters, 3/23/18)
2018 Mar 23, Gabon authorities in Libreville arrested three Turkish nationals, who were directors of schools linked to Gulen. They were soon returned to Turkey in an operation led by the Turkish intelligence agency.
(AP, 4/10/18)
2018 Mar 23, The Kurdish PKK rebel group said it is withdrawing from the town of Sinjar in northern Iraq, a move that follows threats of attack from Turkey.
(AP, 3/23/18)
2018 Mar 27, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades hailed as "unprecedented" the EU's condemnation of Turkey for blocking his government's search for offshore oil and gas.
(AFP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 27, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi said government armed forces will prevent Kurdish militants based in northern Iraq from staging cross-border attacks against Turkey.
(AP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 29, Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu said that six Turkish nationals arrested in Kosovo over links to schools financed by the Fethullah Gulen movement that Ankara blames for a failed 2016 coup have been extradited to Turkey.
(Reuters, 3/28/18)
2018 Mar 29, Turkish newspaper Haberturk said the body of Alessandro Fiori (33) of Milan has been found washed ashore in Istanbul's Sarayburnu district, two weeks after he went missing. It appeared Fiori had received a blow to the head but that it was not clear if he had been struck or had suffered a fall.
(AP, 3/28/18)
2018 Mar 29, In eastern Turkey a road accident on a highway linking Igdir province with neighboring Kars province killed 17 people, mostly migrants, who had crossed into the country illegally.
(AP, 3/30/18)
2018 Mar 30, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey has started preparations to clear northern Syria's Ayn al-Arab, Ras al-Ain and Tel Abyad regions from militants up to the Iraqi border, adding that it would also clear militants from Iraq.
(Reuters, 3/30/18)
2018 Apr 2, Turkey's Haberturk newspaper said the government has ordered the arrest of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and seven others over the 2016 assassination of the Russian envoy to Turkey, a day before Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin visits the country.
(Reuters, 4/2/18)
2018 Apr 3, In Turkey Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan remotely gave the go-ahead for the construction of the $20 billion Russian-built Akkuyu nuclear plant on the Mediterranean coast at Akkuyu.
(AP, 4/3/18)
2018 Apr 4, Turkey, Iran and Russia pledged to accelerate efforts to bring stability to Syria, following a summit meeting in Ankara.
(Reuters, 4/4/18)
2018 Apr 4, Greece's defense minister described Turkey as an "enemy that continues to provoke us" and announced that he has ordered additional military personnel to move to islands in the eastern Aegean Sea.
(AP, 4/4/18)
2018 Apr 5, In Turkey a gunman shot dead four academics at their university whom he saw as supporters of a Muslim cleric accused by the government of being behind a failed coup in 2016.
(Reuters, 4/5/18)
2018 Apr 5, A top Turkish official said the country's intelligence agency has snatched around 80 Turkish citizens who the government wanted for alleged links to the country's 2016 failed coup in covert operations in 18 countries.
(AP, 4/5/18)
2018 Apr 5, Shares in Turkey's majority state-owned Halkbank rose as much as 18 percent after US prosecutors sought a 20 year jail term for a Halkbank executive convicted of helping Iran evade US sanctions.
(Reuters, 4/5/18)
2018 Apr 5, Cyprus said it will lodge protests over the construction of Turkey's first nuclear power plant a few dozen kilometers from the island nation. One worry raised is that the Akkuyu area, where the plant is to be built, is earthquake-prone.
(AP, 4/5/18)
2018 Apr 7, Turkey's interior ministry said authorities will deport close to 600 illegal Afghan migrants in eastern Turkey back to Kabul this weekend.
(Reuters, 4/7/18)
2018 Apr 7, Turkey's military said some 108 Kurdish militants have been "neutralized" in operations targeting southeast Turkey and northern Iraq over the past week.
(AP, 4/7/18)
2018 Apr 13, A Turkish court sentenced 21 people to life sentences in prison over the so-called "post-modern" coup that in 1997 toppled Turkey's first Islamist-led government. Among those who were handed life sentences were Gen. Ismail Hakki Karadayi, who was chief of general staff between 1994 and 1998, and his deputy at the time, Gen. Cevik Bir.
(Reuters, 4/13/18)
2018 Apr 13, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said prosecutors have ordered the detention of 140 people including serving army officers over alleged links to the US-based preacher accused of orchestrating an attempted coup in 2016.
(Reuters, 4/13/18)
2018 Apr 16, Supporters of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) staged sit-in demonstrations across all of the country's 81 provinces to protest the state of emergency that was declared after a coup attempt in 2016.
(AP, 4/16/18)
2018 Apr 17, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani agreed in a telephone call to maintain the cooperation between Turkey, Iran and Russia for a political solution to the conflict in Syria.
(Reuters, 4/17/18)
2018 Apr 18, Turkish parliament approved the extension for another three months of the state of emergency. The main opposition party called for an immediate end to a state of emergency imposed in the wake of a 2016 coup attempt, after President Tayyip Erdogan declared presidential and parliamentary elections would be brought forward by more than a year.
(Reuters, 4/18/18)
2018 Apr 18, Turkey's Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli said authorities have identified 3,000 people within the armed forces believed to be linked to the cleric Ankara blames for a 2016 failed coup, adding the individuals would be dismissed in the coming days.
(Reuters, 4/18/18)
2018 Apr 19, Turkey's parliament said it had stripped two lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish opposition HDP of their parliamentary status, further reducing the party's strength in the assembly two months ahead of elections.
(Reuters, 4/19/18)
2018 Apr 19, Greece's highest court approved the release from custody of one of eight Turkish servicemen who have applied for asylum in Greece after fleeing Turkey following a failed 2016 coup in the neighboring country.
(AP, 4/19/18)
2018 Apr 22, More than a dozen Turkish opposition lawmakers switched parties in a show of solidarity as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rivals scramble to challenge him in a surprise snap election that could solidify his rule. The snap presidential and parliamentary elections called for June 24 last week caught Turkey off guard.
(AP, 4/22/18)
2018 Apr 25, Turkish opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet's chairman Akin Atalay was released after serving over 500 days in prison. The following day he joined a protest for free press and justice outside an Istanbul court.
(AFP, 4/26/18)
2018 Apr 28, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said authorities have detained 63 people suspected of links to a network accused of orchestrating a failed coup and were hunting for 40 others.
(Reuters, 4/28/18)
2018 Apr 28, In Moscow Russian, Iranian and Turkish foreign ministers talked up their successes in brokering a political solution to the Syrian conflict.
(AFP, 4/28/18)
2018 May 1, In Turkey police detained dozens of demonstrators during May Day events around Istanbul, most of them protesters who tried to march toward the city's symbolic main square in defiance of a ban.
(AP, 5/1/18)
2018 May 2, Turkey lashed out at a debt downgrade by ratings agency S&P as dubiously timed less than two months ahead of elections and based on lackluster analysis.
(AFP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 3, Turkish caricaturist Musa Kart (64) of the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, facing more than three years in jail, won the International Press Drawing Prize, an award given every two years to leading cartoonists, especially those working under authoritarian regimes.
(Reuters, 5/3/18)
2018 May 5, In Turkey four opposition parties announced a political alliance ahead of the country's June 24 national election, aiming to mount a meaningful challenge to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party.
(AP, 5/5/18)
2018 May 6, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised new military operations against Kurdish militants along its border in Syria and Iraq as he presented his election manifesto.
(AP, 5/6/18)
2018 May 7, In Turkey jailed US pastor Andrew Brunson denied terrorism and spying charges in a court and called them "shameful and disgusting".
(Reuters, 5/7/18)
2018 May 16, A US judge ordered Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla to spend 32 months in prison, including 14 months he has already served after his arrest last year during a business trip to New York on behalf of Halkbank. The sentence means Atilla can return to Turkey in about a year.
(AP, 5/17/18)
2018 May 18, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted Muslim leaders for an Istanbul summit to condemn Israel over the killing of Gaza protesters.
(AFP, 5/18/18)
2018 May 20, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Bosnia to hold his only election rally outside Turkey, while other EU countries have banned such events ahead of Ankara's presidential and parliamentary elections next month.
(AFP, 5/20/18)
2018 May 21, A Turkish court sentenced 104 people to life in prison for involvement in a failed military coup in 2016. Another 21 people were given 20 years in prison for insulting the president, while 31 others were sentenced to 10 years and six months for "membership of a terrorist organization".
(Reuters, 5/21/18)
2018 May 23, Turkey's embattled lira lost over three percent in value to hit new historic lows against the US dollar. Over the last month alone, the lira has lost over 18 percent in value against the dollar as fears grow over the health of the Turkish economy which is dogged by double-digit inflation despite high growth.
(AFP, 5/23/18)
2018 May 24, In Turkey a blast at a state-owned explosives factory on the outskirts of Ankara killed one worker and injured four others.
(AP, 5/24/18)
2018 May 24, In Turkey rapper Sercan Ipekcigolu (27), better-known as rapper "Ezhel," was detained by narcotics police in Istanbul late today and was later charged with encouraging the use of drugs.
(AP, 5/25/18)
2018 May 24, The United States imposed sanctions on several Iranian and Turkish companies and a number of aircraft in a move targeting four Iranian airlines.
(Reuters, 5/24/18)
2018 May 25, Turkish police said at least 51 suspected Islamic State militants have been detained in simultaneous raids around Istanbul.
(AP, 5/25/18)
2018 May 26, In Syria's northeastern city of Qamishli hundreds demonstrated in response to a call by Kurdish authorities for global protests against Turkey's military presence in the flashpoint Afrin region.
(AFP, 5/26/18)
2018 May 30, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said Turkey and the United States agreed on a three-step plan for withdrawing the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia from Syria's Manbij.
(Reuters, 5/30/18)
2018 Jun 1, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the ride hailing app Uber is "finished" in Turkey, following intense pressure from Istanbul taxi drivers for the service to be banned.
(AFP, 6/2/18)
2018 Jun 2, Turkey's military said overnight air strikes by Turkish warplanes had "neutralized" at least 15 militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq as well as in Turkey's eastern provinces of Tunceli and Siirt. Two Turkish soldiers were reported killed and one soldier severely wounded after a rocket attack by the PKK to a military construction vehicle in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 6/2/18)
2018 Jun 3, Turkey's state media reported that nine migrants, including six children, seeking to head to Europe in a speedboat drowned today when their vessel sank off Turkey's Mediterranean coast. Five were rescued and one person was still missing.
(AFP, 6/3/18)
2018 Jun 4, Turkey and the United States endorsed a roadmap for the northern Syrian city of Manbij and underlined their mutual commitment to its implementation following a meeting of their foreign ministers in Washington.
(Reuters, 6/4/18)
2018 Jun 4, A Greek lawyer representing eight Turkish servicemen who fled to Greece seeking asylum after the 2016 failed coup in Turkey says all his clients have been freed pending a ruling on their applications.
(AP, 6/4/18)
2018 Jun 7, Turkey said it has suspended its migrant readmission deal with Greece, days after Greece released from prison four Turkish soldiers who fled there after a 2016 attempted coup.
(Reuters, 6/7/18)
2018 Jun 7, Turkey's central bank increased its key interest rate for the third time in under two months to fight inflation and support the currency. The rate rose from 16.5 percent to 17.75 percent.
(AP, 6/7/18)
2018 Jun 7, Turkey said it has stopped filling the Ilisu dam on the Tigris River until July to help Iraq overcome water shortages.
(Reuters, 6/7/18)
2018 Jun 8, Turkey's defense minister said Turkish and US soldiers will patrol the key northern Syrian town of Manbij as part of a deal reached this week for the withdrawal of a Syrian Kurdish militia.
(AP, 6/9/18)
2018 Jun 8, Austria's right-wing government announced plans to shut seven mosques in what it said was "just the beginning" of a push against radical Islam and foreign funding of religious groups. Austria said it could expel up to 60 Turkish-funded imams and their families and would shut down seven mosques as part of a crackdown on "political Islam," triggering fury in Ankara.
(Reuters, 6/8/18)(AFP, 6/8/18)
2018 Jun 10, Turkey's military said it hit more than a dozen Kurdish militant targets in air strikes in the Qandil mountains of northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 6/11/18)
2018 Jun 13, Turkish and US officials meeting in Germany reached an agreement on the Syrian town of Manbij, which has been a source of tension between the NATO allies. The "Manbij Implementation Plan" would be discussed by senior officials from the two countries, but no details were provided.
(AP, 6/14/18)
2018 Jun 14, Human Rights Watch said that Turkey-backed rebels in northwest Syria's Afrin have seized, looted and destroyed Kurdish civilians' property after taking control of the region in March.
(Reuters, 6/14/18)
2018 Jun 18, Turkish and US soldiers started independent patrols in northern Syria along the line separating Turkish-controlled areas from the town of Manbij where Ankara says Kurdish militia fighters are based.
(Reuters, 6/18/18)
2018 Jun 19, Turkish rapper Ezhel, aka Sercan Ipekcioglu (27), who faced 10 years of jail on charges of encouraging drug use in his lyrics, was acquitted at the first session of his trial in Istanbul.
(Reuters, 6/19/18)
2018 Jun 19, Three Turkish soldiers were killed in bomb attacks blamed on the PKK in the southeastern provinces of Siirt and Sirnak.
(AP, 6/20/18)
2018 Jun 20, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants fired on military vehicles, killing two soldiers and wounding another. Turkey's warplanes carried out air strikes in northern Iraq, killing 10 militants in the Avasin-Basyan and Sinat Haftanin areas and destroying weapon stores and shelters.
(Reuters, 6/20/18)
2018 Jun 21, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkish warplanes recently struck Iraq's Qandil mountain while a group of 35 senior militants were holding a meeting.
(AP, 6/21/18)
2018 Jun 23, Turkish private broadcaster CNN Turk said police have detained 47 people in an operation targeting alleged supporters within the army of a network accused by Ankara of orchestrating a failed military coup two years ago. The operation, which began on June 19, targeted 124 people accused of being followers of US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen.
(Reuters, 6/23/18)
2018 Jun 23, Libya's UN-backed government in Tripoli said three Turkish workers who were kidnapped last year in a southern Libyan town have been released.
(AP, 6/24/18)
2018 Jun 24, Turkey held presidential and parliamentary elections, with Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeking a new mandate and control over parliament in the face of a revitalized opposition and weakening economy. Erdogan won the landmark elections that also saw his Islamist-rooted AK Party and its nationalist allies secure a majority in parliament. Erdogan had 52.59% against Ince's 30.64%, while the AKP took 42.5 percent in the parliamentary vote and its MHP nationalist allies secured 11 %.
(AFP, 6/24/18)(Reuters, 6/25/18)(SFC, 7/4/18, p.A2)
2018 Jun 27, Turkey's state-run news agency said at least six people have been killed in two car bomb attacks in a northern Syrian enclave controlled by Turkish troops and allied Syrian opposition fighters.
(AP, 6/27/18)
2018 Jun 27, A Turkish court ruled that journalist Mehmet Altan be released, four months after he was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of aiding a failed military coup.
(Reuters, 6/27/18)
2018 Jun 29, Turkey formally arrested Eren Erdem, a former opposition lawmaker, over alleged links to the Gulen movement, the group blamed for the 2016 attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 6/29/18)
2018 Jun 30, The Turkish military carried out airstrikes in northern Iraq's Avasin Basyan region, killing four Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 6/30/18)
2018 Jul 1, Turkey's military said eight Kurdish militants have been killed in air strikes in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey this weekend.
(Reuters, 7/1/18)
2018 Jul 1, In Turkey hundreds LGBTI activists gathered for a Pride march in Istanbul despite a local ban in effect since 2015.
(SFC, 7/2/18, p.A3)
2018 Jul 3, In southern Turkey a gunman killed the deputy head of the Trade and Industry Chamber for the city of Osmaniye. The organization's president was wounded in the attack.
(AP, 7/3/18)
2018 Jul 5, A Greek committee granted asylum to a Turkish soldier who fled to Greece with seven other officers after a failed coup attempt against Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.
(Reuters, 7/5/18)
2018 Jul 6, Turkey ordered the detention of 331 soldiers in two operations targeting alleged supporters of the US-based Islamic cleric who Ankara says orchestrated an attempted coup two years ago.
(Reuters, 7/6/18)
2018 Jul 6, In Turkey a court in Istanbul convicted six journalists of terror-related charges, sentencing them to lengthy prison terms in a case that had heightened concerns over freedoms of expression and media. The court acquitted five other journalists of the now-defunct Zaman newspaper.
(AP, 7/6/18)
2018 Jul 6, Turkey's state-run news agency said authorities have arrested brothers Ayman Barzan and Hariam Barzan, both British citizens of Iraqi heritage, for allegedly engaging in "terror propaganda" on behalf of outlawed Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 7/6/18)
2018 Jul 8, Turkish authorities ordered the dismissal of more than 18,500 state employees, including police officers, soldiers and academics, ahead of the expected end of a two-year state of emergency this month.
(AP, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, In western Turkey at least 10 people were killed when a multiple cars of a train derailed in Tekirdag province.
(SFC, 7/9/18, p.A2)
2018 Jul 9, In Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan was sworn in as the first president under a new governing system that gives him sweeping executive powers. Under the new system, Erdogan will run the executive branch and also lead his party in parliament.
(AP, 7/9/18)
2018 Jul 11, Turkish police detained controversial Islamic televangelist Adnan Oktar and were seeking hundreds of people linked to him for alleged crimes including forming a criminal gang, fraud, blackmail and sexual abuse.
(AP, 7/11/18)
2018 Jul 11, Turkish authorities detained 16 people in the mainly Kurdish southeast for suspected links to terrorism. Three of the detained were French nationals.
(Reuters, 7/12/18)
2018 Jul 12, Turkey's new parliament elected as speaker former prime minister Binali Yildirim (62), a loyalist of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan whose post was abolished after elections last month.
(AFP, 7/12/18)
2018 Jul 12, A Turkish court sentenced 72 defendants to life in prison for their role in killing 34 people when rogue soldiers seized control of a suspension bridge in Istanbul two years ago during an attempted coup. Another Turkish court sentenced eight former managers of conglomerate Boydak Holding, once among Turkey's biggest firms, to lengthy prison terms for links to Fethullah Gulen.
(Reuters, 7/12/18)
2018 Jul 15, Turkey issued presidential decrees reshaping key political, military and bureaucratic institutions as part of the transformation to a powerful executive presidency triggered by last month's election.
(Reuters, 7/15/18)
2018 Jul 15, Israel deported Ebru Ozkan, a week after indicting her for smuggling money and goods to the Palestinian Islamist militant group while visiting as a tourist. On July 26 The Washington Post reported that Trump had asked Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu during a July 14 phone call to let Ozkan go in what the White House envisaged as an indirect trade for Pastor Andrew Brunson. Ankara said it had not agreed to any Ozkan-Brunson swap.
(Reuters, 7/27/18)
2018 Jul 16, The Trump administration said it's filing a challenge at the WTO against China, the European Union, Canada, Mexico and Turkey for tariffs they imposed against the US in retaliation to earlier US actions.
(AP, 7/17/18)
2018 Jul 18, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan filed complaints against the main opposition party leader and 72 legislators accusing them of insults for posting and sharing a cartoon on social media that depicts him as a variety of different animals.
(AP, 7/18/18)
2018 Jul 18, Turkey's main opposition leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, was fined for defaming President Tayyip Erdogan and his family over claims about international money transfers. The ruling, ordering a 359,000 lira ($75,000) payment to the president and his close circle, marked the largest sum yet.
(Reuters, 7/18/18)
2018 Jul 18, A Turkish court decided to keep Andrew Brunson, a Christian pastor from North Carolina, in jail dashing hopes that he could be released during his trial on terrorism and spying charges, a case that has deepened a rift with NATO ally Washington.
(Reuters, 7/18/18)
2018 Jul 18, Nineteen people died when a boat carrying 150 migrants sank off the coast of northern Cyprus and rescuers were searching for 25 other people. 103 migrants were rescued by boats and helicopters of the Turkish and northern Cypriot coast guards.
(Reuters, 7/18/18)
2018 Jul 19, Turkish authorities formally arrested Adnan Oktar, a controversial Islamic televangelist and cult leader, on charges that include forming a criminal gang, blackmail and sexual abuse of minors. At least 168 of Oktar's followers were also formally arrested on the same charges.
(AP, 7/19/18)
2018 Jul 19, Greek police boats began searching along the Evros River on the Greek-Turkish border for a Turkish woman and her three young children missing since the boat they were using to cross the border capsized.
(AP, 7/20/18)
2018 Jul 20, The Netherlands and Turkey said they were resuming full diplomatic ties for the first time since Dutch officials barred two Turkish ministers from attending an election rally in 2017.
(AFP, 7/20/18)
2018 Jul 22, About 2,400 swimmers took part in the Samsung Bosphorus Cross-Continental Swim, organized by the Turkish Olympic Committee, for the 30th race since the tradition began in 1989.
(AFP, 7/22/18)
2018 Jul 24, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said an Israeli law declaring that only Jews have the right of self-determination legitimizes oppression and shows that Israel is a fascist and racist country where the spirit of Adolf Hitler has re-emerged.
(Reuters, 7/24/18)
2018 Jul 24, Turkey's currency tumbled amid growing questions over the central bank's ability to set policy without interference from the increasingly powerful office of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The central bank decided to not raise rates, defying broad expectations in the markets for an increase of at least one percentage point to its one-week repo rate, from 17.75 percent.
(AP, 7/24/18)
2018 Jul 24, In Turkey a four-storey residential building in central Istanbul, built in 1994, collapsed into a cloud of dust in front of watching media, after several hours perching on a ledge following heavy rains that destroyed its foundation.
(AFP, 7/24/18)
2018 Jul 24, Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Turkey was becoming a "dark dictatorship" as he hit back at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's harsh criticism of a "racist" new Israeli law.
(AFP, 7/24/18)
2018 Jul 25, Turkey's interior ministry revoked the cancellation of 155,350 passports following the end of two-year-old state of emergency.
(Reuters, 7/25/18)
2018 Jul 25, A Turkish court ruled that American pastor Andrew Brunson be transferred from jail to house arrest, after nearly two years in detention on terrorism charges in a case which has strained ties between Ankara and Washington.
(Reuters, 7/25/18)
2018 Jul 25, Russia said it has sent working groups to Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey to help coordinate the return of refugees to Syria.
(AP, 7/25/18)
2018 Jul 26, Pres. Donald Trump said the US will hit Turkey with large sanctions over detained American Pastor Andrew Brunson.
(SFC, 7/27/18, p.A2)
2018 Jul 27, In Mongolia Turkish teacher Veysel Akcay (50) was allegedly kidnapped in Ulaanbaatar and taken to the city's airport. He was released after authorities temporarily grounded an airplane. Akcay, who has lived in Mongolia for 24 years, is associated with the network of US-based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen, which Turkish authorities hold responsible for a failed 2016 coup in Turkey.
(AFP, 7/28/18)
2018 Jul 29, Turkey's coast guard rescued nine people overnight, but six people including three babies died when an inflatable boat carrying 16 people capsized off the coast of western Turkey.
(Reuters, 7/29/18)
2018 Jul 31, The Turkish central bank sharply hiked its inflation forecast for 2018 to well over 13 percent, putting new pressure on the embattled lira and raising fears over the extent of price pressure in the economy.
(AFP, 7/31/18)
2018 Aug 1, Cyprus' government said it is asking the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to help defend two Turkish Cypriot journalists investigated in Turkey over an article deemed "insulting" to that country.
(AP, 8/1/18)
2018 Aug 1, The US White House announced that it will impose sanctions on two Turkish officials over the case of detained American pastor Andrew Craig Brunson.
(SFC, 8/2/18, p.A5)
2018 Aug 2, Turkey's Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak said US sanctions imposed on Turkey over the trial of an American pastor accused of backing terrorism are unacceptable and will have limited impact on the Turkish economy.
(Reuters, 8/2/18)
2018 Aug 3, A Turkish court jailed nine defendants for life for twin bombings in the capital Ankara in 2015 that killed more than 100 people.
(AP, 8/3/18)
2018 Aug 3, Official Turkish statistics showed that local inflation rose again last month to nearly 16 percent, increasing pressure on the central bank to hike interest rates.
(AFP, 8/3/18)
2018 Aug 4, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the assets of two US officials will be frozen in retaliation for US sanctions against Turkey's justice and interior ministers over the detention of American pastor Andrew Craig Brunson.
(AP, 8/4/18)
2018 Aug 6, The Turkish lira hit new record lows against the dollar and euro as strains caused by a diplomatic spat with the United States compounded concerns over domestic economic policy.
(AFP, 8/6/18)
2018 Aug 10, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan told his citizens to exchange gold and dollars into lira. The currency dove more than 18 percent on the day and more than 40 percent this year to a new record low after Trump took steps to punish Turkey in a wide-ranging dispute.
(AP, 8/10/18)
2018 Aug 10, US President Donald Trump said he had authorized higher tariffs on imports from Turkey, imposing a 20 percent duty on aluminum and 50 percent one on steel. The Turkish currency quickly plunged further against the dollar.
(Reuters, 8/10/18)(AP, 8/10/18)
2018 Aug 13, Turkey's central bank took action to free up cash for banks as the country grapples with a currency crisis sparked by concerns over President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's economic policies and a trade and diplomatic dispute with the United States.
(AP, 8/13/18)
2018 Aug 14, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country would boycott US electronic goods like the iPhone in retaliation for punitive sanctions from Washington, as the Turkish lira finally clawed back some ground after going into a tailspin over the tensions.
(AFP, 8/14/18)
2018 Aug 14, Turkish police arrested Ilhami A. (46), a German citizen, while he was visiting his mother in her home town Saribasak in a largely Kurdish region of eastern Turkey. Public broadcaster ARD later said the man had been accused of "terrorist propaganda" after criticizing the Turkish government on social media. There were currently seven other German citizens arrested in Turkey on political grounds.
(Reuters, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 15, Turkish officials said Qatar has pledged $15 billion of direct investments for Turkey as it struggles with a currency crisis.
(AP, 8/15/18)
2018 Aug 15, Turkey doubled tariffs on some US imports including alcohol, cars and tobacco in retaliation for US moves, but the lira rallied further after the central bank's liquidity moves had the effect of supporting the currency.
(Reuters, 8/15/18)
2018 Aug 15, A Turkish court ordered the release from prison of Taner Kilic, the local honorary chair of Amnesty International.
(Reuters, 8/15/18)
2018 Aug 15, Greece hailed a "day of joy" as two Greek soldiers held in a Turkish prison for more than five months on espionage charges were released in a surprise move by Ankara.
(AP, 8/15/18)
2018 Aug 16, Turkish officials said four soldiers have been killed in violence in the southeast where troops are battling Kurdish rebels, three of them as a result of a friendly fire in Adiyaman province.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 20, In Turkey shots were fired at the US Embassy in Ankara early today. Two people were detained and confessed to the shooting.
(SFC, 8/21/18, p.A4)
2018 Aug 25, Turkish authorities banned a protest vigil marking the forced disappearances of hundreds of people in the country's southeast decades ago. The Saturday Mothers activist group was set to hold its 700th meeting in Istanbul. The group has gathered since 1995 to demand justice for those who disappeared during the ongoing conflict between Turkish security forces and Kurdish insurgents.
(AP, 8/25/18)
2018 Aug 26, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan vowed to bring peace and safety to Iraq and areas in Syria not under Turkish control and said terrorist organizations in those areas would be eliminated.
(Reuters, 8/26/18)
2018 Aug 26, German journalist Mesale Tolu, who was on trial in Turkey on terror-related charges, returned to Germany after a Turkish court ruled that she could leave the country.
(AP, 8/26/18)
2018 Aug 31, Turkey designated the insurgent group Tahrir al-Sham as a terrorist organization, according to a presidential decision published today, as Damascus prepared for a military assault in northwest Syria where the group holds sway.
(Reuters, 8/31/18)
2018 Aug 31, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will buy some of Russia's highly-sophisticated air defence systems "in the shortest time" -- a purchase that has alarmed Ankara's NATO partners.
(AFP, 8/31/18)
2018 Aug 31, Turkey raised tax on foreign currency deposits in a bid to prop up the tumbling lira, in a presidential decision published in the official gazette.
(AFP, 8/31/18)
2018 Sep 3, Turkey reported its highest inflation rate in 15 years fuelled by a spectacular drop in the Turkish lira, as analysts predicted that worse is probably to come.
(AFP, 9/3/18)
2018 Sep 4, Turkey told the United States that Kurdish militants must completely abandon Syria, as violence in the rebel-held northern Syrian enclave of Idlib escalated.
(Reuters, 9/4/18)
2018 Sep 7, Turkey's foreign ministry said the country and the Netherlands have taken a further step in normalizing relations by re-appointing ambassadors to each other's capitals.
(AP, 9/7/18)
2018 Sep 7, A court in Istanbul has convicted a former co-chairman of Turkey's main pro-Kurdish political party of "engaging in terror propaganda." The court sentenced Selahattin Demirtas to more than four years in prison after finding him guilty.
(AP, 9/7/18)
2018 Sep 7, Turkish filmmaker Ali Avci was convicted of membership of a terrorist group for a feature film that portrayed President Tayyip Erdogan having a gun pointed at his head as his family lay dead all around him.
(Reuters, 9/7/18)
2018 Sep 7, The Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate said it is sending two bishops to Ukraine "within the framework of the preparations for the granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine." The patriarchate's leader is considered the "first among equals" of Eastern Orthodox clerics.
(AP, 9/8/18)
2018 Sep 7, Meeting in Tehran the presidents of Turkey, Iran and Russia failed to agree on a ceasefire that would forestall a Syrian government offensive in rebel-held Idlib province. They agreed in a final statement that there could be no military solution to the conflict and it could only end through a negotiated political process. But as Syrian government and Russian warplanes mounted air strikes in Idlib, Putin and Rouhani pushed back against Erdogan's call for a truce.
(Reuters, 9/7/18)
2018 Sep 7, Hundreds of Syrians took to the streets in the country's last major rebel bastion of Idlib, calling on neighboring Turkey to help prevent a regime assault on their region. Air strikes targeted positions belonging to rebel groups in the northern Hama and southern Idlib provinces. Russian air strikes killed five people in Idlib.
(AFP, 9/7/18)(Reuters, 9/7/18)
2018 Sep 10, In Poland Europe's largest human rights conference, organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), opened in Warsaw. Turkey's government was the only country not attending because it was not allowed to prevent the participation of non-governmental organizations.
(AP, 9/11/18)
2018 Sep 11, In Geneva the UN envoy for Syria hosted key diplomats from Iran, Russia and Turkey to discuss work toward rewriting the country's constitution, amid concerns about a possibly devastating military offensive on rebel-held Idlib province.
(AP, 9/11/18)
2018 Sep 12, A Turkish security official said Turkish intelligence has seized Yusuf Nazik (34) in Latakia, Syria. He has reportedly confessed to coordinating the May 11, 2013, bombing that killed 53 people in the southern border town of Reyhanli.
(AP, 9/12/18)
2018 Sep 12, Rebel sources in Syria said Turkey has stepped up arms supplies to help them stave off an expected offensive by the Syrian army and its Russian and Iran-backed allies in the northwest near the Turkish frontier.
(Reuters, 9/13/18)
2018 Sep 13, Turkey's central bank raised its key interest rate sharply, from 17.75 percent to 24 percent, to contain inflation and stem the currency crisis that has been destabilizing the country this summer.
(AP, 9/12/18)
2018 Sep 13, Turkey sent in military reinforcements to beef up its positions inside Syria's last rebel bastion Idlib.
(AP, 9/12/18)
2018 Sep 14, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reproached the central bank for sharply raising interest rates, saying the country would "see the results" of the bank's independence.
(AP, 9/14/18)
2018 Sep 14, Turkish security forces fired tear gas at construction workers at Istanbul's new airport who were protesting dangerous working conditions at the site as it prepares to open for business next month.
(AFP, 9/14/18)
2018 Sep 15, Turkish unions said hundreds of workers on the construction site of Istanbul's third airport, one of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's mega development projects, have been arrested for protesting at the number of work-related deaths and poor conditions.
(AFP, 9/15/18)
2018 Sep 15, Turkey freed 160 workers late today out of almost 600 who were arrested following a protest over work-related deaths and poor conditions at the construction site for Istanbul's third airport.
(AFP, 9/16/18)
2018 Sep 17, It was reported that Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan has defended his decision to accept a luxury plane from Qatar at a time of economic hardship, saying it was a gift, not a purchase, and that it had been donated to the Turkish state, not to him personally.
(Reuters, 9/17/18)
2018 Sep 17, Turkish activists and the opposition expressed outrage after a court jailed 24 workers ahead of a trial over their actions in protests against labor conditions at Istanbul's giant new airport.
(AFP, 9/19/18)
2018 Sep 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Sochi to try to come to an agreement over the Syrian rebel stronghold of Idlib. Russia and Turkey announced they would create a "de-militarized zone" ringing Syria's Idlib province.
(AFP, 9/17/18)(AFP, 9/18/18)
2018 Sep 18, Impoverished Venezuelans reacted with fury after videos of President Nicolas Maduro gorging on succulent pieces of meat in a restaurant owned by a celebrity Turkish chef went viral. Maduro had a stopover in Istanbul where he was invited to dine with Turkish authorities.
(AFP, 9/18/18)
2018 Sep 19, Turkey's Court of Appeals changed the conviction charge for Serkan Golge, a Turkish-US citizen and former NASA scientist arrested on terrorism, charges, to aiding, rather than being a member of, a terror organization, and reduced his 7-1/2-year prison sentence to five years. Golge denied both charges and planned to appeal.
(Reuters, 9/21/18)
2018 Sep 20, Turkey's Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak presented the government's economic plan, which estimates 2.3 percent growth in 2019 and 3.5 percent in 2020. The previous forecast was 5.5 percent for both years.
(AP, 9/20/18)
2018 Sep 21, A top Turkish official said Turkey will soon conduct joint patrols with US forces in the strategic northern Syrian town of Manbij, once a stronghold of the Islamic State group.
(AP, 9/21/18)
2018 Sep 27, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Germany for a controversial three-day state visit that both sides hope will help rebuild relations that have been battered in recent years.
(AFP, 9/27/18)
2018 Sep 28, In Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to rebuild strained relations after a two-year crisis despite remaining differences on civil rights and other issues. President Tayyip Erdogan called on Berlin to extradite what he said were the hundreds of supporters of the cleric Fethullah Gulen residing in Germany.
(AFP, 9/28/18)(Reuters, 9/28/18)
2018 Sep 29, In Germany Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened one of Europe's largest mosques in Cologne as he wrapped up a controversial 3-day visit, with police deploying in force to manage rival rallies.
(AFP, 9/29/18)
2018 Sep 30, Turkey reported that a boat carrying migrants has capsized off its northern Aegean coast, killing at least five people.
(AP, 9/30/18)
2018 Oct 1, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey aims to secure control of the region of northern Syria east of the Euphrates river, removing the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia from the area, and to clear Iraq's Sinjar and Qandil regions of Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 10/1/18)
2018 Oct 2, In Turkey Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi (59), who has written Washington Post columns critical of the kingdom's assertive crown prince, went missing after visiting the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The Saudi Consulate insisted that Khashoggi left its building before disappearing.
(AP, 10/3/18)(SFC, 10/5/18, p.A3)
2018 Oct 3, Eight Turkish soldiers were killed and two were wounded after a roadside bomb in the southeastern province of Batman was detonated by outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.
(AP, 10/4/18)(Reuters, 10/6/18)
2018 Oct 4, The US Treasury issued new North Korea-related sanctions that target SIA Falcon International Group, a Turkish company, and two Turkish individuals among others.
(AP, 10/4/18)
2018 Oct 7, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said he was closely following the case of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi after Turkish officials said they believed he had been killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
(Reuters, 10/7/18)
2018 Oct 9, Turkey said it will search the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul as part of an investigation into the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi (59), the missing Saudi contributor to The Washington Post, a week after he vanished during a visit there.
(AP, 10/9/18)
2018 Oct 9, President Tayyip Erdogan agreed to increase releases of water from a dam in southeastern Turkey to neighboring Iraq, which is struggling with a water crisis.
(Reuters, 10/10/18)
2018 Oct 10, A pro-government Turkish daily published preliminary evidence from investigators it said identified a 15-member Saudi intelligence team involved in the unexplained disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
(Reuters, 10/10/18)
2018 Oct 10, The Turkish coast guard said eight people died after a boat filled with migrants sank off the western coast of Turkey and another 25 were missing.
(Reuters, 10/10/18)
2018 Oct 12, A Turkish court freed American pastor Andrew Brunson held for the last two years in Turkey. He was freed taking into account time served and his good conduct during the trial. Brunson was flown out of Turkey.
(AFP, 10/12/18)(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 14, In western Turkey 22 people, including children, were killed when a truck carrying migrants crashed in Izmir province. The truck's passengers were reportedly foreign migrants who had reached a deal with traffickers to be transported by boat to the Greek island of Samos south of Izmir.
(Reuters, 10/14/18)
2018 Oct 15, Turkey's government said it has dismissed 259 local officials for suspected links to terrorist groups or unsuitable behavior, a move the pro-Kurdish opposition said was aimed at helping the ruling AK Party ahead of 2019 polls.
(Reuters, 10/15/18)
2018 Oct 15, Turkish authorities said they have an audio recording which indicates that missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
(Reuters, 10/15/18)
2018 Oct 15, Saudi Arabia's King Salman ordered an internal probe into the unexplained disappearance of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi as a joint Turkish-Saudi team was set to search the Saudi consulate in Istanbul where he was last seen on Oct. 2.
(Reuters, 10/15/18)
2018 Oct 17, Moldova's President Igor Dodon met with visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The two-day visit aimed at boosting political and trade ties with the former Soviet republic.
(AP, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had made clear in talks in Ankara that Saudi officials were cooperating with Turkey's investigation into missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
(Reuters, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 18, The Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders urged Turkey to request a UN investigation into the possible murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi to prevent a "whitewash" of the alleged crime.
(AFP, 10/18/18)
2018 Oct 18, Ukraine's parliament voted to hand over a landmark Kiev church to the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate after it agreed to recognize the independence of Ukraine's Orthodox Church. The church will be transferred to Constantinople for its permanent use free of charge, but will still be the property of Ukraine.
(AFP, 10/18/18)
2018 Oct 19, Turkey widened the investigation into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi after his visit to the Saudi consulate, searching a forest in the city and interviewing the mission's staff.
(AFP, 10/19/18)
2018 Oct 20, Saudi Arabia said that Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent journalist and critic of the kingdom's de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had died in a fight inside its Istanbul consulate. This came after two weeks of denials that it was involved in his disappearance. Saudi state media said King Salman had ordered the dismissal of five officials, including Saud al-Qahtani, a royal court adviser seen as the right-hand man to Prince Mohammed, and deputy intelligence chief Ahmed Asiri.
(Reuters, 10/20/18)
2018 Oct 22, Two children died after a boat carrying migrants sank just 50 meters off Turkey's western coast near Bodrum early today.
(Reuters, 10/22/18)
2018 Oct 24, Turkey's state media reported that Saudi authorities have denied permission to Turkish police to search a well in the garden of the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul as part of a probe into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
(AFP, 10/24/18)
2018 Oct 25, Saudi state TV quoted the Saudi public prosecutor as saying the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was premeditated, and that prosecutors were interrogating suspects on the basis of information provided by a joint Saudi-Turkish task force.
(Reuters, 10/25/18)
(AP, 10/26/18)
2018 Oct 26, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan urged Saudi Arabia to disclose who ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, as well as the location of his body, heightening international pressure on the kingdom to come clean on the case.
(Reuters, 10/26/18)
2018 Oct 26, A Turkish court sentenced a German man to six years and three months in prison for membership in a terrorist organization. The Turkish prosecutor accused Patrick K. (29) of being a member of the Syrian Kurdish YPG, considered by Ankara to be a branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 10/26/18)
2018 Oct 27, It was reported that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has appointed new governors to 39 of the country's 81 provinces.
(Reuters, 10/27/18)
2018 Oct 27, The leaders of Turkey, Russia, France and Germany met to try to find a political solution to Syria's devastating civil war, provide access to humanitarian aid and salvage a fragile ceasefire in the country's last major rebel-held bastion.
(AFP, 10/27/18)
2018 Oct 28, The Turkish army struck Kurdish targets in northern Syria east of the Euphrates River. Artillery strikes hit positions belonging to the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Zor Moghar.
(AP, 10/28/18)
2018 Oct 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated Istanbul's new airport, a megaproject that he has pushed to meet its symbolic deadline. Human Rights has cited at least 38 workplace deaths over the past three years.
(AP, 10/29/18)
2018 Nov 1, Turkish and US forces started joint patrols in the Manbij region of northern Syria. In June Turkey agreed a plan with the United States under which the two countries would jointly maintain security and stability there.
(Reuters, 11/1/18)
2018 Nov 2, Turkey lifted sanctions on the US Secretary of Homeland Security and Attorney General, minutes after Washington removed two Turkish ministers from its sanctions list.
(Reuters, 11/2/18)
2018 Nov 2, The United States lifted sanctions on two top officials in Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's cabinet, a sign of improved relations after Turkey freed an American pastor from detention three weeks ago.
(Reuters, 11/2/18)
2018 Nov 3, In Turkey Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko and the Istanbul-based Orthodox patriarch signed an accord that paves the way for the recognition of an independent Ukrainian church, a plan that has infuriated Moscow.
(AFP, 11/3/18)
2018 Nov 6, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that joint patrols by US forces and a Kurdish-led militia in northern Syria are "unacceptable".
(AP, 11/6/18)
2018 Nov 6, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would not abide by the renewed US sanctions on Iran's oil and shipping industries, adding that they were aimed at "unbalancing the world".
(Reuters, 11/6/18)
2018 Nov 8, Turkish journalist Husnu Mahalli was handed a suspended sentence of two years and five months in prison for insulting Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan.
(Reuters, 11/8/18)
2018 Nov 9, In southeastern Turkey seven soldiers were killed in an "accidental" explosion at an army munitions depot in Hakkari province.
(AFP, 11/10/18)(SSFC, 11/11/18, p.A4)
2018 Nov 9, Airstrikes by Turkish warplanes "neutralized" 15 militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 11/10/18)
2018 Nov 10, President Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey has given recordings related to the killing of Jamal Khashoggi to Germany, France and Britain, seeking to maintain international pressure on Riyadh over the Saudi journalist's death.
(AP, 11/10/18)
2018 Nov 10, An air strike by a Turkish warplane "neutralized" 14 militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 11/11/18)
2018 Nov 12, The Turkish coast guard said five people, including three children, died after a boat carrying 15 migrants sank off the western coast. Five others were missing and a search was underway.
(Reuters, 11/12/18)
2018 Nov 13, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said recordings related to the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, which Turkey has shared with Western allies, are "appalling" and shocked a Saudi intelligence officer who listened to them.
(Reuters, 11/13/18)
2018 Nov 13, Turkey pulled out of Italian-sponsored Libya crisis talks in Palermo saying it had been "excluded", dealing a fresh blow to the latest international bid to stabilize the chaos-stricken country.
(AFP, 11/13/18)
2018 Nov 14, A court sentenced Turkish journalist Ali Unal to 19 years in jail on a charge of being a leader in the network accused of carrying out a failed coup in July 2016. Unal was chief writer at the now-defunct Zaman newspaper.
(Reuters, 11/14/18)
2018 Nov 14, A Turkish court sentenced a German citizen to more than six years in jail on terrorism charges. State news said Saide Inac, a singer who also goes by the name Hozen Cane, was sentenced to six years and three months in jail for her membership in an armed terrorist organization.
(Reuters, 11/14/18)
2018 Nov 16, Turkish police detained 13 people including two prominent academics under an investigation into jailed rights activist Osman Kavala, accusing them of following him in a bid to unseat the government through mass protests in 2013.
(Reuters, 11/16/18)
2018 Nov 16, It was reported that the CIA believes Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, complicating President Donald Trump's efforts to preserve ties with a key US ally.
(Reuters, 11/17/18)
2018 Nov 18, Turkey warned energy companies against working with the Greek Cypriot government in carrying out exploratory drilling in the eastern Mediterranean, saying such activities could damage regional stability.
(Reuters, 11/18/18)
2018 Nov 18, A Turkish court jailed pending trial Istanbul academic Yigit Aksakoglu following raids on professors and activists deemed to have links to Osman Kavala, a prominent financier of civil society activities, who has been imprisoned for the past year.
(AFP, 11/18/18)
2018 Nov 19, In Turkey Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan marked the completion of a key phase of TurkStream, a natural gas pipeline connecting the two countries. The last part of the offshore pipe was laid on live broadcast, reaching Turkish shores at Kiyikoy near Istanbul.
(AP, 11/19/18)
2018 Nov 20, The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) urged Turkey to swiftly process the legal case of Selahattin Demirtas, the ex-head of the pro-Kurdish opposition, saying his pre-trial detention had gone on longer than could be justified.
(Reuters, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 21, A Turkish court sentenced 74 people, including soldiers, to life in prison for their role in the July 2016 attempted coup. Three men, accused of being members of the PKK, were jailed for life for a March 2016 car bombing that killed 36 people and wounded 344 in a crowded transport hub in Ankara.
(Reuters, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 22, A Turkish newspaper reported that CIA director Gina Haspel signaled to Turkish officials last month that the agency had a recording of a call in which Saudi Arabia's crown prince gave instructions to "silence" Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
(Reuters, 11/22/18)
2018 Nov 26, George Soros's Open Society Foundation said it would cease operations in Turkey, days after President Tayyip Erdogan accused the billionaire philanthropist of trying to divide and destroy nations.
(Reuters, 11/26/18)
2018 Nov 28, In northwest Turkey a large concrete block fell during the construction of a highway viaduct, killing one worker and trapping two others beneath it near the town of Gebze, Kocaeli province.
(AP, 11/28/18)
2018 Nov 28, A British court rejected an extradition request from Turkey for exiled businessman Akin Ipek (54) to face terrorism-funding, fraud and other charges, saying he faced a real risk of ill-treatment should he be returned.
(Reuters, 11/28/18)
2018 Nov 30, A Turkish court ruled that the former leader of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition remain in prison, after top EU officials last week called for the politician's swift release.
(Reuters, 11/30/18)
2018 Dec 4, A Turkish appeals court has upheld the terror propaganda conviction of Selahattin Demirtas, the former head of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition party.
(AP, 12/4/18)
2018 Dec 5, A Turkish court issued arrest warrants for two suspects close to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, increasing pressure on the kingdom's de facto leader.
(AFP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 6, Turkish journalist Kamil Demirkaya, accused by Turkey of terrorism, said he has applied for political asylum in Romania after Turkey sought his extradition.
(AP, 12/6/18)
2018 Dec 7, Turkey and the United States agreed to speed up efforts to put in place an agreement on Syria's Manbij by the end of the year.
(Reuters, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, In southern Turkey an employee fired shots in a municipality building in Cukurova, Adana province, killing two of his colleagues. The gunman was reportedly motivated by a "personal" feud between the employees.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 11, In northern Turkey a police officer angered that his request for a transfer was rejected fired shots at his superiors inside a police station in Rize, killing the local police chief and wounding two other officers.
(AP, 12/11/18)
2018 Dec 13, In Turkey nine people were killed and nearly 90 injured after a high-speed train crashed into a locomotive in Ankara. Three employees of the railway authority were arrested on Dec. 17 for their role in the accident.
(AFP, 12/13/18)(SFC, 12/18/18, p.A2)
2018 Dec 14, The Turkish military said it had killed eight militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in air strikes targeting the Zap, Hakurk and Haftanin regions of northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 12/14/18)
2018 Dec 14, A Romanian court rejected a request by Turkey to extradite Kamil Demirkaya, a Turkish journalist it accuses of terrorism, after prosecutors said the case was political.
(AP, 12/14/18)
2018 Dec 15, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople welcomed the creation of an Orthodox church in Ukraine independent of Moscow and invited its leader to Istanbul to receive official confirmation of its status.
(AFP, 12/16/18)
2018 Dec 18, Meeting in Geneva the foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey said that a new Syrian Constitutional Committee should convene early next year, kicking off a viable political peace process.
(Reuters, 12/18/18)
2018 Dec 18, Libyan customs seized a consignment of arms which arrived from Turkey at Khoms port. A day earlier a cargo of 2.5 million Turkish-made bullets was seized at the same port. The UN last June extended an arms embargo on Libya for another year.
(Reuters, 12/22/18)
2018 Dec 20, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani met in Ankara and vowed to work closer to end the fighting in Syria.
(AFP, 12/20/18)
2018 Dec 22, Libya and Turkey agreed to open an urgent joint investigation into a consignment of arms which arrived from Turkey and was seized On Dec. 18 at the Khoms port. The consignment contained 3,000 Turkish-made pistols, as well as some other pistols, hunting rifles and ammunition.
(Reuters, 12/22/18)
2018 Dec 22, In Turkey thousands of protesters took to the streets in Istanbul to demonstrate against the rising cost of living and crippling inflation. The protest was organized by the KESK, a confederation of public service workers unions.
(AFP, 12/22/18)
2018 Dec 22, Turkey's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said nearly 300,000 Syrians have returned to their country following Turkey's two cross-border operations in northern Syria.
(Reuters, 12/22/18)
2018 Dec 25, In Turkey Max Zirngast (29), an Austrian freelance writer, was released from a prison but barred from leaving the country. Zirngast was jailed in September after Turkey accused him and two others of "membership in an armed terrorist organization." On Sept. 11, 2019, Zirngast confirmed his acquittal.
(AP, 12/25/18)(AP, 9/11/19)
2018 Dec 27, Turkey detained Adnan Sutcu (56) of Germany shortly after his arrival in Ankara to attend his mother's funeral. He was barred from leaving Turkey after the authorities accused him of supporting a terrorist organization on social media.
(Reuters, 12/31/18)
2019 Jan 3, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara and Baghdad would deepen cooperation against terrorism after tensions last month over Turkish air strikes against Kurdish militants in Iraq.
(AFP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 5, The Istanbul-based Orthodox patriarch signed the formal decree confirming the creation of an independent Ukrainian church, marking a break with the Russian church that has angered Moscow.
(AFP, 1/5/19)
2019 Jan 7, A Turkish court ordered the release on bail of Eren Erdem, a former opposition lawmaker, while he is being tried on terrorism-related charges.
(Reuters, 1/7/19)
2019 Jan 7, A cargo ship sank in rough waters off Turkey's Black Sea coast, killing six crew members including its captain. Seven other crew members were rescued.
(AP, 1/7/19)
2019 Jan 9, In Turkey a pro-Kurdish party legislator said 162 prisoners across Turkey have joined a hunger strike in a show of solidarity with an imprisoned opposition legislator who has been refusing food since November.
(AP, 1/9/19)
2019 Jan 12, Turkey for a second day loaded tanks and armored vehicles onto trucks and dispatched the convoy to the Turkish province of Hatay on the Syrian border.
(Reuters, 1/12/19)
2019 Jan 13, US President Donald Trump threatened Turkey with economic devastation if it attacks a US-allied Kurdish militia in Syria.
(Reuters, 1/14/19)
2019 Jan 15, Turkey's president said his troops will establish a 20-mile-wide "safe zone" in northern Syria with the help of allies.
(AP, 1/15/19)
2019 Jan 15, Senior Kurdish official Bedran Ciya Kurd categorically rejected a "safe zone" that the Turkish president says his troops plan to set up in northern Syria.
(AP, 1/15/19)
2019 Jan 16, It was reported that Turkish prosecutors are seeking an international arrest warrant for New York Knicks player Enes Kanter, accusing him of membership in a terror organization.
(AP, 1/16/19)
2019 Jan 17, Turkey deported Dutch journalist Ans Boersma (31) after Turkish officials said Ankara received a tip-off from police in the Netherlands that she had suspected links to a jihadist group in Syria. Boersma was a person of interest in an ongoing investigation into militant activity.
(AFP, 1/17/19)(Reuters, 1/17/19)
2019 Jan 18, Turkey's state-owned Anadolu news agency said a court has sentenced Murat Arslan, a judge who previously won an award for human rights, to 10 years in prison over links to the network Ankara says orchestrated an attempted coup in 2016.
(Reuters, 1/18/19)
2019 Jan 19, In Turkey thousands demonstrated in the Kurdish-majority southeast to support Leyla Guven (55), a detained lawmaker from a pro-Kurdish party who launched a hunger strike in November.
(AFP, 1/19/19)
2019 Jan 22, A Turkish court sentenced prominent journalist Nazli Ilicak, already serving a life sentence, to almost six additional years in prison for leaking information deemed secret by the government.
(AP, 1/22/19)
2019 Jan 23, In Russia Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sat down for Syria-focused talks with Pres. Vladimir Putin as their governments bargain over zones of influence in the war-torn country.
(AP, 1/23/19)
2019 Jan 23, Romania's national railway company said a group of Turkish companies have won a 600 million-euro ($681 million) contract to modernize a key line in the northwest Transylvania region. The European Union will fund about 80 percent of the project, and the Romanian government the rest.
(AP, 1/23/19)
2019 Jan 25, A Turkish court released Leyla Guven, a Kurdish lawmaker who was jailed last year for criticizing Ankara's military operation in Syria. She has been on hunger strike for nearly three months and still faces trial and up to 31 years' jail over charges of terrorism leadership and propaganda for her opposition to Turkey's incursion into northwest Syria's Afrin region.
(Reuters, 1/25/19)
2019 Jan 25, Turkish forces shelled YPG militia positions in the northern Syrian region of Tal Rifaat for a third consecutive day.
(Reuters, 1/25/19)
2019 Jan 26, Turkey's Defense Ministry said a Turkish military base in northern Iraq has come under attack by Kurdish militants. At least 10 people were wounded when protesters stormed the Turkish military camp near Dohuk in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, burning two tanks and other vehicles.
(AP, 1/26/19)(Reuters, 1/26/19)
2019 Jan 26, Syria called on Turkey to withdraw its troops from Syria's northern territories and end support for armed opposition groups in order to revive a two-decade-old bilateral security agreement.
(AP, 1/26/19)
2019 Jan 30, Turkish citizen, Hamza Ulucay, who worked as a translator for the US Consulate in Adana, was convicted in Turkey's Mardin province on terror charges and sentenced to 4 ½ years in prison, but will be freed from prison with credit for the nearly two years he spent in pre-trial detention.
(AP, 1/30/19)
2019 Feb 1, A Turkish court sentenced two Kurdish politicians to lengthy jail terms on charges of belonging to a terrorist organization and disseminating terrorist propaganda. Former parliamentarian Gultan Kisanak, arrested in 2016 when she was the joint mayor of Diyarbakir, was jailed for 14 years and three months. Sebahat Tuncel, who had also served in parliament, was jailed for 15 years.
(Reuters, 2/2/19)
2019 Feb 1, TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron) countries Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Italy and Turkey, condemned in a joint statement the Israeli government's unilateral decision not to extend the observer force's mission in the flashpoint city.
(AP, 2/2/19)
2019 Feb 2, Turkish security forces arrested Hatice Kilic, a suspect in an armed attack on the US consulate in Istanbul In August 2015.
(Reuters, 2/2/19)
2019 Feb 5, Turkey put up bounties for the capture of eight Turkish servicemen who fled to Greece following a failed coup in 2016.
(AP, 2/5/19)
2019 Feb 5, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras visited Turkey where he will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks to ease tensions over bilateral disputes and the long-running Cyprus problem.
(AFP, 2/5/19)
2019 Feb 6, In Turkey at least one person was killed and four others were left under rubble after an eight-storey residential building collapsed in Istanbul. Officials soon raised death toll in the Kartal district building collapse to 21 with 14 others were injured. Four people were later detained in connection with the collapse.
(Reuters, 2/6/19)(AFP, 2/9/19)(Reuters, 2/10/19)(AP, 2/14/19)
2019 Feb 7, The United States sharply rebuked Germany for deporting Adem Yilmaz, a wanted Islamic militant, to Turkey instead of extraditing him to New York to stand trial on terror-related charges. He has been charged by a US federal grand jury with conspiring to carry out a March 3, 2008, suicide bombing in Afghanistan, which left two US soldiers dead and 11 others injured.
(AFP, 2/7/19)
2019 Feb 9, Turkey called on China to close its internment camps for Muslims, saying the camps which reportedly hold a million ethnic Uighur people are a "great shame for humanity".
(Reuters, 2/10/19)
2019 Feb 11, Dozens of Turkish police blocked a march by pro-Kurdish opposition lawmakers in Istanbul that was organized in solidarity with hunger striking MP Leyla Guven, who was released from prison last month.
(AFP, 2/11/19)
2019 Feb 11, In Turkey a military helicopter crashed in a residential neighborhood on the Asian side of Istanbul.
(Reuters, 2/11/19)
2019 Feb 11, Russia and Turkey agreed that they needed to take decisive measures to stabilize the situation in Syria's Idlib province after talks between the two country's defense ministers.
(Reuters, 2/11/19)
2019 Feb 12, Turkey launched one of its largest operations against alleged supporters of the US-based Muslim cleric accused of leading an attempted coup in 2016, ordering the arrest of 1,112 people.
(Reuters, 2/12/19)
2019 Feb 13, In Turkey pro-Kurdish lawmaker Leyla Guven (55), on hunger strike for more than three months, was brought to a hospital but went home by ambulance after refusing treatment. She has vowed to continue her fast until the government allows Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan to hold regular meetings with his lawyers and family members.
(AFP, 2/13/19)
2019 Feb 14, Russia's Pres. Putin hosted a meeting in Sochi to weigh the future of Syria with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Russia told Turkey it had no right to create a "safe zone" in northeast Syria unless it sought and received the consent of Syria's Pres. Bashar al-Assad.
(Reuters, 2/14/19)
2019 Feb 15, Turkish police prevented supporters from rallying outside the home of Leyla Guven, a pro-Kurdish lawmaker on hunger strike for 100 days.
(AFP, 2/15/19)
2019 Feb 19, A Turkish appeals court upheld jail sentences against opposition journalists in a long-running case targeting the Cumhuriyet newspaper -- one of the few remaining dailies critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 2/19/19)
2019 Feb 22, Turkey ordered the arrest of 295 serving military personnel, accusing them of links to the network of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says orchestrated a 2016 attempted coup.
(Reuters, 2/22/19)
2019 Feb 26, Turkey criticized European Union leaders for attending a summit hosted by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi days after nine men were executed for killing Egypt's chief prosecutor.
(Reuters, 2/26/19)
2019 Mar 4, The Trump administration said Washington will scrap the preferential trade status of India and Turkey, as President Donald Trump ramped up his battle against what his administration views as unfair foreign trade practices.
(AFP, 3/5/19)
2019 Mar 10, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused a women's march in central Istanbul on March 8 of disrespecting Islam by booing the Islamic call to prayer.
(Reuters, 3/10/19)
2019 Mar 10, Two German journalists left Turkey after Ankara refused to renew their accreditation. The journalists called the government's move an attempt to silence international news organizations and said they refused to be intimidated.
(AFP, 3/10/19)(AP, 3/10/19)
2019 Mar 14, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan opened one of the world's largest hospitals in Ankara, brushing aside criticism of what is the latest in a series of mega projects that have marked his 16 years in power. The Ankara City Hospital, built at a cost of around 1 billion euros, is equipped with some 3,810 beds and covers an area the size of around 100 football pitches.
(Reuters, 3/14/19)
2019 Mar 15, A Turkish court convicted Neil Prakash (27), an Australian-born Islamic State militant, of belonging to a terror group and sentenced him to more than seven years in prison. The court said he could be released in 2½ years under Turkish law.
(AP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 16, Two Turkish soldiers were killed and eight others were wounded in a clash during operations into northern Iraq. Six militants, including a woman, were "neutralized" during the operations.
(Reuters, 3/16/19)
2019 Mar 17, In Turkey Kurdish activist Zulkuf Gezen died late today. He was one of scores of detainees on hunger strike in support of a Kurdish lawmaker in Diyarbakir. He reportedly hanged himself after 12 years in prison on charges of membership of the PKK Kurdish militant group.
(AFP, 3/18/19)
2019 Mar 18, Turkey and Iran carried out a joint operation against militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on Turkey's eastern border.
(Reuters, 3/18/19)
2019 Mar 22, Turkey's lira tumbled more than 4 percent against the US dollar, its biggest one-day fall since a currency crisis took hold in August, raising concerns that Turks are buying more foreign cash as ties with Washington deteriorate.
(Reuters, 3/24/19)
2019 Mar 24, In Turkey thousands of supporters of a pro-Kurdish party gathered in Istanbul to celebrate the Kurdish New Year and to attend a campaign rally for local elections that will test the Turkish president's popularity.
(AP, 3/24/19)
2019 Mar 26, Turkish and Russian forces carried out the first "independent and coordinated" patrols in the mainly Kurdish-controlled northern Syrian region of Tel Rifaat.
(Reuters, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 29, In Turkey five Afghan workers were killed and eleven others were injured as a result of a fire in an abandoned three-story building in Ankara.
(Reuters, 3/29/19)
2019 Mar 30, In Turkey the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, or HDP, said in a statement that 53 people were detained in Istanbul overnight in the lead-up to the March 31 municipal elections.
(AP, 3/30/19)
2019 Mar 31, Turkey voted in local elections in a test for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with his ruling party fighting to keep hold of the country's two key cities as an economic slowdown takes hold. In eastern Turkey an election observer and another man were killed in a fight at a school-based polling station. Pres. Erdogan's AKP suffered a major upset in the ballot after results showed they had lost not only the capital Ankara and also the country's economic hub Istanbul.
(AFP, 3/31/19)(AFP, 4/1/19)
2019 Mar 31, In northwest Syria one Turkish soldier was killed and another was wounded in a mortar attack on their position. Turkey's military launched retaliatory fire. Turkey said the attack was carried out by the Kurdish YPG militia in the Afrin region.
(Reuters, 3/31/19)
2019 Apr 1, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey is giving Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro its continued support and intends to deepen cooperation with Venezuela "in all fields" despite US pressure.
(AP, 4/1/19)
2019 Apr 1, The United States said that it was halting shipment of F-35 parts of Turkey as well as joint manufacturing work due to Ankara's purchase of the S-400 missile defense system from Russia.
(AFP, 4/3/19)
2019 Apr 2, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party appealed the results of local elections in Istanbul where preliminary results give the opposition a razor-thin victory, sounding confident that a recount will alter the outcome of the vote.
(AP, 4/2/19)
2019 Apr 3, Dubai's Emirates NBD bank revised its acquisition price of Turkey's Denizbank following a slide in the Turkish lira, saying it has now agreed to pay 15.48 billion lira ($2.8 billion).
(AP, 4/3/19)
2019 Apr 3, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey will not turn back from a major arms deal with Russia despite the US suspension of Ankara from the F-35 fighter-jet program.
(AFP, 4/3/19)
2019 Apr 5, Turkey's official news agency said prosecutors have launched a terror propaganda investigation into Adnan Selcuk Mizrakl, the newly-elected mayor of Turkey's predominantly Kurdish Diyarbakir province.
(AP, 4/5/19)
2019 Apr 5, Turkey began the relocation of Ataturk International Airport to Istanbul Airport on the Black Sea shores. The move is expected to end tomorrow.
(AP, 4/5/19)
2019 Apr 6, In Turkey the last commercial passenger flight took off from Istanbul's Ataturk airport and convoys of trucks ferried thousands of tons of equipment across the city to a giant new airport which Turkey plans to make the biggest in the world.
(Reuters, 4/6/19)
2019 Apr 8, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks focusing on the situation in Syria, the sale of advanced Russian missiles to Turkey and other economic deals.
(AP, 4/8/19)
2019 Apr 9, In Turkey President Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party (AKP) said it will demand a new vote in Istanbul, after its bid was rejected for a citywide recount of March 31 election results that appeared to hand the party defeat.
(Reuters, 4/9/19)
2019 Apr 10, Turkey's Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) ordered that individuals sacked by an emergency decree during purges after a 2016 failed coup could not take up their posts despite being elected. Five districts and towns in the Kurdish-majority southeast were affected.
(AFP, 4/11/19)
2019 Apr 11, Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party said it would appeal to electoral authorities to annul elections in five districts and towns after some of its successful candidates were blocked from taking office after a March 31 local vote.
(AFP, 4/11/19)
2019 Apr 15, Turkish authorities detained two people on suspicion of spying for the United Arab Emirates. The two reportedly confessed during their interrogation that they had been spying on Arab dissidents based in Turkey on behalf of the UAE. One of the two men arrived in Turkey in October 2018, days after Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul.
(AP, 4/19/19)(Reuters, 4/19/19)
2019 Apr 16, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party submitted its promised appeal for the annulment and rerun of Istanbul's municipal elections, over what it said were irregularities that marred the March 31 vote.
(Reuters, 4/16/19)
2019 Apr 17, Turkish authorities confirmed the opposition's candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu, as the mayor of Istanbul, ending more than two weeks of recounts of the March 31 vote demanded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party.
(AP, 4/17/19)
2019 Apr 17, Belgium confectioner Godiva, privately owned by Turkish Yildiz Holding AS, opened its first café in Manhattan. The company is rolling out 2,000 cafes over the next six years that will serve a complete menu of items like the croiffle, a croissant and waffle hybrid that's stuffed with fillings like cheese or chocolate and pressed on a waffle iron.
(AP, 4/17/19)
2019 Apr 19, Four Turkish soldiers and 20 armed assailants were killed in clashes between the military and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) near the border with Iraq.
(Reuters, 4/20/19)
2019 Apr 20, Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mohamed al-Halbousi led a one-day summit between Iraq and its six neighbors: Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Jordan, and Kuwait, in an effort to bridge relations and invest in Iraq.
(AP, 4/20/19)
2019 Apr 26, In Turkey Istanbul prosecutors ordered the detention of 210 military personnel over suspected links to the network blamed by Ankara for orchestrating a failed 2016 military coup.
(AP, 4/26/19)
2019 Apr 28, In Turkey Zaki Y. M. Hasan, a man held on suspicion of spying for the United Arab Emirates, was found hanging from the bathroom door in his one-person cell in Silivri prison. Hasan and another man were detained on April 15 and had reportedly confessed to spying on Arab nationals.
(Reuters, 4/29/19)
2019 Apr 29, In Turkey police in Ankara detained 17 Iraqis and five Syrians, suspected of links to the Islamic State group, in simultaneous raids as part of a security sweep ahead of Labor Day festivities.
(AP, 4/29/19)
2019 Apr 30, Human Rights Association head Ozturk Turkdogan said that a total of 2,983 people in 90 prisons across Turkey are refusing food in protest of jail conditions for Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, whose family members and lawyers have reportedly been denied visits.
(AP, 4/30/19)
2019 Apr 30, In northwestern Syria, the government's air force dropped dozens of barrel bombs in rebel-held parts of Hama and Idlib provinces killing at least one woman and wounding others. Syrian Kurdish militants carried out an attack in a Turkish-controlled region in northern Syria killing a Turkish soldier and wounding three others.
(AP, 4/30/19)
2019 May 1, In Turkey police in Istanbul detained 127 people for attempting to hold illegal demonstrations in various parts of the city to celebrate May Day.
(Reuters, 5/1/19)
2019 May 2, A Turkish citizen who was wounded during deadly attacks at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch on March 15 died while undergoing surgery raising the death toll from the shooting to 51.
(Reuters, 5/2/19)
2019 May 3, In northwestern Turkey at least two women and five children drowned after a boat carrying migrants sank off the Aegean coastal town of Ayvalik.
(AP, 5/3/19)
2019 May 4, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for the opposition's local election victory in Istanbul to be declared invalid and the vote re-run, increasing the pressure on the country's electoral authorities.
(AFP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, Four Turkish soldiers were killed and two others wounded in two separate cross-border attacks by Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 5/4/19)
2019 May 6, Turkey’s High Election Board ruled for a fresh Istanbul mayoral contest on June 23, scrapping the March 31 vote, which was lost by Erdogan's party candidate, in a move that drew opposition accusations of dictatorship. Former Turkish PM Binali Yildirim will again be the ruling AK Party's candidate.
(Reuters, 5/07/19)
2019 May 10, In Turkey columnist Yavuz Selim Demirag, critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government and its nationalist allies, was beaten up by about five or six people with baseball bats after appearing on a TV show.
(AP, 5/11/19)
2019 May 13, A Turkish court handed down 53 life sentences without parole to Yusuf Nazik (34), a man who authorities said planned a 2013 bomb attack near the Syrian border that killed dozens of people in the town of Reyhanli, near the border with Syria. Two other suspects were sentenced for aiding a terror group.
(Reuters, 5/13/19)(AP, 5/13/19)
2019 May 17, A Turkish court sentenced fourteen people to life in jail without parole for involvement in twin bombings in Istanbul that killed dozens on December 10, 2016.
(Reuters, 5/17/19)
2019 May 20, In Turkey 91 of the suspects were detained as authorities issued warrants for 249 people as part of an investigation into alleged cheating during exams to recruit staff to the country's foreign ministry between 2010 and 2013.
(AP, 5/20/19)
2019 May 22, The Kremlin condemned as unacceptable an alleged US ultimatum to Turkey designed to force it to cancel a deal to buy Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile systems and purchase US Patriot missile systems instead.
(Reuters, 5/22/19)
2019 May 25, Senior opposition officials and rebel sources said Turkey has equipped an array of mainstream Syrian rebels it backs with fresh supplies of weaponry to help them try to repel a major Russian-backed assault.
(Reuters, 5/25/19)
2019 May 26, Several Kurdish lawmakers and thousands of prison inmates in Turkey ended their hunger strike after a call from jailed militant leader Abdullah Ocalan, 200 days after the protest was launched.
(Reuters, 5/26/19)
2019 May 27, Turkey's military launched an operation with commandos, backed by artillery and air strikes, against Kurdish militants in a mountainous area of northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 5/28/19)
2019 May 29, Turkish warplanes and attack helicopters struck targets in the mountains of northern Iraq. Two Turkish soldiers died from wounds sustained in a bomb blast. The military "neutralized" four militants in the latest action, bringing the total to 19 on the 3rd day of “Operation Claw".
(Reuters, 5/30/19)
2019 May 29, Iraqi authorities handed over 188 Turkish children of suspected Islamic State members to Turkey at Baghdad airport, where they boarded a plane and prepared to fly home.
(Reuters, 5/29/19)
2019 Jun 1, A Saudi-hosted Islamic summit threw its support behind Palestinians ahead of a US-led peace plan suspected to be skewed in favor of Israel, as Muslim states rallied around Saudi Arabia over tensions with Iran. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting, was the third and final Iran-focused summit in the holy city of Mecca this week. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was notably absent from the summit of the 57-member OIC. The Mecca summit refused all illegal Israeli measures aimed at changing facts in occupied Palestinian territories including Jerusalem, and undermining the two-state solution.
(AFP, 6/1/19)(Reuters, 6/1/19)
2019 Jun 7, Cyprus renegotiated a contract with a consortium made up of Shell, Texas-Based Noble Energy and Israel's Delek that paves the way for the exploitation of an offshore field that is estimated to hold 4.1 trillion cubic feet of gas. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country is determined to protect Turkish Cypriots' rights to gas deposits in the eastern Mediterranean.
(AP, 6/7/19)
2019 Jun 7, It was reported that the United States has decided to stop accepting any more Turkish pilots who had planned to train in the United States on F-35 fighter jets.
(Reuters, 6/7/19)
2019 Jun 8, Turkey's Defence Ministry said a total of 43 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) had been "neutralized" as part of an operation Ankara launched in northern Iraq 13 days ago. Separately, the Interior Ministry said two PKK members, one of whom was on Turkey's wanted list, were "neutralized" in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province, as well as five others in the eastern Tunceli province.
(Reuters, 6/8/19)
2019 Jun 13, Turkey warned Syria that it would respond if attacks in Syria's northwestern Idlib province continue, after a Turkish observation post in the region was attacked by mortar shells, which Turkey's Defense Ministry said were fired from areas under Syrian government control.
(AP, 6/13/19)
2019 Jun 13, US-based Bloomberg news agency says Turkish prosecutors are seeking up to five-year jail terms for two of its Istanbul-based reporters over their report on last year's currency crisis. Bloomberg said that Kerim Karakaya and Fercan Yalinkilic have been accused of trying to undermine Turkey's economic stability over a story they wrote in August 2018.
(AP, 6/14/19)
2019 Jun 15, Turkey criticized southern European Union nations for urging the EU to consider action against Turkey over its bid to drill for gas in waters where Cyprus has exclusive economic rights.
(AP, 6/15/19)
2019 Jun 17, A boat carrying migrants to Greece sank off the Turkish coast, leaving at least 12 migrants dead.
(AP, 6/17/19)
2019 Jun 18, State-run Anadolu news agency said Turkey has ordered the arrest of 128 military personnel over suspected links to the network accused by Ankara of orchestrating an attempted coup in 2016.
(Reuters, 6/18/19)
2019 Jun 18, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras demanded that the European Union issue a reprimand to Turkey for its "illegal" gas exploration in Cyprus, after Ankara defied calls for it to cease drilling in the region.
(AFP, 6/18/19)
2019 Jun 19, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan vowed to try to ensure the Egyptian government is tried in international courts for the death of former president Mohamed Mursi, who suffered a fatal heart attack in a Cairo court earlier this week.
(Reuters, 6/19/19)
2019 Jun 20, A Turkish court has sentenced 128 people accused of being among the ringleaders to life terms in prison for their roles in the July 15, 2016 coup attempt.
(AP, 6/20/19)
2019 Jun 20, Turkey launched a second drillship that will drill for gas off neighboring Cyprus' east coast despite European Union warnings to refrain from such illegal actions or face sanctions.
(AP, 6/20/19)
2019 Jun 23, In Turkey a 2nd mayoral election was held in Istanbul. Turkey's election board ruled as the vote count begins in the repeated election for Istanbul's mayor to count as valid ballots with inconsistent stamps. Opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu's win in a repeat vote for mayor broke the lock Pres. Erdogan's Islamist-rooted party long held on Istanbul's top public office.
(AFP, 6/23/19)(AP, 6/23/19)(AP, 6/24/19)
2019 Jun 24, In Turkey 16 leading civil society leaders appeared in court, accused of seeking to overthrow the government during the "Gezi Park" protests of 2013, in a trial dubbed an absurd sham by critics. The group includes renowned businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala, whose detention since November 2017 has made him a symbol of what his supporters say is a crackdown on civil society.
(AFP, 6/24/19)
2019 Jun 25, The US envoy to NATO said the United States will stop Turkish forces flying and developing its F-35 stealth jets if Ankara goes ahead with the purchase of a Russian air defense system. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan vowed anew to press on with the S-400 purchase despite allies' concerns.
(Reuters, 6/25/19)
2019 Jun 28, In Turkey hundreds gathered at Istanbul's main court to support Canan Kaftancioglu, an opposition politician, who faces 17 years in prison for a series of tweets criticizing the government. She played a key role in the victory of the newly elected Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu this week.
(AFP, 6/28/19)
2019 Jun 28, Spokesman Ahmed Mismari said eastern Libyan forces loyal to commander Khalifa Haftar will ban any commercial flights from Libya to Turkey and Turkish ships from docking in the country. Mismari also said his forces had lost 43 soldiers in the battle over the town of Gharyan which the Tripoli forces took on June 26.
(Reuters, 6/29/19)
2019 Jun 29, In Libya strongman Khalifa Haftar threatened to attack Turkish interests in Libya after suffering a serious setback in his push to take the capital Tripoli, accusing Ankara of backing his rivals.
(AFP, 6/29/19)
2019 Jun 30, Activists in Istanbul said Turkish authorities have banned a pride march for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex rights for the fifth year.
(AP, 6/30/19)
2019 Jul 1, In Turkey an explosion on an LPG tanker killed an Italian crew member and injured 15 others at the port of Aliaga in western Izmir province.
(Reuters, 7/2/19)
2019 Jul 2, Turkish prosecutors and the state-run Anadolu news agency said 122 military personnel have been ordered arrested over suspected links to the network blamed by Ankara for orchestrating a failed military coup.
(Reuters, 7/2/19)
2019 Jul 2, In China Turkish Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an ostensible US NATO ally, affirmed the importance of ties with China in a meeting with President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
(AP, 7/2/19)
2019 Jul 3, Turkey's state-run news agency said two Russian women, who are suspected of being Islamic State militants and are allegedly listed as wanted by Interpol, have been detained by authorities while trying to enter Turkey illegally from neighboring Syria accompanied by their nine children in an effort to return to Russia.
(AP, 7/3/19)
2019 Jul 4, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he is willing to mediate between the United States and Iran to ease tensions over Iran's nuclear program.
(AP, 7/4/19)
2019 Jul 5, A bomb went off in a car near Turkey's border with Syria, killing two Syrians who were inside the vehicle. A third Syrian was injured. The explosion was caused by a hand-made bomb which went off while the car was in transit.
(AP, 7/5/19)
2019 Jul 6, Turkey's president met with PM Fayez Sarraj, the head of Libya's UN-recognized government, following heightened tensions between Turkey and forces loyal to rival Libyan National Army leader Khalifa Hifter.
(AP, 7/6/19)
2019 Jul 9, Turkey's state-run news agency said prosecutors have issued warrants for the detention of 176 serving military officers over suspected links to the US-based Muslim cleric who is blamed by Ankara for a failed coup attempt in 2016.
(AP, 7/9/19)
2019 Jul 12, Turkey started "Operation Claw-2" late today to destroy caves and shelters used by members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in the Hakurk region. The operation began with commandoes, air strikes and artillery.
(AP, 7/13/19)
2019 Jul 12, Russia began delivery of the advanced S-400 missile defence system to Turkey, a move expected to trigger US sanctions against a NATO ally and drive a wedge into the heart of the Western military alliance.
(Reuters, 7/12/19)
2019 Jul 13, Turkey continued receiving components of a Russian-made air defense system, despite Washington's warnings that it will impose sanctions on the NATO-member country.
(AP, 7/13/19)
2019 Jul 13, Ten Turkish sailors were taken hostage by armed pirates who attacked the Paksoy-1, a Turkish-flagged cargo ship, off the coast of Nigeria. Another eight sailors were left safely aboard.
(Reuters, 7/16/19)
2019 Jul 15, The EU imposed sanctions on Turkey over its drilling for gas in waters around Cyprus.
(Econ, 7/27/19, p.46)
2019 Jul 16, President Donald Trump said the US is not going to sell F-35 fighter jets to Turkey after Ankara decided to buy a missile defense system from Russia.
(AP, 7/17/19)
2019 Jul 17, In Turkey a court in Istanbul has acquitted the Turkey representative for Reporters Without Borders and two other human rights activists of charges of engaging in terrorist propaganda.
(AP, 7/17/19)
2019 Jul 17, In Iraq a gunman opened fire inside a Turkish restaurant in the northern city of Irbil, killing at least one Turkish diplomat stationed in Ankara's consulate. Kurdish security forces later said a Turkish diplomat and a civilian were killed and another civilian wounded in the attack.
(AP, 7/17/19)
2019 Jul 18, Turkey launched airstrikes against Kurdish rebel targets in the Qandil mountains region in northern Iraq, after the killing of Turkish diplomat Osman Kose there a day earlier. Airstrikes killed alleged planners of the attack against Kose and continued the next day against alleged PKK targets in Iraq's Karajak region. A 2nd attack on July 24 hit another vehicle carrying senior members of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AP, 7/19/19)(AP, 7/25/19)
2019 Jul 18, In eastern Turkey a van carrying migrants rolled into a roadside ditch, killing 15 people near the town of Ozalp, Van province.
(AP, 7/18/19)
2019 Jul 19, Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla, convicted of helping Iran evade economic sanctions, was released from a US prison and surrendered to US immigration officials to await deportation. A federal jury convicted Atilla in 2018 of participating in a conspiracy that allowed Iran to launder billions of dollars in oil proceeds through world financial markets.
(AP, 7/23/19)
2019 Jul 19, In northern Iraq an unmanned aircraft dropped explosives on a base belonging to Iran-linked Shi'ite paramilitary groups, killing at least one person. Two Iranian military commanders were killed. US officials later confirmed that Israel was responsible for the bombing in Amirli, Salaheddin province. A Turkish soldier was killed and six wounded in an operation in northern Iraq during clashes with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 7/19/19)(AP, 8/23/19)(SFC, 8/24/19, p.A4)
2019 Jul 20, Iraqi Kurdistan's security services said they had arrested a man for assassinating a Turkish diplomat in the regional capital Erbil on July 17, and believed the suspect was the brother of a lawmaker in the Turkish parliament.
(Reuters, 7/20/19)
2019 Jul 24, In Turkey Belarus diplomat Alexander Poganshev was taken to a hospital to undergo surgery after being attacked by a retired military officer in Ankara, who later committed suicide. The incident did not appear to be politically motivated.
(AP, 7/25/19)
2019 Jul 25, Turkey's central bank cut its benchmark rate to 19.75% from 24%, more than expected.
(Reuters, 7/26/19)
2019 Jul 26, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country is determined to destroy "to pieces" what he called a "terror corridor" in northern Syrian — regardless of whether or not Turkey and the United States agree on the establishment of a safe zone.
(AP, 7/26/19)
2019 Jul 26, Turkey's top court ruled that 10 academics had their rights violated when they were sentenced on charges of disseminating terrorist propaganda for signing a 2016 petition calling for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast.
(AP, 7/27/19)
2019 Jul 27, Turkey's Defense Ministry said it had "neutralized" 34 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq in air strikes on July 17-19. The Defense Ministry said it had "neutralized" a total of 255 PKK militants in operations in northern Iraq since May 27.
(Reuters, 7/27/19)
2019 Aug 1, Turkey granted its radio and television watchdog sweeping oversight over all online content, including streaming platforms like Netflix and online news outlets, in a move that raised concerns over possible censorship.
(Reuters, 8/1/19)
2019 Aug 2, In northwestern Turkey five people, including one child, were killed and 15 others were wounded when a bus caught fire in Balikesir province.
(Reuters, 8/2/19)
2019 Aug 5, Turkish and American military officials met in Istanbul for negotiations about establishing a safe zone in northeastern Syria to address Ankara's concerns about US-allied Syrian Kurdish-led forces in that region.
(AP, 8/5/19)
2019 Aug 7, The US and Turkey announced they'd agreed to form a coordination center to set up the safe zone in northeastern Syria. The coordination center would be based in Turkey and would be set up "as soon as possible".
(AP, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 8, Turkish state news said an operation last week by the Turkish military and its intelligence agency killed two more suspects and alleged planners in the July 17 assassination of Turkish diplomat Osman Kose in Irbil, Iraq.
(AP, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 16, It was reported that Turkey's military pension fund OYAK has reached a provisional agreement to take over British Steel and could close the deal by the end of this year, potentially saving thousands of jobs.
(Reuters, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 19, Turkey removed from office the elected mayors of three cities in the mostly Kurdish-populated southeast region over their alleged links to rebels, replacing them with government appointees.
(AP, 8/19/19)
2019 Aug 19, In Syria airstrikes targeted a Turkish military convoy, killing at least three civilians, as it was heading toward a Turkish observation post in the rebel-held stronghold of Idlib.
(AP, 8/19/19)
2019 Aug 20, Turkey extended by two months a deadline for unregistered Syrian refugees in Istanbul to leave the city. Istanbul already hosts the largest number of registered Syrians, nearly 548,000, out of 3.6 million Syrian refugees who have found a home in Turkey.
(AP, 8/21/19)
2019 Aug 23, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Russia's Vladimir Putin that Syrian army attacks in northwest Syria are causing a humanitarian crisis and threaten Turkey's national security.
(Reuters, 8/23/19)
2019 Aug 23, A Turkish offensive entered its third phase in which troops aimed to destroy PKK caves and shelters in the Sinat-Haftanin region of Iraq.
(AP, 8/25/19)
2019 Aug 25, Turkey's official news agency reported that three Turkish soldiers were killed in northern Iraq in clashes with Kurdish militants.
(AP, 8/25/19)
2019 Aug 27, In Russia the annual opening of the Russian air show was attended by Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a guest of Pres. Vladimir Putin.
(SFC, 8/28/19, p.A2)
2019 Aug 29, Malaysia deported Turkish asylum seeker Arif Komis, registered with the UN, along with his family, after police said he should not be in the country.
(Reuters, 8/30/19)
2019 Sep 3, It was reported that US online streaming service Netflix has applied for a license to continue operating in Turkey under new online broadcasting rules that have raised fears over possible censorship in the future.
(Reuters, 9/3/19)
2019 Sep 4, Turkey's Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan said Turkey may lose trade with Britain worth up to $3 billion in the event of a no-deal Brexit, adding that many Turkish companies lacked information on the consequences of such a scenario.
(Reuters, 9/4/19)
2019 Sep 6, In Turkey an Istanbul court sentenced Canan Kaftancioglu, the leader of the Istanbul branch of the secular Republican People's Party, to nearly 10 years in prison over a series of tweets. She was expected to appeal the verdict.
(AP, 9/6/19)
2019 Sep 8, US and Turkish troops conducted their first joint ground patrol in northeastern Syria as part of a so-called "safe zone" that Ankara has been pressing for in the volatile region. Turkey hoped the buffer zone, which it says should be at least 30 km (19 miles) deep, will keep Syrian Kurdish fighters away from its border.
(AP, 9/8/19)
2019 Sep 10, Turkey accused the United States of taking only "cosmetic steps" toward the creation of a so-called "safe zone" in northeast Syria and renewed Ankara's threat of unilateral military intervention to form a buffer area along its border.
(AP, 9/10/19)
2019 Sep 12, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish rebels reportedly detonated an improvised explosive device on a road near the town of Kulp, killing four people and wounding 13 others.
(AP, 9/13/19)
2019 Sep 13, Former Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu announced his resignation from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party and said he plans to form a new political movement.
(AP, 9/13/19)
2019 Sep 14, Turkey's state media said the government has ordered the arrest of 223 serving military personnel across the country and in the breakaway state of Northern Cyprus over suspected links to a network Ankara accuses of organizing an attempted coup in 2016.
(Reuters, 9/14/19)
2019 Sep 16, In Turkey the leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey met in Ankara to discuss the situation in Syria, with the aim of halting fighting in the country's northwestern province of Idlib and finding a lasting political solution to Syria's civil war, now in its ninth year.
(AP, 9/16/19)
2019 Sep 20, It was reported that Turkey forced banks to take losses on $8 billion in bad loans this week to kick-start lending and boost its economic recovery after losing patience with them.
(Reuters, 9/20/19)
2019 Sep 21, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed frustration with what he said was the United States' continued support for Syrian Kurdish militants.
(AP, 9/21/19)
2019 Sep 24, It was reported that Turkish artist Vahit Tuna has mounted 440 pairs of high heels on the facade of a building on a busy Istanbul street, to symbolize the number of women murdered in domestic or sexual violence in Turkey in 2018.
(Reuters, 9/24/19)
2019 Oct 4, Turkey's state run Anadolu Agency said Sirri Sureyya Onder, a former deputy of the People's Democratic Party, or HDP, has been released from a high security prison. The former pro-Kurdish party legislator and film-maker had been jailed since December 2018.
(AP, 10/5/19)
2019 Oct 4, In northern Syria the US-led coalition and Turkey conducted their third joint patrol, part of a plan designed to defuse tensions between Ankara and the Syrian Kurds.
(AP, 10/4/19)
2019 Oct 5, Turkey's president threatened to launch a military operation into northeastern Syria, where US troops are deployed and have been trying to defuse tension between Washington's two allies — Ankara and the Syrian Kurds.
(AP, 10/5/19)
2019 Oct 7, President Donald Trump threatened to destroy the economy of Turkey if it does not watch over captured Islamic State fighters and their families detained in Syria.
(AP, 10/7/19)
2019 Oct 8, Egypt, Cyprus, and Greece condemned an "unlawful and unacceptable" bid by Turkey to drill inside waters where Cyprus has exclusive economic rights.
(AP, 10/8/19)
2019 Oct 9, Turkey launched a military operation against Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria with air strikes hitting the border town of Ras al Ain. Turkey's state-run news agency said Turkish artillery units are shelling suspected Syrian Kurdish forces targets across the border in the Syrian town of Tal Abyad.
(Reuters, 10/9/19)(AP, 10/9/19)
2019 Oct 9, British Airways announced the launch of a new flight from London's Gatwick Airport to the Turkish resort of Antalya, once one of Thomas Cook's most popular routes, as airlines jostle to fill the void left by its collapse.
(Reuters, 10/9/19)
2019 Oct 10, Turkey pressed its assault against US-allied Kurdish forces in northern Syria for a second day, pounding the region with airstrikes and an artillery bombardment that raised columns of black smoke in a border town and sent panicked civilians scrambling to get out.
(AP, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 10, Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to send "millions" of Syrian refugees to Europe in response to criticism of his military offensive into Kurdish-controlled northern Syria.
(The Telegraph, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 10, Turkish police launched criminal investigations of Kurdish lawmakers and detained dozens of people for using social media to question the military's cross border incursion into Syria, in a crackdown against those who criticized the assault.
(Reuters, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 10, A Turkish provincial governor's office said two children and their mother have been killed by mortar fire from Syria into Turkey. This followed a separate announcement from neighboring Sanliurfa province, where a 9-month-old boy, a girl (11) and an adult male were killed in mortar attacks. The Turkish Defense ministry tweeted that it hit targets in Syria in retaliation.
(AP, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 10, The European Union says that the Turkish offensive in Kurdish-held areas of Syria is setting back any hope for progress toward ending the conflict.
(AP, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 11, Turkey's state-run news agency said two more civilians have been killed in a mortar attack on a Turkish border town while another person died of wounds from a similar attack a day earlier. Turkey's interior minister said that 121 people have been detained for social media posts critical of its military offensive into Kurdish-held northeastern Syria.
(AP, 10/11/19)
2019 Oct 11, Turkish forces pushed deeper into northeastern Syria, the third day of Ankara's cross-border offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters. At least six civilians have been killed in Turkey and seven civilians in Syria since Ankara this week launched the air and ground operation.
(AP, 10/11/19)
2019 Oct 11, EU governments threatened sanctions against Turkey over its offensive in Syria, angrily rejecting President Tayyip Erdogan's warning that he would "open the gates" and send 3.6 million refugees to Europe if they did not back him.
(Reuters, 10/11/19)
2019 Oct 12, Turkey's military said it has captured Ras al-Ayn, a key Syrian border town under heavy bombardment, as its offensive against Kurdish fighters pressed into its fourth day with little sign of relenting despite mounting international criticism. Kurdish authorities denied the town had fallen to the Turks, saying fighting was continuing. The civilian death toll resulting from Turkey's offensive into northern Syria had now reportedly risen to 30.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, France said it is halting exports of any arms to Turkey that could be used in its offensive against Kurds in Syria, and wants an immediate meeting of the US-led coalition against Islamic State extremists.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, Germany said it has banned arms exports to Turkey over its assault against Kurdish YPG militia in Syria.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, Iran offered to engage Syrian Kurds, Syria's government and Turkey in talks to establish security along the Turkish-Syrian border following Turkey's military incursion into northern Syria to fight Kurdish forces.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, The main Kurdish-led group in northern Syria is calling on the US to carry out its "moral responsibilities" and close northern Syrian airspace to Turkish warplanes.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll among Syrian Kurdish-led fighters battling a Turkish offensive has risen to 74, most of whom have been killed in the Tel Abyad area.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 13, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said the incursion into Syria will stretch from Kobani in the west to Hasaka in the east, going some 30 km (19 miles) into Syrian territory.
(Reuters, 10/13/19)
2019 Oct 13, In northern Syria hundreds of Islamic State supporters escaped from a holding camp in amid heavy clashes between invading Turkish-led forces and Kurdish fighters. 780 IS supporters fled a camp for the displaced in the Syrian town of Ein Issa. US President Donald Trump ordered all US troops to withdraw from the north to avoid getting caught in the fighting. Approximately 1,000 US troops in Syria are not leaving the country entirely, but are trying to avoid becoming embroiled in the conflict.
(AP, 10/13/19)(AP, 10/17/19)
2019 Oct 13, The United States said it is poised to withdraw some 1,000 troops from northern Syria after learning that Turkey planned to extend a military incursion against Kurdish foes further south than originally planned.
(Reuters, 10/13/19)
2019 Oct 14, Cambodian police arrested the Turkish-Mexican former director of a school run by the movement of US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara blames for a failed 2016 coup. His wife feared he would be deported to Turkey.
(AP, 10/19/19)
2019 Oct 14, Pres. Donald Trump spoke directly to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan to demand an immediate ceasefire in Syria while announcing a series of punishments for Ankara that critics saw as an attempt to save face. Trump announced sanctions aimed at restraining the Turks' assault against Kurdish fighters and civilians in Syria. A US official said the approximately 1,000 US troops being withdrawn from northern Syria will reposition in Iraq, Kuwait and possibly Jordan.
(The Guardian , 10/15/19)(AP, 10/15/19)
2019 Oct 14, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani urged Turkey to halt its military offensive against Kurdish forces in northern Syria.
(AP, 10/14/19)
2019 Oct 15, The UN said Turkey could be deemed responsible for summary executions by an affiliated armed group of captured Kurdish fighters and a politician, acts that may amount to war crimes.
(Reuters, 10/15/19)
2019 Oct 15, US prosecutors accused Turkey's government-owned Halkbank of participating in a wide-ranging plot to violate prohibitions on Iran’s access to the US financial system. The conspiracy involved high-ranking government officials in Iran and Turkey.
(AP, 10/16/19)
2019 Oct 16, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says his country won't be affected by "sanctions and threats" over its military incursion into northeast Syria.
(AP, 10/16/19)
2019 Oct 16, President Donald Trump said US troops are "largely out" of a region of Syria where Turkish forces are attacking Kurdish fighters.
(AP, 10/16/19)
2019 Oct 16, The UN Special Envoy for Syria said there must be a cessation of hostilities between Turkish troops and Kurdish fighters as the world is "extremely alarmed by the humanitarian consequences of the crisis".
(AP, 10/16/19)
2019 Oct 17, The US and Turkey agreed to a five-day cease-fire in the Turks' deadly attacks on Kurdish fighters in northern Syria. Tts effect was largely to mitigate a foreign policy crisis widely seen to be of Pres. Trump's own making.
(AP, 10/18/19)
2019 Oct 18, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey's military will set up 12 observations posts along the border in northern Syria if a planned safe zone is established. Erdogan also told reporters that 195 out of some 750 Islamic State militants who he said were set free by Syrian Kurdish fighters as Turkey launched its push into Syrian territory have been re-captured.
(AP, 10/18/19)
2019 Oct 18, The Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria accused Turkey of violating a US-brokered cease-fire that went into effect overnight, as fighters from both sides clashed in and around a border town that has been one of the fiercest fronts in the Turkish invasion. A spokesman for the Kurdish-led fighters said they were not withdrawing from Ras al-Ayn because Turkish forces are still besieging and shelling it.
(AP, 10/18/19)
2019 Oct 19, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would press on with its offensive into northeastern Syria and "crush the heads of terrorists" if a deal with Washington on the withdrawal of Kurdish fighters from the area were not fully implemented.
(Reuters, 10/19/19)
2019 Oct 19, In Syria Turkish-backed Syrian fighters clashed with Kurdish-led forces in several parts of the northeast, with some crossing the border from Turkey to attack a village. Both sides blamed each other for fighting that has rattled the US-brokered cease-fire.
(AP, 10/19/19)
2019 Oct 19, Thousands of people in the German city of Cologne and in the French capital demonstrated against Turkey's offensive in northern Syria.
(AP, 10/19/19)
2019 Oct 20, In Syria Kurdish fighters evacuated the northern town of Ras al-Ayn. Turkey wants the Kurdish fighters to move away from the Turkey-Syria border, pulling back 20 miles (32 km) to the south. The cease-fire is to end Oct. 22 evening. One Turkish soldier was reported killed and another wounded after an attack by the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in northeast Syria's Tel Abyad.
(AP, 10/20/19)(Reuters, 10/20/19)
2019 Oct 22, Regional offices in Turkey said the government has replaced four mayors from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) with state officials, part of a widening crackdown on local councils controlled by the party.
(Reuters, 10/22/19)
2019 Oct 22, The presidents of Russia and Turkey met in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi, hours before a five-day cease-fire between Turkish troops and Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria was set to expire.
(AP, 10/22/19)
2019 Oct 22, A US prosecutor called Turkey's Halkbank a "fugitive" after it failed to make an initial court appearance in a criminal case accusing it of conspiring to violate US sanctions against Iran.
(Reuters, 10/22/19)
2019 Oct 23, Russian military police began patrols on part of the Syrian border, quickly moving to implement an accord with Turkey that divvies up control of northeastern Syria. The Kremlin told Kurdish fighters to pull back from the entire frontier or else face being "steamrolled" by Turkish forces.
(AP, 10/23/19)
2019 Oct 23, President Donald Trump said he will lift sanctions on Turkey after the NATO ally agreed to permanently stop fighting Kurdish forces in Syria and he defended his decision to withdraw American troops.
(AP, 10/23/19)
2019 Oct 24, Turkey's central bank slashed its policy rate more than expected to 14%, taking advantage of an inflation dip and a steadier lira after Washington cancelled just-announced sanctions over Ankara's military incursion into northeast Syria.
(Reuters, 10/24/19)
2019 Oct 24, In northern Syria a car boobytrapped with explosives detonated, wounding four people in the town of Tal Abyad, taken by Turkish-backed forces from Kurdish fighters during Turkey's invasion.
(AP, 10/24/19)
2019 Oct 24, The Turkish and Syrian ambassadors clashed at their first UN Security Council encounter since Turkey launched a cross-border offensive earlier this month following the withdrawal of US forces.
(AP, 10/25/19)
2019 Oct 26, Kurdish fighters wounded six Turkish soldiers amid a shaky truce in northern Syria south of Ras al-Ayn. One of the wounded soldiers died the following day.
(AP, 10/27/19)
2019 Oct 27, The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it had agreed to withdraw more than 30 km (19 miles) from the Turkish border, an announcement welcomed by Damascus which said Turkey should now end its "aggression" in northeast Syria.
(Reuters, 10/27/19)
2019 Oct 28, Turkey's state-run news agency said police have detained 20 foreign nationals suspected of links to the Islamic State group.
(AP, 10/28/19)
2019 Oct 29, Turkey's state-run news agency said police have detained three suspected Islamic State group militants who were allegedly scheming a "sensational" attack in the aftermath of the killing of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
(AP, 10/29/19)
2019 Oct 29, Syrian army troops clashed with Turkish forces near the border town of Ras al Ain. Turkey's defense forces captured 18 Syrian government soldiers in northeastern Syria, including two who were wounded. Syrian government forces withdrew from the area after their soldiers were captured.
(Reuters, 10/30/19)(AP, 10/31/19)
2019 Oct 29, The US House overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill threatening to sanction Turkey, warning that a deal struck with the Trump administration won’t necessarily save the NATO ally from economic punishment for its military operation in northern Syria.
(Bloomberg, 10/29/19)
2019 Oct 30, Turkey summoned the US ambassador in protest at votes in Congress the previous day to recognize the Turkish genocide against Armenians and to sanction Ankara for its military offensive in northeast Syria.
(The Telegraph, 10/30/19)
2019 Oct 30, Turkey's police chief said 100 people have been detained in raids against the Islamic State and that the group was allegedly planning an attack. The suspects were detained in 26 raids across 21 provinces.
(AP, 10/30/19)
2019 Oct 31, Turkey's Anadolu news agency said an appeals court ruled for the release of Republican People's Party ex-legislator Eren Erdem. He was sentenced to more than four years in prison in March, accused of supporting US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.
(AP, 10/31/19)
2019 Nov 1, Turkey and Russia launched joint patrols in northeastern Syria, under a deal that halted a Turkish offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters who were forced to withdraw from the border area following Ankara's incursion.
(AP, 11/1/19)
2019 Nov 2, In northern Syria car bomb went off in the town of Tal Abyad, killing 13 civilians. Turkey's defense ministry blamed Syrian Kurdish fighters for the attack A Kurdish-led force said Christian fighters will now oversee security in a northern Syrian region that has witnessed fighting between Turkey-backed fighters and Kurdish-led militiamen.
(AP, 11/2/19)
2019 Nov 3, In Turkey police in Istanbul detained a driver (33) who rammed his bus into a crowded stop and attacked people who tried to prevent him from escaping with a knife. At least 13 people were injured.
(AP, 11/3/19)
2019 Nov 4, A Turkish court convicted journalists Ahmet Altan and Nazli Ilicak of aiding a terror group but ordered both released from prison, where they had served more than three years in a case that has severely tested press freedom in the country.
(AP, 11/5/19)
2019 Nov 4, Turkey captured Rasmiya Awad (65), the elder sister of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the slain leader of the Islamic State group, near the Syrian town of Azaz in Aleppo province.
(AP, 11/4/19)
2019 Nov 4, Turkey's interior minister Suleyman Soylu said Turkey will send back Islamic State group members to their countries of origin.
(AP, 11/4/19)
2019 Nov 4, Turkey said one of its soldiers has been killed by roadside bomb in northeastern Syria, bringing Turkey's military death toll to 14 since launching its incursion into Syrian Kurdish-held areas on Oct. 9.
(AP, 11/4/19)
2019 Nov 5, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for Russia and the United States to keep to their promises and ensure that Syrian Kurdish fighters pull out of a so-called safe zone along Syria's northern border with Turkey.
(AP, 11/5/19)
2019 Nov 6, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed that Turkish police detained one of al-Baghdadi's wives and a daughter last year.
(AP, 11/7/19)
2019 Nov 7, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said his country will have to open the doors to Europe for Syrian refugees unless the European Union provides Ankara with enough support, adding that Turkey could not carry that burden alone.
(Reuters, 11/7/19)
2019 Nov 8, A Syrian protester was killed after he was run over by a Turkish military vehicle during a joint Turkish-Russian patrol in northeastern Syria.
(AP, 11/8/19)
2019 Nov 9, In northeast Syria intense clashes broke out between Syrian government troops and Turkish-led forces in the village of Um Shaifa near the town of Ras al-Ayn. At least four Syrian government soldiers were killed in the fighting with Turkish troops and Turkey-backed opposition fighters.
(AP, 11/9/19)(AP, 11/10/19)
2019 Nov 10, In northern Syria killed a car bomb at least eight civilians and wounded 20 others in a town near the border with Turkey. Syrian government troops fought for a second day with Turkish-led forces in an area between the towns of Tal-Tamr and Ras al-Ayn, according to a war monitor, Syria's state media and activists.
(AP, 11/10/19)
2019 Nov 11, Turkey deported citizens of the United States and Denmark who fought for the Islamic State group and made plans to expel other foreign nationals as the government began a new push to send back captured foreign fighters to their home countries.
(AP, 11/11/19)
2019 Nov 11, In Turkey former British army officer James Le Mesurier was found dead in Istanbul early today. He was the founder and CEO of May Day Rescue, which founded and trained the White Helmets, also known as the Syria Civil Defense.
(AP, 11/11/19)
2019 Nov 11, A report by UN experts said Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey have repeatedly violated an arms embargo on Libya and it is "highly probable" that a foreign attack aircraft is responsible for a deadly strike on a migrant detention center. The report also accused Sudan and the head of Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known by his nickname Hemeti, of violating UN sanctions by deploying 1,000 Sudanese troops to Libya.
(Reuters, 11/11/19)
2019 Nov 12, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Syrian Kurdish fighters have failed to vacate areas along the Turkish border despite agreements with Russia and the United States, and says he will raise the issue with US President Donald Trump.
(AP, 11/12/19)
2019 Nov 12, Turkish forces conducting a joint patrol in northern Syria under a Russian-Turkish deal fired live rounds at protesters near the mainly Kurdish town of Kobani. Two people were reported killed and seven others injured near the town along the Syrian-Turkish border.
(Reuters, 11/12/19)
2019 Nov 14, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey is willing to purchase US-made Patriot air defense systems but will not agree to disposing of the Russian S-400 system it has already bought.
(AP, 11/14/19)
2019 Nov 14, Turkish officials said seven German and one British Islamic State suspects have been deported to their home countries. The Interior Ministry also announced that the United States will take back a US national and IS suspect who was stuck in a no man’s land between Turkey and Greece, after Athens refused him entry.
(AP, 11/14/19)
2019 Nov 15, Turkish police detained four mayors over their suspected links to Kurdish rebels, as part of an ongoing crackdown on the country's pro-Kurdish party.
(AP, 11/15/19)
2019 Nov 16, Turkey removed four more mayors from their posts as part of a widening government crackdown against the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), and replaced them with state appointees.
(Reuters, 11/16/19)
2019 Nov 17, Turkey's defense ministry said authorities have captured a Syrian Kurdish YPG fighter suspected of a car bomb attack in the northern Syrian town of Al-Bab a day earlier, which killed 18 people and wounded 30 others.
(Reuters, 11/17/19)
2019 Nov 19, Turkey's state-run news agency said prosecutors have issued warrants for the detention of 133 military officers over suspected links to the US-based Muslim cleric who is blamed by Ankara for a failed coup attempt in 2016. 101 of the suspects were detained in simultaneous raids in 45 provinces for alleged links to Fethullah Gulen's network.
(AP, 11/19/19)
2019 Nov 25, Turkish media say Turkey is poised to begin testing Russian-made S-400 air defense systems, despite threats of sanctions from the United States.
(AP, 11/25/19)
2019 Nov 26, In northeastern Syria a car bomb in a Turkish controlled area killed at least 17 people in the village of Tal Half.
(SFC, 11/27/19, p.A2)
2019 Nov 27, Turkish Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Libyan PM Fayez Sarraj reached a deal on maritime and security cooperation. It was soon denounced by Libya’s eastern parliament.
(AP, 11/28/19)
2019 Nov 27, A mortar attack targeting a Turkish military post near the border with Syria killed two soldiers. An opposition group that monitors the war in Syria said the first shots were fired by Turkish troops and Turkey-backed opposition fighters.
(AP, 11/28/19)
2019 Dec 6, Greece said it was expelling the Libyan ambassador, angered by an accord between Libya and Turkey signed on Nov. 27 that maps out a sea boundary between the two countries close to the Greek island of Crete. Libya called the move unacceptable. Turkey dismissed it as outrageous.
(Reuters, 12/6/19)
2019 Dec 9, Turkey said it would join Albania and Kosovo in boycotting the Nobel awards ceremony in protest against 2019 literature prize laureate Peter Handke, who has been criticized for backing late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
(Reuters, 12/9/19)
2019 Dec 10, The Greek government said it has lodged objections to the United Nations over an accord between Libya and Turkey mapping out maritime boundaries as a violation of international law.
(Reuters, 12/10/19)
2019 Dec 12, Turkey sent its accord with Libya on a maritime boundary between the two countries to the United Nations for approval, despite objections from Greece that the agreement violates international law.
(Reuters, 12/12/19)
2019 Dec 12, Former Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu established a new political party, Future Party, in a move that represents a challenge to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party.
(AP, 12/12/19)
2019 Dec 12, The US Senate voted unanimously on a resolution that recognizes as genocide the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago. The following day Turkey summoned the ambassador from the US to protest the approval.
(AP, 12/13/19)
2019 Dec 19, Turkey denied accusations that a militant Palestinian group is using its territory to plan attacks against Israel.
(AP, 12/19/19)
2019 Dec 21, Turkey’s parliament approved a security and military deal with Libya’s UN-supported government on the heels of a controversial maritime agreement earlier this month that has drawn international ire. The deal allows Turkey to provide military training and equipment at the request of the Libyan government that controls Tripoli and some of the country's west.
(AP, 12/21/19)
2019 Dec 23, Libya’s forces based in the country’s east said they have released a vessel with Turkish crew members seized over the weekend amid heightened tensions in the eastern Mediterranean over a contentious maritime border deal involving Tripoli and Ankara.
(AP, 12/23/19)
2019 Dec 23, In Syria a vehicle rigged with explosives blew up in a market in the northern village of Suluk, killing five people and wounding others. Turkish troops and Turkey-backed fighters captured Tal Abyad and Suluk from Kurdish-led fighters in October. Syrian government troops captured the northwestern village of Jarjanaz from al-Qaida late today and surrounded a Turkish observation post in the area.
(AP, 12/23/19)(AP, 12/24/19)
2019 Dec 26, Turkey's president said that the UN-supported government in Libya has asked Ankara to send troops to help authorities in Tripoli defend the city from an offensive by rival forces.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, Turkey’s state-run news agency reported that the Constitutional Court has ruled in favor of Wikipedia, saying the Turkish government's two-year ban on the online encyclopedia constitutes a violation of freedom of expression. Turkey blocked Wikipedia in April 2017, accusing it of being part of a “smear campaign" against the country.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, In eastern Turkey a boat carrying migrants capsized in Lake Van, killing seven people on board. At least 64 migrants were rescued.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 27, A Turkish court convicted six journalists and one other employee of an independent newspaper of aiding the network of a US-based cleric who is accused of masterminding the failed coup in 2016. The seven were accused of supporting the coup through their work for the newspaper Sozcu, which has been extremely critical of the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AP, 12/27/19)
2019 Dec 27, Turkey unveiled its first fully domestically-produced car, saying it aimed to eventually produce up to 175,000 a year of the electric vehicle in a project expected to cost 22 billion lira ($3.7 billion) over 13 years. The vehicle sported the TOGG label of the consortium that is building them.
(Reuters, 12/27/19)
2019 Dec 29, Turkey's defense chief said that his country's troops won't evacuate their 12 observation posts in rebel-held northwestern Syria., even as a Syrian government offensive pushed deeper into Idlib province, the last remaining opposition stronghold.
(AP, 12/29/19)
2019 Dec 30, Turkey's government submitted a motion to parliament seeking approval to deploy troops to Libya, arguing that the conflict in the North African country could escalate into a civil war and threaten Turkey's interests.
(AP, 12/30/19)
2019 Dec 30, Turkey's state-run news agency reported that police have detained at least 124 people suspected of links to the Islamic State group.
(AP, 12/30/19)
2019 Dec 31, Police in Turkey detained five suspected Islamic State militants who were allegedly planning to carry out attacks in the Turkish capital of Ankara during New Year's Eve celebrations. Anadolu news said close to 170 suspected IS militants have been detained in the past two days.
(AP, 12/31/19)
2019 Dec 31, Turkish Airlines said it has agreed a compensation deal with plane maker Boeing Co over the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX following two fatal crashes.
(Reuters, 12/31/19)
2020 Jan 8, Turkey and Russia called for a Jan. 12 cease-fire in war-torn Libya while European Union officials intensified diplomatic efforts to cool tensions in the North African nation by holding talks with its prime minister.
(AP, 1/8/20)
2020 Jan 8, In northeastern Syria four Turkish soldiers were killed in a car bombing attack today while they were conducting road checks.
(AP, 1/9/20)
2020 Jan 14, Egyptian police raided the Cairo office of Turkey's state-run news agency late today and detained four of its staff members. Egyptian security forces shut down the agency's security camera and internet and searched the premise overnight.
(AP, 1/15/20)
2020 Jan 15, Turkish airstrikes inside Iraq targeting members of an outlawed Kurdish rebel group killed at least four minority Yazidi fighters allied with the rebels.
(AP, 1/16/20)
2020 Jan 16, Egyptian authorities released four people, including two Egyptian journalists, arrested in a police raid on the Cairo bureau of Turkey's state-run news agency.
(AP, 1/16/20)
2020 Jan 17, The head of the European Union’s border agency said the number of migrants entering Europe from Turkey rose significantly last year as people fleeing strife in Syria and Afghanistan flooded into the country and then set out for Greece.
(AP, 1/17/20)
2020 Jan 19, Turkey called for the European Union to end what it said was the bloc's prejudice against Turkish Cypriots, defending its launch of a fresh round of hydrocarbons drilling off the Mediterranean island.
(Reuters, 1/19/20)
2020 Jan 20, Turkey's largest telecoms group said it had been hit by a cyber attack that led to problems with internet access, but did not specify who was carrying out the attack. It said the strike had targeted its DNS addresses. Internet access was soon restored.
(Reuters, 1/20/20)
2020 Jan 24, In eastern Turkey a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck Elazig province late today. 18 people were killed in Elazig and four in neighboring Malatya. The death toll soon rose to 41 people with hundreds injured.
(AP, 1/25/20)(AP, 1/26/20)(AP, 1/27/20)(SFC, 1/28/20, p.A4)
2020 Jan 27, Three senior Western security officials said sweeping cyberattacks targeting governments and other organizations in Europe and the Middle East are believed to be the work of hackers acting in the interests of the Turkish government.
(Reuters, 1/27/20)
2020 Jan 29, French President Emmanuel Macron accused Turkey of breaching an agreement to halt foreign interference in Libya by sending warships and mercenaries to the country.
(AP, 1/29/20)
2020 Feb 2, In Syria airstrikes on a rebel-held village in the northwest killed at least seven people, A large Turkish military convoy rumbled into rebel-held areas of northwest Syria.
(AP, 2/2/20)
2020 Feb 3, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkish artillery have hit some 46 targets in Syria and Turkish warplanes were also involved. He claimed that there were between 30 and 35 casualties on the Syrian side but offered no evidence. Turkish troops shelled Syrian army positions in three provinces, reportedly killing eight soldiers in Idlib, three in Latakia province and two in the Hama region. Syrian activists said airstrikes in the country's northern, rebel-held region killed at least nine civilians. Turkey used its [email protected] drones to destroy hundreds of Syrian armored vehicles.
(AP, 2/3/20)(Econ., 10/10/20, p.44)
2020 Feb 3, Syrian troops captured the village of Nairab, reaching another highway that links the coastal city of Latakia with Aleppo. Syria's state news agency SANA said government forces were chasing insurgents and that four Turkish soldiers were killed and nine wounded triggering a Turkish retaliation. It claimed there were no casualties among Syrian troops.
(AP, 2/3/20)
2020 Feb 4, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country won't allow Syrian forces to gain additional territory in a northern Syrian province, a day after clashes between Turkish and Syrian forces killed soldiers on both sides.
(AP, 2/4/20)
2020 Feb 5, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to use force against Syrian government forces if they don't pull back to an earlier cease-fire line in northern Syria by the end of the month.
(AP, 2/5/20)
2020 Feb 5, In eastern Turkey successive avalanches over the last 24 hours killed at least 38 people and trapped dozens more. The death toll soon climbed to 41. The double avalanche left 84 people injured.
(AP, 2/5/20)(AP, 2/6/20)
2020 Feb 5, In Turkey a Pegasus Boeing 737 skidded off a runway in Istanbul and broke apart while landing in bad weather. Three people were killed and 179 injured.
(SFC, 2/6/20, p.A2)(SSFC, 2/9/20, p.A3)
2020 Feb 6, Turkey sent more reinforcements into northwestern Syria, setting up new positions in an attempt to stop a Syrian government offensive on the last rebel stronghold in the war-torn country.
(AP, 2/6/20)
2020 Feb 7, Several Turkish armored vehicles and tanks entered rebel-controlled northwestern Syria, the latest reinforcements sent in by Ankara amid a Syrian government offensive that this week brought the two countries' troops into a rare direct confrontation.
(AP, 2/7/20)
2020 Feb 8, Syrian government forces captured new areas from insurgents in their efforts to control a key highway in the northwest, as Turkey sent more reinforcements into the war-torn country.
(AP, 2/8/20)
2020 Feb 10, In Syria six Turkish soldiers were killed and seven were wounded when Syrian government forces shelled the Taftanaz air base in Idlib. Four Syrian rebels were also killed in the shelling. The exchange of fire came even as a Russian delegation arrived in Ankara for a second round of talks to discuss the fighting in Syria.
(AP, 2/10/20)
2020 Feb 15, President Tayyip Erdogan said the transfer of the main opposition party's 28% stake in Turkey's largest listed lender Isbank to the state would not be delayed.
(AP, 2/15/20)
2020 Feb 18, Turkey said it will deploy more troops to Syria's Idlib region and retaliate against attacks by government forces there, even as Ankara continues to discuss the situation with Moscow.
(Reuters, 2/18/20)
2020 Feb 18, In Turkey nine people, including prominent philanthropist Osman Kavala (63), were acquitted of trying to overthrow the government by force. They had faced trial for participating in the 2013 Taksim Square protests. Arrests warrants were lifted for seven other defendants.
(SFC, 2/19/20, p.A3)
2020 Feb 19, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized the European Union’s decision to launch a maritime effort focused on enforcing the U.N arms embargo around Libya.
(AP, 2/19/20)
2020 Feb 20, An airstrike in northwestern Syria reportedly killed two Turkish soldiers, following a large-scale attack by Ankara-backed opposition forces that targeted Syrian government troops. A Turkish Defense Ministry statement said as many as 50 Syrian government soldiers were killed and that five tanks, two armored personnel carriers and other equipment were destroyed.
(AP, 2/20/20)
2020 Feb 22, Turkey said a member of its military was killed in Syria's Idlib region in a bomb attack by Syrian government forces, the sixteenth soldier killed there so far this month.
(Reuters, 2/22/20)
2020 Feb 23, Turkey closed its border with Iran due to the number of coronavirus cases in its eastern neighbor.
(AP, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 23, In Turkey nine people were killed in Van province in a magnitude 5.7 earthquake that struck western Iran early today. Iran’s official IRNA news agency said the earthquake affected 43 villages in the mountainous Qotour area. 75 people were reported injured.
(AP, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 23, Forces loyal to Libyan eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar said they had killed 16 Turkish soldiers in recent weeks, a day after Turkey acknowledged it had lost several "martyrs" in combat in the north African country.
(Reuters, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 23, In Syria several Turkish troops were wounded in Idlib province after pro-Damascus forces targeted a Turkish military convoy with heavy artillery, prompting it to retreat northwards.
(Reuters, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 25, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said two Turkish soldiers have been killed in fighting in Libya and defended Ankara's move to also send Syrian opposition fighters to the North African country.
(AP, 2/25/20)
2020 Feb 27, In northwestern Syria at least 33 Turkish military personnel were killed in an attack late today, and more than 30 others were injured. The deaths followed a precision strike on a two-storey building in the village of Balioun.
(The Guardian, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 27, Russian state television said Turkish military specialists in Syria's Idlib region were using shoulder-fired missiles to try to shoot down Russian and Syrian military aircraft.
(Reuters, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 28, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country's borders with Europe were open, making good on a longstanding threat to let refugees into the continent as thousands of migrants gathered at the frontier with Greece.
(AP, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 28, Refugees in Turkey headed towards European frontiers after an official declared that borders had been thrown open, a response to the escalating war in Syria.
(Reuters, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 28, Cyprus' interior minister accused Turkey of deliberately channeling migrants for months to the ethnically-divided island's Greek Cypriot south to change the composition of its population.
(AP, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 28, In northwest Syria Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group lost at least eight fighters in skirmishes with insurgents and airstrikes by Turkey's air force. 48 Syrian soldiers have also been killed in the last 48 hours in Turkish bombardments and drone attacks in the region.
(AP, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, The UN migration organization reported at least 13,000 people had massed on Turkey’s land border, the vast majority apparently from Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/1/20)
2020 Feb, Turkish drones destroyed dozens of Syrian tanks in a two-day killing spree.
(Econ., 9/12/20, p.70)
2020 Mar 1, Greek army and police patrols using tear gas and stun grenades to thwart attempts overnight by thousands to push into the country. Thousands of migrants and refugees massed at Turkey's western frontier, trying to enter Greece by land and sea after Turkey said its borders were open to those hoping to head to Europe.
(AP, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 1, In Syria, Turkish troops shot down two Syrian warplanes after the Syrian military downed a Turkish drone. Syrian state media said the Syrian army has so far downed three Turkish drones that Ankara had been using extensively to hit Syrian army locations and air bases.
(AP, 3/1/20)(Reuters, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 2, A child died when a boat full of migrants heading to a Greek island capsized, part of a wave of thousands trying to push through Greece's land and sea borders after Turkey declared the way was open for migrants and refugees to enter Europe. Over the last two days some 1,200 migrants arrived on Lesbos, already overcrowded with migrants.
(AP, 3/2/20)(Econ., 3/7/20, p.48)
2020 Mar 3, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Greek authorities of inhumanely treating migrants trying to cross the border, claiming that two people were killed by Greek security forces a day earlier while another was seriously wounded. Greece denied the accusation.
(Bloomberg, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, Turkey shot down a Syrian fighter jet in Syria's Idlib province, marking the third such incident in as many days, as steady clashes between the two national armies continued over a Russia-backed Syrian government offensive near the Turkish border. State-run Syrian media said troops shot down a Turkish drone.
(AP, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, A high-level Trump administration official traveled up to the border with Syria's last rebel stronghold in a show of support for Turkey and its armed Syrian opposition groups' fight against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and to highlight relief efforts for the nearly 1 million people who have fled recent fighting.
(ABC News, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 4, In Turkey a fistfight erupted in parliament during a speech by opposition lawmaker Engin Ozkoc, who earlier accused President Tayyip Erdogan of disrespecting Turkish soldiers who died in Syria.
(Reuters, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 4, A man (43) was shot dead as he tried to cross from Turkey into Greece. Five others were treated for gunshot wounds. Greece dismissed reports of the shooting as "fake news".
(Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020 Mar 4, In northwestern Syria two more Turkish soldiers were killed in a Syrian government attack, as steady clashes between the two national armies continued to rack up casualties. Nine Syrian soldiers were also reported killed in Turkish drone attacks in the area.
(AP, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 5, Turkey said it would deploy special forces along its land border with Greece to prevent Greek authorities pushing back people trying to cross into Europe, after Turkey declared its previously guarded gateways to Europe open.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, Turkey announced that another Turkish soldier was killed in an attack in Idlib, Syria, raising the number of Turkish soldiers killed in the past 36 hours to three.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, In Russia an agreement on a ceasefire in Syria was announced after a six-hour meeting between the Turkish and Russian presidents in Moscow. The deal essentially froze the conflict lines and did not force Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces to roll back military gains made in the past three months.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Clashes between Greek riot police and migrants attempting to cross the border from Turkey erupted anew as European Union foreign ministers took aim at what they called “Turkey's use of migratory pressure for political purposes".
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, In northwestern Syria a cease-fire deal brokered by Turkey and Russia took hold in Idlib province. Farhad Dabirian, a commander with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, was killed near Damascus.
(AP, 3/6/20)(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 8, Turkish riot police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of demonstrators who, in defiance of a government ban, tried to march along Istanbul's main pedestrian street to mark International Women's Day.
(AP, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, In Turkey Selcuk Mizrakli, the ousted mayor of the mainly Kurdish Diyarbakir province, was sentenced to more than nine years in prison for membership of a terrorist organization.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 10, Turkish officials said at least three migrants had been shot and killed while trying to enter Greece in the past two weeks. Several migrants said in interviews that they had been captured, stripped of their belongings and expelled from Greece without being giver a chance to claim asylum.
(SFC, 3/11/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 13, Turkey said a second patient has been diagnosed with the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 15, Turkey said thousands of Muslims returning to home from a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia were being taken into quarantine due to concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Syria's brutal conflict entered its 10th year with President Bashar al-Assad's regime consolidating its hold over a war-wracked country where foreign powers are flexing their muscle. In the northwest Turkish and Russian troops began joint patrols on the key M4 highway. Rebel provocations forced Russia and Turkey to cut short their first joint patrol.
(AFP, 3/15/20)(AP, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 18, Turkey reported its first death due to the coronavirus. President Tayyip Erdogan advised his people not to leave home unless necessary for three weeks and to minimize social contact until the threat of coronavirus recedes, but did not instruct people to stay away from work.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 19, In Syria two Turkish soldiers were killed in a rocket attack in northwestern Idlib province.
(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 20, Turkey's death toll due to the coronavirus rose to nine with a total of 670 cases.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Turkey extended measures against the coronavirus, suspended flights with 46 more countries and banning picnics and barbecues, as the number of cases has roughly doubled every day for a week.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 22, Coronavirus cases in Turkey soared as countries across the Middle East imposed new restrictions on movement of people, shut public places and rolled out measures to protect businesses. Turkey now has 947 confirmed cases of the virus, with 21 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)(Good Morning America, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 23, Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, closed in a bid to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. It dated back to 1455 and is often regarded as one of the first shopping malls.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Bazaar,_Istanbul)(https://tinyurl.com/ychn4qdy)
2020 Mar 25, Turkish officials said prosecutors have formally charged two former aides of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and 18 other Saudi nationals over the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Bulgaria imposed a temporary entry ban on trucks from more than 65 countries that plan to pass through the Balkan state en route to Turkey, after Turkey imposed stringent coronavirus restrictions on truck drivers.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 27, Turkish authorities evacuated hundreds of migrants waiting at the border with Greece amid the coronavirus pandemic. They were transferred to state guesthouses for quarantine .
(SFC, 3/28/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 28, Turkey halted all intercity trains and limited domestic flights as the number of coronavirus cases jumped to 7,402, with 108 dead.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 29, Turkey's deaths from the coronavirus increased by 23 to 131, as the number of confirmed cases rose by 1,815 to 9,217.
(AP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 30, Turkey placed 39 residential areas in 18 cities under quarantine to contain the spread of the coronavirus, which has killed 131 people in the country.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 31, In eastern Turkey an explosion damaged a natural gas pipeline and halted gas flows from Iran. Authorities suspected the Kurdistan Workers' Party.
(SFC, 4/1/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 3, In Turkey singer Helin Bolek (28), a member of the Grup Yorum folk music group, died on the 288th day of a hunger strike at a home in Istanbul. The group has been prohibited from performing in Turkey since 2016.
(SFC, 4/4/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 8, Turkey said it will monitor the mobile phones of those diagnosed with the new coronavirus to ensure they do not break quarantine, marking the latest measure to stem an outbreak that has surged over the last month.
(Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 12, Turkey called on private banks to do more to help customers hurt by the economic impact of the coronavirus, saying that state-owned banks had offered delays in repayments for loans. More than 1,000 people have been killed by the coronavirus in Turkey.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 13, Coronavirus infections in Turkey have jumped to more than 56,900 cases and almost 1,200 deaths.
(SFC, 4/13/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 17, Turkey's confirmed cases of the COVID-19 disease increased by 4,353 in the past 24 hours, and 126 more people have died, taking the death toll to 1,769. The total number of cases in the country stood at 78,546.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 18, Turkey reported another 121 coronavirus deaths, raising the total to 1,890.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 19, Turkey's confirmed coronavirus cases have risen to 86,306.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 24, Turkey's confirmed cases of COVID-19 increased by 3,122 with the death toll rising to 2,600.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, In Turkey Ali Erbas, the country's top religious official, proclaimed that Islam condemned homosexuality because it brought illnesses and generational decay.
(Econ., 5/9/20, p.42)
2020 Apr 26, Turkish troops fired tear gas and live bullets at protesters blocking a major highway in northwest Syria early today, killing two people and wounding others. The protesters have been blocking part of the highway near the government-held village of Nairab in Idlib province for weeks to prevent joint Turkish-Russian patrols.
(AP, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 27, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threw his weight behind the country's top Muslim cleric, who caused a storm by claiming homosexuality “brings disease and causes this generation to decay".
(AP, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, Turkish officials said 402 people have been detained in the past 42 days for allegedly sharing "false and provocative" social media postings concerning the coronavirus outbreak.
(SFC, 4/28/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 27, In Libya a Turkish drone reportedly hit a food truck convoy in the country’s west, killing at least five civilians. Militia groups said they targeted trucks carrying equipment and ammunition for eastern forces trying to take the capital.
(AP, 4/28/20)
2020 May 1, Police in Istanbul detained at least 15 people, including trade union leaders who tried to stage a May Day march in defiance of a coronavirus lockdown and a ban on demonstrations at Taksim Square. Turkey ranks seventh in the world for the number of confirmed infections with 120,204 cases. The country's official death toll stands at 3,174.
(AP, 5/1/20)
2020 May 3, In Turkey Dr. Murat Dilmener (78), a professor of infectious diseases, died of COVID-19. His charity and compassion inspired Newspapers to dub him the “Robin Hood of the medical profession" and earned the professor and practicing physician the admiration of thousands of patients and students.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 May 7, In Turkey the Grup Yorun, a left-wing folk music group formed in 1985, said band member Ibrahim Gokcek (45) has died of a hunger strike in protest of the government's crackdown on the band. Gokcek was the 2nd band member to die in the hunger strike.
(SFC, 5/8/20, p.A2)
2020 May 10, In Turkey senior citizens were allowed to venture out for the first time in seven weeks. Turkey has recorded 137,115 coronavirus infections, including 3,739 deaths.
(SFC, 5/11/20, p.A4)
2020 May 11, Turkey was denounced by ministers of five countries for drilling in an offshore area where Cyprus has exclusive economic rights. Cyprus, Greece, Egypt, France and the UAE also protested a maritime border delineation and military cooperation agreement that Turkey signed last year with Libya's UN-backed government.
(SFC, 5/13/20, p.A3)
2020 May 15, Turkish authorities detained four more elected mayors from Turkey’s mainly Kurdish populated east and southeast regions, as the government pressed ahead with its crackdown on a pro-Kurdish party it accuses of links to Kurdish militants.
(AP, 5/15/20)
2020 May 21, Authorities in Turkey's western city of Izmir detained an opposition politician after she shared videos of an Italian anti-fascist song being blared out of mosques' loudspeakers instead of the call to prayer. Ozdemir denied any disrespect to religious values and said that she shared the videos because she wanted to draw attention to the incident.
(AP, 5/22/20)
2020 May 21, Turkey reported its lowest daily increase in confirmed coronavirus cases in the past two months, with 961 new infections in the past 24 hours along with 27 more deaths. The total number of infections in the country now stands at 153,548, with a total of 4,249 deaths.
(AP, 5/21/20)
2020 May 26, Turkey’s COVID-19 death toll reached 4,397 after 28 new deaths were reported in 24 hours. Turkey also recorded 948 more confirmed cases, bringing the total to 158,762. Today was the final day of a four-day nationwide lockdown for Turkey’s 83 million residents.
(AP, 5/26/20)
2020 May 27, Turkey’s health minister said that the country recorded 34 coronavirus-related deaths since the day before, bringing the country's COVID-19 death toll to 4,431. Turkey confirmed 1,035 new virus cases in the past 24 hours. The total number of confirmed cases in Turkey now stands at 159,797.
(AP, 5/27/20)
2020 Jun 2, In Turkey prosecutors in Istanbul issued warrants for the detention of 118 military personnel over their suspected links to a US-based Muslim cleric as authorities pressed ahead with a crackdown on a network Turkey blames for a failed coup attempt in 2016. 72 of the suspects were detained in simultaneous raids in 35 provinces. Police searched for 46 other suspects.
(AP, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 4, Turkey’s parliament stripped three opposition party deputies of their legislative seats, setting off a raucous protest inside the assembly hall by colleagues who accused the ruling party of an assault on democracy.
(AP, 6/4/20)
2020 Jun 8, Turkish police detained two journalists for questioning as part of an investigation into alleged “political and military espionage." Ismail Dukel, the Ankara representative of TELE1 television channel, and Muyesser Yildiz of the OdaTV news website, were being questioned by anti-terrorism police.
(AP, 6/8/20)
2020 Jun 11, A Turkish court convicted Metin Topuz, a local US Consulate employee in Istanbul, of membership in an armed terror organization and sentenced him to eight years and nine months in prison. Topuz has been jailed since 2017, accused of links to US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen.
(AP, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 13, In Turkey the number of new coronavirus cases rose to 1,459 in the last 24 hours and 14 people died, bringing total fatalities to 4,792. Turkey has reported a total 176,677 cases of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 6/13/20)
2020 Jun 15, Turkey reiterated its opposition to US sanctions on neighboring Iran, saying the coronavirus pandemic has shown that the world needs greater cooperation and solidarity.
(AP, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 15, Turkey’s jets carried out new cross-border airstrikes targeting Turkish Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. The latest operation, codenamed "’Operation Claw-Eagle," hit suspected PKK targets in several regions in Iraq's north. Turkey bombed Sinjar, claiming the Yazidis had teamed up with the PKK.
(AP, 6/15/20)(Econ., 12/12/20, p.51)
2020 Jun 17, Turkey said it has airlifted troops into northern Iraq for a cross-border ground operation, dubbed Operation Claw-Tiger, against Turkey's Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 6/17/20)
2020 Jun 17, In Turkey the governors of Istanbul, Ankara and Bursa announced that wearing masks to curb COVID-19 are now obligatory following an uptick in confirmed cases.
(SFC, 6/19/20, p.A7)
2020 Jun 17, France accused Turkey of repeated violations of the U.N. arms embargo on conflict-torn Libya and says Ankara is an obstacle to securing a ceasefire there.
(AP, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 21, In Turkey flash floods caused by torrential rains in the northwest left at least five people dead in Kestel, Bursa province. .
(AP, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 22, In northern Iraq dozens of civilians fled villages as Turkey stepped up a military campaign targeting Kurdish rebels that has drawn condemnation from Iraqi officials.
(AP, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 23, Turkish authorities allowed a group of top lawyers to continue a symbolic march into the capital of Ankara to protest the government's plans to amend laws regulating lawyers and bar associations, including the way the associations elect leaders, ending a more than 24-hour standoff between the lawyers and police.
(AP, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 24, In Turkey seven journalists went on trial, accused of revealing state secrets for their reports on the funeral of an intelligence officer who was killed last February in Libya.
(AP, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 27, In eastern Turkey a boat carrying up to 60 migrants across Lake Van went down in stormy weather. Authorities detained 11 people in connection with the incident. 56 bodies were later retrieved.
(ABC News, 7/1/20)(AP, 7/19/20)
2020 Jun, Swiss Commodities trader Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. struck a deal to buy $36 million of copper from a Turkish supplier. When the cargoes started arriving in China, all it found were containers full of painted rocks. In March, 2021, 13 suspected fraudsters were taken into custody in a series of police raids in Turkey.
(Bloomberg, 3/9/21)
2020 Jul 3, Turkey launched a trial for 20 Saudi officials accused of killing Jamal Khashoggi in October, 2018, with rights groups saying the prosecution offered the best chance for justice for the slain journalist. The next session was scheduled for November 24.
(The Telegraph, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, A court in Istanbul, Turkey, convicted Taner Kilic, Amnesty Int'l.'s former Turkey chairman, of membership in a terror organization and sentenced him to more than six years in prison. Three other activists were also convicted. Amnesty Int'l. condemned the ruling.
(SFC, 7/4/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 3, In northwestern Turkey an explosion at a fireworks factory killed four people and injured at least 97 others outside the town of Hendek, Sakarya province. A manager and two supervisors were soon detained following the explosion in northwestern Sakarya province.
(AP, 7/3/20)(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, In Libya airstrikes late today on the al-Waitya airbase in the desert southwestern of Tripoli destroyed military equipment recently brought in by Turkey, including air-defense systems. Foreign jets hit the key military base on the city’s outskirts that was recently retaken by Turkey-backed forces.
(AP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 7, Turkish authorities foiled an attempt to smuggle 276 migrants to Europe on board a ship, and detained eight suspected smugglers.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Turkey detained another 41 people, many of them soldiers, for being suspected members of the Gulen community (cemaat), an Islamist movement the Pres. Erdogan blames for an attempted 2016 coup.
(Econ., 8/15/20, p.48)
2020 Jul 7, China and Russia vetoed a UN resolution that would maintain two border crossing points from Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid to Syria’s mainly rebel-held northwest for a year. Russia immediately circulated a draft Security Council resolution that would authorize the delivery of aid through a single crossing point from Turkey for six months.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 9, In northwestern Turkey a truck carrying fireworks exploded, killing three military police officers and wounded six others.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 10, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan formally reconverted Istanbul’s sixth-century iconic Hagia Sophia into a mosque and declared it open to Muslim worship, hours after a high court annulled a 1934 decision that had turned it into a museum. The news sparked deep dismay among Orthodox Christians. Hagia Sophia was originally built as a Christian cathedral.
(AP, 7/10/20)(SFC, 7/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 11, Turkey’s parliament passed controversial legislation amending laws governing attorneys and bar associations, despite protests from critics who say the move could limit the independence of lawyers and reduce the professional associations’ clout.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 16, A US Pentagon report said Turkey sent between 3,500 and 3,800 paid Syrian fighters to Libya over the first three months of the year.
(AP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, Seyfi Dursunoglu (b.1932, also known by his stage name Huysuz Virjin (Grumpy Virgin), died. He was a Turkish performing artist, comedian, singer, TV presenter and drag artist. From the 1970s until the 2000s and was a well-known entertainment figure with his programs in Turkey's television.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seyfi_Dursuno%C4%9Flu)(Econ., 8/1/20, p.42)
2020 Jul 20, A US federal appeals panel said that Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla was properly convicted of helping Iran evade US sanctions in a case that strained relations with Turkey. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and has since returned to Turkey.
(AP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 22, Turkish and Russian delegations met in Ankara to discuss the war in Libya and agreed to press ahead with efforts for a lasting cease-fire in the North African country.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 28, Turkey said it will suspend research for oil and gas exploration in disputed waters in the Eastern Mediterranean that abruptly raised military tensions with neighboring Greece.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 29, Turkey's parliament adopted a law designed to force social-media giants to comply with Turkish requests to remove content.
(Econ., 8/8/20, p.40)
2020 Aug 4, Turkey reported 1,083 new coronavirus cases and 18 deaths bringing the total infections to nearly 235,000 and deaths to 5,765.
(SFC, 8/5/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 11, Turkey vowed to press ahead with searching for oil and gas in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, saying it plans to issue new exploration licenses for the area despite an escalating dispute with Greece over drilling rights.
(AP, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, Iraq's military said a Turkish drone strike killed two senior Iraqi security officials north of Irbil, marking the first time that Turkey's operation to root out Kurdish rebels in Iraq's north produced fatalities among high-ranking Iraqi personnel.
(AP, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 12, Greek and Turkish frigates collided in the eastern Mediterranean raising tensions between the two countries over disputed waters.
(Econ., 8/22/20, p.49)
2020 Aug 15, Turkey's coronavirus count rose to its highest daily level since June, with total deaths nearing 6,000. There were 1,256 new cases and 21 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing total cases above 278,000.
(Reuters, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 21, The Turkish government formally converted Istanbul’s Church of St. Saviour in Chora, a former Byzantine church, into a mosque. The move came a month after it drew praise from the faithful and international opposition for similarly turning Istanbul’s landmark Hagia Sophia into a Muslim house of prayer.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 23, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said five people have died in floods caused by heavy rain along its Black Sea coastline. A further 11 people were missing after flooding around the mountain town of Dereli in Giresun province.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 24, Turkish rescue workers recovered the body of another victim of severe weekend floods that swept along Turkey’s Black Sea coast, raising the death toll to seven. At least nine other people remained missing.
(AP, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 26, Greece and Turkey vowed to defend their competing claims in the eastern Mediterranean as the NATO allies remained locked in a tense dispute over offshore energy exploration rights.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 27, In Turkey human rights lawyer Ebru Timtik (42) died of a hunger strike in a hospital in Istanbul. She had launched the strike in prison to demand a fair trial for herself and colleagues. The lawyer and 17 of her colleagues were accused of links to the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP/C, a militant group designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a major natural gas discovery off Turkey’s other coast, in the Black Sea. The finding was estimated at 320 billion cubic meters, and there is a strong expectation that the figure will be revised upwards as a result of additional exploratory drilling.
(Bloomberg, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 1, Turkey's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said that Mahmut Ozden, the Islamic State group’s top leader in Turkey, has been detained in an "ongoing" operation.
(The Telegraph, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 2, Turkey's health ministry said the country is experiencing a second peak of the first wave of the coronavirus. More than 273,000 people have tested positive and 6,462 have died.
(SFC, 9/3/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 7, Greece said it will be bolstering its military with new armament programs, a boost to military personnel and the development of the country’s defense industry. A tense stand-off with neighboring Turkey has led to concerns of open conflict between the two NATO allies.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 11, Turkey's Health Ministry announced 56 more deaths and 1,671 new coronavirus cases, bringing the country's total death toll in the pandemic to 6,951 and cases to nearly 290,000.
(AP, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 15, UN-backed investigators pointed to signs that Syria’s government continues to perpetrate rape, torture and murder as the country’s nine-year conflict grinds on, while citing possible war crimes by a Turkey-backed coalition of rebel groups and calling on Ankara to do more to help prevent them.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 16, Turkey began final Phase III trials of an experimental Chinese coronavirus vaccine. The vaccine candidate being trialed was developed by Sinovac.
(Reuters, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 22, In Turkey American author and journalist Andre Vltchek (57) died while traveling overnight from the Turkish Black Sea coastal city of Samsun to Istanbul. Police recorded his case as a “suspicious death".
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 25, Turkey's police arrested Ayhan Bilgen, the mayor of Kars. Dozens of other members of Turkey's biggest Kurdish party, the People's Democratic Party (HDP), including three former parliamentarians, were also rounded up.
(Econ., 10/17/20, p.44)
2020 Sep 29, Armenia said one of its warplanes was shot down by a fighter jet from Azerbaijan’s ally Turkey, killing the pilot, in fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Both Turkey and Azerbaijan denied it. The Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Ministry reported 84 servicemen killed, while Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said 10 civilians were killed on its side.
(AP, 9/29/20)
2020 Sep 30, Spain’s foreign minister said her country rejects Turkey’s unilateral search for energy reserves in the eastern Mediterranean, adding that such actions hinder a negotiated way out of a territorial dispute that has ratcheted up regional tensions.
(AP, 9/30/20)
2020 Oct 2, The Turkish Defense Ministry announced that the United Nations has registered a maritime delineation deal reached between Turkey and Libya’s UN-backed government (GNA).
(AP, 10/2/20)
2020 Oct 2, EU leaders finally agreed to hit Belarus with sanctions early today before warning Turkey it faced the same punishment if it continued oil and gas drilling in disputed areas of the Mediterranean. Cyprus had vetoed agreement on the sanctions, which do not hit President Alexander Lukashenko personally, until it was satisfied the EU's condemnation of Turkey was strong enough.
(The Telegraph, 10/2/20)
2020 Oct 15, Turkey identified 1,693 new symptomatic cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours. The total number of patients increased to 324,143, while the death toll increased by 66 to 9,080.
(Reuters, 10/15/20)
2020 Oct 16, A senior Turkish government official said a man has been arrested suspected of spying on Arab dissidents in Turkey on behalf of the United Arab Emirates.
(AP, 10/16/20)
2020 Oct 16, Turkey's military test-fired its Russian made S-4000 air defense system.
(SSFC, 10/18/20, p.A5)
2020 Oct 19, Greece’s government said it has finalized plans to extend a wall along its northeast border with Turkey, over concerns that migrants may try to stage mass crossings into the European Union country.
(AP, 10/19/20)
2020 Oct 20, It was reported that Turkish troops in northwestern Syria have been evacuating one of their largest military bases in the area, which was surrounded by Syrian government troops for months.
(AP, 10/20/20)
2020 Oct 21, During a trilateral regional summit in Nicosia, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis urged Ankara to end its “aggressive" actions related to Turkish energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.
(AP, 10/22/20)
2020 Oct 22, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry slammed a joint statement by Greece, Cyprus and Egypt that condemns Turkish energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean and numerous “provocations" that they maintain are threatening regional peace.
(AP, 10/22/20)
2020 Oct 26, Turkey’s Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ersin Tatar, the newly-elected Turkish Cypriot leader, voiced their support for the resumption of peace talks for Cyprus based on a solution envisioning two separate states — departing from a formula followed for decades.
(AP, 10/26/20)
2020 Oct 26, In Turkey a suspected Kurdish militant killed himself by detonating explosives following a police chase near the Syrian border. A second suspect was slain by security forces.
(AP, 10/26/20)
2020 Oct 27, A Turkish court convicted Mete Canturk, a local employee of the US Consulate in Istanbul, of aiding a terrorist organization and sentenced him to five years and two months in prison. Prosecutors accused him of holding frequent contacts with police officers who were also accused of links to US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen. Canturk will remain free pending an appeal.
(AP, 10/27/20)
2020 Oct 28, Turkish officials railed against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo over its cover-page cartoon mocking Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and accused it of sowing “the seeds of hatred and animosity." The cartoon depicted Erdogan in his underwear holding a drink and lifting the skirt of a woman wearing an Islamic dress.
(AP, 10/28/20)
2020 Oct 30, A magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck in the Aegean Sea between the Turkish coast and the Greek island of Samos, collapsing buildings in the city of Izmir In western Turkey. At least 116 people were killed more than 900 others injured. The quake also killed at least two people in Greece.
(AP, 10/31/20)(SFC, 10/31/20, p.A3)(AP, 11/1/20)(AP, 11/1/20)(Econ., 12/5/20, p.52)
2020 Oct 30, Mesut Yilmaz (72), a former Turkish prime minister and veteran politician who served as premier three times during a tumultuous political era in his country, died. Yilmaz led the now-defunct center-right Motherland Party or ANAP from 1991 to 2002 and served as prime minister three times in the 1990s.
(AP, 10/30/20)
2020 Nov 3, Rescuers in the Turkish city of Izmir pulled a young girl out alive from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building Tuesday, four days after a strong earthquake hit Turkey and Greece as the death toll in the earthquake climbed to 111.
(AP, 11/3/20)
2020 Nov 3, The Baba Selavi tour boat, with 33 Russian tourists on board, capsized near the Turkish Mediterranean coast of Alanya, killing one of the tourists.
(AP, 11/3/20)
2020 Nov 4, The death toll in last week’s Aegean Sea earthquake rose to 116 as rescuers in the Turkish city of Izmir finished searching buildings that collapsed in the quake.
(AP, 11/4/20)
2020 Nov 4, The French government banned the Grey Wolves, the militant wing of Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party, that it accused of leading violent actions and inciting hatred speech in France.
(AP, 11/4/20)
2020 Nov 7, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan sacked Berat Albayrak, the central-bank governor, who was also his son-in-law. The central and state banks had wasted at least $100 billion in precious foreign reserves in an abortive attempt to salvage the currency.
(Econ., 11/21/20, p.45)
2020 Nov 10, Media activists said Turkish troops in northwestern Syria have pulled out of a second military base in the area that had been surrounded by Syrian government forces.
(AP, 11/10/20)
2020 Nov 11, A Turkish fishing boat capsized after colliding with a Greek-flagged tanker off Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. Four people on board the boat were killed while one other person was reported missing.
(AP, 11/11/20)
2020 Nov 12, Turkey's interior minister banned smoking in public places across the country to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 11/13/20, p.A8)
2020 Nov 14, Istanbul's mayor called for a lockdown of at least two weeks to contain an "out of control" rise in coronavirus cases, and said virus-related deaths in the city alone outstrip reported nationwide figures.
(Reuters, 11/14/20)
2020 Nov 17, Turkey’s parliament granted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government permission to deploy peacekeepers to Azerbaijan to monitor a cease-fire deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia that aims to end the conflict in the region.
(AP, 11/17/20)
2020 Nov 20, Turkey's daily coronavirus death toll hit a record high 141, as the country introduced new nationwide curbs amid a surge in cases in recent weeks. Health Ministry data showed 435,273 total COVID-19 cases as the overall death toll rose to 12,084.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 21, Turkey reported its highest daily number of new coronavirus patients since the outbreak started. 5,532 people had been diagnosed with COVID-19 symptoms in the previous 24 hours. The daily death toll from the coronavirus was 135, bringing the cumulative total to 12,219.
(Reuters, 11/21/20)
2020 Nov 23, Turkey's daily coronavirus death toll reached a record 153, as citizens adapted to new nationwide curbs and weekend curfews following a rise in infections in recent weeks.
(Reuters, 11/23/20)
2020 Nov 26, A Turkish court sentenced several military and civilian personnel at an air base to life prison sentences, proclaiming them guilty of involvement in a failed coup attempt in 2016.
(AP, 11/26/20)
2020 Nov 27, Turkey's daily COVID-19 death toll hit a record high for a fifth consecutive day at 177. A new high of 29,845 coronavirus infections was recorded in the last of 24 hours. The total number of deaths stood at 13,191.
(Reuters, 11/27/20)
2020 Nov 30, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will impose curfews on weekdays and full lockdowns over weekends to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 11/30/20)
2020 Dec 1, Turkey's daily COVID-19 death toll hit a record high for a ninth consecutive day, with 190 fatalities in the last 24 hours. The number of new coronavirus cases, including asymptomatic ones, recorded over the past 24 hours stood at 30,110. Total deaths rose to 13,936.
(Reuters, 12/1/20)
2020 Dec 7, Forces of a Libyan commander who rules the eastern half of the country and who was behind a year-long military attempt to capture the capital, Tripoli, seized the Mabrouka, a Turkish cargo vessel heading to the western town of Misrata. The Jamaica-flagged cargo vessel was let go days later after local authorities questioned its crew and had them pay a fine for violations of sailing rules in Libyan waters.
(AP, 12/8/20)(AP, 12/10/20)
2020 Dec 8, State-run media reported that Turkey has ordered the detention of 304 members of the military in an operation targeting the group that the government claims to be behind a 2016 coup attempt.
(AP, 12/8/20)
2020 Dec 9, Turkey ruled out buying the Russian coronavirus vaccine since its development lacked "good practice," as Ankara steps up efforts to inoculate 50 million citizens by spring.
(AP, 12/9/20)
2020 Dec 10, Turkish police shot and killed a suspected Kurdish militant who was allegedly planning to detonate a bomb that was strapped to his body at a checkpoint near the town of Viransehir, Sanliurfa province.
(AP, 12/10/20)
2020 Dec 17, Turkey recorded 27,515 new coronavirus cases. The death toll hit a record high of 243 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total so far to 17,364. The country has registered 1,955,680 COVID-19 infections since the beginning of the pandemic in March.
(AP, 12/17/20)
2020 Dec 19, In southern Turkey a fire broke out at an intensive care unit treating COVID-19 patients after an oxygen cylinder exploded, killing nine people at the privately-run Sanko University Hospital unit in Gaziantep.
(AP, 12/19/20)
2020 Dec 19, Germany's daily Rheinische Post reported that authorities have broken up an international crime ring that duped elderly people into handing over their money and valuables to criminals posing as police officers. German police busted a call center in the southwestern Turkish city of Izmir where suspects allegedly phoned retirees in Germany and talked them into handing over their valuables to fake officers. 38 people were arrested earlier this month and 48 locations were searched in addition to the call center.
(AP, 12/19/20)
2020 Dec 22, Turkey’s parliament extended for 18 months a law that allows the deployment of Turkish troops to Libya.
(AP, 12/22/20)
2020 Dec 22, The Grand Chamber of the ECHR in Strasbourg ruled that four years in a Turkish prison violated the rights of Selahattin Demirtas on five fundamental rights categories, including the freedom of expression. The Kurdish politician faced up to 142 years in prison on terror charges but denies any wrongdoing. The ECHR website came under a “large-scale" cyberattack after its Demirtas ruling, making the site inaccessible for several hours.
(AP, 12/23/20)
2020 Dec 23, A Turkish court convicted in absentia Car Dundar, the former editor-in-chief of opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, on espionage and terror-related charges over a 2015 news story, a verdict the exiled journalist said exemplified the pressures on Turkish media.
(AP, 12/23/20)
2020 Dec 24, Turkish researchers said COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech is 91.25% effective, according to interim data from a late-stage trial in Turkey.
(AP, 12/24/20)
2020 Dec 27, Turkey’s parliament approved a law that would increase government monitoring of civil society groups, which rights groups have warned would violate the freedom of association.
(AP, 12/27/20)
2020 Dec 29, Turkish prosecutors issued a detention warrant against Sezgin Baran Korkmaz, a Turkish businessman with links to Utah-based business executives who have pleaded guilty to a $511 million tax credit scheme in the United States.
(AP, 12/29/20)
2020 Dec 29, Turkey aims to produce Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine domestically but has asked for more information about it before inoculating its citizens.
(Reuters, 12/29/20)
2020 Dec 29, Britain and Turkey signed a free-trade agreement, effective Jan. 1, as the UK prepares to leave the European Union's economic orbit at the start of the new year.
(AP, 12/29/20)
2020 Dec 30, Turkey received its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from China's Sinovac.
(Reuters, 12/30/20)
2020 Dec 31, Turkey began a 4-day lockdown this evening to stem the spread of COVID-19 over the New Year's holiday.
(SFC, 1/1/21, p.A7)
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2011 Jan 5, In Turkey authorities searching for mass graves of Kurds, who disappeared in the 1990s, unearthed the bones of eight people in a field in Bitlis province in southeast Turkey.
(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 9, In Turkey PM Erdogan visited Kars and called for the destruction of a local monument near the Armenian border. The monument featured a divided human figure, with one half extending a hand to the other half. It was meant to symbolize the pain of division and the hope of reconciliation, and was sculpted from stone by Mehmet Aksoy, a prominent Turkish artist. Local authorities halted its construction on grounds that it was built on a historic military site, Timur Pasha emplacement, used to defend the city in the 16th century.
(AP, 1/10/11)(Econ, 1/15/11, p.56)(http://tinyurl.com/4g4kpya)
2011 Jan 18, It was reported that around 187,000 women in Turkey are in polygamous marriages even though polygamy is illegal.
(AFP, 1/18/11)
2011 Jan 21, Two-day talks between Iran and six world powers started in Istanbul. A senior Iranian official said suspending uranium enrichment is not up for discussion.
(AFP, 1/21/11)
2011 Jan 22, In Turkey talks meant to nudge Iran toward meeting UN Security Council demands to stop uranium enrichment collapsed, with Tehran shrugging off calls by six world powers to cease the activity that could be harnessed to make nuclear weapons.
(AP, 1/22/11)
2011 Feb 3, In Turkey a powerful explosion in Ankara collapsed two stories of a factory, leaving at least six people dead and injuring some 30 others. Hours later another explosion killed 6 more people at a paint shop in the same industrial district.
(AP, 2/3/11)(SFC, 2/4/11, p.A2)
2011 Feb 7, Iran and Turkey said they plan to triple two-way annual trade to $30 billion by 2015, ahead of a visit by Turkish President Abdullah Gul to the Islamic republic.
(AFP, 2/7/11)
2011 Feb 11, A Turkish court ruled that 133 current and former military officers must be jailed pending the outcome of their trial on charges of plotting to overthrow the government and issued warrants for the arrests of 29 other officers.
(AP, 2/12/11)
2011 Feb 13, Abdullah Gul arrived in Tehran on his first trip as Turkish president aimed at boosting economic and political ties with the Islamic republic.
(AFP, 2/13/11)
2011 Feb 14, Iran’s security forces cut phone lines and blockaded the home of an Iranian opposition leader in attempts to stop him attending a planned rally in support of Egypt's uprising. Eyewitnesses reported sporadic clashes in central Tehran's Enghelab or Revolution square between security forces and opposition protesters. Turkish President Abdullah Gul, who is on a visit to Iran, urged governments in the Middle East to listen to the demands of their people. Student Sanee Zhaleh (26) was shot dead during the opposition rally.
(AP, 2/14/11)(AP, 2/16/11)
2011 Feb 21, British-based Diageo announced the takeover of Mey Icki, Turkey’s largest maker of raki, an aniseed drink, for $2.1 billion.
(Econ, 3/5/11, p.70)
2011 Feb 27, In Turkey Necmettin Erbakan (85), a longtime leader of Turkey's Islamic political movement, died. He briefly served the country's prime minister (1996-1997) in the first Islamic-led coalition in Turkey's modern history.
(AP, 2/27/11)
2011 Mar 3, Turkish police detained 13 people, mostly journalists, in a crackdown on an alleged secularist network accused of conspiring to topple the Islamic-rooted government. Critics say the case is part of a government assault on press freedom. 4 of the journalists were released on March 12, 2012.
(AP, 3/3/11)(AP, 3/13/12)
2011 Mar 4, In Turkey several thousand demonstrators, some covering their mouths with black ribbons, protested against the detention of eight journalists in a case that has drawn expressions of concern from Western governments and international media rights groups.
(AP, 3/4/11)
2011 Mar 6, A Turkish court ordered Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener, two leading investigative journalists, jailed pending the outcome of a trial into an alleged plot to topple the Islamic-rooted government, raising further concerns over media freedom in the country. Ahmet Sik was arrested as he prepared a book about the alleged infiltration of Islamists into the Turkish police, a sensitive theme in a nation divided over the role of religion. Sener and three other journalists were freed on bail in March, 2012.
(AP, 3/6/11)(Econ, 3/12/11, p.61)(AP, 4/14/11)(Econ, 3/17/12, p.63)
2011 Mar 13, In Turkey hundreds of journalists, joined by members of some non-governmental organizations, protested the detention of reporters that the authorities allege were involved in an attempt to bring the government down in 2003.
(AP, 3/13/11)
2011 Mar 16, An Iranian cargo plane en route to Syria was forced to land in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir airport for an inspection. The plane was found to be carrying 150 tons of food but "no material contrary to international standards.
(AFP, 3/16/11)(AP, 3/23/11)
2011 Mar 19, An Iranian plane bound for Syria landed in Turkey’s southeastern city of Diyarbakir for a search of its cargo. The plane carried light weapons, including automatic rifles, rocket launchers and mortars, which were seized. The plane returned to Iran March 22 without the seized cargo.
(AP, 3/23/11)
2011 Mar 20, Britain said its air and sea strikes on Libya had been "very successful" and stressed it was doing everything it could to avoid civilian casualties as it enforces a UN-sanctioned no-fly zone. at least seven demolished tanks smoldered in a field 12 miles (20 km) south of Benghazi, many of them with their turrets and treads blown off. Turkey was blocking NATO action, which requires agreement by all 28 members of the alliance.
(AFP, 3/20/11)(AP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 21, A Turkish court ordered five military officers and two civilians jailed in a probe into the 2007 killing of three Christians, including a German national, over allegations that the attack was part of an alleged plot to topple the government.
(AP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 21, President Barack Obama, seeking to shore up participation and clarify leadership of the military attacks on Libyan forces, spoke with Turkish and Qatari leaders.
(Reuters, 3/22/11)
2011 Mar 24, Dubai police said the Gulf emirate has seized thousands of small arms being smuggled in a sea cargo shipment bound for Yemen. The weapons were discovered in a Dubai warehouse about two weeks ago. The shipment originated in Turkey.
(AP, 3/24/11)
2011 Apr 6, Turkey launched a probe into allegations that the state agency which makes the university entrance exams had devised a code so that students deemed to be pro-government could score high points. Some 1.7 million students took the exam March 27, and those who pass will take another exam in June.
(AP, 4/6/11)
2011 Apr 11, Turkey said it is willing to consider the idea of hosting a political office for Taliban militants from Afghanistan in order to promote talks to end the war there, and an Afghan official said Turkish planning is already in progress.
(AP, 4/11/11)
2011 Apr 13, The presidents of Turkey and Pakistan, meeting in Ankara, said they would support initiatives designed to end the war in Afghanistan, but they declined to confirm that a plan is under way to open a political office for Taliban in Turkey to promote peace talks.
(AP, 4/13/11)
2011 Apr 18, In Turkey Bedri Baykam, a prominent government critic, was hospitalized after a stabbing assault, which followed a speech in which he condemned plans to tear down the "Monument to Humanity," a sculpture near the Armenian border.
(AP, 4/19/11)
2011 Apr 19, In Turkey Kurdish protesters clashed with police in two cities and the main Kurdish party threatened to boycott the upcoming election because of a decision the previous day to bar some Kurdish candidates.
(AP, 4/19/11)
2011 Apr 20, In southeastern Turkey one person was killed when police opened fire on Kurdish protestors in Bismil town.
(AFP, 4/20/11)
2011 Apr 21, US helicopter maker Sikorsky Aircraft won a Turkish contract worth $3.5 billion (2.4 billion euros).
(AP, 4/21/11)
2011 Apr 26, Turkey began to demolish the 100-foot "Peace and Brotherhood" monument near its eastern border dedicated to friendship with Armenia after PM Erdogan called it a "monstrosity" on Jan 9. The statue was commissioned in 2006 to highlight friendship between Turkey and Armenia, two countries with a history of enmity and suspicion.
(AFP, 4/26/11)
2011 Apr 27, Turkey's PM Erdogan announced what he called a "crazy and magnificent" plan to build a new waterway to the Black Sea, to be completed by 2023, promising that the tanker-clogged Bosporus through Istanbul would soon be used for sports and boat trips.
(AP, 4/27/11)
2011 May 1, In Turkey activists flooded Istanbul‘s Taksim Square and marked international workers' day around the world with marches demanding more jobs, better working conditions and higher wages.
(AP, 5/1/11)
2011 May 4, A Turkish police officer was shot dead by unidentified assailants in the northern city of Kastamonu, where PM Tayyip Erdogan had been speaking earlier in the day.
(Reuters, 5/4/11)
2011 May 9, In Turkey a five-day UN-backed conference of the 48-member "least-developed countries" opened to address the problems of the world's poorest countries. The last such conference was hosted by the EU in Brussels in 2001. France hosted the two previous ones in 1990 and 1981.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 10, Two more top Turkish opposition politicians resigned, a month before the country's general election, over secretly filmed tapes posted on the Internet that reportedly showed them having extramarital affairs.
(AP, 5/10/11)
2011 May 11, Turkey announced plans to build two earthquake-resistant developments in the Istanbul area to lure residents away from dangerous neighborhoods.
(AP, 5/11/11)
2011 May 11, In Istanbul 13 European countries signed a Council of Europe convention on combating violence against women.
(Econ, 5/14/11, p.68)(https://wcd.coe.int/wcd/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1785485&Site=DC)
2011 May 14, Turkey's military in Sirnak province killed 12 Kurdish rebels over the last 24 hours who trying to infiltrate the country from northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/14/11)
2011 May 18, A Turkish website that posted compromising videos which forced four far-right politicians to resign threatened to post new sex videos that could hurt more opposition politicians ahead of next month's election.
(AP, 5/18/11)
2011 May 20, In western Turkey a 5.9-magnitude earthquake damaged buildings in Simav. At least three people were killed in the region.
(AP, 5/20/11)
2011 May 21, Six senior politicians in a Turkish opposition party resigned amid a sex video scandal that could have far-reaching consequences in elections on June 12.
(AP, 5/21/11)
2011 May 26, In Turkey a bomb mounted on a bicycle near a bus stop exploded during morning rush hour in Istanbul, wounding eight people, including a police officer.
(AP, 5/26/11)
2011 May 31, Turkey's government defended a new regulation that will filter the Internet and restrict access to websites that show pornography, bomb-making and violent content. The new regulation was set to come into effect in August.
(AP, 5/31/11)
2011 May 31, The Syrian military used heavy machine guns and artillery in renewed attacks on Rastan, a town in the country's turbulent heartland. At least one person was killed. Opponents of the Syrian regime gathered on Turkey's Mediterranean coast for a conference aimed at overcoming their differences and bolstering protesters who have endured a bloody crackdown under President Bashar Assad.
(AP, 5/31/11)
2011 Jun 1, The Syrian government freed hundreds of political prisoners in an amnesty and the president set up a committee for national dialogue in an effort to end the 10-week uprising. Syrian military forces killed 42 people in raids around Homs. Over 300 Syrian exiles gathered in Antalya, Turkey, to discuss alternatives to Bashar Assad’s rule.
(AP, 6/1/11)(AP, 6/2/11)(SFC, 6/2/11, p.A2)(Econ, 6/4/11, p.57)
2011 Jun 8, Turkey’s PM Erdogan said he would scrap the ministry for women along with 7 other cabinet jobs.
(Econ, 6/11/11, p.59)(http://tinyurl.com/3tw6omd)
2011 Jun 10, Libyan rebels staged an uprising in the western city of Zlitan. 22 fighters were reported killed. Turkey’s PM Erdogan said his country has offered to help Khadafy leave.
(SFC, 6/11/11, p.A4)
2011 Jun 12, In Turkey PM Tayyip Erdogan and his AK party won a decisive victory over rivals, as Erdogan was re-elected for the third consecutive time. The AK took nearly 50% of the votes, but failed to secure a two-thirds majority. This will force it to seek support for constitutional changes. The Republican People’s Party, the main opposition won 26%.
(Reuters, 6/12/11)(SFC, 6/13/11, p.A3)(Econ, 6/18/11, p.16)
2011 Jun 13, Police in Turkey rounded up 32 alleged members of Anonymous, hacker group, which had recently attacked a couple of official websites.
(Econ, 6/18/11, p.67)
2011 Jun 15, Turkey’s president Tayyip Erdogan held talks with an envoy of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad as a growing number of Syrians fled their country seeking safety in refugee camps. Relations between Turkey and Syria strained, as Turkey wants Syria to stop its brutal crackdown on protesters.
(Reuters, 6/15/11)
2011 Jun 18, Syrian troops backed by tanks and firing heavy machine guns swept into a village near the Turkish border, the latest in a series of intensified army operations in the northwest where there have been heavy clashes between loyalist troops and defectors. The number of Syrians who have taken refuge in Turkey to escape bloody unrest in their country increased to about 10,100.
(AP, 6/18/11)(AFP, 6/18/11)
2011 Jun 22, In Turkey Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal held talks with Turkish officials on efforts to achieve Palestinian unity during a two-day visit to Istanbul.
(AFP, 6/22/11)
2011 Jul 3, Turkey's foreign minister visited Libya and recognized the rebel leaders as the country's legitimate representatives and promised them an additional $200 million in aid.
(AP, 7/3/11)
2011 Jul 4, Turkey froze Libya's holdings in a Turkish bank, a day after it recognized Libya's rebel leaders as the country's legitimate representatives and quietly removed its ambassador from Tripoli.
(AP, 7/4/11)
2011 Jul 14, An umbrella group that includes Turkey's Kurdish party proclaimed Kurdish autonomy in Diyarbakir, hours after a clash left 13 soldiers and seven Kurdish guerrillas dead.
(AP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 15, Turkish prosecutors launched an investigation into a Kurdish proclamation of autonomy in the country's southeast as the military deployed elite forces to the region where tensions are running high following the deadliest clash between troops and rebels in about three years.
(AP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 15, A Turkish court charged 14 suspected al-Qaida militants for allegedly planning to attack the US Embassy in the Turkish capital.
(AP, 7/16/11)
2011 Jul 16, In Syria security forces continued a weekslong operation in the restive Idlib province, near the Turkish border. Authorities raided homes in the village Kfar Nabl and made scores of arrests. A civilian was killed in Al-Bukamal when security forces opened fire to break up a demonstration against the regime of President Assad. 3 security personnel were killed and two kidnapped in an attack on a government building. An opposition conference in Turkey, called the National Salvation Conference, was attended by some 400 dissidents looking to form a unified opposition to Pres. Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for more than 40 years.
(AP, 7/16/11)(AP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 29, Turkey’s top commanders suddenly quit to protest the arrest of dozens of generals as suspects in an alleged plot to overthrow the country's Islamic-rooted government. Gen. Isik Kosaner resigned as the military's chief of staff along with the commanders of the navy, the army and the air force.
(AP, 7/30/11)
2011 Aug 3, Turkey said it would put 106 more Kurdish politicians on trial for alleged terrorist propaganda, choosing to go ahead with prosecutions despite lingering tensions over the trial of dozens of others accused of fanning separatist violence.
(AP, 8/3/11)
2011 Aug 4, Turkey appointed commanders to posts left vacant by the resignation of the military's top brass in a dispute with the government that showcased the elected leaders' strengthening control over the once-mighty military.
(AP, 8/4/11)
2011 Aug 17, In Turkey Kurdish PKK rebels ambushed a military convoy in Cukurca township near the border with Iraq killing 9 soldiers. Officials vowed strong military retaliation. Turkey's air force attacked 60 suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq. The military it vowed to continue the assault until the guerrilla group is "rendered ineffective."
(AP, 8/17/11)(AP, 8/18/11)(Econ, 8/27/11, p.43)
2011 Aug 18, In southern Turkey the PKK attacked police and military stations in simultaneous overnight rocket strikes in Siirt province, killing two soldiers and wounding three civilians. Turkey's air force attacked 28 suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, in a second day of cross-border strikes in retaliation for stepped up attacks by the guerrillas.
(AP, 8/19/11)
2011 Aug 19, Turkey's military hit 85 rebel targets with artillery fire. Warplanes bombed 20 suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq in a third day of cross-border strikes.
(AP, 8/20/11)
2011 Aug 21, Turkish airstrikes on suspected rebel targets in northern Iraq killed seven Iraqi civilians, including five children and a woman, in an attack on Kortak mountain. Police used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse Kurdish protesters who tried to march to a main square in Istanbul to denounce the Turkish raids. In demonstrators marched to protest the PKK.
(AP, 8/21/11)
2011 Aug 23, Turkey's military said air strikes on suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq this week have killed an estimated 90 to 100 guerrillas and warned that it would press ahead with offensives against the group both inside Turkey and across the border.
(AP, 8/23/11)
2011 Aug 29, Turkey’s military said its air strikes and artillery fire on suspected Kurdish rebel targets this month killed up to 160 guerrillas.
(SFC, 8/30/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 2, Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador to Ankara and suspended all military ties with its one-time ally after a UN report slammed the "excessive" force used in the May 31, 2010, raid on a Gaza aid flotilla.
(AFP, 9/2/11)
2011 Sep 12, Kurdish rebels attacked a police station and a paramilitary police headquarters near Turkey’s border with Iraq killing 5 people including 3 civilians.
(SFC, 9/13/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 13, Syrian security forces riding in vehicles mounted with machine-guns raided neighborhoods outside the capital, Damascus, before dawn as Turkey's PM Erdogan said he was concerned Syria could descend into a sectarian civil war. Pro-democracy activists called a "day of anger" across Syria to protest against Russia's backing for President Bashar al-Assad. More than 20 people were reported killed throughout Syria. Syrian troops fired tear gas at a gathering of mourners just hours after U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford and other Western diplomats expressed their condolences to the family of a rights advocate killed last week.
(AP, 9/13/11)(AFP, 9/13/11)(AP, 9/14/11)
2011 Sep 14, Turkey’s foreign ministry announced that an early warning radar will be stationed in Kurecik in the southeast as part of NATO's missile defense system.
(AP, 9/14/11)
2011 Sep 16, In Turkey 3 Chechens were gunned down near a park in Istanbul. Chechen groups blamed Russia's secret service for the killings of the three, who were allegedly involved with Chechen militants.
(AP, 10/12/11)
2011 Sep 19, Turkey escalated a dispute with Cyprus over oil and gas drilling in the eastern Mediterranean, saying that it would send warships to protect its claims to resources off the coast of the divided island. US energy firm, Nobel Energy, had just exploratory drilling for oil and gas off the coast of Cyprus despite strong warnings from Turkey not to do so.
(AP, 9/19/11)
2011 Sep 20, In Turkey a car bomb went off near a high school in Ankara, killing 3 people in a nearby building and wounding 34 others. Soon after 4 women died in an attack Siirt province.
(AP, 9/20/11)(Econ, 9/24/11, p.63)
2011 Sep 21, Turkey’s Pres. Erdogan signed a deal with Turkish-controlled north Cyprus to begin drilling for oil and gas.
(Econ, 9/24/11, p.63)
2011 Sep 21, Turkey reportedly bombed the main Kurdish rebel base in northern Iraq and chased rebels in a mountainous area in the southeast in response to escalated attacks by the autonomy-seeking guerrillas.
(AP, 9/21/11)
2011 Sep 24, Kurdish rebels attacked a Turkish army outpost, killing 5 soldiers and wounding 10 in the country's southeast. Three rebels also were killed.
(AP, 9/25/11)
2011 Sep 28, In Turkey a pro-Kurdish party said it is ending its four-month-old boycott of parliament, even as tensions grew over a surge in attacks by Kurdish separatist rebels.
(AP, 9/28/11)
2011 Oct 2, Syrian dissidents meeting in Turkey formally announced the creation of a broad-based council designed to overthrow President Bashar Assad's regime in what appeared to be the most serious step yet to unify a fragmented opposition. The 21-year-old son of Syria's top Sunni Muslim cleric was killed in an ambush in a restive northern area.
(AP, 10/2/11)(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 4, Turkish police detained over 140 pro-Kurdish political activists in a nationwide sweep. The detainees included a number of elected mayors in the Kurdish southeast.
(SFC, 10/5/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 5, Turkey's PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government would announce a package of sanctions against neighboring Syria despite a UN resolution blocked by Russia and China.
(AFP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 10, Turkish air raids in northern Iraq reportedly killed 7 Kurdish rebels including three senior operatives.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 12, A Turkish court began questioning a man and three alleged accomplices suspected of attempting to kill Shamsuddin Batukayev (55), a former Chechen separatist leader, in Istanbul earlier this week.
(AP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 13, Turkey's foreign minister said that Iraq should move to prevent Kurdish attacks on his country from Iraqi soil as the two countries renewed their commitment to fight the rebels.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 18, Turkey shelled northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, in the first report of Turkish bombardment there in more than two weeks. The shelling began the previous evening. A roadside blast killed five policemen and 3 civilians in Turkey's southeast Bitlis province.
(AFP, 10/18/11)(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, Turkish soldiers, air force bombers and helicopter gunships launched an incursion into northern Iraq, hours after Kurdish rebels killed 24 soldiers and wounded 18 in attacks along the border. The United States and NATO both issued statements supporting the offensive, the largest in more than three years.
(AP, 10/19/11)(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 20, About 10,000 elite Turkish soldiers took part in a ground offensive against Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey and across the border in Iraq, making it the nation's largest attack on the insurgents in more than three years.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, Albanian port authorities said 3 sailors died and five others are missing after their Turkish merchant ship, Reina 1, collided with a passenger ferry and sank in the Adriatic some 20 miles (30 km) from the Albanian port of Durres. No injuries were reported on the ferry Ankara, which had left Durres en route for the Italian port of Bari with about 200 passengers.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 21, Turkish jets kept up bombing raids on Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq overnight, as the rebels confirmed that some Turkish troops crossed into Iraq. Turkey and Iran vowed to collaborate against the PKK and its Iranian wing, the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, or PJAK, during a visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.
(AFP, 10/21/11)(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 22, Turkey’s military said its troops over the last 2 days have killed at least 49 Kurdish rebels in a valley near the Iraqi border, as hundreds of troops also pursued Kurdish fighters within northern Iraq.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 23, A powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey, collapsing about 45 buildings. It was estimated that up to 1,000 people could have been killed. The worst damage was caused to the town of Ercis, in the mountainous eastern province of Van where 80 multi-story buildings collapsed with people trapped in 40 of them. By Nov 4 the death toll reached 603 with some 2500 injured and thousands homeless.
(AP, 10/23/11)(AP, 10/24/11)(AP, 11/4/11)
2011 Oct 25, In Turkey crowds of Kurds pelted journalists and police with stones in the quake-hit city of Van as their anger at the media's coverage of the disaster boiled over. The stoning of the reporters in the eponymous provincial capital, which left several people injured, was brought to a halt only after police used pepper-spray.
(AFP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 29, In Turkey a female suicide bomber killed two people in Bingol, in the southeastern Kurdish region and wounded 12 others.
(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Nov 1, Turkey hosted the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan for a trilateral summit designed to reduce tensions and promote cooperation between the two neighbors amid stepped-up Taliban attacks.
(AFP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 2, In Turkey regional leaders pledged to find ways to improve security and economic development in Afghanistan as international combat forces prepared to leave by the end of 2014. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari, discussed a joint inquiry into the Sept. 20 killing by a suicide bomber of Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former Afghan president and peace council leader.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 9, In eastern Turkey another earthquake, measuring 5.7, struck 9 miles (16km) south of Van. A Japanese aid worker was among 39 people killed by the earthquake. All the fatalities occurred in the Bayram Hotel and the low-budget Aslan Hotel. It hit the same region slammed by an Oct. 23 temblor that left 600 people dead.
(AP, 11/10/11)(AP, 11/11/11)(AP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 12, Turkish commandos in civilian clothes slipped onto the Kartepe, a hijacked passenger ferry, and posed as hostages before fatally shooting a suspected Kurdish rebel carrying explosives in a 12-hour drama that ended before dawn.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 13, Turkish warplanes bombed the Qandil border area in Iraqi Kurdistan for about an hour.
(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 13, In Syria tens of thousands of government supporters poured into the streets to protest an Arab League vote to suspend the country's membership, as Turkey sent planes to evacuate diplomatic staff and their families after a night of attacks on embassies. Activists reporting at least 11 people killed in shootings by security forces in several parts of the country.
(AP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 19, In Turkey delegates at an international conservation meeting agreed on a measure mandating that silky sharks accidentally caught in fishing gear be released back into the sea alive. The 48-member International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) failed to reach consensus on other threatened shark species. To fight illegal fishing, ICCAT members decided that vessels measuring 12 meters or more, instead of the previous 20 meters or more, would be inspected on arrival to port.
(AP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 20, Turkish President Abdullah Gul in published comments said there was "no place for authoritarian regimes" in the Mediterranean region, heaping more pressure on the embattled Syrian regime.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 21, Syria's security forces carried out a "qualitative" operation in the Bayada district of Homs in which they killed four terrorists and confiscated their weapons. A "top terrorist" nicknamed Bandar was among them. Syrian soldiers opened fire on at least two buses carrying Turkish citizens.
(AP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, Turkey's PM Erdogan said that Syria's Pres. Bashar Assad must step down over the country's crackdown on dissent. 6 children and 5 mutinous soldiers were among 34 people killed across Syria. 122 countries voted for a resolution at the UN General Assembly's human rights committee condemning the government crackdown.
(AP, 11/22/11)(Reuters, 11/23/11)(AFP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, Turkey's PM Erdogan apologized for the first time for the killings of nearly 14,000 people in a bombing and strafing campaign to crush a Kurdish rebellion in the 1930s. He offered his apology for the killings of 13,806 people in the southeastern town of Dersim, now known as Tunceli, between 1936 and 1939.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, Turkish President Abdullah Gul warned that President Bashar al-Assad's violent crackdown on an eight-month-old revolt in Syria threatened to "drag the whole region into turmoil and bloodshed."
(Reuters, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 30, Turkey slapped tough economic sanctions on Syria, freezing assets of officials involved in the government's crackdown on an 8-month-old uprising, suspending ties with the nation's central bank and banning all military sales.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, In Turkey a heavily armed man opened fire at Istanbul's Topkapi Palace, wounding a Turkish soldier and a security guard before police snipers killed the attacker. Hw was identified as Samir Salem Ali Elmadhavri (36), a Libyan with Syrian citizenship.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Dec 13, Turkey’s Anatolia news reported that court has jailed a policeman for four years and two months over the killing of Festus Okey (21), a Nigerian immigrant, who was shot Aug 20, 2007, while in custody.
(AP, 12/13/11)(http://www.hyd.org.tr/?pid=515)
2011 Dec 19, A Turkish news agency reported that security forces may have killed as many as 20 Kurdish separatist rebels in the country's southeast.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 20, Turkish police detained 48 people, including journalists, as part of a growing investigation into a Kurdish group that prosecutors accuse of links to Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 12/20/11)(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 22, Turkey's PM Erdogan said his country is recalling its ambassador to France and halting official contact in retaliation for a vote in the French Parliament making it a crime to deny the 1915 mass killings of Armenians was a genocide. The bill, just passed in France's lower house, still needed approval in the Senate.
(AP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 23, Turkey responded to French genocide allegations with a charge of its own, accusing France of committing genocide during its colonial occupation of Algeria. He alleged that beginning in 1945, about 15 percent of the population of Algeria was massacred by the French. He also said Algerians were burned in ovens. Most historians contend the Ottoman killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians constituted the first genocide of the 20th century.
(AP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 24, Turkish authorities released an AFP photographer, along with 12 other people who were detained as part of an investigation into a group prosecutors accuse of having links to Kurdish rebels. A court ordered 35 other suspects formally arrested pending trial over their alleged involvement in the Union of Kurdistan Communities.
(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 28, Turkish warplanes killed at least 34 people and 59 mules in an air strike on the Iraq border in an attack which a pro-Kurdish political party described as a "massacre" of civilians. Ankara's joint military command said in a statement that its jets bombed an area inside Iraq "regularly used" by PKK rebels. Those killed were smugglers aged 18-28, who routinely brought in Iraqi fuel and cigarettes with the full knowledge of local authorities. On Jan 2 Turkey said it will compensate the families of the civilians mistakenly killed in the airstrike in Uludere township.
(AFP, 12/29/11)(AP, 1/3/12)(Econ, 1/7/12, p.46)(Econ, 6/9/12, p.59)(Econ, 5/9/15, p.49)
2011 Turkey’s population was about 73 million.
(AFP, 1/18/11)
2012 Jan 3, In Turkey Kenan Evren (94), a former president (1982-1989), and former air force commander Tahsin Sahinkaya faced charges of crimes against the state. A court will now have to decide whether to accept the indictment and order a trial. Their trial began on April 4.
(AP, 1/3/12)(AP, 4/4/12)
2012 Jan 6, A former Turkish military chief, Gen. Ilker Basbug (68), suspected of leading an Internet campaign to stir revolt, was jailed in a sweeping investigation of alleged conspiracies to topple a civilian government that has stripped the armed forces of political clout.
(AP, 1/6/12)
2012 Jan 12, A Turkish court files charges against Britain’s Duchess of York for secretly filming orphanages in the country in 2008 for a British TV program.
(SFC, 1/13/12, p.A2)
2012 Jan 19, Turkish authorities exhumed the bodies of three Kurds near the village of Yagizoymak as part of their investigation into alleged extrajudicial killings by Turkish security forces in the 1990s. Lawyer Ridvan Dalmis, who witnessed the excavation, said the remains allegedly are those of civilians who were killed by security forces in June 1993 and hastily buried by Kurdish villagers before they were forced to evacuate the area.
(AP, 1/20/12)
2012 Jan 23, Turkey threatened more sanctions for France if the Senate in Paris votes later today to make it a crime to deny the 20th-century killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks constitutes a genocide. France's parliament approved the bill later in the day.
(AP, 1/23/12)(AP, 1/24/12)
2012 Jan 24, Turkey warned the French president against signing a law that makes it a crime to deny that the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago constituted genocide, saying such a move would deal a heavy blow to the relations between the two countries.
(AP, 1/24/12)
2012 Feb 7, Turkey's PM Erdogan announced a new initiative with regional players to halt the violence in Syria, saying the veto of a UN resolution had given President Bashar al-Assad a "license to kill."
(AFP, 2/7/12)
2012 Feb 10, Turkey Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said that five Turks, including a former intelligence officer, were being questioned for allegedly kidnapping and handing over to Damascus Lt. Col. Hussein Harmoush, a Syrian army officer, who had sought refuge in Turkey.
(AP, 2/11/12)
2012 Feb 11, Turkish warplanes bombed suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
(AP, 2/12/12)
2012 Feb 13, A clash in Turkey's mostly Kurdish southeast has left 15 Kurdish rebels and two Turkish soldiers dead.
(AP, 2/14/12)
2012 Feb 24, In Turkey doctors at Hacettepe University transplanted two arms and two legs on Sevket Cavdar (27). He had lost his arms and legs in 1998 when he was accidentally electrocuted. The world's 1st quadruple limb transplant soon failed due to tissue incompatibility.
(AP, 2/27/12)
2012 Feb, In Turkey followers of Fethullah Gulen, a Pennsylvania-base imam, were said to have infiltrated Turkey’s judiciary and police force. The Gulenists were reportedly now targeting Turkey’s MIT spy agency.
(Econ, 2/25/12, p.61)(http://tinyurl.com/7fde22d)
2012 Mar 6, Turkish Airlines started flying into Somalia's war-torn capital, becoming the first international company to fly passenger planes into Mogadishu in more than 20 years. Flights were scheduled for twice a week.
(AP, 3/6/12)
2012 Mar 8, Turkey's air force carried out air strikes on border areas of north Iraq.
(AFP, 3/9/12)
2012 Mar 10, Turkish journalist Adem Ozkose (34) and cameraman Hamit Coskun (21) reported from Idlib as Syrian forces with tanks and artillery were preparing to move against poorly armed rebels there. They were not heard from again until May 5 when they called their families while under Syrian detention. On May 11 Iran, acting as diplomatic go-between between Syria and Turkey, negotiated their release.
(AP, 5/11/12)
2012 Mar 12, Four Turkish journalists were freed from jail, a year after they were detained in a case that has raised fears for press freedom in the country. Two pledged to immediately tackle sensitive subjects again, including the killing of an ethnic Armenian journalist.
(AP, 3/13/12)
2012 Mar 15, Turkey’s deputy prime minister said Syria has planted landmines near its border with Turkey along routes used by refugees fleeing the regime's deadly crackdown on dissent. The foreign ministry said Around 1,000 Syrian refugees, including a defecting general, flocked into Turkey in the last 24 hours.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 16, Turkey urged its citizens in Syria to return home, saying some consular services will be halted in Damascus next week.
(AP, 3/16/12)
2012 Mar 16, In Afghanistan a Turkish helicopter crashed into a house on the outskirts of Kabul, killing 12 Turkish soldiers and two Afghan civilians.
(AFP, 3/16/12)
2012 Mar 18, In Turkey thousands of Kurds massed in Diyarbakir and Istanbul to celebrate the Kurdish new year (Nowruz). A Kurdish politician and Turkish policeman died as riot police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds.
(Econ, 3/24/12, p.54)
2012 Mar 22, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan on urged UEFA to award his country the right to host the 2020 European football championships.
(AFP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 23, Turkish police detained two people of Iranian descent after an attack on the Iranian embassy in the capital Ankara. The suspects are said to have carried out the attack because of slow processing of their visa applications by the embassy.
(AFP, 3/23/12)
2012 Mar 23, Turkish forces killed 15 female Kurdish rebel fighters in Bitlis province.
(SSFC, 3/25/12, p.A6)
2012 Mar 25, Pres. Obama met with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of a nuclear security conference in South Korea. Obama other key allies considered providing Syrian rebels with communications help, medical aid and other "non-lethal" assistance.
(AP, 3/25/12)
2012 Mar 26, Turkey closed its embassy in Damascus and recalled its ambassador as relations between the former allies continued to deteriorate.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 29, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan voiced his country's unwavering support for Tehran's nuclear ambitions in a meeting with Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Turkey relies on Iran for 30% of its oil imports, and has refused to go along with sanctions imposed by the US and Europe, saying it will observe only UN-mandated restrictions on Iran. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tehran strongly supports reforms in Syria under Pres. Assad, but visiting Turkish PM Erdogan said Assad can't be trusted and must step down.
(AFP, 3/29/12)(AP, 3/30/12)
2012 Apr 1, Syria blasted an international conference on the country's spreading crisis before it even started in Istanbul, calling it part of an international conspiracy to kill Syrians and weaken the country. Monitors said at least 16 people were killed, including eight soldiers who died during ambushes and gun battles in the east, northwest and near Damascus. Participants at the 60-nation “Friends of the Syrian People" meeting said Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries are creating a multimillion-dollar fund to pay members of the rebel Free Syrian Army and soldiers who defect from the regime and join opposition ranks.
(AP, 4/1/12)(AFP, 4/1/12)(SSFC, 4/1/12, p.A5)
2012 Apr 2, In Turkey Neslisah Osmanoglu (b.1921), an Ottoman princess who married an Egyptian prince (1940), died. She was twice forced into exile when both royal households were abolished.
(AFP, 4/3/12)
2012 Apr 4, British officials said a new batch of counterfeit cancer drug Avastin discovered in the United States was bought in Turkey and shipped through Britain by a UK-based business. Avastin, made by Roche, is a complex injectable biotech drug with annual sales of $6 billion.
(Reuters, 4/4/12)
2012 Apr 5, In south-eastern Turkey overnight blasts temporarily shut down a pipeline pumping oil from Iraq. Kurdish rebels were suspected to be behind the explosions.
(AFP, 4/5/12)
2012 Apr 5, In Syria fierce clashes between government forces and rebels erupted near Damascus ahead of an agreed truce. Some 2,500 crossed the border today, bringing to 24,000 the number of Syrian refugees now in Turkey.
(AFP, 4/5/12)(AP, 4/6/12)
2012 Apr 9, Syrian forces fired across the border into a refugee camp in Turkey, wounding at least five people. Lebanese journalist Ali Shaaban, who works as a cameraman for Al Jadeed TV station, was shot and killed as he was filming in the northern Wadi Khaled area on the Lebanese side of the border. 12 members of the Syrian security forces were killed as clashes ensued in several regions. Human Rights Watch said it has documented the killings by Syrian forces of 85 civilians, including women and children, and the summary executions of at least 16 wounded or captured opposition fighters. The Syrian rebel army said it is ready to respect an April 10 truce brokered by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan if the regime of President Bashar al-Assad abides by the peace deal.
(AP, 4/9/12)(AFP, 4/9/12)
2012 Apr 12, Turkish prosecutors ordered the arrest of dozens of former military officers, including four retired generals, over their role in forcing the resignation in 1997 of an Islamist PM Necmettin Erbakan.
(AP, 4/12/12)
2012 Apr 14, Iran and senior diplomats from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, known as the P5+1, gathered at the negotiating table in Istanbul for their first meeting in 15 months hoping to ease tensions over Tehran's nuclear program.
(AFP, 4/14/12)
2012 Apr 18, Turkey said it has intercepted an Antigua and Barbuda-flagged vessel in the Mediterranean suspected of carrying weapons and ammunition to Syria. The "Atlantic Cruiser" belonged to a German company. The ship was chartered by a Ukrainian firm, which said that the cargo contained no weapons, but legal goods for civilian use.
(AFP, 4/18/12)(AFP, 4/19/12)
2012 May 10, A Turkish court placed in custody six active and five retired generals as part of a widening probe into the 1997 bloodless coup that toppled the country's first Islamist-led government.
(AFP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 18, Leaders of Bulgaria, Qatar and Turkey agreed to study joint infrastructure projects like the construction of a new motorway from Istanbul across Bulgaria.
(AFP, 5/18/12)
2012 May 19, In northeastern Turkey a 22-meter (72-foot) high copper statue of Ataturk, the country's biggest of the iconic figure, was inaugurated in Artvin. It was a tribute to the near-mystical hold that Ataturk exerts over his fervent believers, whose admiration is rooted in his success in imposing secular values on a largely Muslim nation.
(AP, 6/10/12)
2012 May 25, In central Turkey a car bomb attack killed a policeman and wounded 17 people. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) later claimed responsibility.
(AP, 5/27/12)
2012 May 27, In southeast Turkey Kurdish rebels killed a soldier in a clash, prompting the military to launch a large-scale offensive in the area.
(AP, 5/27/12)
2012 May 29, Turkey’s PM Erdogan called for legislation to restrict women’s access to abortions.
(SFC, 5/30/12, p.A2)
2012 May 30, Turkey said it has ordered Syrian diplomats to leave the country within 72 hours following the massacre of more than 100 civilians in Houla which has triggered global outrage.
(AFP, 5/30/12)
2012 May 31, In Turkey representatives from 54 countries gathered in Istanbul for a 2-day conference to find a path towards a better future for Somalia for which the term "failed state" was coined two decades ago.
(AFP, 5/31/12)
2012 Jun 4, Turkish security officials said two security personnel were killed when they stepped on an improvised explosive device laid by PKK militants in the Lice district of Diyarbakir province. One of the men killed was the commander of Lice's military police force.
(Reuters, 6/4/12)
2012 Jun 5, Some 85 Syrian military defectors and their families crossed into Turkey.
(Econ, 7/7/12, p.46)
2012 Jun 12, Turkey announced plans to introduce elective Kurdish language instruction in schools, a step aimed at easing tension that Kurdish minority activists argued didn't go far enough. Activists and Kurdish politicians insisted on full Kurdish education in schools.
(AP, 6/12/12)
2012 Jun 13, A Turkish foreign ministry official said around 2,500 Syrians have fled to Turkey in the last 48 hours amid fresh attacks that even targeted UN observers.
(AFP, 6/13/12)
2012 Jun 17, In southeastern Turkey prison inmates set mattresses and blankets alight overnight, starting a fire that killed 13 prisoners in the mostly-Kurdish and Arabic-speaking city of Sanliurfa.
(AP, 6/17/12)
2012 Jun 19, In Turkey thousands of feminists and activists sent a petition to several government ministries to protest a bill that would ban abortions beyond the first six weeks of pregnancy.
(AFP, 6/19/12)
2012 Jun 19, Kurdish rebels attacked Turkish military units with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades in southeastern Turkey, sparking clashes in which 10 rebels and eight soldiers died.
(AP, 6/19/12)
2012 Jun 22, Syria’s state-run news agency, SANA, said terrorist groups had killed and mutilated at least 25 people in Daret Azzeh, a rebel-held area in the Aleppo countryside. A video emerged showing more than a dozen bloodied corpses, some of them piled on top of each other and in military uniforms, in what the government said was a "massacre" by rebels in the northern province of Aleppo. Activists reported that thousands of people rallied in various parts to protest the regime following afternoon prayers. Syria said it shot down a Turkish military plane that entered Syrian air space.
(AP, 6/22/12)(AP, 6/23/12)
2012 Jun 24, Turkey’s army said its warplanes have carried out strikes on suspected Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq. Air strikes had hit 9 PKK targets over the last 3 days. Kurdish rebels killed one policeman and wounded 3 others in a roadside bomb attack.
(AFP, 6/24/12)(SFC, 6/25/12, p.A2)
2012 Jun 25, Dozens of Syrian soldiers defected overnight to Turkey, crossing the border with their families. The state-run Anadolu news agency said 33 soldiers defected, including a general and two colonels. Syrian troops killed 10 "terrorists" in the Damascus suburb of Douma.
(AP, 6/25/12)(AP, 6/26/12)
2012 Jun 26, Turkey's PM Erdogan vowed to retaliate against Syria for its 'heinous' downing of one of its warplanes, as the head of NATO said such an attack on one of its members was unacceptable.
(AFP, 6/26/12)
2012 Jun 27, In eastern Turkey an explosion targeting a pipeline cut off Iranian natural gas shipments to the country. The pipeline was expected to be back in operation within 4 to 5 days. Turkey received 27 million cubic meters of gas a day via the Iranian pipeline. The gas flow was reported restored on July 3.
(AFP, 6/28/12)(AFP, 7/3/12)
2012 Jul 20, In Turkey an explosion and fire shut down twin pipelines that carry oil from Iraq to the Mediterranean.
(AP, 7/21/12)
2012 Jul 25, Turkey sealed its border with Syria to trucks, effectively cutting off a trade relationship once worth almost $3 billion with the embattled nation. A foreign ministry diplomat said 2 more Syrian brigadier generals crossed into Turkey, bringing to 27 the number of generals who have fled the unrest in Syria.
(AP, 7/25/12)(AFP, 7/25/12)
2012 Jul 29, Syrian troops, backed by air power and tanks, pushed on in the second day of an assault on Aleppo, sparking international fears of a humanitarian catastrophe. The Syrian regime accused regional powerhouses Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey of supporting a plot hatched by Israel to destroy the country. A group of 12 Syrian officers crossed into Turkey including a brigadier general who was deputy chief of police in Syria's Latakia region.
(AFP, 7/29/12)(AP, 7/29/12)(AP, 7/30/12)
2012 Aug 2, Turkish warplanes and attack helicopters are pounding Kurdish rebel positions in a major clash in a rugged area near Turkey's borders with Iraq and Iran. Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels have been clashing in the area for about two weeks.
(AP, 8/2/12)
2012 Aug 4, Turkish officials said the military has retired all 40 generals on trial on charges of plotting to overthrow the Muslim-led government.
(SSFC, 8/5/12, p.A7)
2012 Aug 4, Turkey reported the defection of another Syrian general, along with five colonels, who came over the border with a group of refugees.
(AP, 8/4/12)
2012 Aug 5, Turkey’s interior minister said security forces have killed as many as 115 Kurdish rebels during a major offensive over the past 2 weeks near the southeastern town of Semdinli. Rebels fired on military posts in Hakkari on the Iraq border triggering clashes that left dead 22 rebels, soldiers and village guards.
(AFP, 8/5/12)(SFC, 8/6/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 6, In southeastern Turkey an overnight blast interrupted oil flow from Iraq. Kurdish rebels were suspected to be behind the explosions. The blast hit the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline in Mardin province close to the border with Syria. Repairs were expected to take up to 10 days. The oil flow was reported restored on August 28.
(AFP, 8/6/12)(AFP, 8/28/12)
2012 Aug 7, In Syria total of 225 people, mostly civilians, were reported killed. A Turkish government official said 1,328 Syrian refugees had crossed the border by midmorning, nearly double the number of refugees who reached Turkey a day earlier.
(AFP, 8/8/12)(AP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 9, In Turkey 2 roadside bombs struck a bus carrying troops to a navy base, killing one soldier and wounding 11 people on the outskirts of the Aegean resort town of Foca.
(AP, 8/9/12)
2012 Aug 15, In Syria a bomb attached to a fuel truck exploded outside a Damascus hotel where UN observers are staying, wounding at least three people. Fierce fighting erupted between the Syrian army and rebels near the prime minister's office in Damascus. Activists reported shelling and clashes in Aleppo. Two Syrian fighter jets bombed the rebel-held town of Azaz. Human Rights Watch said over 40 people were killed. 757 Syrians fled into Turkey.
(AFP, 8/15/12)(AP, 8/15/12)(AP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 20, In Turkey a car bomb in a southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantap left 9 people dead. Authorities blamed rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) of being behind the powerful blast that went off close to a police station. The PKK denied the attack.
(AFP, 8/21/12)
2012 Aug 23, Turkish media reported that Kurdish rebels have ambushed a military convoy in the southeast, setting off clashes that killed 16 militants and five soldiers.
(AFP, 8/23/12)
2012 Aug 25, Turkish warplanes bombed areas of northern Iraq in a bid to target rear bases of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AFP, 8/25/12)
2012 Sep 2, In Turkey Kurdish militants killed 10 police and soldiers in an assault in Sirnak province. Some Kurdish guerrillas were also killed.
(SFC, 9/4/12, p.A2)
2012 Sep 5, In western Turkey an explosion and blaze triggered by an accidentally dropped hand grenade killed 25 soldiers during a stock check at an ammunition depot near the town of Afyonkarahisar.
(AP, 9/6/12)
2012 Sep 6, Off the coast of western Turkey 61 people drowned when a fishing boat carrying migrants that smugglers had promised refuge in Europe sank after hitting rocks. At least 46 survivors, mostly from Iraq and Syria, were able to swim through the Aegean waters to shore 50 meters away.
(AP, 9/6/12)(SSFC, 9/9/12, p.A4)
2012 Sep 10, Turkey’s military announced that it had conducted air strikes over the past week in northern Iraq, where Kurdish rebels have bases. Some 25 guerrillas were reported killed in the operation.
(AP, 9/11/12)
2012 Sep 11, In Turkey a suicide bomber threw a hand grenade and then blew himself up at the entrance to a police station in a suburb of Istanbul. One police officer was killed, and seven others were wounded. Police identified the bomber as a member of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C).
(AP, 9/11/12)
2012 Sep 12, In Turkey hundreds of Kurds began a hunger strike in prisons across the country.
(Econ, 11/17/12, p.2)
2012 Sep 15, In southeast Turkey an attack on a military convoy killed four soldiers and wounded five in Hakkari province.
(AP, 9/16/12)
2012 Sep 16, In eastern Turkey suspected Kurdish rebels detonated a landmine along a highway in Bingol province, killing eight police officers and wounding nine. Officials in southeastern Hakkari province said a total of 123 "terrorists," a reference to Kurdish rebels, had been killed in military operations in the past 10 days.
(AP, 9/16/12)
2012 Sep 18, In Turkey suspected Kurdish rebels in Bingol province attacked a military convoy with a rocket killing 10 soldiers and wounded over 70 others.
(SFC, 9/19/12, p.A2)
2012 Sep 18, In Syria fierce clashes broke out between rebels and regime forces battling for control of a border crossing on the frontier with Turkey. Turkish authorities told residents to evacuate the area.
(AP, 9/18/12)
2012 Sep 21, A Turkish court convicted 326 military officers, including the former air force and navy chiefs, of plotting to overthrow the PM Erdogan’s Islamic-based government in 2003.
(AP, 9/21/12)(Economist, 9/29/12, p.59)
2012 Sep 26, A Turkish court issued an order allowing authorities in the country to block Internet access to the "Innocence of Muslims," an anti-Islam movie that has sparked violent protests across the Muslim world.
(AP, 9/26/12)
2012 Sep 30, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Syria's allies to stop backing the Assad regime. "We call on Russia, China and Iran, please review your stance," Erdogan told a conference of his ruling Justice and Development Party.
(AP, 9/30/12)
2012 Oct 3, Turkish authorities arrested Ali Harzi for reported links to the Sep 11 attack on a US consulate in Libya. He was repatriated to Tunisia on Oct 11 and faced terrorism charges there. Harzi was one of two Tunisians reportedly arrested in Turkey when they tried to enter the country with false passports.
(AP, 10/25/12)
2012 Oct 3, Syrian-Turkish cross-border tensions escalated after a shell fired from inside Syria landed on a home in the Turkish village of Akcakale, killing two women and three of their daughters and wounding at least 10 others.
(AP, 10/4/12)
2012 Oct 4, Turkey's Parliament authorized military operations against Syria and its military fired on targets there for a second day after deadly shelling from Syria killed five civilians in a Turkish border town.
(AP, 10/4/12)
2012 Oct 5, Turkish troops fired at Syria again, responding to another mortar shell from Syria that struck Turkish territory.
(AP, 10/5/12)
2012 Oct 6, Turkish artillery fired into Syria for the fourth day in a row, retaliating for mortar shells that landed in Turkish territory. Rebels clashed with Syrian government troops in the border area, activists said, as fears revived that the Syrian crisis could spiral into a regional conflict.
(AP, 10/6/12)
2012 Oct 7, Turkish artillery fired toward Syria for a fifth day in a row, minutes after a Syrian shell landed on Turkish territory.
(AP, 10/7/12)
2012 Oct 7, Turkish jets struck suspected Kurdish rebel targets in two separate cross-border raids in northern Iraq.
(AP, 10/8/12)
2012 Oct 8, Turkey's state-run news agency said a Syrian shell landed on Turkish territory for a sixth day, but made no mention of any immediate Turkish retaliation.
(AP, 10/8/12)
2012 Oct 9, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said NATO is ready to defend alliance member Turkey amid artillery exchanges along its tense southeastern border with Syria.
(AP, 10/9/12)
2012 Oct 10, Turkey's military chief vowed day to respond with more force to any further shelling from Syria, keeping up the pressure on its southern neighbor a day after NATO said it stood ready to defend Turkey.
(AP, 10/10/12)
2012 Oct 10, A Syrian Air A320 from Moscow that was forced to land in Ankara. Turkish state-run television TRT reported the next day that the passenger plane was carrying military communications equipment. Damascus branded the incident piracy amid growing tensions between the two countries. The plane's 37 passengers and crew were allowed to continue to Damascus after several hours, without the cargo.
(AP, 10/11/12)
2012 Oct 13, Syria's state-run news agency SANA says Syria has decided to ban Turkish Airlines flights from Syrian airspace.
(AP, 10/13/12)
2012 Oct 14, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced that Turkey is barring Syrian civilian flights from Turkey's airspace, a day after Syria issued such a ban for Turkish commercial aircraft.
(AP, 10/14/12)
2012 Oct 18, Turkey's state-run news said security forces have killed 12 Kurdish rebels in clashes in the southeast, raising the two-day death toll in the fighting to 18.
(AP, 10/18/12)
2012 Oct 20, Turkey's state-run agency said clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish rebels in Hakkari province, have left nine people dead.
(AP, 10/20/12)
2012 Oct 22, The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report that 76 journalists are in prison in Turkey and at least 61 of them are held because for "their published work or newsgathering activities."
(AP, 10/22/12)
2012 Oct 29, In Turkey police used tear gas and water cannons to try to break up a demonstration by tens of thousands of pro-secular protesters, but the march to mark the founding of the Turkish republic went on in defiance of a government ban.
(AP, 10/29/12)
2012 Nov 6, A Turkish court opened a trial in absentia of four former Israeli military commanders in the killing of nine people aboard a Turkish aid ship that tried to break a Gaza blockade in 2010.
(AP, 11/6/12)
2012 Nov 6, Turkey's state-run news agency reported that seven Syrian generals have defected to Turkey.
(AP, 11/6/12)
2012 Nov 9, Turkey's state-run agency said a group of Syrian soldiers, including two generals and 11 colonels, have fled to Turkey with their families.
(AP, 11/9/12)
2012 Nov 9, In Turkey the office for the governor for Hakkari province said as many as 42 Kurdish rebels have been killed in the past three days in operations that were backed by airpower.
(AP, 11/10/12)
2012 Nov 10, A Turkish military helicopter carrying soldiers on a mission against Kurdish rebels crashed because of bad weather, killing all 17 troops onboard.
(AP, 11/10/12)
2012 Nov 12, A Syrian fighter jet bombed a rebel-held area near the Turkish border, killing at least six people and wounding a dozen others. One rocket-propelled grenade landed in Turkey. A Syrian helicopter bombed rebel positions in an area further south of Ras al-Ayn and the rebels could be heard responding with machine guns.
(AP, 11/12/12)
2012 Nov 15, Turkey endorsed the newly formed Syrian rebel coalition as the legitimate leader of Syria.
(SFC, 11/16/12, p.A2)
2012 Nov 16, A Syrian general and a dozen other officers defected with their families to Turkey.
(Reuters, 11/17/12)
2012 Nov 17, Cameraman Cuneyt Unal, captured while covering fighting in the city of Aleppo, was released returned to Turkey. Unal and reporter Bashar Fahmi, a Jordanian citizen of Palestinian origin, had been missing since August. Both were working for the US-based Alhurra TV and were believed to have been captured by Syrian government forces.
(AP, 11/17/12)
2012 Nov 21, Turkey's government requested the deployment of NATO's Patriot surface-to-air missiles to bolster its defenses along its border with Syria.
(AP, 11/21/12)
2012 Dec 4, Off the coast of Istanbul a cargo ship sank in a severe storm in the Black Sea and a Turkish rescue boat searching for its missing crew hit nearby rocks and also went down. At least three people were killed and 10 others were missing in the two sinkings.
(AP, 12/4/12)
2012 Dec 6, NATO moved forward with its plan to place Patriot missiles and troops along Syria's border with Turkey to protect against potential attacks.
(AP, 12/6/12)
2012 Dec 7, The Dutch government approved a NATO request to send two batteries of Patriot missile defense systems to Turkey, following in Germany's footsteps.
(AP, 12/7/12)
2012 Dec 14, The Pentagon said the US will send two batteries of Patriot missiles and 400 troops to Turkey as part of a NATO force meant to protect Turkish territory from potential Syrian missile attack.
(AP, 12/14/12)
2012 Dec 14, A boat capsized early today off the northeastern island of Lesvos, near the Turkish coast. Greek coast guard officials found the bodies of 18 Asian people who were trying to cross illegally into Greece.
(AP, 12/15/12)
2012 Dec 28, Officials at Turkey's Foreign Ministry said two Syrian air force generals have defected and crossed the border.
(AP, 12/28/12)
2012 Dec, In Turkey Huda-Par (Party of Allah) was launched on a platform of Islamic values and greater rights for the country’s 14 million Sunni Kurds.
(Econ, 11/23/13, p.55)
2012 State-run Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) withdrew from Eurovision after the contest, citing low ratings and dissatisfaction with the voting rules.
(AFP, 8/4/18)
2013 Jan 7, In northern Turkey a gas leak inside a coal mine killed five workers and injured one. Two other miners are missing and feared dead in Zonguldak province.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 7, The Dutch military shipped Patriot missiles to Turkey, a fellow NATO member, after the alliance agreed in December to deploy the anti-missile systems along Turkey's southern border with Syria. Fighting in Syria continued unabated.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 14, Turkish jets struck suspected Kurdish rebel targets in a cross-border raid in northern Iraq, even as Turkey prepared to start peace talks with the rebels' imprisoned leader.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 21, Turkey's state-run news agency said a court has charged 9 lawyers, including prominent human rights defenders, with membership in an outlawed leftist militant group and ordered them arrested pending trial.
(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 21, In Turkey Sarai Sierra (33) went missing, when she was supposed to return to New York City but was not on her flight back home. She had arrived in Istanbul on Jan 7. Her body was discovered Feb 2 evening near the remnants of ancient city walls. She had suffered a fatal blow to the head. On March 17 a suspect, identified only as Ziya T, was caught in Syria in a joint operation by Syrian rebels and Turkish officials.
(AP, 1/29/13)(AP, 2/3/13)(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Feb 1, In Turkey a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the entrance of the US Embassy in Ankara, killing himself and a guard.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 11, In Turkey a car bomb exploded at the Bab al-Hawa frontier post along Syria's border, killing 14 people. A Syrian opposition faction later accused the Syrian government of the bombing, saying it narrowly missed 13 leaders of the group. On March 11 Turkey’s police said five suspects have been detained.
(AP, 2/11/13)(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A2)(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Feb 25, In Turkey German Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks with Turkish leaders amid growing frustration in Turkey over its slow-moving EU membership and a perceived reluctance by European nations to crackdown on Turkish militants operating in their nations.
(AP, 2/25/13)
2013 Feb 28, A Turkish news agency said police have detained 11 people suspected of al-Qaida links and seized 25 kg (55 pounds) of plastic explosives. Police reportedly found charts and photographs of the US Consulate, a synagogue and a church in Istanbul.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Mar 13, Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq freed eight captured Turkish soldiers and officials as part of peace efforts between Turkey and the rebel group aimed at ending a decades-long conflict.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 19, In Turkey assailants fired a rocket at PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party headquarters and hurled two hand-grenades at the Justice Ministry's parking lot, wounding one person. The outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, soon said it carried out the attacks in retaliation for a recent police crackdown on its members.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 19, In Turkey Mohamed Mahmoud (27), an Islamic extremist wanted by Germany for allegedly calling for terrorist attacks, was arrested in Hatay province. Berlin soon began negotiating his extradition.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 21, Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan called for an immediate cease-fire and for thousands of his fighters to withdraw from Turkish territory, a major step toward ending one of the world's bloodiest insurgencies.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 22, Israel and Turkey agreed to restore full diplomatic relations after PM Benjamin Netanyahu apologized in a phone call for a deadly naval raid against a Gaza-bound international flotilla in a dramatic turnaround partly brokered by President Barack Obama.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Apr 8, Turkish police used water cannons, tear gas and pepper spray to disperse thousands of people protesting outside a court house in support of 275 people who are on trial for allegedly plotting to overthrow Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government.
(AP, 4/8/13)
2013 Apr 15, A Turkish court convicted Fazil Say (43), a top pianist and composer, of denigrating religion through his comments on Twitter. He was given a 10-month suspended prison sentence.
(SFC, 4/16/13, p.A2)(Econ, 4/20/13, p.58)
2013 Apr 21, In eastern Afghanistan a Turkish civilian helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing in a Taliban-controlled area of Logar province. Insurgents took all 11 people aboard the aircraft hostage, including 8 Turks, one Afghan translator and 2 foreign pilots. Four of the Turks were freed on May 12.
(AP, 4/22/13)(AP, 5/13/13)
2013 Apr 25, A pro-Kurdish news agency said Kurdish rebels will start withdrawing thousands of guerrilla fighters from Turkey on May 8 and retreat across the border to northern Iraq, in an important milestone toward ending the nearly three-decade old insurgency that has cost tens of thousands of lives.
(AP, 4/25/13)
2013 May 9, Iraq rejected a key element of an accord to bring an end to a long Kurdish uprising in Turkey — offering refuge to rebel fighters in country's north.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 11, In Turkey 2 car bomb explosions in a town across the border from Syria killed 51 people in Reyhanli, Hatay province, a main hub for Syrian refugees. 13 Turkish citizens, believed to have links to the Syrian intelligence agency, were soon detained.
(AP, 5/11/13)(AP, 5/12/13)(AP, 5/14/13)
2013 May 14, The first Kurdish fighters crossed from Turkey into northern Iraq as part of a peace deal to end a long uprising despite Iraqi objections to the transfer. The Iraqi Cabinet reiterated its rejection of the deal and of the presence of PKK fighters.
(AP, 5/14/13)
2013 May 17, In Turkey a container of fuel being smuggled into the country from Syria exploded, killing 10 people in Tunisma village, Hatay province.
(AP, 5/17/13)
2013 May 20, In Turkey a hot air balloon collided with another balloon mid-air during a sightseeing tour in the Cappadocia region and crashed to the ground, killing two Brazilian tourists and injuring 23 other people on board.
(AP, 5/20/13)
2013 May 24, Turkey's parliament passed legislation that would ban all alcohol advertising and tighten restrictions on the sale of such beverages.
(AP, 5/24/13)
2013 May 25, In Turkey some 100 people kissed for several minutes at a subway stop in Ankara after subway officials earlier in the week made an announcement asking passengers "to act in accordance with moral rules" after security cameras spotted a couple kissing.
(AP, 5/26/13)
2013 May 25, Syria's fractured political opposition met for a third day in Istanbul, Turkey, to elect new leaders, try to widen its base and forge a unified position ahead of possible peace talks with the regime.
(AP, 5/25/13)
2013 May 31, In Turkey riot police used tear gas and pressurized water in a dawn raid to rout a peaceful demonstration by hundreds of people staging a sit-in to prevent the uprooting of trees at Istanbul’s Gezi Park. Some 5,000 people gathered in Ankara in solidarity with those in Istanbul. In Izmir clashes broke out as thousands also marched in solidarity. The government planned to build a replica of ottoman-era army barracks and a mall atop the park.
(AP, 5/31/13)(SFC, 6/1/13, p.A3)(SSFC, 6/9/13, p.A4)
2013 Jun 1, In Turkey Ethem Sarisuluk (26) was shot in the head during protests in Ankara. He was kept alive but later declared brain-dead. A court later released his alleged killer on the grounds of self-defence.
(Econ, 6/29/13, p.49)(http://tinyurl.com/kztouxn)
2013 Jun 3, Turkey's Pres. Abdullah Gul defended the right of citizens to protest, in contrast to the dismissive stance of PM Erdogan, as police used tear gas for a fourth day in an attempt to disperse demonstrations that grew out of a sit-in to prevent the uprooting of trees at Istanbul's main square. A 20-year-old man died in a hospital in Istanbul from injuries after a vehicle slammed into a crowd of protesters a day earlier. By now most of Turkey’s 81 provinces had seen protests.
(AP, 6/3/13)(Econ, 6/8/13, p.25)
2013 Jun 4, Turkey's deputy prime minister Bulent Arinc offered an apology for a violent crackdown on an environmental protest, in a bid to appease days of anti-government rallies across the country as hundreds of riot police deployed around the prime minister's office in Ankara.
(AP, 6/4/13)
2013 Jun 5, Turkish activists presented a list of demands they said could end days of anti-government demonstrations, as police detained 25 people they accused of using social media to stoke the outpouring of anger. A protester was killed in Antakya from an apparent blow to the head.
(AP, 6/5/13)
2013 Jun 6, In southern Turkey a police officer died after falling into an underpass while trying to subdue a protest, bringing the death toll in a week of protests to three.
(AP, 6/6/13)
2013 Jun 7, Turkey's PM Erdogan took a combative stance on his return from a visit to Tunisia, telling supporters who thronged to greet him that the protests that have swept the country must come to an end.
(AP, 6/7/13)
2013 Jun 8, In Turkey police in Ankara fired tear gas and used water cannons to disperse thousands of people protesting near government buildings. Pro- and anti-government protesters also clashed in Adana.
(AP, 6/9/13)
2013 Jun 11, In Turkey hundreds of riot police overran improvised barricades at Istanbul's Taksim Square, firing tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon in running battles with protesters who have been occupying the area for more than a week. The raid came on the 12th day of nationwide protests. The Turkish Human Rights Foundation raised the number of deaths in more than a week of protests to four.
(AP, 6/11/13)
2013 Jun 12, In Turkey riot police clashed in the early hours with demonstrators occupying Istanbul’s Taksim Square. The government proposed a referendum on the development project that has triggered the protests. Thousands of black-robed Turkish lawyers stormed out of their courthouses, shouting about the rough treatment police dished out to their colleagues amid Turkey's biggest anti-government protests in years.
(SFC, 6/12/13, p.A3)(AP, 6/12/13)(SFC, 6/13/13, p.A5)
2013 Jun 13, Turkey’s PM Erdogan declared "lawbreakers" will be removed from Istanbul's Taksim Square." Ethem Sarisuluk (26), who had been on life support for days, was pronounced dead. He was believed to have been hit in the head by a tear gas canister on June 1 during protests in Ankara. This raised the death toll to 5 from the two-week standoff.
(AP, 6/13/13)
2013 Jun 14, Turkey’s state news reported that as many as 73 Syrian military officers — including seven generals and 20 colonels — have crossed the border into Turkey with their families "seeking refuge."
(AP, 6/14/13)
2013 Jun 15, In Turkey protesters at Istanbul's Gezi Park vowed to press on with their 2-week sit-in, defying government appeals and a warning from Erdogan for an end to the standoff. Tens of thousands of supporters of PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan rallied in Sincan, a suburb of Ankara. In the evening riot police cleared Gezi Park and Taksim Square of thousands of peaceful protesters in a swift but muscular operation.
(AP, 6/15/13)(AP, 6/16/13)
2013 Jun 16, In Turkey thousands of defiant protesters attempting to converge on central Istanbul's Taksim Square were kept away by police firing repeated rounds of tear gas, as the government maintained a hard line against rekindled demonstrations. Protesters vowed the group would retake Gezi Park.
(AP, 6/16/13)
2013 Jun 17, In Turkey labor unions and political foes of PM Recep Erdogan rallied by the thousands across the country, hoping to capitalize on weeks of initially small-scale protest to register broader discontent. The call to walk off the job had limited fallout beyond the demonstrations.
(AP, 6/17/13)
2013 Jun 17, In Turkey Erdem Gunduz, a choreographer, began a silent and motionless stand in Taksim Square to protest police use of tear gas and water cannon to clear both the square and Gezi Park of thousands of demonstrators.
(Econ, 6/22/13, p.56)(http://tinyurl.com/kh3yqve)
2013 Jun 18, Turkey’s PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended the nation's police and vowed to increase their powers to deal with unrest. News reports said police were carrying out raids and detaining people suspected of involvement in violence against police. 4 protesters and one police officer have been killed and Turkey's doctors association said an investigation was underway into the death of a fifth protester who was exposed to tear gas.
(AP, 6/18/13)
2013 Jun 22, Turkish police used water cannon to disperse thousands gathered in Istanbul's Taksim Square to observe a memorial for four people killed during recent anti-government protests. The officers later fired tear gas and rubber bullets, and in some cases beat people with batons, to scatter demonstrators who regrouped in side streets.
(AP, 6/22/13)
2013 Jun 25, Turkish police detained at least 20 people allegedly involved in violent protests, as the country's prime minister continued to lash out at protesters, and BBC journalist Selin Girit, he claimed were part of a conspiracy to harm Turkey.
(AP, 6/25/13)(SFC, 6/26/13, p.A2)
2013 Jun 28, Turkish security forces killed one person and wounded ten when they fired on a group protesting against the construction of a new gendarmerie outpost in Kayacik village, Diyarbakir province.
(Reuters, 6/29/13)
2013 Jun 29, In Turkey thousands of protesters marched to Istanbul's Taksim Square chanting slogans against the government and police after security forces killed a Kurdish demonstrator in the southeast.
(Reuters, 6/29/13)
2013 Jun 30, In Turkey police fired teargas and water cannon to disperse thousands of protesters in Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast, during demonstrations across the country to pressure the government to carry out reforms.
(Reuters, 6/30/13)
2013 Jul 4, Syrian opposition figures met in Turkey to elect a new leadership as President Bashar Assad claims his opponents have failed to overthrow his regime.
(AP, 7/4/13)
2013 Jul 6, Turkish police fired teargas and water cannon to disperse hundreds of protesters in an Istanbul square as they gathered to enter Gezi Park, the center of protests against PM Tayyip Erdogan last month.
(Reuters, 7/6/13)
2013 Jul 6, In Turkey Ahmad al-Jarba, a former Syrian political prisoner with close links to Saudi Arabia, was picked to lead Syria's main Western-backed opposition group, filling a post long vacant due to divisions among President Bashar Assad's opponents.
(AP, 7/6/13)
2013 Jul 8, Turkey reopened Istanbul’s Gezi Park at the heart of last month's demonstrations against PM Tayyip Erdogan. Protest leaders called a rally there for this evening in defiance of the city governor. Hours later police forced people out due to concerns about a planned protest rally. Clashes ensued in nearby streets before police allowed people back into the park around midnight.
(AP, 7/8/13)(Reuters, 7/9/13)
2013 Jul 9, In Turkey Gezi Park in Istanbul, at the center of protests against PM Tayyip Erdogan's government, reopened after a night of clashes between police and protesters, but the mood among the small groups of visitors was calm.
(Reuters, 7/9/13)
2013 Jul 13, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said the parliament has amended an internal armed forces’ regulation that further strips the military of its political influence.
(SSFC, 7/14/13, p.A5)
2013 Jul 13, Turkish police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters who gathered to march to Gezi Park, which has been at the heart of fierce unrest against PM Erdogan's rule.
(Reuters, 7/13/13)
2013 Jul 16, Turkish police arrested about 30 people in Istanbul after briefly detaining more than 1,000 in a widening crackdown after weeks of violent anti-government protests.
(Reuters, 7/16/13)
2013 Jul 16, A man and a 15-year-old boy were killed by stray bullets shot from Syria into a Turkish border town. Turkish troops returned fire, in the most serious spillover of violence in weeks.
(Reuters, 7/17/13)
2013 Jul 17, The Turkish military said a Syrian Kurdish party with links to Kurdish militants in Turkey has seized control of a Syrian border town after days of clashes with Islamist fighters.
(Reuters, 7/18/13)
2013 Jul 19, In Turkey a landslide triggered by heavy rains killed at least five people near Turkey's border with Syria.
(AP, 7/19/13)
2013 Jul 20, In Turkey police fired water cannon and tear gas in downtown Istanbul to disperse anti-government demonstrators after barring them from entering a park where they had hoped to celebrate the wedding of a couple who met during last month's widespread protests.
(AP, 7/20/13)
2013 Jul 23, A Turkish border patrol killed one of eight civilians trying to cross illegally from Turkey into Syria. The group had been trying to cross from Hatay province into northwestern Syria and had fired on the Turkish patrol after the troops had whistled a warning.
(Reuters, 7/23/13)
2013 Jul 27, In Somalia a Turkish security official and a Somali student were killed in a terrorist attack on the Turkish consulate and relief mission. Three suicide bombers also died in the attack in Mogadishu.
(AP, 7/28/13)
2013 Jul 30, Turkish soldiers shot into the air and fired tear gas to prevent hundreds of people, many of them believed to be smugglers, from trying to cross into Turkey from Syria.
(Reuters, 7/30/13)
2013 Aug 3, Turkish police fired teargas and water cannon to disperse small groups of anti-government protesters in central Istanbul.
(Reuters, 8/3/13)
2013 Aug 3, A Turkish man, Ramazan Zeybel (45) was killed by a stray bullet fired from Syria into the Turkish town of Ceylanpinar.
(Reuters, 8/3/13)
2013 Aug 5, Turkey's former military chief, retired Gen. Ilker Basbug, was convicted of trying to overthrow the government in 2002 and sentenced to life in prison. 18 other defendants were sentenced to life in prison, including 10 retired military officers, while 60 other defendants received sentences ranging from a year to 47 years.
(AP, 8/5/13)(Econ, 8/10/13, p.46)
2013 Aug 6, Eighteen Turkish soldiers were injured when a group of several thousand alleged smugglers clashed with the army as they tried to cross into Turkey from Syria.
(Reuters, 8/6/13)
2013 Aug 9, In Lebanon gunmen abducted a Turkish Airlines pilot and his assistant in Beirut, forcing them from a bus as it took them from the airport in the early hours of the morning. A group claimed responsibility for the abduction in the name of nine Lebanese Shi'ite Muslims kidnapped last year in Azaz near the Turkish-Syrian border.
(Reuters, 8/9/13)
2013 Aug 21, In Iraq two bomb attacks halted the flow of crude oil through a pipeline running from the Kirkuk oil fields to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan in Turkey, causing severe damage.
(Reuters, 8/21/13)
2013 Aug 26, In Turkey Western powers meeting in Istanbul told the Syrian opposition to expect a strike against President Bashar al-Assad's forces within days.
(Reuters, 8/27/13)
2013 Sep 2, The first of more than 100 senior Turkish army officers began testifying in court over their alleged role in ousting Turkey's first Islamist-led government in 1997.
(Reuters, 9/2/13)
2013 Sep 6, Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan said almost all leaders at the G20 summit in St. Petersburg accepted the need for an operation to be carried out against Syria following a chemical weapons attack there last month.
(Reuters, 9/6/13)
2013 Sep 9, Kurdish rebels announced they are suspending their withdrawal from Turkey into bases in northern Iraq over what they say is the Turkish government's failure to advance peace talks aimed at ending a nearly 30-year-old conflict.
(AP, 9/9/13)
2013 Sep 9, In central Turkey Japanese tourist Mai Kurkiharac (22) was stabbed to death and her friend seriously wounded in an attack in Cappadocia.
(Reuters, 9/10/13)
2013 Sep 10, Turkish police fired tear gas and plastic bullets at thousands of people who gathered in Istanbul to protest the death of a 22-year-old demonstrator. Ahmet Atakan died in hospital after being hit in the head by a tear gas canister during clashes between police and around 150 protesters in the southeastern city of Antakya in Hatay province.
(AFP, 9/10/13)
2013 Sep 16, Turkish warplanes shot down a Syrian helicopter after it crossed into Turkish airspace. Syria's army acknowledged the helicopter had strayed into Turkish airspace for a short time while monitoring "terrorists" moving across the border into Syria, but said it was an accident and that the aircraft was on its way back when it was shot down.
(Reuters, 9/16/13)
2013 Sep 20, Turkish authorities shot and killed one suspect and wounded another after a rocket attack on a police headquarters in Ankara. The suspects were believed to be members of the far-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C).
(AP, 9/21/13)
2013 Sep 25, In Turkey 18 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) escaped overnight from prison in the southeast by digging a 70-meter-long tunnel. All but one were caught by the next day.
(Reuters, 9/25/13)(Reuters, 9/26/13)
2013 Sep 30, Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan announced long-anticipated reforms seen as designed to salvage a fragile peace process with Kurdish insurgents, including changes to the electoral system and increasing language rights.
(Reuters, 9/30/13)
2013 Sep 30, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that his government would lift a ban on wearing headscarves in public institutions as part of reforms to boost rights.
(AFP, 9/30/13)
2013 Oct 8, Turkey lifted a 90-year-old ban on Islamic headscarves in the civil service as part of wide-ranging reforms driven by the Islamic-rooted government.
(AFP, 10/8/13)(SFC, 10/9/13, p.A2)
2013 Oct 9, Turkey’s Supreme Court upheld the convictions of 237 military officers accused of plotting to overthrow the government in 2003.
(SFC, 10/10/13, p.A4)
2013 Oct 15, Turkey for the first time fired four artillery rounds against a position near the town of Azaz, Syria, held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)," an Al-Qaeda affiliated group, in retaliation for a mortar round that fell on Turkish territory.
(AP, 10/17/13)
2013 Oct 28, Turkish police fired water cannon and teargas to break up a protest by around 2,000 people outside an Ankara court over the handling of the trial of a policeman accused of killing a demonstrator earlier this year. Officer Ahmet Sahbaz is accused of killing Ethem Sarisuluk, shot dead June 1 during a wave of nationwide anti-government demonstrations.
(Reuters, 10/28/13)
2013 Oct 29, Turkey opened its Marmaray tunnel, the world's first underwater rail link connecting Asia and Europe. The 8.5 mile tunnel allowed PM Tayyip Erdogan to realize a project dreamed up by Ottoman sultans more than a century ago.
(Reuters, 10/29/13)(SFC, 10/30/13, p.A3)
2013 Nov 5, The European Union resumed membership talks with Turkey. They were stalled for 3½ years mainly because of the country's ongoing dispute with Cyprus.
(AP, 11/5/13)
2013 Nov 7, Turkish riot police fired tear gas to disperse Kurdish protesters demonstrating against government plans to build a wall along part of the border with Syria.
(AP, 11/7/13)
2013 Nov 10, Turkey and Iraq pledged greater cooperation on trade and counter-terrorism while admitting to disagreements over Syria's war during a landmark visit to Baghdad by the Turkish foreign minister.
(AFP, 11/10/13)
2013 Nov 10, The main Western-backed Syrian opposition began the 2nd day of a two-day meeting in Istanbul to decide whether they will attend a proposed peace conference the US and Russia are trying to convene in Geneva by the end of this year.
(AP, 11/10/13)
2013 Nov 13, Turkey's parliament lifted a ban on women lawmakers wearing trousers in the assembly, in a further liberalization of dress rules following a landmark decision to allow female deputies to wear the Islamic headscarf.
(Reuters, 11/14/13)
2013 Nov 16, Masoud Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, called on Turkey's Kurds to back a flagging peace process with Ankara, making his first visit to southeastern Turkey in two decades in a show of support for PM Tayyip Erdogan.
(Reuters, 11/16/13)
2013 Nov 23, Egypt said it was expelling Turkey's ambassador and accused Ankara of backing organizations bent on spreading instability - an apparent reference to the Muslim Brotherhood of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Mursi.
(Reuters, 11/23/13)
2013 Nov 27, Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan signed a package of landmark contracts that will see the semi-autonomous region's oil and gas exported via pipelines through Turkey.
(Reuters, 11/29/13)
2013 Dec 2, Turkey said it stood by a bilateral oil deal with Iraq's Kurdistan region that bypassed central government but sought to appease Baghdad by drawing it into the arrangement.
(Reuters, 12/2/13)
2013 Dec 6, In southeastern Turkey two Kurdish protesters, aged 34 and 32, were shot dead in a violent confrontation with police. The clashes were sparked by claims that Kurdish rebel cemeteries had been destroyed.
(AFP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 9, Kurdish rebels freed four Turkish soldiers abducted in the southeast of the country in the worst flareup of violence since a fragile ceasefire nine months ago.
(AFP, 12/9/13)
2013 Dec 10, Officials in Istanbul, Turkey, said they plan to introduce floating car parks to try to resolve the chronic traffic problems. They will use out-of-service ferries anchored in the Bosphorus to create multi-storey lots near traffic hotspots.
(AFP, 12/10/13)
2013 Dec 16, Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News reported that Turkey has shipped 47 tons of weapons to Syrian rebels since June despite repeated government denials.
(AFP, 12/16/13)
2013 Dec 16, Turkey signed a long-awaited deal with the European Union to send back people who enter the bloc illegally from its territory in exchange for talks on visa-free travel for its citizens.
(AFP, 12/16/13)
2013 Dec 17, Turkish police detained the sons of three cabinet ministers and several well-known businessmen as part of investigations into alleged corruption. Police seized shoeboxes stashed with $4.5 million in cash at the home of Suleyman Aslan, a state-owned bank's chief executive. Police arrested some 50 people altogether on suspicion of tender rigging, covert gold transfers to Iran and bribery.
(Reuters, 12/17/13)(AP, 12/18/13)(Econ, 1/4/14, p.37)
2013 Dec 18, Turkey's PM Tayyip Erdogan denounced a corruption crackdown on his allies months ahead of elections as a "dirty operation" to smear his administration and undermine the country's progress.
(Reuters, 12/18/13)
2013 Dec 19, In Turkey Istanbul's most senior police official was dismissed, days after police launched raids that detained dozens of people.
(AP, 12/19/13)
2013 Dec 20, Turkey’s PM Tayyip Erdogan pressed a widening purge of the police command, tackling the biggest challenge of his rule from what he describes as a foreign-backed conspiracy to undermine him and create a state within a state.
(Reuters, 12/20/13)
2013 Dec 21, Turkey’s PM Tayyip Erdogan denounced "international groups" and "dark alliances" for entangling Turkey in a corruption scandal that has exposed deep rifts between him and Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Muslim cleric who helped him rise to power.
(Reuters, 12/21/13)
2013 Dec 22, Turkish media reported that authorities have removed another 25 police chiefs from their posts, widening a crackdown on the force since it launched a corruption investigation that PM Tayyip Erdogan has called a "dirty operation" against his rule. Turkey's interior minister said he has offered his resignation to PM Erdogan over a corruption scandal that has resulted in his son's arrest. Police in Istanbul clashed with protesters denouncing Erdogan's government over a corruption and bribery scandal targeting his allies.
(Reuters, 12/22/13)(AP, 12/22/13)
2013 Dec 24, Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul sought to salve furor over a high-level corruption case by assuring the public there would be no cover-up and that the courts were free to investigate.
(Reuters, 12/24/13)
2013 Dec 25, In Turkey three Cabinet ministers resigned, days after their sons were taken into custody in a sweeping corruption and bribery scandal that has targeted PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan's allies in one of the worst political crises of his more than 10 years in power.
(AP, 12/25/13)
2013 Dec 26, A Turkish prosecutor said he had been prevented from expanding a corruption investigation that has touched the heart of the government, alleging pressure on the judiciary.
(AFP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 27, In Turkey three lawmakers, including a former minister, resigned from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). A Turkish court blocked a government attempt to force police to disclose investigations to their superiors.
(AFP, 12/27/13)(Reuters, 12/27/13)
2013 Dec 31, In Turkey another lawmaker from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) announced his resignation amid a high-level bribery and corruption probe. Hasan Hami Yildirim had criticised the government forfor exerting pressure on the judiciary over the corruption.
(AFP, 12/31/13)
2013 Istanbul’s celebrated Haydarpasa railway station stopped seeing train traffic after being shut for restoration work and a major upgrade of Turkey's railway network.
(AFP, 2/15/18)
2014 Jan 3, A Turkish court ordered the release from jail of two Kurdish lawmakers being tried for links to militants in a potential boost to a fragile peace process. Turkish prosecutors said they have charged 36 protesters with terrorism over mass anti-government demonstrations that swept the country last year.
(Reuters, 1/3/14)(AFP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 4, A Turkish court ordered the release from jail of three Kurdish lawmakers, in addition to two freed a day earlier.
(Reuters, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 7, Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan's government purged hundreds of police officers overnight, as part of a crackdown on a rival he accuses of trying to usurp state power by tarring him with a specious corruption investigation. Despite the dismissals police and prosecutors continued arrests, targeting the state railway company and a western port. Police detained some 25 people in the city of Izmir for questioning over a new bribery and fraud investigation.
(Reuters, 1/7/14)(AP, 1/8/14)
2014 Jan 7, Turkey’s Anadolu state news said military prosecutors have dropped a case against five officers who were being investigated for negligence in the military air strike on Dec 11, 2011, that killed 34 smugglers mistaken for Kurdish rebels, saying there was no ground for any legal action.
(AP, 1/7/14)
2014 Jan 8, Turkey's deputy police chief was sacked overnight, the most senior commander yet targeted in a purge of a force heavily influenced by cleric Fethullah Gulen PM Tayyip Erdogan accuses of plotting to seize the levers of state power. The police chief of Izmir was among 16 senior police officials reassigned to new posts.
(Reuters, 1/8/14)(AP, 1/8/14)
2014 Jan 10, Turkey's top judicial body hit back at government's plans to curb its powers, adding fuel to a bitter row over a vast corruption probe engulfing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 1/10/14)
2014 Jan 11, Turkish politicians threw punches and water bottles during a debate about government control over the appointment of judges and prosecutors. Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Ankara in protest against PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government.
(Reuters, 1/11/14)(AFP, 1/11/14)
2014 Jan 14, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was ready to withdraw a contentious bill aimed at curbing the powers of the judiciary as he battled to contain the worst crisis of his 11 years in office.
(AFP, 1/14/14)
2014 Jan 14, Turkish anti-terrorism police carried out raids in six cities, detaining at least five people with alleged links to al-Qaida.
(AP, 1/14/14)
2014 Jan 15, Turkey's embattled Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared open war on what he labelled an "empire of fear" created by an Islamic rival at the heart of a deepening political crisis.
(AFP, 1/15/14)
2014 Jan 17, Turkish authorities seized the assets of the main opposition candidate for the post of Istanbul mayor in the run-up to local polls in March. Turkey's Savings Deposit Insurance Fund announced the decision after Mustafa Sarigul and nine other people failed to repay a loan worth $3.5 million (2.6 million euros) dating back to 1998.
(AFP, 1/18/14)
2014 Jan 18, In Turkey riot police in Istanbul used water canons against hundreds of people protesting a government plan to expand controls over the public’s use of the Internet.
(SSFC, 1/19/14, p.A6)
2014 Jan 18, State media said Turkey has extended a purge of official bodies to the banking and telecoms regulators and state TV, firing dozens of executives in moves that appear to broaden PM Tayyip Erdogan's backlash against a corruption investigation.
(Reuters, 1/18/14)
2014 Jan 23, In central Turkey at least 21 people were killed when a bus tipped over on an icy road.
(AFP, 1/23/14)
2014 Jan 28, Turkey's central bank hiked all of its key interest rates in dramatic fashion at an emergency midnight policy meeting, ignoring opposition from PM Tayyip Erdogan as it battles to defend the country's crumbling lira currency. The key rate rose from 4.5% to 10%.
(Reuters, 1/28/14)(Econ, 2/1/14, p.59)
2014 Jan 29, Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Iran to bolster trade and energy relations.
(Reuters, 1/29/14)
2014 Jan 30, In Turkey hundreds of police were transferred from their posts in Ankara and Izmir, and dozens more were affected in Istanbul and the southeastern city of Gaziantep. Altogether, more than 5,000 police officers have been dismissed or transferred since the graft inquiry became public on December 17 with the arrest of businessmen close to PM Tayyip Erdogan and three cabinet ministers' sons.
(Reuters, 1/31/14)
2014 Feb 3, Haaretz newspaper said Israel has offered Turkey $20 million in compensation to the families of those killed and wounded in its botched 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla.
(AFP, 2/3/14)
2014 Feb 5, Turkey's parliament approved internet controls enabling web pages to be blocked within hours in what the opposition decried as part of a government bid to stifle a corruption scandal.
(Reuters, 2/6/14)
2014 Feb 7, Turkish newspaper Today's Zaman said one of its journalists, Mahir Zeynalov (27) from Azerbaijan, has been ordered to leave the country for criticizing PM Tayyip Erdogan on Twitter.
(Reuters, 2/7/14)
2014 Feb 15, Turkey's parliament approved a law boosting government control over the appointment of judges and prosecutors, after a heated debate and a brawl that left one opposition lawmaker hospitalized.
(Reuters, 2/15/14)
2014 Feb 15, In Turkey thousands of Kurds demonstrated in towns across the south east, some clashing violently with riot police as they called for the release of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan on the 15th anniversary of his capture.
(Reuters, 2/15/14)
2014 Feb 22, Turkey's interior ministry said 1,000 police officers have been removed in the wake of a major corruption probe against key government allies but said these were only "routine" re-assignments.
(AFP, 2/22/14)
2014 Feb 24, A taped conversation of Turkey’s PM Erdogan speaking with his younger son Bilal was posted on You Tube. It dated to Dec 17 when police raided the homes of several members of Erdogan’s cabinet and business allies as part of a corruption probe.
(Econ, 3/1/14, p.53)
2014 Feb 25, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned leaked recordings of him and his son allegedly discussing how to hide large sums of money as a "vile attack" by rivals, as calls mounted for his beleaguered government to resign. Riot police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse several hundred people protesting against the government at an Ankara university.
(AFP, 2/25/14)(Reuters, 2/25/14)
2014 Feb 26, Turkey's president approved a controversial bill limiting the independence of the judiciary — a law that is widely interpreted as a government response to corruption allegations brought by prosecutors that have recently implicated PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Parliament approved a watered-down version of a new Internet law that would give Turkey's telecommunications authority the power to shut down websites for privacy violations, although it would have to obtain court approval within 24 hours.
(AP, 2/26/14)
2014 Feb 28, Turkey's state-run news agency said five remaining suspects jailed in a vast corruption investigation have been released on parole pending trial. Turkey's main opposition party asked the top court to overturn a law tightening government control of the judiciary, which it sees as a bid by PM Tayyip Erdogan to snuff out a corruption scandal.
(AP, 2/28/14)(Reuters, 2/28/14)
2014 Feb 28, Turkey's parliament passed legislation to shut down private preparatory schools many of which are an important source of income and influence for an Islamic cleric PM Tayyip Erdogan accuses of running a covert campaign to topple him. Lawmakers set a deadline of September 1, 2015, to close the schools.
(Reuters, 3/1/14)
2014 Feb 28, In southeastern Turkey suspected PKK gunmen abducted Abdurrahman Ecer (50), the top elected official of Cigli village.
(Reuters, 3/2/14)
2014 Mar 5, Turkey’s PM Erdogan confirmed the authenticity of a tape asking his then-justice minister Sadullah Ergin to pressure a court into convicting media mogul Aydin Dogan, a long-time foe. The tape included a slight to the country’s large Alevi community. The tape followed the publication last month in local daily Taraf of internal government documents that appeared to show anti-Alevi discrimination in the recruitment process for civil servants.
(AFP, 3/7/14)
2014 Mar 7, A Turkish court ordered the release of former army chief Ilker Basbug from a life sentence.
(Reuters, 3/7/14)
2014 Mar 11, In Turkey police and protesters clashed in Ankara and Istanbul following the death of Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old boy who suffered a head injury during anti-government demonstrations last summer. Elvan was the sixth person to die in violence surrounding nationwide protests in late May and June over Erdogan's plans to tear down a park in central Istanbul. In 2021 police Officer Fatih Dalgali was sentenced to 16 years and 8 months in prison for Elvan's murder.
(Reuters, 3/11/14)(AP, 6/18/21)
2014 Mar 12, In Turkey tens of thousands of mourners chanting anti-government slogans marched through central Istanbul for the funeral of a teenager wounded in street protests last summer whose death has sparked renewed unrest across Turkey. Police clashed with protesters in at least 11 cities and at least two people were killed.
(Reuters, 3/12/14)(SFC, 3/12/14, p.A2)(AFP, 3/13/14)
2014 Mar 13, Thai authorities detained 220 suspected Turkish migrants hiding in a secluded camp in the deep south and believed to be victims of a trafficking ring.
(AP, 3/13/14)
2014 Mar 19, In Turkey Veysi Erim, a worker at a statistics office in the eastern province of Kars, shot dead six people before committing suicide.
(Reuters, 3/19/14)
2014 Mar 20, Turkey’s PM Tayyip Erdogan's defiantly vowed, on the campaign trail ahead of March 30 local polls, to "wipe out" Twitter, whatever the international community had to say about it.
(Reuters, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 21, Turkey blocked access to Twitter after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to "rip out the roots" of the social network where links have proliferated to recordings that appear to incriminate him and other top officials in corruption.
(AP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 22, Turkish authorities sought to tighten a clampdown on Twitter after social media users easily evaded the government's attempt to block access to the service.
(AP, 3/22/14)
2014 Mar 23, Turkish fighter jets shot down a Syrian warplane after it violated Turkey's airspace. The pilot safely ejected from the aircraft.
(AP, 3/23/14)
2014 Mar 25, Turkish special forces raided buildings in Istanbul used by suspected members of an Islamist militant group active in neighboring Syria and Iraq, leaving three policemen and two suspects wounded.
(Reuters, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, A Turkish court ordered the telecommunications authority to restore access to Twitter, issuing an injunction five days after the government blocked access to the social network.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 27, In Turkey KanalTurk television station, linked to opponents of PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said authorities have withdrawn its license to broadcast nationally just days before crucial local elections.
(AP, 3/27/14)
2014 Mar 27, Israel said it will allow into the Gaza Strip construction materials and electric equipment to help build a Turkish-sponsored hospital, in a possible sign of improving ties with Ankara.
(Reuters, 3/27/14)
2014 Mar 30, In Turkey violent feuds broke out in local elections for village and neighborhood leaders, leaving 6 people dead in the village of Yuvacik, Sanliurfa province, and 2 dead in the southern city of Hatay. PM Erdogan’s AK Party led the polls with 46%, retaining control of the two biggest cities Istanbul and Ankara and increasing its share of the national vote.
(AP, 3/30/14)(Reuters, 3/31/14)(SSFC, 4/6/14, p.A4)
2014 Apr 1, In Turkey riot police fired water cannon in Ankara to disperse thousands of people protesting outside the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) against local election results which saw the ruling party dominate the electoral map. Election results in Ankara were particularly close.
(Reuters, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 3, Turkey's telecoms authority lifted a two-week-old ban on Twitter, after the constitutional court ruled the block breached freedom of expression.
(Reuters, 4/3/14)
2014 Apr 4, A Turkish court ruled that a blanket ban of social-media website YouTube violated human rights and ordered most of the restrictions be lifted, citing a top court ruling this week that scrapped a similar ban on microblogging site Twitter. But the court soon reversed the YouTube decision, saying the block would remain in place until the audio recordings allegedly showing top-level security talks on Syria are removed.
(Reuters, 4/4/14)(AFP, 4/5/14)
2014 Apr 9, Kuwait said three of its citizens have been kidnapped in Syria and it has asked Turkey for help in trying to secure their release. Kidnappers asked for a ransom of 1 million euros ($1.38 million).
(Reuters, 4/10/14)
2014 Apr 10, Turkey’s government said a charity at which PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan's son sits on the board received more than $100 million of aid over a four-year period. The government sought parliamentary approval to boost the powers of the secret service, a move seen by PM Erdogan's critics as a bid to tighten his grip on the apparatus of state as he wages a bitter power struggle.
(AFP, 4/10/14)(Reuters, 4/10/14)
2014 Apr 11, Turkey's constitutional court dealt another blow to PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan by annulling sections of a controversial law tightening the government's control over the judiciary.
(AFP, 4/11/14)
2014 Apr 11, Turkey condemned a US Senate committee resolution branding the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces during World War One as genocide and warned Congress against taking steps that would harm Turkish-American ties.
(Reuters, 4/11/14)
2014 Apr 12, Turkey's PM Erdogan said he will "go after" Twitter, accusing the site of tax-evasion, after it was used to spread damaging leaks implicating his inner circle in corruption scandals.
(AFP, 4/12/14)
2014 Apr 21, Turkey's energy minister said an oil pipeline carrying crude from Iraq's Kirkuk oil fields to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan is unusable because of persistent militant attacks.
(Reuters, 4/21/14)
2014 Apr 22, Turkey’s PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said number of Syrian refugees in Turkey has reached "almost one million," while pledging to keep accepting those fleeing the war.
(AFP, 4/22/14)
2014 Apr 23, Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan offered what the government said were unprecedented condolences on Wednesday to the grandchildren of Armenians killed in World War One by Ottoman soldiers on the eve of the 99th anniversary of the deeply contested deaths.
(Reuters, 4/23/14)
2014 Apr 26, Turkish President Abdullah Gul approved a controversial law expanding the powers of the spy agency, a move critics say will tighten the graft-tainted government's control over state institutions.
(AFP, 4/26/14)
2014 Apr 29, Turkey’s PM Tayyip Erdogan said he would ask the United States to extradite Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom he accuses of plotting to topple him and undermine Turkey with concocted graft accusations and secret wire taps. Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1997.
(Reuters, 4/29/14)
2014 Apr, Germany’s Pres. Joachim Gauck visited Turkey and criticized the erosion of civil liberties there.
(Econ, 5/24/14, p.45)
2014 May 1, Turkish police fired tear gas, water cannon and rubber pellets to stop May Day protesters, some armed with fire bombs, from defying PM Tayyip Erdogan and reaching Istanbul's central Taksim square.
(Reuters, 5/1/14)
2014 May 2, Turkish media said prosecutors have dismissed a case against 60 suspects, among them a former minister's son and a construction tycoon, in the graft scandal swirling around PM Tayyip Erdogan's inner circle.
(Reuters, 5/2/14)
2014 May 12, The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered Turkey to pay 90 million euros ($124 million) in damages for its 1974 invasion of Cyprus, the largest such ruling in its history. Turkish officials the next day said that the country will not pay the fine.
(CSM, 5/13/14)
2014 May 13, In western Turkey at least 282 people were killed underground after an explosion and fire at the Soma coal mine in Manisa province. The death toll soon rose to 302, making it the worst industrial accident in Turkish history.
(AP, 5/13/14)(Reuters, 5/14/14)(Reuters, 5/17/14)(Econ, 11/29/14, p.49)
2014 May 16, Turkish police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse a crowd of several thousand protesters in the town of Soma, where 301 people died in the country's worst ever mining disaster this week.
(Reuters, 5/16/14)
2014 May 18, Turkish police detained 24 people, including mining company executives and personnel, as an investigation into last week's mine disaster in Soma got underway. The last of 301 victims were buried.
(Reuters, 5/18/14)(SSFC, 5/25/14, p.A6)
2014 May 22, In Turkey violence erupted when police fired live ammunition as well as tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who denounced the death of a teenage boy who fell into a coma during anti-government unrest last year. At least one person was killed by gunshot and another died of wounds from a grenade explosion.
(AFP, 5/23/14)
2014 May 23, Iraq took legal action against Turkey after Ankara announced that oil from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region was being exported to international markets.
(AFP, 5/23/14)
2014 May 24, A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck northern Greece and western Turkey. Over 250 people were reported injured.
(SSFC, 5/25/14, p.A4)
2014 May 26, A Turkish court ordered the arrests of four former Israeli military commanders being tried in absentia over the killing of 9 people aboard a Turkish aid ship that tried to break a Gaza blockade on May 31, 2010.
(AP, 5/26/14)
2014 May 27, In Somalia a Turkish man, Saadettin Dogan, was shot dead in Mogadishu when gunmen attacked the car he was traveling in with a senior manager from Turkish Airlines.
(Reuters, 5/27/14)
2014 May 28, In southeast Turkey Kurdish guerrillas shot dead a state-sponsored militia member in the southeastern province of Mardin.
(Reuters, 5/29/14)
2014 May 31, Turkish police shut Gezi Park, the Istanbul square at the center of mass demonstrations in 2013, to prevent any efforts to mark the anniversary of the biggest anti-government protests in decades.
(Reuters, 5/31/14)
2014 Jun 7, In Turkey 2 people were killed in southeast Diyarbakir province as Kurdish protesters, demonstrating against the construction of new military outposts, threw petrol bombs at security forces who then opened fire.
(Reuters, 6/8/14)
2014 Jun 9, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani met with Turkish officials, including PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the first official Iranian presidential visit to Turkey since 1996.
(AP, 6/9/14)
2014 Jun 10, In Iraq ISIL militants seized 48 Turks from the Turkish consulate in Mosul, including the consul-general, three children and several members of Turkey's special forces. ISIL, numbering some 7-10 thousand fighters, was led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
(Reuters, 6/11/14)(SFC, 6/12/14, p.A8)(Econ, 8/2/14, p.41)
2014 Jun 14, Turkey said it has temporarily pulled its diplomatic staff out of the Libyan city of Benghazi and urged its nationals to leave the east of the country amid mounting security concerns.
(AP, 6/14/14)
2014 Jun 18, A Turkish court convicted the only two surviving leaders of the country's 1980 military coup of crimes against the state and sentenced them to life imprisonment. Kenan Evren (96), the military chief of staff who led the takeover and went on to serve as president until 1989, and Tahsin Sahinkaya (89), a former air force chief, had been on trial since 2012.
(AP, 6/18/14)(Econ, 6/28/14, p.45)
2014 Jun 18, A criminal court in Istanbul ordered the release of 230 military officers convicted of plotting to topple PM Tayyip Erdogan, a day after the country's top court ruled their trial was flawed. A retrial was ordered.
(Reuters, 6/19/14)(Econ, 6/28/14, p.45)
2014 Jun 18, The Indian government said 40 Indian construction workers have been seized near Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, which ISIL and allied Sunni fighters captured last week. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said its diplomats were investigating a Turkish media report that militants grabbed 60 foreign construction workers, including some 15 Turks, near the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 6/18/14)
2014 Jul 1, Turkey's ruling party nominated PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan to run in Turkey's first directly elected presidential race in August, announcing his candidacy to thousands of cheering supporters.
(AP, 7/1/14)
2014 Jul 3, The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant marched across eastern Syria near the border with Iraq, seizing towns, villages and the country's largest oil field as rival rebel factions gave up the fight. ISIL released 32 Turkish truck drivers who they captured during a lightning offensive across northern and western Iraq last month.
(AP, 7/3/14)
2014 Jul 5, Turkish media said Kurdish rebels will begin a stalled withdrawal from Turkey into their safe haven in northern Iraq after parliament passes reforms aimed at ending a decades-long insurgency.
(AFP, 7/5/14)
2014 Jul 21, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he has stopped talking to US President Barack Obama on the phone, amid growing strains between Ankara and Washington over Syria and the Gaza conflict.
(AFP, 7/22/14)
2014 Jul 22, Turkish authorities arrested dozens of senior police officers in a criminal probe over alleged illegal wire-tapping and forgery, the latest crackdown on opponents of PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of presidential polls.
(AFP, 7/22/14)
2014 Jul 25, Turkey inaugurated a high-speed rail service linking the capital Ankara to Istanbul which will cut travel time between the country's main two cities by half.
(AP, 7/25/14)
2014 Jul 26, A Turkish court ordered the formal arrest of 12 more police officers, including the former head of Istanbul's intelligence unit, pending charges they may have illegally wiretapped PM Tayyip Erdogan.
(Reuters, 7/26/14)
2014 Aug 5, In Turkey dozens of police officers were detained in a widening probe of wiretapping allegedly targeting PM Tayyip Erdogan.
(Reuters, 8/5/14)
2014 Aug 7, Turkish officials said up to 800 people from Iraq's Yazidi community have fled across the border to Turkey after escaping a lightning offensive by jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group.
(AFP, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan branded Amberin Zaman, a prominent female journalist, a "shameless woman" and told her "to know your place".
(AFP, 8/8/14)
2014 Aug 10, Turkey held presidential elections. PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan became Turkey’s first elected president and extended his domination despite warnings by opponents that the country is moving towards a one-man autocracy. Erdogan received 52% of the vote marking his 9th electoral victory during 12 years of power.
(AFP, 8/10/14)(AFP, 8/11/14)(Econ, 8/16/14, p.42)(Econ, 9/13/14, p.61)
2014 Aug 12, In northern Turkey a coal mine collapse trapped up to nine people inside.
(AP, 8/12/14)
2014 Aug 19, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said that Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is set to take over from Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the country's next prime minister.
(AFP, 8/19/14)
2014 Aug 24, In southeast Turkey Kurdish rebels abducted three Chinese workers and attacked a thermal power plant where they worked. They were seized while grocery shopping near the town Silopi and security forces soon launched an operation to rescue them.
(AP, 8/26/14)
2014 Aug 25, In Turkey hundreds of residents angered by the presence of Syrian refugees clashed with police in a violent protest in the Ikitelli district of Istanbul. Syrian refugees in Turkey have now swelled to 1.2 million.
(AFP, 8/25/14)
2014 Aug 28, Turkey's new Pres. Recep Erdogan took the oath of office. New PM Ahmet Davutoglu reappointed all key ministers who served under Erdogan, setting a course of continuity for the new government.
(AP, 8/29/14)(SFC, 8/29/14, p.A2)
2014 Sep 1, Turkish authorities detained at least 20 police officers in new nationwide raids over an alleged plot to overthrow the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Istanbul prosecutors announced they were dropping all legal proceedings against 96 people probed as a result of the corruption allegations, including Erdogan's son Bilal. Turkey's top judge issued a thinly-veiled warning to Erdogan to refrain from interfering in the judiciary.
(AFP, 9/2/14)
2014 Sep 3, Turkish policeman Ahmet Sahbaz was jailed for seven years and nine months after being convicted of shooting dead protester Ethem Sarisuluk (26), during 2013 anti-government protests. The court had agreed he was provoked by the protesters.
(AFP, 9/3/14)
2014 Sep 4, In Turkey Gaziantep province governor Erdal Ata said 19 militants affiliated with the Islamic State have been arrested. Ata also said police had caught suspected IS-linked jihadists coming from Europe or Caucasus, carrying backpacks, at the Gaziantep airport or at the border.
(AFP, 9/4/14)
2014 Sep 10, Turkey’s parliament approved legislation to tighten the government’s control over the Internet.
(Econ, 9/13/14, p.61)
2014 Sep 11, Turkey refused to sign the “Jeddah Communique," in which various Arab nations promised to back America’s military action against the Islamic State. On Sep 23 Pres. Erdogan said his country was ready to give necessary support to attacks on the IS.
(Econ, 9/27/14, p.24)
2014 Sep 18, Turkish PKK rebels, who have spent three decades fighting for autonomy for Turkey's Kurds, called for the youth of the country's mostly Kurdish southeast to join the fight against Islamic State militants in northern Syria.
(Reuters, 9/18/14)
2014 Sep 19, Turkey reopened its border with Syria to Kurds fleeing Islamic State (IS) militants, saying a "worst-case scenario" could drive as many as 100,000 more refugees into the country.
(AFP, 9/19/14)
2014 Sep 20, Turkish intelligence agents brought 46 hostages, seized by Islamic State militants in Mosul on June 11, back to Turkey after more than three months in captivity.
(Reuters, 9/20/14)
2014 Sep 20, In northern Syria the Islamic State executed at least 11 civilians, including at least two boys. It has seized at least 64 villages around Kobani since Sep 16, using heavy arms and thousands of fighters. At least 300 Kurdish fighters crossed from Turkey into Syria overnight to battle jihadists from the Islamic State group trying to seize Kobani, a strategic border town.
(AFP, 9/20/14)(Reuters, 9/21/14)
2014 Sep 21, Kurdish militants in Turkey issued a new call to arms to defend the border town of Kobani, Syria, from advancing Islamic State fighters. Turkish authorities and the UN prepared for a surge in refugees. Clashes overnight reportedly killed 10 insurgents, bringing the number of IS fighters killed to at least 39. At least 27 Kurdish fighters have died.
(Reuters, 9/21/14)
2014 Sep 22, Syrian Kurds battled to defend Kobani, a key border town from an Islamic State advance, as Kurdish youths from neighboring Turkey rushed to their aid, heightening the pressure on Ankara to act against the Islamist insurgents.
(Reuters, 9/22/14)
2014 Sep 26, Islamic State fighters tightened their siege of the strategic town of Kobani on Syria's border with Turkey, pushing back Kurdish forces and sending at least two shells into Turkish territory.
(Reuters, 9/26/14)
2014 Sep 27, Three Turkish police were killed after an ambush in the overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast, in an attack claimed by armed Kurdish militants despite a one-and-a-half-year ceasefire.
(AFP, 9/27/14)
2014 Sep 29, Turkish tanks and armored vehicles took up positions on a hill overlooking the besieged Syrian border town of Kobani as shelling by Islamic State insurgents intensified and stray fire hit Turkish soil.
(Reuters, 9/29/14)
2014 Oct 1, Turkish Pres. Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will fight against Islamic State and other "terrorist" groups in the region but will stick to its aim of seeing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad removed from power.
(Reuters, 10/1/14)
2014 Oct 2, The Turkish government won parliamentary approval to deploy troops against the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 10/3/14)
2014 Oct 7, Turkey's president said Kobani was "about to fall" after Islamic State fighters advanced into the south west of the Syrian Kurdish town, pressing home a three-week assault has cost a reported 412 lives. More than 2,000 Syrian Kurds including women and children were evacuated from the town after the latest fighting.
(Reuters, 10/7/14)
2014 Oct 7, In Turkey Kurdish protesters clashed with police. 20 protesters were killed in the clashes, mostly between sympathizers of rival Kurdish groups. Kurdish protesters also forced their way into the European Parliament in Brussels, part of Europe-wide demonstrations against the Islamic State group's advance on a town on the Syrian-Turkish border.
(AP, 10/7/14)(Econ, 10/11/14, p.59)
2014 Oct 7, Cyprus' president suspended talks on reunifying the ethnically divided island in response to Turkey's plans to search for oil and gas in waters where the Cypriot government has already licensed Italy's Eni and South Korea's Kogas to drill.
(AP, 10/7/14)
2014 Oct 8, In southeast Turkey at least 21 people were killed in riots, the deadliest street unrest in years, after the Kurdish minority rose up in fury at the government's refusal to protect a besieged Syrian town from Islamic State. US-led air strikes appeared to have pushed Islamic State fighters back to the edges of Kobani.
(Reuters, 10/8/14)(Reuters, 10/9/14)
2014 Oct 9, Islamic State fighters seized more than a third of the Syrian border town of Kobani, as US-led air strikes failed to halt their advance and Turkish forces nearby looked on without intervening. Two police officers were shot dead in an apparent attempt to assassinate a police chief in Turkey’s eastern province of Bingol. Four of the alleged attackers were later killed and two more caught after a shootout with security forces. In Gaziantep province 4 people killed and 20 wounded as armed clashes broke out overnight between protesters calling for solidarity with Kobani.
(Reuters, 10/9/14)(Reuters, 10/10/14)
2014 Oct 10, In Syria militants fought deeper into the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani in full view of Turkish tanks that have done nothing to intervene. At least 31 people have been killed in three days of riots and street violence across Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 10/10/14)
2014 Oct 11, Kurdish forces defending Kobani urged a US-led coalition to escalate air strikes on Islamic State fighters who controlled more than a third of the Syrian town at the border with Turkey. 36 jihadi fighters were reportedly killed in Kobani.
(Reuters, 10/11/14)(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 12, US Defense officials said Turkey will allow American and coalition troops to use its bases against Islamic State militants in Syria.
(SFC, 10/13/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 13, Turkish air force bombed Kurdish fighters furious over Ankara's refusal to help protect their kin in Syria. Bombs on PKK targets after they reportedly attacked a military outpost in the Daglica region.
(Reuters, 10/14/14)
2014 Oct 13, Kurdish fighters engaged in fierce clashes with jihadists on the Turkish border near Kobane, as Ankara denied allowing Washington to use its bases against the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 17, Prosecutors in Istanbul ruled that there were no grounds for legal action against 53 suspects, including the sons of two former government ministers and a prominent Iranian businessman, who were suspected of bribery and corruption in a case that shook the country in December.
(AP, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 18, Afghanistan’s leadership greeted the arrival of Turkish Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Pres. Ashraf Ghani and Erdogan signed an agreement on closer bilateral relationship between the two countries.
(AFP, 10/19/14)
2014 Oct 18, In Syria US-led coalition jets pounded suspected Islamic State targets at least six times in Kobani after the fiercest shelling in days by the insurgents shook the town's center and hit border areas within Turkey. Syrian government forces shelled neighborhoods in Damascus, the southern province of Deraa and the central province of Homs. Islamic State militants fired 44 mortars at Kurdish parts of Kobani. Two Islamic State car bombs hit Kurdish positions leading to casualties.
(Reuters, 10/18/14)(AP, 10/19/14)
2014 Oct 20, Turkey said it would allow Iraqi Kurdish fighters to reinforce fellow Kurds in the Syrian town of Kobani, while the US air-dropped arms for the first time to help the defenders resist an Islamic State assault. At least one cache of the US airdropped weapons were seized by Islamioc State fighters.
(Reuters, 10/20/14)(SFC, 10/22/14, p.A4)
2014 Oct 22, In southeastern Turkey suspected Kurdish militants kidnapped 10 power company workers. A politician from a Kurdish Islamist party was shot dead in the eastern city of Bingol.
(Reuters, 10/22/14)
2014 Oct 23, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that 200 Iraqi Kurd peshmerga fighters would travel through Turkey to join the battle in Kobane, where about 1,000 IS militants are believed to be fighting. US-led air strikes in Syria were reported to have killed more than 521 jihadists and 32 civilians over the last month.
(AFP, 10/23/14)(Reuters, 10/23/14)
2014 Oct 24, Turkey's president said that Ankara would allow hundreds of Syrian rebels to travel to the embattled border town of Kobani in order to help Kurdish fighters there fend off an Islamic State onslaught. During a state visit in Estonia, Erdogan said the Western-backed Free Syrian Army would send 1,300 fighters to the Syrian town. A spokesman for the Western-backed Syrian opposition in exile, Kenan Mohammed, said there were no plans to send fighters to Kobani.
(AP, 10/24/14)
2014 Oct 24, Turkey’s soldiers shot dead 3 PKK guerrillas after fighters from the outlawed group set fire to two vehicles and a power plant in the eastern province of Kars and shot at soldiers who returned fire.
(Reuters, 10/25/14)
2014 Oct 25, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants killed 3 Turkish soldiers.
(Reuters, 10/25/14)
2014 Oct 28, In southern Turkey a coal mine collapsed, trapping 18 workers underground at the Has Sekerler mine near the town of Ermenek in Karaman province. The bodies of the last 5 miners were recovered on Dec 4.
(AP, 10/28/14)(AP, 12/4/14)
2014 Oct 29, Iraqi peshmerga fighters arrived in southeastern Turkey en route for the Syrian town of Kobani to try to help fellow Kurds break an Islamic State siege. The US military conducted 14 air strikes over the last 2 days against the IS in Syria and Iraq. Eight of the strikes were near Kobani.
(Reuters, 10/29/14)
2014 Oct 31, In Syria US-led air strikes hit Islamic State positions around the border town of Kobani in an apparent bid to pave the way for heavily-armed Kurdish peshmerga forces to enter from neighboring Turkey.
(Reuters, 10/31/14)
2014 Nov 3, Turkish rescuers pulled 24 bodies from the sea at the mouth of Istanbul's Bosphorus strait and rescued seven people after the sinking of a boat carrying migrants including children. The capsized boat was loaded with 42 illegal migrants from Afghan and Syria.
(Reuters, 11/3/14)(SFC, 11/4/14, p.A2)
2014 Nov 4, Turkish politician Ahmet Karatas, a member of the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), was stabbed repeatedly in the capital Ankara, in an attack that his pro-Kurdish party blamed on a government-led 'lynch campaign' against it.
(Reuters, 11/4/14)
2014 Nov 12, Turkey's national election board said it has penalized the state-run broadcaster for favoring President Tayyip Erdogan in its coverage of the country's first popular vote for head of state.
(Reuters, 11/12/14)
2014 Nov 12, Members of the nationalist Turkish Youth Union attacked three US sailors on a crowded street in Istanbul, shouting "Yankee go home", throwing paint and trying to pull hoods over their heads. Twelve people were detained but released by an Istanbul court the next day.
(Reuters, 11/14/14)
2014 Nov 13, Turkey said it will issue work permits for some of the 1.5 million Syrian war refugees it is hosting, dismissing fears it would harm local workers.
(AFP, 11/13/14)
2014 Nov 15, Turkish media reported that Turkey and the United States have agreed a plan under which some 2,000 fighters from the moderate Syrian opposition would be trained on Turkish soil.
(AFP, 11/15/14)
2014 Nov 20, Iraq PM Haider al-Abadi said that Iraq and Turkey have agred on closer security and intelligence cooperation in the face of threats posed by the Islamic State group.
(SFC, 11/21/14, p.A4)
2014 Nov 21, In Turkey Marko Ivkovic (25), a Serbian basketball fan, was killed before a Euroleague basketball match between Turkish team Galatasaray and Serbia's Red Star in Istanbul. On Nov 26 Istanbul police arrested a Turkish man for the stabbing death.
(AP, 11/28/14)
2014 Nov 24, Turkey’s Pres. Erdogan set off a new controversy, declaring that women are not equal to men and accusing feminists of not understanding the special status that Islam attributes to mothers.
(AP, 11/24/14)
2014 Nov 28, Pope Francis arrived in Turkey to encourage Muslim leaders to take a stronger stand against extremists who twist religion to justify terrorism. He condemned the Islamic State group's assault on Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria.
(AP, 11/28/14)
2014 Nov 29, The Islamic State group launched an attack on the Syrian border town of Kobani. The latest fighting killed at least 8 Kurdish fighters and 17 jihadis. The US-led coalition launched an airstrike morning on the eastern side of the town. Turkey denied that IS fighters had used its territory for the raid.
(AP, 11/29/14)
2014 Dec 3, Human Rights Watch urged Turkey to remove from its border with Syria landmines which have killed 3 people and wounded nine among more than 2,000 Syrian refugees camped in a minefield.
(Reuters, 12/3/14)
2014 Dec 4, Kurdish sources said a second group of 150 Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces has entered the Syrian border town of Kobani from Turkey to replace a first group helping Kurdish forces fight off a siege by Islamic State militants.
(Reuters, 12/4/14)
2014 Dec 6, The leaders of Greece and Turkey glossed over key differences between the nations and expressed support for close affairs between the often irritable neighbors.
(http://tinyurl.com/nbyw5o6)
2014 Dec 13, Mehmet Gormez, the head of Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate, came under fire over reports that a luxury Mercedes had been purchased at public expense to serve as his official car. This came amid ongoing controversy over President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's new presidential palace, a 1,150-room complex in Ankara that cost taxpayers $615 million.
(AFP, 12/13/14)(Econ, 2/6/15, SR p.4)
2014 Dec 14, Turkish police arrested Ekrem Dumanli, the editor of the country's biggest selling newspaper (Zaman), and at least two dozen other media figures in a new crackdown on supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's exiled rival, Fethullah Gulen.
(AFP, 12/14/14)
2014 Dec 16, In Turkey dozens of football fans who took part in last year's mass anti-government protests went on trial accused of an attempted coup.
(AP, 12/16/14)
2014 Dec 17, German prosecutors arrested three Turkish men accused of spying on compatriots in Germany for Turkish intelligence.
(AP, 12/18/14)
2014 Dec 17, The UN Security Council renewed for 12 months its authorization for humanitarian access without Syrian government consent into rebel-held areas of Syria at four border crossings from Turkey, Iraq and Jordan.
(Reuters, 12/17/14)
2014 Dec 19, A Turkish court kept Hidayet Karaca, head of Samanyolu Television, and three other people in custody pending trial on accusations of belonging to a terrorist group.
(Reuters, 12/19/14)
2014 Dec 24, In Turkey a 16-year-old high school student was arrested in in the central Anatolian city of Konya for "insulting" President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by accusing him and his ruling party of corruption. Mehmet Emin Altunses was released on Dec 26 following a complaint by his lawyer, but he still faced trial in the future.
(AFP, 12/25/14)(AFP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 25, Turkish media reported that Mustafa Ali Tonbul (17), who survived a severe head injury from police in last year's anti-government protests, has been sentenced to more than three months in jail.
(AFP, 12/25/14)
2014 Dec 27, In Turkey 3 people, including a teenager (15), died and three others were wounded in clashes between Islamists and Kurdish youths in the southeastern town of Cizre.
(Reuters, 12/27/14)(Reuters, 12/28/14)
2014 Dec 28, The Turkish ship Gokbel with 11 crew members sank after the collision with the Belize flagged Lady Aziza in poor visibility a mile from the Italian Adriatic port of Ravenna. Two people drowned and four were missing at sea and feared dead.
(Reuters, 12/28/14)
2014 Dec, Turkey’s government officially declared Fethullah Gulen (74), a Pennsylvania based Muslim cleric, to be the head of a terrorist organization bent on establishing a “parallel state."
(Econ, 2/6/15, SR p.8)
2014 Charles King authored “Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul."
(Econ, 9/13/14, p.90)
2014 Turkish TV producers created the 15-part drama “Dragunov," named after a Soviet-made sniper rifle. They reportedly hoped it would act as a balm for Libya’s soul as it struggles in the aftermath of Qaddafi’s rule.
(Econ, 7/19/14, p.42)
2014 Turkish proverb: He who holds the money is bound to lick his fingers.
(Econ, 7/12/14, p.55)
2015 Jan 1, In Turkey a man carrying an automatic weapon was detained near the historic Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul after he threw a grenade at police. The Turkish far-left group DHKP-C soon claimed responsibility for the grenade attack.
(Reuters, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, In Turkey the main Western-backed Syrian opposition group opened a three-day meeting to discuss a range of issues, including a Russian initiative to hold peace talks in Moscow to broker a resolution to Syria's civil war.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 5, Police in Turkey detained 20 more police officers suspected of conducting illegal wiretaps in a new wave of raids in twelve cities.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 6, In Turkey a female suicide bomber entered a police station and blew herself up in Istanbul's historic Sultanahmet district, killing one officer and wounding another. The leftist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, said it carried out the attack.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 9, In Turkey security forces detained 13 foreigners and a Turkish citizen attempting to cross into Syria from a village in the southeastern province of Gaziantep to join the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.
(AFP, 2/11/15)
2015 Jan 14, A Turkish court ordered the telecommunications authority to ban access to websites showing Charlie Hebdo's front cover with the image of the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, In Turkey, a child (12) was allegedly shot and killed by security forces in the old southeastern Kurdish settlement of Cizre. 17 locals have been reportedly killed in fighting jihadists across the border in the Syrian town of Kobane.
(Econ, 2/14/15, p.46)
2015 Jan 17, A Turkish intelligence report said around 3,000 people in Turkey are believed to be linked to the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.
(AFP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 21, A Turkish court sentenced two police officers to 10 years in prison each for their involvement in the beating death of student Ali Ismail Korkmaz (19) during anti-government protests in 2013. Four other civilian defendants were sentenced to up to six years. The victim's supporters said the verdict was too lenient and staged immediate protests outside and inside the courthouse.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 24, In southeast Turkey some 70,000 Kurds staged a protest in Diyarbakir against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo's cartoon portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed.
(AFP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 28, Turkey informed US officials that it was revoking the passport of Fethullah Gulen because it was issued based on a "false statement". Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 2, In Turkey at least 8 people were killed and many more rescued from high winds and flooding caused by a huge storm, a southwesterly known locally as a Lodos.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 8, A Turkish court ordered the arrest of 21 police officers as part of an investigation into the illegal wiretapping of politicians, civil servants and businessmen.
(Reuters, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 9, In Turkey G20 finance ministers met in Istanbul. Britain and the United States called on leading world powers to overhaul their economies and keep budgets in line to encourage growth.
(AFP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 11, In Turkey female student Ozgecan Aslan (20) was raped and beaten to death by bus driver Ahmet Suphi Altindoken (26). Her body was burned in a wooded area in a bid to hide the evidence but the corpse was found by police on Feb 13.
(AFP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 13, Turkish police used water cannon in the western coastal city of Izmir to disperse scores of protesters boycotting schools over the growing influence of religion in the classroom.
(Reuters, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 16, Turkey said it was temporarily closing its embassy in Yemen, the latest foreign mission to do so following the takeover of power by Shiite Huthi militiamen.
(AFP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, The Armenian president asked the country's parliament speaker to withdraw his signature from a groundbreaking 2009 agreement with Turkey meant to restore ties between the two nations due to "preconditions" that Turkey put in place before it ratifies its part of the deal.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 17, Three British girls (Kadiza Sultana (16) and 15-year-olds Shamima Begum and Amira Abase) flew from London to Turkey in a suspected bid to join the Islamic State group. On March 12 Turkey announced the arrest of an agent who helped the girls cross into Syria. The agent also worked as a courier to transfer money to jihadists.
(SSFC, 2/22/15, p.A5)(AP, 3/15/15)(AFP, 3/15/15)
2015 Feb 18, The Turkish parliament descended into chaos when a furious brawl erupted as the country's ruling party sought to push through a controversial bill boosting the powers of police in protests.
(AFP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, In Turkey a snowstorm in Istanbul grounded planes, halted traffic and forced the closure of the Bosphorus Strait shipping channel.
(Reuters, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 19, Turkish media quoted the national intelligence agency (MIT) as saying that Islamic State militants have entered Turkey and are plotting to attack diplomatic missions in Ankara and Istanbul.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Turkish legislators scuffled for a second day in parliament over a new security bill which critics say aims to crush dissent.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 22, Almost 600 Turkish troops pushed deep into Syria evacuating Turkish soldiers guarding a historic tomb who had been stranded in territory controlled by Islamic State jihadists. They brought back the tomb containing the remains of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the Ottoman empire's founder, Osman I.
(AFP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, Libya's internationally recognized government said it will end all contracts with companies from Turkey, a country it has accused of supporting a rival administration.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 26, Libya's internationally recognized PM Abdullah al-Thinni said his government would stop dealing with Turkey as it was sending weapons to a rival group in Tripoli so "the Libyan people kill each other", ramping up his rhetoric against Ankara.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Turkey Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) imprisoned on an island near Istanbul, urged separatists to hold a congress on disarmament in the coming months.
(AFP, 3/1/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Turkey Yasar Kemal (91), one of the country’s best-known novelists with worldwide readership, died. His books included of "Memed, My Hawk" (1955) a story about feudal relations in Turkey's traditional southern regions. Nine of his novels were made into films. Kemal never promoted his Kurdish background. In the mid-1990s he was convicted for an article denouncing racism against minorities in Turkey, especially Kurds.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Mar 2, Turkey detained an intelligence agent working for one of the states in the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State (IS) for helping three British teenage girls cross into Syria to join the jihadists. This was only made public on March 12. Kadiza Sultana, 16, and 15-year-olds Shamima Begum and Amira Abase, crossed into Syria after boarding a flight from London to Istanbul on February 17.
(AFP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 3, Turkey's state-run news agency said a court has ordered President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to pay 10,000 Turkish Lira (US$ 4,000) in compensation to artist Mehmet Aksoy for calling his sculpture — meant to promote reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia — a "monstrosity." Erdogan expressed his dislike in 2011 of the giant "Monument to Humanity," which was being erected in the eastern city of Kars.
(AP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 11, Turkish authorities said they have detained 16 Indonesians from three families who were trying to cross into Syria, a route frequently used by sympathizers of Islamic State militants.
(Reuters, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 12, The Turkish coastguard opened fire to stop a cargo vessel carrying 337 mainly Syrian migrants heading towards European Union waters and arrested the suspected traffickers.
(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In Turkey three male British teenagers planning to join Islamic State militants in Syria were detained in Istanbul.
(Reuters, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 20, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Turkey has offered a $50 million loan to Ukraine to help cover its budget deficit in a joint press conference in Kiev with Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey also offered Ukraine $10 million in humanitarian assistance.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 21, Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan called for Kurds to hold a historic congress to end a decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
(AFP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 22, A Turkish opposition lawmaker said he is helping the families of nine British medical students and doctors of Sudanese origin believed to have crossed into Syria from Turkey.
(AP, 3/22/15)(AFP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 27, The Turkish parliament passed a stripped down version of its controversial homeland security bill that has enraged the opposition, after a 16-hour debate that lasted all night.
(AFP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 29, A Turkish court charged former policemen Sedat Zavar and Ilker Usta with illegally eavesdropping on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following their extradition from Romania.
(AFP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Turkey an Istanbul court acquitted 236 military officers of charges of plotting a 2003 coup to overthrow the government of then-PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Turkey a massive power cut caused chaos and shut down public transport across the country, with the government refusing to rule out that the electricity system had been the victim of an attack.
(AFP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Turkey two members of a banned left-wing group, DHKP-C, held prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz hostage in an Istanbul courthouse for six hours. All three died in a shootout between the hostage-takers and police.
(AP, 4/1/15)(SFC, 4/7/15, p.A2)
2015 Apr 1, In Turkey a militant tried to storm the police headquarters in Istanbul. Police opened fire in response, killing the female assailant who was armed with grenades and guns. Turkish media named the dead woman as Elif Sultan Kalsen (28), saying she was a known member of the DHKP-C.
(AFP, 4/2/15)
2015 Apr 2, Turkish police launched early morning raids against suspected members of an ultra-leftist group in Istanbul. At least 10 people were arrested in the raids in the Okmeydani district of Istanbul.
(AP, 4/2/15)
2015 Apr 6, A wooden migrant boat sank in the Aegean off the Turkish coast of Datca late today. The Turkish Coast Guard recovered 8 bodies, rescued nine people and three remained missing.
(AP, 4/7/15)
2015 Apr 7, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani agreed to boost trade and signed a slew of deals at a meeting, but steered clear of directly addressing differences over conflict-ridden Yemen.
(Reuters, 4/7/15)
2015 Apr 11, Turkish troops engaged in clashes with over two dozen rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). 5 Kurdish rebels and a civilian were reported killed at Yukari Tutek village.
(AFP, 4/11/15)(AP, 4/12/15)
2015 Apr 12, In the Vatican Pope Francis described the 1915 massacre of as many as 1.5 million Armenians as "the first genocide of the 20th century" at a 100th anniversary Mass. Turkey swiftly summoned the Vatican's ambassador in Ankara to protest.
(Reuters, 4/12/15)
2015 Apr 14, Turkey deported nine Britons, including the son of a local councilor, two weeks after arresting them for attempting to cross into Syria.
(AFP, 4/14/15)
2015 Apr 22, Austrian lawmakers condemned as "genocide" for the first time the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I, ahead of the 100th anniversary of the violence.
(AFP, 4/22/15)
2015 Apr 24, Turkey hosted leaders from the former Allied powers of World War I to pay tribute to the tens of thousands killed in the Battle of Gallipoli, drawing accusations from Armenians that it was deliberately overshadowing the Yerevan ceremonies.
(AFP, 4/24/15)
2015 Apr 24, In Armenia the leaders of France and Russia joined ceremonies marking the centenary of the massacre of some 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman forces.
(AFP, 4/24/15)
2015 Apr 29, A Turkish court acquitted 26 activists who helped launch mass protests in May-June 2013 against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after a trial slammed by rights campaigners.
(AFP, 4/29/15)
2015 Apr 30, Turkish authorities issued arrest warrants for two judges in a legal standoff over an order to release 75 suspects detained on suspicion of plotting to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 4/30/15)
2015 May 1, Turkish police fired tear gas and water cannon at hundreds of stone-throwing May Day protesters. Left-wing groups and trade unions staged rallies around the world to mark International Workers Day.
(Reuters, 5/1/15)(AP, 5/1/15)
2015 May 9, Turkish former president Kenan Evren (97), convicted last year for his key role in the country's bloody 1980 coup, died in Ankara.
(AFP, 5/10/15)
2015 May 16, Turkish military jets shot down a Syrian aircraft after it violated Turkey's airspace.
(Reuters, 5/16/15)
2015 May 18, In Turkey twin bomb attacks hit the regional headquarters of the main pro-Kurdish HDP party in two cities, injuring more than half a dozen people and escalating tensions ahead of June 7 legislative elections.
(AFP, 5/18/15)
2015 May 21, It was reported that testimony from Turkish gendarmerie officers in court documents alleged that Turkey's state intelligence agency helped deliver arms to parts of Syria under Islamist rebel control during late 2013 and early 2014. The witness testimony contradicted Turkey's denials that it sent arms to Syrian rebels.
(Reuters, 5/21/15)
2015 May 21, Turkey's main opposition party unveiled a plan to build a new mega-city in the center of the country, in a bid to outflank the ambitious infrastructure projects of the ruling party ahead of elections.
(AFP, 5/21/15)
2015 May 28, A US official said the US military has started training Syrian opposition fighters in Turkey to combat Islamic State, an expected expansion of a program that first launched in Jordan weeks ago.
(Reuters, 5/28/15)
2015 May 29, In Turkey the opposition daily Cumhuriyet published footage from January 2014 showing Turkish security forces discovering boxes of what it described as weapons and ammunition being sent to Syria on National Intelligence Organization (MIT) trucks intercepted near the Syrian border.
(AFP, 6/2/15)
2015 May 31, In northwestern Turkey 3 assailants opened fire at a street party celebrating the wedding of a Roma community couple, killing 3 guests near Bursa.
(AP, 6/1/15)
2015 May, Turkish police arrested 53 people on suspicion of pimping and prostitution in raids on 25 addresses in five provinces across the south and southeast, after receiving reports that patrons of swinger clubs were bringing prostitutes to the sex parties. On Aug 3 local media said prosecutors have demanded jail sentences of up to 177 years for 29 people in the southeastern province of Adana suspected of setting up swingers' clubs.
(AP, 8/3/15)
2015 Jun 2, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan filed a criminal complaint against the opposition daily Cumhuriyet newspaper and its editor for publishing images allegedly showing trucks belonging to the state intelligence service helping send weapons to rebels in Syria. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders condemned Erdogan over his recent attacks on the journalists.
(AFP, 6/2/15)
2015 Jun 3, In Turkey assailants fired on a campaign vehicle belonging to a pro-Kurdish party and killed its driver, in the latest violence against politicians or political parties ahead of the June 7 general election.
(AP, 6/4/15)
2015 Jun 4, Turkish government official said more than 3,300 Syrians have crossed into Turkey in the past two days fleeing fighting between Islamic State militants and Kurdish forces in northern Syria's Tel Abyad region.
(AP, 6/4/15)
2015 Jun 5, In Turkey two explosions tore through a rally of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Diyarbakir. 2 people were killed and some 200 wounded.
(Reuters, 6/6/15)
2015 Jun 7, Turkey held parliamentary elections. President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party lost its parliamentary majority. The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), crossed a 10 percent threshold to enter parliament for the first time. The HDP won 13% and an estimated 80 seats. The far right Nationalist Action Party (MHP) took 16% of the vote and 80 seats. The Republican People’s Party won 25% of the vote and 112 seats.
(Reuters, 6/7/15)(Reuters, 6/8/15)(Econ, 6/13/15, p.49)
2015 Jun 9, In southeastern Turkey an Islamic aid group leader was shot dead as he left his office in the Diyarbakir 3 people were killed in the mainly Kurdish southeast when a clash broke out after the head of an Islamic aid group was shot dead outside his office.
(Reuters, 6/9/15)
2015 Jun 11, Turkey said it was taking measures to limit the flow of Syrian refugees onto its territory after an influx of thousands more over the last days due to fighting between Kurds and jihadists.
(AFP, 6/11/15)
2015 Jun 13, Turkish security forces used water cannon and fired warning shots to push Syrians away from the frontier as thousands massed at a border crossing to escape escalating fighting.
(AFP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 13, In Azerbaijan Russian President Vladimir Putin met Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks expected to touch on energy issues and the Syria crisis. They met a day after attending the opening ceremony of the inaugural European Games, hosted by Azerbaijan.
(AFP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 14, Syrian state television said dozens of civilians were wounded when two bombs exploded in the central city of Homs. Kurdish forces advanced to the gates of Tal Abyad and clashed with Islamic State jihadists. The upsurge in violence saw Turkey open its border to fleeing civilians.
(Reuters, 6/14/15)(AFP, 6/14/15)
2015 Jun 16, Turkey accused Kurdish militia in northern Syria of persecuting civilians and said it saw signs of "a kind of ethnic cleansing", drawing a parallel to the actions of Islamic State militants and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
(Reuters, 6/16/15)
2015 Jun 17, In Turkey Suleyman Demirel (b.1924), a former president (1993-2000) and seven-time prime minister, died in Ankara.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%BCleyman_Demirel)(SFC, 6/18/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 19, Turkish authorities arrested two Georgian citizens who tried to enter the country with radioactive material, including 1.2 kilos of cesium.
(AP, 6/19/15)
2015 Jun 23, Turkey’s coast guard rescued 70 migrants off a sinking ship as 6 migrants drowned in waters off the Greek island of Kos.
(AP, 6/24/15)
2015 Jun 26, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey will never allow the establishment of a Kurdish state in Syria after major gains by Kurdish fighters.
(AFP, 6/27/15)
2015 Jun 28, In Turkey riot police in Istanbul used teargas and water cannon to disperse thousands of participants in the Gay Pride parade in the Turkish after demonstrators began shouting slogans accusing the social conservative President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of "fascism".
(AFP, 6/28/15)
2015 Jun 30, A total of 173 people, mostly women and children, from the minority Chinese Muslim community of Uighurs arrived in Turkey from Thailand, where they were being held after fleeing China. They were being resettled in the central city of Kayseri, which boasts a strong Uighur community.
(AP, 7/2/15)
2015 Jul 3, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated a mosque on the grounds of his gigantic palace complex naming it the "Bestepe People's Mosque" and opened it to the public in an apparent effort to stave off more criticism over his spending.
(AP, 7/3/15)
2015 Jul 7, Turkey's army said it had detained 768 people trying to cross illegally from Syria, including three suspected Islamic State militants, after bolstering security in border areas near where the radical Islamists hold ground.
(Reuters, 7/7/15)
2015 Jul 8, In Turkey Cilem Karabulut (28) killed her husband Hasan Karabulut (33) in the southern Adana region with a pistol stored at home. She was detained by police and admitted to murdering her husband out of "honor" after he repeatedly beat her and tried to force her into prostitution.
(AFP, 7/10/15)
2015 Jul 9, In Turkey protesters stormed the Thai Consulate in Istanbul early today to denounce Thailand's decision to deport 109 ethnic Uighur migrants back to China.
(AP, 7/9/15)
2015 Jul 10, Turkey's state-run news agency said police have carried out raids in Istanbul and three other cities, detaining at least 21 people suspected of being members of the Islamic State extremist group.
(AP, 7/10/15)
2015 Jul 11, Thailand sent eight more ethnic Muslim Uighur refugees to Turkey, days after the Thai government faced intense international criticism for deporting 109 refugees back to China despite fears they could face persecution there. 52 Uighurs remained in Thailand.
(AP, 7/11/15)
2015 Jul 14, Turkey’s PM Ahmet Davutoglu said the nationalist opposition does not want to share power in a government with the ruling AK Party, dealing a blow to his efforts to find a junior coalition partner.
(Reuters, 7/14/15)
2015 Jul 20, In Turkey a suspected Islamic State suicide bomber killed 33 people, mostly young students, in an attack on the town of Suruc near the Syrian border. The students from the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations had been planning a trip to Kobani to build a library, plant a forest and build a playground. The bomber was later identified as Seyh Abdurrahman Alagoaz (20) from Adiyaman.
(AP, 7/20/15)(AFP, 7/21/15)(AFP, 8/14/15)(Econ, 7/25/15, p.40)
2015 Jul 22, Kurdish militants claimed responsibility for today’s assassination of two Turkish police officers in what they said was retaliation for the July 20 suspected Islamic State suicide bombing which killed 32 mostly young students.
(Reuters, 7/22/15)
2015 Jul 23, In Turkey suspected Islamic State militants fired at a Turkish military outpost from inside Syrian territory, killing a Turkish soldier and wounding two others. 5 members of Islamic State were also killed during the exchange of fire.
(AP, 7/23/15)(Reuters, 7/24/15)
2015 Jul 23, US defense officials said that Turkey has agreed to allow manned US planes to stage air strikes against Islamic State militants from an air base at Incirlik, close to the Syrian border. US drones are already launched from the base.
(Reuters, 7/24/15)
2015 Jul 24, Turkish warplanes pounded Islamic State targets in Syria for the first time, with President Tayyip Erdogan promising more decisive action against both the jihadists and Kurdish militants at home. Police rounded up nearly 300 people in raids against suspected Islamic State and Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 7/24/15)
2015 Jul 25, Turkish fighter jets and ground forces hit Islamic State militants in Syria and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) camps in Iraq overnight, in a campaign Ankara said would help create a "safe zone" across swathes of northern Syria. Kurdish militants said the conditions for maintaining a ceasefire with Turkey were no longer in place, after Turkish warplanes bombed their stronghold in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 7/25/15)(AFP, 7/25/15)
2015 Jul 26, In Turkey an overnight car bomb and roadside explosives hit a passing military vehicle on a highway near Diyarbakir. Kurdish militants then opened fire with long-range rifles killing 2 soldiers, At least six people were detained in the attack.
(Reuters, 7/26/15)
2015 Jul 27, In Turkey a gendarmerie major in the eastern province of Mus died after being shot by suspected PKK militants. In the nearby province of Van a military unit came under fire.
(Reuters, 7/28/15)
2015 Jul 27, In northern Syria the YPG made further gains against Islamic State, capturing a town near the Euphrates River after a month-long offensive aimed at cutting their supply lines. Kurdish fighters in northern Syria accused the Turkish army of shelling their positions.
(Reuters, 7/27/15)
2015 Jul 27, A senior US official said United States and Turkey have agreed to work together to clear the Islamic State group from northern Syria.
(AFP, 7/27/15)
2015 Jul 28, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said it was impossible to continue a peace process with Kurdish militants and urged parliament to strip politicians with links to them of immunity from prosecution.
(Reuters, 7/28/15)
2015 Jul 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with top Chinese officials amid tensions over China's treatment of its Uighur minority and sensitive negotiations surrounding the possible purchase of a Chinese missile system.
(AP, 7/29/15)
2015 Jul 29, Turkey said it has formally signed a deal with the United States opening its Incirlik air base to the US-led coalition against Islamic State militants. In exchange the Americans agreed to help establish a 65-mile IS-free zone along a western section of the Turkish-Syrian border.
(Reuters, 7/29/15)(Econ, 8/1/15, p.42)
2015 Jul 29, Turkish jets launched their heaviest assault on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq overnight since air strikes began last week. A Turkish soldier was killed and three seriously wounded in the eastern province of Agri in what appeared to be a PKK attack.
(Reuters, 7/29/15)
2015 Jul 29, Turkey’s Deputy PM Bulent Arinc gave a breakdown of the terror suspects rounded up in the nationwide police operation, saying that of the 1,300 detained only 137 were suspected of links to IS. Some 31 have been charged so far, while 18 were released. In contrast, police detained as many as 847 PKK suspects. A total of 142 have been charged so far, while 120 were released.
(AP, 7/30/15)
2015 Jul 30, In southeast Turkey Kurdish rebels attacked security forces in two separate assaults in Simak province, killing 3 soldiers and an officer. One rebel was also killed. Kurdish rebels raided a Turkish police station and fired on railway workers in two separate attacks that left 5 dead.
(AP, 7/30/15)(AP, 7/31/15)
2015 Jul 30, Indonesia and Turkey agreed to strengthen their intelligence cooperation as a way to bolster their efforts to combat terrorism and prevent the spread of radicalism.
(AP, 7/31/15)
2015 Aug 1, Turkey’s official Anatolia news agency said around 260 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have been killed and hundreds more wounded in Ankara's week-long campaign of air strikes against targets of the group inside Turkey and in northern Iraq. Turkish war planes struck the village of Zarkel (Zergele in Kurdish) in northern Iraq killed at least 6 people.
(AFP, 8/1/15)(AFP, 8/3/15)
2015 Aug 1, Iraq's Kurdish regional government called on the Kurdistan Worker's Party to "withdraw" from Iraq's Kurdish territory to prevent civilian deaths amid a campaign of Turkish airstrikes targeting the group.
(AP, 8/1/15)
2015 Aug 2, Two Turkish soldiers were killed and 31 wounded in a suicide bombing overnight, as violence escalated following Ankara's air bombardment of Kurdish militants in northern Iraq. A day later the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 8/2/15)(AFP, 8/3/15)
2015 Aug 4, Two Turkish soldiers and an armed guard were killed in a blast from a homemade mine planted by Kurdish militants in Sirnak province. Turkish warplanes pounded suspected Kurdish rebel targets near Daglica, Hakkari province, in retaliation to a rebel mortar attack at a military base which wounded a 6-year-old girl. Kurdish militants attacked Turkey's Shah Deniz pipeline carrying natural gas from Azerbaijan, but the blast did not impact supply as flow had already been halted for maintenance.
(Reuters, 8/4/15)(AP, 8/4/15)
2015 Aug 4, The Arab League condemned Turkey's actions and called on Ankara to recognize the sovereignty of Iraq. The Arab League also called on Turkey and Iraq to increase cooperation in order to try and preserve peace. Qatar however, distanced itself from the Arab League declaration.
(AFP, 8/5/15)
2015 Aug 5, Turkey said a US-led coalition will soon launch a "comprehensive battle" against Islamic State militants from Turkish air bases, but Syria said any military action not coordinated with Damascus would breach its sovereignty.
(Reuters, 8/5/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Turkey 5 people including a Turkish soldier died and several others were injured in clashes in the restive Kurdish-majority southeast, as violence raged between Kurdish militants and security forces.
(AFP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, Turkey’s official Anatolia news agency reported that the government has frozen the assets of officials from Yemen's former regime including ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, along with Huthi rebel leaders. The freeze will be in place until February 26, 2016.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Turkey an Iranian bus was hit in Dogubayazit district of the eastern Agri province. The driver was fatally shot in the head. Turkish authorities blamed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants. The passengers were unhurt.
(AFP, 8/8/15)
2015 Aug 8, In southern Turkey Kurdish PKK rebels fired at a police vehicle, killing a policeman and wounding another.
(AP, 8/9/15)
2015 Aug 9, Turkey’s official Anatolia news agency reported that 390 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have been killed and hundreds injured in two weeks of Turkish airstrikes on positions in northern Iraq. Operations in the eastern Agri province killed 7 PKK militants.
(AFP, 8/9/15)(Reuters, 8/11/15)
2015 Aug 10, In Turkey two women shot at the US consulate in Istanbul. The Revolutionary People's Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C), considered a terrorist organization by the US and Turkey, said one of its members was involved in the attack. The bombing of an Istanbul police station left 4 people dead, 3 of them PKK attackers. At least 8 people were killed in a wave of separate attacks on security forces.
(Reuters, 8/10/15)(Reuters, 8/11/15)
2015 Aug 11, Turkish warplanes hit 17 Kurdish militant targets in the southeastern province of Hakkari over the last 24 hours.
(AP, 8/11/15)
2015 Aug 12, A Turkish soldier and two fighters from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed when militants attacked a military outpost in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 8/12/15)
2015 Aug 13, In Turkey efforts PM Ahmet Davutoglu to forge a coalition alliance with the country's pro-secular party failed, edging the country closer toward new elections.
(AP, 8/13/15)
2015 Aug 14, Turkish state media said the military has started building a concrete wall along the border with Syria following a series of attacks. Security forces said a soldier was killed after a mine laid by militants was detonated remotely in the eastern province of Bingol. 2 PKK fighters were killed during an operation in response to the attack.
(AFP, 8/14/15)(Reuters, 8/14/15)
2015 Aug 15, Turkey’s state news reported that Kurdish rebels detonated a roadside bomb between the eastern provinces of Bingol and Erzurum as a military vehicle was passing by, killing 3 soldiers. A police officer was killed after PKK rebels opened fire near the town of Semdinli.
(AP, 8/15/15)(Reuters, 8/15/15)
2015 Aug 17, Turkey’s Supreme Court ruled that the Turkish state should cover all the expenses of cemevis, the prayer houses of the Alevi community, as it does for mosques, churches and synagogues. Alevis revere Imam Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed. Theirs is a Turkish version of Alawism, prominent in neighboring Syria.
(AFP, 8/18/15)
2015 Aug 18, In Turkey Muslim scholars and environmental advocates from about 20 countries called for a global phase-out of greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century.
(AP, 8/18/15)
2015 Aug 19, Turkish police arrested two people after a hand grenade was hurled and shots were fired at officers guarding Istanbul's Dolmabache Palace. In the southeast PKK militants killed 8 soldiers in a bomb attack in Siirt province.
(AP, 8/19/15)(Reuters, 8/19/15)
2015 Aug 21, Turkey’s private Dogan news agency said 12 km (7 miles) of concrete barrier have already been erected along the border at Reyhanli town, in Hatay province, a main point for smuggling and border crossing from Syria.
(AP, 8/20/15)
2015 Aug 21, A Turkish captain, was killed in a rocket and long-range gun attack late today on a military post in Beytussebap district in southeastern Sirnak province.
(AFP, 8/22/15)
2015 Aug 22, Turkey's military said warplanes have conducted new air strikes against Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, killing 29 militants on Aug 20-21.
(AP, 8/22/15)
2015 Aug 22, Turkey said its security forces have detained 435 migrants and Syrian refugees along with three suspected people smugglers, before they embarked on an attempt to cross the Aegean Sea to Greece.
(AFP, 8/22/15)
2015 Aug 23, In Turkey Kurdish militants armed with assault rifles attacked a hydroelectric power station near the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, killing a soldier and wounding three others.
(Reuters, 8/23/15)
2015 Aug 24, In northeastern Turkey two buildings collapsed during heavy flooding, killing eight people in Artvin province.
(Reuters, 8/24/15)
2015 Aug 25, The Turkish military said 34 militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed in its latest air strikes on the group's camps in northern Iraq's Qandil mountain region.
(Reuters, 8/25/15)
2015 Aug 26, Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu invited three lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) to join an interim government to take Turkey to November 1 elections.
(AFP, 8/26/15)
2015 Aug 26, In Turkey Jamil Raadoun, the commander of Sukour al-Ghab from the rebel Free Syrian Army, died in a bomb attack on his car in the southern province of Hatay. Raadoun, who defected from the Syrian army early on in the four-year-old civil war, had been in Turkey for about a year.
(Reuters, 8/26/15)
2015 Aug 27, In southeastern Turkey 6 people were killed in street fighting between security forces and Kurdish rebels in a mainly Kurdish town of Yuksekova after authorities imposed a curfew in the town late the previous day.
(Reuters, 8/27/15)
2015 Aug 28, Turkish jets took part in US-led coalition air strikes against Islamic State in Syria for the first time.
(AP, 8/29/15)
2015 Aug 29, Turkish media reported that three attacks or clashes between security forces and Kurdish rebels have killed 5 people and injured 24 others in the southeast.
(AP, 8/29/15)
2015 Aug 30, In southeastern Turkey a child, 3 other civilians and 2 police officer were killed in violence following the breakdown of a ceasefire between the government and Kurdish militants in Diyarbakir province.
(Reuters, 8/30/15)
2015 Aug 31, Turkish authorities offered up to 4 million lira ($1.37 million) in rewards for those who help a crackdown on "terrorists", in a new ruling published today.
(AFP, 8/31/15)
2015 Sep 1, Turkish police raided the offices of the Koza Ipek group, a conglomerate linked to a US-based cleric accused of plotting against President Tayyip Erdogan.
(Reuters, 9/1/15)
2015 Sep 1, A Turkish soldier vanished and another was killed in cross-border shooting with Islamic State fighters near the town of Kilis, close to Syrian territory that has been under Islamic State control for months.
(Reuters, 9/5/15)
2015 Sep 1, Greek authorities said a coast guard special unit raid has found a shipment of weapons on board a foreign-flagged cargo ship sailing near Crete. The ship was en route from Turkey to Libya. A Turkish foreign ministry spokesman soon confirmed the cargo included weapons but said it was fully documented and was destined for the Sudanese police force.
(AP, 9/1/15)(AP, 9/2/15)
2015 Sep 2, An image of Aylan Kurdi (2), a drowned toddler washed up on the beach in one of Turkey's prime tourist resorts, swept across social media, after at least 12 presumed Syrian refugees died trying to reach the Greek island of Kos. Aylan, his brother (5) and mother were among the dead. In 2020 three Turkish men were sentenced to 125 years in jail for their part in the drownings.
(Reuters, 9/2/15)(SSFC, 9/6/15, p.A18)(SFC, 3/14/20, p.A4)
2015 Sep 2, In Iraq gunmen in military uniform seized 18 Turkish workers from a sports stadium they were building in northeastern Baghdad. Two of the workers were freed on Sep 15. The remaining sixteen were freed on Sep 30.
(Reuters, 9/2/15)(AFP, 9/16/15)(AP, 9/30/15)
2015 Sep 3, PM Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkey will continue to keep its doors open to refugees and urged European countries to take their share of the burden.
(Reuters, 9/3/15)
2015 Sep 3, Four Turkish police were killed in a bomb attack on their vehicle in the country's southeast blamed on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AFP, 9/3/15)
2015 Sep 4, Turkey imposed a curfew on Cizre, a city of 120,000 on the border with Syria and close to Iraq, in an effort to cripple the PKK. The curfew was lifted on Sep 12. The government said that up to 32 Kurdish militants were killed during the curfew and anti-terror operations. The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said 21 civilians were killed.
(AFP, 9/13/15)
2015 Sep 6, In Turkey the W-20 — a grouping of female leaders — was launched in Ankara, aimed at boosting the role of women in global economic growth, as G20 finance ministers and central bank governors met for talks on the global economy.
(AP, 9/6/15)
2015 Sep 6, In eastern Turkey 2 policeman were killed and three others injured in Diyarbakir when Kurdish militants clashed with security forces. Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels reportedly killed 31 members of the armed forces in an attack on a convoy and clashes in the mountainous Daglica area of Hakkari province. Turkey’s army statement said 16 had died.
(Reuters, 9/6/15)(Reuters, 9/7/15)
2015 Sep 7, Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish insurgent targets overnight after the militants staged what appeared to be their deadliest attack since the collapse of a two-year-old ceasefire in July. 16 Turkish soldiers were killed in the Kurdish-dominated southeast of the country in an attack blamed on the PKK.
(Reuters, 9/7/15)(AFP, 9/8/15)
2015 Sep 8, Turkish warplanes launched a massive air operation against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, killing as many as 40 rebels. Kurdish militants killed 14 police officers in a bomb attack on a minibus in a Turkish province bordering Armenia and Iran. Turkish ground forces crossed into northern Iraq for the first time since 2011 in a "short-term" operation to hunt down Kurdish rebels.
(AFP, 9/8/15) (Reuters, 9/8/15)(AP, 9/8/15)
2015 Sep 10, In Turkey suspected smugglers opened fire from Syria and shot dead a Turkish soldier, the second cross-border firefight to have killed a member of the Turkish security forces in as many weeks.
(Reuters, 9/10/15)
2015 Sep 11, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants fired on a restaurant frequented by police in Diyarbakir, killing a waiter and wounding three officers after Turkish jets bombed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq for a fifth straight night. Media reported that at least 60 PKK fighters were killed in the air strikes by F-16 and F-4 jets which hit 64 targets in the group's camps across the region.
(Reuters, 9/11/15)
2015 Sep 13, In southeast Turkey Kurdish militants killed 2 police officers in a car bomb attack on a checkpoint in Sirnak province. Turkish forces shelled a mountainous area where PKK fighters had fled after the checkpoint attack, killing 6 of them. The PKK also launched an attack with rocket-propelled grenades and rifles in the Silvan district of Diyarbakir province, killing one police officer and wounding another.
(Reuters, 9/13/15)
2015 Sep 14, Turkish police raided the liberal news magazine Nokta (Full Stop) and detained one of its senior editors over a photomontage on its cover portraying President Recep Tayyip Erdogan taking a selfie at a soldier's funeral.
(AFP, 9/14/15)
2015 Sep 15, At least 22 Greece-bound migrants drowned when their boat sank off Turkey. Police blocked hundreds of others seeking to find an alternative route to Europe by land.
(AFP, 9/15/15)
2015 Sep 19, Turkey’s state-run Anatolia news agency reported that Turkish fighter jets carried out a new barrage of cross-border airstrikes this week against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, killing at least 55 rebels.
(AFP, 9/19/15)
2015 Sep 20, In Turkey at least 10,000 demonstrators rallied in central Istanbul for a protest aimed at denouncing violence by Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 9/20/15)
2015 Sep 20, At least 13 migrants died off the coast of Turkey after the inflatable dinghy carrying them to Greece collided with a ferry.
(AFP, 9/20/15)
2015 Sep 21, The Turkish military said it has killed 5 Kurdish rebels in airstrikes on the southeastern province of Hakkari.
(AP, 9/21/15)
2015 Sep 24, Two Turkish soldiers and 34 Kurdish rebels were killed in fighting in Sirnak province.
(AFP, 9/25/15)
2015 Sep 25, In Turkey 4 civilians were killed after they were caught in clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants in the southeast. Turkish military killed more than 30 Kurdish militants in a cross-border operation.
(AFP, 9/26/15)(Reuters, 9/29/15)
2015 Sep 25, In southern Turkey 13 people were killed in a road accident as millions took to their cars for the annual Muslim holiday season of Eid.
(Reuters, 9/25/15)
2015 Sep 27, Seventeen migrants drowned when their boat sank off the Turkish coast while headed for the Greek island of Kos. 20 people were rescued.
(Reuters, 9/27/15)
2015 Sep 28, In southern Turkey 2 police officers were killed in an attack by suspected PKK militants in Adana province. 6 PKK militants were killed in operations carried out in the southeastern province of Hakkari.
(Reuters, 9/29/15)(AP, 9/29/15)
2015 Sep 29, Turkish warplanes late today struck 24 targets in a bombardment of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) positions in the southeastern province of Hakkari. 2 soldiers were killed when a bomb buried in the ground went off when a military vehicle passed by on a road between southeastern towns of Semdinli and Yuksekova.
(Reuters, 9/30/15)
2015 Oct 1, In Turkey prominent anti-government journalist Ahmet Hakan was attacked early today outside his home in Istanbul, raising fears over the security of media figures who taken a critical line against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Police reportedly detained all four suspects after a hot pursuit.
(AFP, 10/1/15)
2015 Oct 1, In Turkey 12 people were killed in Ankara when a bus ploughed into commuters waiting at a bus stop.
(AFP, 10/1/15)
2015 Oct 2, Turkish security forces killed more than 10 suspected Kurdish militants amid intensifying clashes in the country's southeast, while 44 people were arrested in Istanbul on suspicion of links with the rebels. Suspected militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) abducted two Turkish soldiers on a highway between the Tunceli and Erzincan provinces.
(Reuters, 10/2/15)(AFP, 10/3/15)
2015 Oct 4, Turkish warplanes struck Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq and eastern Turkey overnight, in a new air operation against the militant group.
(AFP, 10/4/15)
2015 Oct 7, Turkish officials said police have seized material allegedly used by Islamic State militants to produce coins for the group and arrested six foreign nationals in Gaziantep city.
(AP, 10/8/15)
2015 Oct 8, Turkey appealed to its NATO allies to shore up missile defenses in the country aimed at shooting down Syrian rockets, as Germany said again that it will withdraw its Patriot batteries and the United States was set to do the same.
(Reuters, 10/8/15)
2015 Oct 8, In southeastern Turkey a child was killed and three others wounded in the town of Silvan after munitions they found and were playing with on the street exploded.
(Reuters, 10/8/15)
2015 Oct 10, In Turkey as many as 128 people were killed when two suspected suicide bombers hit a rally of pro-Kurdish and leftist activists outside Ankara's main train station, in the deadliest attack of its kind on Turkish soil. On Oct 16 authorities raised the toll to 102. Hours after the bombing, the PKK ordered its fighters to halt operations in Turkey unless they faced attack. Turkey targeted the Islamic State in investigations of the bombing.
(AP, 10/11/15)(Reuters, 10/11/15)(AP, 10/16/15)
2015 Oct 11, Thousands of people took to the streets of Ankara to denounce the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after it said 95 people were killed in twin suspected suicide bombings on a peace rally a day earlier. Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), one of the groups that called the peace rally, issued a statement claiming the actual toll was far higher at 128, giving the names of 120 victims. 2 Turkish soldiers were reported killed during clashes with PKK militants in the Senkaya district of Erzurum province. The Turkish army said it killed at least 49 Kurdish rebels in a series of air strikes on the group's bases in northern Iraq as well as southeastern Diyarbakir province.
(AFP, 10/11/15)
2015 Oct 12, In Turkey hundreds of people marched through Istanbul and Ankara to condemn the slaughter by suicide bombers at a weekend peace rally.
(AP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 13, Turkish security forces killed ten Kurdish militants during ground and air operations in southeastern Turkey, days after the insurgents called a unilateral ceasefire.
(Reuters, 10/14/15)
2015 Oct 15, Turkey demanded that the European Union start easing restrictions next year on Turks traveling to the European Union if it wants full cooperation to stem the flow of Syrian refugees.
(Reuters, 10/15/15)
2015 Oct 15, Cyprus decried an undersea pipeline carrying fresh water from Turkey to the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north, saying it aims to further cement Ankara's grip on the ethnically-divided island.
(AP, 10/15/15)
2015 Oct 15, The European Court of Human Rights ruled Switzerland had violated Turkish politician Dogu Perincek's right to freedom of speech by convicting him for denying that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 amounted to genocide.
(Reuters, 10/15/15)
2015 Oct 16, Turkey shot down a drone in an incident highlighting the dangers of multiple air combat operations over Syria. Russian warplanes hit areas in support of the Syrian army's offensive south of Aleppo, around 35 km (20 miles) from the Turkish border.
(Reuters, 10/16/15)
2015 Oct 17, Turkey said 3 soldiers and 28 Kurdish militants have been killed in air strikes and clashes over the past two days in the predominantly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, The Turkish coastguard said 12 migrants thought to be from Syria and Afghanistan, including four children and a baby, drowned off the coast of Turkey as they tried to reach the Greek island of Lesbos.
(Reuters, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, In Turkey a British woman working for a London-based media charity who was heading to Iraq was found dead at Istanbul's Ataturk airport. Jackie Sutton (50) was reportedly found hanged in the toilets. There were no signs of foul play.
(AFP, 10/19/15)(AP, 10/21/15)
2015 Oct 18, Turkish police arrested around 50 foreign nationals in Istanbul early today in a sweep targeting jihadists of the Islamic State group suspected of involvement in last weekend's Ankara suicide bombings.
(AFP, 10/18/15)
2015 Oct 18, In Turkey 2 soldiers were killed when rebels set off a remote-controlled mine targeting an army vehicle in the eastern province of Tunceli. Security officials said 4 government soldiers and about 20 Kurdish rebels have been killed in several days of clashes in the mountainous Daglica region.
(AFP, 10/18/15)
2015 Oct 19, Turkey’s PM Ahmet Davutoglu confirmed that one of the suicide bombers in the Oct 10 attack in Ankara had been officially identified through DNA testing.
(AFP, 10/19/15)
2015 Oct 23, The United States, Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia met in Vienna to explore a political solution to the Syrian civil war despite the basic US-Russian disagreement over Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's fate.
(AP, 10/23/15)
2015 Oct 25, Turkish military shot at Kurdish forces deployed in the town of Tal Abyad, Syria, using mostly machine guns. There were no casualties in the shooting and the Kurdish forces didn't return fire.
(AP, 10/27/15)
2015 Oct 26, Two Turkish policemen and 7 Islamic State suspects were killed in a shootout in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. About 15 suspected militants were detained and the government labeled the raid as an important blow to an IS cell.
(AFP, 10/2615)(AP, 10/27/15)
2015 Oct 27, Turkish authorities took over the management of 22 companies including newspapers and TV stations linked to a US-based cleric and arch-enemy of President Tayyip Erdogan, intensifying a crackdown days ahead of an election. Police used tear gas to disperse hundreds of people protesting against the government's move to seize control of Koza-Ipek Holding.
(Reuters, 10/27/15)(AP, 10/27/15)
2015 Oct 28, In Turkey Istanbul police used tear gas in a dawn raid on the headquarters of Koza-Ipek Holding, a major media company linked to a government critic, enforcing a court order to seize the business just days before Turkey holds a national election. Riot police firing tear gas and water cannon stormed two opposition-linked television stations and forced them off air.
(AP, 10/28/15)(AFP, 10/28/15)
2015 Oct 29, Turkish media said 12 people have died and dozens have been hospitalized over the last three days after being poisoned by bootleg alcohol. Istanbul police detained 15 people in connection with the production and sale of the illegally produced raki.
(Reuters, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, The United States and its allies conducted 11 air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and one in Syria.
(Reuters, 10/30/15)
2015 Oct 29, The US Pentagon said Ahmed Abdel Aziz (45) has been sent back to his native Mauritania after 13 years in custody at Guantanamo. He was never charged with a crime.
(AP, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, In Central African Republic 4 people were killed by mobs in Bangui. 3 Muslims were attacked as they left the city's only Muslim enclave, PK5, to enter the Christian sixth district. Witnesses said 2 of them were killed immediately and their bodies chopped into small pieces. A third man escaped but was then stoned to death by a crowd. A Christian was killed later in the morning as he entered PK5.
(Reuters, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, China’s Communist Party said it will ease family planning restrictions to allow all couples to have two children after decades of a strict one-child policy, a move aimed at alleviating demographic strains on the economy.
(Reuters, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, The EU said it will suspended most sanctions against Belarus for four months as of Oct 31, citing "improving relations" after authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko released all remaining political prisoners.
(Reuters, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, German police said they have searched the homes of 13 people as part of an international swoop on users of the mobile phone malware DroidJack, which allows cybercriminals to assume control of Android smartphones without users being aware.
(AFP, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, Berlin police arrested a 32-year-old man suspected of abducting a 4-year-old migrant boy after a child's body was found in his car. Mohamed Januzi of Bosnia disappeared on Oct. 1 while waiting outside the offices of the government program for social care with his mother and two siblings. Police the next day said Silvio S. had confessed during questioning to killing both Mohamed Januzi, and six-year-old Elias from Potsdam, who went missing in July. On July 26, 2016, Silvio S. was jailed for life.
(Reuters, 10/29/15)(AP, 10/30/15)(Reuters, 7/26/16)
2015 Oct 29, Authorities on the Greek island of Lesbos searched for 38 people believed still missing after the sinking of a wooden boat carrying migrants. Greece rescued 144 refugees and recovered the bodies of 22, including 4 infants and 9 children, after their boats sank in two separate incidents in the Aegean sea.
(AP, 10/29/15)(Reuters, 10/30/15)
2015 Oct 29, In Iraq a barrage of rockets hit Camp Liberty, a former US military base near Baghdad housing an opposition Iranian refugee group (MEK). 3 Iraqi soldiers were killed and at least 20 Iranian exiles.
(SFC, 10/30/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 29, Israeli security forces shot dead 2 Palestinian assailants in Hebron in the occupied West Bank following knife attacks on Israeli soldiers.
(Reuters, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, Lebanese customs officials discovered 230 kg of Captagon amphetamine pills hidden inside tables prepared for export to the Gulf state of Qatar from Beirut international airport.
(Reuters, 10/30/15)
2015 Oct 29, Moldova's parliament backed a motion of no-confidence in the ruling pro-European coalition, increasing political turmoil following the fraudulent disappearance of $1 billion from the banking system. The vote signaled an end to the short-lived government of PM Valeriu Strelet.
(Reuters, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, Prominent Moroccan academic and rights activist Maati Monjib announced he had ended a three-week hunger strike after the judiciary lifted a travel ban against him.
(AFP, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, Four African migrants drowned and up to 35 were missing after their boat sank in the Mediterranean in the early hours around 40 miles (65 km) north of the Moroccan coast.
(Reuters, 10/30/15)
2015 Oct 29, Myanmar police arrested Kyaw Ko Ko (34), the leader of a student movement crushed in March, after he spent more than six months in hiding, amid increasing signs of a crackdown on dissent ahead of a Nov. 8 election.
(Reuters, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, In Russia 5 people were killed in a night-time blast of household gas in an apartment block in the Khabarovsk region of the country's Far East.
(AP, 10/30/15)
2015 Oct 29, Saudi blogger Raif Badawi (31), who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for insulting Islam, was awarded the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize.
(AFP, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there had been 595 deaths in Syria from Russian air strikes since September 30. Russian warplanes renewed strikes, including in the central province of Homs and the northwestern province of Idlib.
(AFP, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, Turkish media said 12 people have died and dozens have been hospitalized over the last three days after being poisoned by bootleg alcohol. Istanbul police detained 15 people in connection with the production and sale of the illegally produced raki.
(Reuters, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, In southern Turkey Syrian activists Ibrahim Abdelqader, aka Ibrahim Abdul-Qadir (22), and Fares Hamadi (20), journalists for the "Raqqa is being slaughtered silently" collective, were murdered by Islamic State operatives in Sanliurfa.
(AP, 10/30/15)(AP, 12/17/15)(AP, 8/14/17)
2015 Oct 29, Ukrainian armed forces and pro-Russian insurgents exchanged 20 prisoners in a goodwill gesture designed to get peace talks aimed at ending the 18-month crisis back on track.
(AFP, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 29, In Ukraine a series of blasts ripped through the military complex in government-controlled Svatove, a town around 100 km (62 miles) from the front line with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Luhansk region. 2 civilians were killed and the incident was being investigated as a "terrorist act."
(Reuters, 10/30/15)
2015 Oct 31, The US-led coalition conducted nine air strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria and 16 in Iraq. Air strikes by Turkish and US aircraft in Syria killed more than 50 Islamic State militants and wounded around 30.
(Reuters, 11/1/15)
2015 Nov 1, Turkey held parliamentary elections. The AKP won 49% of the vote, consolidating support from the right to claw back a parliamentary majority that will bolster Pres. Tayyip Erdogan's grip on power.
(AFP, 11/1/15)(Reuters, 11/2/15)(Econ, 11/7/15, p.48)
2015 Nov 2, Turkish airstrikes hit shelters, underground bunkers and weapon emplacements belonging to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in six locations in northern Iraq, including the Qandil mountains where the rebel leadership is based.
(AP, 11/3/15)
2015 Nov 2, The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) charged in a damning report that Turkey's election was marred by a media crackdown, violence and other security concerns.
(AFP, 11/2/15)
2015 Nov 3, Turkish police detained 44 suspects including high-ranking bureaucrats and police officers as part of a probe into supporters of a US-based cleric accused of plotting to bring down President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 11/3/15)
2015 Nov 3, Turkish authorities arrested two editors of a political weekly on charges of inciting an armed uprising against the government for suggesting on the magazine's front page that the aftermath of Turkey's election would mark the start of a civil war.
(AP, 11/3/15)
2015 Nov 3, Turkish security forces backed by helicopters imposed a curfew in parts of a town in the largely Kurdish southeast, where three people were killed in clashes.
(Reuters, 11/3/15)
2015 Nov 4, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for a new constitution that would give him greater powers, heightening opposition fears over authoritarian rule.
(AFP, 11/4/15)
2015 Nov 4, In Turkey 2 soldiers and 15 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants were killed fighting near the village of Daglica by the Iraqi border. A 20-year-old man was shot dead in the town of Silvan, where authorities ordered a round-the-clock curfew in three neighborhoods for a second successive day
(Reuters, 11/4/15)
2015 Nov 5, Turkey, said it was planning to soon launch a military campaign against IS. Turkey shares an 800-km (500-mile) border with northern Syria.
(AFP, 11/5/15)
2015 Nov 5, In southeastern Turkey 18 people were killed in clashes with the military, lifting this week's death toll to almost 40 in the mainly Kurdish area and dampening prospects for a ceasefire.
(Reuters, 11/5/15)
2015 Nov 5, Kurdish militants scrapped a month-old ceasefire in Turkey, a day after President Tayyip Erdogan vowed to "liquidate" them.
(Reuters, 11/5/15)
2015 Nov 6, Turkish Airlines canceled flights to Sharm al-Sheikh in Egypt on Friday and Saturday nights over security concerns.
(Reuters, 11/6/15)
2015 Nov 6, The US military deployed six F-15C fighter jets to Turkey's southern Incirlik air base to help defend Turkish airspace against potential intruders.
(AP, 11/6/15)
2015 Nov 9, In Turkey a taxi driver was killed and five other people, including a police officer, were wounded when security forces clashed with Kurdish militants in the southeastern town of Silvan.
(Reuters, 11/9/15)
2015 Nov 9, Turkish media reported that anti-terrorist police have detained 38 foreigners, including women and children, who were reportedly seeking to join the Islamic State group in Syria. The suspects included nationals from Iraq, Iran, Indonesia and several central Asian nations.
(AFP, 11/9/15)
2015 Nov 10, The EU accused Ankara of backsliding on rule of law, rights and the media and urged it to react swiftly, in a sensitive report on Turkey's candidacy for the bloc that Brussels had delayed until after elections.
(AFP, 11/10/15)
2015 Nov 10, Kurdish rebels detonated a bomb on a road in southeast Turkey, wounding six soldiers riding inside an armored military vehicle. 3 policemen were killed when PKK militants detonated an improvised explosive device on a road near the town of Silopi, in Sirnak province.
(AP, 11/10/15)(AP, 11/11/15)
2015 Nov 11, In Turkey a soldier was killed in a clash with Kurdish militants in the town of Silvan, in Diyarbakir province. PKK rebels detonated a car bomb on a road in the town of Dargecit, Mardin province, as an armored police vehicle was passing by. The explosion killed a road-sweeper and wounded a police officer.
(AP, 11/11/15)
2015 Nov 11, A wooden boat carrying dozens of migrants sank off the Turkish coast, killing 14 people including 7 children.
(AP, 11/11/15)
2015 Nov 13, Turkish officials said 14 people have been killed in clashes between Kurdish rebels and security forces days before a G-20 summit in Turkey.
(AP, 11/13/15)
2015 Nov 14, Turkish security forces killed 4 suspected IS militants near the Syrian border in the southeastern province of Gaziantep.
(AFP, 11/18/15)
2015 Nov 15, In Turkey a suicide bomber opened fire on police and then blew himself up during their raid on a suspect Islamic State militant hideout near the border with Syria, injuring five police officers.
(AP, 11/15/15)
2015 Nov 15, Speaking at a G20 leaders summit in Turkey US President Barack Obama vowed to step up efforts to eliminate Islamic State in Syria and prevent it from carrying out attacks like those in Paris, while European leaders urged Russia to focus its military efforts on the radical Islamists. Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on the need for UN-sponsored peace talks and a ceasefire to resolve years of war in Syria.
(Reuters, 11/15/15)(AFP, 11/15/15)
2015 Nov 17, Turkish security forces killed one suspected Islamic State (IS) militant seeking to cross into Turkey from Syria and arrested 21 others.
(AFP, 11/18/15)
2015 Nov 20, Turkish media reported that authorities have seized close to the Syrian border a record haul of almost 11 million pills of the synthetic stimulant drug captagon which is believed to play a crucial part in Syria's civil war. It has been repeatedly dubbed as the drug fueling Syria's civil war since its production provides income for the warring factions and also keeps fighters awake and energized over long periods.
(AFP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, Turkish army warplanes carried out a wave of air strikes on northern Iraq hitting 23 suspected targets of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AFP, 11/21/15)
2015 Nov 21, A Turkish official said a Belgian man of Moroccan origin has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in Islamic State's Nov 13 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people. Ahmet Dahmani (26) was arrested at a luxury hotel in the southern coastal city of Antalya after traveling from Amsterdam on Nov 14.
(Reuters, 11/21/15)
2015 Nov 21, Turkish warplanes struck Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant targets, part of an air and ground offensive against the group in southeast Turkey, where some areas have been under curfew for as long as ten days.
(Reuters, 11/22/15)
2015 Nov 21, Syrian rebels backed by Turkey and the United States seized two villages from Islamic State (IS) jihadists close to the Turkish border after fierce fighting.
(AFP, 11/21/15)
2015 Nov 24, Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu unveiled a new cabinet stacked with loyal allies of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, including his son-in-law who was named energy minister.
(AFP, 11/24/15)
2015 Nov 24, Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border, saying it had repeatedly violated its air space, one of the most serious publicly acknowledged clashes between a NATO member country and Russia for half a century. The pilot was shot dead by rebels as he parachuted to the ground.
(Reuters, 11/24/15)(Reuters, 11/25/15)
2015 Nov 25, The surviving crew member of a Russian warplane shot down by Turkey said the plane received no warnings from the Turkish Air Force and did not fly over Turkish air space. Navigator Konstantin Murakhtin was rescued by Russian and Syrian special forces after ejecting from the plane. The US said data showed the Russian aircraft had transited Turkish airspace.
(Reuters, 11/25/15)(SFC, 11/26/15, p.A4)
2015 Nov 26, Russia threatened economic retaliation against Turkey and said it was still awaiting a reasonable explanation for the shooting down of its warplane, but Turkey dismissed the threats as "emotional" and "unfitting".
(Reuters, 11/26/15)
2015 Nov 27, Turkish media said the government has "temporarily" suspended air strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria after the downing of a Russian warplane on the Syrian border sparked a major row with Moscow.
(AFP, 11/27/15)
2015 Nov 27, In Turkey hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Istanbul office of an opposition newspaper, accusing the government of silencing critics and attempting to cover-up a scandal after two journalists were jailed on terror and espionage charges for their reports on alleged Turkish arms smuggling to Syria.
(AP, 11/27/15)
2015 Nov 27, Russia said it would suspend its visa-free regime for Turkish nationals from January 1 as it retaliates against Ankara for the downing of a Russian warplane.
(AFP, 11/27/15)
2015 Nov 27, At least six children drowned in two separate incidents when their boats sank off Turkey while trying to make the risky crossing to Greece.
(AFP, 11/27/15)
2015 Nov 28, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed "sadness" over Turkey's downing of a Russian warplane that has severely strained relations. Erdogan said the climate change summit in Paris next week could be a chance to repair relations with Moscow.
(AFP, 11/28/15)(Reuters, 11/28/15)
2015 Nov 28, In southeastern Turkey police killed Tahir Elci (49), a prominent Kurdish lawyer, during a shootout between police and militants. The pro-Kurdish HDP Party called it a "planned assassination" and urged people to take to the streets in protest. Police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse around 2,000 people marching in Istanbul's Taksim Square after Elci was shot dead in Diyarbakir. Shortly before Elci's killing, two police officers were shot dead after they stopped a "suspicious vehicle" in a nearby street. In 2020 three police officers went on trial for the killing of Elci.
(Reuters, 11/28/15)(Reuters, 11/30/15)(AP, 10/21/20)
2015 Nov 29, Turkey recovered the body of Russian pilot Oleg Peshkov from northern Syria and presented it to Russian diplomats, five days after shooting down his warplane in an incident that wrecked relations between the two countries.
(Reuters, 11/29/15)
2015 Nov 29, Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu struck a deal with EU leaders to prevent migrants from traveling to Europe in return for 3 billion euros (dollars) in cash, a deal on visas and renewed talks on joining the 28-nation bloc.
(Reuters, 11/30/15)
2015 Nov 30, Turkish authorities rounded up some 1,300 migrants that they said were planning to sail to Greece from hideouts near secluded Aegean beaches and forests.
(Reuters, 11/30/15)
2015 Nov 30, Russia said it will restrict imports of Turkish fruit and vegetables as part of a package of new sanctions following the downing of a Russian warplane by Turkey last week. Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu said his country would not apologize to Russia for shooting down the warplane and said he hoped Russia would reconsider sanctions.
(AP, 11/30/15)
2015 Dec 1, In Turkey 6 children died in a fire that broke out at a school teaching the Quran in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir.
(AP, 12/1/15)
2015 Dec 1, NATO allies sought to strengthen Turkey's defenses along its Syrian border after the United States withdrew its missile defense battery for modernization.
(Reuters, 12/1/15)
2015 Dec 2, Russia's defense ministry said it had proof that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his family were benefiting from the illegal smuggling of oil from Islamic State-held territory in Syria and Iraq.
(Reuters, 12/2/15)
2015 Dec 3, A Turkish court sentenced three men to life in prison over the Feb 11 murder and attempted rape of female student Ozgecan Aslan (20.
(AFP, 12/3/15)
2015 Dec 3, Turkey said it has agreed with Azerbaijan to accelerate the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), with an aim to have the gas projected completed before the planned 2018.
(Reuters, 12/3/15)
2015 Dec 3, The foreign ministers of Turkey and Russia met in Belgrade in the first high-level bilateral talks since the downing of a Russian warplane by Turkish jets sparked an unprecedented crisis.
(AFP, 12/3/15)
2015 Dec 3, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters work on Turkish Stream, a pipeline intended to pump Russian gas into southeastern Europe via Turkey while bypassing Ukraine, had been suspended.
(Reuters, 12/3/15)
2015 Dec 4, Turkish media said authorities have rounded up in the past four days nearly 3,000 migrants planning to cross the Aegean Sea to EU member Greece.
(AFP, 12/4/15)
2015 Dec 4, Turkish media said more than 100 Turkish soldiers have been deployed to an area near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which is under Islamic State control, to replace a unit providing training to Iraqi troops.
(AFP, 12/4/15)
2015 Dec 5, In Turkey 3 members of the security forces were killed in clashes with militants the mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, Iraqi President Fouad Massoum called the deployment of several hundred Turkish troops inside Iraq near the northern city of Mosul "a violation of international norms and law".
(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 7, Turkey said it would not withdraw hundreds of soldiers who arrived last week at a base in northern Iraq, despite being ordered by Baghdad to pull them out within 48 hours.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, Lawyers hired by the Turkish government filed a civil suit against cleric Fethullah Gulen, a political enemy of President Tayyip Erdogan, in a US court alleging human rights abuses. Gulen has lived in Pennsylvania since 1999.
(Reuters, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 8, Six Afghan children drowned after a rubber dinghy carrying migrants to Greece sank off Turkey's Aegean coast.
(AP, 12/8/15)
2015 Dec 9, Turkey said its fighter jets carried out a new barrage of air strikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq overnight.
(AFP, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 10, A Turkish news agency said authorities have begun constructing a wall along a 82-km (50-mile) stretch of Turkey's border with Syria that is under the control of the Islamic State group on the Syrian side.
(AP, 12/10/15)
2015 Dec 11, President Tayyip Erdogan declared he would not bow to Iraqi demands he withdraw Turkish troops from a camp close to the Islamic State-held city of Mosul. Baghdad said it would ask the UN Security Council to order them to leave.
(Reuters, 12/11/15)
2015 Dec 11, Turkey issued arrest warrants for US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen and 66 others, pressing President Tayyip Erdogan's campaign to root out the influence of the former ally he accuses of trying to topple him.
(Reuters, 12/11/15)
2015 Dec 11, Turkey's state-run news agency said the country's communications authority has imposed a 150,000 Turkish Lira (US$51,000) fine on Twitter for failing to remove content it said praised terror and incited violence.
(AP, 12/11/15)
2015 Dec 12, Thousands of Iraqis protested against Ankara's deployment of troops to a base near the northern city of Mosul.
(Reuters, 12/12/15)
2015 Dec 13, Russia warned Turkey to stop staging what it called provocations against its forces in or near Syria after one of its warships fired warning shots at a Turkish vessel in the Aegean to avoid a collision.
(Reuters, 12/13/15)
2015 Dec 14, Turkey said it withdrew some of its soldiers from a camp in Iraq, days after Iraq had demanded that Turkish troops immediately leave its territory.
(AP, 12/14/15)
2015 Dec 14, In southeastern Turkey 2 protesters were killed in clashes with police in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir amid growing tensions over a days-long curfew.
(AFP, 12/14/15)
2015 Dec 15, In Turkey 8 Kurdish militants were killed in Cizre after they shot at the soldiers during an operation. A roadside bomb ripped through an armored vehicle and killed 3 policemen in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 12/16/15)
2015 Dec 16, Turkey's ambassador to Qatar said Turkey will establish a military base in Qatar as part of a defense agreement aimed at helping them confront common enemies.
(Reuters, 12/16/15)
2015 Dec 16, Turkish security forces stepped up operations targeting Kurdish militants in southeastern towns, as pro-government media detailed plans for a 10,000-strong force to restore state control in the region.
(Reuters, 12/16/15)
2015 Dec 17, Turkey said its security forces have killed 25 Kurdish militants this week as they battle suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the two flashpoint towns of Cizre and Silopi.
(AFP, 12/17/15)
2015 Dec 18, Turkish security forces pressed on with a relentless operation to root out Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels from two urban centers in the troubled southeast that has left at least 55 militants dead and angered Kurdish representatives.
(AFP, 12/18/15)
2015 Dec 18, A Turkish government official said authorities at Istanbul's main airport have detained two people suspected of attempting to smuggle 148 blank European passports concealed in pizza-making equipment.
(AP, 12/18/15)
2015 Dec 19, Turkey said 69 Kurdish insurgents and two Turkish soldiers have been killed in four days of fighting across the southeast as security forces ramp up operations against the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 19, Turkey said it would "continue" to pull its troops out of northern Iraq after US President Barack Obama urged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to do so in order to de-escalate tensions with Baghdad over the deployment.
(AFP, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 19, Turkish media reported that 18 people drowned overnight when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea as it was heading for the Greek island of Kalymnos.
(AFP, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 20, In southeastern Turkey armed clashes persisted, where an operation by Turkish forces intensified on the sixth day of a campaign that security sources said had resulted in the death of 110 Kurdish militants. Turkish police fired tear gas to disperse several hundred protesters in Istanbul's main Taksim square demonstrating against security operations and curfews in the southeast.
(Reuters, 12/20/15)
2015 Dec 22, Turkish tanks pounded Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in Cizre. The army said it has killed 127 Kurdish militants in a week.
(Reuters, 12/22/15)
2015 Dec 22, Turkish police killed two female "terrorists" in a pre-dawn raid on a cell of suspected militants in Istanbul.
(AFP, 12/22/15)
2015 Dec 22, Eleven migrants bound for EU member Greece, including 3 children, drowned off the Turkish coast.
(AFP, 12/22/15)
2015 Dec 23, In Turkey a female cleaner was killed and another wounded after an explosion near a plane at Istanbul's second international airport. A mortar attack was the cause of a deadly incident at Sabiha Gokcen airport.
(AFP, 12/23/15)(AFP, 1/7/16)
2015 Dec 24, Turkey said another 19 people, including 6 children, drowned in the waters of the Aegean off the coast of the Turkish city of Izmir after their boat capsized.
(AP, 12/24/15)
2015 Dec 24, Turkish Internet servers suffered a powerful cyberattack, slowing banking services and fanning fears that it could be a politically motivated attack from abroad.
(AFP, 12/25/15)
2015 Dec 25, In Turkey a three-month-old baby and her grandfather were killed when they became caught in the crossfire between security forces and Kurdish rebels in Cizre.
(AFP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 27, In Turkey 3 soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the town of Cizre in the Kurdish majority southeast.
(AFP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 27, In Turkey Naji Jerf, a Syrian journalist and filmmaker who documented atrocities by the Islamic State, was killed in Gaziantep. On Jan 10 state media reported the arrest of three people in relation to the killing.
(SFC, 12/25/15, p.A2)(AFP, 1/10/16)
2015 Dec 28, A Turkish court remanded in custody a 17-year-old construction worker on charges of "insulting" Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Facebook.
(AFP, 12/28/15)
2015 Dec 28, In Syria buses and ambulances carrying around 450 fighters and civilians evacuated from two besieged areas crossed into Turkey and Lebanon.
(Reuters, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the leader of the main Kurdish party Selahattin Demirtas (42) of "treason" over his call for autonomy for the country's Kurdish minority.
(AFP, 12/29/15)
2015 Dec 29, In Turkey a former soccer referee won a court case against Turkey's football federation which he has accused of outing him as a homosexual and stripping him of his license to referee games because of his sexual orientation. The court ordered the federation to pay Halil Ibrahim Dincdag 23,000 lira (US$8,000) in compensation.
(AP, 12/29/15)
2015 Dec 31, In Turkey hundreds of flights were cancelled from Istanbul's two main airports after the city was hit by a picturesque but troublesome snowfall.
(AFP, 12/31/15)
2015 Sean McMeekin authored “The Ottoman Endgame: War Revoloution and the Making of the Modern Middle East."
(Econ, 10/31/15, p.80)
2015 Eugene Rogan authored “The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East."
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.85)
2015 Thomas de Waal authored “Great Catastrophe: Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide."
(Econ., 4/18/15, p.75)
2015 Turkish businessman Akin Ipek, who built a multi-billion-dollar fortune in Turkey based on gold mining, left the country after relations between the government and followers of US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen soured.
(AP, 4/9/19)
2016 Jan 1, Turkish media reported that 2 police officers, a soldier and 12 Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters were killed in the southeast in the last 48 hours in operations to push back the militant group.
(Reuters, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 3, In Turkey more than 200 people in Istanbul protested peacefully against curfews and operations in mainly Kurdish cities and towns in the southeast, where security forces and Kurdish militants are locked in an intensifying conflict.
(AP, 1/3/16)
2016 Jan 4, Turkish security sources said 2 civilians, 2 soldiers and a police officer have been killed in the southeast over the last 24 hours as military operations to root out armed fighters focused on urban centers across the mainly Kurdish region. 3 female Kurdish political activists were killed in fighting in curfew-hit Silopi town as the authorities press an offensive against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 1/4/16)(AFP, 1/6/16)
2016 Jan 5, Turkey’s military said security forces have killed at least 14 militants in the mainly Kurdish southeast over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 1/5/16)
2016 Jan 5, In Turkey the bodies of 36 migrants, at least seven of them children, were found at two sites along the Aegean coast after they apparently tried to cross to the nearby Greek island of Lesbos.
(AP, 1/5/16)
2016 Jan 5, Turkish forces, acting on a tip, conducted an operation on a Bolivian-flagged ship in international waters off the coast of Libya and seized 13 tons of marijuana. It was Turkey's first anti-narcotics operation in international waters.
(AP, 1/6/16)
2016 Jan 7, In Iraq clashes between a joint Turkish-Iraqi force and Islamic State militants near the Bashiqa camp training camp outside the city of Mosul reportedly left at least 18 IS fighters dead. The commander of the training camp, Maj Gen. Mohammed Yahya, said there were no such clashes.
(AP, 1/8/16)
2016 Jan 8, Turkish police detained six people including local officials from the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) in a raid on one of its Istanbul offices.
(Reuters, 1/8/16)
2016 Jan 8, Turkey’s armed forces killed 16 PKK fighters in the town of Cizre, near the Syrian border. Another two rebels were killed in the historical Sur district of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 1/9/16)
2016 Jan 9, In Turkey 16 rebels were killed in the towns of Cizre and Silopi, near the Syrian and Iraqi borders, and another four were killed in Sur.
(Reuters, 1/10/16)
2016 Jan 10, In Turkey a soldier and a police officer were killed in Diyarbakir when they came under explosives and rifle fire in a clash with rebels in which 14 security personnel were also wounded. Police killed a further 12 PKK members after finding them in a house in the southeastern city of Van overnight.
(Reuters, 1/10/16)
2016 Jan 12, In Turkey a suicide bomber thought to have crossed recently from Syria killed himself and 10 German tourists, in Istanbul's historic heart. PM Ahmet Davutoglu blamed the attack on the Islamic State. Finger prints soon identified the bomber as Saudi-born Syrian Nabil Fadli. An 11th German victim died of wounds on Jan 26.
(Reuters, 1/12/16)(Reuters, 1/13/16)(SSFC, 1/17/16, p.A5)(AFP, 1/28/16)
2016 Jan 14, Turkey said that seven people have been detained in connection with the Jan 12 suicide bombing in Istanbul's historic district that killed 10 German tourists. PM Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkish ground forces have pounded Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria with intense shelling of some 500 IS positions over the last 48 hours.
(Reuters, 1/14/16)(AFP, 1/14/16)
2016 Jan 14, In southeast Turkey Kurdish militants attacked a police station overnight with a truck bomb, killing 6 people including a baby and two toddlers in Cinar.
(Reuters, 1/14/16)
2016 Jan 14, Turkish authorities discovered the bodies of seven would-be migrants to Greece on western Turkish beaches.
(AFP, 1/14/16)
2016 Jan 15, Turkey announced that it is to grant work permits to Syrian refugees, in a key move which could allow Syrians to build more prosperous and stable lives in the country.
(AFP, 1/15/16)
2016 Jan 15, Turkish police detained more than a dozen academics who signed a petition criticizing the military crackdown in the Kurdish-dominated southeast that angered President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, triggering new alarm about freedom of expression in the country.
(AFP, 1/15/16)
2016 Jan 18, In Turkey at least one person was killed and one more seriously wounded when a rocket fired from a jihadist-controlled area in Syria slammed into a schoolyard in the border town of Kilis. Turkey’s Anadolu Agency said the three officers succumbed to their wounds after being hit by a roadside bomb in Sirnak's Idil district, near the Syrian and Iraqi borders. Kurdish militants were blamed.
(AFP, 1/18/16)(AP, 1/18/16)
2016 Jan 20, German and Turkish police announced major coordinated raids against a criminal trafficking network that used unseaworthy ships to send more than 1,700 refugees to Europe.
(AFP, 1/20/16)
2016 Jan 22, At least 46 people, including 17 children, drowned when their boats capsized off two Greek islands near the Turkish coast.
(Reuters, 1/22/16)(SFC, 1/23/16, p.A2)
2016 Jan 23, A Turkish soldier was killed in a clash between the security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the southeastern town of Cizre. 7 PKK members were reported "neutralized".
(Reuters, 1/23/16)
2016 Jan 25, Turkey's foreign minister said any participation of Kurdish forces in planned Syria peace talks would be dangerous and spell the end of the UN-led initiative.
(AP, 1/25/16)
2016 Jan 26, Turkey’s security forces killed 11 PKK members in the town of Cizre, near the Syrian border, and nine more in Sur. 3 soldiers were killed in a militant attack in Sur.
(Reuters, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 27, In southeastern Turkey thousands of people fled a district of the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir after authorities fighting Kurdish militants there expanded a 24-hour curfew to include five more neighborhoods.
(AP, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 30, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan embarked on a major tour of Latin American countries in a bid to expand Ankara's ties outside its traditional sphere of influence.
(AFP, 1/30/16)
2016 Jan 30, Turkey said another Russian warplane violated its airspace a day earlier despite several warnings President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Moscow that it would be forced to "endure the consequences" if its jets continue to violate Turkish airspace, after Ankara reported a new border infringement incident by a Russian plane.
(AP, 1/30/16)
2016 Jan 30, At least 37 people drowned and 75 others were rescued after a boat carrying migrants to Greece sank off Turkey's western coast.
(AFP, 1/30/16)
2016 Feb 2, In Turkey Ismail Akkol of the outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) was detained with another militant on suspicion of planning a suicide bombing in the capital Ankara. On Feb 4 charged the radical leftwing militant was charged over the 1996 assassination of industrialist Ozdemir Sabanci.
(AFP, 2/4/16)
2016 Feb 2, Nine people, including two babies, were found drowned off the coast of western Turkey after a boat carrying people to Greece partly capsized.
(Reuters, 2/2/16)
2016 Feb 4, Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu said tens of thousands of Syrians are moving toward the Turkish border from the Syrian city of Aleppo due to increased aerial bombardment.
(Reuters, 2/4/16)
2016 Feb 7, Aid trucks and ambulances entered Syria from Turkey to deliver food and supplies to tens of thousands of people fleeing an escalating government assault on Aleppo, as air strikes targeted villages on the road north to the Turkish border.
(Reuters, 2/7/16)
2016 Feb 8, Twenty-four migrants, including 11 children, drowned in the Aegean Sea as they tried to cross from Turkey to Greece.
(AFP, 2/8/16)
2016 Feb 9, Turkish soldiers spotted seven PKK militants entering Sirnak province's Cizre district from Syria and, as they clashed, one soldier was killed and one wounded. Military officials have detained a group of 34 people at the border with Syria and seized luggage containing four suicide vests and explosives.
(Reuters, 2/10/16)
2016 Feb 10, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported that one police officer was killed and another wounded when PKK rebels launched a rocket attack on an armored vehicle in Sirnak.
(Reuters, 2/10/16)(AP, 2/10/16)
2016 Feb 11, Turkey said that its security forces have completed their operations against militants in Cizre after weeks of fighting. Turkish security forces killed 27 militants in the mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 2/12/16)
2016 Feb 12, A Turkish deputy prime minister said up to 40,000 refugees have settled in camps on the Turkish border inside Syria in the latest wave of migration.
(Reuters, 2/12/16)
2016 Feb 13, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Saudi Arabia will send aircraft to NATO-member Turkey's Incirlik air base for the fight against Islamic State militants in Syria.
(Reuters, 2/13/16)
2016 Feb 14, The Turkish army shelled positions held by Kurdish-backed militia in northern Syria for a second day, killing two fighters.
(Reuters, 2/14/16)
2016 Feb 15, Turkish security forces hit Kurdish militia targets in Syria for the third day in a row after a border security outpost on the border was attacked this morning.
(Reuters, 2/15/16)
2016 Feb 17, Police in northeastern Turkey clashed for a 2nd day with hundreds of activists and local residents trying to prevent the construction of a copper mine in the mountainous Cerattepe area.
(AP, 2/17/16)
2016 Feb 17, In Turkey a car laden with explosives detonated next to military buses as they waited at traffic lights near the armed forces' headquarters, parliament and government buildings in the administrative heart of Ankara. 28 people were killed. Within hours, Turkish warplanes bombed bases in northern Iraq of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which PM Davutoglu accused of collaborating in the car bombing. A Turkey-based Kurdish militant group later claimed responsibility. A 29th victim died of his wounds on Feb 23.
(Reuters, 2/18/16)(AP, 2/23/16)
2016 Feb 18, Six Turkish security force members were killed and one soldier was seriously wounded in a blast in the mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 2/18/16)
2016 Feb 19, Two Turkish soldiers and one police officer were killed in an attack by Kurdish militants in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 2/19/16)
2016 Feb 24, Turkish military helicopters killed 9 Kurdish militants in strikes near the southeastern Idil district of Sirnak province.
(Reuters, 2/24/16)
2016 Feb 25, NATO envoys set out how ships already sent to the Aegean will pass reconnaissance to Turkish and Greek coastguards and the EU border agency Frontex, as well as returning to Turkey any migrants in distress that NATO crews rescue.
(Reuters, 2/25/16)
2016 Feb 26, Turkey freed Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet, and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul, imprisoned for their reports on alleged government arms-smuggling to Syria, hours after the Constitutional Court ruled that their rights were violated. Both journalists faced possible life sentences at a trial due to start on March 25 and are banned from leaving the country.
(AP, 2/26/16)(AP, 2/28/16)
2016 Feb 27, Turkish police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters who demonstrated against a three-month military crackdown backed by a curfew in the mainly Kurdish southeastern city of Diyarbakir.
(AFP, 2/27/16)
2016 Feb 28, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he did not respect or accept a constitutional court ruling that the detention of two journalists from a leading opposition newspaper had violated their rights.
(Reuters, 2/28/16)
2016 Feb 28, Turkish security said a police officer was killed and two wounded when suspected Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants fired a rocket at their armored vehicle in the town of Nusaybin near the southeastern border with Syria.
(Reuters, 2/28/16)
2016 Feb 29, Turkey's justice minister said as many as 1,845 cases have been opened against people accused of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since he came to office in 2014.
(AP, 3/2/16)
2016 Feb 29, A Turkish stock exchange filing said authorities have shut down media businesses seized last year from Koza Ipek Holding, a conglomerate linked to a US-based preacher accused of plotting against President Tayyip Erdogan.
(Reuters, 3/1/16)
2016 Feb 29, Turkish armed forces shelled positions of the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria in coordination with the US-led international anti-jihadist coalition.
(AFP, 2/29/16)
2016 Mar 1, Russia called for the Syrian-Turkish border to be closed, saying arms were being hidden in humanitarian aid convoys and channeled to fighters of Islamic State and its allies.
(Reuters, 3/1/16)
2016 Mar 2, In southeastern Turkey residents of Cizre began returning home after authorities partially lifted a curfew in place since December for a controversial operation against Kurdish rebels which left many homes devastated. 3 soldiers and 10 Kurdish PKK militants were killed in clashes in Mardin province and Diyarbakir.
(AFP, 3/2/16)(Reuters, 3/3/16)
2016 Mar 3, Turkish police killed two female leftist militants who hurled grenades and opened fire at an Istanbul police station. The women were identified as members of the banned Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army (DHKP-C).
(AFP, 3/3/16)(SFC, 3/4/16, p.A2)
2016 Mar 4, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish rebels detonated a car bomb near a police station, killing two police officers and wounding some 35 people.
(AP, 3/4/16)
2016 Mar 4, An Istanbul court ordered into administration the Zaman daily newspaper, sharply critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, adding to growing alarm over freedom of expression in the country.
(AFP, 3/4/16)
2016 Mar 4, A Turkish court sentenced two Syrians to four years in jail over the drowning of five people including toddler Aylan Kurdi, the image of whose dead body sparked global sympathy last September over the fate of migrants.
(Reuters, 3/4/16)
2016 Mar 4, Turkey’s PM Ahmet Davutoglu visited Tehran with six ministers and discussed a high-speed rail link that might bridge Lake Van and triple bilateral trade.
(Econ, 4/2/16, p.51)
2016 Mar 4, Russia's Defense Ministry said Turkey is shelling Kurdish units fighting against the Nusra Front in Syria, while columns of trucks with various cargo and weapons for rebels cross into Syria from Turkey daily.
(Reuters, 3/4/16)
2016 Mar 5, Turkish police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters outside the country's biggest newspaper, Zaman, after authorities seized control of it in a crackdown on a religious group whose leader the government accuses of treason.
(Reuters, 3/5/16)
2016 Mar 5, Iran and Turkey said they aim to triple their annual trade to $30 billion within two years as Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu met Iran's first vice president Eshaq Jahangiri in Tehran. The two countries remained at odds over fighting in Syria.
(AFP, 3/5/16)
2016 Mar 6, A day after Turkey's top-selling newspaper Zaman was taken over by the state, it dropped its criticisms of the government and published flattering stories on President Tayyip Erdogan.
(Reuters, 3/6/16)
2016 Mar 6, The Turkish Coast Guard rescued 15 people and recovered 18 bodies in the Aegean Sea near the town of Didim. At least 25 people drowned including 3 children.
(Reuters, 3/6/16)(SFC, 3/7/16, p.A3)
2016 Mar 7, Turkey offered the EU greater help to stem a flood of migrants into Europe but demanded more money, faster accession talks and quicker visa-free travel for its citizens in exchange. EU leaders reached a tentative outline for a possible deal with Ankara and hoped to finalize a deal at 2-day summit beginning on March 17.
(Reuters, 3/7/16)(SFC, 3/8/16, p.A4)
2016 Mar 7, In southeastern Turkey 13 Kurdish militants were killed when a firefight broke out in the town of Idil. Two Turkish soldiers were killed in the last 24 hours, one in Idil and the other in Sur, a historic district in Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 3/7/16)
2016 Mar 7, An official in YPG, the Syrian Kurdish militia, said that Turkey was firing artillery shells at its fighters in northern Aleppo province.
(Reuters, 3/7/16)
2016 Mar 8, In southern Turkey 2 people, including a young child, were killed and another two people were wounded when the town of Kilis came under repeated rocket fire from across the Syrian border.
(Reuters, 3/8/16)
2016 Mar 8, Today marks the 108th annual International Women's Day. A rally in Istanbul ended violently when Turkish police fired rubber bullets into a crowd of hundreds of people and detained at least one woman.
(CSM, 3/8/16)
2016 Mar 9, Turkey ended its 3-month military operation against militants in mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.
(AP, 3/9/16)
2016 Mar 9, The Turkish military carried out air strikes against Kurdish rebel targets across the border in northern Iraq, killing at least 67 militants.
(AP, 3/12/16)
2016 Mar 9, Turkey's coastguard intercepted dozens of mostly Syrian migrants in coves along the Aegean coast as they continued to attempt perilous sea crossings to Greece despite Ankara's efforts to stem the flow under a deal with the European Union.
(Reuters, 3/9/16)
2016 Mar 9, Five Afghans, including two children and a six-month old baby, drowned late today in the Aegean trying to reach Greece as Turkey starts to implement an EU agreement to curb illegal migration.
(Reuters, 3/10/16)
2016 Mar 10, In southeastern Turkey 7 Kurdish militants were killed in a gun battle in Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 3/10/16)
2016 Mar 13, Turkey slapped a curfew on two border towns in the Kurdish-dominated southeast ahead of a looming military "clean-up" operation as it eased a lockdown in Diyarbakir. 37 people were killed in an Ankara car bombing that security officials said involved a female fighter of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(AFP, 3/13/16)(Reuters, 3/14/16)
2016 Mar 13, Russia accused Turkey of sending its military across the Syrian border to prevent Kurdish groups there from consolidating their positions.
(AP, 3/13/16)
2016 Mar 14, Turkey detained four suspects over the previous day’s suicide car bombing in Ankara, as warplanes pounded Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq over the attack. At least 45 Kurdish rebels were killed in the air strikes. Turkey declared a round-the-clock curfew in the southeastern town of Sirnak in order to carry out operations against Kurdish militants in the area.
(AFP, 3/14/16)(Reuters, 3/14/16)(AP, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 16, Turkish police detained eight lawyers as part of a crackdown on pro-Kurdish activists. At least 47 suspects were detained in anti-terror operations across the country.
(AFP, 3/16/16)(AP, 3/16/16)
2016 Mar 18, EU leaders approved a controversial deal with Turkey intended to halt illegal migration flows to Europe in return for financial and political rewards for Ankara.
(Reuters, 3/18/16)
2016 Mar 19, In Turkey a suicide bomber killed himself and four others in a central Istanbul shopping and tourism district, wounding at least 36 people in the fourth such attack in the country this year. Mehmet Ozturk (b.1992), a Turkish member of the Islamic State militant group, was responsible for the bombing that killed 3 Israelis and an Iranian.
(Reuters, 3/19/16)(Reuters, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 19, US FBI agents arrested Reza Zarrab (33), a Turkish-Iranian gold-trader married to a Turkish pop star, in Miami on charges he helped Iran process millions of dollars of transactions when it faced US sanctions for its nuclear program. Prosecutors later alleged that Zarrab had paid tens of millions to three Turkish ministers and the head of Halkbank tens of millions in bribes. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey were later hired to help defend Zarrab.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reza_Zarrab)(Reuters, 9/25/16)(Econ, 6/11/16, p.55)(AP, 4/3/17)
2016 Mar 21, Three Turkish soldiers were killed in a bomb attack on their military vehicle in the southeastern town of Nusaybin near the Syrian border. 23 Kurdish militants were killed in clashes in Nusaybin, Yuksekova and Sirnak.
(Reuters, 3/21/16)(Reuters, 3/22/16)
2016 Mar 21, In Turkey thousands of people gathered in the mainly Kurdish of Diyarbakir to celebrate the Newroz spring festival. The celebrations were banned in Ankara and in Istanbul, where security forces rounded up 164 people, including 12 minors, ahead of the festivities.
(AP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 22, In Turkey Kurdish militants killed 5 members of government security forces in three separate bomb attacks near the Syrian and Iranian borders.
(Reuters, 3/22/16)
2016 Mar 23, Turkish F-16 and F-4 jets raided 11 targets of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, including ammunition depots, bunkers and shelters late today.
(AP, 3/24/16)
2016 Mar 24, In Turkey 3 military police were killed and 22 injured in a car bombing on a barracks in in Mermer, Diyarbakir province, suspected to be the work of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AFP, 3/25/16)
2016 Mar 26, Turkish Air Force jets joined coalition forces in attacking Islamic State targets in northern Iraq, hours after a Turkish soldier was killed at a military base in the region from rockets fired by the extremist militants.
(AP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 29, In Turkey a fire at a refugee camp near the border with Syria killed three Syrian children and wounded six other people near the town of Derik, Mardin province.
(AP, 3/29/16)
2016 Mar 29, Turkey’s security forces killed 14 "terrorists" — a military reference to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party — in Mardin province, five in Sirnak and four in Hakkari. A total of 347 militants have been killed in those three regions since the start of security operations in July.
(AP, 3/30/16)
2016 Mar 31, In Turkey a car bomb attack killed 7 police officers and wounded 27 other people in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) soon claimed responsibility. On April 2 a suspect, named as A.C., was detained in the Kocakoy district of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 4/1/16)(AFP, 4/2/16)
2016 Mar 31, In Germany satirist Jan Boehmermann explained that he wanted to clarify the boundaries of free speech law and declaimed a series of fictional passages on TV depicting Turkey’s Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan engrossed in a series of athletically challenging sexual activities with barnyard animals.
(Econ, 4/16/16, p.43)
2016 Mar 31, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told Russia's RIA news agency that the army of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is fighting in Syria.
(Reuters, 3/31/16)
2016 Mar 31, US President Barack Obama reaffirmed the US commitment to Turkey's security during a meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, while also discussing both countries' efforts to fight Islamic State.
(Reuters, 3/31/16)
2016 Apr 1, Turkish warplanes carried out air strikes in northern Iraq, destroying ammunition depots and shelters in an areas where the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has camps.
(Reuters, 4/1/16)
2016 Apr 4, The Turkish military carried out airstrikes in northern Iraq against targets belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 4/5/16)
2016 Apr 4, It was reported that hackers have posted a database online the seems to contain the personal information of nearly 50 million Turkish citizens.
(SFC, 4/5/16, p.A2)
2016 Apr 4, Greece shipped 202 migrants back to Turkey, the first wave of deportations under a hugely controversial deal aimed at easing Europe's worst postwar migration crisis.
(AFP, 4/4/16)(Econ, 4/9/16, p.52)
2016 Apr 5, Turkish police detained almost 70 businessmen, local officials and teachers in a new nationwide sweep against supporters of Pres. Erdogan's arch foe.
(AFP, 4/5/16)
2016 Apr 7, In Turkey Mustafa Tanriverdi, who headed a factory run by the state-owned Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation, was arrested in Ankara as he left a restaurant after arranging to sell the designs to an official of a US-based company for a total of 1.2 million Turkish lira ($420,000).
(AP, 4/8/16)
2016 Apr 10, In Turkey the 13th annual meeting of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) opened in Istanbul.
(AFP, 4/10/16)
2016 Apr 12, Two Turkish soldiers were killed and more than 50 people wounded when a car bomb exploded at a military post in the restive Kurdish-dominated southeast.
(AP, 4/12/16)
2016 Apr 12, The Turkish army hit Islamic State targets in northern Syria, in response to cross-border rocket fire that struck a border town in southeastern Turkey for the second day in a row.
(Reuters, 4/12/16)
2016 Apr 12, Syrian journalist Mohammed Zahir al-Sherqat died from wounds after being shot April 10 in the Turkish city of Gaziantep. The shooting attack was claimed by the Islamic State.
(SFC, 4/13/16, p.A2)
2016 Apr 13, Turkey's armed forces launched new artillery strikes on jihadist positions in Syria, after three days of deadly fire on a Turkish border town that has left residents on edge.
(AFP, 4/13/16)
2016 Apr 14, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Muslim nations have agreed to establish a Turkey-based body to fight terrorism, as he urged the countries' leaders to examine the root causes of the migration crisis.
(AP, 4/14/16)
2016 Apr 16, In Turkey Iranian President Hassan Rouhani met with Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan. They vowed to boost trade between their two countries at talks following the lifting of most international sanctions on Tehran.
(AFP, 4/16/16)
2016 Apr 18, Turkish police detained at least 105 people, including top construction executives, in a new crackdown on supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's arch foe, the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.
(AFP, 4/18/16)
2016 Apr 18, In Turkey rocket projectiles fired from Syria killed 4 Syrians, three of them children, in the Turkish border town of Kilis.
(AP, 4/18/16)
2016 Apr 19, Turkish authorities detained 38 people suspected of "framing" soccer team Fenerbahce's players and directors in a match-fixing investigation in 2011.
(AP, 4/19/16)
2016 Apr 20, Turkish warplanes struck militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 4/20/16)
2016 Apr 21, Turkey's supreme court of appeals overturned the convictions of 275 people, including a former military chief, who allegedly plotted to overthrow the country's Islamist-leaning government. The decision opens the way for a re-trial and their possible acquittal.
(AP, 4/21/16)
2016 Apr 21, Turkish warplanes struck militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in southeastern Turkey.
(Reuters, 4/21/16)
2016 Apr 22, Disgraced tycoon Asil Nadir (74), jailed for stealing millions from his Polly Peck empire, was released from a Turkish prison just one night after being extradited from Britain. The Turkish Cypriot was convicted in 2012 of purloining nearly £29 million (37 million euros) -- the equivalent of more than £70 million in today's terms -- from the major UK conglomerate in the late 1980s.
(AFP, 4/22/16)
2016 Apr 23, Turkey said six foreign nationals were taken into custody in an overnight raid against Islamic State in the central Anatolian city of Konya.
(Reuters, 4/23/16)
2016 Apr 23, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and top European Union officials arrived near Turkey's border with Syria in a bid to bolster a troubled migration deal with Turkey as they face increasing pressure to reassess the agreement.
(AP, 4/23/16)
2016 Apr 24, Two rockets hit the Turkish town of Kilis near the Syrian border, wounding 16 people a day after the government promised to protect the area from repeated attacks by Islamic State militants.
(Reuters, 4/24/16)
2016 Apr 25, Turkey said it has deported more than 3,300 foreigners suspected of links to jihadi groups, particularly Islamic State militants, and another 41,000 foreigners have been barred from entering the country as part of its fight against the militant group.
(AP, 4/25/16)
2016 Apr 25, Turkey's military said it has destroyed Islamic State's missile launcher in Syria some 20 km from the border town of Kilis which has been repeatedly his by rockets from the border. 2 Turkish soldiers were killed and four wounded in an armed attack by Kurdish militants in the southeastern town of Nusaybin near the Syrian border.
(Reuters, 4/25/16)
2016 Apr 27, In Turkey a woman suicide bomber blew herself up in Bursa, killing herself and wounding at least 10 people.
(AFP, 4/27/16)
2016 Apr 28, In Turkey an Istanbul court sentenced two prominent journalists to two years behind bars for illustrating their columns with a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed published by French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.
(AFP, 4/28/16)
2016 Apr 30, The Turkish military says it conducted overnight airstrikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey.
(AP, 4/30/16)
2016 May 1, Turkish police clamped down on unauthorized protests during a tense May Day in Istanbul, using tear gas and water cannon against demonstrators and imposing a heavy security blanket on the city.
(AFP, 5/1/16)
2016 May 1, In Turkey a car bomb struck the entrance of a police station in the southern city of Gaziantep, killing 2 officials and injuring 23 other people. 3 Turkish soldiers were killed and 14 others wounded in an attack in the Kurdish-dominated southeast blamed on militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(AP, 5/1/16)(AFP, 5/1/16)(Econ, 5/21/16, p.48)
2016 May 2, Turkish warplanes pounded Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq, killing 18 militants.
(AP, 5/3/16)
2016 May 4, Turkey said its warplanes have destroyed targets belonging to the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in southeast Turkey.
(Reuters, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, The European Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation EU, gave conditional backing for Turks to get visa-free travel as part of a deal to solve the migrant crisis.
(AFP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 5, In Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu announced that he was stepping down as leader of the ruling AK Party and therefore as prime minister, bowing to President Tayyip Erdogan's drive to create a powerful executive presidency.
(Reuters, 5/5/16)
2016 May 6, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the European Union that Ankara will not change its anti-terrorism law, despite it being a condition laid down by Brussels to ensure visa-free travel for Turks.
(AFP, 5/6/16)
2016 May 6, The US government said it has suspended millions of dollars in funding to several organizations providing aid for Syria after discovering they were systematically overpaying Turkish companies for basic goods with the collusion of some of their staff.
(AFP, 5/10/16)
2016 May 7, Turkish artillery fired at the Islamic State group across the border in Syria, killing 55 militants and destroying three rocket launchers and three vehicles.
(AP, 5/8/16)
2016 May 8, In southeastern Turkey 9 PKK members were killed in the towns of Nusaybin and Sirnak.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, A Turkish soldier was killed in clashes in Nusaybin, located at the Syrian border and under a round-the-clock curfew since mid-March, as fighting continued in both Nusaybin and Sirnak throughout the day.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 10, In southeastern Turkey 3 people were killed and 23 wounded when a bomb-laden car detonated near a police vehicle in the strife-hit city of Diyarbakir. The state-run Anadolu news agency said the attack was carried out by the PKK.
(Reuters, 5/10/16)(SFC, 5/11/16, p.A2)
2016 May 12, In Turkey 15 militants were killed in clashes in Sirnak province. 4 suspected bomb makers were killed and 23 people were wounded when an explosion ripped through a village in the southeast as PKK militants loaded explosives onto a small truck. Authorities later identified the remains of 13 people from two families killed from more than 15 tons of explosives in the truck raising the death toll to 16.
(Reuters, 5/13/16)(AP, 5/17/16)
2016 May 13, In Turkey 6 soldiers were killed and eight were wounded in clashes with militants in the southeastern Hakkari province near the border with Iraq. A military helicopter sent to the area crashed due to a technical fault killing 2 pilots. 6 PKK militants were also killed in an operation in that region.
(Reuters, 5/13/16)(SFC, 5/14/16, p.A3)
2016 May 13, Turkish fighter jets carried out nine airstrikes against Kurdish rebels in the southeast of the country and northern Iraq. The warplanes reportedly destroyed 98 targets of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party.
(AP, 5/14/16)
2016 May 14, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported that Turkish military and US-led coalition forces killed 45 Islamic State militants in shelling and an air strike north of the Syrian city of Aleppo.
(Reuters, 5/14/16)
2016 May 15, A Turkish soldier and six members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed in the largely Kurdish southeast. The Turkish military killed 16 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters in an operation backed by air power near the Iranian border.
(Reuters, 5/15/16)(Reuters, 5/16/16)
2016 May 15, Turkish and US-led coalition forces struck Islamic State targets north of the Syrian city of Aleppo, killing 27 fighters. The United States and its allies conducted 14 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
(Reuters, 5/16/16)
2016 May 18, Turkish warplanes hit PKK targets overnight in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq, killing at least 10 fighters. 4 Turkish soldiers were killed and nine wounded when a bomb was detonated as their vehicle traveled past in the mainly Kurdish southeast of the country. Earlier today a soldier was killed in Nusaybin, situated at the Syrian border some 500 km (310 miles) away, when militants opened fire on him.
(Reuters, 5/18/16)
2016 May 19, Turkey's ruling party named Transport Minister Binali Yildirim, a loyal ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as the new prime minister.
(AFP, 5/19/16)
2016 May 20, Turkey's parliament approved a bill to amend the constitution to strip lawmakers of immunity, a move that paves the way for trials of several pro-Kurdish and other legislators. The bill put 138 lawmakers, the vast majority of them from two opposition parties, at risk of prosecution. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed the bill on June 7.
(AP, 5/20/16)(AFP, 6/8/16)
2016 May 22, Turkey's Transport Minister Binali Yildirim was formally appointed as head of the ruling party and as the new prime minister, strengthening the grip on power of his mentor President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 5/22/16)
2016 May 22, Turkish authorities lifted a long-standing curfew from parts of a historic neighborhood in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.
(AP, 5/22/16)
2016 May 23, In Turkey a new fund which aims to raise more than $3.8 billion for children's education in war zones and natural disasters was launched at the first ever World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul.
(Reuters, 5/23/16)
2016 May 27, US-led coalition airstrikes and Turkish artillery fire against the Islamic State group in Syria killed 104 militants.
(AP, 5/28/16)
2016 May 31, In Turkey a court convicted Merve Buyuksarac (27), a former Miss Turkey (2006), of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan through social media postings and gave her a 14-month suspended sentence.
(AP, 5/31/16)
2016 May 31, Turkey's President Recep Teyyep Edorgan arrived in Uganda to promote trade and tourism opportunities between the two countries.
(AP, 6/1/16)
2016 Jun 2, Turkey recalled its ambassador to Germany in protest against a parliament resolution declaring the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces a "genocide" at a time when Europe is looking for Ankara's help in the migrant crisis.
(Reuters, 6/2/16)
2016 Jun 3, A court in Turkey sentenced a Turkish man, Erdal E. (29), to 108 years in jail for sexually assaulting at least eight Syrian children while working as a cleaner at the refugee camp in Nizip in the southern Gaziantep province near the Syrian border.
(AFP, 6/4/16)
2016 Jun 3, In Somalia Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened a new Turkish embassy in Mogadishu on his third visit to the country.
(AP, 6/3/16)
2016 Jun 4, Turkey’s military said cross-border shelling by the Turkish army and air strikes by US-led coalition aircraft have killed 14 Islamic State militants in Syria.
(AP, 6/4/16)
2016 Jun 4, Turkish warplanes struck Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey and the army killed 27 fighters near its borders with Iraq and Iran.
(Reuters, 6/5/16)
2016 Jun 5, In Turkey more than 1,000 people attended a rally of a pro-Kurdish, opposition party in Istanbul to protest against the abolition of immunity of some Turkish members of parliament.
(AP, 6/5/16)
2016 Jun 5, In southern Turkey a bus carrying school children, teachers and parents plunged into an irrigation canal in Osmaniye province, killing 14 people including 6 children.
(AP, 6/6/16)
2016 Jun 6, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported that shelling by Turkey's military and attacks by US-led coalition aircraft have killed 7 Islamic State militants in Syria.
(Reuters, 6/6/16)
2016 Jun 7, In Turkey a rush-hour explosion killed 11 people and wounded 36 others in an attack on a bus carrying riot police in Istanbul. Police detained four people in connection with the attack.
(AP, 6/7/16)
2016 Jun 8, In Turkey a Kurdish rebel suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle outside a police headquarters near the border with Syria in Midyat, Mardin province. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group claimed responsibility for the bombing that killed six people.
(AP, 6/8/16)(Reuters, 6/9/16)
2016 Jun 8, In Syria US-led coalition airstrikes and Turkish artillery fire against Islamic State group targets reportedly killed 18 militants.
(AP, 6/9/16)
2016 Jun 8, RIA news agency, citing the Russian coordination center in Syria, reported that Russia's Defense Ministry has spotted the movement of over 160 Nusra Front fighters from Turkey into Syria to reinforce "terrorists" around the city of Aleppo.
(Reuters, 6/8/16)
2016 Jun 9, Turkey suspended the sale of fertilizers containing nitrate that are used to make explosives following car bombings this week that killed 17 people.
(SFC, 6/10/16, p.A2)
2016 Jun 10, Turkey's Justice Ministry said it has sent dozens of cases involving 57 lawmakers to public prosecutors after the president lifted their legal immunity. Most of the lawmakers at risk of prosecution belong to the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party, HDP, or the opposition Republican People's Party.
(AP, 6/10/16)
2016 Jun 10, In southern Turkey a truck slammed into a van carrying agricultural laborers, killing at least 10 people and injuring four others near the town of Eregli, in Konya province.
(AP, 6/10/16)
2016 Jun 11, Turkish warplanes killed 13 suspected Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the southeast province of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 6/11/16)
2016 Jun 12, In Turkey an explosion in central Istanbul killed one person and injured another. A gas leak was suspected.
(Reuters, 6/12/16)
2016 Jun 13, In Turkey a car-bomb attack apparently targeting court officials in the mainly-Kurdish southeast region injured at least 9 people in Ovacik, Tunceli province.
(AP, 6/13/16)
2016 Jun 13, In Turkey Ahmed Abdulkader, a Syrian journalist campaigning against Islamic State, was shot in the head by two Islamic State militants riding a motorcycle and is being treated in the intensive care unit of Sanliurfa state hospital.
(Reuters, 6/13/16)
2016 Jun 13, In Germany the chief editor of Turkish newspaper Hurriyet was presented with a Freedom of Speech award by German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle as concerns grow over press freedom in Turkey.
(AFP, 6/13/16)
2016 Jun 17, In Turkey the governor of Istanbul banned gay, lesbian and transgender individuals from holding pride parades at their usual venue, citing security concerns.
(AP, 6/17/16)
2016 Jun 18, Turkish fighter jets hit 16 PKK targets early today in the district of Lice, including shelters and ammunition depots.
(AP, 6/18/16)
2016 Jun 18, At least 8 Syrian refugees, including four children were allegedly shot dead by border guards while trying to cross the frontier into Turkey’s Hatay province.
(AP, 6/19/16)
2016 Jun 18, In Syria US-led coalition jets and Turkish artillery killed 13 Islamic State militants.
(Reuters, 6/18/16)
2016 Jun 19, In Turkey riot police in Istanbul fired rubber bullets and tear gas to prevent a "Trans Pride" event taking place during Ramadan.
(AFP, 6/20/16)
2016 Jun 26, Talks between Turkey and Israel to normalize relations advanced in talks as officials said a deal had been reached to end a rift dating back to 2010.
(Reuters, 6/27/16)
2016 Jun 27, Russia said Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has written to Russian leader Vladimir Putin to apologize over the shooting down of a Russian air force jet by Turkey's military last November.
(Reuters, 6/27/16)
2016 Jun 28, A Turkish official said military rules of engagement have been adjusted to allow NATO allies to carry out more patrol flights along its border with northern Syria. NATO was told about the move around three weeks ago.
(Reuters, 6/28/16)
2016 Jun 28, In Turkey a police officer was killed and seven people were wounded in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir when a bomb exploded as an armored police vehicle was passing.
(Reuters, 6/28/16)
2016 Jun 28, In Turkey three suspect Islamic State suicide bombers killed 41 people with gunfire and explosives at the Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport. Turkish Airlines resumed services in and out of Europe's third-busiest airport within 12 hours. The death toll soon rose to 44 as some of the wounded died. The suicide bombers were later identified as Russian, Uzbek and Kyrgyz nationals.
(Reuters, 6/29/16)(AP, 6/30/16)(Reuters, 6/30/16)
2016 Jun 28, Turkey and Israel signed a deal to restore ties after a six-year rift. Terms of the deal included the transfer of $20 million by Israel to a humanitarian fund that will compensate families of Turkish nationals killed and wounded during a 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
(Reuters, 6/28/16)(SSFC, 7/3/16, p.A6)
2016 Jun 29, In southeast Turkey a roadside bomb planted by Kurdish PKK militants ripped apart a military armored vehicle, killing 2 soldiers and wounding three others.
(Reuters, 6/29/16)
2016 Jun 30, Turkey's parliament approved sweeping plans late to restructure the high courts, in a victory for President Tayyip Erdogan that critics say will allow him to remove troublesome judges and tighten his grip over the judiciary.
(Reuters, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, A Turkish official said Mehmet Sirin Kaya, a mastermind of the February 17 suicide attack against military personnel in Ankara, has been killed in counter-terrorism operations in the Lice district of Diyarbakir province.
(AFP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 2, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Syrians could eventually be granted Turkish citizenship "if they want it", in remarks which were met with anger from opposition politicians and social media users.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 3, Turkey delivered humanitarian aid and other non-military products to Gaza. The Panama-flagged Lady Leyla landed in the Israeli port of Ashdod with 11,000 tons of supplies, including food packages of flour, rice, and sugar, as well as 10,000 toys.
(SFC, 7/4/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 4, Turkey charged thirteen suspects, including three foreign nationals, in connection with the June 28 suicide assault.
(AFP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 5, Turkey’s Dogan news agency reported that seventeen people including 11 Russians have been charged over the Istanbul airport attack, bringing to 30 the total number charged in connection with the suicide assault.
(AFP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 6, In Turkey 2 Syrians accidentally blew themselves up while handling explosives in a house in the southern border town of Reyhanli.
(Reuters, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 8, Turkish fighter jets struck Kurdish militant targets in southeastern Hakkari province and northern Iraq. The Turkish Army reportedly "neutralized 17 separatist terror organization members" in Hakkari province and two militants in Van province.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)(AP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants carried out a car bomb attack on a military outpost and then opened fire on the facility, killing two soldiers and a civilian and wounding dozens in the town of Cevizlik.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 10, In Turkey two Kurdish militant bomb attacks ripped through a military outpost and an army vehicle, killing 5 members of the armed forces in Hakkari province.
(Reuters, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 11, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended his plan to give Syrian refugees Turkish citizenship in comments published today, arguing the country has ample space after a backlash against the suggestion.
(AP, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 11, Human Rights Watch said Turkey's government is blocking access to independent investigations into alleged mass abuses against civilians in southeast Turkey, where security forces are fighting Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 15, Turkey foiled a coup attempt by a faction of the army against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rule. 161 people, not including the putschists, were reported killed in the coup attempt, with 2,839 soldiers detained on suspicion of involvement. More than 230 people were killed among them 145 civilians who had taken to the streets to confront the rebellious soldiers.
(AFP, 7/16/16)(Econ, 7/23/16, p.14)
2016 Jul 15, In Turkey Gen. Zekai Aksakalli ordered Sgt. Omer Halisdemir to kill Brigadier General Semih Terzi, one of the suspected coup ringleaders. By shooting Terzi dead outside special forces headquarters in Ankara, Halisdemir broke the putschists' chain of command although he was subsequently killed by the plotters.
(Reuters, 8/21/17)
2016 Jul 16, Turkish authorities imposed a security lockdown at the Incirlik air base in the southern province of Adana. Many international flights to Turkey were cancelled despite efforts by the Ankara authorities to get life back to normal following an abortive coup attempt. NTV reported that Turkish authorities have arrested 10 members of the Council of State, the country's top administrative court, and were searching for 140 members of the court of cassation in a probe related to the failed overnight coup. NTV also reported that authorities have removed 2,745 judges from duty.
(AFP, 7/16/16)(Reuters, 7/16/16)
2016 Jul 16, Turkish military helicopter landed in Greece carrying eight officers seeking asylum after a coup bid. Greece arrested all eight men.
(AFP, 7/16/16)(Reuters, 7/16/16)
2016 Jul 17, The Turkish government accelerated its crackdown on alleged plotters of the failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with the justice minister saying that 6,000 people had been detained in the investigation, including three of the country's top generals and hundreds of soldiers.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 17, The US-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS) group resumed air strikes from a Turkish air base that were suspended after a failed military coup d'etat.
(AFP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 18, Turkey launched fresh raids and sacked almost 9,000 officials in a relentless crackdown against suspects behind an attempted coup that left over 300 people dead, as Western allies warned against reinstating the death penalty. Turkish PM Binali Yildirim said a total of 232 individuals were killed during the failed coup attempt. He put the total numbers of detentions since July 15 at 7,543, including 6,030 military.
(AFP, 7/18/16)(TIME, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, In Turkey an unknown assailant shot deputy mayor Cemil Candas of Istanbul's Sisli district in the head and he was in a critical condition.
(Reuters, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 19, Turkey’s education ministry said 15,200 state education employees have been suspended after last week's attempted coup. Turkey's High Education Board ordered the resignation of 1,577 deans at all universities.
(AFP, 7/19/16)(Reuters, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, Turkey's central bank cut a key interest rate for the fifth month in a row, days after an attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan triggered concerns over the country's economic outlook.
(AP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, WikiLeaks released nearly 300,000 emails from Turkey’s AK Party dating from 2010 to July 6 this year. Obtained before the attempted coup, the date of their publication was brought forward "in response to the government's post-coup purges". In response Turkey blocked access to the WikiLeaks website.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 20, Turkey’s government declared a state of emergency for at least three months. State-run Anadolu news agency said the country's defense ministry has sacked at least 262 military court judges and prosecutors. An investigation was launched on all military judges and prosecutors as authorities continued with a crackdown on people suspected of backing a failed military coup, which the government has blamed on a US-based cleric.
(AP, 7/20/16)(Econ, 7/23/16, p.14)
2016 Jul 20, Turkish broadcaster NTV said Turkey’s military has carried out air strikes against members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, killing 20 militants.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 21, Turkey said it will follow France's example in suspending temporarily the European Convention on Human Rights following its declaration of a state of emergency.
(Reuters, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 21, A Greek court sentenced eight Turkish military officers, who fled last week's failed coup, to suspended two-month prison terms. The officers have requested asylum and will remain in police custody until their cases on that issue are heard in August.
(AFP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 22, The UN World Tourism Organization signed an agreement with Turkey to help the country boost its ailing tourism sector, which has suffered due to a string of bombings and a failed coup.
(AFP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 23, Turkey pushed on with a sweeping crackdown against suspected plotters of its failed coup. Using new emergency powers, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's cabinet decreed that police could now hold suspects for one month without charge, and announced it would shut down over 1,000 private schools it deems subversive.
(AFP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 23, Turkey said it has detained Hails Hanci a senior aide to the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom it blames for the coup attempt aimed at ousting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Hanci was described as a "right-hand man" of Gulen and responsible for transferring funds to him. Gulen has denied being behind the failed coup.
(AFP, 7/23/16)
2016 Jul 23, In Turkey Muhammed Wisam Sankari, a gay Syrian refugee, went missing. His body was found mutilated and beheaded two days later in central Istanbul.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Jul 25, Turkish Airlines said it has terminated the contracts of 211 employees, joining a government purge of people suspected of links to a US-based cleric. Turkey also ordered the detention of 42 journalists, drawing fire from the European Union.
(AP, 7/25/16)(Reuters, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 26, Turkey detained prominent journalists and two top generals serving abroad in a widening of the relentless legal crackdown after the July 15 coup that has caused growing alarm in the West.
(AFP, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 26, Two Turkish soldiers were killed in separate incidents involving Kurdish militants in the Kurdish southeast region.
(Reuters, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 27, Turkish authorities issued warrants for the detention of 47 former executives or senior journalists at the Zaman newspaper, which was associated with the US-based Muslim cleric who the government says is behind Turkey's failed July 15 coup.
(AP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 29, Turkey’s Interior Minister Efkan Ala said authorities have detained more than 18,000 people following the July 15-16 failed coup attempt.
(Reuters, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, In Turkey 8 government soldiers were killed in a clash with Kurdish militants at a checkpoint in the southeastern Hakkari province. A subsequent operation against the Kurdish rebels left eight Kurds dead.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, A senior Turkish official said the country’s National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) intercepted encrypted messages sent by followers of US-based Fethullah Gulen well before the July 15 coup attempt, giving Ankara names of tens of thousands within the preacher's network.
(AFP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Turkey 27 fighters from the Kurdish Workers' Party, or PKK, were killed in Hakkari province when Turkish troops launched an air-and-ground operation against groups of PKK fighters attempting to infiltrate.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 31, Turkey's government dismissed 1,389 military personnel, including a top aide to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for suspected links to the Islamic preacher Gulen.
(AFP, 7/31/16)(Reuters, 8/1/16)
2016 Jul 31, In Turkey 4 government soldiers were killed in two separate clashes with militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Jul 31, In Germany thousands of demonstrators from the Turkish community turned out in Cologne to show their support for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan at a rally that ratcheted up diplomatic tensions between Ankara and Berlin. Germany is home to around 3 million people of Turkish origin. A regional court ruled, however, that no messages from speakers elsewhere, such as politicians in Turkey, could be shown on a video screen at the rally.
(Reuters, 7/31/16)(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Jul, Turkey closed 131 media outlets late this month linked to the Gulen community (cemaat).
(Econ, 8/6/16, p.39)
2016 Aug 1, Turkish special forces captured overnight eleven rebel commandos who tried to seize or kill President Tayyip Erdogan during the failed July 15 coup.
(Reuters, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 2, Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan said the country’s intelligence apparatus will be restructured following a failed military coup last month because it was under the control of the US-based cleric blamed for staging the putsch.
(Reuters, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 4, A court in Turkey issued a formal warrant for the arrest of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who the government accuses of being behind the failed July 15 coup that left more than 270 people dead.
(AP, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 5, Turkey's ruling AK Party ordered a internal purge of members with links to Fethullah Gulen, the US-based cleric whom the government holds responsible for last month's failed coup. Industry Minister Faruk Ozlu said 167 staff from the Scientific and Technological Industry Minister have been dismissed.
(Reuters, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Turkey hundreds of thousands gathered in Istanbul summoned by President Tayyip Erdogan to denounce a failed coup.
(Reuters, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 9, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held their first meeting since the two leaders began healing a bitter feud over Ankara's downing of a Russian warplane.
(AFP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 10, In Turkey Kurdish rebels attacked soldiers near the border with Iraq, killing four of them in Sirnak province. Evening bomb blasts in two cities in the southeast killed 9 civilians and wounded dozens.
(AP, 8/10/16)(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Turkish police detained 17 suspected militants in a sweep in Istanbul that included a raid on offices of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), hours after twin bomb attacks hit the mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Turkey's foreign minister said two Turkish military attaches in Greece fled to Italy, others were caught overseas and some diplomats were on the run after being recalled as part of an inquiry into last month's failed military coup.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Turkish jets raided suspected Kurdish rebel targets across the border in northern Iraq, following a wave of attacks that killed at least 12 people.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 12, Turkey said thirty-two of 208 diplomats recalled by the government after a failed coup last month are still at large and Ankara has received information that they have fled to various countries.
(Reuters, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 15, Turkish police raided offices at three Istanbul courthouses after detention warrants were issued for 173 judicial personnel as part of an investigation into last month's failed coup attempt.
(Reuters, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 15, Can Dundar, the editor-in-chief of Turkey's top opposition daily Cumhuriyet, announced he was stepping down, saying he no longer had faith in the judiciary after the failed coup. Dundar was believed to be in Germany. An Istanbul court had in May sentenced Can Dundar to five years and 10 months in prison for allegedly revealing state secrets in a story that infuriated President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 8/15/16)
2016 Aug 16, Turkish police launched simultaneous raids on 44 companies in Istanbul and had warrants to detain 120 company executives as part of the investigation into last month's attempted military coup.
(Reuters, 8/16/16)
2016 Aug 17, Turkey said it will release some 38,000 prisoners under a penal reform as the arrests of tens of thousands of people suspected of links to last month's attempted coup burden overstretched jails. A car bomb killed 2 police officers and a civilian in Van province.
(Reuters, 8/17/16)(Reuters, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, Turkey ordered the seizure of the assets of 187 businessmen suspected of links to US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of masterminding last month's attempted coup. Police detained 10 senior figures of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), a far-left militant group that has in the past targeted Turkish and US interests.
(AFP, 8/18/16)(Reuters, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 18, In Turkey 3 police officers were killed and 170 people wounded by a car bomb at a police station in the eastern city of Elazig.
(Reuters, 8/18/16)
2016 Aug 19, Turkey detained dozens of academics suspected of backing Fethullah Gulen, the alleged mastermind of last month's failed coup, while pressing ahead with raids on businesses linked to the US-based Muslim preacher.
(AFP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 19, The Turkish parliament approved a deal to normalise ties with Israel after a delay caused by last month's attempted coup. Under the deal, Israel will pay Turkey $20 million (17.7 million euros) in compensation for a botched Israeli commando raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship in 2010 that left 10 Turks dead.
(AFP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 20, Turkish PM Binali Yildirim said Turkey will take a more active role in addressing the conflict in Syria in the next six months to prevent the war-torn country being divided along ethnic lines.
(Reuters, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 20, In southeastern Turkey an apparent suicide bombing at an outdoor wedding party in Gaziantep killed killed 51 people, including 22 children. Turkey blamed the Islamic State. By August 22 death the toll rose to 54.
(AP, 8/21/16)(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, Turkish officials said 2 security force members and 5 PKK militants were killed in clashes and attacks in three eastern areas over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 23, Turkish media reported that a military vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device in southeast Sirnak province, killing two soldiers.
(Reuters, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, Turkey's artillery shelled Islamic State group targets across the border in Syria for a second consecutive day. Two mortar shells fired from Syria hit the border town of Karkamis. Three rocket shells fired from Syria hit the border town of Kilis.
(AP, 8/23/16)(Reuters, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 24, Turkish counter-terror police launched dawn raids targeting Islamic State members across Istanbul.
(Reuters, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 24, Turkish tanks and armoured vehicles crossed into the Islamic State group-held border district of Jarablus with air cover from the US-led coalition in “Operation Euphrates Shield." The Syrian government and Syrian Kurdish officials condemned the incursion.
(AFP, 8/24/16)(Reuters, 8/24/16)(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 25, At least nine more Turkish tanks entered northern Syria as part of an operation aimed at driving Islamic State out of the border area around Jarablus and stopping Kurdish militia fighters from seizing territory.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 26, In Turkey 11 police officers were killed and 78 people injured in a suicide truck bombing in Cizre. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Turkish counterterrorism police conducted simultaneous operations at 20 locations early today, detaining 17 suspected IS members. Police "liberated" over two dozen students in one of their schools.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 26, Istanbul inaugurated the $3 billion Selim Bridge, named after the 16th-century Ottoman sultan. The third bridge spanning the Bosphorus Strait was touted as the world's widest suspension bridge, featuring 10 lanes including two rail lines and spanning over 1,400 meters.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 27, Turkish authorities arrested three former top diplomats over the failed July 15 coup, including a senior official who brokered a meeting between the then premier and the US-based preacher blamed for the plot.
(AFP, 8/27/16)fs
2016 Aug 27, Turkey sent more tanks into Syria to bolster a military offensive against jihadists and Kurdish fighters. One Turkish soldier was killed and three more wounded in a rocket attack by Kurdish militia on two tanks taking part in the offensive.
(AP, 8/27/16)(AFP, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 28, Turkey's army and its allies thrust deeper into Syria, seizing territory controlled by Kurdish-aligned forces on the fifth day of a cross-border campaign that a monitoring group said had killed at least 35 villagers.
(Reuters, 8/28/16)
2016 Aug 29, Turkey’s military said its armed forces carried out 57 artillery strikes on 16 militant targets in northern Syria over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 8/29/16)
2016 Sep 1, Turkey's NTV television reported that the country’s top judicial board has dismissed 543 more judges and prosecutors, the latest purge of officials suspected of sympathizing with those behind a July 15 failed coup. The government's Official Gazette announced that nearly 43,000 people have been expelled from their jobs in public institutions for alleged ties to terror organizations endangering national security since the failed coup.
(Reuters, 9/1/16)(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, Turkey's Anadolu state-run news agency said one Turkish soldier was killed and six wounded in clashes with Kurdish militants. 20 Kurdish fighters were also reported killed during the clashes in Hakkari province that included Turkish airstrikes.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 21, In Turkey Osman Nuri Caliskan (41), reportedly mentally disturbed and wielding a knife, tried to storm the Israeli embassy in Ankara but was shot before reaching the building.
(Reuters, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 21, Italian prosecutors said they have dropped a money laundering case against the son of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. The allegation that Bilal Erodogan, 35, was involved in money laundering while studying in Italy last year was first made by Murat Hakan Uzan, an exiled member of one of Turkey's richest families and an opponent of the president.
(Reuters, 9/21/16)
2016 Sep 22, In Turkey six people were wounded when a rocket fired from an area of Syria under the control of Islamic State hit the border town of Kilis.
(Reuters, 9/22/16)
2016 Oct 2, In northern Syria at least 21 Syrian rebels fighting alongside Turkish troops against the Islamic State were killed by landmines laid by the jihadist group.
(AFP, 10/3/16)
2016 Oct 3, Turkish military officials said 15 Syrian opposition fighters were killed and about 35 wounded over the last 24 hours in fighting to capture seven residential districts south of the town of al-Rai.
(AP, 10/3/16)
2016 Oct 10, In Turkey Russia’s President Vladimir Putin met counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul, pushing forward ambitious joint energy projects on his first visit to Turkey since a crisis in ties. Erdogan and Putin reached a deal to proceed on the Turkish Stream project to carry Russian natural gas to Turkey and on to the EU.
(AFP, 10/10/16)(SFC, 10/11/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 12, In Syria rebels supported by Turkish tanks and US-led coalition air strikes pushed toward the Islamic State stronghold of Dabiq. Turkey’s military said clashes and air strikes over the past 24 hours have killed 47 jihadists. An airstrike hit the biggest market on the rebel-held side of Aleppo, killing at least 15 people and leveling buildings. Shelling on government-held parts of Aleppo killed 8 people.
(Reuters, 10/12/16)(AP, 10/12/16)(Reuters, 10/13/16)
2016 Oct 16, In Syria Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces captured the town of Dabiq from the Islamic State group as government forces reversed recent rebel advances in the center of the country.
(AP, 10/16/16)
2016 Oct 22, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the country will be expanding its operations in north Syria, including entering the cities of al-Bab, Manbij and Raqqa.
(AP, 10/22/16)
2016 Oct 31, Turkish police detained the chief editor and at least 12 senior staff of Turkey's opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, in a widening crackdown on dissenting voices.
(AP, 10/31/16)
2016 Nov 3, In Turkey hundreds of academics, students and union members staged a protest against a government purge of thousands of educational staff since the attempted military coup in July.
(Reuters, 11/3/16)
2016 Nov 4, In Turkey a car bomb attack in Diyarbakir killed at least nine people. The attack came just hours after authorities detained at least 12 pro-Kurdish lawmakers for questioning in terror related probes. PM Binali Yildirim said the bombing was carried out by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Two more people soon succumbed to their wounds. A news outlet linked to the Islamic State said its fighters staged the bombing that killed 11 people.
(AP, 11/4/16)(AFP, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, Turkey's military said it hit 71 Islamic State targets in Syria over the last 24 hours, intensifying strikes against the militant group.
(Reuters, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, In Turkey an Istanbul court ordered the imprisonment of nine staff from the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper. Authorities detained nine officials from the country's main pro-Kurdish opposition party. Police used water cannon and tear gas against crowds of protesters in Istanbul, in an attempt to block them from marching to the office of an opposition newspaper whose staff had been arrested.
(AFP, 11/4/16)(Reuters, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, In southeastern Turkish two children were killed when a bomb planted by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) exploded in the province of Sirnak.
(Reuters, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 6, Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party said it was pulling out of parliament after nine of its MPs including the two co-leaders were arrested in an unprecedented crackdown. The state-run Anadolu Agency said police have detained 15 suspects in an operation involving raids across the southeastern province of Adana targeting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group.
(AFP, 11/6/16)(Reuters, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 15, Israel appointed an ambassador to Turkey, its first since both countries recalled their envoys five years ago amid a spat over a deadly Israeli raid on a Turkish vessel trying to reach the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 16, Pakistan ordered 400 Turkish nationals to leave the country ahead of a visit by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, Turkish police detained the pro-Kurdish co-mayor of the southeastern city of Van, expanding a crackdown on municipal chiefs throughout the region that has sparked international concern.
(AFP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 17, In Turkey a copper mine collapsed near the town of Sirvan, Siirt province. At least 6 miners were killed and 10 remained missing. Six people were later detained in the investigation of the mine collapse.
(AP, 11/18/16)(AP, 11/19/16)(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 18, In Turkey 76 academics were detained at a university in Istanbul as part of the ongoing investigation into the movement allegedly responsible for an attempted coup. Detention warrants were issued for 103 employees Yildiz Technical University on charges of "membership in an armed terrorist organization."
(AP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 18, A bill in Turkey that would overturn men's convictions for child sex assault if they marry their victim provoked fury with critics accusing the proposals of encouraging rape.
(AFP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 19, In Turkey two homemade pipe bombs were thrown by two children around about 12 or 13 years old during a performance by singer Aleyna Tilki at a cafe in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. Six people were injured, none seriously.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 19, A Turkish soldier was killed and two others wounded in a bomb attack by Islamic State militants near the northern Syrian city of al-Bab.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 21, Turkish authorities detained Ahmet Turk (74), a Kurdish politician and mayor in the southeastern province of Mardin. He was reported released on Feb 3 because of deteriorating health.
(Reuters, 2/3/17)
2016 Nov 22, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said government-backed forces have besieged the Islamic State-held Syrian town of al-Bab from the west and have set their sights on Manbij for their next offensive.
(Reuters, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, Turkish authorities issued an arrest warrant for Salih Muslim, a leader of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), in relation to a February bomb attack on military buses in Ankara. The arrest papers also mentioned 47 other people, including leading members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group.
(Reuters, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, Turkey dismissed 15,000 more state employees, from soldiers and police officers to tax inspectors and midwives, and shut 375 institutions and several news outlets, deepening purges carried out since a failed coup.
(Reuters, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 22, The leaders of the European Parliament's two largest groups called for the EU to halt membership talks with Turkey because of its post-coup purges.
(Reuters, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 23, Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces clashed with Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria, where both are fighting the Islamic State group. Kurdish-affiliated forces entered the IS-held town of Arima, near al-Bab.
(AP, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 24, In southern Turkey a car bomb exploded in the car park of the governor's office in Adana killing two people and wounding 33. Police shot and captured a suspect. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) later claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 11/24/16)(AP, 11/24/16)(Reuters, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 24, The European Parliament voted to freeze membership talks with Turkey over its "disproportionate" post-coup crackdown, further escalating tensions with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, In northern Syria three Turkish soldiers were killed in what the military said was a suspected Syrian air strike. Turkey said it would retaliate.
(Reuters, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 25, Turkish media reported one soldier killed and five lightly wounded in the fight against the Islamic State group in al-Bab, northern Syria. Four opposition fighters were also reported killed in the clashes.
(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 26, Turkey's state-run news agency said a Turkish soldier was killed and three wounded in an attack during an anti-IS operation in north Syria, raising to five the number of Turkish troops killed in Syria this week. Turkish warplanes destroyed 12 Islamic State targets during the offensive.
(AP, 11/26/16)(Reuters, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 26, Turkish authorities detained two reporters working for the BBC and Voice of America in the town of Sirvan, the latest journalists taken into custody in the government's sweeping crackdown following July's failed coup.
(AP, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 27, The Turkish army said 22 pro-Ankara Syrian rebels were hit by an Islamic State (IS) gas attack east of Al Rai in northern Syria, the first time Turkey has accused the jihadists of chemical warfare.
(AFP, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 28, Two Turkish soldiers were reported killed after clashing with Kurdish militants in the eastern province of Tunceli.
(Reuters, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov 29, In Turkey a deadly fire at a dormitory for schoolgirls left 12 people dead in the southern region of Adana. Twelve people were detained the next day as anger grew over possible negligence that caused the tragedy.
(Reuters, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov, In Turkey pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-leader Selahattin Demirtas was detained on charges of links to Kurdish militants. He was detained along with another nine HDP lawmakers and his female co-leader Figen Yuksekdag.
(AFP, 1/17/17)
2016 Dec 2, Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged his citizens to give up the dollar and euros at a time the economy is teetering. Erdogan called on Turkish citizens to convert savings held in foreign currencies into gold and Turkish lira to help boost the ailing currency, which recently dropped above 3.5 lira per dollar, the weakest exchange rate in more than a decade.
(http://tinyurl.com/j9uebpr)(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 3, The Turkish military said it has killed 20 fighters from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) after they tried to attack army bases in the southeastern Hakkari province.
(Reuters, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 5, Officials said a Greek court has refused to extradite the first three of eight Turkish servicemen who fled to Greece after the failed July 15 military coup.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 6, A Greek court agreed to extradite three Turkish servicemen who were part of an eight-person helicopter crew that fled to Greece after a failed military coup, a decision that came a day after it refused to send three others back to Turkey.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 7, NATO’s top military officer said that about 150 Turkish officers have been recalled or retired from the alliance’s high command since Turkey’s July 15 failed coup.
(SFC, 12/8/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 8, A Greek court rejected Turkey's extradition request for the last two of eight Turkish servicemen who fled to Greece after a failed July military coup.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 9, Turkish jets carried out air strikes against Kurdish militants in the Gara region of northern Iraq and killed 19 militants.
(Reuters, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 10, Turkey said its warplanes have destroyed 39 Islamic State targets and killed four militants in northern Syria.
(Reuters, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 10, In Turkey twin bombings killed at least 44 people and wounded 155 outside an Istanbul soccer stadium. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) soon claimed responsibility and the Turkish government vowed vengeance.
(Reuters, 12/11/16)(Reuters, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, Turkey detained over 200 people including dozens of officials from pro-Kurdish parties and struck Kurdish militants in Iraq in response to this weekend's twin bombings claimed by a radical Kurd separatist group.
(AFP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 13, Turkish police detained two female pro-Kurdish lawmakers as a crackdown intensified after a deadly Istanbul bombing that raised questions about Ankara's strategy in fighting separatist militants. Turkey's Interior Ministry said 568 people have been detained on account of their alleged affiliation with the PKK.
(AFP, 12/13/16)(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 17, In Turkey a suicide car bomber set off an explosion that demolished a public bus transporting off-duty soldiers in the central province of Kayseri, killing 14 troops and wounding 55 others. In response dozens of nationalist protestors stormed the headquarters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Kayseri. Turkish authorities detained seven people and searched for another five in relation to the attack. The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, or TAK, later claimed responsibility.
(AP, 12/17/16)(AFP, 12/17/16)(Reuters, 12/17/16)(AP, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 17, Turkey’s military said its warplanes have pounded Islamic State targets in northern Syria in the last 24 hours, killing at least 20 militants.
(Reuters, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 19, In Turkey Russian ambassador Andrey Karlov was shot and killed by Mevlut Mert Altintas (22) at an art gallery in Ankara. Altintas, who had worked for Ankara riot police, was killed minutes later by Turkish special forces. Turkish authorities later alleged that Karlov's killer had links to Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Muslim cleric, accused of masterminding the failed July 2016 coup. On Nov 23, 2018, a Turkish prosecutor charged 28 suspects including US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, over the murder of the Russian ambassador.
(Reuters, 12/20/16)(AP, 4/2/18)(AFP, 11/23/18)
2016 Dec 20, Turkish officials inaugurated the Eurasia Tunnel, crossing the Bosporus Strait, linking the European and Asian sides of Istanbul.
(AP, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 20, In Syria President Bashar al-Assad's army closed in on the last rebel enclave in Aleppo. Russia, Iran and Turkey said they were ready to help broker a Syrian peace deal. They adopted a document they called the "Moscow Declaration", which set out the principles that any peace agreement should follow.
(Reuters, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 21, In northern Syria clashes escalated around the town of al-Bab with Turkish soldiers and 138 jihadists killed.
(Reuters, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 22, Turkey's defense minister said the number of Turkish soldiers killed in recent attacks by Islamic State militants near the northern Syrian town of al-Bab has risen to 16, adding that three other soldiers were seriously wounded. He said a total of 35 Turkish soldiers have been killed since the start of Turkey-backed rebels' incursion into northern Syria that began on August 24.
(Reuters, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 22, The Islamic State released the video late today which purports to show the burning of two Turkish soldiers captured near the northern Syrian town of al-Bab. The two soldiers went missing in the area of al-Dana, northwest of al-Bab, in late November.
(AP, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 23, Turkish warplanes pounded the extremist-held Syrian town of al-Bab.
(AP, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 24, Turkish authorities said they are investigating some 10,000 people on suspicion of using social media to support terrorism. Turkish authorities have formally arrested 1,656 people in the past six months for allegedly supporting terrorist organizations or insulting officials on social media.
(Reuters, 12/24/16)(AP, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 24, Turkey’s military said 68 Islamic State militants have been "neutralized" in fighting and air strikes near al-Bab over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 12/24/16)
2016 Dec 28, Turkish state media said Turkey and Russia have agreed a ceasefire for all of Syria that should come into force at midnight, but rebel groups said no such official truce had been agreed.
(AFP, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 28, Turkish security said one Turkish soldier and two Kurdish militants died as a result of clashes overnight in the eastern province of Tunceli.
(Reuters, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 29, An Istanbul court ordered the release of Asli Erdogan, one of Turkey's most celebrated novelists after over four months in jail on charges of terror propaganda, along with Necmiye Alpay, an internationally prominent linguist and author of widely praised translations of Western novels into Turkish. She has been held behind bars for 120 days. Zana Kaya, editorial director of the pro-Kurdish newspaper Ozgur Gundem was also ordered released. Authorities detained prize-winning journalist Ahmet Sik in a separate case over a succession of tweets and articles for an opposition daily.
(AFP, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 30, A Turkish parliamentary commission cleared a set of draft constitutional amendments that would greatly expand the powers of Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AP, 12/30/16)
2016 Dec 30, In southern Turkey police detained some 40 suspected Islamic State group militants in raids in Adana.
(AP, 12/30/16)
2016 Dec 30, The Turkish military said Russian fighter jets have hit three Islamic State targets around the northern Syrian town of al-Bab over the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 12/30/16)
2016 Kaya Genc authored “Under the Shadow: Rage and Revolution in Modern Turkey."
(Econ, 11/12/16, p.74)
2016 Surveys in 2017 said some 6,000 millionaires had left Turkey this year.
(Econ, 3/11/17, p.52)
2017 Jan 1, In Turkey 39 people were killed and dozens wounded when a gunman stormed the popular Reina nightclub in Istanbul and sprayed bullets at revelers celebrating the New Year. The gunman was later identified as an Uzbek jihadist with the IS code name of Ebu Muhammed Horasani. In 2020 Albulkadir Masharipov of Uzbekistan was sentenced to life in prison.
(AFP, 1/1/17)(AFP, 1/8/17)(SFC, 9/8/20, p.A2)
2017 Jan 5, Two senior Turkish military officers were jailed for life for involvement in July's failed coup attempt that killed almost 250 people, marking the first conviction related to the putsch.
(Reuters, 1/5/17)
2017 Jan 5, In western Turkey a car bombing outside a courthouse in Izmir killed two people. The Kurdish PKK militant group was suspected. Turkish police shot dead two assailants. A day later police detained 18 people in connection to the attack.
(Reuters, 1/5/17)(SFC, 1/7/17, p.A2)
2017 Jan 7, Turkey ordered the dismissal of almost 8,400 civil servants and the closure of over 80 associations, including sports clubs, in the latest round of purges after the July failed coup.
(AFP, 1/7/17)
2017 Jan 7, Turkish PM Binali Yildirim commenced a two-day visit to Iraq, the first since the two governments quarreled over the presence of unauthorized Turkish troops in northern Iraq.
(AP, 1/7/17)
2017 Jan 7, In Turkey a heavy snowstorm paralyzed life in Istanbul, with hundreds of flights cancelled and the Bosporus closed to shipping traffic.
(AFP, 1/7/17)
2017 Jan 9, Turkish Airlines canceled 277 domestic and international flights to and from Istanbul's two airports due to heavy snow.
(AP, 1/9/17)
2017 Jan 10, In Turkey a man suspected of trying to force his way into a police station in Gaziantep, a city near the Syrian border, was shot dead.
(AFP, 1/10/17)
2017 Jan 12, Turkish lawmakers brawled and threw chairs as parliament approved three more articles in a hugely controversial bill bolstering the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 1/12/17)
2017 Jan 15, Turkey's state-run news agency said nine Turkish colonels have been detained in northern Cyprus as part of the investigation into the movement allegedly responsible for a failed coup in July.
(AP, 1/15/17)
2017 Jan 16, In Turkey Abdulkadir Masharipov, the Uzbek gunman who carried out the New Year’s attack on Istanbul’s Reina nightclub, was detained in Istanbul.
(AP, 1/17/17)
2017 Jan 16, In southeastern Turkey a roadside bomb in a pre-dominantly Kurdish city killed three policemen and wounded three others.
(AP, 1/16/17)
2017 Jan 16, A Turkish cargo jet crashed near Kyrgyzstan's Manas airport, killing at least 37 people including 4 crew members. Most of the dead were residents of a village struck by the Boeing 747 as it tried to land in dense fog. 23 of 43 houses in the village were destroyed.
(Reuters, 1/16/17)(SFC, 1/17/17, p.A3)
2017 Jan 16, Lawyers at a UN court urged Turkey to release Judge Aydin Sedaf Akay, who is being held in connection with July's coup attempt, saying his detention was delaying a Rwandan politician's conviction for genocide.
(Reuters, 1/17/17)
2017 Jan 17, In Syria Russian warplanes carried out air strikes on Islamic State targets south of al-Bab in coordination with Turkey.
(Reuters, 1/18/17)
2017 Jan 18, Turkey's parliament embarked on a second round of voting on a contentious package of constitutional amendments that would give President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office new executive powers.
(AP, 1/18/17)
2017 Jan 18, Turkish police rounded up 27 people linked to Abdulkadir Masharipov, the suspected gunman in Istanbul’s New year’s Eve nightclub attack.
(SFC, 1/19/17, p.A2)
2017 Jan 19, Turkey’s government extended emergency for another three months.
(Econ, 1/21/17, p.41)
2017 Jan 20, In Turkey rocket attacks hit the Istanbul police headquarters and the offices of the ruling AK Party. There were no reports of casualties.
(Reuters, 1/22/17)
2017 Jan 21, Turkey parliament adopted a block of constitutional amendments intended to cement Pres. Erdogan’s grip over the country.
(Econ, 2/4/17, p.46)
2017 Jan 21, Turkish broadcaster Haberturk said prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for more than 400 people, including soldiers and security officers, in 48 provinces across the country following July's failed coup. Zulfukar Sukru Kanberoglu of the TMSF fund was one of 367 people dismissed from state institutions under the latest four decrees, which also reinstated 124 civil servants.
(Reuters, 1/21/17)(Reuters, 1/23/17)
2017 Jan 22, Turkish authorities said they have captured two men believed to be among those responsible for rocket attacks on the Istanbul police headquarters and the offices of the ruling AK Party on Jan 20. One of the assailants was captured by police early today, while the other was shot dead later in the day in the northwestern province of Tekirdag. Police identified them as a members of the outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C).
(Reuters, 1/22/17)
2017 Jan 23, In Kazakhstan indirect 2-day talks began in Astana between the Syrian government and rebels. The talks were hosted by Russia, Turkey and Iran.
(Reuters, 1/23/17)(Econ, 1/28/17, p.39)
2017 Jan 23, In Tanzania Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked Pres. John Magufuli to take action against the network of an exiled cleric he blames for last year's failed coup.
(AFP, 1/23/17)
2017 Jan 24, Turkey said it would not hand over al-Bab to Syrian forces after driving out Islamic State. The Turkish-backed rebels are closer to doing so than the Syrian army, having already reached the town's outskirts.
(Reuters, 1/25/17)
2017 Jan 24, In Mozambique Turkish Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on leader Filipe Nyusi to take action against the exiled cleric he blames for last year's failed coup.
(AFP, 1/24/17)
2017 Jan 24, In Kazakhstan Russia, Turkey and Iran backed a shaky truce between Syria's warring parties and agreed to monitor its compliance. On the ground rebels faced continued fighting on two fronts, which could undermine the deal.
(Reuters, 1/24/17)
2017 Jan 25, Syrian government forces and their allies drove Islamic State militants out of several villages northeast of Aleppo over the last 24 hours. One Turkish soldier was killed and five were wounded in a clash with Islamic State militants near al-Bab.
(Reuters, 1/25/17)
2017 Jan 26, Greece's Supreme Court ruled against the extradition of eight Turkish soldiers who fled to Greece in July after a failed coup attempt in Turkey, a decision which angered Ankara and further strained relations between the two neighbors. Turkey issued an arrest warrant for the eight former army officers.
(Reuters, 1/26/17)(AFP, 1/26/17)
2017 Jan 27, Turkey's top diplomat threatened punitive measures against Greece, including scrapping an agreement on the return of migrants, after the Greek Supreme Court ruled against extraditing eight Turkish officers who escaped from their country by helicopter after the failed coup attempt.
(AP, 1/27/17)
2017 Jan 28, In Turkey British PM Theresa May signed a $125 million defense equipment deal with Turkey and promised to push for more trade between the NATO allies, but cautioned Ankara on human rights following last year's failed coup.
(Reuters, 1/28/17)
2017 Jan 28, Germany confirmed that high-ranking Turkish soldiers, who worked at NATO facilities in Germany but were suspended after the failed coup in Turkey in July, have requested asylum. Der Spiegel and broadcaster ARD reported that about 40, mostly high-ranking Turkish soldiers, have requested asylum.
(Reuters, 1/28/17)
2017 Jan 29, In northern Syria a Turkish soldier was killed in clashes with Islamic State militants near al-Bab.
(Reuters, 1/29/17)
2017 Jan 31, Turkey arrested two MPs from the main pro-Kurdish party, including its chief spokesman, the latest move in a crackdown on the group ahead of a vote on changing the constitution.
(AFP, 1/31/17)
2017 Feb 2, In Turkey German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Turkey to uphold democracy as the country heads toward a critical referendum on boosting the powers of the presidency, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took offense at her reference to "Islamist terror," saying the words cannot be placed together.
(AP, 2/2/17)
2017 Feb 4, The Turkish military said it has hit 59 Islamic State targets and killed 51 militants in northern Syria as part of its ongoing incursion.
(Reuters, 2/4/17)
2017 Feb 5, Turkish police detained 448 suspected Islamic State group members in nationwide raids just over a month after an attack on an Istanbul nightclub claimed by the jihadists.
(AFP, 2/5/17)
2017 Feb 5, The website of Austria's parliament was brought down for 20 minutes. A Turkish hackers' group, Aslan Neferler Tim (ANT), or Lion Soldiers Team, whose website says it defends the homeland, Islam, the nation and flag, without any party political links, claimed the attack.
(Reuters, 2/7/17)
2017 Feb 6, Turkey said it has now detained nearly 750 suspects in a police operation against the Islamic State group.
(AP, 2/6/17)
2017 Feb 8, Turkey said Syrian rebels backed by the Turkish military have captured the outskirts of the Islamic State-held city of al-Bab in northern Syria.
(Reuters, 2/8/17)
2017 Feb 8, Turkish presidency sources said President Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump agreed in an overnight phone call on joint action against Islamic State in the Syrian towns of Raqqa and al-Bab, both held by the militants.
(Reuters, 2/8/17)
2017 Feb 9, Turkish officials said police have detained four Islamic State group suspects who were allegedly planning to carry out a "sensational" attack and seized 24 suicide attack belts during an anti-terror operation in Gaziantep.
(AP, 2/9/17)
2017 Feb 9, In northern Syria a Russian warplane "accidentally" hit a building on with Turkish soldiers inside, killing at least three troops and wounding 11 near al-Bab. Russia intervened to halt a clash between Syrian government forces and Turkey-backed Syrian rebels, the first confrontation between them as both sides fight Islamic State in the area.
(AP, 2/9/17)(Reuters, 2/10/17)
2017 Feb 10, In Turkey police used tear gas to disperse protesters trying to enter Ankara University to denounce a government decree that dismissed 330 academics. At least five protesters were detained.
(AP, 2/10/17)
2017 Feb 11, In northern Syria Turkish troops and Syrian rebels entered the Islamic State-held town of Al-Bab, as government forces moved closer to the jihadist bastion. one Turkish soldier was killed and another wounded in clashes with IS fighters.
(AFP, 2/11/17)
2017 Feb 11, In France some 15,000 people marched in the eastern city of Strasbourg demanding that Turkey release Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan, as Europe's Kurds held their biggest annual gathering.
(AFP, 2/11/17)
2017 Feb 12, Turkey's president said his troops and allied Syrian fighters have reached the heart of the Islamic State stronghold of al-Bab in northern Syria and will eventually march on the extremists' de facto capital, Raqqa.
(AP, 2/12/17)
2017 Feb 14, Turkish PM Binali Yildirim said Turkey-backed rebels have largely taken control of Syria's al-Bab from Islamic State militants, but a war monitoring group said the jihadists still controlled most of the town.
(Reuters, 2/14/17)
2017 Feb 14, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Saudi Arabia's top leadership during a visit to further strengthen ties as part of a Gulf tour ahead of Syria peace talks.
(AFP, 2/14/17)
2017 Feb 17, Turkey's military said it was close to taking Syria's al-Bab from Islamic State, but a war monitor said the jihadists still controlled 90 percent of the town itself and that shelling and air strikes had killed dozens of civilians in recent days. Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Turkish shelling and air strikes had killed 45 civilians, including 18 children, during the past 48 hours.
(Reuters, 2/17/17)
2017 Feb 17, In Turkey publishers closed down Girgir magazine, established in 1972 and a once top-selling satirical magazine, following a Moses cartoon that was deemed to be offensive to Jews and Muslims.
(AP, 2/17/17)
2017 Feb 17, In Turkey a car bomb exploded near the lodgings of judges and prosecutors in the mainly Kurdish town of Viransehir in Sanliurfa province. 26 people were soon detained following the attack.
(AP, 2/18/17)
2017 Feb 20, Turkey dismissed 227 more judges and prosecutors as part of investigations into last July's failed coup, meaning close to 4,000 members of the judiciary have now been purged.
(Reuters, 2/20/17)
2017 Feb 21, In Turkey Figen Yuksekdag, the co-chair of the opposition pro-Kurdish party, lost her seat in parliament after an appeals court confirmed her conviction on terrorism-related charges. The party has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights seeking the lawmakers' release, so that they may be allowed to campaign ahead of a referendum on expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's powers.
(AP, 2/21/17)
2017 Feb 22, Turkey’s defense ministry officials said they will allow female soldiers to wear a headscarf with their uniforms, marking a symbolic shift for a military that has traditionally seen itself as a guardian of state secularism.
(Reuters, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 24, Two Turkish soldiers were killed while clearing mines in the town of Tadef south of al-Bab, Syria.
(Reuters, 2/24/17)
2017 Feb, Turkish authorities arrested Deniz Yucel, a journalist for Germany’s Die Welt newspaper, on charges of propaganda in support of a terrorist organization and inciting the public to violence. Yucel, a dual Turkish and German national, was initially detained after he reported on emails that a leftist hacker collective had purportedly obtained from the private account of Berat Albayrak, Turkey's energy minister and Erdogan's son-in-law.
(Reuters, 3/19/17)
2017 Mar 1, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan agreed to improve ties, including in the fight against terrorism, on the sidelines of an economic cooperation summit in the Pakistani capital Islamabad.
(Reuters, 3/1/17)
2017 Mar 1, In northern Syria the Turkish army and allied Syrian rebels attacked villages held by US-allied militias near the city of Manbij. Russian-backed Syrian government forces and their allies recaptured the historic Palmyra citadel, on the city's western outskirts, from Islamic State fighters.
(Reuters, 3/1/17)
2017 Mar 3, Turkey accused Germany of scandalous behavior in cancelling rallies of Turkish citizens in two German towns due to be addressed by Turkish ministers and said Berlin provided a "shelter" for people committing crimes against his country.
(Reuters, 3/3/17)
2017 Mar 4, A Syrian military jet crashed in Turkey’s southern border province of Hatay. The pilot was rescued after a nine hour search and had "a few" broken bones and was receiving treatment at a local hospital, but wasn't in critical condition.
(AP, 3/5/17)
2017 Mar 6, Turkish security forces launched one of their largest "anti-terrorist" operations in recent years in the restive south-east against Kurdish militants.
(AFP, 3/6/17)
2017 Mar 7, In Turkey the top generals of the Turkish, Russian and US military met in Antalya in a bid to step up coordination in Syria and avoid clashes between rival forces in the fight against IS.
(AFP, 3/7/17)
2017 Mar 8, US-based Mercy Corps, one of the largest humanitarian organizations delivering aid to Syria, said Turkey has ordered it to immediately shut down its Turkish operations.
(Reuters, 3/8/17)
2017 Mar 10, In Turkey seven people were killed including four Russians when a privately-owned helicopter crashed in Istanbul after hitting a television tower.
(AFP, 3/10/17)
2017 Mar 10, In Austria four planned Turkish political meetings were canceled in the latest signs of unease across Europe over a series of campaign events to rally support among expatriate Turks for President Tayyip Erdogan.
(Reuters, 3/11/17)
2017 Mar 10, The UN accused Turkish security forces of committing serious abuses during operations against Kurdish militants in the southeast after a ceasefire collapsed in July 2015.
(AFP, 3/10/17)
2017 Mar 11, Turkish journalists and opposition lawmakers protested in Istanbul against the detention of reporters, as a crackdown on the media has accelerated after the failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 3/11/17)
2017 Mar 11, The Netherlands barred Turkey's foreign minister from landing in Rotterdam in a row over Ankara's political campaigning among Turkish emigres, and President Tayyip Erdogan retaliated, branding his NATO partner a "Nazi remnant". Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said family minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya will travel to the Dutch city of Rotterdam by land. Dutch authorities expelled Kaya for seeking to woo the vote of expatriate Turks for a key referendum at home.
(Reuters, 3/11/17)(AFP, 3/12/17)
2017 Mar 12, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on international organizations to "raise their voices" against the Netherlands after it escorted a minister out of the country and prevented another one from landing in the country.
(AP, 3/12/17)
2017 Mar 14, The small western German state of Saarland said it is banning political campaigning by foreign politicians saying internal Turkish conflicts have no place in Germany.
(Reuters, 3/14/17)
2017 Mar 14, Hundreds of Twitter accounts were hijacked amid the ongoing diplomatic feud between Turkey and two European nations, Germany and the Netherlands. Most if not all high-profile accounts soon returned to normal.
(AP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Turkey said its red meat association has ordered a consignment of prize Dutch cattle to be sent back to the Netherlands, saying it no longer wants to farm the cows due to the diplomatic crisis between the countries.
(AFP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 16, Turkish police detained two suspected members of the Islamic State group who were allegedly planning a "sensational attack" similar to the massacre at an Istanbul nightclub on New Year's night.
(AFP, 3/16/17)
2017 Mar 18, Turkish media said authorities have detained 740 people for suspected links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) over the last three days.
(Reuters, 3/18/17)
2017 Mar 18, In Germany around 9,000 Kurdish supporters demonstrated in Frankfurt against Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and an April referendum that would give him sweeping new powers.
(Reuters, 3/18/17)
2017 Mar 21, In Turkey tens of thousands of people celebrated the New Year festival of Newroz in the overwhelmingly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, even as police killed a man who claimed to be carrying a bomb.
(AFP, 3/21/17)
2017 Mar 22, Turkey fired into Kurdish-controlled Syria after saying one of its soldiers was killed in Hatay province by a sniper from across the border in Afrin.
(Reuters, 3/22/17)
2017 Mar 22, Norway granted political asylum to a group of Turkish military officers based in Norway who had refused to return home after the failed July 15 coup attempt.
(AP, 3/22/17)
2017 Mar 24, Five children were among 11 Syrians killed after their plastic boat sank off Turkey's Aegean coast.
(Reuters, 3/24/17)
2017 Mar 28, German prosecutors announced an investigation into claims that Turkish agents are spying on alleged followers of exiled preacher Fethullah Gulen in Germany.
(AFP, 3/28/17)
2017 Mar 31, In Turkey a court in Istanbul released singer Atilla Tas and 20 others from jail pending an outcome of their trial on terrorism charges. Five of them will remain in prison while two of the defendants are at large and being tried in absentia.
(AP, 3/31/17)
2017 Mar 31, In Turkey Selahattin Demirtas, the jailed leader the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), said he has begun a hunger strike to protest prison conditions.
(AP, 3/31/17)
2017 Apr 1, Turkey's foreign minister said tens of thousands of displaced Syrians and refugees have returned to an area controlled by Turkey and Turkish-backed opposition fighters in northern Syria. US-backed Kurdish-led fighters pressed their offensive in the north near a town held by the Islamic State group.
(AP, 4/1/17)
2017 Apr 6, Turkey said that autopsies of Syrian victims from the April 4 assault in Syria's Idlib province show they were subjected to chemical weapons. Russia's Defense Ministry said the toxic agents were released when a Syrian airstrike hit a rebel chemical weapons arsenal and munitions factory on the town's eastern outskirts.
(AP, 4/6/17)
2017 Apr 6, Dutch public broadcaster NOS reported that as many as 100 Dutch citizens of Turkish descent are being prevented from leaving Turkey. NOS said those affected, many of whom had been to Turkey on holiday or to see their families, had all been publicly critical of President Tayyip Erdogan.
(Reuters, 4/6/17)
2017 Apr 9, Italian Gabriele Del Grande (34) was clapped in cuffs by Turkish police during interviews with people who had fled Syria for a book he is writing on the conflict and the birth of the Islamic State (IS) group. Grande was released after two weeks and returned home on April 24.
(AFP, 4/19/17)(AP, 4/24/17)
2017 Apr 9, In central Turkey a hot air balloon hit a high-voltage transmission line and crashed in Cappadocia, killing a French tourist and injuring at least seven people.
(AP, 4/9/17)
2017 Apr 11, Turkey said that tests proved the deadly nerve agent sarin was used in a suspected chemical attack in northwestern Syria which killed 87 people on April 4.
(AFP, 4/11/17)
2017 Apr 11, In Turkey a police officer and two civilian employees were killed in an attack at a police station in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir. Authorities said it was carried out with a ton of explosives planted inside a tunnel. A day later Kurdish rebels claimed responsibility.
(AP, 4/12/17)
2017 Apr 13, A panel of United Nations human rights experts condemned Turkey for violating the right to work and education through blanket dismissals of civil servants and school teachers under a state of emergency.
(AP, 4/13/17)
2017 Apr 16, Turkey held a bitterly-contested referendum on whether to give Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expanded powers. Final results later showed 51.41 percent of voters had backed the referendum with an 87.45% turnout.
(AFP, 4/16/17)(AP, 4/17/17)(SFC, 4/28/17, p.A2)
2017 Apr 16, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants killed a guard in an overnight attack on a vehicle carrying a district official from the ruling AK Party.
(Reuters, 4/16/17)
2017 Apr 17, Turkey's government extended the state of emergency to July 19. The main opposition party urged the country's electoral board to cancel the results of a landmark referendum that granted sweeping new powers to the nation's president, citing what it called substantial voting irregularities. A mission of observers from the 47-member Council of Europe said Turkey’s April 16 referendum was an uneven contest.
(AP, 4/17/17)(Reuters, 4/17/17)(Econ, 4/22/17, p.44)
2017 Apr 17, Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition said that the number of unstamped ballots counted as valid in the April 16 referendum had been enough to swing the outcome of the vote and decried what it described as a "coup" by electoral authorities.
(Reuters, 4/17/17)
2017 Apr 17, US President Donald Trump congratulated Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on his referendum campaign in a phone call and vowed close cooperation on Syria, Iraq and the fight against Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 4/18/17)
2017 Apr 19, Turkey's electoral board rejected petitions by opposition parties to annul the outcome of a recent referendum on expanding presidential powers because of voting irregularities. Some 38 members of the political opposition were arrested in dawn raids.
(AP, 4/19/17)(AFP, 4/19/17)(SFC, 4/20/17, p.A2)(Econ, 4/22/17, p.44)
2017 Apr 18, In Turkey a police helicopter carrying officers, a judge and a soldier crashed due to bad weather in a mountainous southeastern region, killing all 12 people on board.
(AP, 4/18/17)
2017 Apr 19, Turkey's electoral board rejected petitions by opposition parties to annul the outcome of a recent referendum on expanding presidential powers because of voting irregularities. Istanbul police detained 16 leftist activists involved in demonstrations against the 'Yes' victory in the referendum on expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's powers.
(AP, 4/19/17)(AFP, 4/19/17)
2017 Apr 21, Turkey’s main opposition party took its petition to annul the referendum on boosting the president's powers to the nation's highest administrative court.
(AP, 4/21/17)
2017 Apr 21, Two Turkish soldiers died and two more were wounded in a clash with Kurdish militants in a rural area of southeast Turkey near the Iraqi border. The military said six militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) had been "neutralized" in the ensuing operation in Sirnak province.
(Reuters, 4/21/17)
2017 Apr 24, A migrant boat from Turkey sank in the eastern Aegean Sea and left at least 16 people dead, including two children. Two people were rescued.
(AP, 4/24/17)
2017 Apr 25, Turkish warplanes killed at least 28 Kurdish fighters in strikes in Syria and Iraq, where the Kurds are key players in the battle against the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 4/25/17)(AFP, 4/26/17)
2017 Apr 25, The 47-member Council of Europe put Turkey on a watchlist over the crackdown on dissent since last year's coup attempt, rights violations and concerns about President Tayyip Erdogan's increased grip on power.
(Reuters, 4/25/17)
2017 Apr 25, A Greek court ruled against the extradition of three of eight Turkish soldiers who fled to Greece last July following a failed coup attempt against the Ankara government.
(Reuters, 4/25/17)
2017 Apr 26, Turkish police launched simultaneous operations across the country, detaining more than 1,000 people with suspected links to US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. Warrants were issued for the detention of some 2,200 other suspects.
(AP, 4/26/17)
2017 Apr 26, Turkey's main opposition party said it would challenge the outcome of the country's April 16 referendum on expanding the president's powers at the European Court of Human Rights a day after a high court rejected its appeal.
(AP, 4/26/17)
2017 Apr 26, Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq and killed six militants, in a second day of cross-border raids.
(Reuters, 4/26/17)
2017 Apr 28, Turkey's military said that one of its outposts in the southeastern town of Ceylanpinar bordering Syria came under rocket attack early today from Syrian territory held by the Kurdish militia YPG. The army returned fire killing 11 YPG militants.
(AP, 4/28/17)
2017 Apr 29, Turkey's military reportedly killed 14 members of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in air strikes in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 4/29/17)
2017 Apr 29, Turkey Blocks, an internet censorship monitor, said users in Turkey have been unable to access all language editions of Wikipedia since 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) today. Access to Wikipedia was blocked in Turkey for content presenting the country as supporting terror.
(AP, 4/29/17)
2017 Apr 29, In Turkey the head of an Iranian satellite television network was shot dead in Istanbul together with a business partner. GEM TV founder Saeed Karimian was sentenced last year in absentia to six years in prison by a Tehran court. Karimian and an associate were driving in Istanbul's Maslak neighborhood after 8 p.m. (1.00 p.m. ET) when their car was blocked by a jeep and shots were fired.
(Reuters, 4/30/17)
2017 May 1, Turkish police fired tear gas and plastic bullets at protesters seeking to march to Istanbul's Taksim Square to celebrate May Day, in defiance of an official ban.
(AFP, 5/1/17)
2017 May 2, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejoined the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) he co-founded in a step on his path toward solidifying his grip on power, following his narrow victory in last month's referendum.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 4, Iran, Russia and Turkey signed an agreement calling for the setting up of four "de-escalation zones" in war-torn Syria at the cease-fire talks in Kazakhstan and said that President Bashar Assad's air force would halt flights over the designated areas in the country's north, center and south. Members of the Syrian opposition delegation shouted in protest and walked out of the conference room in Astana. The opposition said it could not accept creating safe zones in Syria because it threatens the country's territorial integrity and said it would also not recognize Iran as a guarantor of the peace plan.
(AP, 5/4/17)(Reuters, 5/4/17)
2017 May 5, Turkish televisions reported that the government has dismissed 107 judges and prosecutors over alleged links to a failed coup in July last year, further widening a purge during which it dismissed around 145,000 civil servants, security personnel and academics. Detention warrants were issued for the dismissed judges and prosecutors.
(Reuters, 5/5/17)
2017 May 5, In France the Cartooning for Peace group, founded by French cartoonist Plantu, said cartoonists were increasingly becoming the victims of repressive crackdowns on free speech. Ten countries including Russia, Turkey and India were condemned for censoring, locking up or threatening cartoonists in a new report published by the group.
(AP, 5/5/17)
2017 May 6, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said warrants were issued for 17 judges and six prosecutors for "membership in an armed terror organization." They are suspected of being followers of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen who the government says is behind the July 15 coup attempt.
(AP, 5/6/17)
2017 May 8, Istanbul-based French freelance journalist Mathias Depardon was taken into custody by police in Batman province. He was held at a deportation center in the border province of Gaziantep and on May 24 began a hunger strike to protest his detention.
(Reuters, 5/24/17)
2017 May 8, In Malaysia the wife of a Turkish businessman detained in Malaysia last week for alleged terrorism offences made a tearful appeal to the government to release him. Ihsan Aslan was arrested together with another Turkish national, Turgay Karaman, last week under a security law which allows detention without trial for 28 days. Two days later Turkish academic Ismet Ozcelik was also detained. Rights groups feared Malaysia may be responding to pressure from Turkey.
(AFP, 5/8/17)
2017 May 10, Turkey said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Pakistan for the sale of four Turkish made corvette warships and 52 Pakistan-made training planes for Ankara's armed forces.
(Reuters, 5/10/17)
2017 May 10, Turkey warned the United States that a decision to arm Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State in Syria could end up hurting Washington, and accused its NATO ally of siding with terrorists.
(Reuters, 5/10/17)
2017 May 12, Turkish police detained Oguz Guven, the editor of pro-secular Cumhuriyet newspaper's online edition, for a news article on the death of prosecutor Mustafa Alper in a traffic accident on May 10. Alper, chief prosecutor of Denizli province in southwest Turkey, had filed the first indictment against the network of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen following last summer's coup attempt.
(AP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, In Turkey the domed Zeynel Bey Tomb, weighing 1,100 tons, was moved in one piece in four hours, traveling two km (more than a mile) on a large wheeled platform to make way for a hydroelectric dam on the Tigris river. The monument, around 550 years old, was located in the ancient settlement of Hasankeyf, where the majority of villages and historic sites are at risk of being submerged in water when the Ilisu Dam is completed.
(AP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, Malaysia said it had deported three Turkish men to Ankara over suspected links to a group blamed by Turkey for a failed coup last year. Authorities had detained school principal Turgay Karaman (43), businessman Ihsan Aslan (39) and academic Ismet Ozcelik (58) last week, saying they posed a threat to national security.
(Reuters, 5/12/17)
2017 May 13, In Turkey at least 23 people died and 11 others were in critical condition after a tour bus tipped over, fell 15 meters (50 feet) down a cliff and then hit a car on a serpentine mountain road in Mugla province.
(AP, 5/13/17)
2017 May 15, In Turkey Oguz Guven, the editor of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper's online edition, was formally arrested after being detained on May 12.
(AP, 5/16/17)
2017 May 16, President Donald Trump held his first face-to-face meeting with Turkey's president amid accusations that Trump gave Russian officials classified intelligence from a foreign ally. Trump and Erdogan vowed to repair the a relationship battered by years of disputes over Syria’s civil war and its various fighting groups. Elsewhere in DC Turkish security guards beat Armenian and Kurdish protesters.
(AP, 5/16/17)(SFC, 5/17/17, p.A2)(Econ 5/20/17, p.45)
2017 May 19, In Turkey detention warrants were issued against the nationalist Sozcu newspaper's owner and three others were for committing crimes on behalf of the network of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen without being members.
(AP, 5/19/17)
2017 May 20, Turkey’s opposition Sozcu newspaper carried empty columns with writers' names and also left the weather blank in a "May 19 Press Freedom Special Edition".
(AP, 5/20/17)
2017 May 20, Turkey's pro-Kurdish party elected a new co-leader to replace Figen Yuksekdag, who has been in jail on terrorism charges since November and was stripped of her parliamentary status three months ago. Serpil Kemalbay was chosen as joint leader, alongside Selahattin Demirtas, who is also in prison over terrorism-related charges but remains a member of parliament.
(Reuters, 5/20/17)
2017 May 21, Turkey’s Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that a state of emergency, introduced as a temporary measure after last year’s failed coup, would continue until the country achieved “welfare and peace."
(SFC, 5/22/17, p.A2)
2017 May 21, Turkish police in Ankara killed two suspected members of the Islamic State jihadist group believed to have been planning an attack in the capital.
(AFP, 5/21/17)
2017 May 22, Turkey and Russia signed a memorandum on lifting trade restrictions against each other, after Ankara and Moscow agreed at a meeting this month to settle trade disputes.
(Reuters, 5/22/17)
2017 May 22, Turkish police detained overnight literature professor Nuriye Gulmen and primary school teacher Semih Ozakca, who have been on hunger strike for more than two months protesting against a government crackdown in which they lost their jobs following last year's failed coup.
(Reuters, 5/22/17)
2017 May 25, Four Turkish soldiers and a village guard were killed in two separate clashes with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in eastern Turkey. Three PKK militants, believed to be preparing for an attack, were killed in air strikes targeting the Metina region of northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 5/25/17)
2017 May 27, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the European Union had presented Turkey with a new 12-month timetable for renewing their relations. Erdogan said Turkey and the EU had agreed on giving a new impetus to relations and added Turkey's foreign and EU affairs ministries would work towards the timetable.
(Reuters, 5/27/17)
2017 May 27, In Turkey two journalists from a pro-secular opposition newspaper have been arrested and accused of aiding a terror organization. The nationalist Sozcu newspaper published today’s edition with the headline "A dark day for Turkish media and journalism," protesting the arrests of online editor Mediha Olgun and reporter Gokmen Ulu.
(AP, 5/27/17)
2017 May 27, In Turkey an air strike in the southeastern province of Van late today killed 10 PKK militants.
(Reuters, 5/28/17)
2017 May 28, Turkey's military killed 13 members of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in air strikes in northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/28/17)
2017 May 31, In Turkey three soldiers were killed in clashes with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir. Earlier in the day, the army said airplanes had killed two PKK militants in the Lice district of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 5/31/17)
2017 May 31, A Turkish military helicopter crash killed all 13 personnel on board. Kurdish militants soon claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 6/3/17, p.A2)
2017 Jun 2, Turkish police and coast guards seized more than a ton of heroin in a raid on the Commander Tide ship, a Congo-flagged ship in international waters. Nine crew members were detained.
(AP, 6/7/17)
2017 Jun 3, In Turkey Birol Erdem, who currently advises PM Binali Yildirim, was taken into custody in Ankara along with his wife. They are being investigated for their suspected membership in Gulen's movement, which Turkey considers a terror group.
(AP, 6/3/17)
2017 Jun 4, Turkey's state-run news reported that PM Binali Yildirim said the battle to capture the Islamic State group's Syrian bastion Raqa started late on June 2. He appeared to contradict comments a day earlier from the Kurdish-Arab alliance battling the jihadists that the push into the northern Syrian city would "begin in a few days".
(AFP, 6/4/17)
2017 Jun 4, Turkish security forces killed eight militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in eastern Kars province.
(Reuters, 6/4/17)
2017 Jun 5, Turkey said it would strip citizenship from 130 people suspected of militant links, including the US-based cleric it blames for orchestrating last July's failed coup, unless they return to the country within three months.
(Reuters, 6/5/17)
2017 Jun 7, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Cabinet decided to pull German troops and reconnaissance aircraft out of Turkey's Incirlik air base after Turkish officials refused to let lawmakers visit them. The 270 troops and 7 planes participating in the international coalition against the Islamic State group will redeploy to Jordan.
(AP, 6/7/17)
2017 Jun 9, In southeastern Turkey two suspected Kurdish rebels opened fire on a car belonging to a local mayor, then blew up their vehicle near a military police station. One person was killed and four people were wounded in the attacks and one of the assailants was killed in Batman province.
(AP, 6/9/17)
2017 Jun 9, French photographer Mathias Depardon was reported freed after a month in custody in Turkey.
(AP, 6/9/17)
2017 Jun 12, An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 shook western Turkey and the Greek island of Lesbos, injuring at least 10 people and damaging buildings.
(AP, 6/12/17)
2017 Jun 13, Turkey's PM Binali Yildirim said his country wants to continue membership talks with the European Union, in an effort to ease months of tension.
(AP, 6/13/17)
2017 Jun 14, A Turkish court sentenced a Republican People's Party (CHP) lawmaker to 25 years jail for leaking classified material to the press, the first time a main opposition party deputy has been arrested in an ongoing crackdown. CHP lawmaker Enis Berberoglu was immediately placed under arrest at the Istanbul criminal court.
(AP, 6/14/17)
2017 Jun 14, A Turkish court in Ankara sentenced Aydin Sefa Akay, a Turkish national and UN judge, to seven and a half years in prison for "membership in an armed terror group." The conviction drew a rebuke the next day from the UN court he works for.
(AP, 6/15/17)
2017 Jun 15, Turkey's main opposition party set off on a 425-km (265 mile) march from the capital to an Istanbul prison to protest the conviction of one of lawmaker Enis Berberoglu. Thousands began walking from Ankara, with police at the scene.
(AP, 6/15/17)
2017 Jun 16, Turkey's main opposition leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, accused Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan of staging a "second coup" with the crackdown that followed last July's failed putsch, as he pressed on with a protest march to Istanbul from Ankara.
(AFP, 6/16/17)
2017 Jun 17, In Turkey 731 soldiers at a western base were sent to the hospital with food poisoning. 21 people from the company that provided the food were soon detained.
(AP, 6/18/17)
2017 Jun 18, Turkish troops began taking part in joint training exercises in Qatar, as a diplomatic crisis in the Gulf enters its third week.
(AP, 6/19/17)
2017 Jun 19, Greece's PM Alexis Tsipras told visiting Turkish counterpart Binali Yildirim that airspace violations over the Aegean must stop as they increase the risk of a military accident in the sea between the two uneasy neighbors and NATO allies.
(AP, 6/19/17)
2017 Jun 22, Turkish defense ministry sources said the US has told Turkey it will take back weapons supplied to the Kurdish YPG militia in northern Syria after the defeat of Islamic State seeking to address Turkish concerns about arming Kurds on its border.
(Reuters, 6/22/17)
2017 Jun 22, Turkey sent a first ship loaded with aid for its embattled regional ally Qatar, which has been hit by sanctions from Gulf powers led by Saudi Arabia.
(AFP, 6/22/17)
2017 Jun 23, Turkey rejected a call from four Arab states to shut down its military base in Qatar, saying the base was a guarantor of security in the Gulf and demands for its closure represented interference in its ties with Doha.
(Reuters, 6/23/17)
2017 Jun 24, Istanbul's governor banned a gay and transgender pride march for a second year running, citing security concerns after threats from an ultra-nationalist group. It was due to take place in the city on June 25.
(Reuters, 6/24/17)
2017 Jun 25, In Turkey activists for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex rights said they will march for LGBT pride in Istanbul, despite a ban by the governor. Turkish police thwarted the parade attempt. 44 people were detained during the march.
(AP, 6/25/17)(AFP, 6/25/17)(AP, 6/26/17)
2017 Jun 28, Turkey’s military said its forces retaliated with an artillery barrage overnight and destroyed Kurdish YPG militia targets after the group's fighters opened fire on Turkey-backed forces in northern Syria.
(Reuters, 6/28/17)
2017 Jun 30, In Turkey Orhan Mercan, the AKP's deputy head in the Lice district of Diyarbakir province, was shot in front of his home this evening and died of his wounds in hospital. Turkey blamed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.
(Reuters, 7/2/17)
2017 Jun, In Turkey a counterterror captured Abdulkerim Cakar (32), the alleged commander of an Adana-based IS cell, and 10 others. Their testimony led to the August arrest of Russian national Renad Bakiev, who planned a drone attack on US aircraft at Turkey's Incirlik air base.
(AP, 8/10/17)
2017 Jul 1, In Turkey militants killed Aydin Ahi, deputy head of the AKP in the Ozalp district of Van province. Turkey blamed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants. An airstrike by the Turkish military killed five PKK militants preparing an attack on an army base in Mardin province. In separate air strikes the army also five PKK fighters in southeast Bingol province and another four militants in the Metina region of northern Iraq. Another three PKK militants were killed in clashes in the southeastern provinces of Diyarbakir, Hakkari and Sirnak.
(Reuters, 7/2/17)
2017 Jul 2, Turkish police chased away a small group of transgender activist who tried to march to Istanbul’s main square despite an official ban on the event. Seven people were detained.
(SFC, 7/3/17, p.A2)
2017 Jul 4, Turkish Transport Minister Ahmet Arslan said the United States is set to lift a ban on carrying large electronic devices, such as laptops, in the cabin of US-bound flights from Turkey's main international airport.
(AFP, 7/4/17)
2017 Jul 5, Turkish police detained six suspected members of the Islamic State extremist group planning a bomb attack on an opposition protest march.
(AFP, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 5, Turkish and Emirates Airlines said the United States has lifted the in-cabin ban on laptops and other large electronic devices on US-bound flights from Dubai and Istanbul.
(Reuters, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 5, The head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said that Turkish military deployments near Kurdish-held areas of northwestern Syria amounted to "a declaration of war", signaling the risk of a major confrontation.
(Reuters, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 6, The European Parliament called for Turkey's European Union accession talks to be suspended if Ankara fully implements plans to expand President Tayyip Erdogan's powers, in a vote which Turkey dismissed as flawed and wrong.
(Reuters, 7/6/17)
2017 Jul 7, Turkey's main opposition leader said his three-week "justice march" from Ankara to Istanbul had helped Turks "cast off a shirt of fear" under emergency rule, and vowed to stiffen his party's challenge to the government once the protest ends.
(Reuters, 7/7/17)
2017 Jul 7, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said police detained overnight 29 suspected Islamic State militants in Istanbul, 22 of them foreign nationals, believed to be preparing to travel to Syria.
(Reuters, 7/7/17)
2017 Jul 9, In Turkey hundreds of thousands of people rallied in Istanbul at the culmination of 25-day march that has grown into the biggest protest against a government crackdown following last July's failed military coup.
(Reuters, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 9, Germany began to pull its troops out of Turkey’s Incirlik air base where they have supported international operations against Islamic State following a row with Ankara over access.
(Reuters, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 10, Turkey’s state media reported that the government has detained 42 staff of two Istanbul universities including a prominent academic as part of an investigation into the group blamed for last year's failed coup. Anadolu news agency also said authorities have issued a total of 72 arrest warrants for people suspected of links to the group of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.
(AFP, 7/10/17)
2017 Jul 11, Turkish authorities issued detention warrants for 105 information technology experts suspected of aiding last year's failed coup. Turkey kicked off a week of events commemorating the July 15 anniversary of the thwarted coup and remembering about 250 people who were killed. Officers launched raids against IS across 29 different provinces, detaining 233 suspects.
(AP, 7/11/17)(AP, 7/12/17)
2017 Jul 12, Turkish police killed five suspected Islamic State jihadists in the central province of Konya.
(AFP, 7/12/17)
2017 Jul 13, Turkish police detained Ali Avci, the producer of a film on the life of President Tayyip Erdogan, accusing him of ties to the Muslim cleric Ankara says orchestrated last year's attempted coup. Anti-terror police seized Avci at his Istanbul home and also seized another man identified as a fugitive sought for being a user of ByLock, an encrypted messaging app.
(Reuters, 7/13/17)
2017 Jul 15, In Turkey thousands of people marched from several Istanbul neighborhoods to converge at the iconic July 15 Martyrs' Bridge in a "national unity march" to commemorate the one year anniversary of Turkey's failed coup attempt.
(AP, 7/15/17)
2017 Jul 17, Turkish-backed rebels clashed with Kurdish fighters from a US-backed alliance in northwestern Syria in escalating violence between the two sides.
(Reuters, 7/17/17)
2017 Jul 18, Turkey announced a new school curriculum that excluded Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, feeding opposition fears President Tayyip Erdogan is subverting the republic's secular foundations.
(Reuters, 7/18/17)
2017 Jul 18, A Turkish court jailed Amnesty International's Turkey director Idil Eser and five other human rights activists pending trial for allegedly aiding an armed terror group.
(AP, 7/18/17)
2017 Jul 18, In Turkey people had to swim to safety in the flooded streets of Istanbul after heavy rain and storms brought chaos to the city and caused shipping traffic on oil and grain routes through the Bosporus Strait to be suspended for some hours.
(Reuters, 7/18/17)
2017 Jul 21, A magnitude 6.7 earthquake killed two people on the Greek holiday island of Kos, also causing disruption in the Turkish tourist hub of Bodrum, whee 80 people were injured. A Turkish and a Swedish tourist, aged 39 and 22 years, died when the roof of a popular bar collapsed.
(Reuters, 7/21/17)(AFP, 7/21/17)
2017 Jul 24, Turkey's president has arrived in Qatar on the final leg of a Gulf tour aimed at forging a resolution to the diplomatic standoff gripping the nation and four fellow Arab countries.
(AP, 7/24/17)
2017 Jul 25, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged all Muslims to visit and protect Jerusalem after violence broke out over metal detectors that Israel installed and later removed from the Temple Mount, a sensitive holy site in the city.
(AFP, 7/25/17)
2017 Jul 27, Turkey's parliament stripped two pro-Kurdish lawmakers of their parliamentary status, further reducing the presence of the HDP, the second-largest opposition party in the general assembly.
(Reuters, 7/27/17)
2017 Jul 28, Turkish authorities detained former national team soccer player Bekir Irtegun (33) as part of the sweeping crackdown following last year's failed coup attempt.
(Reuters, 7/28/17)
2017 Jul 28, Turkish authorities arrested British citizen Joe Robinson (24) while he was holidaying on the country's western coast on charges of working with a Kurdish militia. Robinson had served with British forces in Afghanistan in 2012 and travelled to Syria in 2015 to work as a combat medic in the YPG.
(AFP, 7/29/17)
2017 Jul 28, Britain lifted a ban on passengers carrying electronic devices in the cabin on some flights to the UK from Turkey after new security measures were introduced, saying other restrictions would be looked at on a case by case basis.
(Reuters, 7/28/17)
2017 Jul 29, In Turkey seven staff from the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet walked free from jail after over eight months behind bars, expressing hope four colleagues still in prison would be released soon. Those freed were released under judicial control, meaning they will have to report regularly to the authorities and remain charged.
(AFP, 7/29/17)
2017 Jul 29, Hundreds of Turkish women marched in Istanbul to protest against the violence and animosity they face from men demanding they dress more conservatively.
(Reuters, 7/30/17)
2017 Jul, In Turkey a heavily-pregnant Syrian refugee was raped and bludgeoned to death by rock-wielding attackers at her home, just days before she was due to give birth. Her 10-month-old baby boy was strangled to death in a brutal double murder that sparked shock and outrage.
(AFP, 9/22/17)
2017 Aug 1, A Turkish military vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device in southeast Diyarbakir province, killing two soldiers. Separately three PKK militants were killed in the southeastern province of Tunceli after being identified by a drone.
(Reuters, 8/1/17)
2017 Aug 2, Turkey's top military body replaced the land, air and naval commanders of the military at a critical meeting just over a year after the failed coup bid.
(AP, 8/2/17)
2017 Aug 3, In China Turkey's top diplomat vowed to root out militants plotting against China, signaling closer cooperation against suspected Uighur militants hailing from China's far west who have long been a sore point in bilateral relations.
(AP, 8/3/17)
2017 Aug 3, Spanish police arrested Hamza Yalcin, a Turkish-Swedish reporter and writer in Barcelona, on an international arrest order from Turkey for alleged terrorism.
(AP, 8/8/17)
2017 Aug 8, A Turkish media report said Turkey has begun construction of a wall along the country's frontier with Iran, mimicking the Turkish barrier along the Syrian border.
(AP, 8/8/17)
2017 Aug 10, Turkish police said authorities have detained Renad Bakiev, a Russian national, and suspected Islamic State group militant for allegedly planning a drone attack on US aircraft at Turkey's Incirlik air base.
(AP, 8/10/17)
2017 Aug 11, Turkish police detained Muaz El Ahsin while he was trying to cross into the country illegally. A court soon charged Ahsin with murder for allegedly slitting the throats of Syrian journalists Ibrahim Abdul-Qadir and Fares Hamadi on October 29, 2015.
(AP, 8/14/17)
2017 Aug 13, In Turkey police Officer Sinan Acar (24) was stabbed to death by a suspected member of the Islamic State (IS) group, who had been arrested for allegedly planning a suicide attack. The suspected IS member was shot dead on the spot by other police officers.
(AFP, 8/14/17)
2017 Aug 19, Spanish police in Granada arrested German-Turkish author Dogan Akhanli after Turkey issued an Interpol warrant for the writer, a critic of the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Akhanli was conditionally released the next day following a court hearing, but ordered to stay in Madrid while Turkey's extradition request is considered.
(Reuters, 8/19/17)(AP, 8/20/17)
2017 Aug 21, In southeastern Turkey a US MQ-1 Predator drone crashed. The cause of the crash was being investigated.
(Reuters, 8/21/17)
2017 Aug 25, In Turkey an emergency decree published today said over 900 public sector officials have been dismissed in the latest wave of the purge that followed last year's failed coup. A second decree said the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), which was previously under the prime minister, would now report to the president, expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's powers over public institutions.
(AFP, 8/25/17)
2017 Aug 26, Qatar said that Turkey has arrested five people in connection with the alleged hack of Doha's state news agency, an incident which sparked the current Gulf political crisis. The alleged hack of the QNA website took place on May 24, attributing explosive political remarks to Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.
(AFP, 8/26/17)
2017 Aug 27, Ebrahim Yazdi (85), a dissident Iranian politician and a former foreign minister (1979), died at the age of 85 in Izmir, Turkey, where he was being treated for complications from cancer after being denied a US visa for follow-up treatment in Houston.
(AP, 8/31/17)
2017 Sep 6, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will provide 10,000 tons of aid to help Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in Myanmar.
(Reuters, 9/6/17)
2017 Sep 6, Turkish police shot dead an Islamic State militant who was set to carry out a suicide bomb attack on a police station in the Mediterranean city of Mersin.
(Reuters, 9/6/17)
2017 Sep 8, Turkey's pro-Kurdish political party announced the release from prison of lawmaker Ayhan Bilgen, a former spokesman for the People's Democratic Party (HDP), pending a trial on terror charges.
(AP, 9/8/17)
2017 Sep 9, Turkey said its security forces have killed 99 Kurdish militants, including a high-ranking one, in operations in the southeast over the last two weeks.
(Reuters, 9/9/17)
2017 Sep 11, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Berlin had suspended major arms exports due to deteriorating human rights in Turkey and increasingly strained ties between the NATO allies.
(Reuters, 9/12/17)
2017 Sep 12, Turkey’s Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a deal to purchase a Russian surface-to-air missile system.
(SFC, 9/13/17 p.A2)
2017 Sep 12, Turkish authorities detained on "terror" charges at least 15 lawyers from the legal association representing two imprisoned teachers on a hunger strike to protest their sacking in an ongoing purge.
(AFP, 9/12/17)
2017 Sep 14, Turkish police detained 24 protesters outside a courthouse where two dismissed public employees, who had launched a hunger strike, are on trial on terror charges. Academic Nuriye Gulmen and teacher Semih Ozakca were detained in May on the 76th day of their hunger strike.
(AP, 9/14/17)
2017 Sep 15, Turkey detained Celal Celik, the main opposition leader's lawyer, for alleged links to the network accused of carrying out last year's failed coup, in a widening government crackdown.
(Reuters, 9/15/17)
2017 Sep 15, Turkey’s foreign ministry said Russia, Iran and Turkey have agreed to post observers on the edge of a de-escalation zone in northern Syria's Idlib region, which is largely controlled by Islamist militants.
(Reuters, 9/15/17)
2017 Sep 16, Turkey’s official news reported that police have detained 74 people believed to be members of the Islamic State group in simultaneous operations in 15 locations in Istanbul.
(SSFC, 9/17/17 p.A3)
2017 Sep 19, Nigeria intercepted 470 rifles from Turkey, which had been falsely declared as elbow joints for plumbing. That shipment was uncovered barely a week after a 20-foot container-load of 1,100 pump-action rifles was impounded at the same port. According to Nigeria Customs Service a total of 2,671 action pump rifles allegedly imported from Turkey have been seized in Lagos since January.
(AFP, 9/22/17)
2017 Sep 21, A Turkish court jailed on terror charges 14 lawyers representing two detained teachers who have been on hunger strike for six months after being sacked in a mass crackdown.
(AFP, 9/21/17)
2017 Sep 21, The foreign ministers of Turkey, Iran and Iraq voiced concerns that a Kurdish referendum on independence would endanger gains Iraq has made against Islamic state, and reiterated worries of potential new conflicts in the region and agreed to consider counter-measures against the planned independence referendum.
(Reuters, 9/21/17)
2017 Sep 22, Turkey reported that veteran Syrian opposition activist Aroubeh Barakat and her journalist daughter Halla Barakat (22) were found stabbed to death at their apartment in Istanbul, in a crime supporters decried as an "assassination" to avenge their work.
(AFP, 9/22/17)
2017 Sep 22, Miss Turkey organizers dethroned Itir Esen (18), a day after she won the contest and the right to represent Turkey at the Miss World contest in China, over a social media posting that was deemed insulting to the memory of the 250 people killed while opposing last year's failed military coup.
(AP, 9/22/17)
2017 Sep 22, At least 21 people drowned and 5 others were missing after a fishing boat carrying migrants sunk off Turkey's Black Sea coast. Forty migrants were rescued.
(AFP, 9/22/17)(SFC, 9/23/17 p.A2)
2017 Sep 23, Turkey said it would take security and other steps in response to a planned independence referendum in northern Iraq's Kurdish region that it called a "terrible mistake", as a Kurdish delegation was in Baghdad for talks on the crisis.
(AP, 9/23/17)
2017 Sep 23, Turkey's official news agency said Istanbul police have detained 36 people at 15 different addresses as alleged members of the Islamic State group.
(AP, 9/23/17)
2017 Sep 25, Turkey took the Kurdish television channel Rudaw off its satellite service TurkSat, in the country's first response to a Kurdish independence referendum in northern Iraq. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara would close its border with Iraq's Kurdistan region over an independence referendum and threatened the Iraqi Kurds with blocking their key oil exports.
(Reuters, 9/25/17)(AFP, 9/25/17)
2017 Sep 26, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Iraqi Kurds would go hungry if his country halts the flow of trucks and oil across the border with northern Iraq and warned that all military and economic measures were on the table against its neighbor.
(Reuters, 9/26/17)
2017 Sep 27, Turkey said it will suspend flights to the northern Iraqi cities of Erbil and Sulaimaniya starting on 1500 GMT on Sep 29, in response to a Kurdish independence referendum held earlier this week.
(Reuters, 9/27/17)
2017 Sep 28, Turkey advised its citizens to leave Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region before flights to the area are suspended. Turkey said it had stopped training peshmerga forces in northern Iraq in response to a Kurdish independence vote there. Turkey also threatened potentially crippling restrictions on oil trading with Iraqi Kurds.
(AP, 9/28/17)(Reuters, 9/28/17)
2017 Sep 28, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the United States that Turkey could release a jailed American pastor if Washington handed over the Pennsylvania-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen who Ankara blames for last year's failed coup. US pastor Andrew Brunson has been held by Turkish authorities since October 2016 on charges of being a member of Gulen's group.
(AFP, 9/28/17)
2017 Sep 28, Russia’s Pres. Vladimir Putin visited Turkey for talks that focused on Iraq, Syria and bilateral trade.
(SFC, 9/29/17, p.A2)
2017 Sep 30, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said Iraqi Kurdish authorities would pay the price for an independence referendum which was widely opposed by foreign powers.
(Reuters, 9/30/17)
2017 Sep 30, Turkish police arrested a suspect in the killing of a Syrian opposition activist and her journalist daughter in Istanbul. Security cameras led police to a Syrian citizen in the western province of Bursa. The main suspect is allegedly the grandson of Arouba Barakat's uncle. Police also detained the suspect's former roommate, another Syrian. The main suspect travelled from Bursa to Istanbul on Sept. 19 by boat and took public transportation to the district where the victims lived. He returned to Bursa the following day.
(AP, 9/30/17)
2017 Sep 30, The Turkish government opened a military training base, its largest in Africa, in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
(AP, 9/30/17)
2017 Sep, Turkey's board of education instituted a new curriculum scrapping all references to Darwin and education.
(Econ, 9/30/17, p.49)
2017 Oct 3, Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region said it is calling presidential and parliamentary elections for Nov. 1, as the Kurdish leadership cements its case for independence. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would impose further sanctions on northern Iraq over the vote.
(Reuters, 10/3/17)
2017 Oct 4, A Turkish court found 42 former soldiers guilty of trying to kill President Tayyip Erdogan during last year's failed coup, and handed most of them life sentences in the highest profile case related to the attempted putsch so far.
(Reuters, 10/4/17)
2017 Oct 4, The presidents of Iran and Turkey vowed during talks in Tehran to work closely together to prevent the disintegration of Iraq and Syria and to oppose the Iraqi Kurds' drive for independence.
(Reuters, 10/4/17)
2017 Oct 5, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Turkey would "soon" close its border crossing with Iraqi Kurdistan and airspace after the disputed referendum on independence. Turkey's state-run news agency said security forces have killed five suspected Kurdish militants in an operation close to a tourist resort near the Mediterranean coast. Two militants escaped.
(AFP, 10/5/17)(AP, 10/5/17)
2017 Oct 6, In Turkey Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro met with Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks on bilateral relations and international issues.
(AP, 10/6/17)
2017 Oct 7, Turkey's president announced that the country has launched a "serious" operation in Syria's northwestern Idlib province with Turkey-backed Syrian opposition forces, following international efforts for de-escalation in the war-torn country.
(AP, 10/7/17)
2017 Oct 7, In Turkey a tourist bus tipped over after hitting a palm tree on a traffic island in the southern Antalya province, killing three German tourists.
(AP, 10/7/17)
2017 Oct 8, Turkish forces shelled areas along its border with Syria's northwestern province, an area dominated by al-Qaida-linked militants. President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey was implementing a deal agreed with Russia and Iran to reduce violence in Syria's northern province of Idlib, in cooperation with Free Syrian Army rebel fighters.
(AP, 10/8/17)(Reuters, 10/8/17)
2017 Oct 8, The Istanbul prosecutor's office charged Amnesty International's Turkey chief and 10 others for allegedly belonging to and aiding terror groups with the completion of an indictment.
(AP, 10/8/17)
2017 Oct 8, The US embassy in Turkey said it was suspending visa services while it assessed Turkey's commitment to the safety of its missions and its staff after the arrest of Metin Topuz, a Turkish US consulate worker over allegations that he had links to US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.
(Reuters, 10/10/17)(SFC, 10/10/17, p.A3)
2017 Oct 9, In Turkey an appeals court annulled the 25-year prison sentence of opposition lawmaker Enis Berberoglu, but he will remain in custody and face a retrial.
(Reuters, 10/9/17)
2017 Oct 10, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks with Serbia's president as Ankara stepped up efforts to increase its clout in the Balkans.
(AP, 10/10/17)
2017 Oct 10, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed that Turkish officials would boycott the US ambassador to Ankara, stepping up one of the worst rows in decades between the two NATO allies.
(AP, 10/10/17)
2017 Oct 10, Turkey’s police launched operations in seven provinces to catch 70 active duty officers, from the air force, navy, army, and gendarmerie, over suspected links to cleric Fethullah Gulen's movement. Police in Ankara used tear gas to disperse crowds hoping to commemorate the second anniversary of a terror attack that killed 102 people.
(AP, 10/10/17)
2017 Oct 10, Iraq's Oil Ministry ordered the restoration of an oil pipeline from the city of Kirkuk to Turkey that would bypass the country's northern Kurdish region in the wake of the area's pro-independence referendum.
(AP, 10/10/17)
2017 Oct 11, In Turkey an explosion in a storage tank at the Tupras refinery killed four people in the western province of Izmir. Authorities the next day detained seven people over the blast, of which four have been formally arrested and three released on probation.
(Reuters, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 13, Spain's government says that Turkish-born writer Dogan Akhanly, who has German citizenship, won't be extradited to Turkey for his alleged involvement with an outlawed group.
(AP, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 14, Turkish authorities issued detention warrants for 100 former police officers and have so far detained 63 of them, as part of a widening crackdown since last year's failed coup attempt. The suspects were believed to be users of ByLock, an encrypted messaging app which the government says was used by the network of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.
(Reuters, 10/14/17)
2017 Oct 16, Turkey announced that it is closing its airspace to flights to and from Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region and have Baghdad take control of the Iraqi side of its main border crossing.
(AP, 10/16/17)(Reuters, 10/16/17)
2017 Oct 16, Turkey’s interior ministry said security forces detained 1,210 people over the last week for suspected links to militant groups or last year's failed coup.
(Reuters, 10/16/17)
2017 Oct 16, Two Turkish soldiers were killed in the southeastern province of Hakkari after an improvised explosive device detonated.
(Reuters, 10/16/17)
2017 Oct 17, In southern Turkey a bomb exploded as a bus carrying police was passing by in Mersin.
(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, In Turkey seven miners were killed and another was missing after part of a coal mine collapsed in the southeastern province of Sirnak.
(Reuters, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, Officials said an EU-funded project that provides cash assistance to the most vulnerable refugee families in Turkey has reached 1 million beneficiaries a year after its launch.
(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, In Warsaw Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with his Polish counterpart, his first official bilateral visit to an EU country since the failed 2016 coup in Turkey. President Andrzej Duda said he hopes Turkey will eventually join the EU. They discussed defense cooperation through NATO, and the issue of energy as both countries count on coal for part of their energy needs.
(AFP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 18, Turkish police detained prominent activist and businessman Osman Kavala at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport.
(Reuters, 10/19/17)
2017 Oct 19, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and visiting Nigerian Pres. Muhammadu Buhari vowed to ramp up security and economic cooperation between Ankara and Africa's most populous nation.
(AP, 10/19/17)
2017 Oct 20, The European Union said it will cut some of the money earmarked for Turkey to join the bloc, reflecting increasingly sour ties with Ankara but stopping short of killing membership bid of the country it still sees as a strategic partner.
(Reuters, 10/20/17)
2017 Oct 23, In Turkey Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek announced that he would step down on Oct. 28 following a meeting with Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Gokcek became the fifth elected mayor to leave office under pressure from Pres. Erdogan.
(SFC, 10/24/17, p.A2)
2017 Oct 23, A Turkish military vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device in the southeastern province of Hakkari, killing one soldier.
(Reuters, 10/23/17)
2017 Oct 25, In Turkey Meral Aksener, a former interior minister seen as a potentially strong challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, delivered a defiant speech in Ankara promising a "strong, happy" Turkey at the official launch of the Iyi ("Good") Party.
(AFP, 10/25/17)
2017 Oct 25, Crimean Tatar activists Ilmi Umerov and Ahtem Chiygoz, who opposed to Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region, were released from prison and flown to Turkey. Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko thanked Turkey's president for helping broker the release.
(AP, 10/25/17)(Reuters, 10/27/17)
2017 Oct 26, A Turkish court in Izmir ordered Taner Kilic, the head of Amnesty International in Turkey, to remain in pre-trial detention, after he denied allegations of links to the Muslim cleric Ankara blames for last year's failed coup.
(AFP, 10/26/17)
2017 Oct 27, In Myanmar reporters Lau Hon Meng from Singapore and Mok Choy Lin from Malaysia were arrested in Naypyidaw for flying a drone over a parliament building while on assignment for Turkish state broadcaster TRT.
(AFP, 10/28/17)
2017 Oct 28, Turkey arrested 49 alleged members of the Islamic State group, some of whom were suspected of planning an attack the next day on celebrations for the 94th anniversary of Republic Day.
(AFP, 10/28/17)
2017 Oct 29, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency said police have detained 143 people over suspected links to Islamic State in anti-terror operations in eight cities over the weekend.
(Reuters, 10/29/17)
2017 Oct 30, In Turkey Ahmet Edip Ugur, mayor of the northwestern province of Balikesir, announced he had quit his post and left President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party after pressure and threats "beyond unbearable", becoming the sixth mayor in recent weeks to fall victim of a purge of local government.
(AP, 10/31/17)
2017 Nov 1, The 78-meter (256-foot) Turkish-flagged Bilal Bal cargo ship, which had 10 crew members aboard, disappeared in the Black Sea after issuing a distress signal. Divers on Nov. 3 located two bodies.
(AP, 11/3/17)
2017 Nov 2, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed into law controversial legislation to let state-approved clerics conduct marriage ceremonies, a move critics claim risks undermining Turkey's secular foundations.
(AFP, 11/3/17)
2017 Nov 2, Turkey’s defense industry executive board said it is planning 22 new defense projects worth a total of $5 billion and spanning the development of air defense missile systems, ammunition and arms systems.
(Reuters, 11/2/17)
2017 Nov 2, In southeastern Turkey clashes between Turkish security force members and Kurdish militants in three mainly Kurdish provinces killed eight security force members and 31 militants.
(AP, 11/2/17)
2017 Nov 3, The Greek coast guard rescued 15 people after a boat carrying migrants from Turkey sank off the island of Kalymnos. At least three people died and several more were believed to be missing.
(AP, 11/3/17)
2017 Nov 6, President Tayyip Erdogan announced plans to demolish the Ataturk Culture Center in Istanbul, named after the founder of modern secular Turkey, in a move critics see as another attempt by the Islamist-rooted ruling party to roll back secularism. The AKM has been closed to the public for the past 10 years over disagreements regarding its renovation and infrastructure.
(Reuters, 11/6/17)
2017 Nov 6, The United States embassy in Turkey confirmed that it has resumed processing visas at its missions on a "limited basis".
(Reuters, 11/6/17)
2017 Nov 7, A Turkish court rejected an appeals court order to retry Enis Berberoglu, a lawmaker from the main opposition party, upholding his 25-year jail term.
(Reuters, 11/7/17)
2017 Nov 8, A Turkish court ordered the release of opposition newspaper journalist Bekir Gokmen Ulu from the Sozcu daily, accused of links to the group blamed by the government for last year's failed coup.
(AFP, 11/8/17)
2017 Nov 9, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the main opposition party of moving away from the country's moral values after a small opposition-run municipality installed a quota for LGBTI candidates running for a neighborhood committee.
(AP, 11/9/17)
2017 Nov 9, Turkish media reported that police have detained 165 people over suspected links to Islamic State in Ankara and have arrest warrants for a total of 245 suspects in the capital and surrounding province.
(Reuters, 11/9/17)
2017 Nov 10, Turkey's official news agency said police have detained at least 100 people suspected of links to the Islamic State group.
(AP, 11/10/17)
2017 Nov 10, In Turkey six women in a jail in the eastern province of Elazig went on hunger strike to protest against a rule obliging them to wear an ID while outside their living quarters. Four more women joined them on Dec. 10. On Dec. 30 The Diyarbakir Bar said the prisoners were losing weight and starting to have serious health problems.
(Reuters, 12/30/17)
2017 Nov 10, The Wall Street Journal reported that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was investigating an alleged plot involving former US National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and his son to forcibly remove cleric Fethullah Gulen and hand him over to Ankara for as much as $15 million.
(AP, 11/12/17)
2017 Nov 12, Turkey dismissed as "ludicrous and groundless" a report that Turkish officials may have discussed kidnapping US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen in exchange for millions of dollars.
(AP, 11/12/17)
2017 Nov 12, Turkey said its purchase of Russian S-400 surface-to-air missiles has been completed. Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli said Ankara is still discussing a further deal with a European consortium to help it develop its own missile defense system.
(Reuters, 11/12/17)
2017 Nov 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks focusing on the situation in Syria.
(AP, 11/13/17)
2017 Nov 14, In Kuwait Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks with Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, as a crisis that has split Qatar from its Gulf neighbors entered its sixth month.
(AFP, 11/14/17)
2017 Nov 15, Turkish authorities in Ankara banned a German gay film festival the day before it was due to start, citing public safety and terrorism risks.
(Reuters, 11/19/17)
2017 Nov 15, Syrian rebel officials said a senior commander has defected to Turkey from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a leading combatant in the fight against Islamic State. Brigadier General Talal Silo handed himself in at dawn to the Free Syrian Army (FSA), an adversary of the SDF, and was escorted to Turkey.
(Reuters, 11/15/17)
2017 Nov 16, Turkey detained 136 people, including former police, teachers and soldiers, in four separate operations over suspected links to last year's attempted military coup.
(Reuters, 11/16/17)
2017 Nov 16, In Turkey four militants were killed in the southeastern province of Tunceli.
(Reuters, 11/16/17)
2017 Nov 16, In northern Iraq two Turkish soldiers were killed and one was wounded in northern Iraq's Avasin Basyan region by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.
(Reuters, 11/16/17)
2017 Nov 17, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey is pulling 40 soldiers out of a NATO exercise in Norway, after his name appeared in a list of enemies on a poster at the drill, an incident that drew an apology from both the military alliance and Oslo.
(Reuters, 11/17/17)
2017 Nov 18, Turkish prosecutors launched an investigation into two US prosecutors involved in trying a Turkish-Iranian businessman for violating US sanctions against Iran. Gold trader Reza Zarrab (34) is charged in the US for evading sanctions on Iran.
(AP, 11/18/17)
2017 Nov 18, The Turkish capital Ankara banned the public showing of films and exhibitions related to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues.
(Reuters, 11/19/17)
2017 Nov 18, Naim Suleymanoglu (50), a Bulgarian-born Turkish weightlifter who won three Olympic gold medals and was known as "Pocket Hercules," died following a liver transplant last month. He won three straight Olympic gold medals for Turkey between 1988 and 1996.
(AP, 11/18/17)
2017 Nov 19, In Turkey top diplomats from Iran, Russia and Turkey met in Antalya to discuss the civil war in Syria ahead of a three-way summit in the Russian city of Sochi Nov. 22.
(AFP, 11/19/17)
2017 Nov 20, Turkish authorities issued arrest warrants for 107 teachers for suspected ties to the US-based cleric Ankara blames for orchestrating last year's coup.
(Reuters, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Turkey said Syrian Kurdish fighters have attacked a Turkish observation post in the northern Syrian province of Idlib with mortar rounds. There were no casualties.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 21, A Syrian Kurdish militia accused Turkish forces of "aggression and escalation" in the Afrin region, which it controls, on Syria's northwestern border with Turkey.
(Reuters, 11/21/17)
2017 Nov 22, Vladimir Putin called for "concessions and compromise" from all parties in Syria's six-year conflict as he kicked off a key summit in Sochi with the leaders of Turkey and Iran aimed at reviving stuttering peace negotiations.
(AFP, 11/22/17)
2017 Nov 24, Turkey said that US President Donald Trump told President Tayyip Erdogan he had issued instructions that weapons should not be provided to Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria, and that the Turkish government hoped to see that order carried out.
(Reuters, 11/24/17)
2017 Nov 24, US President Donald Trump said that he had informed Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a call that Washington is adjusting military support to partners on the ground in Syria.
(Reuters, 11/25/17)
2017 Nov 24, In Turkey an Istanbul district authority banned a one-day festival that had been set to showcase short films on gay issues the next day, claiming the event posed a threat to public order.
(AFP, 11/25/17)
2017 Nov 27, Turkish and Sudanese intelligence agencies returned to Turkey Memduh Cikmaz, a man believed to be a financier for the US-based cleric accused of orchestrating a failed coup in Turkey, following his capture in Sudan.
(Reuters, 11/27/17)
2017 Nov 29, Turkish police staged an operation to detained 360 people, including 333 soldiers, as part of a probe into the Gulen network in the armed forces.
(AFP, 11/30/17)
2017 Nov 29, In NYC Turkish-Iranian mogul Reza Zarrab (34) admitted he bribed former Turkish economy minister Zafer Caglayan in order to facilitate illegal gold transactions with Iran. His testimony implied that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan knew how he and defendant Mehmet Hakan Atilla, deputy chief executive of Turkish lender Halkbank, circumvented sanctions on Iran and laundered money from Iranian petroleum sales.
(AFP, 12/1/17)
2017 Nov 30, Turkey’s parliament, dominated by ruling party members, rejected an opposition motion for an inquiry into allegations that Pres. Erdogan’s family members have evaded taxes by transferring millions of dollars to offshore accounts.
(SFC, 11/30/17, p.A2)
2017 Nov 30, Turkish police detained 50 people including soldiers and air force pilots in raids in 11 cities against those accused of links to the group blamed for last year's failed coup.
(AFP, 11/30/17)
2017 Nov 30, Turkish lender Aktif Bank said it had not violated any US or international sanctions, after it was mentioned in the US case regarding Iran sanctions violations.
(Reuters, 11/30/17)
2017 Dec 1, Turkish media reported that Istanbul police have detained 62 foreigners suspected of having links to the Islamic State group in overnight raids.
(AFP, 12/1/17)
2017 Dec 1, Turkey’s Hurriyet daily said authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Graham Fuller, a former officer of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), over suspected links to last year's failed coup. Hurriyet also said prosecutors had also issued an arrest warrant for Henri Barkey, a prominent Turkey scholar based in the United States, on suspicion of involvement in planning the coup.
(Reuters, 12/1/17)
2017 Dec 1, Turkey's official Anadolu Agency said that Istanbul prosecutors have demanded the seizure of the assets of gold trader Reza Zarrab and 22 others as they investigate claims of "espionage for a foreign country" and an "attempt to smuggle assets."
(AP, 12/2/17)
2017 Dec 1, Turkish academic Nuriye Gulmen, on hunger strike for nearly nine months to protest her dismissal after last year's failed coup, was released from jail. She had been sentenced to six years and three months in prison for "membership in an armed terror group," referring to a left-wing militant group.
(AP, 12/2/17)
2017 Dec 3, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said businessmen who attempted to move assets abroad were "traitors", and called on his cabinet to block any such moves.
(Reuters, 12/3/17)
2017 Dec 4, A Greek court ordered the detention of nine Turkish citizens pending trial for terrorism-related offences, including links to a banned militant group behind a series of suicide bombings in Turkey.
(AP, 12/4/17)
2017 Dec 5, Turkey’s state media said 17 suspects have been detained in an investigation into Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold trader who was once a close ally of the government but is now testifying against officials as a star witness in a high profile US case. Pres. Erdogan said that the case was a "plot" aimed at hurting Turkey.
(AFP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Turkish prosecutors launched an investigation following media reports that 11 members of a Turkish folk dancing group were seeking asylum in Hungary.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 7, In Turkey Selahattin Demirtas, the jailed co-leader of the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), was remanded in prison for at least two more months at the opening of his trial on terrorism-related charges.
(Reuters, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 8, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with members of Greece's Muslim minority, ending a landmark visit to Greece that sharply divided opinion in the country and saw tensions in relations resurface.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 11, Turkey's armed forces said its warplanes hit Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq and killed 17 of the group's militants.
(Reuters, 12/11/17)
2017 Dec 13, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan convened in Istanbul an emergency summit of the world's main pan-Islamic body, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Islamic leaders urged the world to recognize occupied East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, as Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas warned the United States no longer had any role to play in the peace process.
(AFP, 12/13/17)
2017 Dec 17, Turkey's president slammed a US-backed Syrian Kurdish militant group and said he'll clear his country's border with Syria of "terrorists".
(AP, 12/17/17)
2017 Dec 18, Turkish authorities issued detention warrants for 106 people believed to have worked as matchmakers for a network accused of orchestrating last year's failed military coup.
(Reuters, 12/18/17)
2017 Dec 18, German government officials said Turkey has released German journalist Mesale Tolu after nearly eight months in prison on the condition that she does not leave the country.
(AP, 12/18/17)
2017 Dec 20, Turkey's state-run news agency said prosecutors are seeking more than four years in prison for NBA player Enes Kanter on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Kanter, who is in the United States, would be tried in absentia.
(AP, 12/20/17)
2017 Dec 20, In Bangladesh Turkey's visiting PM Binali Yildirim dubbed the killing of minority Muslim Rohingyas in Myanmar by its security forces "genocide" and urged the international community to ensure their safety back home.
(Reuters, 12/20/17)
2017 Dec 21, Turkish police said they had rescued thousands of artefacts dating back to Anatolian, Greek and Egyptian civilizations in the largest operation to combat smuggling of ancient treasures in the country's history.
(Reuters, 12/21/17)
2017 Dec 24, Turkey's PM Binali Yildirim said that Turkey would employ an additional 110,000 public servants in 2018 including teachers, medical and religious personnel.
(Reuters, 12/24/17)
2017 Dec 24, In Turkey two government decrees published in the Official Gazette said 2,756 more people have been fired from the public service sector for alleged links to terror groups. The Gazette also said the government has closed down two local newspapers, 14 associations and one health clinic. At least 115 people who were previously dismissed were reinstated to public sector jobs.
(AP, 12/24/17)
2017 Dec 25, In Turkey two soldiers were killed and another was wounded in an attack by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the southeastern province of Hakkari. Separately, one soldier was killed and two others were wounded in northern Iraq when a grenade detonated by accident.
(Reuters, 12/25/17)
2017 Dec 25, A judge ejected Ahmet Sik, one of Turkey's most respected investigative journalists from court, and ruled that he and three other suspects should remain in jail, in the controversial trial of staff from the main opposition newspaper.
(AFP, 12/25/17)
2017 Dec 25, Serbia extradited to Turkey a Kurdish political activist, defying a recommendation by the UN Committee against Torture. Cevdet Ayaz had requested asylum in Serbia earlier this year after fleeing Turkey, where he had been sentenced to 15 years in prison over alleged activities against the constitution.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Myanmar police said they would drop pending charges against two journalists working for Turkey's state broadcaster, their interpreter and driver, who were jailed in November for violating an aircraft law by filming with a drone.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Sudan's foreign minister said Turkey will rebuild the ruined Ottoman port city of Suakin on Sudan's Red Sea coast and construct a naval dock to maintain civilian and military vessels. The restoration was agreed during a visit to the ancient port by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 27, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called Syrian Pres. Bashar al-Assad a terrorist and said it was impossible for Syrian peace efforts to continue with him.
(Reuters, 12/27/17)
2017 Dec 27, Turkish prosecutors said they will review legal cases against 11,480 people after finding they had been re-directed unwittingly to the ByLock messaging app linked to suspects in last year's failed coup.
(Reuters, 12/27/17)
2017 Dec 27, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said police had arrest warrants for a total of 171 academics and staff from Istanbul's former Fatih University, which was regarded as having close ties to US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen.
(Reuters, 12/27/17)
2017 Dec 27, Russia said it will supply Turkey with four batteries of S-400 surface-to-air missiles for $2.5 billion under a deal that is almost complete. The deal has caused concern in the West because Turkey is a member of NATO, but the Russian missile system cannot be integrated into NATO's military architecture.
(Reuters, 12/27/17)
2017 Dec 28, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denied that his country is constructing a naval base on Sudan's Red Sea coast, saying Turkey plans to restore Ottoman-era ruins in the area.
(AP, 12/28/17)
2017 Dec 28, Turkey’s state media said police have detained 120 people with suspected links to Islamic State (IS) in the countdown to New Year's Eve, part of a tightening of security one year after a gunman killed 39 people in an Istanbul night club.
(Reuters, 12/28/17)
2017 Dec 28, The United States and Turkey lifted all visa restrictions after Washington said Ankara had kept to assurances no further U.S. mission staff would be targeted for performing official duties, following detention of two earlier this year.
(Reuters, 12/28/17)
2017 Dec 29, Turkey and Russia signed an accord for Moscow to supply Ankara with S-400 surface-to-air missile batteries, finalizing a deal set to deepen military ties between NATO member Turkey and the Kremlin.
(Reuters, 12/29/17)
2017 Dec 29, Turkish police detained 75 suspected Islamic State members in two operations, after arresting about 120 such suspects across Turkey a day earlier, tightening security ahead of the New Year.
(Reuters, 12/29/17)
2017 Dec 29, Turkish media outlets reported that authorities have begun freeing some suspects arrested for involvement in a coup attempt after they found that thousands had been unwittingly re-directed to a messaging app used by the plotters.
(Reuters, 12/29/17)
2017 Dec 31, Turkish authorities, fearing an attack over the New Year, detained 20 suspected IS members in Istanbul, 15 of them foreigners, who are believed to have spent time in Syria or Iraq. Three Syrians, an Iraqi and a Russian Chechen were detained in Ankara.
(AFP, 12/31/17)
2017 Dec 31, Greece dismissed Turkish anger over its decision to grant asylum to a soldier who Ankara accuses of involvement in the abortive coup against President Tayyip Erdogan in July 2016. The soldier was one of eight who fled after the July 15 coup attempt.
(Reuters, 12/31/17)
2018 Jan 3, In NYC Mehmet Hakan Atilla (47), a deputy general manager of Turkey’s state-run Halkbank, was found guilty of five counts including bank fraud. Atilla was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the US. He was acquitted of a money laundering charge.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, It was reported that Turkey's broadcasting watchdog has fined a TV station nearly one million lira ($266,000) over footage of young girls dancing in shorts in a talent competition after viewers complained of "child abuse".
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 5, In France protests over press freedom and the deteriorating state of human rights in Turkey greeted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he arrived in Paris for talks with President Emmanuel Macron.
(AP, 1/5/18)
2018 Jan 6, Germany and Turkey's foreign ministers agreed to pull out all the stops to improve ties that have soured due to disputes over Ankara's post-coup crackdown and the arrests of German citizens in Turkey, but they stressed differences remain.
(Reuters, 1/6/18)
2018 Jan 8, Turkey said it will extend a state of emergency imposed after the July 2016 coup attempt for another three months.
(Reuters, 1/8/18)
2018 Jan 8, Greece won a temporary injunction suspending the asylum status granted to a Turkish soldier who fled with seven others to the country after a botched coup attempt against Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.
(Reuters, 1/8/18)
2018 Jan 11, Turkey’s Constitutional Court ordered the release of journalists Mehmet Altan and Sahin Alpay, ruling their rights had been violated. The two, in prison for more than year, have been accused of links to terrorist groups and attempting to overthrow the government, charges they deny.
(Reuters, 1/11/18)
2018 Jan 11, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will not extradite any suspects to the United States if Washington does not hand over the cleric Ankara blames for orchestrating a failed 2016 military coup.
(Reuters, 1/11/18)
2018 Jan 13, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will oust Kurdish militants from Afrin, northern Syria, as the military shelled the area from across the border.
(AP, 1/13/18)
2018 Jan 13, In northern Turkey a plane with 168 people aboard skidded off a runway onto a seaside cliff after landing at the Trabzon airport late today, but no one was injured in what one passenger called a "miracle".
(AFP, 1/14/18)
2018 Jan 14, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the country will launch a military assault on a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria "in the coming days" and urged the US to support its efforts.
(AP, 1/14/18)
2018 Jan 15, Turkey announced the route for a planned canal that would reduce shipping traffic on the busy Bosphorus Strait and transform the European half of Istanbul into an island.
(Reuters, 1/15/18)
2018 Jan 15, It was reported that the US-led coalition, that has been fighting Islamic State in Syria since 2014, is building a new 30,000-strong border force with its Syrian militia allies in the north. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the US was trying to create a "terror army" and pledged to crush the new force before it came into existence.
(Reuters, 1/15/18)
2018 Jan 17, A Turkish Air Force cargo plane crashed in southwest Turkey during a training flight, killing two pilots and a technician on board.
(AP, 1/17/18)
2018 Jan 19, Turkish artillery fired into Syria's Afrin region in what Ankara said was the start of a military campaign against the Kurdish-controlled area. Turkish newspapers said 20 buses carrying Free Syrian Army rebels crossed from Turkey into a Turkish-controlled part of northern Syria, on Afrin's eastern flank.
(Reuters, 1/19/18)
2018 Jan 20, The Turkish military launched operation "Olive Branch", its second major incursion into Syrian territory during the seven-year civil war. Turkish jets bombed the Kurdish-controlled city of Afrin in northern Syria. Afrin is now home to at least 800,000 civilians, including many who arrived fleeing the fighting in other parts of Syria.
(AP, 1/20/18)(AFP, 1/22/18)
2018 Jan 20, In Turkey eleven people were killed and 44 injured in Eskisehir province when an intercity bus taking families bound for a half-term skiing trip crashed into trees while travelling on a motorway to Bursa.
(AP, 1/20/18)(SSFC, 1/21/18, p.A4)
2018 Jan 21, Turkish warplanes hit 45 targets in northern Syria's Afrin region. Turkish ground forces pushed into Afrin province, after launching artillery and air strikes on a US-backed Kurdish militia it aims to sweep from its border.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 21, In Syria a rebel commander said around 25,000 Free Syrian Army rebels are joining the Turkish military operation in northern Syria with the goal of recapturing Arab towns and villages seized by the YPG Kurdish militia almost two years ago.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 21, A missile fired across the border from Syria hit the Turkish border town of Reyhanli, killing a Syrian national and wounding 32 people.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 21, An avalanche in Turkey's southeastern province of Bitlis killed five soldiers and injured another twelve during a military operation.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 21, France called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over Syria following a Turkish incursion into northern Syria's Afrin province.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 22, Turkey intensified its offensive against Kurdish militia targets in Syria as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed there would be no stepping back in a campaign that has stoked concern among Ankara's allies and neighbors.
(AFP, 1/22/18)
2018 Jan 22, A 2nd Turkish soldier was killed in action in Turkey's military offensive on a Kurdish-held enclave in northern Syria. Turkish shelling killed three people in the Syrian town of Ras al-Ayn.
(AP, 1/23/18)(Reuters, 1/23/18)
2018 Jan 22, In Cyprus dozens of people waving the Turkish flag smashed windows and hurled stones, eggs and other items at the office of Afrika, A left-wing Turkish Cypriot newspaper in Nicosia. Editor Sener Levent said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had incited supporters to attack the publication's office because the paper had criticized Ankara's military offensive in Syria.
(AP, 1/22/18)
2018 Jan 22, The spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia alliance said the death toll from a Turkish offensive in the Afrin region of northwestern Syria stands at 18 civilians, including women and children.
(Reuters, 1/22/18)
2018 Jan 23, Turkey arrested dozens of people overnight for "spreading terrorist propaganda" about its Syrian incursion, raising to nearly 100 the number of such detainees, including politicians, journalists and activists.
(Reuters, 1/23/18)
2018 Jan 23, Turkey shelled Qamishli and other towns along the Syrian-Turkish border as Turkish forces press into a Syrian Kurdish enclave for the fourth straight day. 24 civilians, 24 Kurdish fighters, and 25 Turkish-backed Syrian militiamen have been killed in the clashes in Afrin since January 20.
(AP, 1/23/18)
2018 Jan 24, Turkey's president vowed to expand its operation against Kurdish forces in northern Syria toward the town of Manbij, which would bring Turkish troops and their Syrian allies closer to US forces supporting the Kurds against the Islamic State group.
(AP, 1/24/18)
2018 Jan 24, In Cyprus some 350 Kurds burned images of the presidents of Turkey and Russia as they marched on the US and Russian embassies in Nicosia to protest Turkey's "invasion" of a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria.
(AP, 1/24/18)
2018 Jan 24, Two rockets fired from Syria’s Afrin region hit a mosque and a home in the Turkish border town of Kilis. At least 13 people were hurt.
(Reuters, 1/24/18)
2018 Jan 25, Turkey and Austria vowed to work to improve relations battered by the opposition of the new conservative far-right Austrian government coalition to Ankara ever joining the EU. Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl held talks in Istanbul with Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, in the first high-level contact between the two sides since the new Austrian government came to power.
(AFP, 1/25/18)
2018 Jan 25, It was reported that Germany's caretaker government has decided to put on hold any decision on upgrading German-made tanks in Turkey as requested by its NATO ally Ankara.
(Reuters, 1/25/18)
2018 Jan 26, Turkish teachers Nuriye Gulmen and Semih Ozakca ended an almost 11-month hunger strike, vowing legal action to get their jobs back after their appeal against dismissal under the government's state of emergency decree was rejected.
(Reuters, 1/26/18)
2018 Jan 27, Turkey said the United States has pledged to stop supplying weapons to a Kurdish militia in Syria, calling on Washington to immediately remove its troops from a Syrian town of Manbij that Turkish forces plan to target.
(Reuters, 1/27/18)
2018 Jan 28, Turkey seized a strategic outpost from Kurdish militia in Syria. Turkish air strikes killed three people in one family early in Afrin. President Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey will "clean" its entire border with Syria in a sign that the Turkish offensive on the Syrian Kurdish YPG group in northern Syria's Afrin region could be extended further. The Syrian government said that Turkish shelling of the Kurdish-held Afrin region of Syria had seriously damaged the ancient temple of Ain Dara.
(AFP, 1/28/18)(Reuters, 1/28/18)
2018 Jan 29, Turkey’s government said more than 300 people have been detained for social media posts criticizing its military offensive in Syria, a day after President Tayyip Erdogan accused doctors who opposed the campaign of betrayal.
(Reuters, 1/29/18)
2018 Jan 30, Turkey detained 11 top members of the country's main medical association, including its chief, in a nationwide sweep after they criticized Ankara's offensive against Kurdish militia in Syria.
(AFP, 1/30/18)
2018 Jan 30, The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) said German-Kurdish player Deniz Naki (28), previously convicted of support for Kurdish separatists in Turkey, has been banned for life and charged 273,000 liras ($72,000) for "separatist and ideological propaganda".
(AP, 1/30/18)
2018 Jan 31, An Istanbul court ordered the release of Taner Kilic, the head of rights group Amnesty International in Turkey, who had been held on terror charges that his supporters long dismissed as "baseless".
(AFP, 1/31/18)
2018 Jan 31, A Turkish court sentenced two Syrians, Atala el-Hasan el-Mayyup and Fevzi Muhammed Ali, and a Turkish man, Halil Dervis, to multiple life sentences in connection with a bombing that killed 12 German tourists in Istanbul on Jan 12, 2016.
(Reuters, 1/31/18)
2018 Jan 31, In Syria the head of the Afrin city hospital supplies are dwindling in the main hospital, which has taken in 48 people killed and 86 wounded in recent Turkish attacks. Kurdish authorities in Afrin district called for Bashar al-Assad's government to send troops to help defend them from a six-day-old Turkish assault. Rockets fired from northern Syria into the Turkish border town of Reyhanli killed a teenage girl and wounded another person. The Kurdish militia accused Turkey of firing Katyusha rockets into Afrin, and reported that at least 12 people were wounded from the shelling that targeted the neighborhood of Ashrafieh.
(AP, 1/31/18)(Reuters, 1/31/18)
2018 Feb 1, A Turkish court overturned its decision to release the chairman of the local arm of Amnesty International, in a case that has caused international outrage.
(Reuters, 2/1/18)
2018 Feb 1, Syrian government forces pushed into an opposition stronghold in Idlib province, as Turkish troops and allied Syrian fighters battled with Kurdish militants in a nearby area. Syria’s government described a Turkish offensive in the Afrin region as an illegal "aggression" and said it would deal with it accordingly.
(AP, 2/1/18)(Reuters, 2/1/18)
2018 Feb 2, Turkish authorities detained 13 people for supporting the country's main medical association whose top members are in custody for criticizing Ankara's offensive against a Syrian Kurdish militia.
(AFP, 2/2/18)
2018 Feb 2, In Turkey two people were killed after rockets were fired at two border towns in Hatay province from the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin across the border.
(AP, 2/2/18)
2018 Feb 2, Weekly magazine Der Spiegel reported that Germany has granted asylum to four Turkish soldiers, including one Ankara accuses of playing a leading role in the failed military coup of July 2016, in a new setback for relations between the two countries.
(Reuters, 2/2/18)
2018 Feb 2, A Greek court ruled against the extradition of a Turkish man wanted by Ankara over links to a banned militant group blamed for suicide bombings in Turkey. The court said Mehmet Dogan (60), although still being held in Greece, had been granted political asylum in France.
(AP, 2/2/18)
2018 Feb 3, The Turkish military said two of its soldiers have been killed in Syria and a third was killed on the Turkish side of the border in an attack by Syrian Kurdish militiamen. Five more Turkish soldiers were killed in a single attack on a tank.
(AP, 2/3/18)(AFP, 2/3/18)(SSFC, 2/4/18, p.A4)
2018 Feb 3, Human Rights Watch said Turkish guards at the border with Syria are indiscriminately shooting at and summarily returning asylum seekers attempting to cross into Turkey.
(Reuters, 2/3/18)
2018 Feb 5, Turkey’s government said 573 people have been detained so far for social media posts and protests criticizing its military offensive in Syria.
(Reuters, 2/5/18)
2018 Feb 5, Turkey’s army said it has set up a military post southwest of the Syrian city of Aleppo, the deepest position they have established so far inside northwest Syria under a deal with Russia and Iran aimed at reducing violence there.
(Reuters, 2/5/18)
2018 Feb 5, In Lebanon hundreds of Kurds protested against Turkey's military offensive in Syria's Kurdish enclave of Afrin.
(AFP, 2/5/18)
2018 Feb 5, In northwestern Syria a Turkish soldier was killed in a rocket and mortar attack as Turkish forces were setting up a military post in Idlib province, the largest remaining stronghold of opposition to Pres. Bashar al-Assad.
(Reuters, 2/6/18)
2018 Feb 5, At the Vatican Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Pope Francis to discuss the status of Jerusalem, human rights and refugees while Kurdish and Italian protesters clashed with police a short distance from Vatican City.
(AP, 2/5/18)
2018 Feb 6, In Syria shells hit a camp for internally displaced Syrians near the Syrian-Turkey border in Idlib province, killing at least one person. The Kurdish YPG said in a statement posted on its social media networks that Turkey was behind the attack and that accusations that the YPG had carried it out were lies.
(Reuters, 2/6/18)
2018 Feb 7, A Turkish court sentenced 64 military academy officers and trainees to life in prison for involvement in a failed military coup in 2016. Another 100 defendants were acquitted.
(Reuters, 2/7/18)
2018 Feb 7, A senior Turkish official said that the country has fulfilled all 72 requirements set by the EU to secure visa-free travel for Turkish citizens to the 28-nation bloc.
(AP, 2/7/18)
2018 Feb 9, The United States said it had imposed sanctions on three people and three companies in the Philippines, Turkey and Somalia that supported the Islamic State militant group, including a business that procured parts for unmanned aircraft.
(Reuters, 2/9/18)
2018 Feb 9, It was reported that Turkey has launched a domestic messaging app to rival Facebook's popular WhatsApp Messenger service, raising concerns among government critics that Ankara could use the new platform to tighten surveillance and bolster an 18-month-old crackdown.
(Reuters, 2/9/18)
2018 Feb 9, Turkish warplanes bombarded Kurdish militia targets in Syria's Afrin region. A monitor said the strikes killed seven fighters and two civilians. A Kurdish official and top member of Afrin's civil administration, Hevi Mustafa, said the Turkish offensive had killed 160 people so far.
(Reuters, 2/9/18)
2018 Feb 9, Turkish warships stopped a rig belonging to the Italian energy firm ENI as it headed toward an area southeast of Cyprus.
(AP, 2/11/18)
2018 Feb 10, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said Turkish police have detained 48 suspected Islamic State members who were preparing to launch an attack.
(Reuters, 2/10/18)
2018 Feb 10, A Turkish military helicopter was "downed" and two soldiers killed in northern Syria during Ankara's offensive on Syrian Kurdish militia there. Kurdish fighters downed the chopper in Raju, northwest Afrin.
(AP, 2/10/18)
2018 Feb 10, In Syria 11 Turkish soldiers were killed. Two of them were aboard a Turkish attack helicopter that crashed while on a mission over Afrin.
(AP, 2/11/18)
2018 Feb 11, Turkey continued its operations in northern Syria, targeting YPG areas with air and artillery strikes. Turkey's military announced the death of another soldier in its operation against a Syrian Kurdish militia. The announcement brought to 31 the number of Turkish soldiers killed since the operation started on Jan. 20.
(AP, 2/11/18)
2018 Feb 12, A dispute between Turkey and the United States over control of the northern Syrian town of Manbij has put the NATO allies on opposing sides of the conflict's front line, deepening a diplomatic rift ahead of a visit to Turkey by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
(Reuters, 2/12/18)
2018 Feb 13, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a warning to neighboring Greece, Cyprus and international companies exploring for gas in the eastern Mediterranean not to "step out of line" and encroach on Turkey's rights.
(AP, 2/13/18)
2018 Feb 13, Turkey's anti-terrorism police detained Serpil Kemalbay, a former leader of the country's pro-Kurdish party, for opposing Ankara's military offensive in Syria. This came days after prosecutors issued detention warrants for her and 16 other activists.
(AP, 2/13/18)
2018 Feb 13, In northwestern Turkey three people died and four were missing after a refugee boat carrying eight people capsized in the Maritsa river that flows between Turkey and Greece.
(AP, 2/13/18)
2018 Feb 13, Shells hit the center of a Syrian Kurdish enclave where Turkey is carrying out an offensive, landing near the area's only hospital and killing one person.
(AP, 2/13/18)
2018 Feb 16, In Turkey US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced the creation of new "mechanisms" to improve relationships, starting with the question of American support for Kurdish rebels in northern Syria.
(AP, 2/16/18)
2018 Feb 16, A Turkish court sentenced six journalists, including two prominent brothers, to life in jail for aiding plotters of a 2016 failed coup, a sharp turnaround after the country's highest court ordered one of the men released. Mehmet Altan, an economics professor and journalist, and his brother Ahmet, also a journalist, were accused of giving coded messages on a television talk show a day before the abortive military putsch. Nazli Ilicak, another well known journalist, was also among the sentenced.
(Reuters, 2/16/18)
2018 Feb 16, A Turkish court freed German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel pending trial after indicting him for alleged security offences.
(Reuters, 2/16/18)
2018 Feb 16, In Syria six civilians suffered breathing difficulties and other symptoms indicative of poison gas inhalation after an attack launched by Turkey on the Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin.
(AP, 2/17/18)
2018 Feb 19, In Greece seventeen Turkish nationals landed on a beach on an island close to Turkey. Greek media said they had asked for political asylum.
(Reuters, 2/20/18)
2018 Feb 19, Turkey's foreign minister warned that Turkey's military would confront any Syrian government forces entering the northwest Afrin province to protect Kurdish YPG fighters.
(Reuters, 2/19/18)
2018 Feb 19, Syrian media reported that militias allied to the Syrian government will enter the Afrin region to help Kurdish forces end a Turkish offensive.
(Reuters, 2/19/18)
2018 Feb 20, Turkey's state-run news agency said pro-Syrian government forces have turned back 10 km (6 miles) from Afrin city following shelling by the Turkish military.
(AP, 2/20/18)
2018 Feb 22, Turkey said it will not allow Cyprus' government to carry out a "unilateral" gas search off the east Mediterranean island as long as breakaway Turkish Cypriots don't also reap the benefits.
(AP, 2/22/18)
2018 Feb 22, The Turkish army struck a convoy entering Syria's Kurdish-held Afrin region, which Ankara said carried fighters and weapons, but Kurdish forces said was made up of civilians entering with food and medicine. At least ten people were wounded and one passenger was killed.
(Reuters, 2/23/18)
2018 Feb 22, In northern Syria hundreds of people gathered in the main square in the town of Afrin celebrating the arrival of hundreds of pro-government fighters into the area. Turkish warplanes could be heard flying overhead making some of those gathering to flee the area.
(AP, 2/22/18)
2018 Feb 23, In Turkey a court in Istanbul ruled that three academics who signed a peace petition committed terror propaganda. The court originally sentenced the three to 15-month prison terms but revised the sentences to five years of probation because of the defendants' good behavior and lack of prior records.
(AP, 2/23/18)
2018 Feb 24, Czech authorities arrested Saleh Muslim (67), a top Kurdish politician, at the behest of Turkey, where a court has charged him with sedition.
(Reuters, 2/25/18)
2018 Feb 25, An Iraqi judiciary spokesman said a local court has sentenced 16 Turkish women to death by hanging for joining Islamic State. All the verdicts are subject to appeal.
(Reuters, 2/25/18)
2018 Feb 26, Turkey formally asked for the extradition of one of the most prominent leaders of the Syrian Kurds, who was detained by Czech police at the weekend at Ankara's request.
(AFP, 2/26/18)
2018 Feb 27, A Czech court released prominent Syrian Kurdish leader Saleh Muslim, wanted by Turkey on terror charges, prompting outrage in Ankara which said the move showed "support for terrorism".
(AFP, 2/27/18)
2018 Feb 28, Turkish television anchor Ahmet Keser was charged with inciting hatred over comments defending Turkey's Syria operation, saying if the military had wanted to kill civilians it would have started with staunchly-secular areas in Istanbul.
(AFP, 2/28/18)
2018 Feb, In Turkey a man entered a child’s house in Adana during a wedding outside the home and reportedly raped a sleeping girl (4). He was beaten as he fled unclothed and relatives of the girl tried to burn his house down. The suspect was arrested. The attack ignited a national discourse about child abuse.
(SFC, 3/5/18, p.A4)
2018 Mar 1, Turkey’s state broadcaster faced accusations of imposing censorship reminiscent of a military coup after admitting it had banned over 200 songs from being played on air.
(AFP, 3/1/18)
2018 Mar 1, Armenia scrapped a peace agreement it signed with Turkey in 2009 in what turned out to be a failed attempt to normalize relations between the two countries.
(Reuters, 3/1/18)
2018 Mar 2, Turkey arrested two Greek soldiers for allegedly entering a Turkish military zone and on suspicion of attempted espionage. Greece said the two soldiers on a patrol of the Greek-Turkish border accidentally strayed into Turkey because of bad weather.
(AP, 3/2/18)
2018 Mar 2, The Arab world's largest private broadcaster stopped showing Turkish television programs, as tensions rose between Ankara and some Arab states. Dubai-based MBC Group is which is controlled by Saudi businessman Walid al-Ibrahim and other Saudi investors.
(Reuters, 3/5/18)
2018 Mar 2, Turkey requested that German authorities detain and extradite wanted Syrian Kurdish politician Salih Muslim, the former co-chair of the Democratic Union Party, or PYD.
(AP, 3/5/18)
2018 Mar 3, Turkey's PM Binali Yildirim said Turkish troops have captured a strategic village in the Kurdish-held enclave in northwestern Syria, tightening the grip on the area in the sixth week of its offensive on the area. Turkish air strikes killed at least 36 pro-regime fighters backing Kurdish militia in Syria's northwestern Kurdish enclave of Afrin.
(AP, 3/3/18)(AFP, 3/3/18)
2018 Mar 5, Turkish police detained four Iraqi nationals on suspicion of planning an attack on the US Embassy in Ankara, hours after the mission temporarily closed due to a security threat.
(Reuters, 3/5/18)
2018 Mar 5, In northwest Syria at least 13 civilians were killed in Turkish shelling on the town of Jindaris, as Turkish forces try to press their advances on the Kurdish-held Afrin enclave. Another 3 civilians were killed in Turkish shelling near Rajo, also in Afrin.
(AP, 3/5/18)
2018 Mar 6, Greece rejected a Turkish extradition request for Naci Ozpolat (48), the second of nine Turkish citizens who were arrested on terror charges in Athens, days before a visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AP, 3/6/18)
2018 Mar 6, In Syria a US-backed alliance of Syrian fighters announced it would redeploy around 1,700 members from front lines against the Islamic State group to the Kurdish enclave in Afrin under Turkish attack.
(AFP, 3/6/18)
2018 Mar 6, Turkey said it is working to set up camps to settle 170,000 displaced people near the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib and in Turkish-controlled areas to the east of it.
(Reuters, 3/6/18)
2018 Mar 7, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani agreed in a phone call to speed up efforts for the implementation of a ceasefire in Syria’s eastern Ghouta region.
(Reuters, 3/7/18)
2018 Mar 7, Turkey’s police in the southern city of Adana detained 13 Islamic State suspects, including 12 Syrian nationals, who were allegedly plotting attacks on a number of buildings in the city, including the US Consulate.
(AP, 3/7/18)
2018 Mar 8, Turkish media reported that the government has asked Sweden to arrest Syrian Kurdish leader Saleh Muslim, Ankara’s third attempt to get a European state to detain and extradite him in just over a week. A Swedish source said Muslim had been in Stockholm but had already left the country.
(Reuters, 3/8/18)
2018 Mar 8, Turkish troops and allied Syrian opposition forces entered the town of Jinderes, in the southwest of the Afrin enclave, where they were engaged in street clashes with Syrian Kurdish forces.
(AP, 3/8/18)
2018 Mar 9, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey's military and rebel allies have besieged the northern Syrian town of Afrin and were nearing its town center. Turkey now controls five out of seven of the settlements in the northwest Afrin region.
(Reuters, 3/9/18)
2018 Mar 9, Turkish state news said prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for 243 people, including 92 teachers, in operations targeting suspected followers of the Muslim cleric the government blames for a failed 2016 coup.
(Reuters, 3/9/18)
2018 Mar 9, Turkey’s highest court overruled a five-year jail sentence against prominent journalist Can Dundar, saying he should face up to 20 years in prison on espionage charges. Dundar and his colleague from the Cumhuriyet newspaper, Erdem Gul, were both sentenced in 2016 to five years in prison for publishing a video purporting show Turkey's intelligence agency trucking weapons into Syria. They were later released pending appeal.
(Reuters, 3/9/18)
2018 Mar 9, Turkish Airlines confirmed plans to buy at least 50 wide-body aircraft from Airbus and Boeing as the flag carrier ramps up its ambitions ahead of a move to a new Istanbul airport.
(AFP, 3/10/18)
2018 Mar 10, Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels battling Kurdish militia in northern Syria advanced to less than two km from the flashpoint town of Afrin. Turkey and allied Syrian opposition factions now held 60 percent of the Afrin region.
(AP, 3/10/18)
2018 Mar 10, Syrian government forces succeeded in their deepest push yet into the eastern suburbs of Damascus, cutting off a major highway that made it hard to move between three parts of the rebel-held area, and inflicting a major blow to opposition fighters who have vowed not to surrender.
(AP, 3/10/18)
2018 Mar 11, Turkish warplanes reportedly destroyed at least 18 targets belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/11/18)
2018 Mar 11, In Iran a private Turkish jet carrying a group of young women flying from the United Arab Emirates to Istanbul crashed into a mountain in Shahr-e Kord, killing all eleven people on board.
(SFC, 3/12/18, p.A2)
2018 Mar 12, In Syria thousands of people fled the northwestern town of Afrin as Turkish troops and Turkey-backed opposition fighters inch closer to completely besieging it.
(AP, 3/12/18)
2018 Mar 13, Turkey's military said Turkish troops and allied Syrian opposition fighters have begun a siege of the Syrian Kurdish-held town of Afrin.
(AP, 3/13/18)
2018 Mar 13, Turkey's parliament passed a law revamping electoral regulations, backing legislation the opposition said could open the door to fraud and jeopardize the fairness of 2019 polls, and triggering a brawl on the floor of the chamber.
(Reuters, 3/13/18)
2018 Mar 13, In central Turkey a passenger bus hit a truck and burst into flames, killing at least 11 people, including a number of children.
(AP, 3/13/18)
2018 Mar 14, Turkey turned up the heat on Syria's Afrin, launching deadly strikes on Damascus loyalists deployed around the Kurdish enclave and closing in on its main city. Turkish bombing raids killed 10 fighters loyal to the regime.
(AFP, 3/14/18)
2018 Mar 14, In Turkey Alessandro Fiori (33) of Milan was last spotted on a CCTV camera in Istanbul's busy Beyoglu district. His phone, wallet and other belongings were found later in a hotel trash bin.
(AP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 14, A Greek court rejected a Turkish extradition request for Halaz Secer (21). She was among nine suspected Turkish militants arrested in Athens ahead of an official visit by Turkey's president late last year.
(AP, 3/14/18)
2018 Mar 15, In northern Syria hundreds of residents of the Kurdish enclave under Turkish assault trickled out of Afrin's center toward neighboring villages amid an intensifying offensive. Senior Kurdish official Omar Alloush, who played a key role with the United States in implementing its post-Islamic State policy in northern Syria, was found dead in his apartment in northern Syria.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 16, A Greek court dismissed a Turkish demand for the handover of eight Turkish soldiers accused by Ankara of having played a direct role in the abortive coup against President Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.
(Reuters, 3/16/18)
2018 Mar 16, In Syria thousands of civilians fled from besieged enclaves on opposite ends of the country as two major battles in the multi-sided civil war entered decisive phases. Air strikes killed at least 76 people in eastern Ghouta. Turkish and allied Syrian rebel forces shelled the northern Kurdish-held town of Afrin heavily, killing 36 people and forcing 2,500 people to flee. A Turkish bombing raid struck the Afrin's main hospital, killing 16 civilians. Turkey's military denied hitting the hospital.
(AP, 3/16/18)(AFP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, In Turkey prominent journalist Sahin Alpay (74), accused of supporting Turkey's failed coup, was released from prison after a court ruling. The Anadolu news agency said he has been banned from leaving his house and the country.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 18, Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies swept into the northwestern Syrian town of Afrin, raising their flags in the town center and declaring full control after an eight-week campaign to drive out Kurdish YPG forces. The Kurdish administration of the Afrin region indicated that Kurdish-dominated forces fighting Turkey-backed groups in the area will shift from direct confrontation to guerrilla tactics.
(Reuters, 3/18/18)
2018 Mar 19, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to expand Turkey's Syria campaign to other Kurdish-held areas up to the Iraqi border, a day after ousting Kurdish militia from their former enclave of Afrin.
(AFP, 3/19/18)
2018 Mar 20, Turkish authorities detained more than 100 suspected Kurdish militants on suspicion of planning illegal demonstrations or plotting attacks for the Newroz spring festival.
(Reuters, 3/20/18)
2018 Mar 20, Turkey's state-run news agency reported that American pastor Andrew Brunson has been charged in Turkey with engaging in espionage and having links to terror groups, crimes that carry a potential sentence of up to 35 years in prison.
(AP, 3/20/18)
2018 Mar 20, The UN called on Turkey to end its 20-month-old state of emergency and accused Ankara of mass arrests, arbitrary sackings and other abuses.
(Reuters, 3/20/18)
2018 Mar 21, Turkish lawmakers passed a new law giving the communications watchdog the power to block internet broadcasts, raising fears of a new curb on freedom of expression.
(AFP, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 22, Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper reported that singer and actress Zuhal Olcay has been sentenced to 10 months in prison for insulting President Tayyip Erdogan during a performance in 2016.
(Reuters, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 22, Turkish jets attacked suspected Kurdish rebel camps across the border in northern Iraq, in an operation that reportedly "neutralized" nine militants.
(AP, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 22, In northern Syria three Turkish soldiers were killed in an explosion in the town of Afrin during a mission to clear it of explosives believed to have been left behind by retreating Syrian Kurdish fighters.
(AP, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 23, Turkish authorities began rounding up 155 suspected followers of the cleric Fethullah Gulen. The roundup included warrants for 55 employees in 13 provinces of Isik Publications, a publishing company that printed Gulen's books. Warrants were also issued for 38 former police officers in six provinces who were accused of being members of Gulen's purported network. Police also targeted 62 executives of five labor unions in a third operation spread across seven provinces.
(Reuters, 3/23/18)
2018 Mar 23, Turkey opened its airspace to flights from northern Iraq's Erbil. Flights from Sulaimaniya were not included in the plan.
(Reuters, 3/23/18)
2018 Mar 23, Gabon authorities in Libreville arrested three Turkish nationals, who were directors of schools linked to Gulen. They were soon returned to Turkey in an operation led by the Turkish intelligence agency.
(AP, 4/10/18)
2018 Mar 23, The Kurdish PKK rebel group said it is withdrawing from the town of Sinjar in northern Iraq, a move that follows threats of attack from Turkey.
(AP, 3/23/18)
2018 Mar 27, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades hailed as "unprecedented" the EU's condemnation of Turkey for blocking his government's search for offshore oil and gas.
(AFP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 27, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi said government armed forces will prevent Kurdish militants based in northern Iraq from staging cross-border attacks against Turkey.
(AP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 29, Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu said that six Turkish nationals arrested in Kosovo over links to schools financed by the Fethullah Gulen movement that Ankara blames for a failed 2016 coup have been extradited to Turkey.
(Reuters, 3/28/18)
2018 Mar 29, Turkish newspaper Haberturk said the body of Alessandro Fiori (33) of Milan has been found washed ashore in Istanbul's Sarayburnu district, two weeks after he went missing. It appeared Fiori had received a blow to the head but that it was not clear if he had been struck or had suffered a fall.
(AP, 3/28/18)
2018 Mar 29, In eastern Turkey a road accident on a highway linking Igdir province with neighboring Kars province killed 17 people, mostly migrants, who had crossed into the country illegally.
(AP, 3/30/18)
2018 Mar 30, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey has started preparations to clear northern Syria's Ayn al-Arab, Ras al-Ain and Tel Abyad regions from militants up to the Iraqi border, adding that it would also clear militants from Iraq.
(Reuters, 3/30/18)
2018 Apr 2, Turkey's Haberturk newspaper said the government has ordered the arrest of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and seven others over the 2016 assassination of the Russian envoy to Turkey, a day before Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin visits the country.
(Reuters, 4/2/18)
2018 Apr 3, In Turkey Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan remotely gave the go-ahead for the construction of the $20 billion Russian-built Akkuyu nuclear plant on the Mediterranean coast at Akkuyu.
(AP, 4/3/18)
2018 Apr 4, Turkey, Iran and Russia pledged to accelerate efforts to bring stability to Syria, following a summit meeting in Ankara.
(Reuters, 4/4/18)
2018 Apr 4, Greece's defense minister described Turkey as an "enemy that continues to provoke us" and announced that he has ordered additional military personnel to move to islands in the eastern Aegean Sea.
(AP, 4/4/18)
2018 Apr 5, In Turkey a gunman shot dead four academics at their university whom he saw as supporters of a Muslim cleric accused by the government of being behind a failed coup in 2016.
(Reuters, 4/5/18)
2018 Apr 5, A top Turkish official said the country's intelligence agency has snatched around 80 Turkish citizens who the government wanted for alleged links to the country's 2016 failed coup in covert operations in 18 countries.
(AP, 4/5/18)
2018 Apr 5, Shares in Turkey's majority state-owned Halkbank rose as much as 18 percent after US prosecutors sought a 20 year jail term for a Halkbank executive convicted of helping Iran evade US sanctions.
(Reuters, 4/5/18)
2018 Apr 5, Cyprus said it will lodge protests over the construction of Turkey's first nuclear power plant a few dozen kilometers from the island nation. One worry raised is that the Akkuyu area, where the plant is to be built, is earthquake-prone.
(AP, 4/5/18)
2018 Apr 7, Turkey's interior ministry said authorities will deport close to 600 illegal Afghan migrants in eastern Turkey back to Kabul this weekend.
(Reuters, 4/7/18)
2018 Apr 7, Turkey's military said some 108 Kurdish militants have been "neutralized" in operations targeting southeast Turkey and northern Iraq over the past week.
(AP, 4/7/18)
2018 Apr 13, A Turkish court sentenced 21 people to life sentences in prison over the so-called "post-modern" coup that in 1997 toppled Turkey's first Islamist-led government. Among those who were handed life sentences were Gen. Ismail Hakki Karadayi, who was chief of general staff between 1994 and 1998, and his deputy at the time, Gen. Cevik Bir.
(Reuters, 4/13/18)
2018 Apr 13, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said prosecutors have ordered the detention of 140 people including serving army officers over alleged links to the US-based preacher accused of orchestrating an attempted coup in 2016.
(Reuters, 4/13/18)
2018 Apr 16, Supporters of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) staged sit-in demonstrations across all of the country's 81 provinces to protest the state of emergency that was declared after a coup attempt in 2016.
(AP, 4/16/18)
2018 Apr 17, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani agreed in a telephone call to maintain the cooperation between Turkey, Iran and Russia for a political solution to the conflict in Syria.
(Reuters, 4/17/18)
2018 Apr 18, Turkish parliament approved the extension for another three months of the state of emergency. The main opposition party called for an immediate end to a state of emergency imposed in the wake of a 2016 coup attempt, after President Tayyip Erdogan declared presidential and parliamentary elections would be brought forward by more than a year.
(Reuters, 4/18/18)
2018 Apr 18, Turkey's Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli said authorities have identified 3,000 people within the armed forces believed to be linked to the cleric Ankara blames for a 2016 failed coup, adding the individuals would be dismissed in the coming days.
(Reuters, 4/18/18)
2018 Apr 19, Turkey's parliament said it had stripped two lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish opposition HDP of their parliamentary status, further reducing the party's strength in the assembly two months ahead of elections.
(Reuters, 4/19/18)
2018 Apr 19, Greece's highest court approved the release from custody of one of eight Turkish servicemen who have applied for asylum in Greece after fleeing Turkey following a failed 2016 coup in the neighboring country.
(AP, 4/19/18)
2018 Apr 22, More than a dozen Turkish opposition lawmakers switched parties in a show of solidarity as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rivals scramble to challenge him in a surprise snap election that could solidify his rule. The snap presidential and parliamentary elections called for June 24 last week caught Turkey off guard.
(AP, 4/22/18)
2018 Apr 25, Turkish opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet's chairman Akin Atalay was released after serving over 500 days in prison. The following day he joined a protest for free press and justice outside an Istanbul court.
(AFP, 4/26/18)
2018 Apr 28, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said authorities have detained 63 people suspected of links to a network accused of orchestrating a failed coup and were hunting for 40 others.
(Reuters, 4/28/18)
2018 Apr 28, In Moscow Russian, Iranian and Turkish foreign ministers talked up their successes in brokering a political solution to the Syrian conflict.
(AFP, 4/28/18)
2018 May 1, In Turkey police detained dozens of demonstrators during May Day events around Istanbul, most of them protesters who tried to march toward the city's symbolic main square in defiance of a ban.
(AP, 5/1/18)
2018 May 2, Turkey lashed out at a debt downgrade by ratings agency S&P as dubiously timed less than two months ahead of elections and based on lackluster analysis.
(AFP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 3, Turkish caricaturist Musa Kart (64) of the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, facing more than three years in jail, won the International Press Drawing Prize, an award given every two years to leading cartoonists, especially those working under authoritarian regimes.
(Reuters, 5/3/18)
2018 May 5, In Turkey four opposition parties announced a political alliance ahead of the country's June 24 national election, aiming to mount a meaningful challenge to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party.
(AP, 5/5/18)
2018 May 6, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised new military operations against Kurdish militants along its border in Syria and Iraq as he presented his election manifesto.
(AP, 5/6/18)
2018 May 7, In Turkey jailed US pastor Andrew Brunson denied terrorism and spying charges in a court and called them "shameful and disgusting".
(Reuters, 5/7/18)
2018 May 16, A US judge ordered Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla to spend 32 months in prison, including 14 months he has already served after his arrest last year during a business trip to New York on behalf of Halkbank. The sentence means Atilla can return to Turkey in about a year.
(AP, 5/17/18)
2018 May 18, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted Muslim leaders for an Istanbul summit to condemn Israel over the killing of Gaza protesters.
(AFP, 5/18/18)
2018 May 20, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Bosnia to hold his only election rally outside Turkey, while other EU countries have banned such events ahead of Ankara's presidential and parliamentary elections next month.
(AFP, 5/20/18)
2018 May 21, A Turkish court sentenced 104 people to life in prison for involvement in a failed military coup in 2016. Another 21 people were given 20 years in prison for insulting the president, while 31 others were sentenced to 10 years and six months for "membership of a terrorist organization".
(Reuters, 5/21/18)
2018 May 23, Turkey's embattled lira lost over three percent in value to hit new historic lows against the US dollar. Over the last month alone, the lira has lost over 18 percent in value against the dollar as fears grow over the health of the Turkish economy which is dogged by double-digit inflation despite high growth.
(AFP, 5/23/18)
2018 May 24, In Turkey a blast at a state-owned explosives factory on the outskirts of Ankara killed one worker and injured four others.
(AP, 5/24/18)
2018 May 24, In Turkey rapper Sercan Ipekcigolu (27), better-known as rapper "Ezhel," was detained by narcotics police in Istanbul late today and was later charged with encouraging the use of drugs.
(AP, 5/25/18)
2018 May 24, The United States imposed sanctions on several Iranian and Turkish companies and a number of aircraft in a move targeting four Iranian airlines.
(Reuters, 5/24/18)
2018 May 25, Turkish police said at least 51 suspected Islamic State militants have been detained in simultaneous raids around Istanbul.
(AP, 5/25/18)
2018 May 26, In Syria's northeastern city of Qamishli hundreds demonstrated in response to a call by Kurdish authorities for global protests against Turkey's military presence in the flashpoint Afrin region.
(AFP, 5/26/18)
2018 May 30, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said Turkey and the United States agreed on a three-step plan for withdrawing the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia from Syria's Manbij.
(Reuters, 5/30/18)
2018 Jun 1, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the ride hailing app Uber is "finished" in Turkey, following intense pressure from Istanbul taxi drivers for the service to be banned.
(AFP, 6/2/18)
2018 Jun 2, Turkey's military said overnight air strikes by Turkish warplanes had "neutralized" at least 15 militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq as well as in Turkey's eastern provinces of Tunceli and Siirt. Two Turkish soldiers were reported killed and one soldier severely wounded after a rocket attack by the PKK to a military construction vehicle in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 6/2/18)
2018 Jun 3, Turkey's state media reported that nine migrants, including six children, seeking to head to Europe in a speedboat drowned today when their vessel sank off Turkey's Mediterranean coast. Five were rescued and one person was still missing.
(AFP, 6/3/18)
2018 Jun 4, Turkey and the United States endorsed a roadmap for the northern Syrian city of Manbij and underlined their mutual commitment to its implementation following a meeting of their foreign ministers in Washington.
(Reuters, 6/4/18)
2018 Jun 4, A Greek lawyer representing eight Turkish servicemen who fled to Greece seeking asylum after the 2016 failed coup in Turkey says all his clients have been freed pending a ruling on their applications.
(AP, 6/4/18)
2018 Jun 7, Turkey said it has suspended its migrant readmission deal with Greece, days after Greece released from prison four Turkish soldiers who fled there after a 2016 attempted coup.
(Reuters, 6/7/18)
2018 Jun 7, Turkey's central bank increased its key interest rate for the third time in under two months to fight inflation and support the currency. The rate rose from 16.5 percent to 17.75 percent.
(AP, 6/7/18)
2018 Jun 7, Turkey said it has stopped filling the Ilisu dam on the Tigris River until July to help Iraq overcome water shortages.
(Reuters, 6/7/18)
2018 Jun 8, Turkey's defense minister said Turkish and US soldiers will patrol the key northern Syrian town of Manbij as part of a deal reached this week for the withdrawal of a Syrian Kurdish militia.
(AP, 6/9/18)
2018 Jun 8, Austria's right-wing government announced plans to shut seven mosques in what it said was "just the beginning" of a push against radical Islam and foreign funding of religious groups. Austria said it could expel up to 60 Turkish-funded imams and their families and would shut down seven mosques as part of a crackdown on "political Islam," triggering fury in Ankara.
(Reuters, 6/8/18)(AFP, 6/8/18)
2018 Jun 10, Turkey's military said it hit more than a dozen Kurdish militant targets in air strikes in the Qandil mountains of northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 6/11/18)
2018 Jun 13, Turkish and US officials meeting in Germany reached an agreement on the Syrian town of Manbij, which has been a source of tension between the NATO allies. The "Manbij Implementation Plan" would be discussed by senior officials from the two countries, but no details were provided.
(AP, 6/14/18)
2018 Jun 14, Human Rights Watch said that Turkey-backed rebels in northwest Syria's Afrin have seized, looted and destroyed Kurdish civilians' property after taking control of the region in March.
(Reuters, 6/14/18)
2018 Jun 18, Turkish and US soldiers started independent patrols in northern Syria along the line separating Turkish-controlled areas from the town of Manbij where Ankara says Kurdish militia fighters are based.
(Reuters, 6/18/18)
2018 Jun 19, Turkish rapper Ezhel, aka Sercan Ipekcioglu (27), who faced 10 years of jail on charges of encouraging drug use in his lyrics, was acquitted at the first session of his trial in Istanbul.
(Reuters, 6/19/18)
2018 Jun 19, Three Turkish soldiers were killed in bomb attacks blamed on the PKK in the southeastern provinces of Siirt and Sirnak.
(AP, 6/20/18)
2018 Jun 20, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants fired on military vehicles, killing two soldiers and wounding another. Turkey's warplanes carried out air strikes in northern Iraq, killing 10 militants in the Avasin-Basyan and Sinat Haftanin areas and destroying weapon stores and shelters.
(Reuters, 6/20/18)
2018 Jun 21, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkish warplanes recently struck Iraq's Qandil mountain while a group of 35 senior militants were holding a meeting.
(AP, 6/21/18)
2018 Jun 23, Turkish private broadcaster CNN Turk said police have detained 47 people in an operation targeting alleged supporters within the army of a network accused by Ankara of orchestrating a failed military coup two years ago. The operation, which began on June 19, targeted 124 people accused of being followers of US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen.
(Reuters, 6/23/18)
2018 Jun 23, Libya's UN-backed government in Tripoli said three Turkish workers who were kidnapped last year in a southern Libyan town have been released.
(AP, 6/24/18)
2018 Jun 24, Turkey held presidential and parliamentary elections, with Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeking a new mandate and control over parliament in the face of a revitalized opposition and weakening economy. Erdogan won the landmark elections that also saw his Islamist-rooted AK Party and its nationalist allies secure a majority in parliament. Erdogan had 52.59% against Ince's 30.64%, while the AKP took 42.5 percent in the parliamentary vote and its MHP nationalist allies secured 11 %.
(AFP, 6/24/18)(Reuters, 6/25/18)(SFC, 7/4/18, p.A2)
2018 Jun 27, Turkey's state-run news agency said at least six people have been killed in two car bomb attacks in a northern Syrian enclave controlled by Turkish troops and allied Syrian opposition fighters.
(AP, 6/27/18)
2018 Jun 27, A Turkish court ruled that journalist Mehmet Altan be released, four months after he was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of aiding a failed military coup.
(Reuters, 6/27/18)
2018 Jun 29, Turkey formally arrested Eren Erdem, a former opposition lawmaker, over alleged links to the Gulen movement, the group blamed for the 2016 attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 6/29/18)
2018 Jun 30, The Turkish military carried out airstrikes in northern Iraq's Avasin Basyan region, killing four Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 6/30/18)
2018 Jul 1, Turkey's military said eight Kurdish militants have been killed in air strikes in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey this weekend.
(Reuters, 7/1/18)
2018 Jul 1, In Turkey hundreds LGBTI activists gathered for a Pride march in Istanbul despite a local ban in effect since 2015.
(SFC, 7/2/18, p.A3)
2018 Jul 3, In southern Turkey a gunman killed the deputy head of the Trade and Industry Chamber for the city of Osmaniye. The organization's president was wounded in the attack.
(AP, 7/3/18)
2018 Jul 5, A Greek committee granted asylum to a Turkish soldier who fled to Greece with seven other officers after a failed coup attempt against Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.
(Reuters, 7/5/18)
2018 Jul 6, Turkey ordered the detention of 331 soldiers in two operations targeting alleged supporters of the US-based Islamic cleric who Ankara says orchestrated an attempted coup two years ago.
(Reuters, 7/6/18)
2018 Jul 6, In Turkey a court in Istanbul convicted six journalists of terror-related charges, sentencing them to lengthy prison terms in a case that had heightened concerns over freedoms of expression and media. The court acquitted five other journalists of the now-defunct Zaman newspaper.
(AP, 7/6/18)
2018 Jul 6, Turkey's state-run news agency said authorities have arrested brothers Ayman Barzan and Hariam Barzan, both British citizens of Iraqi heritage, for allegedly engaging in "terror propaganda" on behalf of outlawed Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 7/6/18)
2018 Jul 8, Turkish authorities ordered the dismissal of more than 18,500 state employees, including police officers, soldiers and academics, ahead of the expected end of a two-year state of emergency this month.
(AP, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, In western Turkey at least 10 people were killed when a multiple cars of a train derailed in Tekirdag province.
(SFC, 7/9/18, p.A2)
2018 Jul 9, In Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan was sworn in as the first president under a new governing system that gives him sweeping executive powers. Under the new system, Erdogan will run the executive branch and also lead his party in parliament.
(AP, 7/9/18)
2018 Jul 11, Turkish police detained controversial Islamic televangelist Adnan Oktar and were seeking hundreds of people linked to him for alleged crimes including forming a criminal gang, fraud, blackmail and sexual abuse.
(AP, 7/11/18)
2018 Jul 11, Turkish authorities detained 16 people in the mainly Kurdish southeast for suspected links to terrorism. Three of the detained were French nationals.
(Reuters, 7/12/18)
2018 Jul 12, Turkey's new parliament elected as speaker former prime minister Binali Yildirim (62), a loyalist of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan whose post was abolished after elections last month.
(AFP, 7/12/18)
2018 Jul 12, A Turkish court sentenced 72 defendants to life in prison for their role in killing 34 people when rogue soldiers seized control of a suspension bridge in Istanbul two years ago during an attempted coup. Another Turkish court sentenced eight former managers of conglomerate Boydak Holding, once among Turkey's biggest firms, to lengthy prison terms for links to Fethullah Gulen.
(Reuters, 7/12/18)
2018 Jul 15, Turkey issued presidential decrees reshaping key political, military and bureaucratic institutions as part of the transformation to a powerful executive presidency triggered by last month's election.
(Reuters, 7/15/18)
2018 Jul 15, Israel deported Ebru Ozkan, a week after indicting her for smuggling money and goods to the Palestinian Islamist militant group while visiting as a tourist. On July 26 The Washington Post reported that Trump had asked Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu during a July 14 phone call to let Ozkan go in what the White House envisaged as an indirect trade for Pastor Andrew Brunson. Ankara said it had not agreed to any Ozkan-Brunson swap.
(Reuters, 7/27/18)
2018 Jul 16, The Trump administration said it's filing a challenge at the WTO against China, the European Union, Canada, Mexico and Turkey for tariffs they imposed against the US in retaliation to earlier US actions.
(AP, 7/17/18)
2018 Jul 18, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan filed complaints against the main opposition party leader and 72 legislators accusing them of insults for posting and sharing a cartoon on social media that depicts him as a variety of different animals.
(AP, 7/18/18)
2018 Jul 18, Turkey's main opposition leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, was fined for defaming President Tayyip Erdogan and his family over claims about international money transfers. The ruling, ordering a 359,000 lira ($75,000) payment to the president and his close circle, marked the largest sum yet.
(Reuters, 7/18/18)
2018 Jul 18, A Turkish court decided to keep Andrew Brunson, a Christian pastor from North Carolina, in jail dashing hopes that he could be released during his trial on terrorism and spying charges, a case that has deepened a rift with NATO ally Washington.
(Reuters, 7/18/18)
2018 Jul 18, Nineteen people died when a boat carrying 150 migrants sank off the coast of northern Cyprus and rescuers were searching for 25 other people. 103 migrants were rescued by boats and helicopters of the Turkish and northern Cypriot coast guards.
(Reuters, 7/18/18)
2018 Jul 19, Turkish authorities formally arrested Adnan Oktar, a controversial Islamic televangelist and cult leader, on charges that include forming a criminal gang, blackmail and sexual abuse of minors. At least 168 of Oktar's followers were also formally arrested on the same charges.
(AP, 7/19/18)
2018 Jul 19, Greek police boats began searching along the Evros River on the Greek-Turkish border for a Turkish woman and her three young children missing since the boat they were using to cross the border capsized.
(AP, 7/20/18)
2018 Jul 20, The Netherlands and Turkey said they were resuming full diplomatic ties for the first time since Dutch officials barred two Turkish ministers from attending an election rally in 2017.
(AFP, 7/20/18)
2018 Jul 22, About 2,400 swimmers took part in the Samsung Bosphorus Cross-Continental Swim, organized by the Turkish Olympic Committee, for the 30th race since the tradition began in 1989.
(AFP, 7/22/18)
2018 Jul 24, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said an Israeli law declaring that only Jews have the right of self-determination legitimizes oppression and shows that Israel is a fascist and racist country where the spirit of Adolf Hitler has re-emerged.
(Reuters, 7/24/18)
2018 Jul 24, Turkey's currency tumbled amid growing questions over the central bank's ability to set policy without interference from the increasingly powerful office of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The central bank decided to not raise rates, defying broad expectations in the markets for an increase of at least one percentage point to its one-week repo rate, from 17.75 percent.
(AP, 7/24/18)
2018 Jul 24, In Turkey a four-storey residential building in central Istanbul, built in 1994, collapsed into a cloud of dust in front of watching media, after several hours perching on a ledge following heavy rains that destroyed its foundation.
(AFP, 7/24/18)
2018 Jul 24, Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Turkey was becoming a "dark dictatorship" as he hit back at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's harsh criticism of a "racist" new Israeli law.
(AFP, 7/24/18)
2018 Jul 25, Turkey's interior ministry revoked the cancellation of 155,350 passports following the end of two-year-old state of emergency.
(Reuters, 7/25/18)
2018 Jul 25, A Turkish court ruled that American pastor Andrew Brunson be transferred from jail to house arrest, after nearly two years in detention on terrorism charges in a case which has strained ties between Ankara and Washington.
(Reuters, 7/25/18)
2018 Jul 25, Russia said it has sent working groups to Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey to help coordinate the return of refugees to Syria.
(AP, 7/25/18)
2018 Jul 26, Pres. Donald Trump said the US will hit Turkey with large sanctions over detained American Pastor Andrew Brunson.
(SFC, 7/27/18, p.A2)
2018 Jul 27, In Mongolia Turkish teacher Veysel Akcay (50) was allegedly kidnapped in Ulaanbaatar and taken to the city's airport. He was released after authorities temporarily grounded an airplane. Akcay, who has lived in Mongolia for 24 years, is associated with the network of US-based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen, which Turkish authorities hold responsible for a failed 2016 coup in Turkey.
(AFP, 7/28/18)
2018 Jul 29, Turkey's coast guard rescued nine people overnight, but six people including three babies died when an inflatable boat carrying 16 people capsized off the coast of western Turkey.
(Reuters, 7/29/18)
2018 Jul 31, The Turkish central bank sharply hiked its inflation forecast for 2018 to well over 13 percent, putting new pressure on the embattled lira and raising fears over the extent of price pressure in the economy.
(AFP, 7/31/18)
2018 Aug 1, Cyprus' government said it is asking the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to help defend two Turkish Cypriot journalists investigated in Turkey over an article deemed "insulting" to that country.
(AP, 8/1/18)
2018 Aug 1, The US White House announced that it will impose sanctions on two Turkish officials over the case of detained American pastor Andrew Craig Brunson.
(SFC, 8/2/18, p.A5)
2018 Aug 2, Turkey's Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak said US sanctions imposed on Turkey over the trial of an American pastor accused of backing terrorism are unacceptable and will have limited impact on the Turkish economy.
(Reuters, 8/2/18)
2018 Aug 3, A Turkish court jailed nine defendants for life for twin bombings in the capital Ankara in 2015 that killed more than 100 people.
(AP, 8/3/18)
2018 Aug 3, Official Turkish statistics showed that local inflation rose again last month to nearly 16 percent, increasing pressure on the central bank to hike interest rates.
(AFP, 8/3/18)
2018 Aug 4, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the assets of two US officials will be frozen in retaliation for US sanctions against Turkey's justice and interior ministers over the detention of American pastor Andrew Craig Brunson.
(AP, 8/4/18)
2018 Aug 6, The Turkish lira hit new record lows against the dollar and euro as strains caused by a diplomatic spat with the United States compounded concerns over domestic economic policy.
(AFP, 8/6/18)
2018 Aug 10, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan told his citizens to exchange gold and dollars into lira. The currency dove more than 18 percent on the day and more than 40 percent this year to a new record low after Trump took steps to punish Turkey in a wide-ranging dispute.
(AP, 8/10/18)
2018 Aug 10, US President Donald Trump said he had authorized higher tariffs on imports from Turkey, imposing a 20 percent duty on aluminum and 50 percent one on steel. The Turkish currency quickly plunged further against the dollar.
(Reuters, 8/10/18)(AP, 8/10/18)
2018 Aug 13, Turkey's central bank took action to free up cash for banks as the country grapples with a currency crisis sparked by concerns over President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's economic policies and a trade and diplomatic dispute with the United States.
(AP, 8/13/18)
2018 Aug 14, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country would boycott US electronic goods like the iPhone in retaliation for punitive sanctions from Washington, as the Turkish lira finally clawed back some ground after going into a tailspin over the tensions.
(AFP, 8/14/18)
2018 Aug 14, Turkish police arrested Ilhami A. (46), a German citizen, while he was visiting his mother in her home town Saribasak in a largely Kurdish region of eastern Turkey. Public broadcaster ARD later said the man had been accused of "terrorist propaganda" after criticizing the Turkish government on social media. There were currently seven other German citizens arrested in Turkey on political grounds.
(Reuters, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 15, Turkish officials said Qatar has pledged $15 billion of direct investments for Turkey as it struggles with a currency crisis.
(AP, 8/15/18)
2018 Aug 15, Turkey doubled tariffs on some US imports including alcohol, cars and tobacco in retaliation for US moves, but the lira rallied further after the central bank's liquidity moves had the effect of supporting the currency.
(Reuters, 8/15/18)
2018 Aug 15, A Turkish court ordered the release from prison of Taner Kilic, the local honorary chair of Amnesty International.
(Reuters, 8/15/18)
2018 Aug 15, Greece hailed a "day of joy" as two Greek soldiers held in a Turkish prison for more than five months on espionage charges were released in a surprise move by Ankara.
(AP, 8/15/18)
2018 Aug 16, Turkish officials said four soldiers have been killed in violence in the southeast where troops are battling Kurdish rebels, three of them as a result of a friendly fire in Adiyaman province.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 20, In Turkey shots were fired at the US Embassy in Ankara early today. Two people were detained and confessed to the shooting.
(SFC, 8/21/18, p.A4)
2018 Aug 25, Turkish authorities banned a protest vigil marking the forced disappearances of hundreds of people in the country's southeast decades ago. The Saturday Mothers activist group was set to hold its 700th meeting in Istanbul. The group has gathered since 1995 to demand justice for those who disappeared during the ongoing conflict between Turkish security forces and Kurdish insurgents.
(AP, 8/25/18)
2018 Aug 26, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan vowed to bring peace and safety to Iraq and areas in Syria not under Turkish control and said terrorist organizations in those areas would be eliminated.
(Reuters, 8/26/18)
2018 Aug 26, German journalist Mesale Tolu, who was on trial in Turkey on terror-related charges, returned to Germany after a Turkish court ruled that she could leave the country.
(AP, 8/26/18)
2018 Aug 31, Turkey designated the insurgent group Tahrir al-Sham as a terrorist organization, according to a presidential decision published today, as Damascus prepared for a military assault in northwest Syria where the group holds sway.
(Reuters, 8/31/18)
2018 Aug 31, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will buy some of Russia's highly-sophisticated air defence systems "in the shortest time" -- a purchase that has alarmed Ankara's NATO partners.
(AFP, 8/31/18)
2018 Aug 31, Turkey raised tax on foreign currency deposits in a bid to prop up the tumbling lira, in a presidential decision published in the official gazette.
(AFP, 8/31/18)
2018 Sep 3, Turkey reported its highest inflation rate in 15 years fuelled by a spectacular drop in the Turkish lira, as analysts predicted that worse is probably to come.
(AFP, 9/3/18)
2018 Sep 4, Turkey told the United States that Kurdish militants must completely abandon Syria, as violence in the rebel-held northern Syrian enclave of Idlib escalated.
(Reuters, 9/4/18)
2018 Sep 7, Turkey's foreign ministry said the country and the Netherlands have taken a further step in normalizing relations by re-appointing ambassadors to each other's capitals.
(AP, 9/7/18)
2018 Sep 7, A court in Istanbul has convicted a former co-chairman of Turkey's main pro-Kurdish political party of "engaging in terror propaganda." The court sentenced Selahattin Demirtas to more than four years in prison after finding him guilty.
(AP, 9/7/18)
2018 Sep 7, Turkish filmmaker Ali Avci was convicted of membership of a terrorist group for a feature film that portrayed President Tayyip Erdogan having a gun pointed at his head as his family lay dead all around him.
(Reuters, 9/7/18)
2018 Sep 7, The Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate said it is sending two bishops to Ukraine "within the framework of the preparations for the granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine." The patriarchate's leader is considered the "first among equals" of Eastern Orthodox clerics.
(AP, 9/8/18)
2018 Sep 7, Meeting in Tehran the presidents of Turkey, Iran and Russia failed to agree on a ceasefire that would forestall a Syrian government offensive in rebel-held Idlib province. They agreed in a final statement that there could be no military solution to the conflict and it could only end through a negotiated political process. But as Syrian government and Russian warplanes mounted air strikes in Idlib, Putin and Rouhani pushed back against Erdogan's call for a truce.
(Reuters, 9/7/18)
2018 Sep 7, Hundreds of Syrians took to the streets in the country's last major rebel bastion of Idlib, calling on neighboring Turkey to help prevent a regime assault on their region. Air strikes targeted positions belonging to rebel groups in the northern Hama and southern Idlib provinces. Russian air strikes killed five people in Idlib.
(AFP, 9/7/18)(Reuters, 9/7/18)
2018 Sep 10, In Poland Europe's largest human rights conference, organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), opened in Warsaw. Turkey's government was the only country not attending because it was not allowed to prevent the participation of non-governmental organizations.
(AP, 9/11/18)
2018 Sep 11, In Geneva the UN envoy for Syria hosted key diplomats from Iran, Russia and Turkey to discuss work toward rewriting the country's constitution, amid concerns about a possibly devastating military offensive on rebel-held Idlib province.
(AP, 9/11/18)
2018 Sep 12, A Turkish security official said Turkish intelligence has seized Yusuf Nazik (34) in Latakia, Syria. He has reportedly confessed to coordinating the May 11, 2013, bombing that killed 53 people in the southern border town of Reyhanli.
(AP, 9/12/18)
2018 Sep 12, Rebel sources in Syria said Turkey has stepped up arms supplies to help them stave off an expected offensive by the Syrian army and its Russian and Iran-backed allies in the northwest near the Turkish frontier.
(Reuters, 9/13/18)
2018 Sep 13, Turkey's central bank raised its key interest rate sharply, from 17.75 percent to 24 percent, to contain inflation and stem the currency crisis that has been destabilizing the country this summer.
(AP, 9/12/18)
2018 Sep 13, Turkey sent in military reinforcements to beef up its positions inside Syria's last rebel bastion Idlib.
(AP, 9/12/18)
2018 Sep 14, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reproached the central bank for sharply raising interest rates, saying the country would "see the results" of the bank's independence.
(AP, 9/14/18)
2018 Sep 14, Turkish security forces fired tear gas at construction workers at Istanbul's new airport who were protesting dangerous working conditions at the site as it prepares to open for business next month.
(AFP, 9/14/18)
2018 Sep 15, Turkish unions said hundreds of workers on the construction site of Istanbul's third airport, one of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's mega development projects, have been arrested for protesting at the number of work-related deaths and poor conditions.
(AFP, 9/15/18)
2018 Sep 15, Turkey freed 160 workers late today out of almost 600 who were arrested following a protest over work-related deaths and poor conditions at the construction site for Istanbul's third airport.
(AFP, 9/16/18)
2018 Sep 17, It was reported that Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan has defended his decision to accept a luxury plane from Qatar at a time of economic hardship, saying it was a gift, not a purchase, and that it had been donated to the Turkish state, not to him personally.
(Reuters, 9/17/18)
2018 Sep 17, Turkish activists and the opposition expressed outrage after a court jailed 24 workers ahead of a trial over their actions in protests against labor conditions at Istanbul's giant new airport.
(AFP, 9/19/18)
2018 Sep 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Sochi to try to come to an agreement over the Syrian rebel stronghold of Idlib. Russia and Turkey announced they would create a "de-militarized zone" ringing Syria's Idlib province.
(AFP, 9/17/18)(AFP, 9/18/18)
2018 Sep 18, Impoverished Venezuelans reacted with fury after videos of President Nicolas Maduro gorging on succulent pieces of meat in a restaurant owned by a celebrity Turkish chef went viral. Maduro had a stopover in Istanbul where he was invited to dine with Turkish authorities.
(AFP, 9/18/18)
2018 Sep 19, Turkey's Court of Appeals changed the conviction charge for Serkan Golge, a Turkish-US citizen and former NASA scientist arrested on terrorism, charges, to aiding, rather than being a member of, a terror organization, and reduced his 7-1/2-year prison sentence to five years. Golge denied both charges and planned to appeal.
(Reuters, 9/21/18)
2018 Sep 20, Turkey's Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak presented the government's economic plan, which estimates 2.3 percent growth in 2019 and 3.5 percent in 2020. The previous forecast was 5.5 percent for both years.
(AP, 9/20/18)
2018 Sep 21, A top Turkish official said Turkey will soon conduct joint patrols with US forces in the strategic northern Syrian town of Manbij, once a stronghold of the Islamic State group.
(AP, 9/21/18)
2018 Sep 27, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Germany for a controversial three-day state visit that both sides hope will help rebuild relations that have been battered in recent years.
(AFP, 9/27/18)
2018 Sep 28, In Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to rebuild strained relations after a two-year crisis despite remaining differences on civil rights and other issues. President Tayyip Erdogan called on Berlin to extradite what he said were the hundreds of supporters of the cleric Fethullah Gulen residing in Germany.
(AFP, 9/28/18)(Reuters, 9/28/18)
2018 Sep 29, In Germany Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened one of Europe's largest mosques in Cologne as he wrapped up a controversial 3-day visit, with police deploying in force to manage rival rallies.
(AFP, 9/29/18)
2018 Sep 30, Turkey reported that a boat carrying migrants has capsized off its northern Aegean coast, killing at least five people.
(AP, 9/30/18)
2018 Oct 1, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey aims to secure control of the region of northern Syria east of the Euphrates river, removing the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia from the area, and to clear Iraq's Sinjar and Qandil regions of Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 10/1/18)
2018 Oct 2, In Turkey Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi (59), who has written Washington Post columns critical of the kingdom's assertive crown prince, went missing after visiting the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The Saudi Consulate insisted that Khashoggi left its building before disappearing.
(AP, 10/3/18)(SFC, 10/5/18, p.A3)
2018 Oct 3, Eight Turkish soldiers were killed and two were wounded after a roadside bomb in the southeastern province of Batman was detonated by outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.
(AP, 10/4/18)(Reuters, 10/6/18)
2018 Oct 4, The US Treasury issued new North Korea-related sanctions that target SIA Falcon International Group, a Turkish company, and two Turkish individuals among others.
(AP, 10/4/18)
2018 Oct 7, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said he was closely following the case of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi after Turkish officials said they believed he had been killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
(Reuters, 10/7/18)
2018 Oct 9, Turkey said it will search the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul as part of an investigation into the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi (59), the missing Saudi contributor to The Washington Post, a week after he vanished during a visit there.
(AP, 10/9/18)
2018 Oct 9, President Tayyip Erdogan agreed to increase releases of water from a dam in southeastern Turkey to neighboring Iraq, which is struggling with a water crisis.
(Reuters, 10/10/18)
2018 Oct 10, A pro-government Turkish daily published preliminary evidence from investigators it said identified a 15-member Saudi intelligence team involved in the unexplained disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
(Reuters, 10/10/18)
2018 Oct 10, The Turkish coast guard said eight people died after a boat filled with migrants sank off the western coast of Turkey and another 25 were missing.
(Reuters, 10/10/18)
2018 Oct 12, A Turkish court freed American pastor Andrew Brunson held for the last two years in Turkey. He was freed taking into account time served and his good conduct during the trial. Brunson was flown out of Turkey.
(AFP, 10/12/18)(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 14, In western Turkey 22 people, including children, were killed when a truck carrying migrants crashed in Izmir province. The truck's passengers were reportedly foreign migrants who had reached a deal with traffickers to be transported by boat to the Greek island of Samos south of Izmir.
(Reuters, 10/14/18)
2018 Oct 15, Turkey's government said it has dismissed 259 local officials for suspected links to terrorist groups or unsuitable behavior, a move the pro-Kurdish opposition said was aimed at helping the ruling AK Party ahead of 2019 polls.
(Reuters, 10/15/18)
2018 Oct 15, Turkish authorities said they have an audio recording which indicates that missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
(Reuters, 10/15/18)
2018 Oct 15, Saudi Arabia's King Salman ordered an internal probe into the unexplained disappearance of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi as a joint Turkish-Saudi team was set to search the Saudi consulate in Istanbul where he was last seen on Oct. 2.
(Reuters, 10/15/18)
2018 Oct 17, Moldova's President Igor Dodon met with visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The two-day visit aimed at boosting political and trade ties with the former Soviet republic.
(AP, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had made clear in talks in Ankara that Saudi officials were cooperating with Turkey's investigation into missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
(Reuters, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 18, The Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders urged Turkey to request a UN investigation into the possible murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi to prevent a "whitewash" of the alleged crime.
(AFP, 10/18/18)
2018 Oct 18, Ukraine's parliament voted to hand over a landmark Kiev church to the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate after it agreed to recognize the independence of Ukraine's Orthodox Church. The church will be transferred to Constantinople for its permanent use free of charge, but will still be the property of Ukraine.
(AFP, 10/18/18)
2018 Oct 19, Turkey widened the investigation into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi after his visit to the Saudi consulate, searching a forest in the city and interviewing the mission's staff.
(AFP, 10/19/18)
2018 Oct 20, Saudi Arabia said that Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent journalist and critic of the kingdom's de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had died in a fight inside its Istanbul consulate. This came after two weeks of denials that it was involved in his disappearance. Saudi state media said King Salman had ordered the dismissal of five officials, including Saud al-Qahtani, a royal court adviser seen as the right-hand man to Prince Mohammed, and deputy intelligence chief Ahmed Asiri.
(Reuters, 10/20/18)
2018 Oct 22, Two children died after a boat carrying migrants sank just 50 meters off Turkey's western coast near Bodrum early today.
(Reuters, 10/22/18)
2018 Oct 24, Turkey's state media reported that Saudi authorities have denied permission to Turkish police to search a well in the garden of the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul as part of a probe into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
(AFP, 10/24/18)
2018 Oct 25, Saudi state TV quoted the Saudi public prosecutor as saying the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was premeditated, and that prosecutors were interrogating suspects on the basis of information provided by a joint Saudi-Turkish task force.
(Reuters, 10/25/18)
(AP, 10/26/18)
2018 Oct 26, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan urged Saudi Arabia to disclose who ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, as well as the location of his body, heightening international pressure on the kingdom to come clean on the case.
(Reuters, 10/26/18)
2018 Oct 26, A Turkish court sentenced a German man to six years and three months in prison for membership in a terrorist organization. The Turkish prosecutor accused Patrick K. (29) of being a member of the Syrian Kurdish YPG, considered by Ankara to be a branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 10/26/18)
2018 Oct 27, It was reported that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has appointed new governors to 39 of the country's 81 provinces.
(Reuters, 10/27/18)
2018 Oct 27, The leaders of Turkey, Russia, France and Germany met to try to find a political solution to Syria's devastating civil war, provide access to humanitarian aid and salvage a fragile ceasefire in the country's last major rebel-held bastion.
(AFP, 10/27/18)
2018 Oct 28, The Turkish army struck Kurdish targets in northern Syria east of the Euphrates River. Artillery strikes hit positions belonging to the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Zor Moghar.
(AP, 10/28/18)
2018 Oct 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated Istanbul's new airport, a megaproject that he has pushed to meet its symbolic deadline. Human Rights has cited at least 38 workplace deaths over the past three years.
(AP, 10/29/18)
2018 Nov 1, Turkish and US forces started joint patrols in the Manbij region of northern Syria. In June Turkey agreed a plan with the United States under which the two countries would jointly maintain security and stability there.
(Reuters, 11/1/18)
2018 Nov 2, Turkey lifted sanctions on the US Secretary of Homeland Security and Attorney General, minutes after Washington removed two Turkish ministers from its sanctions list.
(Reuters, 11/2/18)
2018 Nov 2, The United States lifted sanctions on two top officials in Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's cabinet, a sign of improved relations after Turkey freed an American pastor from detention three weeks ago.
(Reuters, 11/2/18)
2018 Nov 3, In Turkey Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko and the Istanbul-based Orthodox patriarch signed an accord that paves the way for the recognition of an independent Ukrainian church, a plan that has infuriated Moscow.
(AFP, 11/3/18)
2018 Nov 6, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that joint patrols by US forces and a Kurdish-led militia in northern Syria are "unacceptable".
(AP, 11/6/18)
2018 Nov 6, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would not abide by the renewed US sanctions on Iran's oil and shipping industries, adding that they were aimed at "unbalancing the world".
(Reuters, 11/6/18)
2018 Nov 8, Turkish journalist Husnu Mahalli was handed a suspended sentence of two years and five months in prison for insulting Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan.
(Reuters, 11/8/18)
2018 Nov 9, In southeastern Turkey seven soldiers were killed in an "accidental" explosion at an army munitions depot in Hakkari province.
(AFP, 11/10/18)(SSFC, 11/11/18, p.A4)
2018 Nov 9, Airstrikes by Turkish warplanes "neutralized" 15 militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 11/10/18)
2018 Nov 10, President Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey has given recordings related to the killing of Jamal Khashoggi to Germany, France and Britain, seeking to maintain international pressure on Riyadh over the Saudi journalist's death.
(AP, 11/10/18)
2018 Nov 10, An air strike by a Turkish warplane "neutralized" 14 militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 11/11/18)
2018 Nov 12, The Turkish coast guard said five people, including three children, died after a boat carrying 15 migrants sank off the western coast. Five others were missing and a search was underway.
(Reuters, 11/12/18)
2018 Nov 13, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said recordings related to the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, which Turkey has shared with Western allies, are "appalling" and shocked a Saudi intelligence officer who listened to them.
(Reuters, 11/13/18)
2018 Nov 13, Turkey pulled out of Italian-sponsored Libya crisis talks in Palermo saying it had been "excluded", dealing a fresh blow to the latest international bid to stabilize the chaos-stricken country.
(AFP, 11/13/18)
2018 Nov 14, A court sentenced Turkish journalist Ali Unal to 19 years in jail on a charge of being a leader in the network accused of carrying out a failed coup in July 2016. Unal was chief writer at the now-defunct Zaman newspaper.
(Reuters, 11/14/18)
2018 Nov 14, A Turkish court sentenced a German citizen to more than six years in jail on terrorism charges. State news said Saide Inac, a singer who also goes by the name Hozen Cane, was sentenced to six years and three months in jail for her membership in an armed terrorist organization.
(Reuters, 11/14/18)
2018 Nov 16, Turkish police detained 13 people including two prominent academics under an investigation into jailed rights activist Osman Kavala, accusing them of following him in a bid to unseat the government through mass protests in 2013.
(Reuters, 11/16/18)
2018 Nov 16, It was reported that the CIA believes Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, complicating President Donald Trump's efforts to preserve ties with a key US ally.
(Reuters, 11/17/18)
2018 Nov 18, Turkey warned energy companies against working with the Greek Cypriot government in carrying out exploratory drilling in the eastern Mediterranean, saying such activities could damage regional stability.
(Reuters, 11/18/18)
2018 Nov 18, A Turkish court jailed pending trial Istanbul academic Yigit Aksakoglu following raids on professors and activists deemed to have links to Osman Kavala, a prominent financier of civil society activities, who has been imprisoned for the past year.
(AFP, 11/18/18)
2018 Nov 19, In Turkey Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan marked the completion of a key phase of TurkStream, a natural gas pipeline connecting the two countries. The last part of the offshore pipe was laid on live broadcast, reaching Turkish shores at Kiyikoy near Istanbul.
(AP, 11/19/18)
2018 Nov 20, The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) urged Turkey to swiftly process the legal case of Selahattin Demirtas, the ex-head of the pro-Kurdish opposition, saying his pre-trial detention had gone on longer than could be justified.
(Reuters, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 21, A Turkish court sentenced 74 people, including soldiers, to life in prison for their role in the July 2016 attempted coup. Three men, accused of being members of the PKK, were jailed for life for a March 2016 car bombing that killed 36 people and wounded 344 in a crowded transport hub in Ankara.
(Reuters, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 22, A Turkish newspaper reported that CIA director Gina Haspel signaled to Turkish officials last month that the agency had a recording of a call in which Saudi Arabia's crown prince gave instructions to "silence" Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
(Reuters, 11/22/18)
2018 Nov 26, George Soros's Open Society Foundation said it would cease operations in Turkey, days after President Tayyip Erdogan accused the billionaire philanthropist of trying to divide and destroy nations.
(Reuters, 11/26/18)
2018 Nov 28, In northwest Turkey a large concrete block fell during the construction of a highway viaduct, killing one worker and trapping two others beneath it near the town of Gebze, Kocaeli province.
(AP, 11/28/18)
2018 Nov 28, A British court rejected an extradition request from Turkey for exiled businessman Akin Ipek (54) to face terrorism-funding, fraud and other charges, saying he faced a real risk of ill-treatment should he be returned.
(Reuters, 11/28/18)
2018 Nov 30, A Turkish court ruled that the former leader of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition remain in prison, after top EU officials last week called for the politician's swift release.
(Reuters, 11/30/18)
2018 Dec 4, A Turkish appeals court has upheld the terror propaganda conviction of Selahattin Demirtas, the former head of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition party.
(AP, 12/4/18)
2018 Dec 5, A Turkish court issued arrest warrants for two suspects close to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, increasing pressure on the kingdom's de facto leader.
(AFP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 6, Turkish journalist Kamil Demirkaya, accused by Turkey of terrorism, said he has applied for political asylum in Romania after Turkey sought his extradition.
(AP, 12/6/18)
2018 Dec 7, Turkey and the United States agreed to speed up efforts to put in place an agreement on Syria's Manbij by the end of the year.
(Reuters, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 7, In southern Turkey an employee fired shots in a municipality building in Cukurova, Adana province, killing two of his colleagues. The gunman was reportedly motivated by a "personal" feud between the employees.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 11, In northern Turkey a police officer angered that his request for a transfer was rejected fired shots at his superiors inside a police station in Rize, killing the local police chief and wounding two other officers.
(AP, 12/11/18)
2018 Dec 13, In Turkey nine people were killed and nearly 90 injured after a high-speed train crashed into a locomotive in Ankara. Three employees of the railway authority were arrested on Dec. 17 for their role in the accident.
(AFP, 12/13/18)(SFC, 12/18/18, p.A2)
2018 Dec 14, The Turkish military said it had killed eight militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in air strikes targeting the Zap, Hakurk and Haftanin regions of northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 12/14/18)
2018 Dec 14, A Romanian court rejected a request by Turkey to extradite Kamil Demirkaya, a Turkish journalist it accuses of terrorism, after prosecutors said the case was political.
(AP, 12/14/18)
2018 Dec 15, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople welcomed the creation of an Orthodox church in Ukraine independent of Moscow and invited its leader to Istanbul to receive official confirmation of its status.
(AFP, 12/16/18)
2018 Dec 18, Meeting in Geneva the foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey said that a new Syrian Constitutional Committee should convene early next year, kicking off a viable political peace process.
(Reuters, 12/18/18)
2018 Dec 18, Libyan customs seized a consignment of arms which arrived from Turkey at Khoms port. A day earlier a cargo of 2.5 million Turkish-made bullets was seized at the same port. The UN last June extended an arms embargo on Libya for another year.
(Reuters, 12/22/18)
2018 Dec 20, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani met in Ankara and vowed to work closer to end the fighting in Syria.
(AFP, 12/20/18)
2018 Dec 22, Libya and Turkey agreed to open an urgent joint investigation into a consignment of arms which arrived from Turkey and was seized On Dec. 18 at the Khoms port. The consignment contained 3,000 Turkish-made pistols, as well as some other pistols, hunting rifles and ammunition.
(Reuters, 12/22/18)
2018 Dec 22, In Turkey thousands of protesters took to the streets in Istanbul to demonstrate against the rising cost of living and crippling inflation. The protest was organized by the KESK, a confederation of public service workers unions.
(AFP, 12/22/18)
2018 Dec 22, Turkey's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said nearly 300,000 Syrians have returned to their country following Turkey's two cross-border operations in northern Syria.
(Reuters, 12/22/18)
2018 Dec 25, In Turkey Max Zirngast (29), an Austrian freelance writer, was released from a prison but barred from leaving the country. Zirngast was jailed in September after Turkey accused him and two others of "membership in an armed terrorist organization." On Sept. 11, 2019, Zirngast confirmed his acquittal.
(AP, 12/25/18)(AP, 9/11/19)
2018 Dec 27, Turkey detained Adnan Sutcu (56) of Germany shortly after his arrival in Ankara to attend his mother's funeral. He was barred from leaving Turkey after the authorities accused him of supporting a terrorist organization on social media.
(Reuters, 12/31/18)
2019 Jan 3, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara and Baghdad would deepen cooperation against terrorism after tensions last month over Turkish air strikes against Kurdish militants in Iraq.
(AFP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 5, The Istanbul-based Orthodox patriarch signed the formal decree confirming the creation of an independent Ukrainian church, marking a break with the Russian church that has angered Moscow.
(AFP, 1/5/19)
2019 Jan 7, A Turkish court ordered the release on bail of Eren Erdem, a former opposition lawmaker, while he is being tried on terrorism-related charges.
(Reuters, 1/7/19)
2019 Jan 7, A cargo ship sank in rough waters off Turkey's Black Sea coast, killing six crew members including its captain. Seven other crew members were rescued.
(AP, 1/7/19)
2019 Jan 9, In Turkey a pro-Kurdish party legislator said 162 prisoners across Turkey have joined a hunger strike in a show of solidarity with an imprisoned opposition legislator who has been refusing food since November.
(AP, 1/9/19)
2019 Jan 12, Turkey for a second day loaded tanks and armored vehicles onto trucks and dispatched the convoy to the Turkish province of Hatay on the Syrian border.
(Reuters, 1/12/19)
2019 Jan 13, US President Donald Trump threatened Turkey with economic devastation if it attacks a US-allied Kurdish militia in Syria.
(Reuters, 1/14/19)
2019 Jan 15, Turkey's president said his troops will establish a 20-mile-wide "safe zone" in northern Syria with the help of allies.
(AP, 1/15/19)
2019 Jan 15, Senior Kurdish official Bedran Ciya Kurd categorically rejected a "safe zone" that the Turkish president says his troops plan to set up in northern Syria.
(AP, 1/15/19)
2019 Jan 16, It was reported that Turkish prosecutors are seeking an international arrest warrant for New York Knicks player Enes Kanter, accusing him of membership in a terror organization.
(AP, 1/16/19)
2019 Jan 17, Turkey deported Dutch journalist Ans Boersma (31) after Turkish officials said Ankara received a tip-off from police in the Netherlands that she had suspected links to a jihadist group in Syria. Boersma was a person of interest in an ongoing investigation into militant activity.
(AFP, 1/17/19)(Reuters, 1/17/19)
2019 Jan 18, Turkey's state-owned Anadolu news agency said a court has sentenced Murat Arslan, a judge who previously won an award for human rights, to 10 years in prison over links to the network Ankara says orchestrated an attempted coup in 2016.
(Reuters, 1/18/19)
2019 Jan 19, In Turkey thousands demonstrated in the Kurdish-majority southeast to support Leyla Guven (55), a detained lawmaker from a pro-Kurdish party who launched a hunger strike in November.
(AFP, 1/19/19)
2019 Jan 22, A Turkish court sentenced prominent journalist Nazli Ilicak, already serving a life sentence, to almost six additional years in prison for leaking information deemed secret by the government.
(AP, 1/22/19)
2019 Jan 23, In Russia Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sat down for Syria-focused talks with Pres. Vladimir Putin as their governments bargain over zones of influence in the war-torn country.
(AP, 1/23/19)
2019 Jan 23, Romania's national railway company said a group of Turkish companies have won a 600 million-euro ($681 million) contract to modernize a key line in the northwest Transylvania region. The European Union will fund about 80 percent of the project, and the Romanian government the rest.
(AP, 1/23/19)
2019 Jan 25, A Turkish court released Leyla Guven, a Kurdish lawmaker who was jailed last year for criticizing Ankara's military operation in Syria. She has been on hunger strike for nearly three months and still faces trial and up to 31 years' jail over charges of terrorism leadership and propaganda for her opposition to Turkey's incursion into northwest Syria's Afrin region.
(Reuters, 1/25/19)
2019 Jan 25, Turkish forces shelled YPG militia positions in the northern Syrian region of Tal Rifaat for a third consecutive day.
(Reuters, 1/25/19)
2019 Jan 26, Turkey's Defense Ministry said a Turkish military base in northern Iraq has come under attack by Kurdish militants. At least 10 people were wounded when protesters stormed the Turkish military camp near Dohuk in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, burning two tanks and other vehicles.
(AP, 1/26/19)(Reuters, 1/26/19)
2019 Jan 26, Syria called on Turkey to withdraw its troops from Syria's northern territories and end support for armed opposition groups in order to revive a two-decade-old bilateral security agreement.
(AP, 1/26/19)
2019 Jan 30, Turkish citizen, Hamza Ulucay, who worked as a translator for the US Consulate in Adana, was convicted in Turkey's Mardin province on terror charges and sentenced to 4 ½ years in prison, but will be freed from prison with credit for the nearly two years he spent in pre-trial detention.
(AP, 1/30/19)
2019 Feb 1, A Turkish court sentenced two Kurdish politicians to lengthy jail terms on charges of belonging to a terrorist organization and disseminating terrorist propaganda. Former parliamentarian Gultan Kisanak, arrested in 2016 when she was the joint mayor of Diyarbakir, was jailed for 14 years and three months. Sebahat Tuncel, who had also served in parliament, was jailed for 15 years.
(Reuters, 2/2/19)
2019 Feb 1, TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron) countries Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Italy and Turkey, condemned in a joint statement the Israeli government's unilateral decision not to extend the observer force's mission in the flashpoint city.
(AP, 2/2/19)
2019 Feb 2, Turkish security forces arrested Hatice Kilic, a suspect in an armed attack on the US consulate in Istanbul In August 2015.
(Reuters, 2/2/19)
2019 Feb 5, Turkey put up bounties for the capture of eight Turkish servicemen who fled to Greece following a failed coup in 2016.
(AP, 2/5/19)
2019 Feb 5, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras visited Turkey where he will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks to ease tensions over bilateral disputes and the long-running Cyprus problem.
(AFP, 2/5/19)
2019 Feb 6, In Turkey at least one person was killed and four others were left under rubble after an eight-storey residential building collapsed in Istanbul. Officials soon raised death toll in the Kartal district building collapse to 21 with 14 others were injured. Four people were later detained in connection with the collapse.
(Reuters, 2/6/19)(AFP, 2/9/19)(Reuters, 2/10/19)(AP, 2/14/19)
2019 Feb 7, The United States sharply rebuked Germany for deporting Adem Yilmaz, a wanted Islamic militant, to Turkey instead of extraditing him to New York to stand trial on terror-related charges. He has been charged by a US federal grand jury with conspiring to carry out a March 3, 2008, suicide bombing in Afghanistan, which left two US soldiers dead and 11 others injured.
(AFP, 2/7/19)
2019 Feb 9, Turkey called on China to close its internment camps for Muslims, saying the camps which reportedly hold a million ethnic Uighur people are a "great shame for humanity".
(Reuters, 2/10/19)
2019 Feb 11, Dozens of Turkish police blocked a march by pro-Kurdish opposition lawmakers in Istanbul that was organized in solidarity with hunger striking MP Leyla Guven, who was released from prison last month.
(AFP, 2/11/19)
2019 Feb 11, In Turkey a military helicopter crashed in a residential neighborhood on the Asian side of Istanbul.
(Reuters, 2/11/19)
2019 Feb 11, Russia and Turkey agreed that they needed to take decisive measures to stabilize the situation in Syria's Idlib province after talks between the two country's defense ministers.
(Reuters, 2/11/19)
2019 Feb 12, Turkey launched one of its largest operations against alleged supporters of the US-based Muslim cleric accused of leading an attempted coup in 2016, ordering the arrest of 1,112 people.
(Reuters, 2/12/19)
2019 Feb 13, In Turkey pro-Kurdish lawmaker Leyla Guven (55), on hunger strike for more than three months, was brought to a hospital but went home by ambulance after refusing treatment. She has vowed to continue her fast until the government allows Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan to hold regular meetings with his lawyers and family members.
(AFP, 2/13/19)
2019 Feb 14, Russia's Pres. Putin hosted a meeting in Sochi to weigh the future of Syria with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Russia told Turkey it had no right to create a "safe zone" in northeast Syria unless it sought and received the consent of Syria's Pres. Bashar al-Assad.
(Reuters, 2/14/19)
2019 Feb 15, Turkish police prevented supporters from rallying outside the home of Leyla Guven, a pro-Kurdish lawmaker on hunger strike for 100 days.
(AFP, 2/15/19)
2019 Feb 19, A Turkish appeals court upheld jail sentences against opposition journalists in a long-running case targeting the Cumhuriyet newspaper -- one of the few remaining dailies critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AFP, 2/19/19)
2019 Feb 22, Turkey ordered the arrest of 295 serving military personnel, accusing them of links to the network of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says orchestrated a 2016 attempted coup.
(Reuters, 2/22/19)
2019 Feb 26, Turkey criticized European Union leaders for attending a summit hosted by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi days after nine men were executed for killing Egypt's chief prosecutor.
(Reuters, 2/26/19)
2019 Mar 4, The Trump administration said Washington will scrap the preferential trade status of India and Turkey, as President Donald Trump ramped up his battle against what his administration views as unfair foreign trade practices.
(AFP, 3/5/19)
2019 Mar 10, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused a women's march in central Istanbul on March 8 of disrespecting Islam by booing the Islamic call to prayer.
(Reuters, 3/10/19)
2019 Mar 10, Two German journalists left Turkey after Ankara refused to renew their accreditation. The journalists called the government's move an attempt to silence international news organizations and said they refused to be intimidated.
(AFP, 3/10/19)(AP, 3/10/19)
2019 Mar 14, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan opened one of the world's largest hospitals in Ankara, brushing aside criticism of what is the latest in a series of mega projects that have marked his 16 years in power. The Ankara City Hospital, built at a cost of around 1 billion euros, is equipped with some 3,810 beds and covers an area the size of around 100 football pitches.
(Reuters, 3/14/19)
2019 Mar 15, A Turkish court convicted Neil Prakash (27), an Australian-born Islamic State militant, of belonging to a terror group and sentenced him to more than seven years in prison. The court said he could be released in 2½ years under Turkish law.
(AP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 16, Two Turkish soldiers were killed and eight others were wounded in a clash during operations into northern Iraq. Six militants, including a woman, were "neutralized" during the operations.
(Reuters, 3/16/19)
2019 Mar 17, In Turkey Kurdish activist Zulkuf Gezen died late today. He was one of scores of detainees on hunger strike in support of a Kurdish lawmaker in Diyarbakir. He reportedly hanged himself after 12 years in prison on charges of membership of the PKK Kurdish militant group.
(AFP, 3/18/19)
2019 Mar 18, Turkey and Iran carried out a joint operation against militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on Turkey's eastern border.
(Reuters, 3/18/19)
2019 Mar 22, Turkey's lira tumbled more than 4 percent against the US dollar, its biggest one-day fall since a currency crisis took hold in August, raising concerns that Turks are buying more foreign cash as ties with Washington deteriorate.
(Reuters, 3/24/19)
2019 Mar 24, In Turkey thousands of supporters of a pro-Kurdish party gathered in Istanbul to celebrate the Kurdish New Year and to attend a campaign rally for local elections that will test the Turkish president's popularity.
(AP, 3/24/19)
2019 Mar 26, Turkish and Russian forces carried out the first "independent and coordinated" patrols in the mainly Kurdish-controlled northern Syrian region of Tel Rifaat.
(Reuters, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 29, In Turkey five Afghan workers were killed and eleven others were injured as a result of a fire in an abandoned three-story building in Ankara.
(Reuters, 3/29/19)
2019 Mar 30, In Turkey the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, or HDP, said in a statement that 53 people were detained in Istanbul overnight in the lead-up to the March 31 municipal elections.
(AP, 3/30/19)
2019 Mar 31, Turkey voted in local elections in a test for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with his ruling party fighting to keep hold of the country's two key cities as an economic slowdown takes hold. In eastern Turkey an election observer and another man were killed in a fight at a school-based polling station. Pres. Erdogan's AKP suffered a major upset in the ballot after results showed they had lost not only the capital Ankara and also the country's economic hub Istanbul.
(AFP, 3/31/19)(AFP, 4/1/19)
2019 Mar 31, In northwest Syria one Turkish soldier was killed and another was wounded in a mortar attack on their position. Turkey's military launched retaliatory fire. Turkey said the attack was carried out by the Kurdish YPG militia in the Afrin region.
(Reuters, 3/31/19)
2019 Apr 1, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey is giving Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro its continued support and intends to deepen cooperation with Venezuela "in all fields" despite US pressure.
(AP, 4/1/19)
2019 Apr 1, The United States said that it was halting shipment of F-35 parts of Turkey as well as joint manufacturing work due to Ankara's purchase of the S-400 missile defense system from Russia.
(AFP, 4/3/19)
2019 Apr 2, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party appealed the results of local elections in Istanbul where preliminary results give the opposition a razor-thin victory, sounding confident that a recount will alter the outcome of the vote.
(AP, 4/2/19)
2019 Apr 3, Dubai's Emirates NBD bank revised its acquisition price of Turkey's Denizbank following a slide in the Turkish lira, saying it has now agreed to pay 15.48 billion lira ($2.8 billion).
(AP, 4/3/19)
2019 Apr 3, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey will not turn back from a major arms deal with Russia despite the US suspension of Ankara from the F-35 fighter-jet program.
(AFP, 4/3/19)
2019 Apr 5, Turkey's official news agency said prosecutors have launched a terror propaganda investigation into Adnan Selcuk Mizrakl, the newly-elected mayor of Turkey's predominantly Kurdish Diyarbakir province.
(AP, 4/5/19)
2019 Apr 5, Turkey began the relocation of Ataturk International Airport to Istanbul Airport on the Black Sea shores. The move is expected to end tomorrow.
(AP, 4/5/19)
2019 Apr 6, In Turkey the last commercial passenger flight took off from Istanbul's Ataturk airport and convoys of trucks ferried thousands of tons of equipment across the city to a giant new airport which Turkey plans to make the biggest in the world.
(Reuters, 4/6/19)
2019 Apr 8, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks focusing on the situation in Syria, the sale of advanced Russian missiles to Turkey and other economic deals.
(AP, 4/8/19)
2019 Apr 9, In Turkey President Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party (AKP) said it will demand a new vote in Istanbul, after its bid was rejected for a citywide recount of March 31 election results that appeared to hand the party defeat.
(Reuters, 4/9/19)
2019 Apr 10, Turkey's Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) ordered that individuals sacked by an emergency decree during purges after a 2016 failed coup could not take up their posts despite being elected. Five districts and towns in the Kurdish-majority southeast were affected.
(AFP, 4/11/19)
2019 Apr 11, Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party said it would appeal to electoral authorities to annul elections in five districts and towns after some of its successful candidates were blocked from taking office after a March 31 local vote.
(AFP, 4/11/19)
2019 Apr 15, Turkish authorities detained two people on suspicion of spying for the United Arab Emirates. The two reportedly confessed during their interrogation that they had been spying on Arab dissidents based in Turkey on behalf of the UAE. One of the two men arrived in Turkey in October 2018, days after Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul.
(AP, 4/19/19)(Reuters, 4/19/19)
2019 Apr 16, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party submitted its promised appeal for the annulment and rerun of Istanbul's municipal elections, over what it said were irregularities that marred the March 31 vote.
(Reuters, 4/16/19)
2019 Apr 17, Turkish authorities confirmed the opposition's candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu, as the mayor of Istanbul, ending more than two weeks of recounts of the March 31 vote demanded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party.
(AP, 4/17/19)
2019 Apr 17, Belgium confectioner Godiva, privately owned by Turkish Yildiz Holding AS, opened its first café in Manhattan. The company is rolling out 2,000 cafes over the next six years that will serve a complete menu of items like the croiffle, a croissant and waffle hybrid that's stuffed with fillings like cheese or chocolate and pressed on a waffle iron.
(AP, 4/17/19)
2019 Apr 19, Four Turkish soldiers and 20 armed assailants were killed in clashes between the military and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) near the border with Iraq.
(Reuters, 4/20/19)
2019 Apr 20, Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mohamed al-Halbousi led a one-day summit between Iraq and its six neighbors: Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Jordan, and Kuwait, in an effort to bridge relations and invest in Iraq.
(AP, 4/20/19)
2019 Apr 26, In Turkey Istanbul prosecutors ordered the detention of 210 military personnel over suspected links to the network blamed by Ankara for orchestrating a failed 2016 military coup.
(AP, 4/26/19)
2019 Apr 28, In Turkey Zaki Y. M. Hasan, a man held on suspicion of spying for the United Arab Emirates, was found hanging from the bathroom door in his one-person cell in Silivri prison. Hasan and another man were detained on April 15 and had reportedly confessed to spying on Arab nationals.
(Reuters, 4/29/19)
2019 Apr 29, In Turkey police in Ankara detained 17 Iraqis and five Syrians, suspected of links to the Islamic State group, in simultaneous raids as part of a security sweep ahead of Labor Day festivities.
(AP, 4/29/19)
2019 Apr 30, Human Rights Association head Ozturk Turkdogan said that a total of 2,983 people in 90 prisons across Turkey are refusing food in protest of jail conditions for Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, whose family members and lawyers have reportedly been denied visits.
(AP, 4/30/19)
2019 Apr 30, In northwestern Syria, the government's air force dropped dozens of barrel bombs in rebel-held parts of Hama and Idlib provinces killing at least one woman and wounding others. Syrian Kurdish militants carried out an attack in a Turkish-controlled region in northern Syria killing a Turkish soldier and wounding three others.
(AP, 4/30/19)
2019 May 1, In Turkey police in Istanbul detained 127 people for attempting to hold illegal demonstrations in various parts of the city to celebrate May Day.
(Reuters, 5/1/19)
2019 May 2, A Turkish citizen who was wounded during deadly attacks at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch on March 15 died while undergoing surgery raising the death toll from the shooting to 51.
(Reuters, 5/2/19)
2019 May 3, In northwestern Turkey at least two women and five children drowned after a boat carrying migrants sank off the Aegean coastal town of Ayvalik.
(AP, 5/3/19)
2019 May 4, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for the opposition's local election victory in Istanbul to be declared invalid and the vote re-run, increasing the pressure on the country's electoral authorities.
(AFP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, Four Turkish soldiers were killed and two others wounded in two separate cross-border attacks by Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 5/4/19)
2019 May 6, Turkey’s High Election Board ruled for a fresh Istanbul mayoral contest on June 23, scrapping the March 31 vote, which was lost by Erdogan's party candidate, in a move that drew opposition accusations of dictatorship. Former Turkish PM Binali Yildirim will again be the ruling AK Party's candidate.
(Reuters, 5/07/19)
2019 May 10, In Turkey columnist Yavuz Selim Demirag, critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government and its nationalist allies, was beaten up by about five or six people with baseball bats after appearing on a TV show.
(AP, 5/11/19)
2019 May 13, A Turkish court handed down 53 life sentences without parole to Yusuf Nazik (34), a man who authorities said planned a 2013 bomb attack near the Syrian border that killed dozens of people in the town of Reyhanli, near the border with Syria. Two other suspects were sentenced for aiding a terror group.
(Reuters, 5/13/19)(AP, 5/13/19)
2019 May 17, A Turkish court sentenced fourteen people to life in jail without parole for involvement in twin bombings in Istanbul that killed dozens on December 10, 2016.
(Reuters, 5/17/19)
2019 May 20, In Turkey 91 of the suspects were detained as authorities issued warrants for 249 people as part of an investigation into alleged cheating during exams to recruit staff to the country's foreign ministry between 2010 and 2013.
(AP, 5/20/19)
2019 May 22, The Kremlin condemned as unacceptable an alleged US ultimatum to Turkey designed to force it to cancel a deal to buy Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile systems and purchase US Patriot missile systems instead.
(Reuters, 5/22/19)
2019 May 25, Senior opposition officials and rebel sources said Turkey has equipped an array of mainstream Syrian rebels it backs with fresh supplies of weaponry to help them try to repel a major Russian-backed assault.
(Reuters, 5/25/19)
2019 May 26, Several Kurdish lawmakers and thousands of prison inmates in Turkey ended their hunger strike after a call from jailed militant leader Abdullah Ocalan, 200 days after the protest was launched.
(Reuters, 5/26/19)
2019 May 27, Turkey's military launched an operation with commandos, backed by artillery and air strikes, against Kurdish militants in a mountainous area of northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 5/28/19)
2019 May 29, Turkish warplanes and attack helicopters struck targets in the mountains of northern Iraq. Two Turkish soldiers died from wounds sustained in a bomb blast. The military "neutralized" four militants in the latest action, bringing the total to 19 on the 3rd day of “Operation Claw".
(Reuters, 5/30/19)
2019 May 29, Iraqi authorities handed over 188 Turkish children of suspected Islamic State members to Turkey at Baghdad airport, where they boarded a plane and prepared to fly home.
(Reuters, 5/29/19)
2019 Jun 1, A Saudi-hosted Islamic summit threw its support behind Palestinians ahead of a US-led peace plan suspected to be skewed in favor of Israel, as Muslim states rallied around Saudi Arabia over tensions with Iran. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting, was the third and final Iran-focused summit in the holy city of Mecca this week. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was notably absent from the summit of the 57-member OIC. The Mecca summit refused all illegal Israeli measures aimed at changing facts in occupied Palestinian territories including Jerusalem, and undermining the two-state solution.
(AFP, 6/1/19)(Reuters, 6/1/19)
2019 Jun 7, Cyprus renegotiated a contract with a consortium made up of Shell, Texas-Based Noble Energy and Israel's Delek that paves the way for the exploitation of an offshore field that is estimated to hold 4.1 trillion cubic feet of gas. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country is determined to protect Turkish Cypriots' rights to gas deposits in the eastern Mediterranean.
(AP, 6/7/19)
2019 Jun 7, It was reported that the United States has decided to stop accepting any more Turkish pilots who had planned to train in the United States on F-35 fighter jets.
(Reuters, 6/7/19)
2019 Jun 8, Turkey's Defence Ministry said a total of 43 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) had been "neutralized" as part of an operation Ankara launched in northern Iraq 13 days ago. Separately, the Interior Ministry said two PKK members, one of whom was on Turkey's wanted list, were "neutralized" in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province, as well as five others in the eastern Tunceli province.
(Reuters, 6/8/19)
2019 Jun 13, Turkey warned Syria that it would respond if attacks in Syria's northwestern Idlib province continue, after a Turkish observation post in the region was attacked by mortar shells, which Turkey's Defense Ministry said were fired from areas under Syrian government control.
(AP, 6/13/19)
2019 Jun 13, US-based Bloomberg news agency says Turkish prosecutors are seeking up to five-year jail terms for two of its Istanbul-based reporters over their report on last year's currency crisis. Bloomberg said that Kerim Karakaya and Fercan Yalinkilic have been accused of trying to undermine Turkey's economic stability over a story they wrote in August 2018.
(AP, 6/14/19)
2019 Jun 15, Turkey criticized southern European Union nations for urging the EU to consider action against Turkey over its bid to drill for gas in waters where Cyprus has exclusive economic rights.
(AP, 6/15/19)
2019 Jun 17, A boat carrying migrants to Greece sank off the Turkish coast, leaving at least 12 migrants dead.
(AP, 6/17/19)
2019 Jun 18, State-run Anadolu news agency said Turkey has ordered the arrest of 128 military personnel over suspected links to the network accused by Ankara of orchestrating an attempted coup in 2016.
(Reuters, 6/18/19)
2019 Jun 18, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras demanded that the European Union issue a reprimand to Turkey for its "illegal" gas exploration in Cyprus, after Ankara defied calls for it to cease drilling in the region.
(AFP, 6/18/19)
2019 Jun 19, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan vowed to try to ensure the Egyptian government is tried in international courts for the death of former president Mohamed Mursi, who suffered a fatal heart attack in a Cairo court earlier this week.
(Reuters, 6/19/19)
2019 Jun 20, A Turkish court has sentenced 128 people accused of being among the ringleaders to life terms in prison for their roles in the July 15, 2016 coup attempt.
(AP, 6/20/19)
2019 Jun 20, Turkey launched a second drillship that will drill for gas off neighboring Cyprus' east coast despite European Union warnings to refrain from such illegal actions or face sanctions.
(AP, 6/20/19)
2019 Jun 23, In Turkey a 2nd mayoral election was held in Istanbul. Turkey's election board ruled as the vote count begins in the repeated election for Istanbul's mayor to count as valid ballots with inconsistent stamps. Opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu's win in a repeat vote for mayor broke the lock Pres. Erdogan's Islamist-rooted party long held on Istanbul's top public office.
(AFP, 6/23/19)(AP, 6/23/19)(AP, 6/24/19)
2019 Jun 24, In Turkey 16 leading civil society leaders appeared in court, accused of seeking to overthrow the government during the "Gezi Park" protests of 2013, in a trial dubbed an absurd sham by critics. The group includes renowned businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala, whose detention since November 2017 has made him a symbol of what his supporters say is a crackdown on civil society.
(AFP, 6/24/19)
2019 Jun 25, The US envoy to NATO said the United States will stop Turkish forces flying and developing its F-35 stealth jets if Ankara goes ahead with the purchase of a Russian air defense system. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan vowed anew to press on with the S-400 purchase despite allies' concerns.
(Reuters, 6/25/19)
2019 Jun 28, In Turkey hundreds gathered at Istanbul's main court to support Canan Kaftancioglu, an opposition politician, who faces 17 years in prison for a series of tweets criticizing the government. She played a key role in the victory of the newly elected Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu this week.
(AFP, 6/28/19)
2019 Jun 28, Spokesman Ahmed Mismari said eastern Libyan forces loyal to commander Khalifa Haftar will ban any commercial flights from Libya to Turkey and Turkish ships from docking in the country. Mismari also said his forces had lost 43 soldiers in the battle over the town of Gharyan which the Tripoli forces took on June 26.
(Reuters, 6/29/19)
2019 Jun 29, In Libya strongman Khalifa Haftar threatened to attack Turkish interests in Libya after suffering a serious setback in his push to take the capital Tripoli, accusing Ankara of backing his rivals.
(AFP, 6/29/19)
2019 Jun 30, Activists in Istanbul said Turkish authorities have banned a pride march for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex rights for the fifth year.
(AP, 6/30/19)
2019 Jul 1, In Turkey an explosion on an LPG tanker killed an Italian crew member and injured 15 others at the port of Aliaga in western Izmir province.
(Reuters, 7/2/19)
2019 Jul 2, Turkish prosecutors and the state-run Anadolu news agency said 122 military personnel have been ordered arrested over suspected links to the network blamed by Ankara for orchestrating a failed military coup.
(Reuters, 7/2/19)
2019 Jul 2, In China Turkish Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an ostensible US NATO ally, affirmed the importance of ties with China in a meeting with President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
(AP, 7/2/19)
2019 Jul 3, Turkey's state-run news agency said two Russian women, who are suspected of being Islamic State militants and are allegedly listed as wanted by Interpol, have been detained by authorities while trying to enter Turkey illegally from neighboring Syria accompanied by their nine children in an effort to return to Russia.
(AP, 7/3/19)
2019 Jul 4, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he is willing to mediate between the United States and Iran to ease tensions over Iran's nuclear program.
(AP, 7/4/19)
2019 Jul 5, A bomb went off in a car near Turkey's border with Syria, killing two Syrians who were inside the vehicle. A third Syrian was injured. The explosion was caused by a hand-made bomb which went off while the car was in transit.
(AP, 7/5/19)
2019 Jul 6, Turkey's president met with PM Fayez Sarraj, the head of Libya's UN-recognized government, following heightened tensions between Turkey and forces loyal to rival Libyan National Army leader Khalifa Hifter.
(AP, 7/6/19)
2019 Jul 9, Turkey's state-run news agency said prosecutors have issued warrants for the detention of 176 serving military officers over suspected links to the US-based Muslim cleric who is blamed by Ankara for a failed coup attempt in 2016.
(AP, 7/9/19)
2019 Jul 12, Turkey started "Operation Claw-2" late today to destroy caves and shelters used by members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in the Hakurk region. The operation began with commandoes, air strikes and artillery.
(AP, 7/13/19)
2019 Jul 12, Russia began delivery of the advanced S-400 missile defence system to Turkey, a move expected to trigger US sanctions against a NATO ally and drive a wedge into the heart of the Western military alliance.
(Reuters, 7/12/19)
2019 Jul 13, Turkey continued receiving components of a Russian-made air defense system, despite Washington's warnings that it will impose sanctions on the NATO-member country.
(AP, 7/13/19)
2019 Jul 13, Ten Turkish sailors were taken hostage by armed pirates who attacked the Paksoy-1, a Turkish-flagged cargo ship, off the coast of Nigeria. Another eight sailors were left safely aboard.
(Reuters, 7/16/19)
2019 Jul 15, The EU imposed sanctions on Turkey over its drilling for gas in waters around Cyprus.
(Econ, 7/27/19, p.46)
2019 Jul 16, President Donald Trump said the US is not going to sell F-35 fighter jets to Turkey after Ankara decided to buy a missile defense system from Russia.
(AP, 7/17/19)
2019 Jul 17, In Turkey a court in Istanbul has acquitted the Turkey representative for Reporters Without Borders and two other human rights activists of charges of engaging in terrorist propaganda.
(AP, 7/17/19)
2019 Jul 17, In Iraq a gunman opened fire inside a Turkish restaurant in the northern city of Irbil, killing at least one Turkish diplomat stationed in Ankara's consulate. Kurdish security forces later said a Turkish diplomat and a civilian were killed and another civilian wounded in the attack.
(AP, 7/17/19)
2019 Jul 18, Turkey launched airstrikes against Kurdish rebel targets in the Qandil mountains region in northern Iraq, after the killing of Turkish diplomat Osman Kose there a day earlier. Airstrikes killed alleged planners of the attack against Kose and continued the next day against alleged PKK targets in Iraq's Karajak region. A 2nd attack on July 24 hit another vehicle carrying senior members of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AP, 7/19/19)(AP, 7/25/19)
2019 Jul 18, In eastern Turkey a van carrying migrants rolled into a roadside ditch, killing 15 people near the town of Ozalp, Van province.
(AP, 7/18/19)
2019 Jul 19, Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla, convicted of helping Iran evade economic sanctions, was released from a US prison and surrendered to US immigration officials to await deportation. A federal jury convicted Atilla in 2018 of participating in a conspiracy that allowed Iran to launder billions of dollars in oil proceeds through world financial markets.
(AP, 7/23/19)
2019 Jul 19, In northern Iraq an unmanned aircraft dropped explosives on a base belonging to Iran-linked Shi'ite paramilitary groups, killing at least one person. Two Iranian military commanders were killed. US officials later confirmed that Israel was responsible for the bombing in Amirli, Salaheddin province. A Turkish soldier was killed and six wounded in an operation in northern Iraq during clashes with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 7/19/19)(AP, 8/23/19)(SFC, 8/24/19, p.A4)
2019 Jul 20, Iraqi Kurdistan's security services said they had arrested a man for assassinating a Turkish diplomat in the regional capital Erbil on July 17, and believed the suspect was the brother of a lawmaker in the Turkish parliament.
(Reuters, 7/20/19)
2019 Jul 24, In Turkey Belarus diplomat Alexander Poganshev was taken to a hospital to undergo surgery after being attacked by a retired military officer in Ankara, who later committed suicide. The incident did not appear to be politically motivated.
(AP, 7/25/19)
2019 Jul 25, Turkey's central bank cut its benchmark rate to 19.75% from 24%, more than expected.
(Reuters, 7/26/19)
2019 Jul 26, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country is determined to destroy "to pieces" what he called a "terror corridor" in northern Syrian — regardless of whether or not Turkey and the United States agree on the establishment of a safe zone.
(AP, 7/26/19)
2019 Jul 26, Turkey's top court ruled that 10 academics had their rights violated when they were sentenced on charges of disseminating terrorist propaganda for signing a 2016 petition calling for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast.
(AP, 7/27/19)
2019 Jul 27, Turkey's Defense Ministry said it had "neutralized" 34 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq in air strikes on July 17-19. The Defense Ministry said it had "neutralized" a total of 255 PKK militants in operations in northern Iraq since May 27.
(Reuters, 7/27/19)
2019 Aug 1, Turkey granted its radio and television watchdog sweeping oversight over all online content, including streaming platforms like Netflix and online news outlets, in a move that raised concerns over possible censorship.
(Reuters, 8/1/19)
2019 Aug 2, In northwestern Turkey five people, including one child, were killed and 15 others were wounded when a bus caught fire in Balikesir province.
(Reuters, 8/2/19)
2019 Aug 5, Turkish and American military officials met in Istanbul for negotiations about establishing a safe zone in northeastern Syria to address Ankara's concerns about US-allied Syrian Kurdish-led forces in that region.
(AP, 8/5/19)
2019 Aug 7, The US and Turkey announced they'd agreed to form a coordination center to set up the safe zone in northeastern Syria. The coordination center would be based in Turkey and would be set up "as soon as possible".
(AP, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 8, Turkish state news said an operation last week by the Turkish military and its intelligence agency killed two more suspects and alleged planners in the July 17 assassination of Turkish diplomat Osman Kose in Irbil, Iraq.
(AP, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 16, It was reported that Turkey's military pension fund OYAK has reached a provisional agreement to take over British Steel and could close the deal by the end of this year, potentially saving thousands of jobs.
(Reuters, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 19, Turkey removed from office the elected mayors of three cities in the mostly Kurdish-populated southeast region over their alleged links to rebels, replacing them with government appointees.
(AP, 8/19/19)
2019 Aug 19, In Syria airstrikes targeted a Turkish military convoy, killing at least three civilians, as it was heading toward a Turkish observation post in the rebel-held stronghold of Idlib.
(AP, 8/19/19)
2019 Aug 20, Turkey extended by two months a deadline for unregistered Syrian refugees in Istanbul to leave the city. Istanbul already hosts the largest number of registered Syrians, nearly 548,000, out of 3.6 million Syrian refugees who have found a home in Turkey.
(AP, 8/21/19)
2019 Aug 23, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Russia's Vladimir Putin that Syrian army attacks in northwest Syria are causing a humanitarian crisis and threaten Turkey's national security.
(Reuters, 8/23/19)
2019 Aug 23, A Turkish offensive entered its third phase in which troops aimed to destroy PKK caves and shelters in the Sinat-Haftanin region of Iraq.
(AP, 8/25/19)
2019 Aug 25, Turkey's official news agency reported that three Turkish soldiers were killed in northern Iraq in clashes with Kurdish militants.
(AP, 8/25/19)
2019 Aug 27, In Russia the annual opening of the Russian air show was attended by Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a guest of Pres. Vladimir Putin.
(SFC, 8/28/19, p.A2)
2019 Aug 29, Malaysia deported Turkish asylum seeker Arif Komis, registered with the UN, along with his family, after police said he should not be in the country.
(Reuters, 8/30/19)
2019 Sep 3, It was reported that US online streaming service Netflix has applied for a license to continue operating in Turkey under new online broadcasting rules that have raised fears over possible censorship in the future.
(Reuters, 9/3/19)
2019 Sep 4, Turkey's Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan said Turkey may lose trade with Britain worth up to $3 billion in the event of a no-deal Brexit, adding that many Turkish companies lacked information on the consequences of such a scenario.
(Reuters, 9/4/19)
2019 Sep 6, In Turkey an Istanbul court sentenced Canan Kaftancioglu, the leader of the Istanbul branch of the secular Republican People's Party, to nearly 10 years in prison over a series of tweets. She was expected to appeal the verdict.
(AP, 9/6/19)
2019 Sep 8, US and Turkish troops conducted their first joint ground patrol in northeastern Syria as part of a so-called "safe zone" that Ankara has been pressing for in the volatile region. Turkey hoped the buffer zone, which it says should be at least 30 km (19 miles) deep, will keep Syrian Kurdish fighters away from its border.
(AP, 9/8/19)
2019 Sep 10, Turkey accused the United States of taking only "cosmetic steps" toward the creation of a so-called "safe zone" in northeast Syria and renewed Ankara's threat of unilateral military intervention to form a buffer area along its border.
(AP, 9/10/19)
2019 Sep 12, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish rebels reportedly detonated an improvised explosive device on a road near the town of Kulp, killing four people and wounding 13 others.
(AP, 9/13/19)
2019 Sep 13, Former Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu announced his resignation from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party and said he plans to form a new political movement.
(AP, 9/13/19)
2019 Sep 14, Turkey's state media said the government has ordered the arrest of 223 serving military personnel across the country and in the breakaway state of Northern Cyprus over suspected links to a network Ankara accuses of organizing an attempted coup in 2016.
(Reuters, 9/14/19)
2019 Sep 16, In Turkey the leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey met in Ankara to discuss the situation in Syria, with the aim of halting fighting in the country's northwestern province of Idlib and finding a lasting political solution to Syria's civil war, now in its ninth year.
(AP, 9/16/19)
2019 Sep 20, It was reported that Turkey forced banks to take losses on $8 billion in bad loans this week to kick-start lending and boost its economic recovery after losing patience with them.
(Reuters, 9/20/19)
2019 Sep 21, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed frustration with what he said was the United States' continued support for Syrian Kurdish militants.
(AP, 9/21/19)
2019 Sep 24, It was reported that Turkish artist Vahit Tuna has mounted 440 pairs of high heels on the facade of a building on a busy Istanbul street, to symbolize the number of women murdered in domestic or sexual violence in Turkey in 2018.
(Reuters, 9/24/19)
2019 Oct 4, Turkey's state run Anadolu Agency said Sirri Sureyya Onder, a former deputy of the People's Democratic Party, or HDP, has been released from a high security prison. The former pro-Kurdish party legislator and film-maker had been jailed since December 2018.
(AP, 10/5/19)
2019 Oct 4, In northern Syria the US-led coalition and Turkey conducted their third joint patrol, part of a plan designed to defuse tensions between Ankara and the Syrian Kurds.
(AP, 10/4/19)
2019 Oct 5, Turkey's president threatened to launch a military operation into northeastern Syria, where US troops are deployed and have been trying to defuse tension between Washington's two allies — Ankara and the Syrian Kurds.
(AP, 10/5/19)
2019 Oct 7, President Donald Trump threatened to destroy the economy of Turkey if it does not watch over captured Islamic State fighters and their families detained in Syria.
(AP, 10/7/19)
2019 Oct 8, Egypt, Cyprus, and Greece condemned an "unlawful and unacceptable" bid by Turkey to drill inside waters where Cyprus has exclusive economic rights.
(AP, 10/8/19)
2019 Oct 9, Turkey launched a military operation against Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria with air strikes hitting the border town of Ras al Ain. Turkey's state-run news agency said Turkish artillery units are shelling suspected Syrian Kurdish forces targets across the border in the Syrian town of Tal Abyad.
(Reuters, 10/9/19)(AP, 10/9/19)
2019 Oct 9, British Airways announced the launch of a new flight from London's Gatwick Airport to the Turkish resort of Antalya, once one of Thomas Cook's most popular routes, as airlines jostle to fill the void left by its collapse.
(Reuters, 10/9/19)
2019 Oct 10, Turkey pressed its assault against US-allied Kurdish forces in northern Syria for a second day, pounding the region with airstrikes and an artillery bombardment that raised columns of black smoke in a border town and sent panicked civilians scrambling to get out.
(AP, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 10, Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to send "millions" of Syrian refugees to Europe in response to criticism of his military offensive into Kurdish-controlled northern Syria.
(The Telegraph, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 10, Turkish police launched criminal investigations of Kurdish lawmakers and detained dozens of people for using social media to question the military's cross border incursion into Syria, in a crackdown against those who criticized the assault.
(Reuters, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 10, A Turkish provincial governor's office said two children and their mother have been killed by mortar fire from Syria into Turkey. This followed a separate announcement from neighboring Sanliurfa province, where a 9-month-old boy, a girl (11) and an adult male were killed in mortar attacks. The Turkish Defense ministry tweeted that it hit targets in Syria in retaliation.
(AP, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 10, The European Union says that the Turkish offensive in Kurdish-held areas of Syria is setting back any hope for progress toward ending the conflict.
(AP, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 11, Turkey's state-run news agency said two more civilians have been killed in a mortar attack on a Turkish border town while another person died of wounds from a similar attack a day earlier. Turkey's interior minister said that 121 people have been detained for social media posts critical of its military offensive into Kurdish-held northeastern Syria.
(AP, 10/11/19)
2019 Oct 11, Turkish forces pushed deeper into northeastern Syria, the third day of Ankara's cross-border offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters. At least six civilians have been killed in Turkey and seven civilians in Syria since Ankara this week launched the air and ground operation.
(AP, 10/11/19)
2019 Oct 11, EU governments threatened sanctions against Turkey over its offensive in Syria, angrily rejecting President Tayyip Erdogan's warning that he would "open the gates" and send 3.6 million refugees to Europe if they did not back him.
(Reuters, 10/11/19)
2019 Oct 12, Turkey's military said it has captured Ras al-Ayn, a key Syrian border town under heavy bombardment, as its offensive against Kurdish fighters pressed into its fourth day with little sign of relenting despite mounting international criticism. Kurdish authorities denied the town had fallen to the Turks, saying fighting was continuing. The civilian death toll resulting from Turkey's offensive into northern Syria had now reportedly risen to 30.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, France said it is halting exports of any arms to Turkey that could be used in its offensive against Kurds in Syria, and wants an immediate meeting of the US-led coalition against Islamic State extremists.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, Germany said it has banned arms exports to Turkey over its assault against Kurdish YPG militia in Syria.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, Iran offered to engage Syrian Kurds, Syria's government and Turkey in talks to establish security along the Turkish-Syrian border following Turkey's military incursion into northern Syria to fight Kurdish forces.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, The main Kurdish-led group in northern Syria is calling on the US to carry out its "moral responsibilities" and close northern Syrian airspace to Turkish warplanes.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll among Syrian Kurdish-led fighters battling a Turkish offensive has risen to 74, most of whom have been killed in the Tel Abyad area.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 13, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said the incursion into Syria will stretch from Kobani in the west to Hasaka in the east, going some 30 km (19 miles) into Syrian territory.
(Reuters, 10/13/19)
2019 Oct 13, In northern Syria hundreds of Islamic State supporters escaped from a holding camp in amid heavy clashes between invading Turkish-led forces and Kurdish fighters. 780 IS supporters fled a camp for the displaced in the Syrian town of Ein Issa. US President Donald Trump ordered all US troops to withdraw from the north to avoid getting caught in the fighting. Approximately 1,000 US troops in Syria are not leaving the country entirely, but are trying to avoid becoming embroiled in the conflict.
(AP, 10/13/19)(AP, 10/17/19)
2019 Oct 13, The United States said it is poised to withdraw some 1,000 troops from northern Syria after learning that Turkey planned to extend a military incursion against Kurdish foes further south than originally planned.
(Reuters, 10/13/19)
2019 Oct 14, Cambodian police arrested the Turkish-Mexican former director of a school run by the movement of US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara blames for a failed 2016 coup. His wife feared he would be deported to Turkey.
(AP, 10/19/19)
2019 Oct 14, Pres. Donald Trump spoke directly to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan to demand an immediate ceasefire in Syria while announcing a series of punishments for Ankara that critics saw as an attempt to save face. Trump announced sanctions aimed at restraining the Turks' assault against Kurdish fighters and civilians in Syria. A US official said the approximately 1,000 US troops being withdrawn from northern Syria will reposition in Iraq, Kuwait and possibly Jordan.
(The Guardian , 10/15/19)(AP, 10/15/19)
2019 Oct 14, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani urged Turkey to halt its military offensive against Kurdish forces in northern Syria.
(AP, 10/14/19)
2019 Oct 15, The UN said Turkey could be deemed responsible for summary executions by an affiliated armed group of captured Kurdish fighters and a politician, acts that may amount to war crimes.
(Reuters, 10/15/19)
2019 Oct 15, US prosecutors accused Turkey's government-owned Halkbank of participating in a wide-ranging plot to violate prohibitions on Iran’s access to the US financial system. The conspiracy involved high-ranking government officials in Iran and Turkey.
(AP, 10/16/19)
2019 Oct 16, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says his country won't be affected by "sanctions and threats" over its military incursion into northeast Syria.
(AP, 10/16/19)
2019 Oct 16, President Donald Trump said US troops are "largely out" of a region of Syria where Turkish forces are attacking Kurdish fighters.
(AP, 10/16/19)
2019 Oct 16, The UN Special Envoy for Syria said there must be a cessation of hostilities between Turkish troops and Kurdish fighters as the world is "extremely alarmed by the humanitarian consequences of the crisis".
(AP, 10/16/19)
2019 Oct 17, The US and Turkey agreed to a five-day cease-fire in the Turks' deadly attacks on Kurdish fighters in northern Syria. Tts effect was largely to mitigate a foreign policy crisis widely seen to be of Pres. Trump's own making.
(AP, 10/18/19)
2019 Oct 18, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey's military will set up 12 observations posts along the border in northern Syria if a planned safe zone is established. Erdogan also told reporters that 195 out of some 750 Islamic State militants who he said were set free by Syrian Kurdish fighters as Turkey launched its push into Syrian territory have been re-captured.
(AP, 10/18/19)
2019 Oct 18, The Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria accused Turkey of violating a US-brokered cease-fire that went into effect overnight, as fighters from both sides clashed in and around a border town that has been one of the fiercest fronts in the Turkish invasion. A spokesman for the Kurdish-led fighters said they were not withdrawing from Ras al-Ayn because Turkish forces are still besieging and shelling it.
(AP, 10/18/19)
2019 Oct 19, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would press on with its offensive into northeastern Syria and "crush the heads of terrorists" if a deal with Washington on the withdrawal of Kurdish fighters from the area were not fully implemented.
(Reuters, 10/19/19)
2019 Oct 19, In Syria Turkish-backed Syrian fighters clashed with Kurdish-led forces in several parts of the northeast, with some crossing the border from Turkey to attack a village. Both sides blamed each other for fighting that has rattled the US-brokered cease-fire.
(AP, 10/19/19)
2019 Oct 19, Thousands of people in the German city of Cologne and in the French capital demonstrated against Turkey's offensive in northern Syria.
(AP, 10/19/19)
2019 Oct 20, In Syria Kurdish fighters evacuated the northern town of Ras al-Ayn. Turkey wants the Kurdish fighters to move away from the Turkey-Syria border, pulling back 20 miles (32 km) to the south. The cease-fire is to end Oct. 22 evening. One Turkish soldier was reported killed and another wounded after an attack by the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in northeast Syria's Tel Abyad.
(AP, 10/20/19)(Reuters, 10/20/19)
2019 Oct 22, Regional offices in Turkey said the government has replaced four mayors from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) with state officials, part of a widening crackdown on local councils controlled by the party.
(Reuters, 10/22/19)
2019 Oct 22, The presidents of Russia and Turkey met in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi, hours before a five-day cease-fire between Turkish troops and Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria was set to expire.
(AP, 10/22/19)
2019 Oct 22, A US prosecutor called Turkey's Halkbank a "fugitive" after it failed to make an initial court appearance in a criminal case accusing it of conspiring to violate US sanctions against Iran.
(Reuters, 10/22/19)
2019 Oct 23, Russian military police began patrols on part of the Syrian border, quickly moving to implement an accord with Turkey that divvies up control of northeastern Syria. The Kremlin told Kurdish fighters to pull back from the entire frontier or else face being "steamrolled" by Turkish forces.
(AP, 10/23/19)
2019 Oct 23, President Donald Trump said he will lift sanctions on Turkey after the NATO ally agreed to permanently stop fighting Kurdish forces in Syria and he defended his decision to withdraw American troops.
(AP, 10/23/19)
2019 Oct 24, Turkey's central bank slashed its policy rate more than expected to 14%, taking advantage of an inflation dip and a steadier lira after Washington cancelled just-announced sanctions over Ankara's military incursion into northeast Syria.
(Reuters, 10/24/19)
2019 Oct 24, In northern Syria a car boobytrapped with explosives detonated, wounding four people in the town of Tal Abyad, taken by Turkish-backed forces from Kurdish fighters during Turkey's invasion.
(AP, 10/24/19)
2019 Oct 24, The Turkish and Syrian ambassadors clashed at their first UN Security Council encounter since Turkey launched a cross-border offensive earlier this month following the withdrawal of US forces.
(AP, 10/25/19)
2019 Oct 26, Kurdish fighters wounded six Turkish soldiers amid a shaky truce in northern Syria south of Ras al-Ayn. One of the wounded soldiers died the following day.
(AP, 10/27/19)
2019 Oct 27, The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it had agreed to withdraw more than 30 km (19 miles) from the Turkish border, an announcement welcomed by Damascus which said Turkey should now end its "aggression" in northeast Syria.
(Reuters, 10/27/19)
2019 Oct 28, Turkey's state-run news agency said police have detained 20 foreign nationals suspected of links to the Islamic State group.
(AP, 10/28/19)
2019 Oct 29, Turkey's state-run news agency said police have detained three suspected Islamic State group militants who were allegedly scheming a "sensational" attack in the aftermath of the killing of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
(AP, 10/29/19)
2019 Oct 29, Syrian army troops clashed with Turkish forces near the border town of Ras al Ain. Turkey's defense forces captured 18 Syrian government soldiers in northeastern Syria, including two who were wounded. Syrian government forces withdrew from the area after their soldiers were captured.
(Reuters, 10/30/19)(AP, 10/31/19)
2019 Oct 29, The US House overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill threatening to sanction Turkey, warning that a deal struck with the Trump administration won’t necessarily save the NATO ally from economic punishment for its military operation in northern Syria.
(Bloomberg, 10/29/19)
2019 Oct 30, Turkey summoned the US ambassador in protest at votes in Congress the previous day to recognize the Turkish genocide against Armenians and to sanction Ankara for its military offensive in northeast Syria.
(The Telegraph, 10/30/19)
2019 Oct 30, Turkey's police chief said 100 people have been detained in raids against the Islamic State and that the group was allegedly planning an attack. The suspects were detained in 26 raids across 21 provinces.
(AP, 10/30/19)
2019 Oct 31, Turkey's Anadolu news agency said an appeals court ruled for the release of Republican People's Party ex-legislator Eren Erdem. He was sentenced to more than four years in prison in March, accused of supporting US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.
(AP, 10/31/19)
2019 Nov 1, Turkey and Russia launched joint patrols in northeastern Syria, under a deal that halted a Turkish offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters who were forced to withdraw from the border area following Ankara's incursion.
(AP, 11/1/19)
2019 Nov 2, In northern Syria car bomb went off in the town of Tal Abyad, killing 13 civilians. Turkey's defense ministry blamed Syrian Kurdish fighters for the attack A Kurdish-led force said Christian fighters will now oversee security in a northern Syrian region that has witnessed fighting between Turkey-backed fighters and Kurdish-led militiamen.
(AP, 11/2/19)
2019 Nov 3, In Turkey police in Istanbul detained a driver (33) who rammed his bus into a crowded stop and attacked people who tried to prevent him from escaping with a knife. At least 13 people were injured.
(AP, 11/3/19)
2019 Nov 4, A Turkish court convicted journalists Ahmet Altan and Nazli Ilicak of aiding a terror group but ordered both released from prison, where they had served more than three years in a case that has severely tested press freedom in the country.
(AP, 11/5/19)
2019 Nov 4, Turkey captured Rasmiya Awad (65), the elder sister of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the slain leader of the Islamic State group, near the Syrian town of Azaz in Aleppo province.
(AP, 11/4/19)
2019 Nov 4, Turkey's interior minister Suleyman Soylu said Turkey will send back Islamic State group members to their countries of origin.
(AP, 11/4/19)
2019 Nov 4, Turkey said one of its soldiers has been killed by roadside bomb in northeastern Syria, bringing Turkey's military death toll to 14 since launching its incursion into Syrian Kurdish-held areas on Oct. 9.
(AP, 11/4/19)
2019 Nov 5, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for Russia and the United States to keep to their promises and ensure that Syrian Kurdish fighters pull out of a so-called safe zone along Syria's northern border with Turkey.
(AP, 11/5/19)
2019 Nov 6, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed that Turkish police detained one of al-Baghdadi's wives and a daughter last year.
(AP, 11/7/19)
2019 Nov 7, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said his country will have to open the doors to Europe for Syrian refugees unless the European Union provides Ankara with enough support, adding that Turkey could not carry that burden alone.
(Reuters, 11/7/19)
2019 Nov 8, A Syrian protester was killed after he was run over by a Turkish military vehicle during a joint Turkish-Russian patrol in northeastern Syria.
(AP, 11/8/19)
2019 Nov 9, In northeast Syria intense clashes broke out between Syrian government troops and Turkish-led forces in the village of Um Shaifa near the town of Ras al-Ayn. At least four Syrian government soldiers were killed in the fighting with Turkish troops and Turkey-backed opposition fighters.
(AP, 11/9/19)(AP, 11/10/19)
2019 Nov 10, In northern Syria killed a car bomb at least eight civilians and wounded 20 others in a town near the border with Turkey. Syrian government troops fought for a second day with Turkish-led forces in an area between the towns of Tal-Tamr and Ras al-Ayn, according to a war monitor, Syria's state media and activists.
(AP, 11/10/19)
2019 Nov 11, Turkey deported citizens of the United States and Denmark who fought for the Islamic State group and made plans to expel other foreign nationals as the government began a new push to send back captured foreign fighters to their home countries.
(AP, 11/11/19)
2019 Nov 11, In Turkey former British army officer James Le Mesurier was found dead in Istanbul early today. He was the founder and CEO of May Day Rescue, which founded and trained the White Helmets, also known as the Syria Civil Defense.
(AP, 11/11/19)
2019 Nov 11, A report by UN experts said Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey have repeatedly violated an arms embargo on Libya and it is "highly probable" that a foreign attack aircraft is responsible for a deadly strike on a migrant detention center. The report also accused Sudan and the head of Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known by his nickname Hemeti, of violating UN sanctions by deploying 1,000 Sudanese troops to Libya.
(Reuters, 11/11/19)
2019 Nov 12, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Syrian Kurdish fighters have failed to vacate areas along the Turkish border despite agreements with Russia and the United States, and says he will raise the issue with US President Donald Trump.
(AP, 11/12/19)
2019 Nov 12, Turkish forces conducting a joint patrol in northern Syria under a Russian-Turkish deal fired live rounds at protesters near the mainly Kurdish town of Kobani. Two people were reported killed and seven others injured near the town along the Syrian-Turkish border.
(Reuters, 11/12/19)
2019 Nov 14, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey is willing to purchase US-made Patriot air defense systems but will not agree to disposing of the Russian S-400 system it has already bought.
(AP, 11/14/19)
2019 Nov 14, Turkish officials said seven German and one British Islamic State suspects have been deported to their home countries. The Interior Ministry also announced that the United States will take back a US national and IS suspect who was stuck in a no man’s land between Turkey and Greece, after Athens refused him entry.
(AP, 11/14/19)
2019 Nov 15, Turkish police detained four mayors over their suspected links to Kurdish rebels, as part of an ongoing crackdown on the country's pro-Kurdish party.
(AP, 11/15/19)
2019 Nov 16, Turkey removed four more mayors from their posts as part of a widening government crackdown against the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), and replaced them with state appointees.
(Reuters, 11/16/19)
2019 Nov 17, Turkey's defense ministry said authorities have captured a Syrian Kurdish YPG fighter suspected of a car bomb attack in the northern Syrian town of Al-Bab a day earlier, which killed 18 people and wounded 30 others.
(Reuters, 11/17/19)
2019 Nov 19, Turkey's state-run news agency said prosecutors have issued warrants for the detention of 133 military officers over suspected links to the US-based Muslim cleric who is blamed by Ankara for a failed coup attempt in 2016. 101 of the suspects were detained in simultaneous raids in 45 provinces for alleged links to Fethullah Gulen's network.
(AP, 11/19/19)
2019 Nov 25, Turkish media say Turkey is poised to begin testing Russian-made S-400 air defense systems, despite threats of sanctions from the United States.
(AP, 11/25/19)
2019 Nov 26, In northeastern Syria a car bomb in a Turkish controlled area killed at least 17 people in the village of Tal Half.
(SFC, 11/27/19, p.A2)
2019 Nov 27, Turkish Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Libyan PM Fayez Sarraj reached a deal on maritime and security cooperation. It was soon denounced by Libya’s eastern parliament.
(AP, 11/28/19)
2019 Nov 27, A mortar attack targeting a Turkish military post near the border with Syria killed two soldiers. An opposition group that monitors the war in Syria said the first shots were fired by Turkish troops and Turkey-backed opposition fighters.
(AP, 11/28/19)
2019 Dec 6, Greece said it was expelling the Libyan ambassador, angered by an accord between Libya and Turkey signed on Nov. 27 that maps out a sea boundary between the two countries close to the Greek island of Crete. Libya called the move unacceptable. Turkey dismissed it as outrageous.
(Reuters, 12/6/19)
2019 Dec 9, Turkey said it would join Albania and Kosovo in boycotting the Nobel awards ceremony in protest against 2019 literature prize laureate Peter Handke, who has been criticized for backing late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
(Reuters, 12/9/19)
2019 Dec 10, The Greek government said it has lodged objections to the United Nations over an accord between Libya and Turkey mapping out maritime boundaries as a violation of international law.
(Reuters, 12/10/19)
2019 Dec 12, Turkey sent its accord with Libya on a maritime boundary between the two countries to the United Nations for approval, despite objections from Greece that the agreement violates international law.
(Reuters, 12/12/19)
2019 Dec 12, Former Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu established a new political party, Future Party, in a move that represents a challenge to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party.
(AP, 12/12/19)
2019 Dec 12, The US Senate voted unanimously on a resolution that recognizes as genocide the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago. The following day Turkey summoned the ambassador from the US to protest the approval.
(AP, 12/13/19)
2019 Dec 19, Turkey denied accusations that a militant Palestinian group is using its territory to plan attacks against Israel.
(AP, 12/19/19)
2019 Dec 21, Turkey’s parliament approved a security and military deal with Libya’s UN-supported government on the heels of a controversial maritime agreement earlier this month that has drawn international ire. The deal allows Turkey to provide military training and equipment at the request of the Libyan government that controls Tripoli and some of the country's west.
(AP, 12/21/19)
2019 Dec 23, Libya’s forces based in the country’s east said they have released a vessel with Turkish crew members seized over the weekend amid heightened tensions in the eastern Mediterranean over a contentious maritime border deal involving Tripoli and Ankara.
(AP, 12/23/19)
2019 Dec 23, In Syria a vehicle rigged with explosives blew up in a market in the northern village of Suluk, killing five people and wounding others. Turkish troops and Turkey-backed fighters captured Tal Abyad and Suluk from Kurdish-led fighters in October. Syrian government troops captured the northwestern village of Jarjanaz from al-Qaida late today and surrounded a Turkish observation post in the area.
(AP, 12/23/19)(AP, 12/24/19)
2019 Dec 26, Turkey's president said that the UN-supported government in Libya has asked Ankara to send troops to help authorities in Tripoli defend the city from an offensive by rival forces.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, Turkey’s state-run news agency reported that the Constitutional Court has ruled in favor of Wikipedia, saying the Turkish government's two-year ban on the online encyclopedia constitutes a violation of freedom of expression. Turkey blocked Wikipedia in April 2017, accusing it of being part of a “smear campaign" against the country.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, In eastern Turkey a boat carrying migrants capsized in Lake Van, killing seven people on board. At least 64 migrants were rescued.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 27, A Turkish court convicted six journalists and one other employee of an independent newspaper of aiding the network of a US-based cleric who is accused of masterminding the failed coup in 2016. The seven were accused of supporting the coup through their work for the newspaper Sozcu, which has been extremely critical of the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AP, 12/27/19)
2019 Dec 27, Turkey unveiled its first fully domestically-produced car, saying it aimed to eventually produce up to 175,000 a year of the electric vehicle in a project expected to cost 22 billion lira ($3.7 billion) over 13 years. The vehicle sported the TOGG label of the consortium that is building them.
(Reuters, 12/27/19)
2019 Dec 29, Turkey's defense chief said that his country's troops won't evacuate their 12 observation posts in rebel-held northwestern Syria., even as a Syrian government offensive pushed deeper into Idlib province, the last remaining opposition stronghold.
(AP, 12/29/19)
2019 Dec 30, Turkey's government submitted a motion to parliament seeking approval to deploy troops to Libya, arguing that the conflict in the North African country could escalate into a civil war and threaten Turkey's interests.
(AP, 12/30/19)
2019 Dec 30, Turkey's state-run news agency reported that police have detained at least 124 people suspected of links to the Islamic State group.
(AP, 12/30/19)
2019 Dec 31, Police in Turkey detained five suspected Islamic State militants who were allegedly planning to carry out attacks in the Turkish capital of Ankara during New Year's Eve celebrations. Anadolu news said close to 170 suspected IS militants have been detained in the past two days.
(AP, 12/31/19)
2019 Dec 31, Turkish Airlines said it has agreed a compensation deal with plane maker Boeing Co over the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX following two fatal crashes.
(Reuters, 12/31/19)
2020 Jan 8, Turkey and Russia called for a Jan. 12 cease-fire in war-torn Libya while European Union officials intensified diplomatic efforts to cool tensions in the North African nation by holding talks with its prime minister.
(AP, 1/8/20)
2020 Jan 8, In northeastern Syria four Turkish soldiers were killed in a car bombing attack today while they were conducting road checks.
(AP, 1/9/20)
2020 Jan 14, Egyptian police raided the Cairo office of Turkey's state-run news agency late today and detained four of its staff members. Egyptian security forces shut down the agency's security camera and internet and searched the premise overnight.
(AP, 1/15/20)
2020 Jan 15, Turkish airstrikes inside Iraq targeting members of an outlawed Kurdish rebel group killed at least four minority Yazidi fighters allied with the rebels.
(AP, 1/16/20)
2020 Jan 16, Egyptian authorities released four people, including two Egyptian journalists, arrested in a police raid on the Cairo bureau of Turkey's state-run news agency.
(AP, 1/16/20)
2020 Jan 17, The head of the European Union’s border agency said the number of migrants entering Europe from Turkey rose significantly last year as people fleeing strife in Syria and Afghanistan flooded into the country and then set out for Greece.
(AP, 1/17/20)
2020 Jan 19, Turkey called for the European Union to end what it said was the bloc's prejudice against Turkish Cypriots, defending its launch of a fresh round of hydrocarbons drilling off the Mediterranean island.
(Reuters, 1/19/20)
2020 Jan 20, Turkey's largest telecoms group said it had been hit by a cyber attack that led to problems with internet access, but did not specify who was carrying out the attack. It said the strike had targeted its DNS addresses. Internet access was soon restored.
(Reuters, 1/20/20)
2020 Jan 24, In eastern Turkey a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck Elazig province late today. 18 people were killed in Elazig and four in neighboring Malatya. The death toll soon rose to 41 people with hundreds injured.
(AP, 1/25/20)(AP, 1/26/20)(AP, 1/27/20)(SFC, 1/28/20, p.A4)
2020 Jan 27, Three senior Western security officials said sweeping cyberattacks targeting governments and other organizations in Europe and the Middle East are believed to be the work of hackers acting in the interests of the Turkish government.
(Reuters, 1/27/20)
2020 Jan 29, French President Emmanuel Macron accused Turkey of breaching an agreement to halt foreign interference in Libya by sending warships and mercenaries to the country.
(AP, 1/29/20)
2020 Feb 2, In Syria airstrikes on a rebel-held village in the northwest killed at least seven people, A large Turkish military convoy rumbled into rebel-held areas of northwest Syria.
(AP, 2/2/20)
2020 Feb 3, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkish artillery have hit some 46 targets in Syria and Turkish warplanes were also involved. He claimed that there were between 30 and 35 casualties on the Syrian side but offered no evidence. Turkish troops shelled Syrian army positions in three provinces, reportedly killing eight soldiers in Idlib, three in Latakia province and two in the Hama region. Syrian activists said airstrikes in the country's northern, rebel-held region killed at least nine civilians. Turkey used its [email protected] drones to destroy hundreds of Syrian armored vehicles.
(AP, 2/3/20)(Econ., 10/10/20, p.44)
2020 Feb 3, Syrian troops captured the village of Nairab, reaching another highway that links the coastal city of Latakia with Aleppo. Syria's state news agency SANA said government forces were chasing insurgents and that four Turkish soldiers were killed and nine wounded triggering a Turkish retaliation. It claimed there were no casualties among Syrian troops.
(AP, 2/3/20)
2020 Feb 4, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country won't allow Syrian forces to gain additional territory in a northern Syrian province, a day after clashes between Turkish and Syrian forces killed soldiers on both sides.
(AP, 2/4/20)
2020 Feb 5, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to use force against Syrian government forces if they don't pull back to an earlier cease-fire line in northern Syria by the end of the month.
(AP, 2/5/20)
2020 Feb 5, In eastern Turkey successive avalanches over the last 24 hours killed at least 38 people and trapped dozens more. The death toll soon climbed to 41. The double avalanche left 84 people injured.
(AP, 2/5/20)(AP, 2/6/20)
2020 Feb 5, In Turkey a Pegasus Boeing 737 skidded off a runway in Istanbul and broke apart while landing in bad weather. Three people were killed and 179 injured.
(SFC, 2/6/20, p.A2)(SSFC, 2/9/20, p.A3)
2020 Feb 6, Turkey sent more reinforcements into northwestern Syria, setting up new positions in an attempt to stop a Syrian government offensive on the last rebel stronghold in the war-torn country.
(AP, 2/6/20)
2020 Feb 7, Several Turkish armored vehicles and tanks entered rebel-controlled northwestern Syria, the latest reinforcements sent in by Ankara amid a Syrian government offensive that this week brought the two countries' troops into a rare direct confrontation.
(AP, 2/7/20)
2020 Feb 8, Syrian government forces captured new areas from insurgents in their efforts to control a key highway in the northwest, as Turkey sent more reinforcements into the war-torn country.
(AP, 2/8/20)
2020 Feb 10, In Syria six Turkish soldiers were killed and seven were wounded when Syrian government forces shelled the Taftanaz air base in Idlib. Four Syrian rebels were also killed in the shelling. The exchange of fire came even as a Russian delegation arrived in Ankara for a second round of talks to discuss the fighting in Syria.
(AP, 2/10/20)
2020 Feb 15, President Tayyip Erdogan said the transfer of the main opposition party's 28% stake in Turkey's largest listed lender Isbank to the state would not be delayed.
(AP, 2/15/20)
2020 Feb 18, Turkey said it will deploy more troops to Syria's Idlib region and retaliate against attacks by government forces there, even as Ankara continues to discuss the situation with Moscow.
(Reuters, 2/18/20)
2020 Feb 18, In Turkey nine people, including prominent philanthropist Osman Kavala (63), were acquitted of trying to overthrow the government by force. They had faced trial for participating in the 2013 Taksim Square protests. Arrests warrants were lifted for seven other defendants.
(SFC, 2/19/20, p.A3)
2020 Feb 19, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized the European Union’s decision to launch a maritime effort focused on enforcing the U.N arms embargo around Libya.
(AP, 2/19/20)
2020 Feb 20, An airstrike in northwestern Syria reportedly killed two Turkish soldiers, following a large-scale attack by Ankara-backed opposition forces that targeted Syrian government troops. A Turkish Defense Ministry statement said as many as 50 Syrian government soldiers were killed and that five tanks, two armored personnel carriers and other equipment were destroyed.
(AP, 2/20/20)
2020 Feb 22, Turkey said a member of its military was killed in Syria's Idlib region in a bomb attack by Syrian government forces, the sixteenth soldier killed there so far this month.
(Reuters, 2/22/20)
2020 Feb 23, Turkey closed its border with Iran due to the number of coronavirus cases in its eastern neighbor.
(AP, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 23, In Turkey nine people were killed in Van province in a magnitude 5.7 earthquake that struck western Iran early today. Iran’s official IRNA news agency said the earthquake affected 43 villages in the mountainous Qotour area. 75 people were reported injured.
(AP, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 23, Forces loyal to Libyan eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar said they had killed 16 Turkish soldiers in recent weeks, a day after Turkey acknowledged it had lost several "martyrs" in combat in the north African country.
(Reuters, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 23, In Syria several Turkish troops were wounded in Idlib province after pro-Damascus forces targeted a Turkish military convoy with heavy artillery, prompting it to retreat northwards.
(Reuters, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 25, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said two Turkish soldiers have been killed in fighting in Libya and defended Ankara's move to also send Syrian opposition fighters to the North African country.
(AP, 2/25/20)
2020 Feb 27, In northwestern Syria at least 33 Turkish military personnel were killed in an attack late today, and more than 30 others were injured. The deaths followed a precision strike on a two-storey building in the village of Balioun.
(The Guardian, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 27, Russian state television said Turkish military specialists in Syria's Idlib region were using shoulder-fired missiles to try to shoot down Russian and Syrian military aircraft.
(Reuters, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 28, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country's borders with Europe were open, making good on a longstanding threat to let refugees into the continent as thousands of migrants gathered at the frontier with Greece.
(AP, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 28, Refugees in Turkey headed towards European frontiers after an official declared that borders had been thrown open, a response to the escalating war in Syria.
(Reuters, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 28, Cyprus' interior minister accused Turkey of deliberately channeling migrants for months to the ethnically-divided island's Greek Cypriot south to change the composition of its population.
(AP, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 28, In northwest Syria Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group lost at least eight fighters in skirmishes with insurgents and airstrikes by Turkey's air force. 48 Syrian soldiers have also been killed in the last 48 hours in Turkish bombardments and drone attacks in the region.
(AP, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, The UN migration organization reported at least 13,000 people had massed on Turkey’s land border, the vast majority apparently from Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/1/20)
2020 Feb, Turkish drones destroyed dozens of Syrian tanks in a two-day killing spree.
(Econ., 9/12/20, p.70)
2020 Mar 1, Greek army and police patrols using tear gas and stun grenades to thwart attempts overnight by thousands to push into the country. Thousands of migrants and refugees massed at Turkey's western frontier, trying to enter Greece by land and sea after Turkey said its borders were open to those hoping to head to Europe.
(AP, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 1, In Syria, Turkish troops shot down two Syrian warplanes after the Syrian military downed a Turkish drone. Syrian state media said the Syrian army has so far downed three Turkish drones that Ankara had been using extensively to hit Syrian army locations and air bases.
(AP, 3/1/20)(Reuters, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 2, A child died when a boat full of migrants heading to a Greek island capsized, part of a wave of thousands trying to push through Greece's land and sea borders after Turkey declared the way was open for migrants and refugees to enter Europe. Over the last two days some 1,200 migrants arrived on Lesbos, already overcrowded with migrants.
(AP, 3/2/20)(Econ., 3/7/20, p.48)
2020 Mar 3, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Greek authorities of inhumanely treating migrants trying to cross the border, claiming that two people were killed by Greek security forces a day earlier while another was seriously wounded. Greece denied the accusation.
(Bloomberg, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, Turkey shot down a Syrian fighter jet in Syria's Idlib province, marking the third such incident in as many days, as steady clashes between the two national armies continued over a Russia-backed Syrian government offensive near the Turkish border. State-run Syrian media said troops shot down a Turkish drone.
(AP, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, A high-level Trump administration official traveled up to the border with Syria's last rebel stronghold in a show of support for Turkey and its armed Syrian opposition groups' fight against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and to highlight relief efforts for the nearly 1 million people who have fled recent fighting.
(ABC News, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 4, In Turkey a fistfight erupted in parliament during a speech by opposition lawmaker Engin Ozkoc, who earlier accused President Tayyip Erdogan of disrespecting Turkish soldiers who died in Syria.
(Reuters, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 4, A man (43) was shot dead as he tried to cross from Turkey into Greece. Five others were treated for gunshot wounds. Greece dismissed reports of the shooting as "fake news".
(Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020 Mar 4, In northwestern Syria two more Turkish soldiers were killed in a Syrian government attack, as steady clashes between the two national armies continued to rack up casualties. Nine Syrian soldiers were also reported killed in Turkish drone attacks in the area.
(AP, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 5, Turkey said it would deploy special forces along its land border with Greece to prevent Greek authorities pushing back people trying to cross into Europe, after Turkey declared its previously guarded gateways to Europe open.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, Turkey announced that another Turkish soldier was killed in an attack in Idlib, Syria, raising the number of Turkish soldiers killed in the past 36 hours to three.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, In Russia an agreement on a ceasefire in Syria was announced after a six-hour meeting between the Turkish and Russian presidents in Moscow. The deal essentially froze the conflict lines and did not force Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces to roll back military gains made in the past three months.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Clashes between Greek riot police and migrants attempting to cross the border from Turkey erupted anew as European Union foreign ministers took aim at what they called “Turkey's use of migratory pressure for political purposes".
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, In northwestern Syria a cease-fire deal brokered by Turkey and Russia took hold in Idlib province. Farhad Dabirian, a commander with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, was killed near Damascus.
(AP, 3/6/20)(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 8, Turkish riot police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of demonstrators who, in defiance of a government ban, tried to march along Istanbul's main pedestrian street to mark International Women's Day.
(AP, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, In Turkey Selcuk Mizrakli, the ousted mayor of the mainly Kurdish Diyarbakir province, was sentenced to more than nine years in prison for membership of a terrorist organization.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 10, Turkish officials said at least three migrants had been shot and killed while trying to enter Greece in the past two weeks. Several migrants said in interviews that they had been captured, stripped of their belongings and expelled from Greece without being giver a chance to claim asylum.
(SFC, 3/11/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 13, Turkey said a second patient has been diagnosed with the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 15, Turkey said thousands of Muslims returning to home from a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia were being taken into quarantine due to concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Syria's brutal conflict entered its 10th year with President Bashar al-Assad's regime consolidating its hold over a war-wracked country where foreign powers are flexing their muscle. In the northwest Turkish and Russian troops began joint patrols on the key M4 highway. Rebel provocations forced Russia and Turkey to cut short their first joint patrol.
(AFP, 3/15/20)(AP, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 18, Turkey reported its first death due to the coronavirus. President Tayyip Erdogan advised his people not to leave home unless necessary for three weeks and to minimize social contact until the threat of coronavirus recedes, but did not instruct people to stay away from work.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 19, In Syria two Turkish soldiers were killed in a rocket attack in northwestern Idlib province.
(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 20, Turkey's death toll due to the coronavirus rose to nine with a total of 670 cases.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Turkey extended measures against the coronavirus, suspended flights with 46 more countries and banning picnics and barbecues, as the number of cases has roughly doubled every day for a week.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 22, Coronavirus cases in Turkey soared as countries across the Middle East imposed new restrictions on movement of people, shut public places and rolled out measures to protect businesses. Turkey now has 947 confirmed cases of the virus, with 21 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)(Good Morning America, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 23, Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, closed in a bid to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. It dated back to 1455 and is often regarded as one of the first shopping malls.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Bazaar,_Istanbul)(https://tinyurl.com/ychn4qdy)
2020 Mar 25, Turkish officials said prosecutors have formally charged two former aides of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and 18 other Saudi nationals over the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Bulgaria imposed a temporary entry ban on trucks from more than 65 countries that plan to pass through the Balkan state en route to Turkey, after Turkey imposed stringent coronavirus restrictions on truck drivers.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 27, Turkish authorities evacuated hundreds of migrants waiting at the border with Greece amid the coronavirus pandemic. They were transferred to state guesthouses for quarantine .
(SFC, 3/28/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 28, Turkey halted all intercity trains and limited domestic flights as the number of coronavirus cases jumped to 7,402, with 108 dead.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 29, Turkey's deaths from the coronavirus increased by 23 to 131, as the number of confirmed cases rose by 1,815 to 9,217.
(AP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 30, Turkey placed 39 residential areas in 18 cities under quarantine to contain the spread of the coronavirus, which has killed 131 people in the country.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 31, In eastern Turkey an explosion damaged a natural gas pipeline and halted gas flows from Iran. Authorities suspected the Kurdistan Workers' Party.
(SFC, 4/1/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 3, In Turkey singer Helin Bolek (28), a member of the Grup Yorum folk music group, died on the 288th day of a hunger strike at a home in Istanbul. The group has been prohibited from performing in Turkey since 2016.
(SFC, 4/4/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 8, Turkey said it will monitor the mobile phones of those diagnosed with the new coronavirus to ensure they do not break quarantine, marking the latest measure to stem an outbreak that has surged over the last month.
(Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 12, Turkey called on private banks to do more to help customers hurt by the economic impact of the coronavirus, saying that state-owned banks had offered delays in repayments for loans. More than 1,000 people have been killed by the coronavirus in Turkey.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 13, Coronavirus infections in Turkey have jumped to more than 56,900 cases and almost 1,200 deaths.
(SFC, 4/13/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 17, Turkey's confirmed cases of the COVID-19 disease increased by 4,353 in the past 24 hours, and 126 more people have died, taking the death toll to 1,769. The total number of cases in the country stood at 78,546.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 18, Turkey reported another 121 coronavirus deaths, raising the total to 1,890.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 19, Turkey's confirmed coronavirus cases have risen to 86,306.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 24, Turkey's confirmed cases of COVID-19 increased by 3,122 with the death toll rising to 2,600.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, In Turkey Ali Erbas, the country's top religious official, proclaimed that Islam condemned homosexuality because it brought illnesses and generational decay.
(Econ., 5/9/20, p.42)
2020 Apr 26, Turkish troops fired tear gas and live bullets at protesters blocking a major highway in northwest Syria early today, killing two people and wounding others. The protesters have been blocking part of the highway near the government-held village of Nairab in Idlib province for weeks to prevent joint Turkish-Russian patrols.
(AP, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 27, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threw his weight behind the country's top Muslim cleric, who caused a storm by claiming homosexuality “brings disease and causes this generation to decay".
(AP, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, Turkish officials said 402 people have been detained in the past 42 days for allegedly sharing "false and provocative" social media postings concerning the coronavirus outbreak.
(SFC, 4/28/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 27, In Libya a Turkish drone reportedly hit a food truck convoy in the country’s west, killing at least five civilians. Militia groups said they targeted trucks carrying equipment and ammunition for eastern forces trying to take the capital.
(AP, 4/28/20)
2020 May 1, Police in Istanbul detained at least 15 people, including trade union leaders who tried to stage a May Day march in defiance of a coronavirus lockdown and a ban on demonstrations at Taksim Square. Turkey ranks seventh in the world for the number of confirmed infections with 120,204 cases. The country's official death toll stands at 3,174.
(AP, 5/1/20)
2020 May 3, In Turkey Dr. Murat Dilmener (78), a professor of infectious diseases, died of COVID-19. His charity and compassion inspired Newspapers to dub him the “Robin Hood of the medical profession" and earned the professor and practicing physician the admiration of thousands of patients and students.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 May 7, In Turkey the Grup Yorun, a left-wing folk music group formed in 1985, said band member Ibrahim Gokcek (45) has died of a hunger strike in protest of the government's crackdown on the band. Gokcek was the 2nd band member to die in the hunger strike.
(SFC, 5/8/20, p.A2)
2020 May 10, In Turkey senior citizens were allowed to venture out for the first time in seven weeks. Turkey has recorded 137,115 coronavirus infections, including 3,739 deaths.
(SFC, 5/11/20, p.A4)
2020 May 11, Turkey was denounced by ministers of five countries for drilling in an offshore area where Cyprus has exclusive economic rights. Cyprus, Greece, Egypt, France and the UAE also protested a maritime border delineation and military cooperation agreement that Turkey signed last year with Libya's UN-backed government.
(SFC, 5/13/20, p.A3)
2020 May 15, Turkish authorities detained four more elected mayors from Turkey’s mainly Kurdish populated east and southeast regions, as the government pressed ahead with its crackdown on a pro-Kurdish party it accuses of links to Kurdish militants.
(AP, 5/15/20)
2020 May 21, Authorities in Turkey's western city of Izmir detained an opposition politician after she shared videos of an Italian anti-fascist song being blared out of mosques' loudspeakers instead of the call to prayer. Ozdemir denied any disrespect to religious values and said that she shared the videos because she wanted to draw attention to the incident.
(AP, 5/22/20)
2020 May 21, Turkey reported its lowest daily increase in confirmed coronavirus cases in the past two months, with 961 new infections in the past 24 hours along with 27 more deaths. The total number of infections in the country now stands at 153,548, with a total of 4,249 deaths.
(AP, 5/21/20)
2020 May 26, Turkey’s COVID-19 death toll reached 4,397 after 28 new deaths were reported in 24 hours. Turkey also recorded 948 more confirmed cases, bringing the total to 158,762. Today was the final day of a four-day nationwide lockdown for Turkey’s 83 million residents.
(AP, 5/26/20)
2020 May 27, Turkey’s health minister said that the country recorded 34 coronavirus-related deaths since the day before, bringing the country's COVID-19 death toll to 4,431. Turkey confirmed 1,035 new virus cases in the past 24 hours. The total number of confirmed cases in Turkey now stands at 159,797.
(AP, 5/27/20)
2020 Jun 2, In Turkey prosecutors in Istanbul issued warrants for the detention of 118 military personnel over their suspected links to a US-based Muslim cleric as authorities pressed ahead with a crackdown on a network Turkey blames for a failed coup attempt in 2016. 72 of the suspects were detained in simultaneous raids in 35 provinces. Police searched for 46 other suspects.
(AP, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 4, Turkey’s parliament stripped three opposition party deputies of their legislative seats, setting off a raucous protest inside the assembly hall by colleagues who accused the ruling party of an assault on democracy.
(AP, 6/4/20)
2020 Jun 8, Turkish police detained two journalists for questioning as part of an investigation into alleged “political and military espionage." Ismail Dukel, the Ankara representative of TELE1 television channel, and Muyesser Yildiz of the OdaTV news website, were being questioned by anti-terrorism police.
(AP, 6/8/20)
2020 Jun 11, A Turkish court convicted Metin Topuz, a local US Consulate employee in Istanbul, of membership in an armed terror organization and sentenced him to eight years and nine months in prison. Topuz has been jailed since 2017, accused of links to US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen.
(AP, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 13, In Turkey the number of new coronavirus cases rose to 1,459 in the last 24 hours and 14 people died, bringing total fatalities to 4,792. Turkey has reported a total 176,677 cases of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 6/13/20)
2020 Jun 15, Turkey reiterated its opposition to US sanctions on neighboring Iran, saying the coronavirus pandemic has shown that the world needs greater cooperation and solidarity.
(AP, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 15, Turkey’s jets carried out new cross-border airstrikes targeting Turkish Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. The latest operation, codenamed "’Operation Claw-Eagle," hit suspected PKK targets in several regions in Iraq's north. Turkey bombed Sinjar, claiming the Yazidis had teamed up with the PKK.
(AP, 6/15/20)(Econ., 12/12/20, p.51)
2020 Jun 17, Turkey said it has airlifted troops into northern Iraq for a cross-border ground operation, dubbed Operation Claw-Tiger, against Turkey's Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 6/17/20)
2020 Jun 17, In Turkey the governors of Istanbul, Ankara and Bursa announced that wearing masks to curb COVID-19 are now obligatory following an uptick in confirmed cases.
(SFC, 6/19/20, p.A7)
2020 Jun 17, France accused Turkey of repeated violations of the U.N. arms embargo on conflict-torn Libya and says Ankara is an obstacle to securing a ceasefire there.
(AP, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 21, In Turkey flash floods caused by torrential rains in the northwest left at least five people dead in Kestel, Bursa province. .
(AP, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 22, In northern Iraq dozens of civilians fled villages as Turkey stepped up a military campaign targeting Kurdish rebels that has drawn condemnation from Iraqi officials.
(AP, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 23, Turkish authorities allowed a group of top lawyers to continue a symbolic march into the capital of Ankara to protest the government's plans to amend laws regulating lawyers and bar associations, including the way the associations elect leaders, ending a more than 24-hour standoff between the lawyers and police.
(AP, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 24, In Turkey seven journalists went on trial, accused of revealing state secrets for their reports on the funeral of an intelligence officer who was killed last February in Libya.
(AP, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 27, In eastern Turkey a boat carrying up to 60 migrants across Lake Van went down in stormy weather. Authorities detained 11 people in connection with the incident. 56 bodies were later retrieved.
(ABC News, 7/1/20)(AP, 7/19/20)
2020 Jun, Swiss Commodities trader Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. struck a deal to buy $36 million of copper from a Turkish supplier. When the cargoes started arriving in China, all it found were containers full of painted rocks. In March, 2021, 13 suspected fraudsters were taken into custody in a series of police raids in Turkey.
(Bloomberg, 3/9/21)
2020 Jul 3, Turkey launched a trial for 20 Saudi officials accused of killing Jamal Khashoggi in October, 2018, with rights groups saying the prosecution offered the best chance for justice for the slain journalist. The next session was scheduled for November 24.
(The Telegraph, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, A court in Istanbul, Turkey, convicted Taner Kilic, Amnesty Int'l.'s former Turkey chairman, of membership in a terror organization and sentenced him to more than six years in prison. Three other activists were also convicted. Amnesty Int'l. condemned the ruling.
(SFC, 7/4/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 3, In northwestern Turkey an explosion at a fireworks factory killed four people and injured at least 97 others outside the town of Hendek, Sakarya province. A manager and two supervisors were soon detained following the explosion in northwestern Sakarya province.
(AP, 7/3/20)(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, In Libya airstrikes late today on the al-Waitya airbase in the desert southwestern of Tripoli destroyed military equipment recently brought in by Turkey, including air-defense systems. Foreign jets hit the key military base on the city’s outskirts that was recently retaken by Turkey-backed forces.
(AP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 7, Turkish authorities foiled an attempt to smuggle 276 migrants to Europe on board a ship, and detained eight suspected smugglers.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Turkey detained another 41 people, many of them soldiers, for being suspected members of the Gulen community (cemaat), an Islamist movement the Pres. Erdogan blames for an attempted 2016 coup.
(Econ., 8/15/20, p.48)
2020 Jul 7, China and Russia vetoed a UN resolution that would maintain two border crossing points from Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid to Syria’s mainly rebel-held northwest for a year. Russia immediately circulated a draft Security Council resolution that would authorize the delivery of aid through a single crossing point from Turkey for six months.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 9, In northwestern Turkey a truck carrying fireworks exploded, killing three military police officers and wounded six others.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 10, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan formally reconverted Istanbul’s sixth-century iconic Hagia Sophia into a mosque and declared it open to Muslim worship, hours after a high court annulled a 1934 decision that had turned it into a museum. The news sparked deep dismay among Orthodox Christians. Hagia Sophia was originally built as a Christian cathedral.
(AP, 7/10/20)(SFC, 7/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 11, Turkey’s parliament passed controversial legislation amending laws governing attorneys and bar associations, despite protests from critics who say the move could limit the independence of lawyers and reduce the professional associations’ clout.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 16, A US Pentagon report said Turkey sent between 3,500 and 3,800 paid Syrian fighters to Libya over the first three months of the year.
(AP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, Seyfi Dursunoglu (b.1932, also known by his stage name Huysuz Virjin (Grumpy Virgin), died. He was a Turkish performing artist, comedian, singer, TV presenter and drag artist. From the 1970s until the 2000s and was a well-known entertainment figure with his programs in Turkey's television.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seyfi_Dursuno%C4%9Flu)(Econ., 8/1/20, p.42)
2020 Jul 20, A US federal appeals panel said that Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla was properly convicted of helping Iran evade US sanctions in a case that strained relations with Turkey. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and has since returned to Turkey.
(AP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 22, Turkish and Russian delegations met in Ankara to discuss the war in Libya and agreed to press ahead with efforts for a lasting cease-fire in the North African country.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 28, Turkey said it will suspend research for oil and gas exploration in disputed waters in the Eastern Mediterranean that abruptly raised military tensions with neighboring Greece.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 29, Turkey's parliament adopted a law designed to force social-media giants to comply with Turkish requests to remove content.
(Econ., 8/8/20, p.40)
2020 Aug 4, Turkey reported 1,083 new coronavirus cases and 18 deaths bringing the total infections to nearly 235,000 and deaths to 5,765.
(SFC, 8/5/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 11, Turkey vowed to press ahead with searching for oil and gas in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, saying it plans to issue new exploration licenses for the area despite an escalating dispute with Greece over drilling rights.
(AP, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, Iraq's military said a Turkish drone strike killed two senior Iraqi security officials north of Irbil, marking the first time that Turkey's operation to root out Kurdish rebels in Iraq's north produced fatalities among high-ranking Iraqi personnel.
(AP, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 12, Greek and Turkish frigates collided in the eastern Mediterranean raising tensions between the two countries over disputed waters.
(Econ., 8/22/20, p.49)
2020 Aug 15, Turkey's coronavirus count rose to its highest daily level since June, with total deaths nearing 6,000. There were 1,256 new cases and 21 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing total cases above 278,000.
(Reuters, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 21, The Turkish government formally converted Istanbul’s Church of St. Saviour in Chora, a former Byzantine church, into a mosque. The move came a month after it drew praise from the faithful and international opposition for similarly turning Istanbul’s landmark Hagia Sophia into a Muslim house of prayer.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 23, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said five people have died in floods caused by heavy rain along its Black Sea coastline. A further 11 people were missing after flooding around the mountain town of Dereli in Giresun province.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 24, Turkish rescue workers recovered the body of another victim of severe weekend floods that swept along Turkey’s Black Sea coast, raising the death toll to seven. At least nine other people remained missing.
(AP, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 26, Greece and Turkey vowed to defend their competing claims in the eastern Mediterranean as the NATO allies remained locked in a tense dispute over offshore energy exploration rights.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 27, In Turkey human rights lawyer Ebru Timtik (42) died of a hunger strike in a hospital in Istanbul. She had launched the strike in prison to demand a fair trial for herself and colleagues. The lawyer and 17 of her colleagues were accused of links to the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP/C, a militant group designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a major natural gas discovery off Turkey’s other coast, in the Black Sea. The finding was estimated at 320 billion cubic meters, and there is a strong expectation that the figure will be revised upwards as a result of additional exploratory drilling.
(Bloomberg, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 1, Turkey's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said that Mahmut Ozden, the Islamic State group’s top leader in Turkey, has been detained in an "ongoing" operation.
(The Telegraph, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 2, Turkey's health ministry said the country is experiencing a second peak of the first wave of the coronavirus. More than 273,000 people have tested positive and 6,462 have died.
(SFC, 9/3/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 7, Greece said it will be bolstering its military with new armament programs, a boost to military personnel and the development of the country’s defense industry. A tense stand-off with neighboring Turkey has led to concerns of open conflict between the two NATO allies.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 11, Turkey's Health Ministry announced 56 more deaths and 1,671 new coronavirus cases, bringing the country's total death toll in the pandemic to 6,951 and cases to nearly 290,000.
(AP, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 15, UN-backed investigators pointed to signs that Syria’s government continues to perpetrate rape, torture and murder as the country’s nine-year conflict grinds on, while citing possible war crimes by a Turkey-backed coalition of rebel groups and calling on Ankara to do more to help prevent them.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 16, Turkey began final Phase III trials of an experimental Chinese coronavirus vaccine. The vaccine candidate being trialed was developed by Sinovac.
(Reuters, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 22, In Turkey American author and journalist Andre Vltchek (57) died while traveling overnight from the Turkish Black Sea coastal city of Samsun to Istanbul. Police recorded his case as a “suspicious death".
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 25, Turkey's police arrested Ayhan Bilgen, the mayor of Kars. Dozens of other members of Turkey's biggest Kurdish party, the People's Democratic Party (HDP), including three former parliamentarians, were also rounded up.
(Econ., 10/17/20, p.44)
2020 Sep 29, Armenia said one of its warplanes was shot down by a fighter jet from Azerbaijan’s ally Turkey, killing the pilot, in fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Both Turkey and Azerbaijan denied it. The Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Ministry reported 84 servicemen killed, while Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said 10 civilians were killed on its side.
(AP, 9/29/20)
2020 Sep 30, Spain’s foreign minister said her country rejects Turkey’s unilateral search for energy reserves in the eastern Mediterranean, adding that such actions hinder a negotiated way out of a territorial dispute that has ratcheted up regional tensions.
(AP, 9/30/20)
2020 Oct 2, The Turkish Defense Ministry announced that the United Nations has registered a maritime delineation deal reached between Turkey and Libya’s UN-backed government (GNA).
(AP, 10/2/20)
2020 Oct 2, EU leaders finally agreed to hit Belarus with sanctions early today before warning Turkey it faced the same punishment if it continued oil and gas drilling in disputed areas of the Mediterranean. Cyprus had vetoed agreement on the sanctions, which do not hit President Alexander Lukashenko personally, until it was satisfied the EU's condemnation of Turkey was strong enough.
(The Telegraph, 10/2/20)
2020 Oct 15, Turkey identified 1,693 new symptomatic cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours. The total number of patients increased to 324,143, while the death toll increased by 66 to 9,080.
(Reuters, 10/15/20)
2020 Oct 16, A senior Turkish government official said a man has been arrested suspected of spying on Arab dissidents in Turkey on behalf of the United Arab Emirates.
(AP, 10/16/20)
2020 Oct 16, Turkey's military test-fired its Russian made S-4000 air defense system.
(SSFC, 10/18/20, p.A5)
2020 Oct 19, Greece’s government said it has finalized plans to extend a wall along its northeast border with Turkey, over concerns that migrants may try to stage mass crossings into the European Union country.
(AP, 10/19/20)
2020 Oct 20, It was reported that Turkish troops in northwestern Syria have been evacuating one of their largest military bases in the area, which was surrounded by Syrian government troops for months.
(AP, 10/20/20)
2020 Oct 21, During a trilateral regional summit in Nicosia, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis urged Ankara to end its “aggressive" actions related to Turkish energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.
(AP, 10/22/20)
2020 Oct 22, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry slammed a joint statement by Greece, Cyprus and Egypt that condemns Turkish energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean and numerous “provocations" that they maintain are threatening regional peace.
(AP, 10/22/20)
2020 Oct 26, Turkey’s Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ersin Tatar, the newly-elected Turkish Cypriot leader, voiced their support for the resumption of peace talks for Cyprus based on a solution envisioning two separate states — departing from a formula followed for decades.
(AP, 10/26/20)
2020 Oct 26, In Turkey a suspected Kurdish militant killed himself by detonating explosives following a police chase near the Syrian border. A second suspect was slain by security forces.
(AP, 10/26/20)
2020 Oct 27, A Turkish court convicted Mete Canturk, a local employee of the US Consulate in Istanbul, of aiding a terrorist organization and sentenced him to five years and two months in prison. Prosecutors accused him of holding frequent contacts with police officers who were also accused of links to US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen. Canturk will remain free pending an appeal.
(AP, 10/27/20)
2020 Oct 28, Turkish officials railed against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo over its cover-page cartoon mocking Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and accused it of sowing “the seeds of hatred and animosity." The cartoon depicted Erdogan in his underwear holding a drink and lifting the skirt of a woman wearing an Islamic dress.
(AP, 10/28/20)
2020 Oct 30, A magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck in the Aegean Sea between the Turkish coast and the Greek island of Samos, collapsing buildings in the city of Izmir In western Turkey. At least 116 people were killed more than 900 others injured. The quake also killed at least two people in Greece.
(AP, 10/31/20)(SFC, 10/31/20, p.A3)(AP, 11/1/20)(AP, 11/1/20)(Econ., 12/5/20, p.52)
2020 Oct 30, Mesut Yilmaz (72), a former Turkish prime minister and veteran politician who served as premier three times during a tumultuous political era in his country, died. Yilmaz led the now-defunct center-right Motherland Party or ANAP from 1991 to 2002 and served as prime minister three times in the 1990s.
(AP, 10/30/20)
2020 Nov 3, Rescuers in the Turkish city of Izmir pulled a young girl out alive from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building Tuesday, four days after a strong earthquake hit Turkey and Greece as the death toll in the earthquake climbed to 111.
(AP, 11/3/20)
2020 Nov 3, The Baba Selavi tour boat, with 33 Russian tourists on board, capsized near the Turkish Mediterranean coast of Alanya, killing one of the tourists.
(AP, 11/3/20)
2020 Nov 4, The death toll in last week’s Aegean Sea earthquake rose to 116 as rescuers in the Turkish city of Izmir finished searching buildings that collapsed in the quake.
(AP, 11/4/20)
2020 Nov 4, The French government banned the Grey Wolves, the militant wing of Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party, that it accused of leading violent actions and inciting hatred speech in France.
(AP, 11/4/20)
2020 Nov 7, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan sacked Berat Albayrak, the central-bank governor, who was also his son-in-law. The central and state banks had wasted at least $100 billion in precious foreign reserves in an abortive attempt to salvage the currency.
(Econ., 11/21/20, p.45)
2020 Nov 10, Media activists said Turkish troops in northwestern Syria have pulled out of a second military base in the area that had been surrounded by Syrian government forces.
(AP, 11/10/20)
2020 Nov 11, A Turkish fishing boat capsized after colliding with a Greek-flagged tanker off Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. Four people on board the boat were killed while one other person was reported missing.
(AP, 11/11/20)
2020 Nov 12, Turkey's interior minister banned smoking in public places across the country to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 11/13/20, p.A8)
2020 Nov 14, Istanbul's mayor called for a lockdown of at least two weeks to contain an "out of control" rise in coronavirus cases, and said virus-related deaths in the city alone outstrip reported nationwide figures.
(Reuters, 11/14/20)
2020 Nov 17, Turkey’s parliament granted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government permission to deploy peacekeepers to Azerbaijan to monitor a cease-fire deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia that aims to end the conflict in the region.
(AP, 11/17/20)
2020 Nov 20, Turkey's daily coronavirus death toll hit a record high 141, as the country introduced new nationwide curbs amid a surge in cases in recent weeks. Health Ministry data showed 435,273 total COVID-19 cases as the overall death toll rose to 12,084.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 21, Turkey reported its highest daily number of new coronavirus patients since the outbreak started. 5,532 people had been diagnosed with COVID-19 symptoms in the previous 24 hours. The daily death toll from the coronavirus was 135, bringing the cumulative total to 12,219.
(Reuters, 11/21/20)
2020 Nov 23, Turkey's daily coronavirus death toll reached a record 153, as citizens adapted to new nationwide curbs and weekend curfews following a rise in infections in recent weeks.
(Reuters, 11/23/20)
2020 Nov 26, A Turkish court sentenced several military and civilian personnel at an air base to life prison sentences, proclaiming them guilty of involvement in a failed coup attempt in 2016.
(AP, 11/26/20)
2020 Nov 27, Turkey's daily COVID-19 death toll hit a record high for a fifth consecutive day at 177. A new high of 29,845 coronavirus infections was recorded in the last of 24 hours. The total number of deaths stood at 13,191.
(Reuters, 11/27/20)
2020 Nov 30, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will impose curfews on weekdays and full lockdowns over weekends to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 11/30/20)
2020 Dec 1, Turkey's daily COVID-19 death toll hit a record high for a ninth consecutive day, with 190 fatalities in the last 24 hours. The number of new coronavirus cases, including asymptomatic ones, recorded over the past 24 hours stood at 30,110. Total deaths rose to 13,936.
(Reuters, 12/1/20)
2020 Dec 7, Forces of a Libyan commander who rules the eastern half of the country and who was behind a year-long military attempt to capture the capital, Tripoli, seized the Mabrouka, a Turkish cargo vessel heading to the western town of Misrata. The Jamaica-flagged cargo vessel was let go days later after local authorities questioned its crew and had them pay a fine for violations of sailing rules in Libyan waters.
(AP, 12/8/20)(AP, 12/10/20)
2020 Dec 8, State-run media reported that Turkey has ordered the detention of 304 members of the military in an operation targeting the group that the government claims to be behind a 2016 coup attempt.
(AP, 12/8/20)
2020 Dec 9, Turkey ruled out buying the Russian coronavirus vaccine since its development lacked "good practice," as Ankara steps up efforts to inoculate 50 million citizens by spring.
(AP, 12/9/20)
2020 Dec 10, Turkish police shot and killed a suspected Kurdish militant who was allegedly planning to detonate a bomb that was strapped to his body at a checkpoint near the town of Viransehir, Sanliurfa province.
(AP, 12/10/20)
2020 Dec 17, Turkey recorded 27,515 new coronavirus cases. The death toll hit a record high of 243 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total so far to 17,364. The country has registered 1,955,680 COVID-19 infections since the beginning of the pandemic in March.
(AP, 12/17/20)
2020 Dec 19, In southern Turkey a fire broke out at an intensive care unit treating COVID-19 patients after an oxygen cylinder exploded, killing nine people at the privately-run Sanko University Hospital unit in Gaziantep.
(AP, 12/19/20)
2020 Dec 19, Germany's daily Rheinische Post reported that authorities have broken up an international crime ring that duped elderly people into handing over their money and valuables to criminals posing as police officers. German police busted a call center in the southwestern Turkish city of Izmir where suspects allegedly phoned retirees in Germany and talked them into handing over their valuables to fake officers. 38 people were arrested earlier this month and 48 locations were searched in addition to the call center.
(AP, 12/19/20)
2020 Dec 22, Turkey’s parliament extended for 18 months a law that allows the deployment of Turkish troops to Libya.
(AP, 12/22/20)
2020 Dec 22, The Grand Chamber of the ECHR in Strasbourg ruled that four years in a Turkish prison violated the rights of Selahattin Demirtas on five fundamental rights categories, including the freedom of expression. The Kurdish politician faced up to 142 years in prison on terror charges but denies any wrongdoing. The ECHR website came under a “large-scale" cyberattack after its Demirtas ruling, making the site inaccessible for several hours.
(AP, 12/23/20)
2020 Dec 23, A Turkish court convicted in absentia Car Dundar, the former editor-in-chief of opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, on espionage and terror-related charges over a 2015 news story, a verdict the exiled journalist said exemplified the pressures on Turkish media.
(AP, 12/23/20)
2020 Dec 24, Turkish researchers said COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech is 91.25% effective, according to interim data from a late-stage trial in Turkey.
(AP, 12/24/20)
2020 Dec 27, Turkey’s parliament approved a law that would increase government monitoring of civil society groups, which rights groups have warned would violate the freedom of association.
(AP, 12/27/20)
2020 Dec 29, Turkish prosecutors issued a detention warrant against Sezgin Baran Korkmaz, a Turkish businessman with links to Utah-based business executives who have pleaded guilty to a $511 million tax credit scheme in the United States.
(AP, 12/29/20)
2020 Dec 29, Turkey aims to produce Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine domestically but has asked for more information about it before inoculating its citizens.
(Reuters, 12/29/20)
2020 Dec 29, Britain and Turkey signed a free-trade agreement, effective Jan. 1, as the UK prepares to leave the European Union's economic orbit at the start of the new year.
(AP, 12/29/20)
2020 Dec 30, Turkey received its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from China's Sinovac.
(Reuters, 12/30/20)
2020 Dec 31, Turkey began a 4-day lockdown this evening to stem the spread of COVID-19 over the New Year's holiday.
(SFC, 1/1/21, p.A7)
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