Author: Cemil Nuray

Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s supporters are celebrating after Turkey’s long-time president won Sunday’s vote, securing another five years in power. “The entire nation of 85 million won,” he told cheering crowds outside his enormous palace on the edge of Ankara. But his call for unity sounded hollow as he ridiculed his opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu – and took aim at a jailed Kurdish leader and the LGBT community. The opposition leader denounced “the most unfair election in recent years”. Mr Kilicdaroglu said the president’s political party had mobilised all the means of the state against him and he did not explicitly admit…

At least five workers have been killed in a blast that rocked an explosives factory in the Turkish capital, Ankara, the defence ministry said in a statement on Saturday. The blast occurred at the MKE Rocket and Explosives Factory some 40km (25 miles) outside Ankara. “There was an explosion in the dynamite department of the factory as a result of a chemical experiment, according to technical staff,” Vahap Sahin, the governor of the Ankara province, told reporters. “Unfortunately five workers have died, our condolences go to their families,” Sahin said. Turkey’s defence ministry also confirmed the death toll in a…

Dubai: The Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia announced the expansion of the “Mecca Route” initiative to include Turkey and the Ivory Coast this year. This extension brings the total number of countries served by the initiative to seven, alongside Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Morocco, and Bangladesh since its inception in 2019. The “Mecca Route” initiative aims to streamline the arrival and processing of pilgrims from their respective countries. It starts with issuing visas electronically, collecting biometric data, and then proceeding with complete passport procedures at the departing country’s airport, given that health requirements are met. The comprehensive initiative also includes…

London (CNN) — Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised to continue with his unorthodox policy of cutting interest rates to reduce sky-high inflation if he is re-elected on May 28. “Please do follow me in the aftermath of the elections, and you will see that inflation will be going down along with interest rates,” he told CNN’s Becky Anderson in an exclusive interview Thursday. Asked whether that meant there would be no change in economic policy, he replied: “Yes. Absolutely.” Erdogan, who is seeking to extend his 20-year rule, just failed to secure 50% of the votes cast in Turkey’s presidential…

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s national volleyball team lost to Turkey 3-1 (19-25, 30-28, 25-20, 29-27) in a friendly match in Istanbul on Saturday. Behrouz Ataei’s men had defeated Turkey 3-1 in their first match. Iran is preparing for the 2023 Volleyball Nations League (VNL), which will be held between June 6 and July 23. Team Melli will meet Japan in Nagoya in the competition’s opener. The final round of VNL 2023 will take place in Ergo Arena in Poland’s Gdansk. Source: Tasnim News

Turkish citizens living abroad have begun voting in the second round of the country’s presidential election, an unprecedented situation after neither President Recep Tayyip Erdogan nor Kemal Kilicdaroglu was able to poll more than 50 percent in the first round last week. Around 3.4 million Turks are eligible to vote internationally – 1.5 million in Germany alone – with polling open from May 20-24. The rest of the 64 million eligible voters will be able to cast their votes on 28 May in what has been a hotly contested election. Footage and photos from makeshift polling stations across the globe appeared…

In 2021-22, the country’s overseas sales of goods and services reached an all-time high of $422 billion and $254 billion, respectively, taking total shipments to $676 billion. ‘Last year we surpassed the record $650 billion in exports and now we are aiming for a higher record,’ Goyal told the Raisina Dialogue, the premier multilateral conference held annually in New Delhi on geopolitics and geoeconomics.

Previously, Turkey had brought up the plight of the Uyghur community in China at the UN in 2019, condemning China of “torturing” more than a million people.Turkey’s public criticism of China over its mistreatment of the Uyghur minority has irked Beijing. Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated at a press briefing on December 29, 2022, “Our defending the rights of the Turkic Uyghurs in the international arena disturbs China. But this is a humanitarian issue,” adding further that China was miffed by Ankara’s refusal to extradite Uyghurs who were Turkish citizens and settled down in Turkey, Insideover reported. Notably, Turkey…

The journey between Los Angeles and Istanbul will take just half an hour with a rocket in the next two decades, a Turkish scientist working for NASA has alleged. “In 15 to 20 years at the latest, going to and from space will become normal, and it will start to become a routine,” Umut Yıldız said while answering the most frequently asked question of when a trip to space becomes possible. Yıldız, who works as a deep space telecommunications engineer and astrophysicist at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), NASA field center in Los Angeles, is investigating the water and oxygen molecule in space. He came…