Turkey's annual inflation rate ticked up slightly in November, the state statistics agency said on Monday, showing further signs of levelling off following a series of sharp interest rate hikes. The rate moved to 61.98 percent last month from 61.36 percent in October,...
MEA RISK’s SHIELD & ALERT notifications: Access requires installing Shield & Alert mobile application. More info on S&A here or click here to signup and install.
Turkey’s opposition fractures ahead of March polls
By Dmitry Zaks: Turkey's main opposition party lost a crucial ally Monday in its bid to form a united front against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling coalition in high-stakes March municipal polls. The secular opposition joined forces in landmark 2019 elections...
Turkish leader issues strong rebuke of Israel as death toll in Gaza rises
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday called Israel a "terror state", stepping up his condemnation of the spiralling civilian toll of its war against Hamas militants in Gaza. Erdogan's latest -- and one of the most heated -- verbal attacks against Israel...
Turkey welcomes Palestinian cancer patients after they entered Egypt
More than two dozen Palestinian cancer patients, who had crossed from Gaza into Egypt, arrived in Turkey for treatment in the early hours of Thursday, Turkey's Anadolu agency reported. Two planes carrying the patients, many of them children, landed at Ankara airport...
Ukraine circumvents Russia’s blockade, ships grains via NATO countries
The first grain ship to sail from Ukraine since Russia reimposed its Black Sea blockade in July reached Istanbul on Thursday, marine traffic monitors said. Ukrainian officials said the Palau-flagged Resilient Africa vessel was carrying 3,000 tonnes of wheat when it...
Turkey: Istanbul’s popular opposition mayor faces fresh trial
By Dmitry Zaks: Istanbul's popular opposition mayor went on trial Thursday on fresh corruption charges that could further cloud his hopes of succeeding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Ekrem Imamoglu has turned into one of Erdogan's most outspoken and openly ambitious...
Greece and Italy sign agreement on Ionian Sea in apparent effort to counter Turkey’s regional ambitions
Posted On 9 June 2020
Athens, June 9, 2020 – Greece on Tuesday signed a maritime border accord with Italy on the Ionian Sea, settling sovereign rights under UN rules and aiming to bolster its hand in a territorial dispute with Turkey. “Today is a good day for Greece, Italy, Europe and the entire Mediterranean,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a statement. “I hope that agreements of this kind can be concluded with other countries in the area,” he added.
Tuesday’s agreement, which updates a 1977 accord, is part of diplomatic efforts by Athens in response to what it perceives as aggressive attempts at Turkish expansion in the Mediterranean. Ankara last year signed a controversial agreement with Libya’s UN-recognised government in Tripoli, which claimed extensive areas of the sea for Turkey.
Analysts saw the move as part of a Turkish strategy to avoid exclusion from the gas exploration scramble in the region. But Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said Tuesday: “Under international law, the delimitation of maritime zones is carried out through legal agreements, not baseless ones…and certainly not through the one-sided submission of coordinates.”
Earlier, Dendias explained that the accord signed with Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio confirms a 1977 continental shelf agreement with Rome “and the right of islands to have maritime zones”. This point is of particular importance for Athens in its face-off with Turkey, which denies that islands have such rights.
Tuesday’s agreement also sets out fishing rights, said Dendias, although full details were not immediately available. “Our country steadfastly seeks to delimitate maritime zones with all our neighbours under international law,” Dendias added. On Friday, Turkey announced that it planned to start drilling for hydrocarbons in the eastern Mediterranean in three or four months, a move Greece condemned as “illegal”. Athens argues that Ankara’s November deal with Tripoli fails to take into
account the island of Crete. EU member Cyprus has also expressed anger that Turkey has sent ships in search of oil and gas off the divided island. Earlier this year Greece signed an agreement with Cyprus and Israel on EastMed, a huge pipeline project to ship gas to Europe.
AFP
More from Turkey
Turkey’s inflation ticks up to 62%
Turkey's annual inflation rate ticked up slightly in November, the state statistics agency said on Monday, showing further signs of levelling off following a series of sharp interest rate hikes. The rate moved to 61.98 percent last month from 61.36 percent in October,...
Turkey’s opposition fractures ahead of March polls
By Dmitry Zaks: Turkey's main opposition party lost a crucial ally Monday in its bid to form a united front against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling coalition in high-stakes March municipal polls. The secular opposition joined forces in landmark 2019 elections...
Turkish leader issues strong rebuke of Israel as death toll in Gaza rises
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday called Israel a "terror state", stepping up his condemnation of the spiralling civilian toll of its war against Hamas militants in Gaza. Erdogan's latest -- and one of the most heated -- verbal attacks against Israel...