President Tayyip Erdoğan left Türkiye on July 10 to attend NATO Summit in Lithuania saying, “First pave the way for Türkiye in the European Union, and then we will pave the way for Sweden.” After a two-hour flight, he landed in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, where the summit will be held on July 11-12.
In an unexpected move, Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan linked Sweden’s application to the Western defense alliance NATO on July 10 with practically frozen relations of Türkiye with the European Union (EU). “First, let’s pave the way for Türkiye in the EU, and then we will pave the way for Sweden just as we did for
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on June 29, reacted harshly to the Quran burning demonstration in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden; further hinting that Türkiye will not lift its veto on Sweden’s NATO bid prior to critical Vilnius Summit to be held in July. “Those who perpetrated this crime, as well as those who allowed
The Wagner uprising did not topple Russian President Vladimir Putin, but it shook his seat, reduced his power, and, if not all, shook his charisma. Putin’s claim that he now has full domestic support in the face of NATO pressure over the Ukraine war will no longer be as convincing as before. Among those breathing
The only common feature of the diplomatic contacts of Türkiye in the last few days, especially after the new bureaucracy was formed with the critical elections, is the focus on the fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK). With Hakan Fidan, to whom President Tayyip Erdoğan entrusted the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) for thirteen
On June 3, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan first took the oath of office at the Turkish Grand National Assembly and began his third term as president after winning the elections on the second round on May 28. Then he laid flowers at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk at Anıtkabir in the rain, and later,
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Ankara would approve Finland’s NATO membership as Finnish President Sauli Niinistö is expected to visit Türkiye. “We will keep our promise. After meeting with the President (Niinistö) upon his visit on Friday, we will keep our promise we made,” Erdoğan said on March 15, answering a question about Finland’s
The international courtesy visits to Türkiye following the devastating earthquakes that destroyed a dozen cities continue with diplomatic turns. On February 27, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry was welcomed by Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in Adana. Following the 2013 coup in his country, he was the first Egyptian Foreign Minister to visit Türkiye in a
Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said that the recent decision of several western countries to close their consulates as a precaution against a possible terror attack, aims at “starting a new psychological warfare in Türkiye,” adding that “it is an international operation against Türkiye.” “The ambassadors who wanted to carry out a legal operation against
I asked Portuguese Foreign Minister João Gomez Cravinho, whom I met with a small group of journalists after his visit to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavuşoğlu in Ankara, how would Portugal react if Türkiye approved only Finland’s NATO application and not Sweden’s, even though they applied together? The question is meaningful because decisions in NATO