Turkey | Pakistan

Turkey unveiled dozens of new finds at a major archaeological site in southeast Turkey on Wednesday, giving fresh insight into an area seen as showing humanity’s transition from hunter-gatherers to settled societies more than 11,000 years ago. On a plateau overlooking the fertile plains of what is often called the “cradle of civilisation”, the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Gobeklitepe and nearby Karahantepe are transforming archaeologists’ understanding of prehistoric times. Among the latest finds in Sanliurfa province is a statue with a facial expression reminiscent of a deceased individual. Archaeologists said it was a unique discovery in terms of death rituals and symbolic expression among Neolithic communities. People walk at the Karahantepe excavation site, widely regarded with Gobeklitepe as keys to understanding the birth of symbolic thought, social complexity and monumental architecture thousands of years before cities or states existed, near the southeastern city of Sanliurfa, Turkey. —Reuters It was...

Turkey has launched a fresh diplomatic initiative to help break the stalemate in peace negotiations between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban.

Pakistan and Turkey have reaffirmed their commitment to close coordination on regional and international issues, pledging to work together for peace, stability, and prosperity in the region.

Turkey, UK sign $11b Eurofighter deal

United States President Donald Trump on Thursday urged Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to stop buying Russian oil over the war in Ukraine, as Erdogan sought a long-awaited deal to buy US stealth fighter jets. As Erdogan visited the White House for the first time since 2019 during Trump’s first term, Trump called on him to use his influence with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end Moscow’s invasion. Trump said that he would discuss Ankara’s wish to buy high-tech F-35 aircraft and was ready to end sanctions on Turkey over its purchase of Russian air defence missiles. Nato ally Turkey was booted out of the flagship US stealth fighter programme during Trump’s first term after it defiantly bought Russia’s S-400 surface-to-air missile system. “I’d like to have him stop buying any oil from Russia while Russia continues this rampage,” Trump told reporters alongside Erdogan in the Oval Office. Trump said Erdogan was “very respected” by both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and “could have ...

A 6.1-magnitude quake struck Sindirgi in western Turkey on Sunday, the Turkish disaster management agency (AFAD) reported. The quake was felt across several cities in the west of the country, including Istanbul and the tourist hotspot of Izmir. No deaths were reported. About 10 buildings collapsed in Sindirgi, the epicentre of the earthquake, including a […]

ANKARA: Muslim nations must act in unison and rally international opposition against Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday after talks in Egypt. Regional powers Egypt and Turkey both condemned the plan on Friday. Ankara has said it marked a new phase in what it called […]

ISTANBUL: A pivotal Turkey-Spain transport agreement has been signed between Turkey and Spain during the Global Transport Connectivity Forum held in Istanbul. Turkish Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloglu and Spain’s Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Oscar Puente Santiago, signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). It aims to enhance collaboration on transport corridors, […]

KYIV: Russia and Ukraine said they exchanged an unspecified number of sick and wounded prisoners of war on Tuesday under an agreement reached at peace talks last week in Turkey. The handover took place after an initial swap of prisoners under the age of 25 was conducted on Monday. “Today marks the first stage of […]

Three children and an adult died Thursday when a fire broke out in a 13-storey apartment block in Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority southeast, local officials said. Diyarbakır Governor Murat Zorluoglu said the fire began around 6:30 pm (1530 GMT) on the eve of Turkey’s Eid al-Adha celebrations. “Seventeen wounded people were transferred […]

Russia’s Vladimir Putin spurned a challenge to meet face-to-face with Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Turkey on Thursday, instead sending a second-tier delegation to planned peace talks, while Ukraine’s president said his defence minister would head up Kyiv’s team. They will be the first direct talks between the sides since March 2022, but hopes of a major […]