Turkey's military said on Friday it was close to taking the northern Syrian city of al-Bab from Islamic State, a victory that would deepen Turkish influence in an area where it has created a de facto buffer zone.
An Iraqi family have successfully boarded a flight to the US from Turkey, following the suspension of President Donald Trump's travel ban on people from seven mainly Muslim nations.
Syria's warring sides met for their first talks in nine months on Monday, with their Russian and Turkish backers pushing to cement a ceasefire that could pave the way for political talks.
At least two Turkish MPs were injured Thursday (Jan 19) as brawls erupted in parliament between supporters and critics of a constitutional reform bill boosting the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reports said.
The Turkish parliament on Sunday passed in a first reading a controversial bill bolstering the powers of the presidency under Recep Tayyip Erdogan that critics claim will lead to one-man rule.
Rival Cypriot leaders have pledged to forge ahead with efforts to reunite the divided island after making "real progress" at a high-level international conference that wrapped up early Friday.
Normalization of Turkish-Iraqi ties comes after a change of perspective of Ankara in a bid to restore its bilateral relations in the region, local experts said.
Turkey and the region are paying the price for the United States choosing the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia as a partner in the fight against Islamic State, Turkish Defence Minister Fikri Isik said on Friday.
A car bombing blamed on Kurdish militants rocked the Turkish city of Izmir on Thursday, killing at least two people and triggering a deadly shootout as authorities chased the fugitive killer behind the New Year attack in Istanbul.
Turkey said Wednesday it had identified the gunman behind the New Year's massacre on an elite Istanbul nightclub that killed 39, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the attack aimed to polarise Turkish society.
Turkey's parliament voted on Tuesday in favor of extending emergency rule by a further three months, effective from Jan. 19, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday expressed his condolences for the victims in recent attacks in Turkey in a telephone call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the White House said.
Islamic State claimed responsibility on Monday for a New Year's Day mass shooting in a packed Istanbul nightclub that killed 39 people, an attack carried out by a lone gunman who remains at large.
The international community has condemned an attack on a nightclub in Turkey's Istanbul in the first hours of the new year that killed at least 39 people, while the gunman responsible for the shooting spree is still at large.
The Middle East has rarely been a region for optimists. The year 2016, if anything, only made the pessimists more pessimistic.
The UN Security Council on Saturday unanimously adopted a resolution endorsing the Syria cease-fire arrangement brokered by Russia and Turkey as well as the new peace talks plan among Syrian conflict parties.
A nationwide ceasefire in Syria, brokered by Russia and Turkey which back opposing sides in the conflict, got off to a shaky start after midnight on Friday (2200 GMT on Thursday) in the latest attempt to end nearly six years of bloodshed.
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