This is Beirut, 2024-12-30 12:25 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
A Syria war monitor said 31 combatants had been killed since Sunday in ongoing battles between Turkey-backed groups and Kurdish-led forces. Swathes of northern Syria are controlled by a Kurdish-led administration whose de facto army, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), spearheaded the fight that helped defeat the Islamic State group in the ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-29 11:00 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
Jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan told a rare visiting delegation from Turkey's pro-Kurdish party that bolstering Turkish-Kurdish ties is vital and that he is ready to contribute to the process. "Re-strengthening the Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood is not only a historical responsibility but also... an urgency for all peoples," Ocalan said according ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-28 17:20 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
Turkey's top diplomat on Saturday said Syrian Kurdish fighters essential for the United States in the fight against Islamic State (IS) extremists cannot be sheltered in Syria, in a phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told Blinken that "the PKK/YPG terrorist organization cannot be allowed to take ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-28 16:30 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
A delegation from Turkey's energy ministry headed to Syria on Saturday to help Syrians obtain access to essential services after the fall of Bashar al-Assad. "A team from our energy ministry is on the way to Damascus," Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told a meeting of the ruling AKP party in the central Anatolian province of Nevsehir. "We ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-27 23:05 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced in a report Friday that some 58 000 people have returned to Syria since December 8, following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime. “Refugees have returned from Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan, with the main destinations being the governorates of Raqqa, Aleppo, Homs, and Daraa, ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-27 19:15 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
Nearly 31,000 Syrians have returned home since the fall of strongman Bashar al-Assad, Turkey's interior minister said Friday, the figure rising by about 5,000 in just three days. "The number of people who went back is 30,663," interior minister Ali Yerlikaya told the TGRT news channel, saying "30 percent" of them had been ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-26 15:05 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
Turkey’s central bank lowered its key interest rate on Thursday for the first time since February 2023, cutting it by 2.5 percentage points to 47.5%. This move comes in response to a slowdown in inflation, which remains above 47% year-on-year. The rate had been held steady at 50% since March as part of efforts to curb inflation. The central ...
Marc Saikali, 2024-12-26 08:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Damascus Hamas Hezbollah Israel Palestine Tehran Turkey
Erdogan seems to be indomitable and relentless in pursuing his ambitions. He just pulled off a remarkable masterstroke: toppling the Assad regime, with an American green light and a tacit Russian approval. Once shunned and labeled the gravedigger of Ataturk’s secular legacy – not to mention contested in the ballot box – he has now staged a ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-25 18:20 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan Syria Syrian Democratic Forces
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated on Wednesday that Kurdish militants in Syria must either surrender their weapons or “be buried,” amid ongoing hostilities between Turkey-backed Syrian fighters and Kurdish militants following the fall of Bashar al-Assad this month, according to a report on Reuters. Since Assad's departure, Ankara ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-24 16:35 - Reading : less than a minute
Turkey Lebanon Joumblatt Erdogan
Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Joumblatt met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Tuesday during an official visit to Turkey. The two figures reviewed the latest developments in the region, including the ongoing events in Syria. Joumblatt was received at the presidential compound, accompanied by the current head ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-24 13:00 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
More than 25,000 Syrians have returned home from Turkey since Bashar al-Assad was overthrown by Islamist-led HTS rebels, Turkey's interior minister said Tuesday. Turkey is home to nearly three million refugees who fled the civil war that broke out in 2011, and whose presence has been an issue for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government. "The ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-23 20:55 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Recep Tayyip Erdogan Turkey Syria
Ensuring the protection of Syria's territorial integrity is an unchanging line for Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday. "Protecting Syria's territorial integrity and unitary structure under all circumstances is Turkey's unchanging line. We never step back from this," he said after remarks warning Israel that it would be "forced" to ...