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Turkey has vowed to reinforce its military presence in northern Cyprus, where it already has about 40,000 troops, adding to tensions with its historic foe Greece. In a televised interview late Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signaled that Turkey would boost its military presence on the island. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu affirmed the plan today. “We will send both troops and arms to the island to protect the Turkish Cypriot community,” Cavusoglu said in the Aegean town of Denizli. The Turkish statements follow Washington’s decision earlier this month to lift defense trade restrictions on Cyprus for fiscal year 2023....

Slovakia's parliament on Tuesday ratified the entry of Finland and Sweden to NATO, becoming one of the last countries to back the military alliance's expansion... NATO's 30 members have been ratifying their entry since accession protocols were signed in July. With Slovakia's vote, only Hungary and Turkey remain to approve the expansion... Hungary's parliament has the motion on Finland and Sweden's NATO membership on its agenda, but no date is set as lawmakers return after a summer recess.

Just two days after agreeing to lift deal-breaking objections to Sweden and Finland’s NATO accession, Turkey’s leader warned Thursday that Ankara could still block the process if the two countries fail to fully meet his expectations. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the close of the alliance’s summit in Madrid that the 10-article agreement with the Nordic pair was a victory for Ankara and addressed all its “sensitivities.” He particularly stressed the satisfying of Turkey’s demand for Sweden and Finland to extradite terror suspects with links to outlawed Kurdish groups or the network of an exiled cleric accused of a...

Türkiye has seemingly accelerated its diplomatic efforts for making a food corridor from Ukraine to the world markets possible under a plan crafted by the United Nations. While a military delegation is holding talks with their Russian counterparts in Moscow, Türkiye will host defense and foreign secretaries of the United Kingdom on June 23 in the Turkish capital. With concerns over a food crisis, especially in the underdeveloped nations, are growing due to the blockage of the export of millions of tons of grains in the Ukrainian ports and silos, Türkiye and the U.N. reiterate their efforts for overcoming the...

urkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday warned Greece to demilitarize islands in the Aegean Sea, saying he was “not joking” and posting tweets in Greek and English, in a marked harshening of rhetoric against Turkey’s neighbor and historic regional rival. Turkey says Greece has been building a military presence in violation of treaties that guarantee the unarmed status of the Aegean islands. It argues the islands were ceded to Greece on the condition they remained demilitarized. Athens counters that the islands, which have been garrisoned for decades and lie within close striking distance of a large Turkish landing fleet,...

'It seems now it's our turn to get our lands back': Smirking Putin threatens Sweden and compares himself to tyrant Peter The Great while issuing chilling threat to Scandinavia Vladimir Putin has compared himself to Russian tyrant Peter the Great as he bragged about 'reclaiming' land in Sweden in a chilling new threat to European security. Putin, speaking on the 350th anniversary of Tsar Peter's birth, referenced the Great Northern war which saw an anti-Sweden coalition - led by Moscow - smash the Swedish empire and establish Russia as a new imperial power in Europe. 'It seemed [Peter] was fighting...

Turkey has told the United Nations that, at the behest of its president, it wishes from now on to be called "Turkiye" in all languages, the UN announced on Thursday (Jun 2). "The change is immediate," Stephane Dujarric, the UN chief's spokesperson, told AFP by email. He noted that Ankara's official letter requesting the change had been received at the UN's New York headquarters on Wednesday.