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Tayyip Erdogan
A Turkish court ordered Wednesday a ban on access to Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok from Turkiye, after the platform allegedly disseminated content insulting to Turkey's president and others. The chatbot, developed by Musk's company xAI, posted vulgarities against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his late mother and personalities, while responding to users' questions on the X social media platform, the pro-government A Haber news channel reported. Offensive responses were also directed toward modern Turkiye's founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatrk, other media outlets said. That prompted the Ankara public to file for the imposition of restrictions under Turkiye's internet law, citing a threat to public order. A criminal court approved the request early on Wednesday, ordering the country's telecommunications authority to enforce the ban. The incident is part of a broader controversy surrounding a recent update to Grok, which resulted in more politically incorrect and
Turkish police on Wednesday arrested Istanbul's mayor a popular opposition leader and key rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and several other prominent figures as part of investigations into alleged corruption and terror links. It was a dramatic escalation in an ongoing government crackdown on the opposition and dissenting voices in Turkiye. The state-run Anadolu Agency said prosecutors issued detention warrants for the mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, and some 100 other people. Among those detained was Imamoglu's close aide, Murat Ongun. Authorities also closed several roads around Istanbul and banned demonstrations in the city for four days in an apparent effort to prevent protests following the arrest. Private NTV television reported that two Istanbul district mayors were among those detained. Critics say the crackdown follows significant losses by Erdogan's ruling party in local elections last year amid growing calls for early national elections. Government officials insist that
A fire raged through a 12-storey hotel at a popular ski resort in northwestern Turkiye early Tuesday during a school holiday, killing at least 76 people at least two of them when they jumped from the building to escape the flames, officials said. At least 51 people also were injured in the fire at the Grand Kartal hotel in Kartalkaya, in Bolu province's Koroglu mountains, some 300 kilometres east of Istanbul, said Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya. The fire occurred near the start of a two-week winter break for schools, when hotels in the region are packed. We are in deep pain. We have unfortunately lost 66 lives in the fire that broke out at this hotel, Yerlikaya told reporters after inspecting the site. Atakan Yelkovan, a hotel guest staying on the third floor, told the IHA news agency there was chaos on the upper floors as other guests tried to escape the fire, including by trying to climb down from their rooms using sheets and blankets. People on the upper floors were screaming.
The Turkish president has hit out at military graduates who took a pro-secular oath during their graduation ceremony, promising that those behind it would be purged from the military. Speaking at a conference for Islamic schools in the northwestern city of Kocaeli on Saturday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described those involved as opportunists. He added that an investigation was underway and vowed that the few impertinent individuals responsible will be purged. Whoever they are, it is not possible for them to be part of our military, Erdogan said. Erdogan was present at the graduation ceremony at the Turkish Military Academy in Ankara on August 30. Valedictorian Ebru Eroglu led the 960-strong graduating class in reciting the official military oath about defending Turkiye. But video footage from about an hour later shows about 400 of the graduates gathered in a field, raising their swords and chanting We are the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal a reference to the secular founder of ..
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas for talks that focused on the conflict in Gaza, Erdogan's office said, ahead of a planned address to parliament Thursday. Erdogan's office said late Wednesday that the two discussed the massacres committed by Israel in Palestinian territories and the steps that need to be taken for a permanent cease-fire and peace at the presidential palace in Ankara. The statement, released on the social media platform X, said Erdogan pledged continued support to Palestine's just cause and to work to increase the pressure on Israel by the international community especially the Islamic world to deliver humanitarian aid and bring peace. Abbas arrived Wednesday for a visit that comes as the threat of Iranian retaliation against Israel over the assassination of Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh fueled concerns of the war spreading across the Middle East. Erdogan, a prominent supporter of Hamas and the wider Palestinian cause, .
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says he has told Turkiye's president that the time has come to let Sweden become a member of the military alliance. Turkiye and Hungary are the only NATO countries that have not yet formally approved Sweden's accession bid. Stoltenberg told The Associated Press that he urged Turkiye to finalise the process as he met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday on the sidelines of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai. I met with President Erdogan this morning and I reiterated my message that the time has come to finalise the accession process for Sweden, he said. Turkiye has delayed ratification for more than a year, accusing Sweden of not taking Turkiye's security concerns seriously enough, including its fight against Kurdish militants and other groups that Ankara considers to be security threats. An apparent breakthrough happened at a NATO summit in July when Erdogan said he would submit accession documents to Parliament, but a debate on the
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the issue of Kashmir during his address to world leaders at the high-level 78th session of the UN General Assembly session here. "Another development that will pave the way for regional peace, stability and prosperity in South Asia will be the establishment of a just and lasting peace in Kashmir through dialogue and cooperation between India and Pakistan, Erdogan said in his address to the General Debate Tuesday. "As Turkiye, we will continue to support the steps to be taken in this direction, he said. His comment comes weeks after he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in New Delhi during which both the leaders discussed strengthening trade and infrastructure relations. Erdogan said it was a matter of pride that India was playing a role at the United Nations Security Council. He said he favoured making five permanent and 15 "temporary" members as permanent members of the UN Security Council. "Those 20 .
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that Turkiye may part ways with the European Union, implying that the country is thinking about ending its bid to join the 27-nation bloc. The EU is making efforts to sever ties with Turkiye, he told reporters before departing for the 78th UN General Assembly in New York. We will evaluate the situation, and if needed we will part ways with the EU. He was responding to a question about a recent report adopted by the European Parliament, which stated the accession process cannot resume under the current circumstances, and calls on EU to explore a parallel and realistic framework' for EU-Trkiye relations. Turkiye applied to join the European Union in 1999, and accession talks began in 2005. Accession negotiations were frozen in 2018 because of democratic backsliding, according to the European Parliament. Erdogan's statement on Saturday came more than a week after Turkiye's foreign minister affirmed his country's resolve to join the EU and
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said India is his country's greatest trade partner in South Asia and expressed confidence of tapping the huge potential of cooperation between the two countries. Addressing a press conference after the conclusion of the G20 leaders' summit, Erdogan also said that on the sidelines of the summit, he held talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "India is our greatest trade partner in South Asia. And we will be able to tap the great potential of cooperation, primarily in the field of economy and many other sectors, after the election that took place in Turkiye earlier this year," he said. He also hailed the African Union becoming a member of the G20, saying it would revitalise the grouping.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that Sweden's NATO membership bid would not be ratified by Turkiye's parliament before October, but that he hopes for a swift ratification once lawmakers return from a break. Turkiye on Monday withdrew its objections to Sweden joining the alliance, a step toward the unity that Western leaders have been eager to demonstrate in the face of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The decision by Erdogan was a significant move toward Sweden's membership and came after days of intensive meetings. Erdogan's comments Wednesday were his first public confirmation of his decision to refer Sweden's membership to parliament, where his party and its allies command a majority. He said at a news conference at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, that the process would have to wait until after lawmakers return from a summer recess. The new session opens Oct. 1. The parliament is not in session for the upcoming two months but our target is to finalize