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The fourth round of meeting on confidence-building measures between Turkish and Greek delegations concluded on Thursday.

The virtual meeting was held on May 26-27, in which both sides agreed to continue talks on confidence-building measures, the Turkish National Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The next meeting is scheduled to be held in Turkey’s capital Ankara, the statement said.

Turkey says hydrocarbon drilling activities, the source of tension between the two countries, in the Eastern Mediterranean region are based on its legitimate rights stemming from international law.

It has consistently contested the Greek Cypriot administration’s unilateral drilling in the Eastern Mediterranean, saying Turkish Cypriots also have rights to the resources in the area.

In 1974, following a coup aiming at Cyprus’ annexation by Greece, Ankara intervened as a guarantor power. In 1983, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was founded.

The decades since have seen several attempts to resolve the dispute, all ending in failure. The latest one, held with the participation of the guarantor countries — Turkey, Greece, and the UK — ended in 2017 in Switzerland.

Separately, experts from the two countries met in Turkey’s northwestern Edirne province and discussed matters related to the land border between Turkey and Greece.

According to a statement by the Governor’s Office in Edirne, the Turkish delegation was headed by Hakan Ozdemir, head of the Border Department at the Turkish Foreign Ministry, and the Greek delegation was headed by Athanasios Leousis, head of the Aviation Department at the Greek Foreign Ministry.

During the three-day talks that started on May 25, both the delegations expressed the benefit of a mutual exchange of views on related issues, while emphasizing the will to further develop bilateral relations and cooperation.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Turkey wants to see Sudan standing on its own feet and making use of its rich resources, the country’s vice president said on Thursday.

“We don’t want to see Sudan in the middle of proxy wars and as a country that cannot realize its potential, but as a country that assesses its rich resources in the best way … and that stands strongly on its own feet,” Fuat Oktay told a news conference along with Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, vice president of the Sudanese Transitional Sovereignty Council.

The two addressed reporters in the Turkish capital Ankara following a meeting between delegations from both sides. The Sudanese delegation arrived in Turkey on Thursday on a two-day official visit.

During the meeting, all aspects of Turkey-Sudan relations were discussed, Oktay said, adding that wide opportunities for bilateral cooperation were evaluated as well.

“We see today’s meeting as an important opportunity and beginning for our cooperation in the coming period,” the Turkish official said.

On the US decision to remove Sudan from the list of countries that support terrorism, Oktay called it “a belated step, but a step in the right direction.”

“We are also pleased that the financial and economic sanctions and restrictions that Sudan has been unfairly subjected to for years have been lifted recently,” he added.

– Fruitful meeting

Dagalo, for his part, praised the Turkish nation and the government for always supporting Sudan in every platform and standing by them in the challenging times and crises they go through.

Stating that his visit is the start of many others in the future, he said they had a “fruitful meeting” with Oktay.

Sudan is going through an exceptional period, he said, adding that despite the challenging conditions, they achieved to establish peace in the country.

“Therefore, we made progress with the support of the international community, the US and the countries that stand by Sudan, and with our efforts.

“As one of them, Sudan was removed from the list of countries supporting terrorism,” Dagalo said.

Highlighting his country’s rich resources, Dagalo said it has not reached the level it should be.

The Sudanese government signed a peace agreement last year with opposition groups except for two rebel movements — one in the western region of Darfur known as the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army led by Abdul Wahid Al Nur and the Sudan Popular Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), led by Abdel Aziz Adam al-Hilu, from the south in the Nuba mountains region.

The armed opposition SPLM-N rejected the deal because it demanded Sudan do away with sharia law and become a secular, democratic state.

But in March, the government and the SPLM-N signed a roadmap for peace talks and agreed to separate religion from the state. Peace talks between the two sides just began on Wednesday.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Russia’s ambassador to Turkey on Thursday paid a visit to the headquarters of Anadolu Agency, Turkey’s premier news source.

Aleksey Erkhov was welcomed at the headquarters in the capital Ankara by Serdar Karagoz, the agency’s chairman of the board and director general, and Yusuf Ozhan, the deputy director general and editor-in-chief.

Karagoz told the Russian envoy about Anadolu Agency’s global news presence and journalistic work.

The importance of the Russian service of the Anadolu Agency’s news network was also discussed during the meeting.

Promoting relationships between the two states, as well as strengthening the positive cooperative between Ankara and Moscow, also discussed in the meeting.

Erkhov, for his part, highlighted the importance of improving Russian-Turkish relations and the key role the media plays in this, especially the Anadolu Agency.

Karagoz and Erkhov also exchanged symbolic gifts at the end of the meeting.

Founded in 1920, Anadolu Agency is a leading global news agency operating across the world. It serves subscribers in more than 100 countries, including in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Asia-Pacific.

Source: Anadolu Agency

US job market is expected to remain weak until late 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to Fitch Ratings.

“A return to full employment in the US is still 18 months away and will require the creation of a further seven million jobs,” the global rating agency said in a statement on Wednesday.

Almost 22 million jobs were lost in the March-April period of 2020 in the US because of the pandemic. Since then roughly half of that amount has recovered.

The world’s largest economy has around 9.8 million unemployed individuals as of April 2021, when unemployment rate rose to 6.1% from 6% a month earlier, according to the US Labor Department.

“Massive job market disruption in 2020 is likely to lead to some medium-term ‘scarring2 and reduced labor supply as long-term unemployment rises and some older workers are permanently discouraged from labor force activity,” Fitch said, adding it will take a while for the labor market to regain balance.

Stimulus packages by former President Donald Trump and incumbent Joe Biden administrations have provided strong support for the labor demand.

Fitch, however, said it does not expect to see a return to full or maximum employment in the labor market until the last quarter of 2022.

Due to weak labor market conditions, the US Federal Reserve is not likely to increase interest rates until at least 2023, and the central bank is currently signaling 2024 for a rate hike, it added.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Turkish manager Abdullah Avci will receive compensation from Besiktas for the termination of his contract, an arbitration body said Thursday.

The Turkish football club was ordered to pay 17.1 million Turkish liras ($2 million), according to the Arbitration Committee of Turkish Football Federation.

Avci was sacked in January 2020 because of a disappointing season when he managed the Istanbul side for seven months in 27 matches during the 2019-20 season.

In April, the Black-Eagles were ordered to pay 17.3 million Turkish liras to Avci by the Turkish Football Federation’s Dispute Resolution Committee but Besiktas appealed to the Arbitration Committee.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday said that Azerbaijan crowned the 103rd anniversary of its republic with the rightful victory in Patriotic War last year.


Issuing a message on the occasion of Republic Day of Azerbaijan on May 28, Erdogan congratulated the Azerbaijani nation. 


“Brotherly Azerbaijan is crowning the Republic Day this year with the pride of its rightful victory in the Patriotic War, and Turkey enthusiastically shares this happiness of Azerbaijan,” he said.

During the 44-day conflict, which ended in a truce on Nov. 10, 2020, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and nearly 300 settlements and villages in Karabakh from a nearly three-decade Armenian occupation.

The truce is seen as a victory for Azerbaijan and a defeat for Armenia, whose armed forces withdrew in line with the agreement.

Erdogan voiced pleasure over mutual commitment to further increase strategic relations, which are “already at an excellent level”.

“I firmly believe that our brotherhood and cooperation are the greatest guarantees of peace, stability and prosperity in our region,” he said.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The 1960 military coup’s damage to democracy should be engrained in the memories of Turkish people, the country’s parliament head said on Thursday.

“It is essential to remember the damage caused to democracy by the military coup of May 27, 1960, one of the heaviest attacks against the will of the nation,” Mustafa Sentop said during an inauguration ceremony of May 27, 1960 coup exhibition in the parliament.

Sentop noted that the young and future generations should not forget the coup’s damage to Turkey’s democracy.

Following a coup in 1960, a military court tried Adnan Menderes, the nation’s first democratically elected prime minister, along with two leading members of the Democratic Party (DP), resulting in their executions the following year.

Sentop reiterated that the country’s civil politics had been threatened after the 1960 coup.

“For years, civil politics [in Turkey] has been threatened by the sad end of the late Menderes and his ministers by pointing and hinting at those death tables,” he noted.

“Now, this nation forever refuses the execution of elected rulers,” he added.

After a biased and illegal trial on the Yassiada island, President Celal Bayar, Premier Menderes, Foreign Minister Fatin Rustu Zorlu and Finance Minister Hasan Polatkan were sentenced to death. Bayar later received clemency from the sentence.

Yassiada, one of the Princes’ Islands located in the Sea of Marmara southeast of Istanbul, is notorious for jails and trials from the 1960 military coup. It was renamed Democracy and Liberties Island in 2013.

Last year President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated Democracy and Liberties Island on Yassiada.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday adopted a resolution that includes the urgent establishment of an international independent investigation commission to probe Israel’s human rights violations.

The special session of the council, which was called to discuss the “serious human rights situation” in the occupied Palestinian territories, ended with the adoption of the resolution put forward by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) coordinator, Pakistan, and the Palestinian state.

The council “decides to urgently establish an ongoing independent, international commission of inquiry, to be appointed by the President of the Human Rights Council, to investigate in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel,” said the resolution.

The commission will investigate “all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law leading up to and since 13 April 2021, and all underlying root causes of recurrent tensions, instability, and protraction of conflict, including systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity,” it added.

The resolution calls on all states, international agencies, and other donors to urgently mobilize humanitarian support for the Palestinian civilian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.

It urges them “to address their prevailing needs, and calls upon Israel, the occupying power, to ensure the unimpeded delivery of that humanitarian assistance.”

The resolution was adopted by 24 votes, with 9 countries voting no and 14 abstaining.

Countries that voted no included Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, Malawi, the United Kingdom, and Uruguay, arguing that this would be an unprecedented ongoing investigation.

Ibrahim Khraishi, Palestinian representative at the UN in Geneva, said: “It’s a good step towards reaching in some way, the justice for the Palestinian people and to go through this fact-finding commission of inquiry.

“I think that it will establish a new mechanism of monitoring of the Israeli occupying power inside Israel and West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.

“This is an ongoing mechanism, it will not be renewed until the end of the occupation.”

Venezuela’s representative strongly condemned Israel for “crimes against humanity that amount to genocide.”

Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said after the session, “Hamas will not be held accountable for its war crimes and will not be the focus of this investigation.”

After the vote, the US mission in Geneva put out a statement saying, “The United States deeply regrets today’s decision by the Human Rights Council to establish an open-ended Commission of Inquiry into the recent violence between Israel and the Palestinians.

“The actions of the Human Rights Council today do not contribute to peace. They will not help bring about lasting solutions to the challenges in the region, nor provide greater dignity, freedom, or prosperity for either Palestinians or Israelis,” it added.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) Thursday said less than 2% of the continent’s population have been inoculated, appealing to the international community to provide the required number of vaccine doses to the continent considering this a “collective security issue.”

“We are not winning the vaccination battle in Africa,” Africa CDC Director John Nkengasong said in a pessimistic tone during a weekly media briefing in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

“43 million doses of vaccines have been acquired, [of which] 23 million doses have been administered,” he said.

The Africa CDC was expecting to inoculate 60% of the African population by the end of this year, Nkengasong said. However, the target seemed to be impossible considering that the continent has only managed to vaccinate less than 2% of the population.

He appealed to the international community to provide the required number of vaccine doses to Africa, calling it a “collective security issue.”

He added that fewer vaccinations will delay the continent’s ability to successfully combat the virus.

Meanwhile, Nkengasong said the continent managed to vaccine 47 million people, with one million people vaccinated in the last week. The continent saw 69,394 new cases in the period from May 17 to May 23, a 24% increase.

The Africa CDC’s daily update for Thursday showed 3,822,773 cases, 112,185 deaths, and 3,437,792 recoveries across the continent.

Source: Anadolu Agency