Turkish Presidential

Turkish Presidential Spokesman İbrahim Kalın and U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan discussed bilateral ties over the phone on Feb. 2, an official statement said.

Besides Turkey-U.S. relations, the top officials discussed Eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus, Afghanistan, Upper Karabakh, Syria, Libya and the COVID-19 pandemic during the nearly 1-hour-long conversation.

Turkish Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin will be taking part in exploratory contacts between Greece and Turkey that resume Monday at Istanbul's Swissotel, Kathimerini reports.

The involvement of Kalin, a close associate of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is seen as marking the Turkish strongman's indirect presence at the talks.

Turkish Presidential Spokesman İbrahim Kalın on June 2 criticized the U.S. for vetoing a UN Security Council resolution calling for the protection of Palestinians.

Turkish Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın said on April 7 that Turkey was talking to Russia about the Syrian town of Tel Rifaat and would not need to intervene in the area given Moscow's assurances that Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militants were not present there.

Turkish Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın denied reports on April 5 that there was a difference of opinion in the way the economy is being managed in the country.

Turkey will focus on the evacuation of civilians from Syria’s East Ghouta in the upcoming period and its National Intelligence Agency (MİT) is carrying out work for the removal of al-Nusra from the besieged area as well, Turkish Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın has said. 

Turkish Presidential Spokesman İbrahim Kalın has stated that the United States’ 6th fleet has not yet arrived off the island of Cyprus, after the Greek Cypriot administration claimed that the U.S. navy will be in the eastern Mediterranean for the protection of Exxon’s drilling vessel from a potential Turkish intervention.

Some 700 civilians from Syria’s besieged Eastern Ghouta who were supposed to come to Turkey for medical treatment were actually taken to southern Damascus, Turkish Presidential Spokesman İbrahim Kalın said on Feb. 28. 

Turkish Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın met with U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security advisor, H.R. McMaster, in Istanbul on Feb. 11.

The Turkish military’s cross-border military operation against the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the Afrin district of Syria does not create a distraction from the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Turkish Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın has said.