Tajikistan

Turkey's largest mobile operator Turkcell said on Sept. 17 it was considering acquiring some of the Eurasian assets of its shareholder TeliaSonera, after the Nordic telecom operator said it was looking at leaving seven markets.

Russia on Sept.14 launched its largest military exercises of the year, Centre-2015, involving some 95,000 soldiers including ground troops, navy and airforce units.

Turkey's former consul-general Öztürk Y?lmaz, who was among 49 people kidnapped by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) for 101 days, has officially applied to the Republican People's Party (CHP) to run for parliament in the November elections. 

Ambassador Öztürk Y?lmaz, Turkey?s former consul general to Mosul who was among 49 hostages held by extremist militants in Iraq for 101 days, has resigned from Foreign Ministry to run in the Nov. 1 snap parliamentary elections as a candidate lawmaker for the Republican People?s Party (CHP), Turkish media reports said.

The first phase of the joint U.S.?Turkey program to train and equip fighters to combat the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has ended in a scandalous failure. 

Nine suspects have been detained for allegedly recruiting militants and providing logistical assistance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in a police operation in the Central Anatolian province of Konya.

Turkish security forces over the last three days until July 12 detained 45 foreign nationals seeking to cross into Syria to join Islamic State ofIraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadists from the southeastern city of Gaziantep, Do?an News Agency has reported.

Nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India will start the process of joining a security bloc led by China and Russia at a summit in Russia later this week, a senior Chinese diplomat said on July 6, the first time the grouping has expanded since it was set up in 2001. 

A major reshuffle of some 40 ambassadors has gone into effect, with Öztürk Y?lmaz, the former Turkish consul general to Mosul who was taken hostage last year along with 48 others by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants for 101 days, appointed as ambassador to Tajikistan's capital of Dushanbe.

The US-based think tank IREX on June 24 presented in Belgrade its annual study on the media situation in 80 countries, stating that Serbia had recorded a downgrade in almost every measured category.