Foreign Ministry

A Turkish agricultural engineer has gone missing after having departed from the Mediterranean province of Antalya to fly to the Russian capital of Moscow, his family has said.

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 Turkish government has again raised the issue of the sea borders in the Aegean, disputing the current status in the Aegean, via a statement released by its foreign ministry representative.

Turkey has a serious problem with its international image. An increasing number of people around the world see the country as a breeding ground and facilitator of Islamic terrorism. They also see it as a violent place where visitors have to be ready for all eventualities.

Hungary on Aug. 30 lashed out at French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius over his criticism of the country's new anti-migrant border barrier, accusing him of "shocking and groundless" judgements.

Turkish jets have joined the U.S.-led coalition in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and hit targets in Syria, the Foreign Ministry has announced.

The report by McClatchy, the U.S. publishing company, alleging that Turkish intelligence tipped off the al Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, and led to the recent routing by the group of opposition forces trained in Turkey by the U.S., has seriously ruffled Ankara?s feathers.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Tanju Bilgic said the report was an ?ill-intentioned and lowly slander.?

Coalition forces have yet to conduct airstrikes against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targets using Turkey?s ?ncirlik airbase yet, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu said on Aug. 13, although Pentagon spokeswoman Commander Elissa Smith said the United States began flying manned counter-ISIL missions from ?ncirlik on Aug. 12.

Turkey and the United States both agree that the Democratic Union Party (PYD) cannot be permitted to enter an area in Syria in which Turkey plans to establish a zone that will ostensibly be free of jihadists, according to a Foreign Ministry official. 

Ankara contributed to the declaration of a recent 48-hour cease-fire among Syria's warring parties in a frontline area, Turkish officials have claimed.

"Turkey made an indirect contribution in providing the truce," sources from the Foreign Ministry told the Hürriyet Daily News on Aug. 12, noting that Ankara would continue any efforts for truce in Syria.