People ' s Party

The Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) has expressed renewed hope for resolving the Kurdish issue following a rare meeting with Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed PKK leader serving life on a prison island off Istanbul.

Türkiye has commemorated the 51st anniversary of the death of İsmet İnönü, the nation's second president and a key figure in its early republican history, with ceremonies held at his grave in Ankara and his hometown of Malatya.

BRUSSELS - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday Cluster 3 in Serbia's EU accession talks would quite certainly be opened in late January or early February but that a positive signal and respect given to Serbia in Brussels were much more important.

BRUSSELS - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic will attend an EU-Western Balkans summit in Brussels on Wednesday.

The summit will be chaired by new European Council President Antonio Costa and also attended by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Vucic will attend a European People's Party-Western Balkans summit as well.

A total of 37 people has died in Istanbul from alcohol poisoning linked to counterfeit liquor since Nov. 1, the governor's office announced on Nov. 16.

Over the past six weeks, some 73 individuals were hospitalized after consuming tainted alcohol in the city, with 17 currently undergoing treatment, the statement said.

The European Commission is not considering changing Europe's policies to cut CO2 emissions from cars, despite a push from the EU's biggest political group to weaken the laws, the bloc's climate policy chief told Reuters on Thursday.

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel has said Türkiye should not withdraw its military forces from Syria until the country's territorial integrity and political stability are ensured.

"The Turkish Armed Forces will be where they need to be for Türkiye's security," Özel told daily Hürriyet in an interview published on Dec. 12.

The European Parliament's biggest political group is mounting a campaign to weaken the EU's main policies for cutting CO2 emissions from cars, a draft position paper seen by Reuters showed.

Greek MEP and former New Democracy leader Vangelis Meimarakis has been appointed as his party's representative on the European People's Party (EPP) Task Force.

The Task Force, which includes senior EPP officials and members of the Wilfried Martens Center for European Studies, will draft the EPP's manifesto.

Several female politicians and businesspeople participated in various events and commemorated modern Türkiye founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on Dec. 5, as Türkiye marked the 90th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote and stand for parliamentary elections.