U.S. Department of State

U.S. President Barack Obama raised April 1 criticism over press freedom in Turkey, saying that he had expressed these sentiments directly to President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an.

"It's no secret that there are some trends within Turkey that I have been troubled with," Obama said, when asked whether he considers the Turkish leader an authoritarian.

The Foreign Ministry in Sofia has again warned Bulgarian citizens visiting Turkey to exercise high vigilance and caution in view of increased risk of terror attacks.

Bulgarian citizens are also being advised to avoid travel to southeastern Turkey.

The Pentagon and the U.S. State Department have ordered the families of U.S. troops and civilian personnel stationed in the provinces of ?zmir, Adana and Mu?la to leave the region, citing concerns over their security. 

World leaders from around the globe have expressed their outrage at yet another terrorist attack in Turkey, this time on Istanbul's famous Istiklal Street, which has left at least five people dead, including the bomber. 

Two Israeli citizens who were killed in a suicide attack in Istanbul on March 19 also held American citizenship, the White House has said in a statement.

A Navy veteran from Colorado who identifies as neither male nor female has sued the U.S. Department of State after being denied a passport for refusing to select a gender on the application, court documents showed on Oct. 26. 

Anti-Semitism has risen in recent years in Turkey, a U.S. State Department report has said, adding that the Turkish government has continued to discriminate against its non-Sunni Muslim citizens.

The U.S.?s annual human rights report on Turkey has slammed a series of violations over the past year, focusing particularly on the judiciary, law enforcement agencies, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.  

An American fighting with Kurdish forces against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in Syria has been killed in battle, authorities said June 10, making him likely the first U.S. citizen to die fighting alongside them against the extremists.

BELGRADE - Serbia's Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic talked in Belgrade on Thursday with representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and U.S. Department of Justice about improvements in the cooperation in the fight against terrorism and all types of crime.