Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called on "all parties and the international community to abide by" the Turkey-brokered truce in Aleppo on Dec. 16, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

On his official Twitter account, Erdogan wrote Friday: "The Turkey-brokered truce in Aleppo and the continuation of evacuations is the only hope left for innocent people. 

A total of 56 people were being treated in hospital after a car bomb attack on a bus in the central Turkish city of Kayseri on Dec.17, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said, an attack the military has said killed 13.

Turkey played an important role in the process as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım and Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu held numerous phone talks with their Russian and Iranian counterparts to secure the evacuation of civilians from besieged Aleppo. 

Hopes for special talks on Cyprus between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of a multiparty summit on the issue of the divided Mediterranean island scheduled to take place in Geneva on January 12 are being frustrated by the apparent reluctance of Turkish authorities to have bilateral talks with Greece about Cyprus and some difference of opinion on ce

Speaking in a phone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan late Dec 15, U.S. President Barack Obama praised the role Turkey played in brokering a truce deal in Aleppo that paved the way for the evacuation of thousands of civilians from the besieged city. 

Germany's ambassador to Turkey, Martin Erdmann, expressed his sorrow to Ayşenur Bahçekapılı, the deputy parliament speaker of the Turkish parliament, for the mistreatment she received by German police at Cologne airport, which fueled a diplomatic tension between the two countries.
 
Erdmann paid a courtesy visit to Bahçekapılı on Dec. 15 in parliament.
 

On Nov. 24, 2015, two Turkish F-16 fighter jets won the title of shooting down, from NATO's side, the first ever Soviet-Russian military warplane since the end of World War II, saying it violated Turkish airspace along the country's border with Syria. The Russian pilot of the fighter jet was killed.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif have spoken over the phone four times in a bid to secure the implementation of the ceasefire deal, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hüseyin Müftüoğlu said on Dec. 15.

Human Rights Watch accused Turkey of suppressing free media in a bid to stem scrutiny of its widespread crackdown following the failed July coup.

Turkish top civilian and security officials came together Dec. 15 under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to review measures against potential terror incidents following twin suicide attacks in Istanbul over the weekend.

It also followed Erdoğan's statement that a national mobilization against terror should be launched.