Tanju Bilgiç

Messages from President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an last year and Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu on Jan. 20 addressed to Armenians were not "tactical" steps taken for the 100th anniversary of the 1915 events, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç has said.

Turkish Foreign Ministry refuted a United Nations report claiming that Turkey is being used as one of the primary routes for weapons smuggling to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Nusra.

"Unfounded claims," the ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç told reporters on Dec. 30, elaborating on a report penned by the U.N. al-Qaida Sanctions Committee.

The prime minister of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Nechirvan Barzani, is set to arrive in Turkey on the night of Dec. 18, ahead of talks with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç has announced.

The meeting between Davutoğlu and Barzani is expected to take place on Dec. 19 in Istanbul, diplomatic sources said.