Erdoğan

During the cabinet meeting presided over by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan earlier this week, the reinstatement of capital punishment was among the key issues. He looked in the face of cabinet ministers and asked: "What will happen for my 241 martyrs [killed during the military coup attempt]? Will those who killed them not give an account of it?" 

Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ has expressed "regret" that a prosecutor who is facing charges over Gülenist links was appointed to probe daily Cumhuriyet's writers and executives for alleged ties to the movement, which is widely believed to have staged the coup attempt on July 15.
 

Jailed Turkish novelist Aslı Erdoğan has called on Europe to show solidarity and support to imprisoned writers and journalists in Turkey. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan lashed out at German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Nov. 3 over her criticism of the detention of daily Cumhuriyet journalists, saying "Germany harbors terrorism."

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has advised Muslims "not to lock women up" in comments made in Istanbul at an Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on women's roles.

"The logic that believes women should only be at home, is wrong," Erdoğan said Nov. 2, adding that "a strong nation cannot be built based on that logic." 

The Council of Europe will give a press freedom award to Turkish daily Cumhuriyet journalists and the newspaper itself, as a part of the program of the fifth World Forum for Democracy, scheduled to be held between Nov. 7 and 9. 

Every new day adds fresh validation to the adage that "Turkey is fun unless you have to live in it." In one recent speech, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan described himself as an enemy of interest rates "because interest rates are a means of abuse." 

Ankara is to order a further 24 Lockheed Martin F-35 aircraft, Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik said in an interview with broadcaster A Haber on Tuesday.

Turkey is expected to receive the stealth fighters in 2018.

According to sources, Ankara plans to acquire 116 F-35s to replace its fleet of F-16 jets.

Authors Can Dündar and Aslı Erdoğan and linguist Necmiye Alpay have slammed the detention of executives and columnists from the critical daily newspaper Cumhuriyet.

Dündar, who until recently was Cumhuriyet's editor-in-chief, said Europe had to decide whether to take a principled stand over the situation in Turkey. 

In what was widely seen as a fresh dig at Greece, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday reiterated that several Greek islands in the eastern Aegean "used to be ours."

The Turkish leader made waves recently in Greece when he said that the Treaty of Lausanne, which set the borders between Greece and Turkey in 1923, was unfair on his country.