Eurasia

Turkey is taking all measures to prevent an oil slick from Syria from spreading to the Karpas coast of Northern Cyprus, the Turkish vice president said on Aug. 30. 

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"We are taking the necessary measures by mobilizing every means available that we have without giving any chance to the spill to turn into an environmental disaster," Fuat Oktay told Anadolu Agency.

The Greek Cypriot administration leader should work on ways to realize a two-state solution and institutional cooperation on the island, said the Northern Cypriot president on Aug. 29.

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The Turkish nation and Turkey's diplomatic missions around the world will celebrate Victory Day today, marking the 99th anniversary of when Turkish armies succeeded in the Great Offensive under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk against occupying Greek forces on Aug. 30 in 1922.

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More than 200,000 tourists have visited Varosha in Turkish Cyprus since the coastal region was partially reopened to the public in 2020.

Varosha had virtually become a ghost town as it remained cut off from the world for some 47 years.

Former Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci has said a November, 2019 agreement between himself and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades which provided for critical elements of a Cyprus settlement was the reason Ankara intervened to oust him from office by backing Ersin Tatar to replace him in October, 2020.

Armenia is ready to normalize its ties with Turkey, the country's Prime Minister Nicol Pashinyan has said.

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Despite the impacts of recent forest fires on its Aegean and Mediterranean resort towns, Turkey still hopes to host 25 million foreign visitors this year, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said on Aug. 6.

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Göktürk 1 and 2, two Earth observation satellites of the Turkish Defense Ministry, have photographed the wildfires in the Mediterranean province of Antalya's Manavgat district and the Aegean province of Muğla's Marmaris district and the damage they have caused from space.

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Officials from Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Turkish Cyprus offered their condolences to Turkey on July 29 over the massive forest fires in its southern provinces which have claimed the lives of three people.

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Turkey on July 27 dismissed remarks made by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on the partial reopening of the Varosha region in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus as being worthless for Turkey.

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