Mevlüt

Turkey will increase the duration of visa-free stay for Russian citizens, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said April 23.      

"We are extending the visa-free period for Russians in Turkey from 60 to 90 days," Çavuşoğlu told reporters in the Alanya district of the southern province of Antalya.      

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is scheduled to meet next week to discuss whether to degrade Turkey's status and reopen a monitoring process against the country in response to the authoritarian slide in the country.  

FM Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has been lobbying PACE, which he once chaired in 2010, not to relegate Turkey.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will meet in Washington in May ahead of a NATO summit, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said. 

Turkey's relations with Europe have been passing through a difficult phase due to Europe's stance on the April 16 referendum and last year's coup attempt, Turkish FM Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said.

"Our relations are going through a difficult phase, as the attitude of the EU and some European countries has been a great disappointment," he told Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.

Turkey's foreign minister has said if a far-right, anti-immigrant German party wanted to campaign in Turkey, it would be free do to so.        

Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on April 15 that the Alternative for Germany (AfD) would -- if it came -- be allowed to hold a rally in Istanbul's huge Yenikapı meeting arena, Anadolu Agency reported.

Family Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya has filed a lawsuit against the Netherlands over her deportation from the country after she was barred from entering the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam last month to campaign for the April 16 referendum on charter changes. 

There are no problems with charter flights from Russia to Turkey, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said, adding that a Turkish delegation headed by Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek will visit Moscow to discuss bilateral economic issues on April 18. 

Angry statements from Ankara being flung in all directions, but mostly at the West, show that Turkey has abandoned diplomacy in international affairs. The joint press conference last week in Ankara by Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and his U.S. counterpart, Rex Tillerson, showed this once again.

Many Russian women who are married to Turkish men have returned to Turkey as the diplomatic normalization between Ankara and Moscow continues.

A number of Russians in Turkey left the country after a Russian Su-24 jet was shot down by Turkish F-16s in the Turkey-Syria border area on Nov. 24, 2015.

The arrest of a top Turkish banker in the United States on charges of participating in a multi-year scheme to evade sanctions against Iran was a "completely political" move, senior Turkish officials have said, as the details of the FBI file in the case were revealed.