Austria

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer on Tuesday discussed bilateral ties as well as regional and global issues over the phone, according to a statement by the Turkish Communications Directorate.

During the call, Erdoğan stressed that Syria is entering a new period where its citizens will determine the country's future.

The 2025 state budget was approved tonight, receiving 158 “yes” votes, while 139 MPs voted “no.” Former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras was notably absent from the vote.

Türkiye's Marmara University Faculty of Medicine and the St. Anna Children's Cancer Research Institute in Vienna, Austria, have joined forces in a groundbreaking study, leading to the identification of a previously unknown condition called "LTBR Deficiency."

More than 7,600 Syrian migrants crossed the Turkish border to return home in the five days after the fall of Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has announced.

Yerlikaya listed the total number of Syrians "who returned voluntarily from Türkiye" each day between Dec. 9 and 13, with the five-day figure totaling 7,621 migrants.

The European Union has officially approved Bulgaria and Romania as full members of the Schengen area. The decision, announced on Thursday at a meeting of EU interior ministers in Brussels, comes after the two countries partially joined Schengen by air and sea in March.

Debates over the asylum claims of Syrian refugees in our country and across Europe have been sparked from the first moment the fall of the Assad regime. The asylum application process is temporarily “frozen” for thousands of Syrians who are in our country, as the main argument for their asylum applications, persecution by the Assad regime, may be unfounded.

The Austrian government has announced that it is offering Syrian refugees a “return bonus” of 1,000 euros to return home after the fall of the Assad regime.

The European qualification draw for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, hosted by the USA, Mexico, and Canada, took place today at FIFA headquarters in Zurich. Bulgaria's national football team was drawn into Group E, alongside either Spain or the Netherlands, Turkey, and Georgia.

Bulgaria's accession to the Schengen area by land will not result in the country becoming a migrant buffer, Acting Interior Minister Atanas Ilkov stated during a briefing following the EU Council's final decision. Ilkov described the event as a historic achievement for Bulgaria, marking December 12, 2024, as a significant date for Bulgarian citizens, businesses, and institutions.

European Union ministers on Thursday agreed to let Bulgaria and Romania fully integrate into Europe's ID-check-free travel zone, known as the Schengen area, by lifting land border controls from next year, the EU's Hungarian presidency said.