Timeline Turkey (C) 2021-Present

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2021        Jan 2, In Somalia a suicide bombing in Mogadishu killed five people including two Turks. The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group claimed responsibility. The attack took place 15 km (8 miles) away from a Turkish military base, Turkey's largest military installation abroad.
    (AP, 1/2/21)

2021        Jan 4, Turkish police clashed with hundreds of students protesting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s appointment of a figure with ties to his ruling party as rector to Bogazici University, one of Turkey’s most prestigious universities.
    (AP, 1/4/21)

2021        Jan 11, The Turkish Competition Board said it has launched an investigation into WhatsApp and its owner Facebook Inc after the messaging app asked users to agree to let Facebook collect user data including phone numbers and locations.
    (Reuters, 1/11/21)
2021        Jan 11, Turkey invited Greece to resume talks designed to reduce tensions between the neighbors, following this summer's dispute over maritime borders and energy rights in the eastern Mediterranean. Greece said that it plans to extend territorial waters along its western coastline from six to 12 nautical miles, a move that could impact its dispute with Turkey.
    (AP, 1/11/21)
2021        Jan 11, A Turkish court sentenced cult leader Adnan Oktar to over 1,000 years in jail for for fraud, torture and sexual abuse.
    (Econ., 1/30/21, p.42)

2021        Jan 13, Turkish authorities gave the go-ahead for the emergency use of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd., paving the way for the rollout for Turkey’s vaccination program starting with health care workers and other high-risk groups.
    (AP, 1/13/20)

2021        Jan 14, Turkey began administering COVID-19 shots developed by China's Sinovac to health workers, as it vaccinated more than 260,000 people as part of a nationwide program against the virus.
    (Reuters, 1/14/20)

2021        Jan 18, Facebook said it has begun the process of assigning a legal entity in Turkey to comply with a controversial law governing social media companies.
    (SFC, 1/19/21, p.C1)

2021        Jan 19, Turkey slapped advertising bans on Twitter, Periscope and Pinterest over their non-compliance with a controversial new law that requires social media platforms to appoint legal representatives in the country.
    (AP, 1/19/21)

2021        Jan 22, Turkish authorities issued arrest warrants for 44 judges and prosecutors suspected of links to the group Ankara blames for the 2016-coup attempt.
    (SFC, 1/23/21, p.A3)

2021        Jan 25, The first high-level talks aimed at reducing tensions between Turkey and Greece in five years took place behind closed doors in Istanbul.
    (AP, 1/25/21)

2021        Jan 28, The United States called on Russia, Turkey and the UAE to immediately halt their military interventions in Libya as demanded in a cease-fire agreement, and accept Libyan sovereignty as it moves to unify its government, hold elections and end years of fighting.
    (AP, 1/28/21)

2021        Jan 30, In Turkey two students were arrested on charges of inciting hatred and insulting religious values for a poster depicting Islam’s most sacred site with LGBT flags.
    (AP, 1/31/21)

2021        Feb 3, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced student protesters as “terrorists" and vowed to crackdown on demonstrations opposing the appointment of a government loyalist to head Istanbul’s most prestigious university.
    (AP, 2/3/21)

2021        Feb 6, It was reported that Turkey’s Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered the establishment of two new departments (law and communications) in the country’s most prestigious university, which has been rocked by weeks of protests. Critics said that would allow the presidentially appointed rector to staff them with government loyalists.
    (AP, 2/6/21)

2021        Feb 8, Greece’s PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that it’s unlikely “substantial” talks to reunify ethnically split Cyprus could resume if Turkey and Turkish Cypriots insist on pursuing a two-state accord that defies a UN and EU-endorsed framework for federation.
    (AP, 2/8/21)

2021        Feb 10, Two Turkish soldiers were killed in a new Turkish military offensive against a Kurdish militants in northern Iraq. A 3rd soldier died of his wounds the next day.
    (AP, 2/11/21)

2021        Feb 14, Turkey said its troops have found the bodies of 13 Turkish citizens abducted by Kurdish insurgents in a cave complex in the Gara region of northern Iraq. They were found during the Claw-Eagle 2 operation launched on Feb. 10.
    (AP, 2/14/21)

2021        Feb 16, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to expand cross-border operations against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, following the killing of 13 Turkish soldiers, police and civilians who had been abducted by Kurdish insurgents.
    (AP, 2/16/21)

2021        Feb 19, Turkey said it aims to procure 105 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of April. Ankara would also receive some 800,000 doses of the shots developed by Pfizer and BioNTech this month.
    (Reuters, 2/19/21)

2021        Feb 24, A Turkish court convicted an executive of Turkish jet company MNG and two pilots for migrant smuggling over their role in flying former Nissan Motor Co Ltd Chairman Carlos Ghosn out of Japan during his escape to Lebanon just over a year ago.
    (Reuters, 2/24/21)

2021        Mar 3, Turkey recorded 11,520 new COVID-19 cases, amid an easing of coronavirus restrictions across the country. Sixty-five people died because of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, raising the overall death toll to 28,771.
    (Reuters, 3/3/21)

2021        Mar 4, A military helicopter crashed in eastern Turkey killing 11 military personnel in the town of Tatvan.
    (SFC, 3/5/21, p.A5)

2021        Mar 9, A Turkish court sentenced five people to life prison terms over the assassination of Andrei Karlov, the Russian ambassador to Turkey on Dec. 19, 2016. Prosecutors concluded that a network led by US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen was behind Karlov’s slaying. The defendants have rejected all accusations against them and are expected to appeal the ruling.
    (AP, 3/9/21)

2021        Mar 10, The presidents of Russia and Turkey remotely inaugurated the construction of a third nuclear reactor at the Akkuyu power plant in southern Turkey, vowing to continue their close cooperation.
    (AP, 3/10/21)

2021        Mar 12, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan outlined a series measures that he said would lift the country's economy, and pledged to bring the inflation rate back down to single digits.
    (AP, 3/12/21)
2021        Mar 12, Top Turkish officials said Turkey and Egypt have started holding diplomatic talks.
    (AP, 3/12/21)

2021        Mar 17, Turkish authorities stripped Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu, a prominent legislator and human rights advocate, of his parliamentary seat and took a step toward disbanding the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party. On March 21 around 100 police officers entered parliament to detain him. He was released after questioning several hours later.
    (AP, 3/17/21)(AP, 3/21/21)
2021        Mar 17, The European Union criticized Turkish authorities for stripping a prominent pro-Kurdish legislator of his parliamentary seat and seeking to shut down his political party, saying these moves add to concerns over the “backsliding of rights” in Turkey.
    (AP, 3/18/21)

2021        Mar 19, It was reported that Turkish authorities have asked three Istanbul-based Egyptian opposition TV channels to soften their critical political coverage of Egypt’s government, as Turkey seeks to repair frayed ties with Cairo.
    (AP, 3/19/21)
2021        Mar 19, Twitter announced it will establish a legal entity in Turkey in order to continue operating in the country, which passed a controversial social media law last year.
    (AP, 3/20/21)

2021        Mar 20, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan abruptly sacked the central bank chief, two days after a sharp interest rate hike to head off inflation, replacing him with a former ruling party lawmaker and critic of tight monetary policy. Outgoing governor Naci Agbal, appointed less than five months ago, had won market praise by aggressively raising the policy rate by 875 basis points to 19%, the highest of any big economy.
    (Reuters, 3/20/21)
2021        Mar 20, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan annulled the Istanbul Convention, a landmark European treaty protecting women from violence. Turkey was the first country to sign it 10 years ago. Rights groups say violence against and the killing of women is on the rise in Turkey.
    (AP, 3/20/21)

2021        Mar 23, Turkish markets whip-sawed and offshore lira rates sky-rocketed as investors, banks and locals sought to predict whether President Tayyip Erdogan had reset the economy on an easy-month path after the weekend's abrupt leadership overhaul.
    (Reuters, 3/23/21)

2021        Mar 25, In Turkey hundreds of Uyghurs staged protests in Ankara and Istanbul, denouncing Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to Turkey and demanding that the Turkish government take a stronger stance against human rights abuses in China’s far-western Xinjiang region.
    (AP, 3/25/21)

2021        Mar 27, In Turkey hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Istanbul for anti-government protests, demanding amid a heavy police presence the reversal of recent decisions by Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan that affect students, women and the LGBT community.
    (AP, 3/28/21)

2021        Apr 2, Turkey began administering Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 shots, introducing a second vaccine in its campaign that began in mid-January, as new cases reached record highs.
    (Reuters, 4/2/21)

2021        Apr 5, Turkish authorities detained 10 former admirals after a group of 103 retired top navy officers issued a midnight statement that government officials tied to Turkey’s history of military coups. The retired naval officers had signed a statement declaring their commitment to the 1936 international treaty that regulates shipping through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits.
    (AP, 4/5/21)

2021        Apr 6, The European Union's top officials met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara. The visit came after EU leaders agreed to offer Turkey new incentives despite ongoing concerns about the country's backslide on democratic and human rights, and its energy ambitions in the Mediterranean Sea.
    (AP, 4/6/21)

2021        Apr 7, A Turkish Air Force aerobatic jet crashed in central Turkey, killing its pilot.
    (AP, 4/7/21)

2021        Apr 9, The image-sharing platform Pinterest appointed a legal representative in Turkey becoming the latest social media company to comply with a controversial social media law.
    (AP, 4/9/21)

2021        Apr 10, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Turkey’s Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s for discussions on bilateral relations.
    (AP, 4/10/21)

2021        Apr 13, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan announced several new restrictions and a "partial closure" for the first two weeks of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan to curb surging coronavirus infections.
    (Reuters, 4/13/21)

2021        Apr 14, Turkey's Competition Board said it had fined Google more than 296 million lira ($36.65 million) for abusing its dominant position in the search engine services area.
    (Reuters, 4/14/21)

2021        Apr 15, In Iraq an explosion rocked a market in east Baghdad's Sadr City, killing one person and injuring 12 others. Separately, a rocket attack targeting a Turkish military base in northern Iraq's Bashiqa region killed one Turkish soldier and wounded a child in a nearby village.
    (AP, 4/15/21)

2021        Apr 16, Turkey's Central Bank banned the use of cryptocurrencies and crypto assets for purchases from April 30, citing "irreparable" damage and transaction risks.
    (Reuters, 4/28/21)

2021        Apr 19, It was reported that Turkey’s Interior Ministry has launched a probe into six more municipalities in connection with an alleged human smuggling scheme where Turkish citizens wanting to migrate to Europe were, in exchange for a fee, issued special state passports allowing them visa-free travel.
    (AP, 4/19/21)
2021        Apr 19, In Turkey deaths from COVID-19 hit a record 341 despite more than 20 million vaccines having been administered. A recent surge has brought active infections to a peak equivalent to nearly 1% of working age people.
    (Reuters, 4/20/21)

2021        Apr 22, Turkish prosecutors launched an investigation into the Thodex cryptocurrency exchange over allegations it may have defrauded some 390,000 investors of an estimated $2 billion. Thodex owner Faruk Ozer was believed to have fled to Albania.
    (SFC, 4/23/21, p.B2)

2021        Apr 24, Turkish authorities blocked the onshore bank accounts of Vebitcoin and detained four people as part of an investigation into the cryptocurrency exchange platform. A day earlier Vebitcoin announced that it stopped all of its activities citing financial strains.
    (Reuters, 4/24/21)

2021        Apr 26, In Turkey a small group of protestors gathered outside the American consulate in Istanbul to protest US President Joe Biden’s decision to call the Ottoman Empire's mass deportations and killings of Armenians a century ago a “genocide”.
    (AP, 4/26/21)
2021        Apr 26, Turkey reported 37,312 new coronavirus cases and 353 deaths. The total death toll now stood at 38,711. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered a national lockdown for three weeks as of April 29, closing nonessential businesses and sending all students home.
    (NY Times, 4/27/21)(SFC, 4/28/21, p.A6)

2021        Apr 28, Turkish warplanes continued to strike suspected Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq, while commando troops conducted a search and sweep operation, as the military pressed ahead with its latest incursion into the neighboring region.
    (AP, 4/28/21)
2021        Apr 28, Turkey said it has signed a deal for 50 million doses of Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine which will start arriving next month.
    (Reuters, 4/28/21)
2021        Apr 28, Police in Turkey arrested a close aide of killed Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Istanbul. The Afghan national, only identified by the codename Basim, was detained in the Atasehir district on the city’s Asian side.
    (AP, 5/2/21)

2021        May 5, Egyptian and Turkish officials met for talks aiming to reset ties between the two regional powers after years of enmity.
    (AP, 5/5/21)

2021        May 6, Egyptian and Turkish officials concluded two days of talks in Cairo aimed at resetting ties between the two regional powers. In a joint statement, both sides vowed to evaluate the outcome of their first round of consultations before agreeing on the next move.
    (AP, 5/6/21)

2021        May 14, Turkish company Karpowership, that provides electricity to Lebanon from two power barges, shut down its operations over delayed payments. The move is expected to increase outages in the crisis-hit Mediterranean country.
    (AP, 5/14/21)

2021        May 15, Turkey reported 11,472 new coronavirus cases. The overall confirmeddeath toll was 44,537.
    (SFC, 5/17/21, p.A7)

2021        May 17, In Turkey Muharrem Ince (56), a politician who once ran as a presidential challenger to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, formed the new Memleket Partisi (Homeland Party), months after he broke away from Turkey’s main opposition party.
    (AP, 5/17/21)

2021        May 26, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a series of severe allegations made against members of his entourage by a fugitive mafia boss were a plot against Turkey, and vowed to fight criminal gangs.
    (AP, 5/26/21)

2021        May 31, Turkey’s state-run news agency said Turkish agents have captured Selahaddin Gulen, a nephew of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, in an overseas operation and have brought him to Turkey where he faces prosecution.
    (AP, 5/31/21)

2021        Jun 5, Turkey’s president promised to rescue the Marmara Sea from an outbreak of “sea snot” that is alarming marine biologists and environmentalists. Pres. Erdogan said untreated waste dumped into the Marmara Sea and climate change had caused the sea snot bloom.
    (AP, 6/5/21)

2021        Jun 7, Greece designated neighboring Turkey as a safe country in which to seek international protection for the majority of asylum-seekers departing its shores for Greece.
    (AP, 6/7/21)

2021        Jun 17, In western Turkey a gunman killed Deniz Poyraz, a female party employee, during an attack on the office of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party in Izmir province. A former health worker was detained.
    (AP, 6/17/21)

2021        Jun 18, Turkey's inoculations passed the 40 million mark and 40% of adults had had at least one dose.
    (Reuters, 6/18/21)

2021        Jun 19, Sazgin Baran Korkmaz, a Turkish businessman, was arrested in Austria by the US Justice Dept. in connection with a biodiesel fraud scheme operated by a Utah business that stole nearly $500 million in government funds. Korkmaz was suspected of laundering over $133 million through bank accoutns he controlled in Turkey and Luxembourg.
    (SFC, 6/23/21, p.B3)

2021        Jun 22, Turkey kicked off Phase III trials for its COVID-19 vaccine, named "Turkovac" by President Tayyip Erdogan who said the shot should be available for use by the end of the year.
    (Reuters, 6/22/21)

2021        Jun 25, European Union leaders greenlighted plans to give Turkey another 3 billion euros ($3.6 billion) over the next few years to provide fresh assistance to Syrian refugees on its territory and to help the country boost border controls.
    (AP, 6/25/21)

2021        Jun 26, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took the first step in the construction of a ship canal skirting Istanbul that the government says will ease marine traffic in the Bosporus Strait. Erdogan, in a bridge ground-breaking ceremony in Sazlidere, said the $15 billion project would be completed within six years.
    (AP, 6/26/21)

2021        Jul 1, Turkey formally withdrew from a landmark international treaty protecting women from violence. Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted it won’t be a step backwards for women. Erdogan ended the country’s participation in the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention through a surprise overnight decree in March.
    (AP, 7/1/21)
2021        Jul 1, Turkey eased nearly all pandemic restrictions on businesses and events. Only 18% of Turkey's nearly 84 million population has been fully vaccinated.
    (SFC, 7/2/21, p.A5)

2021        Jul 3, Turkish national Mehmet Aydin (30), on the run after allegedly embezzling money from thousands of people in a Ponzi scheme, was extradited from Brazil to Turkey and detained. Aydin is thought to have collected the equivalent of more than $131 million in Turkish lira from over 130,000 people through an online scheme called Ciftlik, or Farm Bank, an online game inspired by FarmVille.
    (AP, 7/4/21)

2021        Jul 5, Turkey said it has identified three cases of the new Delta Plus COVID-19 variant in three provinces. The separate Delta variant had also been identified in some 284 cases across 30 provinces.
    (Reuters, 7/6/21)

2021        Jul 6, Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu, a prominent Turkish opposition legislator, was released from prison, days after the country’s top court ruled his rights to freedom and to exercise politics had been violated.
    (AP, 7/6/21)

2021        Jul 9, The UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution extending the delivery of humanitarian aid for a year from Turkey to rebel-held northwest Syria, where the UN says 3.4 million people are in desperate need of food and other assistance.
    (AP, 7/9/21)

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