ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s military will conduct an exercise in the southern province of Hatay, where more than 7,000 Syrians have taken refuge from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s security forces.

The October 5-13 “mobilization” exercise, announced on the military’s website on Tuesday, may coincide with a visit that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is expected to make to refugee camps in Hatay after he returns from South Africa this week.

ANKARA, Sept 27 (Reuters) – Turkey said on Tuesday it was
exploring for gas in an offshore zone where Cyprus started
drilling last week, a provocative step in a battle over
Mediterranean resources that overshadowed the resumption of
peace talks for the divided island.

The question of who has the right to tap what may be the
world’s biggest natural gas find of the past decade has added
sudden urgency to long delayed efforts to settle the conflict
over Cyprus, divided since 1974 into Greek and Turkish enclaves.

ANKARA, Sept 26 (Reuters) – A Turkish ship began exploring
for gas off the coast of Cyprus on Monday, the Turkish Cypriot
government said, an announcement that escalates a confrontation
between Cyprus, Israel and Turkey over huge Mediterranean gas
reserves.

The Greek Cypriot government said last week it had started
drilling for gas at a site south of the island, infuriating
Turkey which supports a separate Turkish Cypriot government on
the north of the island.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey signed a deal with the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state on Wednesday that will pave the way for offshore gas exploration, in a move set to escalate regional tensions over Mediterranean energy reserves.

On Tuesday, the Greek Cypriot government, which has been at loggerheads with Turkey since its military invasion of north Cyprus in 1974, said drilling had begun in a southeastern offshore block, adjoining a gas field in Israeli waters reputed to be the world’s largest find of the past decade.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey signed a deal with the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state on Wednesday to pave the way for offshore gas exploration in a move set to escalate regional tensions over Mediterranean energy reserves.

On Tuesday, the Greek Cypriot government, which has been at loggerheads with Turkey since its military invasion of north Cyprus in 1974, said drilling had begun in a southeastern offshore block, adjoining a gas field in Israeli waters reputed to be the world’s largest find of the past decade.

ANKARA (Reuters) – EU-candidate Turkey will freeze relations with the European Union if Cyprus is given the EU presidency in 2012, Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay was quoted as saying by state-run news agency Anatolian late on Saturday.

The comments were the strongest yet by Ankara over its opposition to the Cyprus presidency and could mark the start of a new low point in ties between the European Union and Turkey which began accession talks to the bloc in 2005.

ANKARA, Sept 17 (Reuters) – Turkey said on Saturday plans by
Cyprus to begin gas exploration in the Mediterranean amounted to
“provocation” and it would consider carrying out offshore
surveys with northern Cyprus if drilling went ahead.

The comments by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
were the latest in a row over ownership of potential hydrocarbon
reserves in the eastern Mediterranean and come at a time of
heightened tension in the region after ties between Turkey and
Israel became strained.

ANKARA, Sept 15 (Reuters) – Turkey said on Thursday it would
sign a pact with Northern Cyprus setting out the maritime
boundaries of the breakaway state if the Greek Cypriot republic
on the divided island presses ahead with plans to launch
offshore gas drilling.

Turkey, the only country to recognise a Turkish Cypriot
state, has taken a direct role in an escalating row over
hydrocarbon reserves in the eastern Mediterranean, saying they
belong not only to Greek Cypriots but also Turkish Cypriots.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish warplanes backed by heavy artillery struck Kurdish guerrilla targets in northern Iraq overnight, the military said on Saturday, a third consecutive night of raids.

The Turkish air strikes are the first against rebels in the mountains of northern Iraq in more than a year and mark a stark escalation of the 27-year-old conflict after the collapse of efforts to find a negotiated settlement.

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan’s government hit back Tuesday over a U.S. watchdog report on aid spending in Afghanistan last week, saying several assertions in the report were wrong and that future audits needed to be “more balanced and accurate.”

Afghanistan’s finance ministry said while it welcomed outside scrutiny, any funds that had been misused or ended up in the hands of insurgents were not the government’s responsibility because only a fraction of aid flowed through state coffers.