On Wednesday 8th January, Russian President, Vladimir Putin, and Turkey’s leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan formally launched a Black Sea pipeline that will funnel Russian natural gas via Turkey to Europe. The two leaders inaugurated the ‘TurkStream’ in Istanbul which will carry natural gas through an undersea pipeline stretching 930km from Anapa on the Russian Black Sea Coast to Kiyikay west of Istanbul for Turkish domestic consumption, while a second…

A religious cooperation agreement has been signed between Turkey and Iran in Ankara. Minister of Religious Affairs Ali Erbas and Minister of Islamic Culture and Communication of Islamic Republic of Iran Ebuzer Ibrahimi Turkmen convened and signed the collaboration in Ankara. (News Agencies)

On January 2, 2020, two important events happened; the first one is related to Northern Africa and the second one is related to the Middle East. First, President Erdoğan requested the mandate from the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (GNAT) for sending troops to Libya upon the “invitation” of Libya's Government of National Accord. It passed the parliament with 325 affirmative votes against 184 rejection votes.

The actions of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) were mostly confined to prosecuting low and mid-level officials. Charging the wrong person, bribe scam involving its own official, going soft on the influential corrupt people, and graft charges against political leaders and government officials kept the Anti-Corruption Commission a hot topic in 2019.