The European Union has said it will resume talks with Turkey to join the 28-member organization. Discussions between the EU and Turkey have been stalled for the last three years and were postponed in June after a crackdown on anti-government protests. European officials said that the talks will begin on November 5.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul received his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee in the capital city of Ankara on Monday, expressing his hopes towards enhanced cooperation between the two countries. "Turkey and India have a big potential of cooperation in many fields. We believe this cooperation in the fields of business, investment, finance and commerce will step up in a short period of time," Gul told during a dinner with his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee in the capital city of Ankara.

Within two minutes of crossing from Turkey into Syria, I’m on the back of a motorbike being given a lift to a Free Syrian Army press office. It turns out to be a forty second ride but I might have missed it otherwise. It’s just a little prefab house across the road from a refugee camp, but it’s here that I’ve been told I can get some basic information and hire a translator.

Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, unveiled the first big package of liberalising reforms in years on Monday, making overtures to the large Kurdish minority and proposing that headscarved women be allowed to sit in parliament and work as civil servants for the first time in the history of the Turkish republic.

In late May, protesters descended on Istanbul’s Taksim Gezi Park. At first, there was a small sit-in over re-development plans that would have it, one of the few parks in European Istanbul. After months of unsuccessful petitioning to save the park, activists took to camping out there to prevent the demolition. Police removed them by force, setting their encampment on fire in the process.

In Istanbul’s religiously conservative Fatih neighborhood, the four-fingered yellow Rabia signs supporting Egypt’s pro-Morsi protest movement are ubiquitous, as residents unabashedly identify with the Muslim Brotherhood’s struggle against Egypt’s armed forces. But there is no sign of support for the impending Western military conflict with Syria. Given the devastating loss of life experienced by Syria’s Muslims, the silence punctuates increasingly mixed feelings in this country about an intervention that Ankara has long advocated.

Turkey celebrated Victory Day on Friday, marking the 91st anniversary of the Turkish victory at the Battle of Dumlupınar, the final battle of the 1922 Turkish War of Independence. The day was celebrated in all 81 Turkish provinces, as well as in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) and at Turkish embassies around the world. The celebrations began with an official ceremony in the Turkish capital, attended by top political leaders and military commanders.

Iran, whose relations with Ankara have been strained due to the Syrian crisis, aims to punish Turkey by dealing a blow to Turkish soft power in Lebanon, as Ankara has suspended its cultural and commercial activities in Beirut after a Turkish Airlines (THY) captain and co-pilot were kidnapped by gunmen last week. Turkey's contact with the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, a key ally of Tehran, on Thursday as part of efforts to secure the release of the two Turkish pilots, raised question marks in some minds over an Iranian link in the pilots' abduction.