Turkey and the Levant

The Turkish army has assumed the lead of NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) on Friday (1 January 2021), placing thousands of soldiers on standby, ready to deploy within days.

The semi official Anadolu news agency quoted the president as saying in a video address from Istanbul that "as promised, I hope 2021 will be a year of democratic and economic reforms". 

The EU has now allocated €485 million to support refugees in Turkey via the two programs delivered through Turkish partners, such as the Turkish Red Crescent Society. These programmes help over 1.8 million refugees meet their basic needs and will help over 700,000 children to continue their education, and will now be funded under the EU budget. The EU is now allocating €485 million ($591.6 million) to support refugees in Turkey via the two programs.

The 747th anniversary of the death of the most important Sufi mystic and poet in the world, Jalal al-Din Rumi was commemorated during the “Seb-i Arus” ceremony held on December 17 at the Mevlana Cultural Centre in Konya, in Turkey. This annual commemoration was this year held in virtual format because of the coronavirus pandemic

European Council president Charles Michel and Turkish president Recip Tayip Erdogan on Tuesday (15 December) held a telephone conversation to discuss EU-Turkey relations in view of recent decisions by EU leaders to maintain pressure on Ankara over its energy exploration policy in the East Mediterranean.

A new round of UN-mediated Syrian peace talks are starting this week in Geneva to agree on national principles before drafting a new constitution. Geir Pedersen, the United Nations special envoy for Syria, has been pushing towards revising Syria's constitution as a step towards ending the country's nine-year-old civil war.