Tagged: Turkey

In Turkey, officials have arrested nine people in connection with what authorities say were two car bombs that killed 46 people near the Syrian border Saturday. Turkish officials say the suspects are Turkish civilians who are loyal to the Syrian regime.

"The bombs exploded in the border town of Reyhanli, which has been a gathering point for refugees, aid workers and smugglers bringing supplies into Syria to aid the effort to oust President Bashar al-Assad's regime," NPR's Peter Kenyon reports from Istanbul for our Newscast Desk.

Today marks the beginning of the pullback of thousands of militant PKK fighters from Turkey back to Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. It's an important milestone in a delicate effort to end nearly three decades of bloodshed that have killed an estimated 35,000 people since 1984.

In 1961, desperate to increase its labor force, West Germany signed an employment agreement with Turkey and launched a wave of immigration that continues to have repercussions today.

Now, after years of being treated as second-class citizens in Europe's economic powerhouse, large numbers of Turks — descendants of the first wave of immigrants — are returning to Turkey.

In A Strange Land