Anadolu Agency's Morning Briefing - Oct. 27, 2021

ANKARA (AA) - Anadolu Agency is here with a rundown of the latest developments in Turkey, around the world, and on the coronavirus pandemic.

- Developments in Turkey, coronavirus pandemic, and other news

Turkey has administered nearly 115.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched an immunization drive in January, according to official figures released Tuesday.

The Health Ministry recorded 29,643 new cases, 215 fatalities and 31,467 recoveries over the past day.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Azerbaijani counterpart jointly inaugurated a new airport Tuesday in an area liberated a year ago from Armenian occupation.

Erdogan is the first head of state to land at Fuzuli International Airport, Azerbaijan's first airport in the area liberated from Armenia. It was the Turkish president's third official visit to Nagorno-Karabakh since its liberation last year.

The Turkish president, in Azerbaijan for a one-day working visit at the invitation of his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, cut the ribbon with Aliyev to officially open the new airport and then toured the building and spoke with officials there.

A key corridor connecting contiguous Azerbaijani territory to its exclave of Nakhchivan is set to "unite the entire Turkic world," the country's President Ilham Aliyev said Tuesday.

"Both Turkey and Azerbaijan will take necessary steps for the realization of the Zangezur Corridor," Aliyev told a joint news conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after both leaders attended the opening ceremony of Fuzuli International Airport.

Zangezur was part of Azerbaijan, but in the 1920s, the Soviets gave the region to Armenia, cutting off Azerbaijan’s land link with Nakhchivan.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s parliament ratified a motion extending authorization to launch cross-border anti-terrorist operations in northern Iraq and Syria for two more years, as well as continued participation in a Lebanon peacekeeping mission.

The Justice and Development (AK) Party, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the
opposition Good (IYI) Party backed the Iraq and Syria motion. The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), however, voted against the motion.

The motion, referred to parliament by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, allows the Turkish military to carry out cross-border operations in northern Iraq and Syria for two more years, from Oct. 30, 2021 until Oct. 30, 2023.

- Coronavirus pandemic, other developments across the World

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke late Tuesday with Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok after he was released from army custody, said the State Department.

In a statement, spokesman Ned Price said Blinken welcomed Hamdok's release and reiterated his call on Sudanese military forces to free all civilian leaders in detention and to ensure their safety.

"He also expressed his deep concern about the ongoing military takeover and repeated the imperative for military forces to use restraint and avoid violence in responding to demonstrators," said Price.

Sudan’s civil aviation authority suspended all flights as of Tuesday to and from Khartoum International Airport until Oct. 30 amid demonstrations following a military takeover in the country.

The governments of the US, UK and Norway on Tuesday condemned the dissolution of the transitional government in Sudan and the declaration of a national state of emergency as well as the detention of the country’s prime minister.

The three governments, calling themselves the Troika, said they are “deeply concerned about the situation in Sudan," condemning "the suspension of the institutions of state, the declaration of a state of emergency and the military forces detaining Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok as well as other members of the civilian leadership."

Russia voiced concern Tuesday about the situation in Sudan after a coup and called on the Sudanese sides to exercise restraint.

“We would like to see the situation in the country return to constitutional order as soon as possible. Of course, we call on all parties to exercise restraint,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow.

The Sudanese people have to decide their future themselves, and Russia wishes this to happen as soon as possible without any loss of human lives, Peskov added.

In space news, astronomers said they may have discovered a potential planet outside the Milky Way galaxy.

According to a report by ABC News, astronomers may have detected a possible planet by Nasa's Chandra X-Ray Telescope in the spiral galaxy Messier 51 (M51), also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy.