Peter Kenyon

The phrase "safe third country" is part of a European Union deal that will send refugees to Turkey starting Monday. NPR's Peter Kenyon discusses what the phrase means.

Turkey faces criticism for border policies allowing jihadis to flow back and forth from Syria. But it deported one of the Brussels bombers in 2015, and says Europe failed to take warnings seriously.

A Turkish columnist once hailed the country's leader as a champion of democracy. Now he joins many Turks in gloom and disappointment over the country's course.

A car bomb exploded in a busy square in Turkey's capital, Ankara, killing nearly three dozen and wounding scores more. It was the second car bomb in Ankara in the last month.

The report from 30 aid and human rights groups faults the U.N. Security Council for its approach to Syria, while also giving credit to current peace efforts.

The report says 50,000 civilians were killed, and more than a million displaced. The groups, which include Oxfam and Care International, put much of the blame on Russia, France, Britain and the U.S.

Turkey's largest-circulation opposition newspaper is no longer opposing the president. Editors and journalists were cleared out by riot police, and court-appointed trustees took over management.

At a meeting on Monday, the European Union is trying to convince Turkey to slow the flow of migrants from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan into Europe. What does Turkey want in return?

Iranians are hoping the recent election of more reformers to parliament will help improve the economy.

Vote counts show Iranians backing a more reform-minded parliament, giving a boost to the nuclear deal and the path set out by the country's moderate president.

Friday's election is a test of whether the reform movement can get any traction after a year in which hard-liners have been flexing their muscle.

In the city of Qom, ayatollahs and hardliners fret that their government relinquished too much in its nuclear deal with the U.S. and other world powers. "God knows what we gave up," says an ayatollah.

Iranians were promised that a nuclear deal would lead to an economic boost as sanctions vanished. But as the country votes for a new parliament on Friday, there's been no economic upturn.

Iranians vote Friday for parliament and a committee that could someday choose the next supreme leader. Reformers aren't getting traction as the benefits from the nuclear deal are slow to materialize.

A car bomb killed at least 28 people in Turkey's capital Ankara on Wednesday. Turkey's prime minister is blaming Kurdish militants for the attack, which was directed at a Turkish military convoy.

While the Turkish government is under fire for not letting more Syrians in, many Turks are bringing aid to refugees. One took to social media to help find others looking to share more than sympathy.

Syrians are fleeing to Turkey to seek safety from increased airstrikes around the city of Aleppo. But Turkey — already hosting more than 2 million Syrians — says it can't let them in yet.

Freedom House says a third of the world's population lives in areas plagued by repression. Human Rights Watch says fear of terrorism presents the greatest threat to human rights in a generation.

Expectations the United Nations could get Syria's warring parties around the same table for talks in Geneva Monday have fallen through. Now the UN will fall back to a longer process of shuttle diplomacy.