ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey sent two firefighting aircraft Saturday to help battle wildfires in neighboring Syria as Turkish firefighters battled a blaze on their side of the border and one person was reported dead in the country’s west.

Eleven fire trucks and water support vehicles were also dispatched to help beat back flames in Syria’s northwest Latakia region, according to Raed Al Saleh, the Syrian minister of emergency and disaster management. He posted on X, saying “sudden wildfires in Turkey” delayed their arrival by almost a day.

Turkey has been battling wildfires since June 26.

Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said Saturday that firefighters successfully controlled 10 major fires in western Turkey, but an injured forestry worker had died, the third in the municipality of Odemis in Izmir province.

Authorities said most of the fires in Izmir were caused by faulty power lines.

Meanwhile, in Hatay province, which borders Syria, emergency crews continued fighting a blaze that broke out Friday afternoon in the Dortyol district near a residential area and rapidly intensified due to strong winds, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Some 920 homes had been evacuated as a precaution against the advancing flames, Governor Mustafa Musatli said late Friday.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said 44 suspects had been detained in relation to 65 fires that broke out across the country.

Fires that have hit Turkey, Greece and Syria over the past week have been fueled by soaring temperatures, strong winds, and low humidity. In Turkey, they led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people and damaged some 200 homes.

The Syrian Civil Defense expressed concerns over the presence of unexploded ordnance from the country’s past conflicts in some of the wildfire areas.

Summer fires are common in the eastern Mediterranean region, where experts warn that climate change is intensifying conditions.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Firefighters in Turkey remained locked in a battle to contain flames tearing through forested hillsides in the west of the country on Friday, while similar wildfires in neighboring Greece were largely brought under control.

Wildfires that broke out in at least five locations across Turkey’s Aegean coastal province of İzmir — fueled by soaring temperatures, strong winds, and low humidity — have killed two people, forced the evacuation of tens of thousands and damaged some 200 homes.

Forestry Minister İbrahim Yumakli said Friday that firefighters, supported by water-dropping aircraft, remained on the ground battling a deadly wildfire near the town of Odemis for a third day. Elsewhere, emergency crews worked to halt the spread of a new blaze that broke out late Thursday near the district of Buca.

The fire near Odemis claimed two lives — a forestry worker who died Thursday trying to contain the flames, and an 81-year-old resident who succumbed to smoke inhalation, according to authorities.

“Our intense air and land fight to control the fires in Odemis and Buca,” continues, the minister said on X, without providing further details.

Another wildfire that broke out Wednesday near the popular vacation destination of Cesme was contained Friday, Yumakli said. The fire prompted the evacuation of three neighborhoods and caused temporary road closures.

In Greece, a coastal wildfire on Crete remained under control. But the fire service maintained a large deployment on the island as the authorities feared flare ups due to strong winds.

More than 5,000 tourists, hotel workers and local residents were moved out of the area on Wednesday as the blaze threatened seaside resorts. Several areas of the country remain on alert due to the adverse weather conditions.

Local authorities in Crete estimate that the wildfire has burned approximately 15 square kilometers (3,700 acres) of land.

Turkish officials have not provided an estimate of the total land area consumed by the fires.

Authorities said most of the fires Izmir were caused by faults on power lines. Yumakli blamed the blaze in Buca on sparks caused by construction workers using a grinder to cut through metal.

Summer wildfires are common in both Greece and Turkey, where experts warn that climate change is intensifying conditions.

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Gatopoulos reported from Athens.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Firefighters raced Thursday to contain wildfires that forced thousands to flee holiday resorts on the southern Greek island of Crete, while neighboring Turkey grappled with its own deadly blazes that claimed at least one life.

More than 5,000 tourists, hotel workers and residents were evacuated from the Ierapetra area along Crete’s southern coast, authorities and hotel association officials said. A small number of people fled into the sea and were rescued by local fishermen and divers.

Ierapetra Mayor Manolis Frangoulis said firefighters were working to prevent flare-ups before nightfall, when water-dropping helicopters are grounded.

“The fire has receded a little, but if the wind hits the flames again, we’ll have new fires and the catastrophe will continue,” he said.

Several homes and businesses were damaged. Volunteers found dead farm animals, some burned alive while chained inside sheds. Displaced tourists were relocated to other hotels or spent the night in an indoor basketball stadium.

Separately Thursday, authorities ordered precautionary evacuations due to a wildfire near the port of Rafina, about 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) east of Athens.

In western Turkey, firefighters discovered the body of an 81-year-old man after extinguishing a blaze near a village, marking the first fatality in a series of wildfires that have forced thousands to flee. Officials said the man died from smoke inhalation near the town of Odemis.

A total of 37 other villagers were safely evacuated by security forces and emergency teams. Meanwhile, hundreds of firefighters, supported by aircraft and helicopters, were deployed to battle a wildfire near the Aegean coastal town of Cesme, a popular vacation destination about 190 kilometers (120 miles) west of Odemis.

That fire, which began Wednesday, forced the evacuation of three neighborhoods and led to road closures. Television footage showed flames racing through dry vegetation on both sides of a highway.

Over the past week, Turkey has battled hundreds of wildfires fueled by strong winds, extreme heat and low humidity. Now mostly under control, the blazes have damaged or destroyed about 200 homes.

Summer wildfires are common in both Greece and Turkey, where experts warn that climate change is intensifying conditions.

Late Wednesday, Turkey’s parliament adopted a landmark climate law targeting net-zero emissions by 2053. The legislation includes measures to establish a carbon market board to oversee efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The law comes at a time when Turkey is increasingly grappling with issues related to climate change, from searing heatwaves to prolonged droughts, experts say.

“As a Mediterranean country, Turkey is highly vulnerable to climate change,” said Gizem Koc, a lawyer with the U.K.-based environmental advocacy group ClientEarth. “The most striking vulnerability is the drought and water stress in some regions, but also there is increasing frequency of floods and other extreme weather events.” ___ Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. Elena Becatoros in Athens contributed.

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — A Kurdish militant group that has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkey announced Thursday its fighters in northern Iraq will begin handing over their weapons, marking the first concrete step toward disarmament as part of a peace process.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, announced in May it would disband and renounce armed conflict, ending four decades of hostilities. The move came after PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to convene a congress and formally disband and disarm.

Ocalan, 76, continues to wield significant influence in the Kurdish movement despite his 25-year imprisonment. His call to end the fighting marked a pivotal step toward ending the decades-long conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since the 1980s.

In the latest development, “a group of guerrilla fighters will come down from the mountains and will bid farewell to their arms in an effort to declare their good will for peace and democratic politics,” the PKK said in a statement Thursday.

The ceremony, which is expected to take place between July 10 and July 12 in the city of Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, will be the first concrete move toward disarmament.

An Iraqi Kurdish official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said around 40 PKK members are expected to hand over their light weapons to the regional government.

The regional government is dominated by two parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, with the KDP overseeing the regional capital, Irbil, and the city of Dohuk. The PUK governs Sulaymaniyah.

The KDP has good relations with Turkey and has been at odds with the PKK, while the PUK is closer to the PKK.

In Turkey on Monday, Omer Celik, a spokesperson for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, or AKP, said the PKK could begin handing over arms “within days,” but did not provide details. Celik added that Erdogan would meet with members of the pro-Kurdish party next week to discuss the peace effort.

There was no immediate statement from Turkey’s government on Thursday’s announcement.

The PKK has long maintained bases in the mountains of northern Iraq. Turkish forces have launched offensives and airstrikes against the PKK in Iraq and have set up bases in the area. Scores of villages have emptied as a result.

The Iraqi government in Baghdad last year announced an official ban on the separatist group, which has long been prohibited in Turkey.

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Abdul-Zahra reported from Baghdad. Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres will bring the rival leaders of ethnically divided Cyprus together again this month following a “constructive atmosphere” at an earlier meeting aimed at reviving stalled peace talks, the United Nations spokesman said Wednesday.

Stéphane Dujarric said the informal meeting on July 16-17 at U.N. headquarters in New York “will provide an opportunity to continue the dialogue and exchange views on the progress made since March.”

At that meeting, Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar agreed to trust-building measures on issues like energy, environment, opening four new crossing points along a U.N.-controlled buffer zone, youth affairs and demining.

The Mediterranean island was divided in 1974 when Turkey invaded following a coup by Athens junta-backed supporters of uniting the island with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence, and it maintains more than 35,000 troops in the island’s northern third.

Negotiations between the rivals have been stalled since 2017.

Maria Angela Holguin, a new envoy Guterres appointed, said at the end of her first weeklong visit to Cyprus in late May that Guterres “continues to push” for a resumption of peace talks.

But no breakthrough is expected at the meeting this month because Turkey and Turkish Cypriot insist on a two-state accord that Greek Cypriots flatly reject.

The agreed-upon, U.N.-endorsed framework for a peace deal has been a reunified Cyprus as a federation composed of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot zones.

Ever since his 2020 election, Tatar has been demanding a two-state deal. He faces reelection in October and says he’s running on the same two-state platform with Ankara’s full backing.

Greek Cypriots say they won’t agree to any accord that formally partitions the island, allows for a permanent Turkish troop presence, gives Turkey rights to militarily intervene or offers the minority Turkish Cypriots a veto right on all government decisions.

Despite these differences, the rivals have made some progress on trust-building measures, which also include work on a photovoltaic park inside the buffer zone and restoration work on cemeteries on both sides of the divide.

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AP writer Menelaos Hadjicostis contributed from Nicosia, Cyprus.

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Europe’s continuing heat wave on Wednesday helped fuel a deadly wildfire in Spain while the European Union presented plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under scorching temperatures.

The blaze that broke out late on Tuesday created an enormous thick plume of ash and smoke that rose 14,000 meters (45,000 feet) into the sky, making it the largest registered by firefighters in Catalonia, a northeastern region of Spain.

Two farmers were killed while apparently trying to flee in a vehicle, local authorities said Wednesday.

Firefighters said that the fire spread at 28 kph (17 mph) at one point as it consumed 6,500 hectares (16,000 acres) mostly of grain fields.

“Wildfires today are not like they were before,” Salvador Illa, the regional president of Catalonia, said. “These are extremely dangerous. From the very first moment, it was considered to be beyond the capacity of extinction. I mean that not even with two or three times the number of firefighters, they have told me, it would have been possible to put out.”

Firefighters credited a rainstorm later on Tuesday for having “quickly changed the situation and helped speed up getting the fire stabilized.”

Two of the 500 firefighters who deployed needed treatment at a local hospital for their injuries. Some 14,000 residents were ordered to stay indoors for several hours on Tuesday night.

More hot weather is expected on Wednesday with temperatures in the Lleida region forecast to reach a high of 39 C (102 F).

The European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts said that it was closely monitoring the abnormally hot temperatures.

Weather experts link the heat wave to climate change.

Spain’s seas heat up

After Spain set a record for June air temperatures, its port authorities recorded the hottest ever water temperature readings for the month in the Mediterranean and the part of the Atlantic nearest to France.

Experts say higher surface temperatures are bad for sea life and make for warmer nights on shore.

“A much warmer sea around us contributes to the nights not cooling down, which is detrimental to people’s rest,” Manuel Vargas, researcher at the Oceanographic Center of Malaga, told The Associated Press.

In Spain’s southern city of Malaga, the Red Cross set up an air-conditioned “climate refuge” to help residents and provided and “assisted bathing service” to help people with reduced mobility to cool down in waters at the beach.

Turkey battles blaze

In Turkey, authorities evacuated two neighborhoods in the Aegean coastal town of Cesme after a fire that started on an agricultural field, spread to a forested area, threatening some holiday homes in the region.

Turkey has been battling a series of wildfires stoked by strong winds, heat and low humidity.

Air conditioning strains Italian power

Heat alerts were issued for 17 Italian cities Wednesday. The corresponding surge in air conditioning strained the electric grid and causing periodic blackouts. On Tuesday, parts of Florence’s historic center had a blackout following a surge in electricity use, energy company Enel said.

Italy’s labor ministry, meanwhile, summoned union representatives to a meeting Wednesday to finalize a protocol on protecting farm, construction and other workers who labor outdoors from heat exposure. This came after a construction worker died in Bologna this week.

On Tuesday, Catholic bishops from Asia, Africa and Latin America met in the Vatican to demand climate justice for the parts of the world most affected by rising temperatures.

France remains under alert

France’s national weather agency kept four departments under red alert on Wednesday after temperatures exceeded 40 C (104 F) in many towns.

The summit of Paris’ iconic Eiffel Tower remained closed until Thursday for “everyone’s comfort and safety.”

Germany’s homeless hit hardest

In Berlin, the homeless feeling the brunt of the 36 degrees C (96 F) sought respite at a city mission.

“If you maybe lie down somewhere to rest and go to sleep in the sun, that can lead to death from heat exposure,” said Barbara Breuer of the Berlin City Mission. She estimated the German capital has between 8,000-10,000 people without shelter.

Switzerland protects river

In Switzerland, one of the two reactors at the Beznau nuclear power plant was shut down as part of efforts to prevent excessive warming of the Aare River, so as not to further burden wildlife and the overall ecosystem in already hot weather, operator Axpo said.

Water fight in the Netherlands

Hundreds of people in the central town of Soest cooled down on a baking-hot Tuesday night by taking on the local fire brigade in a water fight.

Townsfolk were armed with water guns, the first responders with fire hoses.

EU plan to cut emissions

As much of Europe was scorched by torrid weather, the European Commission unveiled proposals to reduce emissions by 90% by 2040 as the 27-nation bloc aims to be fully carbon-neutral by 2050.

“We are finally here on a very hot day, and some would call that very timely,” Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told reporters in Brussels.

The proposals include allowing businesses to use international carbon credits to offset their emissions. Under the plan, international carbon credits could be used — starting in 2036 and limited to 3% of benchmark 1990 EU emissions — to reach the 2040 emission reduction target.

The proposals have to be approved by all member states.

More than two-thirds of the severest heat waves in Europe registered since 1950 have occurred since 2000, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

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Michael Corder in The Hague, Samuel Petrequin in Paris, Fanny Brodersen and Kerstin Sopke in Berlin, Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Nicole Winfield in Rome and Teresa Medrano in Madrid contributed.