Outrage over alleged safety failures at a 12-storey hotel in Turkey has escalated into a political clash between the government and the opposition-run local authorities, after a fire killed 79 people and injured more than 50.

A fresh drive to bring an end to Turkey’s 40-year Kurdish conflict has seen politicians from the pro-Kurdish party meet jailed leaders

Turkey's pro-Kurdish DEM Party said it will send a delegation to meet Abdullah Ocalan, head of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), in jail on Wednesday for a second time as part of a political effort to end a decades-long conflict.

The newbuilds are the latest product of a naval expansion drive that will give Ankara added clout into and beyond the Mediterranean, Aegean and Black Seas. The aim is also to diversifying a booming domestic defense industry that’s better known for its flying drones.

The new administration’s first visit to Ankara comes amid an intensifying struggle for the partition of Syria between the states behind the overthrow of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by jihadists led by the al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

Turkey has emerged as one of the most influential power brokers in Syria after rebels toppled Bashar al-Assad last month, ending his family's brutal five-decade rule.

Turkey has offered military assistance and capacity-building support to the new Syrian military to combat “terrorist groups”, during an unprecedented visit by a high-level Syrian delegation led by the new Syrian foreign minister to Ankara on Wednesday.

The death toll from a fire that raged through a hotel at a ski resort in northwestern Turkey on Tuesday has risen to 76, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said.

A waitress who was in serious condition after jumping out of a burning hotel at a popular ski resort has succumbed to her injuries, officials and reports said Thursday, becoming the latest victim of a tragedy that has shocked the nation and revived concerns over lax safety regulations in the country.

Turkey’s central bank lowered its key interest rate by 2.5 percentage points to 45% on Thursday, in its second rate cut in as many months as official figures showed inflation was easing.

Negligence played a role in the deaths of 78 people who perished when a huge fire gutted a luxury ski resort hotel in northern Turkey this week, an expert has told AFP.