The Transport Ministry issued a ban on Turkish-flagged commercial yachts and regular passenger ships sailing to Greece as of Sept. 25
Comment(s)9/26/2017
At least 1,000 passengers at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport, who were set to travel abroad, were not able to embark early on Sept. 26 due to a breakdown in the Istanbul provincial security directorate’s Polnet data system.
The ancient city of Ephesus, three kilometers southwest of the present-day town of Selçuk in the western province of İzmir, is set to once again have a harbor on the Aegean coast, according to an ambitious new project.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has warned that all military and economic measures are on the table against the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)
Turkey has asked the Ankara representative of Masoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Omer Merani, to not return to Turkey, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Sept. 26.
Germany will fail to form a government following the recent federal elections in the country, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Sept. 26, blasting Berlin’s "anti-Turkey stance" before the elections.
Brent oil prices hovered near 26-month highs, supported by Turkey’s threat to cut crude exports from Iraq’s Kurdistan region as well as signs that market rebalancing is accelerating.
A number of radical changes regarding entrance to universities in Turkey are on the way, with the announcement that 10 universities in the country have been determined as research-focused universities and that the current university entrance exam system will be completely changed.
Ankara will regard any attempt to freeze or suspend accession talks as a breaking of the negotiation process, Turkey’s EU Minister Ömer Çelik has said.
Iraqi soldiers joined Turkish troops for military exercises in southeast Turkey near the border with Iraq on Sept. 26 as the two countries coordinate steps in response to the Iraqi Kurdish independence referendum.
Hakan Atilla, a deputy general manager of Halkbank who was arrested in the U.S. in March on charges of cooperating with Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab in order to evade sanctions against Iran, has requested that a total of 15 Turkish witnessed be listened to by the court.
Bulgarian and Turkish gas operators Bulgartransgaz and Botaş will hold meetings as soon as possible to speed up progress for the Turkey-Bulgaria Gas Interconnection Project “ITB,” Nadezhda Neynsky, Bulgaria’s ambassador to Turkey, told state-run Anadolu Agency on Sept. 25.
ECONOMICS
ANKARA
Turkey will offer subsidies to A-group tourism operators of cruise ships bringing foreign tourists into the country in a bid to bolster visitor numbers which have fallen sharply due to a series of bomb attacks of 2016.
Comment(s) 9/26/2017
BUSINESS
ANKARA - Anadolu Agency
Russia will start the delivery of S-400 air defense missile systems to Turkey in a “minimum of two years,” Defense Industries Undersecretary İsmail Demir stated on Sept. 25.
ISTANBUL
An Istanbul court ordered the release of veteran journalist Kadri Gürsel on Sept. 25 in the third hearing of the case into critical Turkish daily Cumhuriyet.
Comment(s) 9/25/2017
Turkey’s Supreme Court has ruled that use of smartphone application ByLock can be considered as evidence of membership of the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), widely believed to have been behind the failed July 15, 2016 coup attempt.
A major airline passengers group has lauded Turkish Airlines as a Five-Star Global Airline based on passenger experience and comfort, Turkey’s flag carrier announced on Sept. 26.
Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Istanbul lawmaker Sezgin Tanrıkulu has questioned a protocol signed between the Education Ministry and the Ensar Foundation, an Islamic-inspired children’s group that was previously embroiled in a major child abuse scandal.
AĞRI – Anadolu Agency
Outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants killed three migrants on Sept. 25 and injured seven others, one critically, in the eastern province of Ağrı, according to a military source.
BEIRUT - Reuters
The Syrian government is open to negotiations with Kurds over their demand for autonomy within Syria’s borders, the foreign minister has said, striking a conciliatory tone as military tensions worsen between the sides in eastern Syria.
WASHINGTON – Agence France-Presse
U.S. President Donald Trump will host Thai junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha at the White House next week, in a personal triumph for a Thai autocrat who was shunned by Barack Obama’s administration for his regime’s dismal rights record.
Japan said on Sept. 26 it killed 177 whales off its northeast coast in an annual hunt that sparks anger among animal rights activists and others.
OPINION - all the columnists »
“We never thought Barzani would make such a grave mistake. It appears we were wrong,” Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan said on Sept. 26
Comment(s)9/27/2017
Under normal circumstances, in a normal news cycle, the resignation of Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbaş should have been in the headlines throughout all subsequent days.
It has been nearly 14 months since Turkey imposed a state of emergency after the bloody coup attempt of July 2016, in a bid to fight against the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ).
The Istanbul municipal council will meet to elect a new provincial mayor on Sept. 28.
Neither Kadri Gürsel nor his freedom can be compared to a lost and found donkey, but our situation is very much like a Nasreddin Hodja joke.
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani went ahead with the independence referendum despite all the oppositions.
“We warned you that the far right is on the rise,” said Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan on Sept. 25, implicitly addressing German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as if she was not aware of the rise in xenophobic, even racist votes in her own country.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has proven to be both a lifesaver and a troublemaker for German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
On its 27th year, the Akbank Jazz Festival will be organized between Nov 3 and 19. The event will feature 53 concerts, three interviews and 15 workshops in 36 different venues
The Mosaic Road, a culture and tourism project aiming to raise awareness to the significance of mosaics in Turkey, was presented in the U.S.
A stringed instrument that once belonged to a woman in the harem of Sultan Abdulaziz has been bought by a 22-year-old Turkish music student.
A settlement from 11,500 years ago has been unearthed in Hasankeyf Mound. People lived in the settlement for 1,000 years but later abandoned it, excavations reveal
The Yılmaz Büyükerşen Beeswax Sculpture Museum, which has been visited by more than 1 million people in the Central Anatolian province of Eskişehir since it opened four years ago, is now in Istanbul. The museum, opened in the Özdilek Park Istanbul shopping mall in the Levent neighborhood, is home to over 100 beeswax sculptures.
The Fire of Anatolia, a dance group synthesizing the music and culture of Anatolia with modern and folk dances, is working on new shows. One of them aims to draw attention to tragedies refugees face in Turkey
Tens of thousands of coffee lovers flocked to the Istanbul Coffee Festival held between Sept. 21 and 24 to sip on different kinds of coffees from all around the world.
The secrets behind the construction of the oldest and only survivor of the Seven Wonders of the World have been locked within its limestone and granite walls for centuries.
Comment(s)9/25/2017
Turkish champion Beşiktaş wants to maintain its good start to the Champions League on Sept. 26 when it hosts RB Leipzig for the first time as the German upstart hunts a maiden win in its debut season in Europe.