Arms deals with Arabian Gulf countries helped push United States weapons sales to a record $66.3 billion (Dh243.5bn) last year, a report for the US Congress found. The tripling in sales compared to 2010 represents growing concerns among Gulf states and their American allies about the possibility of a nuclear-armed Iran as well as a more fragile region in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. "It's clear that th ...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Syria of letting Turkey's Kurdish rebels operate inside the north of the country and warned that Ankara would not hesitate to strike against them. "In the north, it (President Bashar al-Assad's regime) has allotted five provinces to the Kurds, to the terrorist organisation," Erdogan said on Turkish television late Wednesday, referring to the Kurdistan Work ...

My name is SEMIHA UNAL .. I am a business consultant and founding director of consultancy company called S4U (Solutions For You) based in Istanbul, Turkey. You can have detailed information about my career and past achievement on MY WEB PAGE I have been following this website (BTT) for a while and the editor of the site and I have agreed to combine our capabilities to provide foreign entrepreneurs intereste ...

Parliament abolishes the special courts but convet some of their poweers to the Courts for Serious Crimes. But the ongoing Ergenekon and Balyoz cases will not be affected Parliament has adopted a reform abolishing the specially authorized courts but transferring some of their authority to the Courts for Serious Crimes, tasked with prosecuting terrorism-related crimes, while assuring that the ongoing controv ...

Major KCK raid on unions, 71 detained, brings reactions 71 people, many of them high-level union figures are detainedon charges of membership in the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK). The detentions bear reactions Opposition and labor leaders have reacted angrily after police detained yesterday 71 people, many of them high-level union figures, on charges of membership in the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK ...

Court Exonerates Columnist for Allegedly Anti-military Article The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office vindicated daily Cumhuriyet columnist Bekir Coşkun of charges leveled against him by Turkey’s General Staff for an article he penned, while CHP deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu also proposed an amendment to nullify a law that prescribes prison terms for insulting the president. The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor's Office ...

No negotiations, PKK has to lay down arms: Turkish PM The government will not conduct any negotiations with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told reporters today, adding that the PKK’s disarmament was the only way to end terror.  "Nobody can make terrorism an issue of negotiation," Erdoğan said. "We will end this, sooner or later. This is non-negotiabl ...

Turkey and Azerbaijan have had very strong and friendly relations throughout their histories. These close ties have also played a very important role in business and political relations between two countries. Turkey is a very powerful ally in the Middle East (and eastern Europe) and Azerbaijan owns huge oil sources. It has been quite usual to see powerful joint projects between two countries recently and  i ...

Kurdish to be offered as an elective landuage course in Turkish schools Delivering a speech at his Justice and Development Party (AKP) parliamentary group meeting yesterday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his government would introduce elective lessons in the Kurdish language in schools. "Kurdish will be learned and taught as an elective lesson, if there is sufficient number of students deman ...

Turkey's foreign minister says when Greek Cyprus assumes the European Union presidency in July his country will continue to collaborate with the EU, but will not attend any event Greek Cyprus presides over. Turkey does not recognize Greek Cyprus as a sovereign nation and opposed the Greek Cypriot presidency before reaching a solution. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu spoke on Thursday during a joint ...

Western, Arab foreign ministers to convene in Istanbul to dicuss Syria Foreign ministers from several Western and Arab countries will hold an unofficial meeting in Istanbul today to discuss the ongoing crisis in Syria. The unofficial meeting will take place prior to the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF), which is set to convene tomorrow. Diplomatic sources have confirmed that Turkish Foreign Minister Ahm ...

Turkey and EU has officially launched the "positive agenda" in order to revive Turkey’s EU accession process. European Union Minister and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagıs, who launched the agenda yesterday with EU Enlargement Commissioner Stephan Fule, said May 17 would be remembered as a "turning point" in Turkey's accession into the European bloc. "Our Armenian citizens have started to perform religious cere ...

Hundreds of school children are hospitalized in a number of cities across Turkey, right after they are given free milk as part of a recent project. Government officials say the children are not poisoned, but ‘effected’ On the first day of a new government project distributing free milk in state schools, hundreds of students have been put in the hospitals after symptoms of poisoning.Erdem Güneşerdem.gunes@hd ...

US President Barack Obama avoided using the word “genocide” in an annual statement commemorating Armenians who perished during World War I in Anatolia, referring to the killings as “Meds Yeghern” -- meaning Great Tragedy in Armenian -- instead. "Today, we commemorate the Meds Yeghern, one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.  In doing so, we honor the memory of the 1.5 million Armenians who were bru ...

Some 100 Turkish business people begin their visit to the Netherlands today. The group headed by TOBB Chairman Hisarcıklıoğlu accompanies President Abdullah Gül’s official visit to the country. Meanwhile, Economy Minister Çağlayan is on a seperate mission to introduce an incentive scheme to US executives Turkish trade missions are on a crusade to prop up Turkish exports to and enhance business relations wit ...

During Chinese Vice President Jinping's official visit to Turkey, the two countries embarked upon a significant number of collaborative agreements that will in effect draw them together as if they were neighboring nations. Spanning from airlines to banking, 4.3 billion dollars worth of contracts were signed yesterday in a wide variety of sectors.China's Vice-President Xi Jinping was accompanied by a committ ...

Competition in the Turkish supermarket sector is getting tougher each and everyday. Rumors as to Migros which is among the biggest chains was planning to sell part of its supermarkets was in the air for sometime. Turkish supermarket chain Migros said it agreed to sell its discount supermarket unit Şok to Gözde Finansal and Bizim Toptan for 600 million lira ($380.1 million). By purchasing Şok for 600 million ...

Turkey's EU bid has been largely absent from the campaign ahead of Sunday's general elections, mirroring a dwindling Turkish confidence in the bloc as membership talks linger at a standstill. A recent survey by the research institute TESEV showed that 69 percent of  Turks support their country's endeavour to join the European Union, but only 36 percent of them believe it will happen in the next 10 years. Th ...

Prime Minister Erdogan's statement about a new cabinet plan is described as a presidential system rehearsal. One of the eye catching details is that the Ministry of Forestry is intended to be merged with the Ministry of Public Works and changed into Ministry of Environment, Forestry & Urbanization. According to this new plan, the Ministry of Women and Family Affairs will be annulled. 4 days before gener ...

Industry and Trade Minister Nihat Ergün has said the government is considering giving special incentives for the production of Turkey’s first national car. “I cannot talk about the details of this incentive since it is too early, however, we will be focusing on this project. The current legal framework is suitable to give certain incentives for a specific project,” Ergün told the Dünya daily on Thursday. Ea ...

The Turkish competition board fined Turkcell 91.942 million lira in an investigation into whether Turkcell abused its market leading position through applications to distributors.The Competition board said the company didn't violate competition, but distributors abused the market dominant position. The fine amounts for about 6 percent of the 2011 profit forecast and is slightly negative for Turkcell, said B ...

Domestic and global telecommunications operators with turnover of close to 400 billion euros gathered for an event organized by Türk Telekom in Istanbul on Thursday to develop ideas on “sustainable online trade models.” Speaking to the Hürriyet Daily News, Hakam Kanafani, chief executive officer of Türk Telekom, said customer expectations were changing in parallel with technological development. “I think th ...

In comparison to many economies, the Turkish banking sector has remained resilient through the current crisis and has weathered fluctuations well. This was accomplished thanks to a robust capital structure, reliance on core banking activities, a healthy loan portfolio and a low-leverage structure. These conditions were achieved through: Strong capital levels: The recent crisis has emphasized the importance ...