In Istanbul the largest city of a country where “advanced democracy” prevails, the government has not allowed crowds to celebrate "Labor Day" at Taksim Square, the main center of the city due to unsuitable physical conditions of the place. Local authorities took precautions to prevent any illegal (!) gathering at Taksim Square for May Day, after the government denied union requests to mark the holiday at th ...

The Istanbul Municipal Assembly approves a plan, which gives way to for the government to open a tender to realize the Haydarpaşa Port Project. The historical station may lose its public funciton, says a professional The Haydarpaşa Train Station, built in the beginning of the last centure, is one of the symbols of Istanbul. the government wants to initiate a large transformation project to establish a main ...

Investments are flowing into the east despite the best efforts otherwise by the PKK terrorist organization. With the GAP Action Plan alone, the government has made a 38.5 billion investment and will be providing 400,000 jobs. The East, which has fast become a new area of attraction due to a series of incentives, has managed to rake in a record-breaking 1.5 billion in investments in just seven months’ time. ...

The government’s recent decision to convert a former tobacco plant into a prison has angered the local chamber of commerce, which is demanding an industrial zone instead. “The government has chosen to build an eighth prison in the city, instead of establishing a second organized industrial site,” said Remzi Can, the head of the Diyarbakır Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in a press meeting on Aug. 24. Burç ...

Border posts have been an open target for PKK militants due to their insecure structure and position, İnce said, blaming Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz, Interior Minister İdris Naim Şahin and Environment and Urbanization Minister Erdoğan Bayraktar for “neglect of duty” in his criminal complaint. “The government had announced that TOKİ [Housing Development Administration] would build safe border posts, yet th ...

In his historic testimony in the coup-plot case, former Chief of General Staff Özkök says former force commanders had raised the idea of issuing a memorandum against the AKP government during a military meeting in 2003, but adds that it was not an ‘official’ suggestion Former Chief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Özkök broke his silence in the Ergenekon coup-plot case yesterday in Silivri at the 13th Istanbul H ...

Main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu recently criticized the government's stance on Syria, saying Turkey is now "a country in trouble." "We do not want our people to pay the price for Western interests," Kılıçdaroğlu said. "We do not want Turkey to be dragged into the swamp." "In summary, we do not want war," he added. Kılıçdaroğlu likened the AKP's stance to "shooting someone else's bird with someone ...

Deputy PM Atalay says 10,000 prisoners will walk free with new reforms, but Kurdish MPs remain in jail even as far-right militants are set to gain their freedom Around 10,000 people currently held in jail although not convicted of crimes will be released, thanks to a recently adopted legal arrangement extending the scope of judicial control measures, Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay has said. “This is a p ...

The Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) staged a major judicial overhaul yesterday, removing specially authorized prosecutors from major coup cases and reassigning them to higher offices amid a continued debate over special-authority courts. Chief Ergenekon prosecutor Cihan Kansız and chief “Balyoz” (Sledgehammer) prosecutor Savaş Kırbaş were both reassigned as Istanbul deputy chief public prosec ...

New tax incentives prop Istanbul as a finance hub The proposed bill provides government incentives for asset management funds established in Turkey and the international funds run by these companies. As a part of the Turkish government’s project to transform Istanbul into a regional financial hub, a draft bill passed Parliament’s General Assembly on May 31 that will change some tax regulations that have bee ...

Deputies elected by the votes of Turkish citizens have been held in detainment (in prison literally) for a long time now. The AKP government in power takes every chance to emphasize on how democracy and “the SAY of the citizens” are of top priority for them. The leader and the followers also frequently mention they do everything for the Turkish people and based on the wishes of the citizens (meaning to comp ...

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy chair Faruk Loğoğlu has slammed Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu for saying Turkey has a pioneering role in the new Middle East, calling this view a “dangerous fantasy.” “I am only smiling at this. I interpret this as a fantasy. I wouldn’t have a word to say if it was a safe fantasy, but it is a dangerous fantasy. The Turkish foreign minister, w ...

The 12.6 billion dollar figure announced for March exports came as no surprise to Economy Minister Çağlayan. NOT AN APRIL FOOL'S JOKE “This figure is not an April Fool’s Day joke. Our 2012 target is to reach 150 billion dollars in exports.” Turkey's Minister of Economy Zafer Çağlayan expressed that the March export figure of 12.6 billion dollars announced by Turkey's Exporters Assembly (TİM) Chairman Mehmet ...

KESK members in Şanlıurfa and some other spots in Turkey were prevented from reaching Ankara. In anticipation of a rally organized by the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK) today in protest of the new education reform bill, police stopped some buses outside Ankara this morning, but they were later allowed to enter the city, daily Hürriyet reported. The police first tried to prevent demonstra ...

Turkey closed its embassy in Damascus on Monday because of deteriorating security conditions in Syria, a Turkish diplomatic source said. " Activities at the Turkish embassy have been suspended from this morning," the source said on condition of anonymity, adding that all diplomatic personnel have left the Syrian capital. Ankara has become increasingly strident in its criticism of its one-time ally over a br ...

To comply with several positive indicators regarding econony in Turkey, unemployment rate dropped 1.6 points year-on-year to 9.8percent in December 2011 as announced by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat). In spite of the recession still in effect in several European countries Turkey has managed  to improve its unemployment figures. Accordinglyrate of joblessness in urban areas has dropped 2 points ...

Turkish farmers are asking the government to provide financial incentives for local producers in order to stave off unfair competition from countries like the US, which provide loans for agricultural importers Corn crops are among the local agricultural products, such as soy beans and cotton, that face unfair competition due to US loans, according to local farmers.Turkish farmers are asking the Turkish gove ...

A new government plan to reform Turkey’s education system could create a new generation of child brides and child laborers, according to one of Turkey’s top business leaders. “There is a concern that the number of child brides and child laborers will increase” with the new system, said Güler Sabancı, the head of Sabancı Holding’s executive committee. “I hope these concerns and discussion will be taken into ...

The Energy Market Regulator (EPDK) has announced measurement requirements for applications for sun and wind energy stations. Private companies applying for an authorization to build new energy stations must provide the EPDK with wind and sun measurements for six months at a particular location and one year’s worth of experimental data that has been approved by the Turkish State Meteorological Service. Wind ...

Turkey’s dismal human rights record is revealed once again, as it ranked as the top sentenced country by the European Court of Human Rights last year. A Turkish diplomat says the nation has to solve cases within the domestic judicial system itself Turkish diplomatic sources said they were trying to decrease the number of applications from Turkey to the European Court of Human Rights as the country ranked at ...

Socialist International (SI) has roundly criticized the government of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) for its allegedly repressive policies and lack of respect for the freedom of expression in a declaration issued during a meeting in Costa Rica. “The AKP’s authoritarian, repressive and anti – democratic policies were strongly condemned in the declaration. As we can see, the mask has been thrown off, ...

Turkey is ashamed of the verdict announced by the court which has sentenced one of the suspects to aggravated life imprisonment for “instigating” Hrant Dink’s (Turkish journalist of Armenian origin) murder. Another suspect was not sentenced in the case, however he was charged with ten years and six months in “the Mc Donald’s explosion” case. The court also ruled that all suspects in the case be exonerated f ...

Only days after a failed government tender for the construction and operating rights of a large toll road and a third bridge over Istanbul’s Bosphorus, Japanese candidates decide to set up a consortium to re-try their chances Four Japanese firms are still interested in building a third bridge over Istanbul’s Bosphorus following the failed tender by the Turkish government Jan. 10, according to a Japanese dip ...