Turkish minister attacked with stones in Turkey's southeast Interior Minister İdris Naim Şahin was attacked by a group of people who threw stones at him during his visit to the eastern province of Hakkari yesterday, daily Hürriyet has reported. Şahin was reportedly speaking with locals on Cumhuriyet Street after the fast-breaking dinner when the group began throwing stones at him while shouting slogans. Pol ...

Turkey aims to announce a tender competition for the construction of a third airport in Istanbul this month with a view to completing the bidding by the end of 2012 after spending 18 months choosing the site. Transport Minister Binali Yıldırım told reporters late on Wednesday plans for the project were now with the state planning committee (DTP), but tender documents would be published in August as soon as ...

Ireland's minister for European affairs has said her country would support Turkey reach its membership goal during its term presidency of the European Union (EU). Irish Minister of State for European Affairs, Lucinda Creighton, met with Turkish EU Minister & Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis in capital Ankara on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters prior to the gathering, Creighton pointed to Ireland's taking ove ...

Giving her first interview after being sworn in, the Greece’s tourism minister says increasing cooperation with Turkey in tourism will be a priority, adding that Greece sees Turkey not as a competitor, but as a partner Increasing cooperation with Turkey in the tourism sector will be a priority for Greece, Greece’s new tourism minister told the Hürriyet Daily News, promising that the strongest efforts would ...

Visa exemption for Turkish citizens traveling to the European Union will take effect in about 3 to 4 years, EU Minister Egemen Bağış said in Brussels a day after the bloc authorized the EU Commission to launch talks with Turkey on the issue of visa exemption. The EU minister held a one-hour meeting with European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström, European Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Fü ...

A recently introduced government investment incentive program was published in the Official Gazette following the approval of the Cabinet on Wednesday. The program divides provinces into six categories based on their current level of economic development and the investment opportunities they offer.  The first category, mainly Western provinces, is the most developed, while the sixth category includes the le ...

Ministry of Health announces that the number of smokers are in decline and Turkey is among the top four countries in the world in the fight against smoking. The number of cigarettes consumed in Turkey was 107 billion in 2008 and it has dropped under 100 billion in the last two years. according toHealth Ministry’s data. The number of cigarettes consumed in Turkey was 107 billion in 2008 and it has dropped un ...

Those who kill stray animals will no longer escape lightly with a fine, they will also have to serve time in prison, due to an amendment to the Animal Protection Law. "The amendment [to the present Animal Protection Law] is now at the prime minister's office, and those who kill stray animals will not only be fined but will also serve time in prison," Forestry and Waterworks Minister Veysel Eroglu has said. ...

Minister points at Air Force for Uludere raid ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily NewsTurkey’s interior minister weighs into the row over Uludere, labeling the dead villagers ‘extras’ for the outlawed PKK and refusing to apologize for the killings The go-ahead for a botched air strike along the Iraqi border last year was given by Air Force commanders in Ankara, Interior Minister İdris Naim Şahin said yesterday, issuing ...

Turkish Culture & Tourism Minister Ertugrul Gunay said that Turkey earned more than 25 billion USD from 30 million tourists it hosted in 2011. We hope to earn 50 billion USD by hosting 50 million tourists within the next ten years, Gunay told AA on Monday. Turkey is the 6th country in the world in the aspect of the number of tourists it hosts in 2011, said Gunay, adding that Turkey prepared a road map t ...

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 ...

"We are not the 82nd province, we are the house owner" was the messages conveyed by students from Northern Cyprus studying in Ankara. They criticized Minister Bağış's statement that Northern Cyprus could be connected to Turkey. The Initiative of Students from Northern Cyprus protested the statement of Minister for European Affairs Egemen Bağış that "Northern Cyprus could be connected to Turkey". The group o ...

Yemen aspires to learn from Turkey's experiences Yemen's Industry and Trade Minister Saad al-Din Ali Salim bin Talib, who is currently on a visit to Turkey, yesterday said that Turkey was the smiling face of Islamic world. " Any person from Islamic world could see that Islam and modernity were intermingled in Turkey. Turkey and Malaysia are the only two Islamic countries people could experience this feeling ...

Ninety-one percent of Turks lack adequate information on how planned education reform will affect their children, according to a poll by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which has called for greater public debate on a contentious related motion. “This situation is unacceptable for any democracy. How can we trust a government that is doing business in secret?” CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğl ...

A new incentive package that is expected to substantially help reduce Turkey’s current account deficit (CAD) is to be presented to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for his review of its content and coverage on Wednesday, Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan has said. Speaking at the International Investors Association’s (YASED) general congress meeting Tuesday in İstanbul, Çağlayan said the package will be an ...

Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner YILDIZ said Thursday that the justification of not opening the energy chapter to negotiations based on political reasons saddened them. Speaking at a quartet meeting with Turkey's European Union (EU) Minister and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis, European Commissioner for enlargement Stefan Fule and Commissioner for energy Guenter Ottinger in Istanbul, YILDIZ ...

Turkey has taken some remarkably giant steps in the tourism industry to become one of the major destinations in Europe and the World, in recent years. Among factors that have contributed to this outstanding success we can name increase in number of beds, improvement in service quality and certainly a much better marketing effort. Then again Turks have gained much more experience in their relations with fore ...

To sustain success in the tourism sector, Turkey should focus on small “boutique” enterprises rather than continued investment in large-scale facilities, Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay said. Speaking at a conference in Ankara yesterday, Günay said large hotels and holiday villages were cutting off the tourists from the local population and Turkey should now turn to a new kind of tourism that wo ...

Turkey posted a $5.2 billion current account deficit in November, amounting to a 13.2 percent drop as from the same period last year. On a 12-month basis, the current account deficit narrowed from $78.6 million to $77.8 million. The foreign trade deficit of Turkey also decreased by 4 percent to amount to $6.6 billion in November 2011. Furthermore, Turkey's tourism revenues increased by 13.2 percent as from ...

Turkey enjoys positive economical indicators achieved in 2011 showing its unavoidable rise to become the shining star of Europe (and the world) by 2023. In fact, the government officials have announced that the export target for 2012 is forecasted as US$ 149 billion with an increase of approximately 10 percent as compared to US$ 132 billion in 2011. When we look at the economies in Europe particularly, we c ...

Science, Industry and Technology Minister Nihat Ergun announced a Research and Development Package aimed at decreasing current deficit and increasing domestic production which was finalized at the 23rd meeting of Supreme Council for Science and Technology, chaired by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday. The package, consisting of eight arrangements and projects, will be put into practice at the b ...

Turkey hopes to tame its chronic current account deficit (CAD) problem by attracting sizable Saudi investments in key industries that contribute most to the widening CAD, Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan has said, while the government eyes a bigger slice in huge multi-billion dollar Saudi infrastructure and construction projects. "We are looking for Saudi experience and investment in refining, petrochemical ...

Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan said that Turkey's export would reach 135 billion USD by the end of 2011. "Our export is 120 billion USD between January 1 and November 24, 2011", said Çağlayan who spoke at a conference organized by Saudi Arabian National Commerce Bank (NCB) in İstanbul on Friday. Çağlayan said that NCB was one of the most important and meaningful investments of Saudi Arabia in Turke ...