One of the leading lights in Turkey’s main opposition Dr. Canan Kaftancıoğlu is suing Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu for 1 million TL each for defamation. Kaftancıoğlu, who is the Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) regional head for Istanbul, initiated legal proceedings against Erdoğan and Soylu after they branded her […]
People have taken to Twitter to mock one of Turkey’s popular news channels for its headlines about the recent protests at Boğaziçi University. Hundreds of students and academics at the university have demonstrated against the new university rector, Melih Bulu, who was appointed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the start of the year. […]
Official data shows Turks were holding record amounts of foreign currencies (forex) and gold totalling $221.04 billion during the last week of October. The data, from Turkey’s Central Bank, reflects the ongoing woes of the Turkish lira, which has lost 30% of its value against the dollar since the start of the year. The lira’s […]
A London businessman received a nice surprise when he went to pay the bill at a hotel bar and found that a stranger had already paid it. On Friday afternoon Nural Ezel went to the Hyatt Regency – The Churchill Hotel in central London to meet a friend visiting from Istanbul. Catching up on each […]
Despite coronavirus pandemic restrictions, this year’s Zafer Bayramı, or Victory Day, went ahead as planned with events held throughout Turkey to commemorate the country’s final victory in its War of Independence nearly a century ago. In line with tradition, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan led political leaders and senior-ranking military officials to lay wreaths at Anıtkabir, […]
The opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) Ahmet Ünal Çeviköz has pressed the AKP government for answers on how many members of Hamas have been given Turkish citizenship. The MP’s questions, formally tabled in Parliament to the Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay on Tuesday, follow press speculation that up to 12 members of the Palestinian group, […]
On Friday, 24 July, thousands flocked to Istanbul’s historic Hagia Sophia, known in Turkish as Ayasofya, to hear Friday prayers. It was a momentous occasion for the country’s pious Muslims, who have for years been calling for the building to be changed back into an Islamic house of worship. For the past 86 years, Hagia […]
Turkey’s former Chief of General Staff Gen. İsmail Hakkı Karadayı has died in hospital from cancer and multi-organ failure. He was aged 88. The general is best known for orchestrating a non-violent military coup in 1997 that led to the fall of a coalition government led by Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan of the Refah […]
Britain has received the first planeload of emergency equipment sent by Turkey to help in the fight against coronavirus. The items, despatched by Turkey’s Health Ministry in Ankara, include personal protective equipment such as surgical masks and hazmat suits. A second flight is scheduled for Saturday. The boxes bore the words of 13th century Sufi Mevlana […]
The Turkish authorities have extended their partial ban on flights to now cover all overseas destinations. The decision to ground all international flights to contain the coronavirus pandemic was announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday, 27 March. The president gave the news at a press conference after meeting with the country’s leading medical […]
