What a pity. “Only a fourth of planned malls completed in Turkey this year. Dispatches from Turkey…

Only 16 of the planned 64 malls in Turkey have been able to be completed this year due to cancellations or postponements in investments, a sector report has shown.

 

The new U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, John Bass, presented his credentials to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Oct. 20.
The World’s Capital of Breaking News: Suruç

Suruç is a district of Şanlıurfa Province in southeast Turkey. The urban population of this dusty, sleepy border town is only some 56,000, but it has recently become the world’s capital for breaking news.Here are some of the stories that happened in or around Suruç in the past few days:

In Turkey, Muslim groups have used the “human rights” framework to protect their religious practices, such as wearing headscarves in universities and workplaces. But what happens when the “rights” demanded by dominant religious groups contradict the rights and demands of others?
theguardian.com – Jon Henley – Oct 19, 10:00 AM – Last week, Islamic State militants released a fifth video of the British freelance journalist John Cantlie, wearing a Guantánamo Bay-style orange jumpsuit and appearing to read from a script. The film’s release was widely reported.
Denmark says Ankara failed to explain release of suspect wanted in connection with attempted shooting of a right-wing writer

The 2014 presidential elections in Turkey: a post-election analysis

The August 2014 presidential election is important not only for its own sake, but even more so for what it portends for the future of Turkish democracy.

On 10 August 2014, in the first popular election of the Turkish President in the history of the Republic, Prime Minister and Justice and Development Party (AKP) candidate Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected in the first round with 51.79 percent of the vote. The other candidates, Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, the joint candidate of the Republican People’s Party (RPP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), garnered 38.44 percent while Selahattin Demirtaş, candidate for the Kurdish Democracy Party of Peoples (HDP), secured 9.78 percent. Voter turnout (74.12 percent) was considerably lower than in all recent parliamentary elections and also much lower than the almost 90 percent registered in the most recent local elections of 30 March 2014. Moreover, turnout was also lower than expected among Turkish citizens living abroad who for the first time had the opportunity to vote from third countries. Thus, according to unofficial figures, among the almost 3 million Turks living abroad, only about 232,000 voted, in addition to another 270,000 who voted at the border gates.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has described Istanbul’s iconic Taksim Square as “the world’s ugliest square”

A look at the ‘lessons learned’ from EU’s experiences in Bulgaria and Romania, reflecting on their meaning for Turkey’s accession process and the Union’s ability to bring about significant reforms in that domestic setting.

 

A senior executive of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party has suggested that both the Constitution and the Constitutional Court have been hampering the government’s work, describing them as a “hobble.”
The ruling AKP plans to formally raise the issue of a possible early election and make the required legislative preparations after the budget debate in Parliament in December.

Kobani: US drops weapons to Kurds in Syria

Kobani air drops likely to anger Turkish government, which opposes sending arms to Kurdish rebels in Syria


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