Headlines from the centennial! – Third sequel

Two years after the second sequel to this column’s “headlines” series and having just commemorated the Republic’s 91th anniversary, here we go again with more headlines from the Istanbul press in the year 2023:

- Two Turkish professors who invented a device that measures a person’s piety have won the Islamic Nobel prize in physics. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said the device would be used during job interviews for public workers. 

- The EU’s annual progress report on Turkey’s accession has warned of systematic violations of basic civil liberties, curbs on the media and widespread corruption, but encouraged Ankara to tackle further reforms if it wants to become a member. Egemen Bağış, who took the seat of EU minister last month after a nearly 10-year break in his political career, brushed off the EU report as “unfair and subjective.”

In a separate report, the Reporters Without Borders announced that Turkey ranked 169th on its international press freedom index, a promising improvement from 172nd in 2022.

- National Ethics Minister Zafer Çaglayan, who along with Mr. Bağış resigned in 2013 after a graft scandal, also denounced the EU report. “I would bet my $700,000 watch that there is not a penny worth corruption in Turkey,” he said. “Muslims never steal public money.”

- The Labor Ministry has announced that fatal mining accidents in the first nine months of 2023 fell sharply to 18,723 from 26,739 in the same period of 2022.

- U.N. special envoy to Cyprus, Barack Obama, has said a fresh round of negotiations will open next month to end the island’s nearly half-century long division. Previous round of talks failed after Turkey insisted that Qatar should act as a fair broker...