News archive of September 2014

The Energy Board, which has been recently set up by the Bulgarian government, is due to have a first meeting on Tuesday.

Established as a consultative body at the Council of Ministers, the board is due to analyze the state of Bulgaria's energy sector and to look into the reasons for the permanent instability within the system.

Sofia City Court has ruled that Russian-French businessman Nikolai Kobliakov is to be placed under house arrest.

The ruling comes after Bulgarian authorities received a request for Kobliakov's extradition sent by Moscow.

Kobliakov was detained at Sofia Airport just before entering Bulgarian territory on July 31.

Former policeman Hajrudin Dedic, accused of detaining and beating Serb civilians in Breza in 1992, said that he knew nothing about the crimes before the investigation started.

The government is in contact with the Turkish Consulate members in Mosul who were kidnapped by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in northern Iraq and their whereabouts are known, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç said on Sept. 1.

Exactly two weeks after summoning German Ambassador to Ankara Eberhard Pohl over electronic spying claims, the Turkish Foreign Ministry yesterday summoned the U.S. chargé d’affaires in Ankara, Jess Bailey, over similar claims. They demanded the U.S. stop spying on Turkey at once, “if the claims are true.”

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu says Turkey’s EU perspective remains one of his government’s strategic objectives. The fact that Volkan Bozkır, a former ambassador who knows Europe well, has been appointed as EU minister is a good sign in this regard.

We keep complaining about the rise and intensity of polarization in Turkey. 

I watched Fatih Akın’s film “The Cut,” and there is no reason why this film should not be released in Turkey.

Yes, there are disturbing scenes: there is rape, there is slaughter. Yes, the atrocities committed by the Turks are present.

The head of Renaissance (Rönesans) Holding, the biggest Turkish contracting firm in Russia, Dr. Erman Ilıcak, who I happened to meet during the Saint Petersburg Economic Forum last May, is very happy nowadays. He, indeed, has reason to be.

The Iranian mathematician Professor Meryem Mirzahani has won the Fields Medal, considered the Nobel of mathematics.