News archive of July 2015

Five people died July 30 in new attacks on the Turkish security forces blamed on Kurdish militants, as Ankara stepped up its controversial campaign against the PKK militants.

Turkey's Privatization Administration (Ö?B) has opened tenders for the privatization of a total of 10 hydropower plants, the Official Gazette said on July 29. 

The power plants will be privatized in three groups. 

A group of masked people set a public bus on fire in Istanbul's Ata?ehir district late July 29. No casualties were reported.

The group set the bus ablaze, throwing Molotov cocktails after they stopped it in Ata?ehir's Mustafa Kemal neighborhood and asked its passengers and driver to evacuate around 10:30 p.m. on July 29.

The annual circulation of newspapers and magazines published in Turkey fell by 7.6 percent in 2014 compared to the previous year, according to data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TU?K).

The number of newspapers and magazines dropped to 7,120 in 2014, with 58.7 percent of them magazines, according to the Print Media Statistics Report of TU?K.

The police at Vienna's Schwechat airport several days ago stopped a group of armed American soldiers who were on their way to Ukraine, writes the daily Kurier.

The group made up of nine soldiers raised the security alarm for attempting to travel to Ukraine along with their weapons without having a necessary permit, the Vienna-based daily is reporting.

A total of 190 militants have reportedly been killed in two major airstrikes by the Turkish military targeting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party's (PKK) bases both inside Turkey and northern Iraq, intelligence sources told daily Hürriyet, before 30 F-16s reportedly bombed PKK camps on July 30.

The al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front has abducted 18 members of a U.S.-backed rebel group in northern Syria along with their leaders as they returned from a U.S.-led train-equip program in neighboring Turkey, Anadolu Agency has reported. 

The group of 54 fighters had started proceeding into Syria's interior on July 13 after their training program was completed.

Negotiations with Russia on the Turkish Stream natural gas pipeline project have been suspended after Moscow failed to sign off on a key gas price discount agreement, Turkish officials told Reuters on July 30.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on July 29 there was a risk construction of an underwater pipeline to Turkey could be delayed if a related intergovernmental agreement was not signed soon, the Interfax news agency reported.

Bulgarian lawmakers have elected socialist party MP Maya Manolova National Ombudsman, the chairman of her party has said.

Mihail Mikov has made his comments, quoted by daily 24 Chasa, as ballots are still being counted in the single secret voting procedure arranged under Bulgaria's legislation.