News archive of September 2015

?I dedicate this election manifesto to the youth,? said main opposition Republican People?s Party (CHP) Chair Kemal K?l?çdaro?lu on Sept. 30, addressing thousands at a party gathering in Ankara. Members of the party?s youth branch were placed on two sides of the stage where he was delivering his speech.

The term ?useful idiots? became popular in Turkey thanks to the Justice and Development Party (AKP). The staunchest opponents of the AKP accused liberals of providing ?legitimacy? to a political party that they claimed had a ?hidden agenda.? 

The ÇEKÜL Foundation, the Foundation for the Protection and Promotion of the Environment and Cultural Heritage, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. We know ÇEKÜL for its extraordinary work in protecting cultural texture in Turkey.

Sometimes truth is indeed stranger than fiction. I would never have expected a German company, especially one which is built on trust, to be involved in such a shameful scam. 

We are watching with astonishment how those people who sat down to negotiate with a 31-year-old terror organization left the table without taking the necessary precautions and, instead of taking responsibility for what followed afterward, are trying to get away by declaring anybody randomly as a ?supporter? of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK).

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has turned out to be the main catalyzer of developments in Syria, putting powers which are otherwise rivals in a more cooperative mode over this crisis. But what does this mean in terms of Turkey?s expectations? 

One of the priorities over the 13-year rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been raising ?pious generations,? meaning the country?s education system has been a special target for the party, and its de facto leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an.

?A Strangeness in My Mind? by Orhan Pamuk, translated by Ekin Oklap (Faber £20/Knopf $28, 624 pages)

A 3,000-year-old underground city that was discovered in 1988 in the northern province of Bayburt needs attention to attract more tourists A trip to Cappadocia is rarely complete without a descent into the underground city of Derinkuyu.

The history of the ancient city of Ephesus was believed to have stretched back 8,000 years ago, but the discovery of an amulet shows that it is at least one millennium older An amulet figure that has been unearthed during excavations at the Çukuriçi mound in Ephesus has revealed that the ancient city is actually nine millennia old.