News archive of March 2017

I have known Safeen Dizayee for almost 18 years, since his days as the Ankara representative of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Back then, Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani were treated as little more than tribal leaders by Turkish generals.

The deputy general manager of Halkbank in charge of international banking, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, has been arrested in New York in relation to Iranian-Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab's ongoing case in the U.S. The criminal charge is a banking fraud that violated economic sanctions imposed on Iran by the U.S.

A feeling of pessimism binds participants of international conferences these days. While we complain about how domestic politics has hijacked Turkish foreign policy, others state their worries about their country's future. But, is this a relief? Not, at all.

When angered by the inappropriate attitudes of friends, don't we often say "With friends like you, who needs an enemy?" Seeing the awful performance of Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias ever since he assumed the foreign minister portfolio in Alexis Tsipras' government, perhaps that expression should be reworded as "With Kotzias as foreign minister, do the Greeks need an enemy?"

Ahmet Mekin, the legendary actor of one of the unforgettable movies of Turkish cinema history, "Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım" (The Girl with the Red Scarf), is still acting in movies and TV series at the age of 85.
 

The mansion of Colonel İbrahim Çolak, one of the heroes of the Turkish War of Independence, has been restored to its original and turned into a museum in the northwestern province of Bilecik's Bozüyük district. 

Çolak, who served in the Ottoman army during the Balkan Wars and World War I, was a critical in figure in the beginning of the War of Independence in Anatolia. 

Apart from the war in Syria and its repercussions, Turkish interests and "legal rights" in the Aegean and the Cyprus peace negotiations are among Turkey's top foreign policy priorities, according to the country's National Security Council, which convened this week.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered Greece to compensate 42 Bangladeshi nationals to the tune of more than half a million euros for essentially turning a blind eye to their exploitation on a strawberry farm in southwestern Greece in 2013.

The outcome of the crucial EuroWorking Group in currently underway in Brussels will most likely determine whether a staff level agreement is possible between Greece and its creditors in order for talks to resume in Athens. Sources say the meeting restarted after a break under the highest degree of discreteness.

Greeks appear to have a healthier relationship with alcohol than their European Union counterparts, according to a recent study indicating that fewer Greeks tend to drink to excess.