News archive of June 2017

"Sarı Sıcak" (Yellow Heat), which won four awards including the Best Film Award at this year's Istanbul Film Festival, returned from the 39th Moscow International Film Festival with the Best Director Award. 

Written and directed by Fikret Reyhan, the film made its international premiere at the festival, which ended on June 29 in Moscow. 

The new Serbian government, elected on Thursday, held the first session in Belgrade on Friday, and decided to to appoint Novak Nedic as its secretary-general.

Flamingo chicks that hatched in the Tuz Lake (Salt Lake) in central Turkey have started walking, creating a visual feast for photographers. Around 10,000 flamingo couples incubate there every year, making Tuz Lake one of their most important breeding grounds.

Turkey and the European Union are set to hold a political dialogue meeting at the ministerial level on July 25, an EU official has told Hürriyet Daily News. 

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, EU Minister Ömer Çelik, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, and Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn will gather for the meeting in Brussels. 

Turkey and the EU are due to hold a high-level political dialogue meeting in Brussels on July 25, private broadcaster CNN Türk has reported.

Nearly half a million Syrians have returned to their homes so far this year, including 440,000 internally displaced people and more than 31,000 returning from neighbouring countries, the United Nations' refugee agency said on June 30. 

Most returned to Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Damascus, it said, on the view that security had improved in parts of the country.

Turkish police and the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) caught eight militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as well as the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), who were preparing for a "sensational action" in the country, in the southeastern province of Gaziantep in a joint operation on June 30, Doğan News Agency has reported. 

Turkey's gross external debt stock stood at $412.4 billion, nearly half its gross domestic product, at the end of March, the Treasury announced on June 30.

The country's net foreign debt reached $266.7 billion at the end of March, accounting for more than 31 percent of GDP, the Treasury stated.

The Istanbul Municipality hiked public transport fares by an average of 11 percent on June 30, affecting bus, rail and sea transport systems across the city.

Three male performers question, re-examine and attempt to provide answers to the legend of Euripides' Medea from a male perspective in a performance at the Little Theater of Ancient Epidaurus directed by Dimitris Karantzas and starring Giorgos Gallos (Medea), Christos Loulis (Jason, Creon, Tutor, Aegeus) and Michalis Sarantis (Chorus, Messenger, Nurse).