News archive of June 2020

Turkey's rare and endangered Anatolia Lycian salamander is under threat from serious habitat loss caused by various factors, including the opening of new stone and marble quarries, according to an expert.  

Thanks to climatic and geographical conditions, the fauna of Turkey is abundant and extremely varied and includes many rare and endemic species.

The metropolis of Istanbul ranks in the top 20 on a list of the world's 100 best "emerging ecosystems" for startups, Turkey's technology and industry minister announced on June 25. 

A Russian private space corporation announced on June 25 that it would take two tourists to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2023, with one for the first time in history to perform a spacewalk with a trained cosmonaut.

The construction of Istanbul's iconic Atatürk Cultural Center, a landmark step for the nation's art and culture life, will be completed by this year's end, the country's culture and tourism minister said. 

"It will have one big and one small hall, [the second one] with a capacity of hosting 800 people…," Mehmet Nuri Ersoy told Anadolu Agency.

Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MİT) helped rescue 170 hostages in international operations over the past 11 years, according to security sources on June 25.

This May, the MİT helped rescue a kidnapped Italian aid worker Silvia Constanza Romano, 25, in Somalia. Romano was abducted in Kenya's southeastern coastal town of Chakama in Kenya in November 2018.

Turkey has proven through video footage and radar images that its ships have not engaged in any illegal activity in the
Mediterranean Sea, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said June 25 amid allegations that its navy had harassed a French warship.
Speaking at a ceremony in Kayseri province, Akar said Turkey shared all of the evidence with NATO's military and civil authorities.

The Czech government hopes in the coming weeks to open negotiations with the EU to get a green light to construct a new reactor at its Dukovany II nuclear power plant costing some 6 billion euros, government officials told BIRN.

The country is finally moving ahead with long-delayed plans to expand its collection of nuclear plants.

Trump-Duda meeting draws a blank

The radicalization of, and extremism in, society has significantly intensified since 2012. It has become especially apparent since 2015, with the beginning of the anti-NATO protests of the opposition Democratic Front. Only those who saw their political opportunity in these protests failed to notice.

However, few of them seem to have big expectations, two decades after losing their loved ones.

Silvana Markovic, whose husband was abducted on June 19, 1999 in the Kosovo town of Gracanica, said Thaci and his allies "should finally start answering for the crimes committed against the Serbs".