Ankara

A long-awaited decree reshuffling the Foreign Ministry’s key diplomats has been finalized with appointments to crucial posts like Moscow, Tehran, Rome and Madrid. One of the most important reshuffles is the appointment of deputy undersecretary Ömer Önhon, who was responsible for the Middle East, particularly Syria, to Madrid as Turkey’s ambassador.

The Turkish government is rolling up its sleeves to improve the local digital game market, which has reached over $300 million over the past few years, using a new roadmap.

It has already become certain that ISIL’s (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) invasion of Mosul will pass into history as the “pre-Mosul and post-Mosul era.” The post-Mosul order turns the regional balance of power upside down. Hence, Turkey has to make a completely new reading of the region and adapt its policies accordingly.

The Constitutional Court’s landmark verdict on the Balyoz (Sledgehammer) coup case came only a few days after officials from Turkey and the European Union met at a working group meeting to allow the former to fulfill benchmarks for the opening of Chapter 23: Judiciary and fundamental rights.

Turkish President Abdullah Gül met with outgoing U.S. ambassador to Ankara Francis Ricciardone on June 20 in Istanbul.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan became angry because the main opposition leader had called the Middle East a quagmire. “That’s insulting,” the prime minister said. Before a court bans using the words “Middle East” and “quagmire” in the same sentence, this columnist volunteers to call the peaceful, wealthy, healthy and happy region as “the Eden of the Middle East.”

Turkey has asked Russia to reduce the price of the natural gas it buys, the country’s energy minister said on June 19, during a visit to Moscow.

An Istanbul court ruled for the release of all convicts in the Balyoz (Sledgehammer) coup plot case on June 19, a day after the Constitutional Court ruled that the rights of 230 convicts were violated and they should be retried.

Reporters Without Borders has denounced the Turkish government’s management of the crisis in Iraq, slamming the “censorship” on the coverage of the kidnapping of 80 Turkish citizens near Mosul by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants.

U.S. military intervention in Iraq is unlikely at the moment, as such a move could make Iraqi citizens even more vulnerable to attacks by Sunni rebels, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said.