Hurriyet Daily News

By the time you read this article, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's meeting with President Donald Trump will be over. I wish I could be a fly on the wall to predict the discussions inside the White House, but my instinct tells me that whatever is spoken inside will be dictated by a force outside Washington - the Kremlin.

Istanbul's Chief Prosecutor's Office has demanded three aggravated life sentences for each of the 19 soldiers who raided daily Hürriyet, the Hürriyet Daily News, CNN Türk and Kanal D at the Doğan Media Center in Istanbul's Bağcılar district on the night of the failed coup on July 15, 2016.

Statements from Ankara regarding developments in Syria suggest that things are moving in a direction that Turkey wants. Take the operation against al-Bab in northern Syria for example. The head of the military recently announced that it has been completed and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has been defeated. 

A group of soldiers entered the Doğan Media Center, which hosts Hürriyet newspaper, Hürriyet Daily News, broadcaster CNNTürk and other Doğan media companies, in Istanbul early on July 16, taking several journalists and other staff in the building hostage for some time.

The 13 private soldiers and corporals headed by a middle-ranking soldiers, entered the headquarters on a helicopter.

Amid growing global concerns over the deterioration of civil rights and freedoms, the Turkish government has led a resolution favoring people's right to peaceful protest at the U.N. Human Rights Council (URC), prompting a leading human rights organization to call on Ankara to harmonize its national level of implementation with its acts in the international field.

Leading tourism players have called for the launch of a widespread promotional campaign to find new markets in a bid to overcome the recent losses at a meeting that was held by daily Hürriyet. 

A team of Turkish archaeologists have found an early Christian church in an underground settlement near Nevsehir, in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey.

The archaeologists have dated the church to the 5th century CE. They discovered the church in a large underground city that the scientists found in March 2015, as sci-news website mentions.

Journalists have rallied in Istanbul in solidarity with colleagues who have faced politically-motivated attacks and threats in recent weeks.

After gathering in the Tünel neighborhood of the central Beyo?lu district on Oct. 3, journalists marched to Galatasaray Square with placards reading: "Free press cannot be silenced."

Turkish journalists have rallied in Istanbul in a show of solidarity with their colleagues who have been facing politically-motivated attacks and threats in the past weeks.

After the protest started in the Beyo?lu district's Tünel neighborhood on Oct. 3, journalists marched to Galatasaray Square with a placard reading "Free press cannot be silenced."

As is said, "actions speak louder than words." Ruling Justice and development Party (AKP) has been in coalition talks with the Republican People's Party (CHP). The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democracy Party has been shunned by all, particularly by the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).