Cahit Turhan

The ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP and its junior partner, the Nationalist Movement Party, MHP, introduced a new bill to the Turkish Parliament on Tuesday aimed at releasing 90,000 prisoners.

The bill, which will be voted upon by MPs soon, will increase probation time and decrease sentences. 

Turkey's Transport and Infrastructure Minister has been removed from his post by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, according to a decree published on the Official Gazette early on March 28. 

Cahit Turhan has been replaced by his deputy, Adil Karaismailoğlu, the decree said.

It did not provide a reason for the change or any further details.

Turkey said on March 13 it was halting flights to and from nine European countries including Germany and France until April 17 as it ramped up measures to halt the spread of coronavirus and reported three more cases, bringing the total to five.

The Turkish railways have posted record figures in freight and passenger transportation for 2019, the country's transport minister said.

The total passenger numbers through Turkey's railways reached 149.8 million, said Cahit Turhan on Feb. 25.

The number of passengers travelled through high-speed trains grew 2 percent year-on-year to 8.3 million in 2019, he said.

Freight vehicles produced in Turkey are highly sought after in European markets as firms from the continent have ordered dozens of wagons in the past year, the country's minister for transport and infrastructure said on Feb. 14.

A passenger plane on Feb. 5 skidded off the runway at an Istanbul airport, injuring 120 people, officials said. 

The Pegasus Airlines plane was arriving from Turkey's Aegean province of İzmir at Sabiha Gökçen International Airport when it skidded off the runway during landing, the Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Cahit Turhan said.

The zoning plan for Kanal Istanbul has been approved, paving the way for the construction of the artificial seaway, Turkish Transport and Infrastructure Minister Cahit Turhan has said.

"We have arrived at the stage of holding a tender for Kanal Istanbul. We will launch the tender for the project, and construction work will start this year," Turhan told a press conference in Ankara.

A mega-project to build a canal through Istanbul, Turkey, will provide safe passage to 185 ships daily, compared to 118-125 ships through Bosphorus Strait, Turkey's transport minister said on Jan. 13.

"An estimated total of $1 billion per year will be collected from ships passing through Canal Istanbul," Cahit Turhan told Anadolu Agency.

Turkey invested over 767.5 billion Turkish liras (some $334 billion) in transportation infrastructure over the last 17 years, the country's transport and infrastructure minister said on Jan. 9.

Speaking at a news conference in the capital Ankara, Cahit Turhan said the government will continue to invest in railway projects in line with the country's 2023 centennial targets.

The government has unveiled a Logistics Master Plan, a long-term projection that includes more than $110 billion investments in transportation infrastructure.

The plan is prepared as a result of talks with all shareholders in a bid to turn Turkey into a logistics hub, said Transportation Minister Cahit Turan at a Dec. 25 ceremony at the main train station in Ankara.