Taner

The dates and lineup of the much-awaited 28th Istanbul Jazz Festival have been announced and it is set to kick off in September this year, welcoming music lovers once again.

Every day, fishermen are going out fishing in the Bosphorus to hunt veined rapa whelks, large sea snails that have been touted widely as an antidote to cancer and are popular in Far Eastern countries.

Taner Yıldız, an academic from Istanbul University, told daily Hürriyet that the rapa whelks were significantly valuable, saying their export market value is around $20 million.

The Hittite seal, which has been found by a farmer while working in his field in the Ortaköy district of the Central Anatolian province of Çorum and is considered to be about 3,500 years old, has been added to the Çorum Museum collection with the initiatives of Çorum Governor Mustafa Çiftçi and Ortaköy Mayor Taner İspir.

With art of miniature now included in the UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage List, Taner Alakuş, a Turkish miniature artist, sheds light on the way this branch of art, which has gained significant national interest, is advancing in the international arena and the potential it holds.

It is a fact that Turkey's growing arts and culture area may become its most important soft power, according to Ali Güreli, founder and chairman of Contemporary Istanbul.