Küçükçekmece

Turkey on June 26 laid the foundation for Canal Istanbul, a government mega-project connecting the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea and championed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

"Today we are opening a new page in the history of Turkey's development," Erdoğan said in a bridge ground-breaking ceremony in Sazlıdere, west of Istanbul.

Within the scope of Bathonea Antique Harbor excavation works, which started 12 years ago in Istanbul's Avcılar neighborhood, new and significant findings have come to light, according to the head of the excavations, Associate Professor Şengül Aydıngün from Kocaeli University.

A drop in rainfall has led to a decline in water levels in dams supplying water to Istanbul, Turkey's most populous province.

The dams held the lowest water level in the past 10 years as of Nov. 22, at 26.34 percent, Demirören News Agency reported.

A 1,000-year-old skull and various bones thought to belong to an African person have been found at the excavations at the ancient city of Bathonea near Lake Küçükçekmece in Istanbul.

The skull differs from the other 70 skulls found in the city with its wider face and forehead structure, spreading nose and pronounced jaw, according to experts.

A colony of flamingos has landed on Büyükçekmece Lake for the first time, creating a beautiful scene but also providing another indicator of global warming.
Fikret Can, a local observing the lake on the European side of the metropolis for some 40 years, said that he had first spotted three flamingos there in 2013.

Syria TV, a satellite channel devoted to Syria and its people, has been broadcasting from the Sefaköy neighborhood of the Küçükçekmece district of Istanbul since its launch last year in March.

A suspect believed to have sexually abused a 5-year-old girl in Istanbul's Küçükçekmece district on April 22 has been caught, said Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu on April 25.

A 5-year-old child has been sexually abused by an unidentified person in Istanbul's Küçükçekmece district, causing an uproar among locals and a scramble by police to apprehend the perpetrator.

The train line connecting Istanbul's European side suburb Halkalı with Gebze district of Kocaeli province on the east is expected to be opened to service in the coming months following the completion of a six-year-long renovation process.

The Küçükçekmece Public Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul has launched an investigation into Ahmet Keser, a presenter for the Islamic conservative Akit TV, over his comments about “killing civilians” in secular neighborhoods of Istanbul for “inciting hatred and hostility among the public through media.”