The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Istanbul

  • Istanbul hosts diplomacy conference Thursday

    Cultural diplomacy-oriented public institutions and organisations drawn from 10 countries, including Nigeria, will converge on Istanbul, Turkey, for an international conference tomorrow at the Marmara University, Rectorate Building, Sultanahmet, Istanbul, Turkey.

    The conference, which has as theme, The role of public Diplomacy in Bringing Conflicted Communities Together is organised by YunusEmre Institute Cultural Diplomacy Academy and Global Public Diplomacy Network (GPDNet).

    It is the fourth General Assembly of GPDNetwork chaired by  Yunus Emre Institute President, Prof. SerefAtes. It will run from October 19 to 22.

    Keynote speaker is Ibrahim Kalýn. Other speakers include Brigitte Nacos of Columbia University, Luis Palma Castillo of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile, BekirKarlýðaof Alliance of Civilisations and Neville Bolt of King’s College, London.

    There will be a panel discussion that will focus on The future of the public diplomacy and the role of public diplomacy in conflict

    prevention featuring Ýbrahim Kalýn Brigitte Nacos, Luis Palma Castillo, BekirKarlýða and Neville Bolt as panelists while MelihBarut is moderator.

    A statement by the organisers said the conference and discussions will be followed by a Cultural Diplomacy Academy Interactive Learning Lab on Strategic planning for non-profit organisations. The objective of the interactive learning lab, the statement said, is to ‘broaden our visions by learning from each other’s experiences on the way to redesigning process of GPDNet vision 2030.’

    GPDNetwork was founded in Korea in October 2014 with the aim of enabling knowledge exchange in theoretical and practical fields and making bilateral or multilateral projects between cultural and diplomacy institutions across the world. Nigeria’s delegation will be led by National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO).

  • Turkey detains 11 foreigners, local human rights leaders during meeting

    Turkey detains 11 foreigners, local human rights leaders during meeting

    Turkish Authorities detain 11 people, including Amnesty International’s Country Director along with one German and one Swedish national, while attending a conference in Istanbul.

    According to an Amnesty statement on Thursday, the 11 were detained on Buyukada, an island just off Istanbul which is a popular tourist destination accessible by public ferry.

    Human rights activists said that the meeting at a hotel in the area was focused on best practices for defending human rights activists in Turkey.

    Amnesty’s Turkey director Idil Eser was among the detained in a statement by the human rights group called the detention “a grotesque abuse of power.’’

    “Eser, and those detained with her, must be immediately and unconditionally released,’’ Amnesty said.

    The group’s press office said on Twitter that Amnesty “unequivocally condemns the incommunicado detention’’ of Eser.

    Amnesty said access to the detained was initially denied to lawyers.

    The head of Amnesty International’s Turkey branch was arrested in June along with more than a dozen other lawyers.

    A number of civil society groups have been closed during Turkey’s state of emergency, which was imposed after a failed coup last summer by a military faction.

  • Dozens detained as May Day marches turn violent in Istanbul

    Dozens were detained by police in Istanbul on Monday after clashes broke out between demonstrators and authorities during May Day protests in the Turkish metropolis, a report said.

    It said that police deployed tear gas in the Mecediyekoy district of the city after clashes with protesters who were trying to reach Taksim Square, which was the centre of widespread anti-government protests in 2013.

    About 70 people were separately detained in the city’s Besiktas district.

    May Day demonstrations at Taksim Square have been banned in recent years, although unions with ties to the government were allowed to appear there to make short position statements.

    The Anadolu news agency reported that more than 30,000 members of the security forces were guarding the square.

    Thousands of union members in opposition to the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, along with other protesters – gathered in the district of Bakirkoy, where a protest had been approved by officials.

    Ever since an attempted coup in July, thousands of people have been detained in Turkey or removed from their jobs on allegations of working to destabilise the government.

  • Deputy Mayor shot in Istanbul

    Deputy Mayor shot in Istanbul

    A report from Istanbul said an unknown assailant shot Cemil Candas, the Deputy Mayor of Sisli District of Istanbul in the head on Monday.

    The report said that the mayor was in a critical condition.

    It stated that gun shots were heard soon after the assailant entered the office of the victim.

    The report stated that it was not immediately clear whether the incident was linked to Friday’s abortive military coup in which more than 200 people were killed.

    It said that Turkey remained in a state of high tension, though the government said it had the situation fully under control.

  • Hundreds of flights cancelled as Istanbul hit by heavy snow

    Hundreds of flights in and out of Turkey were cancelled for Thursday and Friday at Istanbul’s two airports after the city was blanketed by heavy snow.

    The weather condition also forced the closure of schools and brought chaos to the roads.

    Turkish Airlines cancelled 265 flights in and out of the main Ataturk airport and 37 at Sabiha Gokcen, Istanbul’s second airport.

    Budget airline Pegasus said it had cancelled 34 flights arriving or departing from Sabiha Gokcen.
    On Wednesday, city authorities said they had more than 1,000 vehicles and heavy machinery ready to keep roads open.

    They, however, warned residents against all but essential travel.

    More snowfall is forecast for much of Thursday.

    Ferries across the Bosphorus Strait bisecting Europe’s largest city were disrupted.

    Nevertheless, the waterway, the only maritime outlet for Russian oil and other commodities from the Black Sea, remained open to shipping.

  • Turkey exhumes ex-president’s body for investigation

    Turkey exhumes ex-president’s body for investigation

    The remains of former President Turgut Ozal, were exhumed in Istanbul on Tuesday on the orders of prosecutors investigating suspicions of foul play in his death 19 years ago.

    Ozal, led Turkey out of military rule in the 1980s and drove far-reaching economic reform.

    Amid tight security, mechanical diggers dug up his grave within a towering mausoleum in a cemetery on the European side of Turkey’s largest city, supervised by a prosecutor-led team including forensic experts.

    Ozal died of heart failure in April 1993 in an Ankara hospital at the age of 65 while in office.

    After his death, relatives and associates voiced suspicions he had been poisoned.

    Forensic teams will investigate whether any poisonous substances are present in the remains, which were expected to be returned to Ozal’s family by the weekend, the head of the state forensic medicine institute, Haluk Ince, said.

    Turkish political history has been littered with military coups, alleged anti-government plots and extra-judicial killings.