Tag: Turkeys

Shipping containers to be used as voting booths in Turkey’s earthquake zone

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Istanbul: With many public buildings still damaged across Turkey’s 11 southern provinces following devastating twin earthquakes on February 6, special containers have been set up to facilitate voting on Sunday’s presidential elections.
The custom-made 21 sq mt containers will house two voting booths on the back corners for earthquake victims to vote in privacy, while election officials will be seated in the middle to monitor the process, Xinhua news agency reported.
Multiple firms in the quake-hit southern province of Gaziantep are manufacturing the special containers that are also sent to nearby provinces of Hatay, Kahramanmaras, Adiyaman, and Malatya, local media reported.

“We were normally producing containers for living when new demand for the election came up,” Ahmet Yirtici, owner of one of the manufacturing firms, told the state-run Anadolu Agency.
His company was commissioned to produce 1,000 containers.
“To meet this demand, we had to increase our workload to three shifts across 24 hours,” Yirtici said.
Following the elections, the containers will be converted into residences.
Dozens of containers have already been set up at school yards around Kahramanmaras province, the epicentre of the deadly earthquakes which claimed nearly 51,000 lives. Meanwhile, Hatay province, one of the worst hit by the disaster, has had 167 containers set up at schools and outside neighborhood administrators’ offices.

Flights to the Hatay airport have been canceled due to safety considerations until May 17, three days after the elections, Hatay Mayor Lutfu Savas recently told reporters. The airport was severely damaged during the earthquake but had been temporarily open for a while.
Of the 60.7 million eligible voters in Turkey, nine million reside in provinces hit by the earthquake. With many people fleeing to other cities, it is difficult to determine precisely how many have shifted their registration and how many will return to vote, and the lack of airport access might reduce voter turnout.
The presidential elections will be a tight race between two of four candidates: Incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeking a new five-year term following two consecutive terms, and challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), who is running as the candidate for an alliance of opposition parties.
Both candidates are also campaigning on promises of improving the quality of life for many Turks affected by the recent economic downturn. If no candidate secures more than 50 percent of the votes in the first round, a second round will be held on May 28.
Meanwhile, 24 parties are running for the concurrent parliamentary election, according to Supreme Election Board (YSK), many of which have formed alliances. The ruling Justice and Development Party’s People’s Alliance and the leading opposition Republican People’s Party’s Nation Alliance are the two main blocs.
The election also boasts major symbolic significance, with 2023 being the centennial of the founding of the republic, Xinhua news agency reported.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 9, 2023
ISIS Chief Killed in Syria by Turkey’s Intelligence Agency Says Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – Kashmir News

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ISIS Chief Killed in Syria by Turkey’s Intelligence Agency Says Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
The suspected leader of the Islamic State group has been killed in Syria in an operation carried out by Turkey’s MIT intelligence agency, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday.
“The suspected leader of Daesh, codename Abu Hussein al-Qurashi, has been neutralized in an operation carried out yesterday by the MIT in Syria,” he announced on television, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State organization.
The Islamic State group announced the death of its previous leader, Abu Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, on November 30, replacing him with Abu Hussein al-Qurashi.
An AFP correspondent in northern Syria said Turkish intelligence agents and local military police, backed by Turkey, had on Saturday sealed off a zone in Jindires, in the northwest region of Afrin.
Residents told AFP that an operation had targeted an abandoned farm that was being used as an Islamic school.
Turkey has deployed troops in northern Syria since 2020, and controls entire zones with the help of Syrian auxiliaries.
(Agencies)

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( With inputs from : kashmirnews.in )

May 1, 2023
Turkey’s post-quake constructions face labour shortage challenge

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Ankara: After the massive February 6 earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria killing 59,259 people and damaging millions of buildings, the government in Ankara is building tens of thousands of housing and infrastructure projects in the region round the clock to meet the pledge of completing them within one year.
However, the government faces a big challenge to reach the goal set by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan due to a severe labour shortage in recent years, and the problem is likely to worsen as the number of constructions sharply increased after the catastrophe, reports Xinhua news agency.
More than 13 million people living in 11 provinces were affected by the destructive earthquakes, and a large number of survivors were still homeless, according to the country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).

“We will completely revive our earthquake cities by building 650,000 new houses. We are carrying out comprehensive urban transformation projects to prepare our whole country for earthquakes,” Erdogan said.
The government aims to finish 319,000 of the houses by the end of May, Turkish Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum said last week.
But construction industry veterans pointed out that the workforce is not sufficient to meet the demand for so many projects.
As a structural problem in the sector, the labour shortage needs to be addressed as soon as possible by training new workers and improving working conditions.
In 2018, the number of construction workers in the country was nearly 2.3 million, but this number plummeted to nearly 1.5 million after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Hasan Kirlangic, chairman of the Construction Workers’ Union, told Xinhua.

He noted that construction workers have fled the sector for higher-paying or less physically demanding jobs in other industries or countries.
“Construction is a heavy industry and the labour force is dwindling due to relatively low wages. Besides, there is a shortage of new workers due to a lack of training,” Kirlangic explained.
Meanwhile, the earthquakes further complicate the labour shortage of the sector, and the number of construction workers will not be enough for the target of building more than 600,000 houses, Kirlangic warned.
Kirlangic urged the government to take urgent measures if it wants to meet its commitment to building new homes for quake victims in one year.
“If wages, safety, healthcare, and housing conditions are improved, the previous boom in the labour force can be restored,” he said.
Erdal Eren, president of the Turkish Contractors Association, told the Turkish parliamentary inquiry commission earlier this month that the country does not have the workforce to build permanent residences in the earthquake zone by the deadline set by the government.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 25, 2023
Turkey’s tourism sector sees rebound after massive earthquakes

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Ankara: Turkey’s tourism industry is recovering from a major setback caused by the February 6 devastating earthquakes, business insiders said.
The number of tourism bookings rose by nearly 40 per cent in mid-March compared with that of last year, after a one-and-a-half months slowdown following the earthquakes, said Hamit Kuk, a consultant of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies.
The earthquakes struck at a time when the country’s tourism sector was restoring its losses from the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic had led to cancellations or postponement in tourism reservations both from overseas and local markets, Xinhua news agency quoted the consultant as saying.

However, the Turkish lira has strengthened the competitiveness of the country’s tourism sector.
Since 2022, the lira has lost about 70 per cent of its value against the US dollar.
Favourable exchange rates in the past year have further stimulated the demand for tourism services in Turkey, a tourist destination popular with Russians, Germans and Britons, among other foreign tourists, said Elcin Yildiz, an Ankara-based freelance tourist guide.
Ali Bahar, president of the Antalya Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said an upcoming nine-day vacation is also expected to boost the domestic demand for tourism services.
Many Turkish families are expected to combine the upcoming school break with the three-day Eid holiday, which begins on April 21, making it a nine-day vacation.

However, as Turkey’s tourism industry seeks to reach pre-pandemic levels of reservations, the impact of the earthquakes and the country’s economic woes on domestic demand should not be underestimated, according to Kuk.
The high inflation has led to a sharp decline in Turkish households’ purchasing power. In addition, the prices of the hotel rooms have increased by 15 to 40 percent due to the recent surge in operation costs, he explained.
Furthermore, there is no demand for tours in earthquake-hit eastern and southeastern Turkey, which are known for its cultural excursions, he said.
The tourism industry, which employs about two million people, plays an important part in Turkey’s economy.
In 2022, Turkey hosted 51.3 million foreign visitors, who contributed $46.3 billion in tourism revenues, up from $38.5 billion in 2019, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute.
Earlier, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said that the country expects to host nearly 60 million foreign tourists in 2023, and 90 million in 2028.
The government expects tourism
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 24, 2023
Turkey’s Erdoğan urges end of Ukraine war in call with Putin

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Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday called for the “immediate cessation” of the war in Ukraine during a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Erdoğan also “thanked President Putin for his positive stance regarding the extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative” and added that the two countries “could take further steps” when it comes to economic cooperation, the Turkish presidency’s communications directorate said in a statement on Saturday.
The Black Sea grain deal, which allowed the export of foodstuffs from Ukraine to resume after Moscow’s unlawful invasion of the country blocked several ports, was extended last weekend. The grain agreement was originally signed last summer by Kyiv and Moscow under the auspices of the United Nations.
The Kremlin said in a statement following the Putin-Erdoğan phone call that the two leaders also discussed the situation in Syria.
They emphasized “the need to continue the process of normalizing relations between Turkey and Syria” and “Russia’s constructive role as a mediator,” according to the statement.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

March 23, 2023
Damaged historical sites to be restored in Turkey’s earthquake zone: Minister

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Ankara: Historical sites that were devastated by the recent earthquakes in southern Turkey would be restored, a Minister has confirmed.
“Antakya is a mosaic, it is where religions come together,” Mehmet Nuri Ersoy told reporters outside the Antakya Archaeological Museum, noting “the Ministry will be taking on the responsibility of all registered buildings in the area… We will work together to rebuild them”, reports Xinhua news agency
Ersoy added that the damage to historical sites in Antakya had already been identified and marked so as not to be cleared during the clean-up of the rubble.
“We will begin restoration projects as of March,” he said.
Environment and Urban Planning Minister Murat Kurum said on Friday that “84,726 buildings collapsed, were on the verge of collapse, or have suffered severe structural damage”.
The February 6 earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaras province devastated 10 nearby cities.
The devastated areas comprise some of the oldest continuous settlements of Anatolia, and many historical buildings were lost in the disaster.
The district of Antakya, in the southern province of Hatay, suffered one of the worst hits.

Founded in the 4th century B.C., Antakya has been home to countless civilizations, from Alexander the Great to the Ottoman Empire, and was also one of the earliest centres of Christianity.
It also boasts one of the oldest churches in the world, St. Pierre, a cave church from the year 38 A.D., which fortunately survived the earthquake last week.
However, the Habib-i Najjar Mosque in Antakya was completely destroyed.
Becoming a mosque in 638 A.D. when Muslim Arabs took the city, it is considered the first mosque within the borders of modern Turkey.
Another prominent mosque levelled in the earthquake was the Ulu Mosque, built in the 16th century.
The Saints Peter and Paul Eastern Orthodox Church in central Antakya were also destroyed.
First built as a wooden church in the 1830s, the original structure collapsed in another earthquake in 1872.
A stone church built in Byzantine architecture later replaced it in the early 1900s.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 18, 2023
Turkey’s tourism revenues soar in 2022

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Ankara: Turkey’s tourism revenues reached $46.28 billion in 2022, registering a year-on-year increase of 53.4 per cent, according to figures released by the Turkish Statistical Institute.
Nearly 44.56 million foreign tourists visited Turkey in 2022, an increase of 80.3 percent from a year earlier, according to figures released by Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Ministry on Tuesday.
Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city by population, was the top choice for foreign visitors, welcoming more than 16 million tourists in 2022, according to the Ministry as quoted by Xinhua news agency report.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 1, 2023
Turkey’s Prez Erdogan announces elections to be held on May 14

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Ankara: Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday announced that elections will be held on May 14, a month earlier than scheduled, according to a video shared by his office Sunday.
Erdogan, who plans to seek re-election, made the announcement during a Saturday youth conference in northwestern Bursa province. A video of the event was released on Sunday.
“I thank God that we are destined to share our path with you, our valued youth, who will vote for the first time in the elections that will be held on May 14,” said Erdogan.
“This is not an early election but bringing it forward,” Erdogan said in a video from his meeting with young people in Bursa, shared by the presidency.
Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections were scheduled to be held on June 18 but President Erdogan previously signalled that the vote could be brought forward, reported Khaleej Times.
An official of his AK Party has previously said that an election in June would coincide with the summer holiday season when people travel.
This year’s elections were supposed to take place in June. Still, ruling party members said that month would coincide with summer and religious holidays, prompting an earlier date, reported The Washington Post.
If no candidate secures more than 50 per cent of the vote, a second round of voting would be held on May 28, reported The Washington Post.

Erdogan has been in office since 2003 — first as prime minister and as president since 2014.
This will be the most challenging election for the Turkish strongman who has been in power for two decades shaping the predominantly Muslim but officially secular country’s politics.
Opinion polls show the parliamentary and presidential elections will be tight and will mark Erdogan’s biggest test in his two decades at the reins of the regional military power, NATO member and major emerging market economy, reported Khaleej Times.
The May 14 election date was also supported by the opposition alliance still arguing over the choice of a united candidate against the 68-year-old leader.
A six-party opposition alliance has yet to put forth a presidential candidate. A pro-Kurdish party that is the third-largest in parliament has so far been excluded from the alliance and said it might field its own candidate, reported The Washington Post.
Erdogan, 68, introduced a system of governance in 2018 that abolished the office of the prime minister and concentrated most powers in the hands of the president. The office of the president was primarily a ceremonial post before then. Under the new system, presidential and parliamentary elections are held on the same day.
The opposition has blamed Turkey’s economic downturn and an erosion of civil rights and freedoms on Erdogan, saying the revised government system amounts to “one-man rule.”
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 23, 2023