Category Archives: Turkey

Extra virgin olive oil prices tipped to top £16 a litre next month

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Price rise for mass-market types expected as global production falls to lowest level in more than 10 years

Olive oil prices are set to climb further this year – heading to more than £16 a litre for a bottle of extra virgin – amid a drop in global production to the lowest level in more than a decade.

Lower production in Greece, Morocco and Turkey as part of the natural cycle of olive growth is expected to offset an improving situation in Spain and Italy, where trees have suffered from extreme heat and drought in recent years as the climate crisis wreaks havoc on harvests.

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Turkey stops all trade with Israel over ‘humanitarian tragedy’ in Gaza

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Israeli foreign minister strongly criticises decision by President Erdoğan, accusing him of acting like a ‘dictator’

Turkey has halted all trade with Israel, citing the “worsening humanitarian tragedy” in the Palestinian territories, which prompted strong criticism from the Israeli foreign minister.

“Export and import transactions related to Israel have been stopped, covering all products,” Turkey’s trade ministry said late on Thursday.

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UK ‘helping Russia pay for its war on Ukraine’ via loophole on refined oil imports

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£2.2bn-worth of oil processed in China, India and Turkey – to whom Russia supplies crude – was imported in 2023, data shows

The UK has been accused of “helping Russia pay for its war on Ukraine” by continuing to import record amounts of refined oil from countries processing Kremlin fossil fuels.

Government data analysed by the environmental news site Desmog shows that imports of refined oil from India, China and Turkey amounted to £2.2bn in 2023, the same record value as the previous year, up from £434.2m in 2021.

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Lost luggage leaves New Zealand’s band without instruments for Anzac Day at Gallipoli

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Bags went missing in Dubai floods, with embassy staff only able to retrieve one instrument and a handful of dress uniforms for defence force musicians

Australia’s and New Zealand’s defence forces are once again coming together at Gallipoli – this time to ensure New Zealand’s military band can play on.

The band’s luggage was among thousands of bags lost during last week’s Dubai floods, with embassy staff only able to retrieve one instrument and a handful of dress uniforms ahead of the 25 April dawn service in Turkey.

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Erdoğan urges Palestinian unity after meeting Hamas chief

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Turkish president says recent events between Iran and Israel should not allow Israel to ‘gain ground’ in Gaza

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan urged Palestinians to unite amid Israel’s war in Gaza following hours-long talks with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul on Saturday, his office said.

Erdoğan has failed to establish a foothold as a mediator in the Gaza conflict that has roiled the region, with the Hamas-run Palestinian territory bracing for a new Israeli offensive and a reported Israeli attack on Iran.

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Greece becomes first European country to ban bottom trawling in marine parks

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The law will come into force in national parks within two years and in all of the country’s marine protected areas by 2030

Greece has become the first country in Europe to announce a ban on bottom trawling in all of its national marine parks and protected areas.

The country said will spend €780m (£666m) to protect its “diverse and unique marine ecosystems”.

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Last of 174 people rescued from stranded cable cars in Turkey

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Passengers had been trapped in mid-air overnight after a pod hit a pole and burst open, killing one person and injuring others

The last 43 of 174 people stranded in cable cars high above a mountain in southern Turkey have been brought to safety, nearly 23 hours after one pod hit a pole and burst open, killing one person and injuring 10 when they plummeted to the rocks below.

The interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, announced the successful completion of the rescue operation on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday afternoon.

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One killed and 184 stranded midair after cable car collapses in Turkey

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Helicopters called in to rescue people after accident outside Turkish resort city of Antalya

One person has been killed, seven injured and nearly 200 stranded in midair when a pylon supporting cable cars collapsed outside the Turkish resort city of Antalya.

Helicopters equipped with night vision were called in to rescue 184 people still stranded in the cable car system’s cabins, Antalya mayor Muhittin Bocek said in a statement late on Friday.

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Turkey seizes its third largest haul of cocaine, says interior minister

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Groups monitoring organised crime warn that Turkey is becoming entry point for drugs reaching Europe

Turkish police have seized the third largest haul of cocaine in the country’s history, the interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, has announced, as groups monitoring organised crime warned that Turkey was becoming an entry point for drugs reaching Europe.

In an operation across three provinces, 608kg of mostly liquid cocaine was confiscated, Yerlikaya posted on X on Thursday. Nearly 830kg of precursor chemicals used to process the drug were also seized.

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Instagram ads in UK promoting ‘butt lifts’ in Turkey as part of holidays in potential breach of rules

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Watchdog warns cosmetic surgery providers abroad as analysis reveals thousands of Facebook adverts

A post on Instagram shows the back of a woman in tight blue leggings, her lower body taking up most of the frame. The words “Temptingly sexy curves ahead … Ready to turn heads and break hearts?” are written in the caption. It is from a company offering Britons the chance to get a Brazilian butt lift while enjoying a luxury holiday abroad.

The advert is one of thousands on social media promoting cosmetic surgery tourism by companies in Turkey to UK residents, including gastric band operations, hair transplants and Brazilian butt lifts (BBL) – a process that involves fat taken from elsewhere on the body being injected into the buttocks – in a trend that has triggered safety concerns among doctors in Britain.

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Macron to say France and allies could have stopped Rwanda genocide in 1994

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French president marks 30th anniversary with video, airing Sunday, saying international community lacked will to stop the slaughter

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has said France and its western and African allies “could have stopped” Rwanda’s 1994 genocide but did not have the will to halt the slaughter of an estimated 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis.

In a video message to be published on Sunday to mark the 30th anniversary of the genocide, Macron will emphasise that “when the phase of total extermination against the Tutsis began, the international community had the means to know and act”, the presidency said on Thursday.

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Endangered Greek dialect is ‘living bridge’ to ancient world, researchers say

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Romeyka descended from ancient Greek but may die out as it has no written form and is spoken by only a few thousand people

An endangered form of Greek that is spoken by only a few thousand people in remote mountain villages of northern Turkey has been described as a “living bridge” to the ancient world, after researchers identified characteristics that have more in common with the language of Homer than with modern Greek.

The precise number of speakers of Romeyka is hard to quantify. It has no written form, but has survived orally in the mountain villages around Trabzon, near the Black Sea coast.

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Opposition wins across Turkey owe much to younger, fresher candidates

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A new cohort of leaders inflicted an unprecedented wave of defeats on President Erdoğan who seemed to have little to offer the electorate

A fresh-faced challenger hailed a new dawn for Turkish democracy, as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan comforted a defeated crowd outside his party’s headquarters, telling them: “Unfortunately we couldn’t get the result we wanted … everything happens for a reason.”

Supporters of Istanbul’s mayor celebrated long into the night after Ekrem İmamoğlu secured a second term in office, as Turkey’s main opposition party swept to victory in local elections.

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Turkey’s opposition party sweeps to local elections victory in snub to Erdoğan

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Ekrem Imamoğlu secures unexpected second term as Istanbul’s mayor, propelling the CHP to the centre of national politics

Turkey’s main opposition party dealt an unexpected blow to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s rule on Sunday with a sweeping victory in Turkey’s local elections, maintaining control of major cities including the capital, Ankara, and Istanbul, where Ekrem Imamoğlu secured a second term as mayor.

“My dear Istanbulites, you opened the door to a new future today,” Imamoğlu told overjoyed supporters of his opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) while declaring victory. “Starting from tomorrow, Turkey will be a different Turkey. You opened the door to the rise of democracy, equality and freedom … You ignited hope at the ballot box.”

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Politicians from 12 countries unite to press for arms ban on Israel

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Letter aims to bring public anger over 30,000 deaths of Palestinians in Gaza into heart of parliaments

More than 200 MPs from 12 countries have committed themselves to trying to persuade their governments to impose a ban on arms sales to Israel, arguing they will not be complicit in “Israel’s grave violation of international law” in its assault on Gaza.

The letter, organised by Progressive International, a network of socialist MPs and activists focused on international justice, is seen as the best practical measure possible to bring public anger over the 30,000 deaths of Palestinians in Gaza into the heart of parliaments, where calls for an immediate unconditional ceasefire have so far fallen on deaf ears or been rejected by national governments.

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Seven women in Turkey ‘savagely killed’ by current or ex-spouses in single day

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Rise of femicide follows country’s 2021 withdrawal from Council of Europe convention on preventing violence against women

Seven women were killed by their partners or ex-partners across Turkey on Tuesday, according to the television station Habertürk.

“In total, seven women were savagely killed in İzmir, Bursa, Sakarya, Erzurum, Denizli and Istanbul,” Habertürk reported, listing the country’s major cities.

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Sweden will complete its ‘long farewell to neutrality’ with Nato accession

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For Swedes it means a dramatic change of national identity, while the alliance gets greater control of the Baltic Sea

Just a few short months ago, Sweden’s Nato membership seemed a very long way from being a done deal. Having submitted its application to join in May 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it seemed at times as though Stockholm might be left hanging interminably. While Finland, which had applied to join the alliance at the same time as its neighbour, became a member at record speed last April, Sweden got stuck in a diplomatic quagmire.

Last summer a series of Qur’an burnings in Sweden inflamed ties with Turkey, making a “yes” from Ankara look unlikely and at times inconceivable. And as recently as September, Viktor Orbán’s government was embroiled in a public war of words with Sweden over criticism of Hungary’s democracy and teaching in Swedish schools. Late last month, after Turkey’s parliament had given Sweden the green light, the Hungarian prime minister was still pushing for negotiations in a public letter to his Swedish counterpart, Ulf Kristersson.

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Missing Turkish miners ‘swallowed by cyanide-laced landslide’

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Hundreds of rescue workers searching for nine missing men in east of the country

Hundreds of Turkish rescue workers were searching through a cyanide-laced field for nine mine workers who were swallowed by a landslide that rolled over their open pit on Tuesday.

Images from the scene showed the landslide sweeping across a valley and crashing into a road where some of the workers were travelling by vehicle.

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Italian court jails people smuggler over shipwreck that killed at least 94 migrants

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Gun Ufuk, 29, sentenced to 20 years in prison over deadly sinking that occurred metres from shore

An Italian court has sentenced a people smuggler to 20 years in prison for involvement in a shipwreck last year that killed at least 94 migrants.

The court in the southern city of Crotone found Gun Ufuk, a 29-year-old Turkish national, guilty of crimes including causing a shipwreck and aiding illegal immigration. It also ordered him to pay a €3m fine and pay damages to civil plaintiffs.

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‘No one can bring back what we lost’: fears rise among poor in Turkish city ravaged by earthquakes

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Less well-off residents in the southern city of Antakya feel left out of the city’s rebuilding efforts

• Read more: A year in the aftermath of Turkey’s earthquake – a photo essay

Rows of bright white marble gravestones dot a hillside on the outskirts of Antakya, some bearing the words “martyr of the earthquake”. The final resting place for the city’s dead will soon be overshadowed by tower blocks for those who survived. Bright yellow cranes jut into the skyline on the next hillside, slowly birthing a cluster of concrete skeletons, new government housing for some of the hundreds of thousands who lost their homes when deadly earthquakes struck southern Turkey and northern Syria last February.

“No one can bring back what was lost, as we lost everything,” said İsa Akbaba, who lost seven members of his extended family along with his home.

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