Author: Erkin Akkoyun

ISTANBUL Star Wars: A New Hope, the very first movie in the famed series, from 1977, got special big-screen showings in Istanbul to mark May 4, the “May the Fourth Be With You” annual event. Some 4,000 people watched Star Wars: A New Hope in Concert in two separate screenings at Istanbul’s Zorlu Performing Arts Center, the venue said in a statement. The Istanbul Film Orchestra, under the direction of master composer John Williams, who composed the music for the original film and many others, and won the Oscar for Best Original Score, accompanied the special screening. Along with its…

Turkish security forces “neutralised” 16 PKK terrorists, including a number of terrorist ringleaders, in northern Iraq, an area near the Turkish border, the country’s National Defence Ministry has announced. The terrorists were neutralised in an air operation conducted in the Hakurk, Metina, and Gara regions of northern Iraq, the ministry announced on X on Monday. The ministry reiterated its resolve “to eradicate terrorism and rescue our nation from this scourge.” PKK in northern Iraq “Our determination to obliterate terrorist nests continues with growing impact and intense pressure,” it added. Turkish authorities use the term “neutralise” to imply the terrorists in…

ALBAWABA – Turkey’s decision to cut off all commerce with Israel has significantly worsened the continuing crisis in the area and brought numerous sectors of the Israeli economy dangerously close to collapse. Israel’s construction sector now faces an unprecedented danger of collapse, with contractors fearing impending insolvency amid the intensifying war, according to reports from aksam.com.tr, cited from The Jerusalem Post. The economic analysts in Israel unanimously estimate that Turkey’s ban on trade with Tel Aviv would hurt the occupied state’s economy and commerce. About $5 billion in raw materials and merchandise are imported from Turkey yearly. Metals, equipment, vehicles,…

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani reiterated Monday his government’s commitment to protecting diplomatic missions in the country. He made the remarks in a phone call from David Cameron, British secretary of state for foreign, commonwealth and development affairs, said a statement by the Iraqi prime minister’s media office. The two officials reviewed “the security and political situation in the region, including the latest developments in the Palestinian issue,” it added. Al-Sudani confirmed “Iraq’s commitment to protecting advisors and diplomatic missions operating in Iraq, as required by norms, laws, and international agreements,” stressing Iraq’s rejection of any violation of its…

Commercial activities in cities ceased, along with a complete shutdown of schools and universities, while transportation between Palestinian cities and villages also came to a halt. The strike even affected bakeries, which closed their doors in compliance with calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. Some users of social media platforms have been calling for days under the hashtag “Strike for Gaza” a global comprehensive strike demanding an end to the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza. Wassel Abu Youssef, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, told Xinhua that the strike sends a message to the international community,…

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza during a telephone conversation on Sunday, the Kremlin said in a statement. “The discussion focused on the critical situation in the Palestine-Israel conflict zone, in particular, the disastrous humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip,” the Kremlin said. Putin reaffirmed his principled position of rejecting and condemning terrorism in all its manifestations, deeming it essential to avoid such grave consequences for the civilian population while countering terrorist threats. Russia is ready to provide all possible assistance to alleviate the suffering of civilians and de-escalate the…

Latest Developments The third-most senior Hamas figure, Saleh al-Arouri, was killed on January 2 in a Beirut blast that Lebanese authorities blamed on Israel. Arouri was among at least four people who died in an Israeli drone strike on a Hamas media office in the southern Dahiyeh suburb of the Lebanese capital, a Hezbollah stronghold, authorities said. Israeli officials had no immediate comment. After Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, Arouri was the top-ranked Hamas official. He pursued an especially aggressive Palestinian terrorism strategy, with a focus on the West Bank, where he ordered the 2014 abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers, sparking a…

An American court found that Mukhtar Ablyazov stole money from BTA Bank and laundered it in the United States. This is stated in a statement published on the official website of BTA Bank. On July 31, 2023, Judge John G. Költle, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, reportedly ruled in favor of BTA Bank JSC against Triadou SPV SA for over $193 million. The court’s decision follows a December 2022 jury verdict that held Triadou liable for embezzlement and illicit enrichment. “In addition to the jury’s verdict, the judge, after studying the case…

With two weeks left before NATO’s forthcoming summit in Vilnius next month, Al-Monitor has learned Turkey is upping its demands for the alliance’s defense strategy, requesting that critical waterways connecting the Black Sea to the Aegean be referred to as the “Turkish Straits” rather than the “Straits.” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also continues to pressure Sweden to crack down on alleged Kurdish terrorist sympathizers as a precondition for ratifying the Nordic country’s addition to the alliance. In a phone call with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Sunday, Erdogan said that Ankara was engaging constructively with Sweden but that the latter’s stiffening of…

Bitget continues to execute on its commitment to expand globally. On Monday, the crypto exchange formally entered Turkey with a dedicated website – Bitget TR. Turkey is a fast-growing crypto market Its new website aims at offering localized services to the crypto enthusiasts in Turkey. The transcontinental country is rapidly growing in terms of crypto adoption. The launch of Bitget TR enables us to provide localized, convenient, and compliant crypto services to users in Turkey. Last month, Bitget had successfully registered as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) in Poland (read more). TokenInsight names it among the top four centralised exchanges in…