Author: Adem Safet

History was made in Japan’s national sport on Monday with the release of the banzuke rankings for the upcoming March tournament in Osaka. Kazakhstan native Kinbozan’s promotion to the rank of maegashirahas resulted in sumo’s top tier gaining its first-ever wrestler from the central Asian nation. The 25-year-old’s elevation to makuuchi also adds a new country to the top division’s roll call for the first time in almost a decade. Egypt became nation No. 11 on that list in November 2013, when Osunaarashi earned the honor for his country, marking Africa’s makuuchi debut in the process. Australia — and, of course, Antarctica — now remain the only…

While the prevailing powers in both the USA and the EU have long yearned to gather Türkiye (formerly known as simply “Turkey”) into a western alliance encircling the old USSR in a nuclear-armed cordon sanitaire, many intelligent observers have harbored, and expressed doubt, about this “wild card” of a nation, ambivalent in its ethos but large enough to cause concern. For one thing there is the continuous low-level conflict with Greece, a firmly-established member of NATO – along with Turkey – since 1952. Not the happiest of neighbors, there has been armed conflict between the Greeks and Turks in the…

One poll remains deadlocked while another has seen the population vote for a change of direction It’s been a long two decades of dwindling freedoms in Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But his control is teetering on a ledge. The election couldn’t have come at a worse time for Erdogan, with his questionable response to the earthquakes and soaring inflation winning him a fresh batch of critics. Last Sunday Turkey headed to the polls. And the winner was… nobody. With neither former Index Tyrant of the Year Erdogan nor opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu reaching the 50% threshold needed to win…

Turkish opposition leader and presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu has promised to send “10 million refugees” home if he wins a May 28 run-off as he shifts to a sharply more anti-migrant tone to try to win nationalist votes and defeat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Kilicdaroglu, candidate of a six-party opposition alliance, made incendiary comments on Wednesday accusing the government of allowing an exaggerated 10 million “irregular” migrants to enter the country. The economist and longtime bureaucrat warned that the number of migrants in Turkey, which has a population of 85 million, could rise to 30 million while providing no evidence for the figures he…

Turkey launched its first amphibious assault ship on Monday, aiming to extend its drone capabilities from land-based to naval operations amid increased regional tensions as war rages in Ukraine on the other side of the Black Sea. The TCG Anadolu can handle only light aircraft, chiefly helicopters and jets that can take off from shorter runways. It is 232 meters long and 32 meters wide, and can carry some 1,400 personnel – one battalion of soldiers – combat vehicles and support units to operate overseas. “This vessel will allow us to conduct military and humanitarian operations in every corner of the world, when…

More people-to-people relations are perhaps the best path to strengthen China-Greek understanding and cooperation, Athanasios Platias, professor of Strategy at the Department of International and European Studies of the University of Piraeus in Greece, told Xinhua in a recent interview. “During my time at Tsinghua, I was particularly stricken by how well its students knew Ancient Greece and Thucydides, and by how much respect and appreciation they had shown for Greek civilization,” said Platias. In education, Platias, who has taught at Tsinghua, suggested more bilateral scholarships, as well as joint degrees in classical and strategic studies that would provide optimal…

Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm A report issued by a United Nations commission on February 7, 2023 reveals the involvement of Turkish officials in the torture of victims who were arbitrarily detained in Syria by armed factions aligned with the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, established by the UN Human Rights Council, found cases of abuse and torture in which Turkish officials including agents from Turkey’s spy agency MIT (Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı) participated in and contributed to the torture of victims. The February report is in line with the commission’s earlier findings in…

Political consultations between Turkmenistan and the Republic of Belarus were held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan on February 28, 2023, during which the parties spoke in favor of intensifying commercial contacts between the business circles of the two countries, trend reports with reference to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan. The Turkmen delegation was headed by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Berdyniyaz Myatiev, the Belarusian delegation was headed by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Igor Nazaruk. As part of the agenda of the consultations, the sides expressed interest in development of Turkmen-Belarusian relations, and…

Kenes Rakishev, former special envoy of the Kazakh government and current chairman of Fincraft Resources signed a memorandum of understanding, as well as a shareholder agreement with the Indian holding Monnet Group on the establishment of a joint venture in Kazakhstan for the production of ferroalloys. The company was named TB Alloys Kazakh Limited.The new plant is planned to be located in the industrial zone of the Taraz city. The company has already started pre-project work. At the first stage, the planned capacity of the enterprise will be up to 50 thousand tons of ferrosilicon per year with a gradual…

Turkey has lifted its ban on direct cargo flights with Armenia effective immediately, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said with little fanfare on January 6. The move comes amid talks on normalization of ties that could ultimately result in the opening of the two countries’ border, which Turkey closed in solidarity with Azerbaijan in 1993 during the First Karabakh War. Azerbaijan’s victory – with extensive Turkish help – in the Second Karabakh War in 2020 opened the door to the normalization talks, which were launched in January 2022 between special envoys Serdar Kilic, a senior Turkish diplomat, and Ruben Rubinyan, the…