Along with five other nations, Turkey’s Turkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortakligi (Turkish Petroleum Corporation--TPAO) has been included among state-owned countries that will be granted the right to extract oil in Iraq, according to Iraqi oil ministry official Asim Jihad. “We chose 35 companies of international standard,... MORE

On June 23 the European Union approved new sanctions against Iran, including freezing the assets of the country's biggest bank, Bank Melli, which is suspected of providing services to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs and was blacklisted by the United States last year. The... MORE

On June 20 the Democratic Society Party (DTP) requested and received extra time to prepare its defense in the closure case it faces. The closure case against the DTP was launched by Chief Public Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya in November 2007. The DTP stands accused of... MORE

On June 19 a court in the city of Diyarbakir in the predominantly Kurdish southeast of Turkey acquitted three young boys of charges of terrorist propaganda after a choir of which they were members sang a song in Kurdish at a World Music Festival in... MORE

On June 18 and 19 Turkish lawyers, academics and Internet professionals met in the mountain resort of Abant in the Bolu mountains of northwest Turkey to discuss the increasing censorship of the Internet in Turkey through the use of court orders to block access to... MORE

Since the founding of the Republic of Turkey 85 years ago, the Turkish Armed Forces (Turk Silahli Kuvvetleri--TSK) has seen itself as the guardian of the nation’s secular Kemalist traditions. The unresolved tension between the country’s Islamic heritage and its secular traditions is rising due... MORE

In recent years Turkey has geared up its efforts to diversify its energy sources. The State Planning Agency estimated that there is a need for an $80 billion investment in the next 15 years to meet the country’s energy needs (Dogu Karadeniz Bolgesi Bolgesel Gelisme... MORE

On June 13, during a visit to Istanbul for the Third Turkish-Arab Economic Forum, Syrian Oil Minister Sufiyan al-AW announced that Syria and Turkey were preparing to create a joint oil company to conduct oil prospecting activities in Syria, Turkey and third countries. Al-AW said... MORE

On June 12 the public prosecutor in the Istanbul neighborhood of Beyoglu initiated a criminal investigation of two young women wearing head scarves who had told the host of a popular television program that they did not like Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938), who founded the... MORE

On June 11 the Turkish Privatization Administration (PA), which handles sales under the country’s privatization program, announced that it had received just five bids each for the electricity distribution grids in the capital of Ankara and the northwestern city of Sakarya. In 2006, 24 companies... MORE