News Scan for Turkey, September 02nd, 2017

‘Humankind is insensitive’ to Myanmar violence: Erdoğan

Humanity is being “insensitive” to the ongoing violence against Rohingya Muslims in the southeastern Asian country of Myanmar, Turkey’s president said on Sept. 1.

Speaking to reporters in Istanbul on the first day of the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that hundreds of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state, Myanmar have been killed, their villages burned, and 20,000 stranded people have been crossing into Bangladesh, leaving their homes behind. “All of this is happening before humanity’s very eyes, but unfortunately humanity is insensitive to it,” he said. Eid al-Adha, known as the feast of the sacrifice, recognizes Abraham’s submission to God in his willingness to sacrifice his son.

“As the rotating president of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, I held necessary talks with leaders of Islamic countries and UN Secretary-General (Antonio) Guterres” about the Rohingya crisis, said Erdoğan.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/humankind-is-insensitive-to-myanmar-violence-erdogan.aspx?pageID=238&nID=117480&NewsCatID=510

Germany declines Turkey’s request to freeze FETÖ assets, Spiegel reports

Germany has rejected a formal request from Turkey to freeze assets of members of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), which orchestrated last year’s failed coup, Germany’s Spiegel magazine reported on Saturday.

Without naming its sources, the magazine said the Turkish government had asked the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin at the end of April to freeze the assets of FETÖ and its members in Germany. It attached a list with 80 names, it said.

The German government officially rejected the request at the end of June, telling Ankara there were “no legal grounds” for Germany’s financial watchdog BaFin to crack down on the terror group and its supporters, the report said. The Foreign Ministry in Berlin declined to comment.

https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/2017/09/02/germany-declines-turkeys-request-to-freeze-feto-assets-spiegel-reports

Turkish military in ‘firepower’ world top 10 list

Turkey ranked eighth on the top 10 list of global military powers, according to the GlobalFirepower.com website. The ranking of 113 countries published on Global Firepower relies on over 50 different factors, including total firearms, geographical position, and natural resources, to determine the related countries’ “PowerIndex” [PwrIndx] score, with 0.0000 being perfect. According to 2017 Military Strength Ranking with 113 countries in its database, Turkey ranked eighth with a PwrIndx rating of 0.2491, just ahead of Germany, which has a 0.2609 PwrIndx and Egypt with a PwrIndx of 0.2676. Turkey’s ranking showed that it has a total of 41.6 million manpower available, 35 million people fit-for-service, and 1.3 million people of military age.

The country has a total of 743,415 military personnel within the armed forces, with 382,850 being active and the other 360,565 being reserve staff, the website stated. Turkey also has a total aircraft strength of 1,018, with 207 fighter aircrafts and 207 attack aircrafts; 194 naval assets with 16 frigates, nine corvettes and 12 submarines; 2,445 combat tanks, 7,550 armored fighting vehicles, 1,013 self-propelled artillery, 697 towed artillery and 811 rocket projectors, according to the rankings.

The defense budget of the country is $8.2 billion and it has a total labor force of 30.2 million, it added.
This year’s list ranked U.S. first with a PwrIndx of 0.0857. Russia was ranked second with a PwrIndx of 0.0929 and China ranked third with a PwrIndx of 0.945.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-military-in-firepower-world-top-10-list.aspx?pageID=238&nID=117462&NewsCatID=341

Turkish FM: Why are Muslim nations silent on Rohingya?

Turkey’s foreign minister on Saturday decried other Muslim countries’ silence on the plight of the Rohingya Muslims. “There are a great many Muslim countries. Where are they? Why are they silent?” Mevlut Çavuşoğlu asked at an event marking the Muslim Eid-al Adha holiday in the Mediterranean province of Antalya.

He said to date Turkey had delivered more than $70 million in humanitarian aid to the Rohingya Muslims, and that no country in the world was showing more concern for the Rohingya than Turkey.

But, he added: “It’s not enough to deliver aid. In two weeks we need to hold a meeting in New York with the UN’s secretary-general, leaders of Muslim countries, international organizations, head of the UN Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, Kofi Annan, and other leaders to solve this issue.”

http://www.yenisafak.com/en/news/turkish-fm-why-are-muslim-nations-silent-on-rohingya-2789315

Turkey seeks Asian tourists to reach goal of 50 million visitors

Turkey will open to Asian markets in a bid to multiply the number of foreign visitors, Culture and Tourism Minister Numan Kurtulmuş told daily Hürriyet, signaling new promotion campaigns.

“Despite the big propaganda carried out against Turkey, some 6 million people visited Istanbul in the first six months of 2017,” said Kurtulmuş, adding that around 540,000 of these visitors were German citizens.
He noted that the official tourism goal for 2023, the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Republic of Turkey, was 50 million visitors and $50 billion in tourism revenues per year.

“To achieve these goals, we will diversify in both markets and products. We particularly have to focus on new markets in the Far East such as China, Japan, India and South Korea,” Kurtulmuş added.

“Hopefully, Turkey will achieve these goals thanks to diversification. Of course, we will have special promotion campaigns in these countries,” he said.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-seeks-asian-tourists-to-reach-goal-of-50-million-visitors.aspx?pageID=238&nID=117477&NewsCatID=349

How Turks came to Anatolia: The Battle of Manzikert

The battle for Anatolia: The Battle of Manzikert was fought in Turkey’s eastern province of Mus, on August 26, 1071 between the Byzantine Empire and the Great Seljuk Empire. At the time, the Seljuks governed a medieval Turko-Persian Sunni Muslim empire founded by Tughril Beg in 1037.

It controlled a vast territory stretching from the Hindu Kush to eastern Anatolia and from Central Asia to the Arabian Gulf. The battle started after Seljuk leader Alp Arslan learned that the Byzantine emperor Romanos IV Diogenes, with a large army of 30,000, was planning to attack his rear army in Armenia.

Arslan marched quickly with around 15,000 soldiers and reached Manzikert. He first proposed terms of peace. But Romanos rejected the offer and the two forces went on to wage the Battle of Manzikert.

http://www.trtworld.com/turkey/how-turks-came-to-anatolia-the-battle-of-manzikert-10043

Rights advocates create a human chain in Turkey’s İstanbul to mark Peace Day

With the call of Turkey’s Human Rights Association (İHD), rights defenders gathered in İstanbul’s central İstiklal Street on Friday to mark the September 1 Peace Day.

Creating a human chain along the long İstiklal Street under police blockade, the participants of the demonstration carried placard with messages for peace written in Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian, Greek, and in other languages and chanted slogans demanding an ‘end to wars’. As BirGün reporter Zeynep Kuray reported, the press statement of the group was read by Gülseren Yoleri, the head of the İstanbul branch of İHD.

In the statement, Yoleri started out with a reference to the ‘right to peace as a right considered sacred by the UN’ and said ‘a pluralistic democracy must be embraced’ in Turkey in order for peace to be attained.

http://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/rights-advocates-create-a-human-chain-in-turkey-s-istanbul-to-mark-peace-day-177526.html

02.09.2017
compiled by Editor BTT

This is a news-scan from major Turkish papers and internet sites. However, we do not verify above stories neither do we vouch for their accuracy.