News Scan for Turkey – Dec 2nd, 2013

Turkey, Greece become closer in tourism

Greece will attend in a large tourism exhibition in Turkey for the first time by gathering all its regions under one roof to organize extensive promotional activities

Turkey and Greece have been building closer relations with each other and Greece will attend a large regional tourism fair in Istanbul in 2014, for the first time, with all Greek regions under one roof, said the director of the exhibition, the East Mediterranean International Tourism and Travel Exhibition (EMITT).

“Greece has never attended our exhibition as a national guest as any official agreement was signed between the tourism ministries of Greece and Turkey, although regional representatives have always attended from Greece. All of these regional representatives will gather under one roof in a huge area for the first time this year. This is very good for us,” said the director of EMITT, Hacer Aydın.

Greek tourism professionals will offer extensive promotional activities at the fair, she added.

HURRIYET DAILYNEWS

Turks overwhelmingly opposed to gov’t interference in private lives

A recent survey has shown that the Turkish public is overwhelming opposed to the government interfering in private lives, with a significant number of people saying the government has actually been meddling in the private sphere.
The survey by the MetroPOLL Strategic and Social Research Center on the perception of Turkish people on the interference into private lives has found that 73.1 percent of respondents said the government should not intrude into the private lives of citizens. Only 20.3 percent said the government can interfere, while the rest did not respond or said they have not formed an opinion on that.

On the question of whether the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government in Turkey has indeed meddled in private lives, the survey suggested that people are roughly divided on that, with 43 percent saying “yes” while 50 percent say “no.”

Among AK Party supporters, people who believed the government is in fact interfering in people’s private lives total 22 percent, while the number climbs to 61 and 78 percent among supporters of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Republican People’s Party (CHP), respectively.

TODAYS ZAMAN

Turkey to seek Baghdad’s consent for Iraqi Kurdish oil: Energy Minister Yıldız

Oil exports from anywhere in Iraq to Turkey need the central government’s approval, both countries energy ministers’ agreed on Dec. 1 after a key bilateral meeting in Baghdad, which was aimed at diffusing a row over energy exports from Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.

Yıldız said Turkey would seek Baghdad’s approval for the commercial export of oil from the autonomous Kurdistan region following the meeting with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani.

“We agreed to win the Iraqi central government’s consent for oil trade from the KRG to Turkey and to start a cooperation plan to serve the interests of all three parties,” a joint declaration from both ministers said.

Al-Shahristani also insisted that Baghdad expected to be consulted about any deal involving the parties. “We will discuss the mechanism,” he told a news conference, adding that he discussed the issues with Yıldız in a “fraternal and transparent” manner.

HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

Popular tourism destination Bodrum to be cleared of illegal buildings

The popular tourism destination of Bodrum will soon be rid of all illegal buildings as a new wave of inspections reveals the vast number of unlicensed structures that has dominated the popular touristic coastal Aegean district. While 33 buildings were locked and sealed by authorities in Cennet Koyu, 320 buildings are to be demolished in Güvercinlik alone.

Three months ago, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan toured the popular tourism destination region of Bodrum in disguise, only to return with orders for all of the illegal buildings in the region’s various districts located on Turkey’s southwestern Aegean coast to be demolished.

SABAH

02.12.2013
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.