Archive for the ‘Turkish Press’ Category
Turkish president invites Kirkuk ethnic groups to gather in Ankara
Hurriyet
Turkish President Abdullah Gul has called on the representatives of Kirkuk’s ethnic groups to convene in Ankara, an Iraqi Shi’ite Turkmen MP from the United Iraqi Alliance said on Monday.
The fate of Kirkuk, an ancient city that was once part of the Ottoman Empire, is one of the most divisive issues in Iraq. Control over Kirkuk, a mixed city of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, and the surrounding oil wealth, is in dispute between the city’s three ethnic groups.
“The meeting of the representatives of the Iraqi components is related with their approval and willingness to discuss this sensitive issue on a round table with a Turkish readiness to offer the circumstances of succeeding the meeting,” Abbas al-Bayati told Baghdad-based al-Sabah newspaper. Read the rest of this entry »
Turkmen leader fires top officials
Hurriyet
Energy-rich Turkmenistan’s president has fired almost one-third of his Cabinet and the head of the state oil company in a large-scale reshuffle reminiscent of his eccentric predecessor’s frequent purges.
In a government meeting televised late Thursday, President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov charged officials with committing “unforgivable mistakes and miscalculations.”
The most prominent casualties included the ministers for energy, communications, and tourism. The heads of the state oil company Turkmenneft and the state geological agency, which explores the country’s vast hydrocarbon resources, were also dismissed. Read the rest of this entry »
Connecting people in Istanbul and Kirkuk overland
Hurriyet
As relations between Turkey and northern Iraq begin to heal, a bus company has started traveling between Istanbul and Kirkuk.
Although there are only a limited number of buses traveling, knowing there is way to travel is believed to have made people feel closer to one another, reported daily Zaman.
The buses carry Turkmen, Arab and Kurdish people who want to visit family, relatives and friends in Istanbul. The buses, owned by a company based in the southeastern city of Mardin, currently travel twice a week. Although the trip is long and difficult, it is as popular as flight tickets to Kirkuk from Istanbul, which cost around $500 while the bus trip costs $130. The reason that flight tickets are so expensive is that the flights have high insurance premiums because of Iraq’s security issues. Read the rest of this entry »
Blast kills scores in northern Iraq
Hurriyet
A suicide bomber struck yesterday inside a popular restaurant in northern Iraq where Kurdish officials were meeting with Arab tribal leaders, killing at least 55 people and wounding about 120, police said.
Women and children were among the victims of the attack on the “Abdullah” restaurant, which is located on the main road to Irbil and is popular with Kurdish officials traveling to and from the Kurdish self-ruled region.
Police Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir, who gave the casualty figures, told The Associated Press that the blast occurred in the Abdullah Restaurant just north of the contested oil city of Kirkuk. A Kurdish official said Arab tribal leaders were having lunch with members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the party of President Jalal Talabani. Read the rest of this entry »