News

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Athens to attend the fifth meeting of the Turkey-Greece High Level Cooperation Council. During the visit, the Athens Declaration on Friendly Relations and Good Neighborliness was signed. The declaration aims to boost bilateral relations through the existing institutional mechanisms. It should be noted that Erdogan last visited Greece in 2017. During the visit, Erdogan met with Greek President Katerina Sakelaropoulou and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Below are the main talking points of the meeting: Erdogan: We had extremely useful meetings, we discussed many burning topics and we plan to get together at least once a year.

The airline will launch daily flights Moscow (Sheremetyevo) - Antalya from March 31, 2024. Flights to Antalya from Moscow (Vnukovo), Stavropol, Vladikavkaz, Volgograd, Yekaterinburg, Kazan and Makhachkala will also be added to the summer flight schedule. In addition, from April 2, Istanbul-Stavropol flights will be operated on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

More than one million people from all over the world attend this event honoring the Sufi mystic and poet in Mevlana, Jalaleddin Rumi. Rumi, also known as Mevlana, is commemorated every year in the days leading up to the day of his death (December 17, 1273). The Mevlana Festival takes place from December 7 to 17 and is considered the best time to visit this historic city. It includes performances by Sufi members of the Mevlevi (Mawlawiyya) Order, known as "whirling dervishes", as well as the Sheb-i Arus ceremony, symbolizing the union of the soul with the divine.

The Mayor of Alanya, Adem Murat Yucel, and the Governor of Alanya, Fatih Urkmezer, attended the ceremony in Brussels to receive this prestigious title. What it means to be named "Mediterranean Capital of Sports" can be read here: https://t.me/alanyabrand/6042 or https://alanyabrand.ru/article/alanya-mozhet-stat-sredizemnomorskoj-stolitsej-sporta-2024.

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) has released gross domestic product data by province for 2022. Istanbul became the province with the highest share of GDP with 4 trillion. 564 m.lrd 280 million liras, accounting for 30.4 percent of the total income. It is followed by Ankara with 1 trillion. 329 billion 810 million liras and a share of 8.9 % and Izmir with 972 billion 238 million liras and a share of 6.5 %. The five provinces with the highest share of GDP accounted for 53.9 percent of all revenues in 2022. Tunceli, Ardahan and Bayburt provinces were at the end of the list.

The Ministry of Family and Social Services announced that the support of citizens for natural gas has been increased to 188-438 liras per month under a new decree. The ministry issued a written statement on the new decree announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after a cabinet meeting.

Municipal elections will be held throughout the country on March 31, 2024, but all parties have already started their election campaigns. The upcoming elections are of great importance to the ruling party led by the Turkish president, as Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and several other major cities in the country are ruled by opposition mayors. It is clear that the Justice and Development Party (Turkish: AKP) will try to return to power in these most important metropolitan areas of the country.

The most popular car brand was Fiat, followed by Renault, Volkswagen, Peogeout, Opel, Hyundai, Dacia, Skoda, Citroen and Toyota. Perhaps the reason for the increased demand was the first 25% reduction in car prices in 3 years amidst general inflation in the country. However, CarData CEO Husamettin Yalcin and Otomerkez.net CEO Mohammad Ali Karakash said that car prices may rise again from the beginning of 2024.

Presumably the Declaration on Friendly Relations and Good Neighborliness will be signed on December 7 during the Turkish President's official visit to Athens. "Greece is our neighboring country and we will always remain neighbors. We share the same geography, the same sea. We breathe the same air. We are bound by our past. There are many issues that we have not yet been able to resolve between us. Both countries know that. However, it is up to us whether we allow these issues to cause tensions and disagreements between our governments and our peoples," Erdogan said in an interview with Greek newspaper Kathimerini.

Russians preferred to spend New Year holidays in Thailand, which has the largest number of bookings. Thailand is followed by Turkey and the UAE.As for the cost, Thailand is also in first place. The cost of a 10-day tour with departure from Moscow starts from 120 thousand rubles. A similar tour to Dubai costs from 100 thousand rubles, and in Turkey - from 66 thousand rubles.If we talk in general about the year 2023, the most popular tourist destination among Russians was Turkey, which in total was visited by more than 5 million citizens of the Russian Federation.

The General Directorate of the Ministry of National Education has approved the curriculum for students in grades 5-12 for the course "Family in the Social Life of Turkey". The curriculum of the course, which lasts 72 hours, consists of 4 sections: "Meaning of Family", "Being a Family", "History of Turkish Family", "Social Changes and Family".

Turkey's Education Ministry has banned the practice of "class mothers" (sınıf annesi), which aims to improve communication between teachers and parents but is often the subject of controversy. The ministry called for an end to the practice after complaints that class mothers collect fees from parents, demand money for teaching materials, interfere in lessons and record videos of students.