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x0x Turkish News for the week ending 12 February 2022
[This is a transcript of the news broadcast on 12 February 2022]
Courtesy of Turkish Radio Hour, producer of the
TURKISH CULTURAL PROGRAM, every Saturday from 2 P.M. to 4 P.M.
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★ New York Times correspondent Carlotta Gall reports that more than 1,400 Turkish doctors left their posts to work abroad last year, and 4,000 over the past decade, according to the Turkish Medical Association, the largest association of medical professionals in the country.
Many more are preparing applications and have requested certificates of good standing from the organization, officials said.
Bülent Kılıç, a professor of public health at Dokuz Eylül University in the Aegean city of İzmir attributes this to changes in the past 20 years as part of reforms spearheaded by President Erdoğan and the heavy workload due to the pandemic.
The changes expanded the health care industry for the public. It also started taking in more foreign patients. But the incomes of doctors decreased.
Dr. Şebnem Korur Fincancı, the chairwoman of the Turkish Medical Association, adds that in addition to low incomes, the rule of President Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party devaluated the profession.
Violence against medical professionals has risen sharply in the past two years -mostly in emergency departments - often in an explosion of anger at the system. According to the Turkish Medical Association, over 13,000 health professionals had complained of violence at work in 2020.
Read more
>> here <<
★ Burak Bekdil wrote in the publication of the Gatestone Institute that Istanbul's Mayor İmamoğlu is Turkish president Erdoğan's worst nightmare.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said at one time: "If we lose Istanbul, we lose Turkey." Mr. İmamoğlu wrested the mayoralty away in 2019, ending two decades of conservative Islamist rule.
Since then, President Erdoğan and his party have been at war with Mr. İmamoğlu. With every opportunity, they have been blocking his initiatives and showing him in a bad light.
However, Mr. Bekdil writes that this will not work.
"This kind of intimidation, further victimizing Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu in the eyes of the voters, will simply boost his popularity -- and at a time when Erdoğan's ratings are plummeting," he writes.
"It would be premature to conclude that there will be a historic shift in Turkish politics in 2023. All the same, the reports are real, and so are Erdoğan's fears, panic, and increasingly reckless governance," Bekdil adds.
Burak Bekdil, a Turkish journalist, was recently fired from the most noted Turkish newspaper after 29 years for writing in Gatestone what is taking place in Turkey. He is a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
★ On Wednesday, Turkey's media regulator gave three international broadcasters, including Voice of America's Turkish Service, short notice to obtain broadcast licenses. If they do not, Turkey will block their content, VOA reports.
The order from the Radio and Television Supreme Council, known as RTÜK, also affects German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and Euronews.
İlhan Taşcı, appointed to the board by the opposition Republican People's Party, criticized the decision, calling it a further assault on media freedom in Turkey.
The State Department issued a statement that said:
"Our concerns regarding press freedoms in Turkey are well documented. We continue to warn Turkey to respect and ensure freedom of the press."
In line with Law 6112, RTÜK licenses television channels, radio stations, and video-on-demand content in addition to monitoring their content.
As part of the regulations, broadcasters are to remove the content deemed inappropriate by RTÜK.
★ Prosecutors will seek 11 years in jail for Turkish journalists Sedef Kabaş for insulting Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
As we reported to you last week, Kabaş used a proverb on TV that irritated the authorities: "If an ox takes the palace, it does not become the king, the palace becomes a barn."
★ Gun violence in Turkey has increased by 75 percent within the last seven years, according to a report released by the Umut Foundation, the Turkish daily Duvar reports. The foundation carries out studies for the prevention of individuals bearing arms.
The foundation said that out of 25 million guns in Turkey, 90 percent are unregistered.
★ On Saturday, Turkey's president announced a seven percentage-point reduction in taxes added to basic food supplies as the country faces rampant inflation, Associated Press reports.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the government is going to lower the value-added tax to 1% from 8%.
He also said that he expects food companies to reduce their prices.
Independent experts say that the inflation in January was over 100%.
Economists say the high inflation results from Mr. Erdoğan's insistence on an unproven economic theory. Mr. Erdoğan claims that high-interest rates cause inflation, which the economists say is the other way around.
Read more
>> here <<
★ The international credit rating agency Fitch Ratings has downgraded Turkey's long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating (IDR) to 'B+' from 'BB-', stating that the \ outlook is negative.
★ According to VOA reporter Dorian Jones, Iran and energy issues are the driving force between Turkey-Israel reset.
After years of deteriorating relations, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has invited his Israeli counterpart to visit Turkey. The invitation signals a rapprochement that observers say is driven by powerful mutual interests, including concerns over Iran's nuclear program and the future of oil and gas imports from Russia and Iran.
Writing in the Foreign Policy, Aykan Erdemir, the senior director of the Turkey program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said:
"Israel is treading carefully, given Erdoğan's frequent antisemitic and anti-Israeli vitriol, which the U.S. State Department called out as 'reprehensible' and 'incendiary' as recently as May 2021. 'I have no illusions about Turkey,' Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett recently told Haaretz. 'We are very familiar with all the dynamics.'"
High on the list of Israel's concerns is Erdoğan's unwavering support for Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist group in control of Gaza. Turkey also has granted Turkish citizenship and passports to senior Hamas operatives, including one who "oversaw a plot to assassinate the [then] mayor of Jerusalem, as well as other Israeli public figures," according to a 2020 Telegraph report.
Read more
>> here <<
★ Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his wife have tested negative for COVID-19 for the past two days and are to return to his routine program, his doctor said on February 10.
He has been in isolation since February 5.
ARTS AND CULTURE
Edited by Saadet Ejder and Selin Aydınlı
Özlem Tuna
★ Istanbul, Turkey-based Kale Design and Art Center once again says "Take Care of World" with their new exhibition.
The new exhibition by designer Özlem Tuna is "When I Look Back," which is also the title of her first book that draws attention to the turning points and designs in her life.
The exhibition peeks into the world of a designer. It presents creative designs and sustainable projects.
Özlem Tuna's "When I Look Back" says: touch, listen, watch, eat, drink, and imagine. She uses dough, clay, and metal as the materials in her designs. The designer organized this exhibition for visitors to question themselves and the world.
The exhibition started on February 8 at Kale Design and Art Center and will continue until March 11.
★ Istanbul's Elgiz Museum has a winter exhibition for the first time.
The exhibition starts at the museum entrance with sculptures. The paintings appear in the interior of the museum. Then there are more sculptures on the terrace.
Among the painters represented are Stephan Balkenhol, Liam Gillick, and Erwin Wurm.
Among the sculptors are Caner Şengünalp, Levent Ayata, and Marianne Vitale.
For the open-air exhibitions, the organizers say:
"Outdoor exhibitions have been going on for ten years. Art lovers show great interest in these exhibitions."
Visitors can visit the museum free of charge.
★ The Australian rock band Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds will be in Istanbul on August 21 as part of the 50th-anniversary celebrations
of the Istanbul Culture and Art Foundation.
In addition to being a singer, Nick Cave is a songwriter, composer, screenwriter, poet, and actor. He has inspired many artists throughout his music career.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have recorded a total of seventeen studio albums. Its listeners rated their latest album Ghosteen as one of their best works. The albums of the group attract great attention throughout the world.
★ The Yayla and Samida trios performed together at İş Sanat's YouTube channel on February 8.
Yayla performs folk songs from different parts of Turkey with a unique interpretation and arrangement. Sinan Kaynakçı (soloist), Onur Can Çelik (kemençe, vocals), and Erdem Akın (percussion, vocals) are the band members.
The Samida trio is known for the folk songs of the Black Sea Region of Turkey. Samida, meaning "three sisters" in Georgian, came into existence in 2016. The ensemble aims to bring a new dimension to traditional folk music by enriching Black Sea music with polyphonic elements. The founders are sisters Yudum, Damla, and Tamara Şahin.
İş Sanat is the cultural arm of İş Bank, one of the largest financial institutions in Turkey.
★ Russian Writer Anton Chekhov's play "The Cherry Orchard," set in Tsarist Russia, met with art lovers on Monday, February 7, at Istanbul's Trump Stage.
In the play directed by Bora Severcan, the cast of theater troupe Sahnekarlar will act.
"The Cherry Orchard" invites the audience from different periods of a land-owning family to look at their lives in 19th century Russia.
The play conveys the humans and life in all their simplicity: sadness and happiness, love and grief, comedy and destruction are all intertwined.
The play will be on stage until mid-March.
★ The Turk University Netkent, in cooperation with the Friends of Kitchen Association, has started offering an online gastronomy education program.
Registration for the Restaurant Management and Culinary Culture Certificate Program started today and will end on June 5, 2022. In the program, leading names in their fields such as Deniz Temel, Dilara Koçak, Ebru Baybara Demir and Yunus Emre Akkor will teach.
Some of the courses will be Site Selection and Concept, Feasibility, Human Resources, Menu Creation, Communication and Marketing, World Gastronomy Overview, Gastronomy Map of Anatolia, Environmentally Friendly Approaches from Soil to Plate, and Layout and Basic Kitchen Techniques.
In addition to theoretical and culinary training, the program will also include special seminars where industry veterans share their success stories.
★ Turkish archaeologists have found remains from a pre-pottery neolithic site at a mound in southwestern Turkey.
This site is in Turkey's Diyarbakır province in a valley that will soon be inundated with waters filling a dam.
The mound named Ambar Höyük has two satellite areas.
At the earliest 13000-year-old level, the site has round and oval structures. A few thousand years later, rectangular ones with rounded corners appear. The inhabitants made the structures with woven branches on the ground.
In the oval structures, objects made from limestone, sculptures of humans and animals, and alters that can accommodate liquid and solid objects are present. At every level of the archaeological deposits, people had redone these objects.
The archaeologists think people living around used these structures for communal ritual events.
EXCHANGE RATE
EXCHANGE RATE for the U.S. dollar in Turkish Liras: 13.52
WEATHER
High and Low Temperatures in Degrees F, WeatherAnkara, in central Turkey : 48/34 Partly Cloudy
Antalya, on the Mediterranean : 64/46 Partly Cloudy
Erzurum, in Eastern Turkey : 32/10 Partly Cloudy
Istanbul, in northwestern Turkey : 50/41 Mostly Cloudy
Izmir, on the Aegean : 59/45 Partly Cloudy
Trabzon, on the Black Sea : 50/45 Partly Cloudy
Snow depths at skiing locations:
Erciyes in Kayseri, Central Turkey : 55 inches
Ilgaz in Kastamonu, North Central Turkey: 32 inches
Kartalkaya in Bolu, Western Turkey : 86 inches
Palandöken in Erzurum, Eastern Turkey : 59 inches
Saklıkent in Antalya, Southern Turkey : 20 inches
Uludağ in Bursa, Western Turkey : 48 inches
Sarıkamış in Kars, Eastern Turkey : 31 inches
★ Authorities closed a 2000-year-old Roman-era bridge to foot traffic, reports the news agency DHA. The bridge is in Turkey's southeastern province of Gaziantep's İslahiye district. The recent floods due to intense rainfall in the area damaged parts of the bridge.
SPORTS
Edited by Ertuğrul Korkmaz
★
SOCCERPremier League
* Results for week: 24
Kayseri - Hatay 4 - 3
Konya - Giresun 1 - 0
G. Antep - Sivas 5 - 1
Trabzon - Kasımpaşa 1 - 0
Fenerbahçe - Başakşehir 0 - 1
K.gümrük - Malatya 1 - 0
Beşiktaş - Antalya 0 - 0
Alanya - G. Saray 1 - 1
Rize - Adana 1 - 3
Göztepe - Altay 0 - 2
* In games played so far this weekend:
Altay - Rize 0 - 0
Başakşehir - G. Antep 2 - 0
Giresun - Fenerbahçe 1 - 2
G. Saray - Kayseri 1 - 1
Kasımpaşa - Alanya -
Trabzon - Konya -
Antalya - K.gümrük -
Sivas - Malatya -
Hatay - Göztepe -
Adana - Beşiktaş -
* Standing in the league as of week ending 24
1 - Trabzon 57
2 - Konya 48
3 - Adana 40
4 - Alanya 39
5 - Başakşehir 37
6 - Fenerbahçe 37
7 - Beşiktaş 37
8 - Hatay 36
9 - G. Antep 35
10 - Kayseri 34
11 - K.gümrük 33
12 - Sivas 31
13 - G. Saray 28
14 - Kasımpaşa 27
15 - Göztepe 27
16 - Giresun 26
17 - Antalya 25
18 - Rize 22
19 - Altay 21
20 - Malatya 16
* Euroleague Basketball Competitions:
Fenerbahce - Bayern Munich: postponed
FenerB - Real Madrid, Feb 8, 66-51
Olympiacos - Anadolu Efes, Feb 10, 87-85
ANNOUNCEMENTS
[Saat 14:30 and 15:30 'da iki kez okuyun]
*** LaLe restaurant on Irving St. in San Francisco is giving our listeners 15% off! Call them at (415) 566-8814
*** Van Ness Cafe Gyro in San Francisco, is giving our listeners 25%
pandemic discount off! Call them at (415) 589-7900
*** Alpiny Design is available for the design of your dream home, with
designers with decades of experience. Call them at (408) 431-7987
*** Hairpro Turkey, where you can get the best and most affordable hair
transplantation done, is one of our underwriters. Contact them through their
web pages:
https://www.hairproturkey.com/
*** Turkish American Association of California
is a non-profit
charitable organization established to promote better
understanding between Americans and Turks.
if you have any questions about Turks and Turkey,
e-mail them at taac@taaca.org
*** Azerbaijan Cultural Society of Northern California
Organizes many events throughout the year. Follow their activities through
their web pages, or subscribe to their e-mail list by sending an email to:
secretary@acsnc.org
acsnc.org/
Location:
Azerbaijan Cultural Society of Northern California
16400 Lark Ave., Suite 260
Los Gatos, CA 95032
*** Turkish schools in the Bay Area are starting:
There are currently three schools:
Los Altos, San Ramon and Berkeley
For more information on these schools, drop an email to
trh@turkradio.us.
*** Turkish Folk Dancing with TUFOD in the South Bay
*** Heart to Heart Anatolia
Providing scholarships and bringing people together while promoting Anatolian cultural values
Visit their pages at
h2ha.org/
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