★ According to the Iranian state-owned news network Pars Today, Syria's President Bashar Assad's Syrian forces will fight the Turkish military if they enter Syrian territory.

  In recent weeks, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan talked about a military operation against the Syrian Kurdish militias. The goal is to create a 20-mile safe zone along Turkey's border with Syria, Turkey's state-run Anatolia News Agency said. News reports indicate that eventually, Turkey would move the nearly 4 million Syrian refugees to this buffer zone.

  The U.S. supports the Kurdish militias in their fight with the Islamic State, creating a friction point between the U.S. and Turkey. Turkey considers them an extension of the rebel Turkish Kurds.

  In the meantime, Agence France-Presse reported that on Tuesday, the U.S. warned Turkey against launching a new military operation in Syria, saying that Turkey would be putting U.S. troops at risk. Read more >> here <<

★ President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced his candidacy for the June 2023 presidential elections. Along with the presidential elections, general elections will also take place. Mr. Erdoğan said that there would not be any snap elections.

  After his announcement, the main opposition Republican People's Party group deputy chair Engin Altay said that Mr. Erdoğan became a candidate for the elections that he would lose. Mr. Altay also said when Mr. Erdoğan said there would not be any snap elections in the past, there was one three months later.

★ Turkish police have attacked an LGBTI pride march organized at the Turkish capital Ankara's Middle East Technical University campus, battering and detaining several students, the daily Duvar reported. Previously, the state-appointed president of Middle East Technical University had announced that this year's pride march would not be allowed. Also, police detained students at Istanbul's Boğaziçi University and Eskişehir's Anadolu University in Northwestern Turkey.

  In the initial days of the Justice and Development Party administration, Pride Day marches were allowed. In recent years, authorities have repeatedly banned Pride events, citing security concerns and public order.

★ According to the daily Duvar, the European Parliament adopted a new report that said the European Union should not start the accession process with Turkey. The report says that Turkey repeatedly went back on its human rights commitments.

  The report adds that the European Parliament regrets the sustained legal and administrative pressure on civil society and human rights defenders, lawyers, and journalists.

  The report also cites Turkey's conflicts with Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration in the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean.

  The report also has some praise for Turkey: it said that the European Parliament welcomes Turkey's efforts to be a mediator between Ukraine and Russia. It also pointed out that Turkey is hosting the largest refugee population in the world. The number of refugees registered in Turkey is around 4 million. This number is about 5% of the population, equivalent to the U.S. having 16 million refugees.

  Turkey's foreign affairs ministry rejected the report. "Allegations in the report regarding our country concerning democracy, the rule of law, and human rights, and the unfounded arguments on the Aegean, Eastern Mediterranean, and Cyprus issues, reflecting one or two European Union members' narrow-minded efforts to serve their interests, are null and void for us," the ministry said.

  Read more >> here <<

★ According to VOA, Turkish media groups are voicing concern over a draft disinformation bill. The bill seeks to criminalize the spread of disinformation and is moving toward a vote in the Turkish parliament.

  The ruling majority parliamentarians put forward the so-called "disinformation" law. If passed, it would carry a prison sentence of up to three years for spreading fake news or disinformation as defined by government officials.

  The ruling parliamentarians laid out newly drafted proposals across 40 articles, including some that would target social media users and regulate digital media. If passed, the bill would consider digital media outlets as conventional media and subject them to the same rights and regulations as print and broadcast outlets, including the eligibility to apply for press cards and provisions around access to state advertising revenue.

  Skeptics of the proposed law say authorities can use the bill to pressure digital media before the upcoming elections in Turkey.

  Turkey already has a poor record for media rights, ranking 149 out of 180 countries on the Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index, where No. 1 is the freest, the VOA article writes.

★ Dorian Jones of the VOA reports that Turkish-Russian talks made little progress on Ukraine grain shipments. Russia is currently blocking the shipments, causing concerns that it will affect millions of people around the globe.

  The Russian foreign affairs minister Sergei Lavrov was in Turkey on June 8 and held talks with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.

  Turkey suggests creating shipping corridors to allow Ukrainian grain exports. But both sides failed to reach an agreement. The sticking issue is demining the sea. Ukraine says that if they were to do that, they want guarantees that Russia would not use the corridor to launch an attack on the Ukrainian port of Odessa.

  At a press conference with Lavrov, Çavuşoğlu said that Turkey was ready to work with the United Nations to create a secure shipping corridor.

★ Cancer is one of the most aggressive diseases and against which we are the most defenseless, writes a Koç University newsletter.

  Especially Glioblastoma is one of the types of brain cancer with low survival rates. It also has limited treatment protocols.

  Prof. Tuğba Bağcı Önder from the Koç University School of Medicine in Turkey and her team found the key to unlocking a significant step in the treatment of brain cancer. They worked with an agent called TRAIL, which kills only cancer cells without harming healthy ones. TRAIL assists in programmed cell death, called "apoptosis."

  Dr. Tuğba Bağcı Önder graduated in 2002 from the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University. She earned her Ph. D. in neuroscience at the School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University in 2008. Read more >> here <<

★ ECONOMY

★ According to the Turkish daily Duvar, Turkey's ENAG, an inflation research group, has warned that the government is destroying the middle class by prioritizing economic growth figures and refusing to adopt measures to tackle soaring inflation.

  ENAG is a group of Turkish academics, economists, and financial analysts.

★ The inflation, calculated at 160% by ENAG, is creating new millionaires. According to the Turkish service of the Deutsche Welle, 89,000 people in the last five months have become millionaires.

  Turkey's Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati admitted last week that everyone except low-income families benefited from the government's current economic model based on low-interest rates.

★ Nurten Öztürk, Founding Member of the Turkish petroleum company OPET Board of Directors, and her older sister, Dr. Nursen Bilgin Kadayifçıoğlu, organized an exhibition together.

  Nurten Öztürk presents photographs she took with the physiogram Read more >> here << technique. Nursen Bilgin Kadayifçıoğlu participates in the exhibition with her black and white works.

  Nurten Öztürk defines her understanding of photography as "light dominating darkness, beauty challenging ugliness." With this understanding, she aims to bring a different perspective to her art.

  Nursen Bilgin Kadayifçıoğlu emphasizes the bond with her older sister in her presentation. She says children somehow create themselves from the voids parents leave .

  The curator is Kirkor Sahakoğlu, who teaches in the Graphic Design Department at the faculty of fine arts of Marmara University. He emphasizes that the "MEET" exhibition, organized by two artists with different photography styles, creates the "unity of opposites."

  The exhibition is at Yapı Kredi Bomontiada Gallery until June 15.

★ Borusan Philharmony gave an opening party for the 50th Istanbul Music Festival at Perili Köşk ("Mansion with Ghosts.")

  Important names in the business and art world attended the party.

  Acting with the vision of popularizing art, Borusan Holding continues to be the sponsor of the Istanbul Music Festival.

  Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra and Borusan Quartet will meet with art lovers as part of the 50th Istanbul Music Festival.

  Borusan Quartet and one of today's leading harpists, Xavier de Maistre, came together at Süreyya Opera House in the Kadıköy district of Istanbul on June 8. Tan Dun, a Chinese-born American conductor with a Grammy, an Oscar, and other awards, also attended the program.

  The 50th Istanbul music Festival started on June 6 and will continue until June 24.

  Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra and Borusan Quartet are cultural entities of Turkey's pipeline and pipe manufacturing company Borusan Holding.

★ The works selected in the Akbank 40th Contemporary Artists Award Competition, organized by Akbank Sanat with the Painting and Sculpture Museums Association, are on display.

  The organizers put together the competition to encourage developments in the field of Contemporary Art and to support young artists.

  The jury chose 24 works of 23 artists for the exhibition selection among 1011 applications from various regions of Turkey. İpek Duben, Çelenk Bafra, Gönül Nuhoğlu, Derya Bigalı and Fatoş Üstek, who also curated the exhibition, were among this year's jury members.

  Akbank Sanat is the cultural arm of Turkey's finance and banking company Akbank. On the 40th anniversary of its establishment, the organization invited young artist candidates from all over Turkey with the theme of "Open Card" to share their artistic practices in an environment where they felt free.

★ Touché club at Zorlu Performing Arts Center in Istanbul has announced the June calendar. June events will be the final events of the season. Special jazz performances and stand-up shows will continue to meet the audience throughout the month.

  Written and played by Pınar Göktaş and directed by Şule Ateş, the one-man-show "Such Things Happen Only in Movies" was on Touché stage on June 9.

  Selen Beytekin Project was on June 11.

  Pınar Fidan's stand-up show with its topics on family issues, pawns, Putin, dirty talk, somewhat socialists, Gladio, open surgery, the events at Menemen, and singer-architect Kutsi is on June 16.

  Ferit Odman, one of the pioneers of jazz drumming in Turkey, will take the stage on June 17.

  The Cenk Erdoğan Trio, consisting of Cenk Erdoğan on guitar, Ozan Musluoğlu on double bass, and Ekin Cengizkan on drums, will meet with their audience on the evening of June 18.

  Tuzbiber (the name translates as salt-and-pepper) will meet the audience with their stand-up show on June 23.

  Meltem Ege & Önder Focan Group, where the vocalist, pianist, improvisation artist, and educator and Önder Focan Group come together, will be at Touché on the evening of June 24.

  Bar Psychologist-Psychoshow will take the stage last evening on June 30.

★ The 35th International Izmir Festival has started in Turkey's city dubbed the Pearl of the Aegean.

  Before the event, those who supported the festival received plaques.

  The festival started with a concert by the Izmir State Symphony Orchestra. Many art lovers attended the event. The orchestra performed many prominent works, especially those of Mozart.

  On June 9, the Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra gave a concert at the 2000-year-old Celsus Library in the ancient city of Ephesus. (See a video clip here: Read more >> here << )

  The festival started on June 7 and will continue until July 20.

★ On the last day of the International Homer Festival, held for the first time this year, writer and poet Özdemir İnce and poet Adonis received honorary awards.

  The festival was in the Bayraklı district in Turkey's Aegean province of Izmir. Bayraklı Municipality organized the festival.

  The organizers gave a labor award to writer Yaşar Aksoy and a value award to journalist Merdan Yanardağ.

  At the event, famous Turkish pianist Yıldız Çiçek Sivri gave a concert. Journalists Merdan Yanardağ, Özlem Gürses, and İzmir Journalists Association President Dilek Gappi had a panel discussion on being a journalist in Turkey.

  The festival ended with a concert by the Agora Minor music group and Oğuz Aksaç.

  Bayraklı Mayor Serdar Sandal said, "We are happy to complete an international festival in the land where Homer was born."

★ Speaking of music, Germany's Berlin Symphony Orchestra gave a concert in the Turkish capital Ankara's presidential Symphony Hall.

  Conducted by Italian maestro Giovanni Antonini, the orchestra amazed the audience on Wednesday with Austrian lyric soprano Anna Prohaska.

  The orchestra interpreted Beethoven's "Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus"; Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito KV 621 - Ecco il punto, oh Vitellia - Non-Piu di Fiori"; "Joseph Haydn's "Overture to L'isola Disabitata" and "Scena di Berenice, Hob XXIVa: 10 for soprano and orchestra"; and Beethoven's "Second Symphony in D major."

  Dating back to the post-World War II era, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra was established as a radio orchestra -- the RIAS Symphony Orchestra (Radio in the American Sector) -- in 1946 in West Berlin.

★ The Cimmerians were a nomadic Indo-European people who appeared about 1000 BC. Originating in the Pontic-Caspian steppe, under pressure from the Scythians, the Cimmerians subsequently migrated into Southwest Asia and Central and Southeast Europe.

  Archaeologists excavating in Turkey's central province of Kırıkkale since 2009 made exciting finds. The site consists of an upper and a lower city.

  The excavations are being led by Dr. Kimiyoshi Matsumura of the Kırşehir Ahi Evran University in central Turkey. Dr. Matsumura is from Japan but has been teaching and conducting excavations in Turkey.

  Dr. Matsumura says that the top level at the excavation site dates back to the relatively recent Ottoman era. Underneath is the Hellenistic period. Further down is the late iron age and remains from the Persians.

  Among the ruins are fortifications from Cimmerians. Dr. Matsumura says it is the first time remains from Cimmerians were discovered in Turkey's Asiatic part of Anatolia. Among the remains are animal motifs and objects typical of the Cimmerian culture.

★ Turkey's picturesque Cappadocia region in the central Nevşehir province has attracted 1 million tourists in the first five months of this year, according to official figures.

  Domestic and international visitors explored the charming touristic hub, famed for its distinctive natural rock structures called fairy chimneys, underground cities, cave hotels, and hot air balloon rides.

  In the same period in 2019, Cappadocia hosted 1.1 million tourists. The number decreased drastically in 2020 to around 323,000 due to restrictions imposed to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

★ Another picturesque region in Turkey, Pamukkale in southwestern Turkey, attracted 430,000 tourists in five months.

  Located in Turkey's Aegean province of Denizli, Pamukkale is popular among tourists across the globe. Most are from Europe, East Asia, Latin America, and Russia.

  Pamukkale, meaning "cotton fortress" in Turkish, is known for the mineral-rich thermal waters flowing down white travertine terraces on a nearby hillside. It neighbors Hierapolis, an ancient Roman spa city founded around 190 BCE. Ruins include a well-preserved theater and necropolis with sarcophagi that stretch for 1.5 miles. The Antique Pool is famous for its submerged Roman columns due to an earthquake.

Ankara, in central Turkey        : 73/57 Thunderstorms
Antalya, on the Mediterranean    : 79/72 Thunderstorms
Erzurum, in Eastern Turkey       : 79/48 Thunderstorms
Istanbul, in northwestern Turkey : 75/66 Thunderstorms
Izmir, on the Aegean             : 75/63 Thunderstorms
Trabzon, on the Black Sea        : 79/70 Thunderstorms

Black Sea measured at Trabzon         : 65
Marmara Sea measured at Tekirdağ      : 71
Aegean Sea measured at İzmir          : 75
Mediterranean Sea measured at Antalya : 77

★ In the CEV volleyball Golden League

  Turkey 3 - Slovakia 0 and advanced to the finals.

★ The European Judo Championships Veterans is taking place in Heraklion, Greece. Turkish judoka Emre Eren received a silver medal.

  The championships are continuing.

★ In the archery championships in Munich, Germany, Turkey's compound bow team beat its Dutch rivals and became the European champion.