★ The 2024 local elections are the focus of the news in Turkey.

  One of the coveted locations is the Istanbul metropolitan mayoralty. Held for nearly 20 years by the ruling Justice and Development Party, Ekrem İmamoğlu from the opposition Republican People's Party rested away the prized position in the 2019 elections.

  A united opposition encouraged all its constituents to vote for him. Among them were the Kurds. According to the Turkish daily Duvar, a new survey by Rawest Research indicates that 54.5% of the Kurds still think he will win if he only gets the pro-Kurdish party HEDEP support. 52.7% of them say that İmamoğlu will again win

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★ According to the daily Duvar, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey's president, made the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Republic of Turkey low-key due to the ongoing siege in Gaza.

  Accompanied by state and military officials and leaders of political parties, President Erdoğan followed the customary protocol by laying a wreath at Ataturk's mausoleum in the capital. However, he canceled the traditional Republic Day reception.

  Meral Akşener, the leader of the nationalist opposition Good Party, accused the government of deliberately trying to undermine the significance of the celebrations.

  "There are those who still have an issue with our republic 100 years later," she said.

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★ The previous week, President Erdoğan voiced his support for Hamas and called it a liberation organization.

  The daily Duvar reports that German politicians across the spectrum criticized Mr. Erdoğan for his comments on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

  They also expressed reservations about Mr. Erdoğan's expected mid-November visit to Germany.

  Some German politicians, though, expressed that they should keep the channels of dialogue open.

  Political scientist Dr. Salim Çevik, a researcher at the German Foundation for Political Science and Politics, said that Germany is hesitant about Erdoğan's visit because they expect him to criticize Germany for being hypocritical about international law, human rights, and democracy.

  "Germany's claim to moral and discursive superiority has taken a big hit, considering the open support shown to the bombing by Israel and the political climate that criminalizes different stances," Çevik added.

★ ENAG, a group of independent economists, calculated the annualized inflation rate for October as 126%, reports the daily Duvar.

  The government-run Turkish Statistical Institute claims that it was only 61%.

  Turkey's central bank raised the benchmark interest rate from 30% to 35% on October 26. However, the low interest rate compared to the inflation rate does not seem to be helping.

  Economists attribute the current failed state of the Turkish economy to President Erdoğan's incorrect policies, specifically, his erroneous thinking that high-interest rates would cause higher inflation. Experts say it is the other way around.

★ For the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, İş Bank has put its art collection on exhibition.

  The venue is the İş Bank Paintings and Sculpture Museum. Spread throughout the museum are 600 works that were never in exhibitions.

  The items in the exhibition are from 2700 works it owns.

  İşbank, officially Türkiye İş Bankası, is a commercial bank in Turkey. It was the largest private bank in the country by the size of total assets, total loans, total deposits, and equity, as well as by the number of branches and employees as of December 31, 2021. It was the first bank founded by the Turkish Republic.

★ The 40th Istanbul Book Fair will end on November 5.

  Visited by thousands every year, the fair has exhibitions for 998 foreign and domestic publishers. More than 2000 authors are signing their books during the event.

  Spread over ten halls covering 400,000 sq. ft., the fair also has workshops and panel discussions.

 

★ Attila İlhan Science, Art and Culture Foundation announced the winners of the 2023 Attila İlhan Literature Awards.

  The novel award went to Kerem Eksen for his "A Place More Distant Than Death."

  The first Novel Foundation Special Encouragement award went to Devrim Koçak for his "A Few Things about Ms. Nergis."

  Süreyya Berfe received the poetry award with his poem Slowly "I do not know."

  The foundation's special award went to Zeynep Tiryaki for her poetry book titled "Poetry Is the Yeast of Distances."

  On November 2, the award-giving ceremony was at the Istanbul Book Fair.

★ TOÇEV, a foundation that helps needy children get an education, took 100 children to the capital Ankara. There, they visited the mausoleum of the first president and independence war hero Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

  The children were from various provinces of Turkey. The volunteers and project sponsors of the foundation accompanied them.

★ The Culture Road Festival organized by Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism is ending with its visit to Turkey's Mediterranean province of Antalya.

  More than 500 events will take place at 50 locations in Antalya between November 4 and 12. Among them are Side, Republic Square, Clocktower area, Konyaaltı Beach, and Citadel Inner Court.

  A sailboat race started the festival. There are concerts at the Republic Square and Side Ancient Theater.

  Today, the Presidential Symphony Orchestra and Arpanatolia Concerts were at the Republic Square.

  Another concert by the Presidential Symphony Orchestra and State Polyphonic Choir will be on November 5 and will be for the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Republic.

  One of the festival exhibitions, titled "100 Works for the 100th Year of the Republic", features sculptures and paintings by over 90 artists at DokumaPark Modern Arts Gallery.

  The Mediterranean Underwater Archaeology Painting Exhibition at Antalya Aquarium shows the underwater riches of the Mediterranean.

  On November 10, the Antalya State Opera and Ballet will commemorate Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkey's first president and independence war hero, on the 85th anniversary of his passing.

  There are nine days of concerts at the Side Ancient Theater. One of them will feature Carmina Burana by Carl Orff. The state polyphonic choir will perform.

  Mr. Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Turkey's culture and tourism minister, will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony to inaugurate the Antalya Necropolis Museum. The museum has artifacts from nearly 800 tombs excavated over the years.

  Turkish artist Refik Anadol's digital data sculpture titled "Renaissance Dreams" is at the Suna and İnan Kıraç Citadel Inner Court Museum. The sculpture received the Presidential Culture and Arts Grand Prize in this category.

  The NFT exhibition "Gate of Eternity" will be at Side Ancient Theater. Mert Onaran, one of the leading names in the creation of Anamorphic 3D illusion art installations in Turkey, will take part in the Hıdırlık Tower with a special reflection project.