★ There are reports that Turkish authorities detained Ahmed Katie, a Syrian human rights activist, without the knowledge of his family and associates. Katie has been contributing to Enab Baladi, a Syrian opposition news outlet.

  Katie's family has been unable to contact him since November 27, 5 P.M.

  Concerns have arisen over the alleged detention of Syrian human rights activist Ahmed Katie in Turkey, reportedly without the knowledge of his family and associates.

  Before his detention, Katie contacted a relative, revealing that he received a phone call from a "security institution" but did not disclose further details.

★ In a ruling, the Turkish Court of Accounts blocked the Metropolitan Municipality of Izmir from purchasing goods from local producers' cooperatives.

  Mayor Tunç Soyer of the municipality is from the main opposition Republican People's Party. He said this decision will detrimentally affect their projects of agricultural development.

  The court said that the municipality should do the purchases with tenders.

  On November 30, Mayor Soyer said: "They are forcing our farmers to enter tenders with big companies. Just as they banned local seeds before and just as they removed (the status of) 16,000 villages to weaken them against big corporations."

  Soyer added that the government wanted production dominated by the mega capital and villagers to be the cheap labor force in the urban areas.

  Analysts say this is part of the ruling Justice and Development Party's strategy to put blocks on the operations of the municipalities held by the opposition parties and showed them as poor performers.

  Another leg of the ruling party's strategy is to take legal action against the opposition party mayors with bogus charges.

  The Izmir Metropolitan area is the third biggest in Turkey after Istanbul and Ankara.

  The pro-Justice and Development Party daily Hürriyet reported that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that his Party is intensifying efforts to secure victories in key opposition-held cities, particularly Istanbul and the capital Ankara, in the upcoming local elections scheduled for next March.

★ A Turkish court ruled the purchase of a municipality-owned residence by former Ankara mayor Melih Gökçek from the Justice and Development Party was unlawful.

  Mr. Gökçek will evacuate the residence and hand it over to the municipality run by the opposition Republican People's Party.

★ Reuters reported that Turkey froze the assets of 82 organizations and people for alleged ties to the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party.

★ The Turkish foreign affairs minister told Sweden the Turkish parliament will ratify their NATO bid within weeks. Turkey, as a NATO member, objected to Sweden's membership in NATO, saying that it supported rebel Kurds and other dissidents whom Turkey considers terrorists.

★ Hilton announced plans for eleven hotels with more than 1600 rooms in Turkey. Hilton built its first hotel outside the United States in Istanbul in 1955.

★ According to Reuters, Amundi, Europe's largest asset manager and among the top 10 in the world, started dipping its toe back into the Turkish lira, having been impressed by the country's turnaround efforts since its mid-year elections.

★ Turkish President Erdoğan says his administration will adjust the minimum wage only once in 2024. In the last two years, they have raised the minimum wage twice to compensate for the soaring inflation and cost of living.

★ On December 2, a chief prosecutor's office in the Turkish capital Ankara launched an investigation into Ümit Özdağ, chairman of the anti-refugee Victory Party, for "inciting the public to hatred and enmity" and "purposeful spread of misinformation."

★ A Turkish court ordered the dismissal of the Turkish Medical Association's Central Council members, including prominent human rights activist and chair Şebnem Korur Fincancı. The executives were facing charges of "membership in a terrorist organization," which the Justice and Development Party administration often uses to silence the opposition.

★ On November 29, members of the religious Suleymanist order assaulted Engin Aktaş, a National Education Ministry official, who was inspecting a student dorm allegedly run by the order in Turkey's Black Sea province of Ordu. During his inspection, Aktaş found two underage students staying at the dormitory were unregistered. According to the daily BirGün, Aktaş called the gendarmerie upon finding the unregistered students and reported the issue.

★ According to the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions, Turkey's hunger threshold reached $485 in local currency and surpassed the minimum wage of $394 by $91 in November. Two months in a row, the poverty threshold reached $1,580 and hit four times the minimum wage.

★ A Turkish court ruled that calling former Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu "criminal affairs minister" was within the scope of the right to freedom of expression. It acquitted Ms. Didar Gül, a member of Purple Solidarity, a feminist organization.

★ After the breakdown of the cease-fire, Israel resumed bombing Gaza at an intensified rate, reports the VOA.

  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, on the sidelines of the COP28 summit in Dubai that the resumption of Israeli attacks on Gaza was "very negative," Erdoğan's office said Friday.

★ Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi did not make a previously announced visit to Ankara on Tuesday, the Turkish presidency told Agence France-Presse, without providing a reason.

★ Voice of America reporter Dorian Jones wrote that Turkey's civil society organizations are voicing concerns for their future as international funding declines. Significant donors have been ending or cutting back their support after Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, emboldened by his reelection this year, continues his crackdown on dissenting voices.

★ Gallery Sevil Dolmacı Istanbul brings together American graffiti artist and painter Chris Daze Ellis's first solo exhibition in Turkey, "People and Places," with art lovers in Istanbul until January 31, 2024.

  The exhibition consists of the works produced by Ellis in his studio in the U. S. and during his stay in Istanbul in 2022 within the scope of the Sevil Dolmacı Art Residency Program.

  In the 1980s, Chris Daze Ellis, among the street artists supported by Andy Warhol, worked with artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, and Futura, producing works and participating in group exhibitions.

  Daze captured the everyday scenes in daily life and conveyed his observations and impressions through his art. The exhibition reflects the people the artist observed on buses, subways, and streets in New York, the city nicknamed the "Big Apple," and the places he passed through during the day.

  In his exhibition, Daze exhibits the canvas works he produced with expressionist brush strokes and intense use of paint and his ceramic works with the inspiration he received from Istanbul when he came to Turkey for the first time in 2022. The ceramic pots he paints in his style reflect the artist's dynamic imagery style and color palette.

★ Tekfen Philharmonic commemorated Ali Nihat Gökyiğit, its founder, with two special concerts.

  Classical music lovers in Istanbul and Izmir witnessed an unforgettable night at the concert where the orchestra performed Gökyiğit's favorite works under the direction of Permanent Conductor Shokhakimov.

  The concerts featured Bulgarian violinist Liya Petrova, winner of the prestigious Carl Nielsen International Competition, as well as traditional instruments such as kemancha, qanun, oud, and ney masters Mehri Arifqızı, Göksel Baktagir, Yurdal Tokcan and Ercan Irmak, the founder's favorite.

  The works performed were Erich Korngold's Violin Concerto, Turkish Fragments (Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov), Ayşe and Dance from Three Miniatures (Kara Karayev), Violin Concerto (Hacı Hanmemmedov), Flute Concerto (İlyas Mirzayev), Bahçekurd (M. Adel Gerai), and Eastern Wind ( With Göksel Baktagir).

  Ali Nihat Gökyiğit established Tekfen Holding, an international company based in Istanbul, Turkey.

  In addition to the Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra, he co-founded with a friend TEMA, an organization to fight soil erosion, conduct reforestation, and protect the natural habitat.

  He passed away at age 97 in January.

★ BASE is an organization with a mission of supporting the creativity and motivation of newly graduated artists and improving their dialogue with art professionals and audiences.

  It brings together the works of the artists graduating in 2023. Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism supports its events.

  Bilgili Sanat will host this year's event in collaboration with Akaretler Sıraevler, with the sponsorships of Trendyol Sanat, Jumbo, Kale Design and Art Center, and TEB Private Banking.

  BASE will reveal the perspectives of new-generation artists on the world and art as it did in the past six years.

  One hundred and twenty artists who recently graduated from 38 universities in 26 cities will participate and include 130 works produced in different disciplines such as painting, photography, ceramics, glass, sculpture, video, new media, graphic design, and traditional Turkish Arts.

  The exhibition will start on December 13 and end on December 17.

★ Georgia's renowned folk dance Ensemble Rustavi will perform in Istanbul on December 15, 16 and 17 at two venues.

  The ensemble has 55 dancers, ten musicians, and ten choir artists.

  Ensemble Rustavi defines itself as "ambassadors of a deep-rooted culture." The ensemble has performed in five continents, reached an audience of 60 million with 10 thousand concerts in 100 countries,

★ The shining name of the jazz scene, China Moses, was at Istanbul's Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall on December 1.

  At the concert, music masters Jerome Cornelis (guitar), Kwame Yeboah (keyboard), Lawrence Insula (bass), "Lox" (Paapa Mensah) (drums) and Camilla George (saxophone) accompanied Moses.

  Moses, who receives praise in the world press, has "a sharp voice, powerful beats, and an extraordinary personality," according to the London Evening Standard.

  All About Jazz describes her as "the shining new star of the jazz world."

  Times England draws attention to Moses' stage charisma by saying, "He dazzles with his high-heeled Parisian elegance and dominates the stage from the moment he enters."

  Moses, the daughter of Grammy-winning musician Dee Dee Bridgewater and director Gilbert Moses, is an artist born in Los Angeles and raised in Paris.

★ Turkish director Fatih Akin's film "Crossing The Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul" has now a re-mastered 4K version. The Match Factory, a production and sales company that brings art-house films to the international market, acquired the film's international rights, reports the Deadline.com.

  The film, originally played out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005, goes on a journey through Istanbul, exploring its position as a city that bridges Europe and Asia through its music.

  The crowd-pleasing work won the Audience Award at the music-focused Ghent International Film Festival in 2005 and brings in a diverse spectrum of music from modern electronic, rock, and hip-hop to classical "Arabesque."

★ On Nov. 28, a 2022 footage of concrete crumbling on visitors of Istanbul's Hagia Sophia Museum-turned-Mosque surfaced and revealed the extent of damage to the ancient temple. Experts warned that urgent restoration was necessary if the structure were to survive a potential earthquake.

  Şerif Yaşar of Turkey's Art History Foundation said that Hagia Sophia would collapse in the next earthquake. He identified the moisture emitted from visitors' breath was damaging the structure.

  Eastern Roman Empire had Hagia Sophia built as a church 1500 years ago.

  Read more >> here <<

★ According to the Anatolia news agency, in archaeological excavations in Turkey's Eastern province of Van's Çatak district at a 3200-year-old cemetery, 30 skulls showing evidence of surgery surfaced. The number of skeletons excavated was 400.

  Experts say that a neurological disease or epidemic may have occurred at the time. They estimate a 60% recovery rate, showcasing the success of the four types of procedures used.

  Associate Professor Hakan Yilmaz from the Van Yüzüncü Yıl University Archaeology Department said the bones will undergo detailed laboratory examination, will determine the age and gender of the individuals, and also carry out studies on diseases affecting the bones. An examination of the mouth and teeth will reveal dietary habits.

★ Restorers completed the roof and the waiting hall of the Haydar Pasha Railway Terminal on Istanbul's Asian side of Istanbul. The terminal suffered damage in a 2010 fire.

  The restorers started their work in 2016 and used a film with footage of the terminal before the fire.

  Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamit had the terminal built. It opened to service in 1908. Otto Ritter and Helmuth Cuno, two German architects, designed the building.

★ During archaeological excavations in the ancient city of Aigai, two figurines and embossed vase fragments depicting Demeter, known as the goddess of earth and fertility in Greek mythology, were found in a cistern.

  Aigai is in Turkey's Aegean province of Manisa.

  Read more about Aigai >> here <<

★ Heavy rainfall affected most regions of Turkey earlier in the week. One person died in Istanbul and aviation authorities canceled some flights.

  Authorities also closed Bosphorus strait to maritime traffic. One tanker ran ashore.

  The Governor of Istanbul suspended all ferry service on Tuesday, November 28, and it remained suspended on Wednesday morning.

  The Turkish transportation and infrastructure ministry also closed the Dardanelles straight to maritime traffic.

  Floods overran coastal Highway in the Eastern Black Sea region. Heavy seas also inundated some coastal districts in the Aegean province of Izmir.