★ On February 27, Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, called on the outlawed group to disarm and dissolve, saying, "There is no alternative to democracy in the pursuit and realization of a political system."

  Öcalan added:

  The Kurdistan Workers' Party emerged in the 1980s due to the absence of channels of democratic politics. He pointed out that the existence of the party is no longer meaningful since the denial of the Kurdish identity is no longer there [in Turkey] and improvements in the freedom of expression.

  The U.S., the European Union, and Turkey consider the Kurdistan Worker's Party as a terrorist organization.

★ There was worldwide coverage of Öcalan's statement. Here are a few headlines:

  Voice of America said, "Kurdish political parties welcomed Öcalan's call for peace, but challenges remain."

  In a different news dispatch, VOA said, "Possible Kurdish-Turkish peace could be bad news for Islamic State."

  Deutsche Welle: "End to violence in Turkey? PKK leader tells group to disband."

  Nacho Sanchez Amor, the European Parliament's Turkey rapporteur, welcomed Öcalan's call and deemed it historic.

★ On February 28, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that Öcalan's call for the disarmament of the Kurdistan Worker's Party started a new phase in the efforts for a terror-free Turkey.

  Today, the active militants of the Kurdistan Worker's Party, whose headquarters are on the Iraqi mountains near the Turkish border, declared a cease-fire.

  According to the Fırat News Agency, the party's executive committee affirmed its support for Öcalan's February 27 call and vowed to fulfill its requirements.

  However, they said for success, a suitable environment for democratic politics and legal recognition must also exist.

  They added that a safe environment must exist for its assembly to convene and that Öcalan must personally oversee the assembly. Read more >> here <<

  Mazloum Abdi, the leader of the U.S. ally SDF, Syrian Democratic Forces, said Öcalan's call for laying down the arms is not related to them in Syria. Turkey considers SDF to be an extension of the Kurdistan Worker's Party.

★ According to the Turkish daily Duvar, Turkish opposition parties gave mixed reactions to Öcalan's call. 

  While some parties pointed to the parliament as the medium for resolving the Kurdish issue, some deemed it a negotiation tactic for Erdoğan's desire to be a "lifetime" president. 

  Özgür Özel, the leader of the largest opposition Republican People's Party in the Turkish parliament, said there should be transparency and an inclusive process to address the Kurdish issue.

  He stressed that the solution must involve democratization.

★ According to the Turkish daily Duvar, KaosGL, a Turkish LGBTQ news outlet, obtained a law draft.

  The outlet said with the law, President Erdoğan's administration wants to criminalize LGBTQ identities and restrict legal procedures for gender affirmation processes and sex change surgery.

★ President Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party administration arrested yet another Mayor from the opposition.

  The police detained Alaattin Köseler, the mayor of Istanbul's Beykoz district, and brought him to the Istanbul Police Department for questioning.

  Istanbul's chief public prosecutor accuses him of bid-rigging and abuse of office.

  Özgür Özel, the leader of the Republican People's Party, condemned the operation.

  Critics say the Erdoğan administration has been trying to undo their local election losses by removing mayors from the opposition.

★ According to Bianet, an independent Turkish news outlet, a Turkish court asked social media companies, including X, to block access to several journalists' accounts.

  The court cited vague justifications such as national security, public order, and preventing the spread of misleading information.

  Ruşen Takva, a journalist who got his account restricted, criticized the increasing pressure on journalism in Turkey and added that 95 percent of the media aligns with the government now. He also said that the government is systematically silencing the remaining 5 percent.

★ ECONOMY

★ According to the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions, in February, the hunger threshold for a Turkish family of four exceeded 23,000 Turkish liras, and the poverty threshold reached 75,000 Turkish liras.

  The minimum wage in Turkey is only 22,104 liras, about 605 USD.

  The official inflation rate for January was about 42 percent, but an independent inflation research group calculated it as 81 percent.

★ On February 23, Cevdet Yılmaz, Turkish vice president, said that Turkey's gross domestic product exceeded 1.3 trillion USD in 2024, and the per capita income is more than 15,000 USD.

★ Mehmet Şimşek, Turkey's finance minister, announced on January 28 that Turkey's economy grew by 3.2 percent in 2024.

  2.1 points of the increase came from the internal demand, and 1.1 points from net the foreign demand.

  At the beginning of 2024, the Turkish government thought they could achieve a 3.5 percent growth.

★ Sista Sound will celebrate International Women's Day with a special event at Istanbul's Salon İKSV on March 10, 2025. This event, held in collaboration with Sounds from the World, an organization promoting world music, will bring together more than 20 musicians and DJs aiming to raise women's voices and show solidarity with the global women's movement.

  Sista Sound, creating spaces for female musicians, MCs, DJs, and artists since 2017, operates as a dynamic collective based in Turkey to ensure that women have a stronger place in the music industry and to work for gender equality.

  The core team of the collective consists of active artists and musicians specializing in fields such as creative management, event management, and art education.

  Sista Sound says it reaches more artists every year. It aims to grow with national and international collaborations with the motto "In Music We Unite."

★ At the 22nd Berlinale Co-Production Market, the jury deemed "Dreamgirl" worthy of the most prestigious award.

  Director Kaan Müjdeci from Turkey and director, writer, and actor Ercan Kesal, also from Turkey, wrote the script together, and Olena Yershova and Kanat Doğramacı co-produced it.

  The event had 35 projects from 27 countries, and "Dreamgirl "was the only project selected from Turkey.

  German-French cultural channel ARTE gave Dreamgirl the ARTEKino International Award.

  Every year, producers, sales representatives, and distributors in the international film industry come together at the event, with approximately 600 distinguished participants presenting their new projects and establishing production and financing partners.

  "Dreamgirl" is about the intersection of the paths of a gypsy girl, who is an outcast, and Dreamgirl, an injured racehorse. The film focuses on the collision of innocence and brutality, friendship and jealousy, revealing the spirit of resistance and the fragility of hope in a world of violence and despair.

  The shooting of the film will begin in the winter of 2026.

★ According to the magazine ArtDog Istanbul, several Turkish artists exhibited their works of art at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Africa's leading international contemporary art event.

  Öktem Aykut Gallery participated in the Fair with works by Begüm Yamanlar, Toygun Özdemir, Sinan Logie, and Mesut Öztürk. 

  Gallery Anna Laudel's collection featured Mathias Hornung and Daniele Sigalot alongside Turkish artists Ardan Özmenoğlu, Bilal Hakan Karakaya, Cem Sonel, Ertuğrul Güngör, and Faruk Ertekin. 

  Meanwhile, Eser Gündüz presented his works as part of Paris-based Galeria La La Lande.

★ Refik Anadol, a renowned Turkish digital artist, is leading a new project celebrating Turkey's İş Bank's 100th anniversary.

  Launched in collaboration with MEXT, the technology hub of the Union of Turkish Metal Industrialists, the project, dubbed "the Great Nature Model: Turkey," merges art and science through artificial intelligence to create an archive of Turkey's natural heritage.

  One of the aspects of the project is the Living Encyclopedia, an interactive knowledge and art platform. Users can explore academic insights through the Research module, create nature-inspired visual designs via the Create module, and experience AI-generated transformations of nature's evolving forms in the Dream module.

★ ARTER, a contemporary art museum in Istanbul, Turkey, started hosting German artist Franz Erhard Walther's solo exhibition "Attempt to be a Sculpture".

  Walther is an interdisciplinary installation and conceptual artist known for his fabric objects and activations.

  In addition to the exhibition, Walther will engage with the audience in an artist talk.

  Walther's works are in many public collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Dia Art Foundation, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Staatsgalerie Stuttgart.

  The exhibition will be through October 5.

★ In the ancient city of Pergamum, a team of archaeologists led by Yusuf Sezgin, head of the archaeology department at the Celal Bayar University in Turkey's Aegean city of Manisa, are working to uncover an impressive Roman-era residential complex dubbed the "Mosaic House."

  >> here <<

  The house, once inhabited by prominent individuals in antiquity, features a central stone courtyard, a pool, and mosaic floors dating back to the third and fourth centuries. The structure of the dwelling goes back to the second and third centuries.

  Archaeologists believe that the house burned down in a major fire during the seventh-century Arab incursions.

  During the excavations, artifacts such as kitchenware, weaponry, jewelry, and coins from the Roman and Byzantine eras surfaced.

  Archaeologists found a gravestone of a child in the pool, depicting the child and his dog while running after rabbits. The inscription writes, "The sweetest child in the world."

★ Despite surviving severe earthquakes in 1939 and 1942, treasure hunters, targeting the cross symbol on a Byzantine-era bridge's keystone, significantly damaged its upper section.

  Aybike Gamze Gazioğlu, a historical researcher, expressed her dismay over the destruction and stated that the single-arched bridge in Turkey's Anatolian province of Tokat's Erbaa district withstood earthquakes but could not survive the treasure hunters.

★ Turks are getting ready to activate the ancient Patara Lighthouse after being out of commission for centuries.

  Roman Emperor Nero had the lighthouse built in 64/65 CE, and probably an earthquake destroyed it in the 15th century.

  In 2004 and 2005, archaeologists uncovered the structure under a massive dune. They sorted over 2500 blocks of limestone.

  Analysis and digital reconstruction studies supported by 3D scanning have shown that most structural elements have survived to the present day and, although damaged, can be reassembled.

  Patara lighthouse is one of the rare examples of a lighthouse from antiquity that has survived almost intact.

  Patara is an ancient city in Turkey's Mediterranean province of Antalya. It was the capital of the Lycian League. Twenty-three cities in the Mediterranean region's Teke Peninsula established the league in the mid-first century BCE. Each member city had representation in a council by one, two, or three deputies. The larger ones had three votes, medium-sized ones two, and the small ones one.

  The league had its army and federal offices and institutions. The representatives met to discuss issues like trade rights and marriage laws.

  The Lycian League inspired modern democratic systems.

  James Madison, the fourth president of the United States, cited the Lycian League as an example of a strong conflagration based on popular and proportional representation.

★ Smyrna was the ancient name for Izmir, Turkey's third-largest metropolitan area on the Aegean. People still use the word Smyrna for the small downtown area and the harbor of the ancient city.

  According to historians, Alexander the Great established the ancient city. Since 2020, the ancient city has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List as "The Historical Port City of Izmir."

  Archaeological excavations there revealed many ancient structures and artifacts dating from the Hellenistic to the late Ottoman periods. One of them is a small aqueduct that brings water to the area.

  Archaeologists found out that the 2000-year-old water channels still function. Dr. Akin Ersoy, a professor at the Katip Çelebi University and the head of the Smyrna excavation team, says that water from the channel still irrigates the lawn in the Smyrna agora and parks and gardens within the city.