Sabah
-- ‘What would you do if you were the sultan?’
The Education Ministry is preparing a new approach to history education which asks students to think critically by placing themselves in the shoes of historical figures, daily Sabah reported Wednesday. History remains at the top of the list of most disliked classes in surveys done by both the ministry and independent institutions. Merdan Tufan, head of the ministry’s curriculum board, claimed students would enjoy their history classes with the new method. Students will actively participate in class and will be able to use the knowledge they have gained in the class, he said. “To give an example, teachers will explain the Siege of Vienna and ask students, ‘What would you do?’” said Tufan. He said students will be asked to consider the economic conditions and the state of the world at the time. Tufan said students would be asked how they would conquer Istanbul if they were Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror: “Some [of the students] would say, ‘We would make a deal with the Byzantine emperor,’ or, ‘We would try to persuade the Byzantine people.’” Tufan said history should be analyzed with objectivity, by considering conflicting opinions about events and people.
Zaman
-- Cigarette-ban teams to acquire 500 private cars
A year and a half after the full implementation of Turkey’s enclosed-area smoking ban, the Health Ministry has announced plans to rent 500 vehicles across the country to increase the mobility of its officials enforcing the smoking ban, daily Zaman reported Wednesday. In the first stage, 90 vehicles will be made available for use by provincial health directorates in Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir. Cigarette-ban enforcement teams have been making inspections in cars belonging to local municipalities and the Health Ministry, but the lack of specialized vehicles has been creating problems. Now, 7,600 cigarette inspectors will evaluate information about smoking-ban violations quickly and efficiently and will be able to conduct night-time investigations with the cars. Furthermore, the teams will check to ensure the newest cigarette regulations established by the Tobacco and Alcohol Market Regulation Institution, or TAPDK, which restrict the public display of cigarettes other than at supermarkets, are being implemented. The Health Ministry announced last month that they would initiate judicial, administrative and disciplinary suits against municipal workers, civil servants and other public officers who turn a blind eye to those violating the ban.
Cumhuriyet
-- ECHR convicts Turkey for not delivering Kurdish correspondence
A decision by the European Court of Human Rights, or ECHR, has found Turkey guilty for failing to deliver a number of letters written in Kurdish by prison convicts to their final recipients, daily Cumhuriyet reported Wednesday.
The court decision requires Turkey to pay the complainants total court expenditures of 2,000 euros.
A total of 10 prisoners in F-type prisons in the provinces of Tekirdağ and Bolu applied to the ECHR in 2008, presenting all their concerns regarding the issue.
The judge who investigated the complainants’ original application in Turkey decided that “the letters should not be sent to the prisoners’ relatives and families, with the justification that the letters could give way to security problems due to their unintelligible contents, and not because they were written in Kurdish.”
However, the ECHR said that the prison authorities did not allow the letters to be delivered even though they had not checked them for any potential terror danger and that they contained no dangerous or threatening content and had to be delivered to their final recipients.
Vatan
-- Five martial artists killed in crash
Five young taekwondo athletes died and two more were injured when their vehicle hit the median and ended up in a canal in Trabzon’s Vakfıkebir district, daily Vatan reported Wednesday. The crash was initially blamed on high speed and driver inattention. Driver Uğur Kasım, 24, lost control of the car, crashing into an air-conditioning unit for an underpass, sliding 20 meters and then tumbling into a canal. Özlem Akagündüz, 18, and her brother Ümitcan Akagündüz, 14, died at the scene of the accident, while 17-year-old Fatma Yıldırım, 19-year-old Abdul Ziya Bostan and 22-year-old Fatih Kasım Fırtına died after being rushed to area hospitals. Kasım was seriously injured and underwent surgery at Trabzon’s Numune hospital, while passenger Şamil Kurt, 17, was released from the hospital after receiving first aid. “There were seven people in the car. I was sitting in the back passenger side. Suddenly, a dog appeared in front of us. The driver turned the wheel once to the left and then once to the right. After he lost the control of the car, we crashed into the wall for the underpass and fell into the canal,” said Kurt. “As I was sitting on the edge, I got out of the car alive and then I helped the driver get out of the car. It was too dark. We couldn’t see anything.”
From Anatolia News Agency:
HÜRRİYET
-- TURKISH PRIME MINISTER SAYS MUSLIM WORLD CAN PROVE SELF-SUFFICIENT
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday said that the Muslim countries claimed a 30 percent share in the global economy, adding that the Islamic world could prove self-sufficient with its present and future economic activity. "Islamic countries have a 30 percent share in the world's economy. We have great deal of experience in the constructing business and we are ready to share it with them. Turkey is also strong in technology, the health sector and in tourism," Erdoğan told reporters aboard his plane en route from Kuwait to Qatar.
-- OPPOSITION LEADER CALLS ON JUSTICE MINISTER TO RESIGN
Leader of Turkey's opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahçeli, said Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin should resign over allegations that suspects in the Turkish Hizbullah case had been granted access to the Internet while in prison. "Those who are responsible should face due punishment. The justice minister should quit or he should be relieved of duty," Bahçeli said.
MİLLİYET
-- THERE ARE SNEAKY SPIES AMONG US
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave warm messages at the Turkish-Arab Relations Conference in Kuwait. Pointing to the problems in Turkish-Arab relations in the last century, Erdoğan said: "We lost our harmony when our union broke. We know that there are spies in our region who conduct sneaky plans and try to ruin our brotherhood."
Erdoğan also noted that Turkey determined its own foreign policy and nobody could intervene. "Arab people are our brothers," he said.
-- SUPER AUTHORITY TO SUPREME COURT
A draft law changing the structure of the Constitutional Court envisages controversial regulations. The court, which will be given the authority to conclude on individual applications, will also have the power to annul all judicial decisions including the rulings of Supreme Court of Appeals and Council of State and to ignore administrative decisions.
If the draft becomes a law, nobody will have the chance to apply to the European Court of Human Rights without first applying to the Constitutional Court.
SABAH
-- AUTO SALES FLY HIGH
Auto sales in the Turkish market hit record high in 2010 with 760,913 vehicles. While auto sales in Europe declined due to the crisis, cars sold like hot cakes in the Turkish market.
Car sales rose 36.58 percent year-on-year and broke the record in 2005. Sector analysts expect around 750,000 cars to be sold this year.
-- ‘IN FACT, ISLAMIC COMMUNITY CAN BE SELF SUFFICIENT,’ ERDOĞAN
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who spoke to reporters on the plane en route from Kuwait to Qatar said: The share of Islamic Countries in world economy is around 30%. 57 Islamic countries will be self sufficient with its production. We should display the courage to take joint steps.
VATAN
-- CONSTITUIONAL COURT IS BEING RESTRUCTURED
The bill on procedures of the Constitutional Court contains some fundamental amendments: the Constitutional Court will be able to overrule the decisions of the Supreme Court and the Council of State. Beginning in 2012, convicts who believe they were falsely accused will be able to appeal to the Constitutional Court which will have the authority to release and even exonerate them. Constitutional Court judges will have to take an oath promising to give decisions free from any influence or concerns.
-- ERDOĞAN RESPONDS TO ‘CYPRUS’ REMARKS OF MERKEL FROM QATAR
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was on the Greek Cypriot side, said, "Southern Cyprus did all within its reach for a solution but could not find reciprocation." Erdoğan replied from Qatar: "Merkel does not even know the issue, and she is forgetful of her earlier remarks. Hasn't she said, 'It was wrong to admit Cyprus to the EU'?"
CUMHURİYET
-- HABERAL'S DOCTOR ARRESTED AS WELL
Dr. Erhan Kansız, the doctor of Prof. Mehmet Haberal who is among the suspects in the second Ergenekon case, has been arrested on the charge of helping a terrorist organization. Kansız was arrested because he had waited for a year to send his report saying "Haberal could receive outpatient treatment" to the court. Kansız rejected the accusations and his lawyer will object to the decision, sources said.
-- FOREIGN PRESS REACTS TO ‘FREAKISH’ COMMENT
Foreign press commented on Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's recent remarks calling the "Humanity Monument" built by a Turkish sculptor "freakish." French daily Liberation said Erdoğan's remarks were a reflection of ignorance and lack of culture.
RADİKAL
-- RELEASED TURKISH HIZBULLAH MASTERMINDS AT LARGE
Two senior operatives of the Turkish Hizbullah - who have recently been released from prison after an amendment in Turkey's criminal procedures law entered into force - might have fled to Iran or to Lebanon over Syria before their case was heard at the Supreme Court of Appeals, Turkey's highest court of justice. Edip Gümüş and Cemal Tutar have failed to report in for the last three days to a local police station, a measure to make sure that they do not run away. The leader of the organization's armed wing, Mehmet Varol, is also at large.
-- TURKEY AUTO SALES SKYROCKET IN 2010
Sales in Turkey's automotive industry - often considered as the locomotive of the country's economy - have hit an all-time high in 2010 to reach 790,000, breaking a record figure of 758,000 in 2005. Sales were also up in December 2010 by 73.9 percent with 99,000.
TÜRKİYE
-- WE ARE SELF-SUFFICIENT, ERDOĞAN
Speaking to reporters onboard his plane enroute from Kuwait to Qatar, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Islamic countries had a 30 percent share in world economy. "We are self-sufficient with everything we have produced so far and we will produce in the future. Turkey is strong in education, health, tourism and technology. We have so much to share with other countries," he said.
The prime minister also noted that Islamic countries, which had a significant position in world economy, should cooperate with each other.
-- LEBANON RECOVERS THANKS TO TURKEY
Lebanon, once known as "Paris of the East", suffered a great loss in its war with Israel and is now recovering thanks to Turkey's support. Turkish investments in the country's construction, foodstuff and textile sectors, which have grown in number especially after the lifting of visas, have made a "doping effect" on the Lebanese economy.
ZAMAN
-- TURKEY, KUWAIT AGREE ON REMOVING VISAS
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday said Turkey and Kuwait had agreed to remove visas for their nationals visiting each other's countries after Turkey signed a similar agreement yesterday with Yemen during a visit of the Turkish president to Sana'a. Erdoğan sought to give assurances that Turkey's policy to pursue agreements removing visa requirements set no alternative to Ankara's bid to join the European Union.
-- INFLUENTIAL COLUMNIST JOINS OPPOSITION PARTY RANKS
Oktay Ekşi, a former columnist with the daily Hürriyet, joined the ranks of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). Ekşi, who is also the president of Turkey's Press Council, told reporters that he would not quit as council head. Ekşi said he would review his decision in case he was elected as a deputy in next July's general elections.
YENİ ŞAFAK
-- COURT ARRESTS HABERAL'S DOCTOR
Head of Istanbul University Cardiology Institute Erhan Kansız, who is accused of hiding the "dischargeable report" of Ergenekon culprit Mehmet Haberal from the court, was arrested. Kansız, who was interrogated as a suspect earlier and released, was arrested under charges of aiding and abetting a terrorist organization and was sent to Paşakapısı prison.
-- MAIN OPPOSITION TRANSFERS EKŞİ
Chairman of the Press Council Oktay Ekşi, who resigned from the Hürriyet daily after he insulted the prime minister, has officially joined the Republican People's Party (CHP). "I am honored to be here," Ekşi was quoted as saying.
No comments:
Post a Comment