News archive of December 2016

Former US Ambassador to Bulgaria James Warlick will join Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners (EPA&P), a Russian law firm, as of January 2017.

Warlick made the announcement on Twitter, thus putting an end to 30 years of service for the US Department of State.

Currently he is the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair, a role he will leave on December 31.

Bulgarian heavyweight boxer Kubrat Pulev will play against Samuel Peter, a Nigerian professional boxer, for the WBA title in Sofia.

The match is due at Arena Armeec hall on Saturday evening.

"I expect a tough game, but I will win," sporta.bg website quotes Pulev as saying.

On Wednesday, he made his first ever public training, which was open to fans and the media.

Turkey is amazing in many aspects. One of the main reasons for this is the resilience of its people. No matter how bad things get, we somehow find a way to carry on with life.  I am certain that people living in Sweden or New Zealand would not be able to carry on living if they were exposed to just a few days of the events happening in Turkey. 

Interesting results came out of an interactive survey involving 1,000 participants from all over Turkey, at the 6th International Resort Tourism Congress in the Mediterranean city of Antalya's Lara Barut Hotel. This was the sector's most important meeting in 2016, amid the worst crisis in the modern history of Turkey's tourism.

The European Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution on Nov.

Deputy Prime Minister Tuğrul Türkeş's statements on the capital punishment, referendum and the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahçeli caused a minor tremor in politics. 

The results of a survey by daily Habertürk and the Andy-Ar Center for Social Research recently made reveals where Turks stand on the EU. 

Contrary to expectations, given the current, less-than-friendly atmosphere between Turkey and Europe, 47.4 percent of those surveyed said they opposed ending membership talks with the EU.  

Around 5,000 foreign fighters from Western Europe are believed to be fighting for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). 

There are still things that all concerned parties can do to save relations between Turkey and the EU, which currently seem to be on a crash course heading to the wall.

'The Poisoned Well: Empire and its Legacy in the Middle East' by Roger Hardy (Hurst, £20, 272 pages)