News archive of March 2017

An American pastor who has been jailed on bogus terrorism charges in Turkey for more than five months is pleading with President Trump to help secure his release.
“I plead with my government — with the Trump Administration — to fight for me,” Andrew Brunson wrote in a letter to the Trump administration from his jail cell near Izmir.

Austria's Erste Bank on Friday announced that Croatia's biggest private company Agrokor - currently embroiled in a deep financial crisis - and its creditors had reached a deal on a "standstill agreement" whereby the company will remain financially liquid while its debts are placed on "standby".

During a visit to Istanbul a few years ago, I met with a Western diplomat who at the time held a post in Turkey. After talking about Greek-Turkish relations and the Cyprus problem, our conversation turned to political and economic developments in Turkey.

A leading Turkish tourism association is set to send a court decision against Booking.com to similar foreign online reservation portals, including Tripadvisor.com, to ask them to comply with the required competition rules or face legal action, daily Dünya reported on March 31. 

The United States authorities have said current President Bashar al-Assad's departure is no longer a priority to end the conflict, netting reaction from the opposition in the war-thorn country.

However, on March 30, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in New York said the new administration of President Donald Trump is no longer focused on ousting Assad.

For centuries it was just a legend, that a vast trove of treasure had spilt into China’s Minjiang River as a battle raged upon its banks. Turns out, it was true.
More than 10,000 individual items of gold and silver have been recovered from the bottom of the river as it winds its way through Sichuan Province.

Turkey has expressed its disapproval of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) bid to hold a referendum for independence, warning about the spillover effect of such a move on regional countries, in reaction to KRG President Massoud Barzani's announcement for a poll to this end. 

A court in Bosnia-Herzegovina has found a former member of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) guilty of genocide in Srebrenica.

The first instance ruling sentenced Ostoja Stanisic to 11 years in prison.

The Pottery Museum run by the Center for the Study of Modern Pottery is holding two workshops for children aged 5-12, with themes inspired by the religious and folk customs of Greek Orthodox Easter. The workshops are scheduled to take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays April 1 and 8, and the cost is 30 euros per child, with a 5-euro discount for siblings.

Six people were injured in front of the Turkish Embassy in Brussels during violent clashes between pro and anti-Erdogan supporters. The incident comes a day after three Kurdish people were stabbed by pro-Erdigan supporters in Brussels during the voting procedures of the referendum, which will decide whether Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will gain more executive power.