News archive of August 2018

Efe Tanay

Four Turkish political parties protested on August 2 against U.S. sanctions on two ministers "in the strongest way".

Justice Minister Tudorel Toader announced on Wednesday evening, at private TV broadcaster Antena 3, in reference to pardon and reprieve, that the Gov't can adopt an emergency ordinance but Parliament must be in session.

The minister was asked under what circumstances the Gov't can adopt and emergency ordinance (OUG) for pardon and reprieve.

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved a $717 billion defense policy bill on August 1, which includes an amendment that prohibits the sale of F-35 jets to Turkey until Pentagon issues a report in 90 days.

Despite reports that Serbs have been asking to leave the Kosovo Security Force amid an upsurge of political tensions between Belgrade and Pristina, the number of Serbs who want to join the Kosovo Police remains similar to 2014, the force said.

Kosovo Police told BIRN that in 2014, over 5 per cent of applicants were Serbs, "while this year there was around 5 per cent (4.91 per cent)".

Against a background of fears that Latin letters are taking over, Serbia's Ministry of Culture has proposed toughening the law on the use of the Cyrillic script, creating a Council for the Serbian Language - and imposing fines for those who do not respect Serbia's "mother script".

Turkey has strongly protested the United States and said it will retaliate the sanctions imposed on justice and interior ministers in the same way and without delay.

PAOK produced an emphatic 3-0 victory at Basel on Wednesday to march on in the Champions league qualifiers. The Greek Cup winners advanced on a 5-1 aggregate score to the third qualifying round of the competition, where they will face Spartak Moscow.

The operation of Greek tobacco company SEKAP will continue following the definitive agreement for the acquisition of parent company Donskoy Tabak by Japan Tobacco International (JTI).

As the first Turkish reaction to the U.S. decision to sanction two Turkish ministers, Turkey-U.S. Business Council (TAİK) has announced that "there should be no sanctions between old friends" and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan "can solve this problem" with U.S. counterpart Donald Trump.