Antalya

Police in the southern province of Antalya have dispersed locals protesting a decision to demolish a public park in order to construct a carpark. 

Residents of the Cumhuriyet neighborhood had been staging a sit-in protest in the Göçmen Park for a week in order to resist the Antalya Municipality's plan to demolish the park, but were met with a police intervention on July 31.  

In a press conference on June 19, Antalya Mayor Menderes Türel announced that they have decided to merge the national and international contest categories in the Antalya International Film Festival, which will be held between Oct. 21 and 27 this year.

Work has been initiated to remove the diving ban in Kekova to allow restricted diving. Kekova is one of the world's most important diving spots in the southern province of Antalya's Demre district and is home to an underwater ancient city. 

The organizers of the annual Antalya Film Festival, which will be carried out from October 21-27 this year, have decided to merge the national and international contest categories.

SunExpress, a joint venture between Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa, has started its direct flights between Turkey's Mediterranean resort Antalya and Moscow, taking its first step into the Russian market.

The first flight was made on June 27. 

The number of residential properties sold to foreigners in Turkey surged by 10.1 percent year-on-year in May, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) revealed on June 23, with Saudi Arabian citizens topping the buyers list.

Turkey has an impressive number of ballerinas with golden medals who dance in world-famous places, according to Turkey's State Opera and Ballet General Director Selman Ada. 

Turkish Airlines is expecting to carry more than 2 million passengers from Russia to Turkey in the upcoming six-month tourism season, hitting a new record, as bilateral ties between the two countries normalize after the crisis over Ankara's downing of a Russian jet in November 2015. 

Turkey's State Opera and Ballet General Directorate is suffering from a big financial crisis and is taking a number of measures to try to make savings and recover, daily. 

The number of tourists visiting the Mediterranean resort of Antalya saw a sharp rise in April with a 40 percent increase since the same month in 2016. 

The arrivals from Russia soared 15.5 times during the period, data from the Antalya Governor's Office showed, Doğan News Agency reported on May 2.