ISTANBUL

It's been a year since the Istanbul Convention, a landmark treaty of the Council of Europe (CoE) dedicated to preventing and combating general and domestic violence against women. Although the convention entered into force Aug. 1, 2014, the country has failed to take steps on this road.

The number of business congresses held in Istanbul increased 280 in the past decade, creating around $190 million income, according to the head of the Istanbul Convention and Visitors Bureau (ICVB). 

Istanbul hosted a total of 130 international congresses last year and 97 events are planned for this year, said ICVB's Özgül Özkan Yavuz. 

Turkey's efforts to end the decades old Kurdish conflict are "going through a fatal breakdown," the group overseeing the peace process said on Aug. 1.

"Nature is our first medicine," says a student  visiting Turkey's first garden for medicinal plants -- just one among an army of  researchers and experts who come here to see hundreds of potentially life-saving  species.

Turkish authorities have prevented a Dagestani man from joining the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) thanks to his mistake in presuming that Ankara is a seaside city.

One of the world's most prolific screenwriters, Safa Önal, who broke a Guinness World Record in 2004 for having almost 400 scripts filmed, talks about his new projects. It would not come as a shock if one of the world's most prolific screenwriters was found to be working for Hollywood or India's gargantuan Bollywood film industry.

Former Turkish President Abdullah Gül has urged for a strong government formed by a grand coalition of the two parties who received the highest amount of votes in the June 7 parliamentary elections. 

A public road project which includes separate lanes for bicycles and pedestrians, and which narrowed Istanbul's Bosphorus Strait by eight meters on the European side of the city, has been put into service. 

Turkey's Council of State has annulled a former ruling of an Istanbul administrative court which barred reconstruction projects in Istanbul's Beyo?lu district, providing the legal ground for projects such as a plan to construct a mosque, shopping mall and multi-story building in the historical neighborhood. 

Greek singer Maria Farantouri to perform in Istanbul