Tekirdağ

Turkish police have seized the third largest haul of cocaine in the country's history, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on April 11 amid tightening crackdowns on organized crime rings.

Some 608 kilograms of cocaine, most of it in liquid form, were confiscated in an operation across three provinces, Yerlikaya posted on the social media platform X.

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) have revealed extensive slates of mayoral candidates in a move ahead of the March 31 local elections.

The CHP's announcement, following a party assembly meeting on Jan. 10, presented mayoral candidates for six pivotal metropolitan cities.

A total of 67 districts, each inhabited by over 100,000 residents and positioned at a minimum distance of 30 kilometers from the city center, could be set to become provinces, according to the Turkish Chamber of Survey and Cadastre Engineers (HKMO).

A new heatwave from Africa will soon hit Türkiye, which is likely to push temperatures to 8 degrees above seasonal norms, Turkish State Meteorological Services has warned amid the scorching heat the country is facing.

Raging wildfires in several provinces, notably in the southern cities of Hatay and Mersin, have been taken under control after two days of strenuous efforts, while at least 500 hectares of land have been reduced to ashes in the fire in the northwestern city of Çanakkale.

Instanbulites who left the city to vacation at coastal towns during the nine-day-long Eid al-Adha holiday are now heading back as the holiday ends, creating traffic congestion on some highways.

The coastal parts of the Aegean and Mediterranean cities and Southeastern Anatolia are gearing up for a scorching heat during the Eid al-Adha holiday, as meteorologists predict temperatures to soar above seasonal norms.

More than 50 million people, or 60 percent of the population, have been fully vaccinated, while this rate was around nearly 81 percent for the citizens aged 18 and above, according to the country's health minister.

Over the past 12 days, Turkish sea cleaning teams have collected a total of 4,555 cubic meters (160,858 cubic feet) of mucilage from the Sea of Marmara, said the country's environment and urbanization minister on June 20.

Updating on the efforts to clear out the mucilage, also known as sea snot, Murat Kurum said on Twitter that the operations were conducted at 278 locations.

Turkey launched a massive cleanup campaign in 15 districts of seven provinces along the coast of the Marmara Sea on June 8 in an effort to eliminate the aggravating mucilage problem that has severely affected the marine ecosystem.