Turkey

Galatasaray, which lost 2-0 against lowly Gaziantepspor over the weekend and is now 16 points behind Turkish Super League leaders Fenerbahçe, announced yesterday that it has part ways with coach Mustafa Denizli. 

The Lions were also knocked out of the Europa League last week.  

Greece sent around 70 Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian migrants who illegally entered the country back to Turkey on March 1. 

Bank Asya, a bank under government control founded by followers of self-exiled Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, will be liquidated if a buyer was not found within three months, Turkey's State Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) said on March 1, as the seized media companies of the Gülen-linked ?pek Koza group closed.

A Turkish imam who hit headlines as a "rocking imam" after co-founding a rock band has been denied permission to perform a concert in Portugal by Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet).

Do?an TV Holding Chairperson and Turkey: Culture of Change Initiative (TCCI) Advisory Board co-chair Arzuhan Do?an Yalç?nda? met with German State Minister Maria Böhmer in Berlin on Feb. 29. 

Relations between the two countries and the current refugee crisis was discussed at the meeting as Böhmer highlighted the importance of creating permanent solution to the refugee crisis.

Swissôtel The Bosphorus and Istanbul Les Ambassadeurs Bar continues its series of "Ambassadors of Jazz Music are in Town" concerts with Gypsy music legend Florin Niculescu. 

American cinema and TV actress Whoopi Goldberg wore a bracelet and ring combination and watch created by Turkish jewelry designer Sevan B?çakç? at the 88th Oscar ceremony on Feb. 28.

The octopus-shaped ring and bracelet by Istanbul-based designer B?çakç? marked the 25th anniversary of Goldberg's "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar.

The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (T?KA) has provided food to 168 refugee families fleeing Boko Haram violence in northern Nigeria, the agency was quoted by the state-run Anadolu Agency as saying on Feb. 29.     

T?KA is helping refugees in the Durumi camp outside the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

Workers at the French car giant Renault's factory in the northwestern Turkish province of Bursa went on strike on March 1, after 10 of their colleagues were laid off. 

Some 150 workers at Oyak Renault, a joint venture between Renault and the Turkish army pension fund Oyak, arrived at the factory on the morning on March 1 but did not start working.

Around 92 percent of Turkey's mainland is on a seismic belt with 95 percent of its population living on it, said Fuat Oktay, head of the Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), in a written message published for the "1-7 March Week of Earthquake."