civil society

NOVI SAD - Germany supports a soonest possible opening of chapters 23 and 24 in Serbia's EU accession talks - ideally, it should happen in the first half of this year, German Ambassador to Serbia Axel Dittmann told Tanjug in Novi Sad on Wednesday.

Locals in the southeastern border province of Kilis have appealed to the Turkish state in a newspaper advert calling for additional measures to ensure their security amid persistent rocket fire from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)-held territories in northern Syria. 

More than 250 civil society organizations (CSOs), professional chambers and associations have released a joint declaration against a government-led bill which would strip some parliamentarians of their immunity from prosecution, with the Kurdish-problem-focused Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), the main target of the bill, marking the declaration as a starter for a campaign against "the palace's

Ministers, delegates and civil society organizations discussed the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) and their impacts on agricultural and rural development in a round table meeting on May 4 during the 30th U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Regional Conference for Europe (ERC) in the southern Turkish resort town Antalya.

The agenda on food security and agriculture, as well as fight against climate change, hunger and poverty, can only be implemented through a global cooperation, according to the director of The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, José Graziano da Silva.

The 20th Ayd?n Do?an Award has been granted to Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) for its efforts in hosting and providing social services to over 2 million refugees fleeing the war in neighboring Syria. 

Turkey's crackdown on the media and reported human rights abuses are pushing the country further away from Europe even as it hopes to join the European Union, a senior official for the bloc has said.

The Turkish government has announced a set of legal measures aimed at fighting drug addiction and aiding treatment of drug addicts.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmu? said on April 28 that the government would amend laws in order to enable drug addicts to seek treatment without revealing their identities. 

Bulgarian lawmakers changed late on Tuesday an earlier proposal under which voters who did not take part in an election would be deleted from electoral rolls.

The new amendments, adopted in a second reading, stipulate that a voter will be "deregistered" if they do not cast a ballot in two consecutive elections of the same kind (be they general or presidential).

The Science Academy, an independent NGO which aims to promote scientific merit, has awarded 48 young academics as part of its annual Young Scientists Awards Program (BAGEP), which was launched to support young and successful scientists.