Turkish Aeronautical Association

Türkiye's national body on aviation activities, Turkish Aeronautical Association (THK), has made four CL-215 type amphibious tanker planes ready to combat wildfires and added them to the country's "firefighting fleet" after a long maintenance.

Four members of the Özün family from the capital Ankara, who are all pilots, spend most of the time in the air, sometimes flying together to enjoy the company of each other while doing their job, which they are all ardently passionate about.

Turkey's Agriculture and Forestry Ministry announced on late Sept. 1 that the country will be buying five firefighting planes, which were subject to discussions amid wildfires that broke out all at the same time late July and devastated some 53 provinces out of 81.

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Main Opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu criticized the government's handling of forest fires while urging for an urgent strategy against climate change.

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Listing what needs to be done regarding the fires, Kılıçdaroğlu said, "We need to start preparing our country for new climate crises immediately."

Turkish officials insist they are doing everything to stop the fires but the opposition and many ordinary people have criticized the government for its allegedly weak response.

"We are altogether fighting the forest fires in our country," the General Directorate of Forestry said on Sunday on Twitter.

Hasan Hüseyin Çırak, who lives in the Central Anatolian province of Konya, has turned a room in his house into a workshop for his passion for model aircraft.

Çırak ,73, learned everything about electronics and mechanics with books, magazines and articles, making the model aircraft with the engineering knowledge he acquired through them.

An old military airfield built by the British during World War II in the Aegean province of Muğla's Ula district is waiting to be saved from its abandoned state and become a touristic site.

Today, cows graze at the airfield, which was built in 1943 against the increasing German and Italian threat in the Aegean, and its complex was plundered by treasure hunters.

The fifth World Air Games will be held in Turkey in 2020, the Turkish Aeronautical Association (THK) announced on Feb. 12. 

The Turkish Aeronautical Association (THK) photographed 40 Turkish provinces from the air. Click to see our picks

Emre Yıldırım, son of the Turkish Aeronautical Association (THK) Chair Osman Yıldırım, has denied the allegations of receiving 1 million Turkish Liras as a bribe, claiming he received the money for the “consultancy” service he provided to the association.