Binali Yıldırım

The plan to not reduce the minimum wage due to the rise in income taxes will cost the state budget 1 billion Turkish Liras ($336 million), said a top official in a televised interview on Sept. 21. 

No doubt, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım's visible shift to pragmatism after his predecessor's years of Islamist romanticism, and his efforts to soften the Great Turkish Divide on religious and secular lines, have won many hearts and minds both in the Crescent and Star and among its friends abroad. Mr.

Fear is not the correct response to terrorism, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said on Sept. 20 while addressing the 26th Universal Postal Congress in Istanbul. 

"You cannot be safe by running away from terrorism. You cannot get rid of it by fearing it. No spot in the world is safe," the prime minister said.  

The government submitted a comprehensive motion to parliament on Sept.

Turkey is its own worst enemy when it comes to public diplomacy. Ankara was angered, for example, by the slow way the United States and Europe reacted to the July 15 coup attempt. It showed little interest, however, in questioning why this was so. 

More than 18 million pupils headed to schools across Turkey for the new semester on Sept. 19, with some 1.4 million of them taking their first steps into primary school. 

Municipalities in big cities took extra measures for the first day of school, with Istanbul busses offering free travel to all. 

A cabinet revision is reportedly underway in Turkey, where the country's interior minister recently resigned, as at least five or six ministers could be changed with the start of the new legislative year, daily Cumhuriyet reported on Sept. 19.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has said that Turkey is not Syria, as he visited the Tendürek region in the Doğubayazıt district of the eastern province of Ağrı, where outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants killed a total of 10 people on Sept. 15.

Turkey's national post office (PTT) has prepared a stamp for the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), to mark the 93rd anniversary of the foundation of the party depicting the party's symbol and CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has prepared a stamp to mark the 93rd anniversary of the foundation of the party depicting the party's symbol and CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. The preparation of the stamp also carried special meaning for party leader Kılıçdaroğlu, who is known to own a stamp collection and was surprised by the commemorative stamp.