Lütfü Savaş

Türkiye's Supreme Election Council (YSK) has announced that it has rejected an application logged by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) to annul the mayoral election in the southern city of Hatay.

Following the local elections held on March 31, multiple parties have challenged various results, particularly in constituencies where the race was tightly contested, sparking a flurry of demands for recounts and calls for renewed elections.

In Istanbul, both the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) have raised objections.

The Workers' Party of Türkiye (TİP) has put forward former football player Gökhan Zan as its candidate for mayor in the earthquake-ravaged Hatay province.

Millions of people across Turkey on Tuesday mourned the loss of more than 53,000 friends, loved ones and neighbors in the country's catastrophic earthquake a year ago.

To mark what it calls the "Disaster of the Century," the government arranged a series of events to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the disaster in southern Turkey.

Millions of people early Feb. 6 partook in "silent marches," traversing through desolate streets across 11 southern provinces to commemorate the 53,537 lives on the first anniversary of the twin earthquakes.

Participants observed a moment of silence at 4:17 a.m., the haunting moment when the first tremor of 7.7 magnitude struck the cities while millions were asleep.

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.

Around 12,000 displaced earthquake victims are waiting for help in the campaign launched in a bid to assist survivors return to their hometowns for the May 14 ballot.

The locals of southern Hatay province have always been hospitable towards Syrian refugees and asylum seekers yet still want Syria to accomplish peace so that the "guests" can safely return to their homeland, Hatay's Mayor Lütfü Savaş has said.

A 78-meter-long künefe dessert was prepared on July 23 for an event held to commemorate the 78th year the southern border province of Hatay, the dessert's homeland, joined Turkey. 

Some 1.5 tons of the heavy dessert was eaten in 20 minutes by participants.  

Kurtuluş Street (Herod Caddesi) in Antakya in the southern Turkish province of Hatay, a kind of shopping center for the rich in the ancient era known as the "world's first illuminated" street, is set to  come back to life nine-meters underground. The first traces of human settlement in Antakya date back to the Paleolithic Age.