Afro-Eurasia

Cyprus expects its economy to grow between 2.5 and 3 percent this year as it recovers from its recent financial crisis and bailout.

Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said on Tuesday the economy has rebounded strongly and is making up lost ground after the country sought out a multibillion-euro rescue deal from its eurozone partners to save it from bankruptcy in 2013.

BELGRADE - Sixty-seven percent of Russians view NATO as a threat, a new survey from Gallup shows. It's the highest number recorded since 2008.

In contrast, back in 2012, only 38 percent of Russians perceived the Western military bloc as a threat.

The European Union has slightly cut its growth forecast for the Turkish economy, according to a fresh report released on Feb. 13. 

In its winter economic forecast, the European Commission forecasted a 2.8 percent growth for Turkey in 2017 and 3.2 percent growth in 2018. 

In its previous report, its 2017 and 2018 forecasts were 3 percent and 3.3 percent respectively. 

Speaking of his impressions following his trip to Paris last week, Turkey's Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Ömer Çelik had some interesting things to say. He pointed out to the forthcoming crucial elections that are to be held in three European countries; France, Germany and Holland, all of which would test the impact of the right-wing ideology in the European continent.

The number of arrested and convicted individuals have risen by 232 percent in Turkey in the last 15 years, while the population increased only by 13.8 percent, the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) said in a communique it released to lay out human rights violations committed under the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) since it came to power in 2002, daily Cumhuriyet repor

Turkey has transferred stakes in İzmir Port, which has been in privatization portfolio since 2007, to the Turkish Wealth Fund, in a bid to help finance giant infrastructure projects. 

The stake transfer was informed to respective authorities, according to sources. 

The wealth fund will have the authority to rent, transfer or sell the port. 

BELGRADE - It is important for Serbia to maintain the current pace of reforms, Serbian European Integration Minister Jadranka Joksimovic and OSCE Mission to Serbia Head Andrea Orizio agreed at a meeting in Belgrade Wednesday.

They discussed the reforms underway in Serbia, OSCE plans, Serbia's European integration process and regional cooperation.

It has been a painful period for Turkey since the state of emergency was declared on July 20, 2016, but the problem is not unique to this period. In the aftermath of the 1980 military rule, hundreds of academics, top bureaucrats and civil servants were expelled from public services. It took almost two decades for those people to get their state-usurped rights back.

Two Canadian Senators are campaigning for the recognition of the Pontian Greek Genocide in the Canadian Senate.

The World Bank and Turkey's gas grid BOTAŞ signed a $400 million financing deal on Feb. 8 for the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project, which will carry gas from a gas field in Azerbaijan across Turkey and further on to Europe.