Gaffar

A commemoration ceremony was held for the journalist Uğur Mumcu on Jan. 24 to mark the 29th anniversary of his death in a bomb attack, with questions still remaining as to who was responsible for his death.

Fikret Hakan, a renowned Turkish stage and screen actor, has died aged 83 in Istanbul on July 11.  
     
The actor's management said the Hakan had passed away in hospital where he had been receiving treatment for lung cancer.        

After two months of intense inner-city fights and bombardments, Ankara has decided to take steps that will make life a little easier in Turkey's southeast - steps that are one too many: 303 of them, to be precise. You could have named the master plan after the popular song "50 Ways to Leave your Lover" and that could have been easier.

Turkey's "annus horribilis" must be over. All around us we see people in deep sorrow and desperation. We have become a nation that could not solve our own problems, let alone be a cure for our neighbors and all others that suffer. A new approach, a clean slate and a radically different perspective is needed.