Geography of Asia

Inflation in Turkey increased in August after falling for two consecutive months, largely due to the rise in unprocessed food prices, official statistics revealed on Sept. 3.

The annualized inflation rate rose to 7.14 percent in August from 6.81 percent in the previous month, according to Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜ?K) figures.

A 13-year old Syrian boy stranded at a train station in Hungary has spoken out, asking European leaders to stop the war in Syria. Suggesting that westerners do not like Syrians, the boy said Syrians would not come to Europe if there was no war pushing them there. ?Just stop the war and we won?t come to Europe,? he said.

President Xi Jinping announced on Sept. 3 he would cut troop levels by 300,000 as China held its biggest display of military might in a parade to commemorate victory over Japan in World War Two, an event shunned by most Western leaders.

At least 13 people have drowned after a small wooden boat, believed to have been carrying about 70 Indonesian migrants, sank in the Malacca Strait early Sept. 3, Malaysian officials said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has little love lost for Egypt?s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who he sees as a dictator that ousted the country?s democratically elected president in a military coup, and went on to stage-manage an election to give himself the appearance of being a democratic leader. Erdo?an is right, of course, because that is exactly what el-Sisi did. 

Ten people were killed and dozens wounded on Sept. 2 in a rare car bombing in the Syrian city of Latakia, in the coastal bastion of President Bashar al-Assad, state media said.

Five officials from Turkey's Foreign Ministry resigned before an Aug. 31 deadline to run in the upcoming parliamentary elections on Nov. 1, ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç said Sept. 2.

Israel complained to the United Nations on Sept. 1 about a Palestinian initiative to fly their flag alongside those of full member states at the world body's headquarters, calling it "another cynical misuse of the U.N. by the Palestinian Authority."

The fingerprints of a foreign man arrested over last month's deadly Bangkok blast match those found on bomb-making equipment discovered at a flat over the weekend, Thai police said Sept. 2.

I should say at the beginning that I won?t drown you in many complicated figures and calculations. The answer of the question in the title was already given by Finance Minister Mehmet ?im?ek last December - though things have changed so much since then that a quick reminder seems necessary.