Geography of Asia

Turkey has played a key role in transferring Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) oil to the international market, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Y?ld?z said on Aug. 15.

?The oil transfer couldn?t have materialized if Turkey was not involved because the central government in Baghdad did not allow it,? Y?ld?z said, speaking to visiting reporters from the Iraqi Kurdish region in Ankara.

Journalists should use a ?peaceful rather than contentious language? upholding peace, democracy and human rights amid the upsurge in violence across Turkey, according to a monthly report released by the Ankara-based Association of Journalists Press for Freedom Project (PfF) on Aug. 14.

Turkey's first official atheism association has begun supporting the homeless and needy in Istanbul by delivering free soup once a week.

Every Wednesday, the Atheism Association delivers free soup with the motto of "Soup campaign for you" in the streets of Istanbul. The association is also open to volunteer contributions to support its drive via its Twitter account.

One soldier and four civilians were wounded in a late Aug. 13 bomb attack by suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) on a military post in the eastern province of Tunceli.

The self-declared autonomous Kurdish state of Rojava is situated on the northern borders of Syria. It is a region of 4 million Kurds and is an oasis of peace and relative prosperity in an area where bloodshed and civil war reign supreme.

PM Aleksandar Vucic has "expressed his wish that investors from the United Arab Emirates become even more present in Serbia."

Vucic made the comment during his meeting in Belgrade on Thursday with UAE Ambassador to Serbia Juma Rashid Saif Zayed Al Dhaheri.

A businessman in the construction industry, whose faulty building claimed 20 lives in the deadly earthquake in Turkey's western province of Yalova in 1999, has been appointed as the head of a nursing home in Istanbul's Okmeydan? neighborhood, in a historical building that was recently opened to renovation.

British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor said on Aug. 12 he would take legal action based on copyright concerns after noting a close similarity between a huge stainless-steel, globe-like sculpture in China and his "Cloud Gate" sculpture in Chicago.

September will be a very active month between Iran and Bulgaria, H.E. Abdollah Norouzi, Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran, has told Novinite in an interview.

The United States said it would raise the issue of a recent Moscow visit by a senior Iranian general at the United Nations, saying it violated UN resolutions on Iran.