Istanbul

‘Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul' by Charles King (W.W. Norton, 476 pages, $28)

The Istanbul Municipality’s City Theaters are celebrating their 100th anniversary this year.

BELGRADE - A disciplinary judge of the basketball Euroleague has punished Red Star Belgrade and Galatasaray over crowd trouble associated with their Euroleague Round 6 Group D encounter in Istanbul, when Marko Ivkovic, a 25-year-old supporter of the Serbian club, was killed before the game.

Euroleague's disciplinary judge has sanctioned both Serbia's Red Star and Turkey's Galatasaray for "the incidents generated by their fans and the failure to adopt measures to avoid disturbances" ahead of the match in Istanbul on November 21.

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has questioned both President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's motives and authority with regard to his engagement in the possible inclusion of Ottoman language classes in Turkey's high school curriculum.

Ziraat Bank, the largest state bank in Turkey, is not under any political pressure, contrary to reports, General Manager Hüseyin Aydın has told daily Hürriyet.

Aydın said Ziraat did not provide credit upon the government's request, denying such claims in the media.

One of the leading names of the Turkish communist movement, Rasih Nuri İleri, died at his home in Istanbul Dec. 6 morning at the age of 94. İleri's funeral will be held Tuesday at Bebek Mosque after noon prayers and his body will be laid to rest in the Aşiyan Cemetery.

Turkish police has behaved softly to demonstrators when compared to the U.S. colleagues' President Erdoğan says

ISTANBUL

...

A Turkish mayor has drawn a furious reaction on social media after he jokingly slapped a blind man at an event for the International Day of Disabled Persons.

A group of 13 Turks, members of the nationalist Turkish Youth Union (TYG) group, face between one and 10 years of prison on charges of "insult," "inflicting injury," and "violation of the protest and rally law," for attacking two U.S. soldiers in November, according to the indictment sent to court.