Istanbul

Workers' unions have continued their calls to meet in Istanbul's Taksim Square for May Day celebrations, but the Istanbul Police Department has begun taking excessive security measures to prevent unions from gathering at the square after the governor's office prohibited rallies in the square.

An Islamist newspaper in Turkey has confused The Beatles with Turkish high school students after misunderstanding a poster calling for people to take to the streets on May Day.

"The United June Movement [BHH] has undertaken a fresh provocation for May Day," daily Vahdet claimed on April 27, referring to an umbrella organization that took part in the Gezi Park protests in 2013.

The son of a Turkish man who had been questioned over alleged links to a recent series of mafia shootings in downtown Istanbul was killed in the Netherlands on April 26, Dutch media has reported.

The housing prices in Istanbul?s Bosphorus neighborhood of Be?ikta? jumped 24.7 percent in one year, the highest increase of any district in the city, according to March figures released by real estate information company REIDIN.

A group of Turkish nationalists left black wreaths in front of Agos, the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly, in the early hours of April 24 in an apparently aggressive move against the newspaper, whose editor Hrant Dink was murder by a nationalist in 2007.

Istanbul and Ankara offer a variety of attractions this week, from concerts by German indie rock band The Notwist and American tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander to a food festival offering the different cuisines of Turkey. Istanbul's Miniaturk hosts activities for children

The United Nations and the Republic of Turkey officially launched the new Istanbul Regional Hub on April 23 in a move that made the intercontinental city "the second global diplomatic center after New York," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu said.

An investigation has been opened into the artists who appeared in a short film commemorating the one-year anniversary of the death of Berkin Elvan, a young Gezi protest victim.

The public prosecutor of the Istanbul Press Offences Bureau summoned the well-known figures, from musicians to actors, who performed on the short film over an alleged "abetment."

Opposition leader Kemal K?l?çdaro?lu released his party?s election manifesto on the weekend, summing up the economic picture as this: 

Turkey went down to 19th place from 17th place in the list of leading economies in the world. Because its income per capita for the past six years could not cross $10,000, it has fallen into the ?medium income? trap. 

Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski has predicted an increase in air traffic over Bulgaria by around 50% as a result of the opening of the Istanbul New Airport, ?stanbul Yeni Havaliman?.