Maçka, İstanbul

The cost of a one-night accommodation in luxury Istanbul houses starts from an average of 5,000 Turkish Liras (approx. $250) and can even go up to 20,000 liras.

Istanbul Coffee Festival (ICF), one of the two biggest coffee festivals in Europe, is set to kick off its seventh annual gathering today at KüçükÇiftlik Park in the Maçka/Harbiye neighborhood of the largest Turkish metropolis, Istanbul.

World-renowned Turkish chef Nusret Gökçe, known as the Salt Bae, has moved to an apartment once owned by 20th-century Turkish playwright Abdülhak Hâmid Tarhan, popularly known as "Şair-i Azam" (The Grand Poet).

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After spending a year monitoring his 14 restaurants across the globe, Gökçe decided to spend more time in Istanbul.

Women's rights associations protested on July 30 in Istanbul's Maçka Democracy Park where a private security guard verbally abused a 24-year-old woman the day before, with women also protesting against the rising number of attacks they face over the way they dress. 

The Istanbul Municipality on May 17 shared images of a footbridge connecting the Gezi Park in Taksim and the Democracy Park in Maçka, which is planned to be completed by the end of June.

The ecological footbridge will be home to wild plants and natural meadow species with grass turfed with earth fill, according to the municipality.

At least 38 people, most of them police, died in the two blasts near a stadium in central Istanbul, Turkish authorities say.

The number of injured is more than 160, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu explained at a news conference. 

Eight of the victims were civilians. It is not clear how many of those wounded were police.

The Sumela Monastery, which was built in the 4th century B.C. in the northern province of Trabzon's Maçka district, is rushed by some 600,000 tourists annually, and a new lift system has been planned to help give them easier access to the monastery's amazing location. 

Unidentified assailants have beaten a Canadian man at a park in central Istanbul.

Sjoerd Vaandering, a 72-year-old British Columbia resident, was walking in the Maçka Park early Nov. 29 when he was assaulted, Doğan News Agency reported. Vaandering was found by passersby with his belongings scattered on the pavement.