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Turkish Central Bank Gov. Erdem Başçı gave no signals of an immediate rate cut during a critical and much-anticipated presentation in front of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on June 2, but sought to draw an optimistic picture of the economy.

Erdoğan, a harsh critic of high rates, has been vigorously slamming the bank for “insufficient rate cuts.”

Moldova and Belarus have become the latest countries where Turkish citizens can enjoy visa-free travel.

Making religious excuses for human mistakes and responsibilities is wrong, Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) head Mehmet Görmez has said, while discussing the Soma mine disaster.

Counterterrorism units from the Ankara Police Department raided Turkey’s telecommunications agency and seized all servers as part of an espionage probe into claims that sensitive data from the institution was leaked to foreign countries via satellite links.

Just toward the anniversary of the Gezi protests, a message popped into my mailbox. It wrote “Food not Bombs.” To my astonishment, they were already going to have their 14th event. Food not bombs-Istanbul is a movement started by a group of like-minded youngsters who cannot stand the thought of wasting food when there are starving people.

The Guinness record for the “World’s most crowded breakfast table” was broken June 1, as a total of 51,793 people enjoyed a morning meal in the eastern province of Van. “Van set a world record for the most crowded table, surpassing the one belonging to the U.S. with 18,941 people,” said the Guinness representative in Turkey, Seyda Subaşı Gemici.

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muiznieks, has expressed his indignation after Turkish police’s brutal handling of the demonstrations marking the anniversary of Gezi protests May 31, condemning the “excessive use of violence.”

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s criticism of a leading Turkish-origin German politician is “natural,” because he used his “right to reply,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry has suggested.

The police will by no means give way to Gezi demonstrations at Istanbul’s Taksim square today, as they were clearly ordered to do so, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said only hours before a planned anniversary meeting. 

Turkish President Abdullah Gül was subjected to a pointed question May 30 at Harvard University about police violence in Turkey on the anniversary of the Gezi Park protests.