Turkey

More than 1,000 people, mostly jihadists, have been killed in Kobane since the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) launched an offensive on the Syrian town nearly two months ago, a monitor said Nov. 9.

Pope Francis is set to be the first house guest at Turkey's new presidential palace during a visit to Turkey at the end of the month.

I was at a meeting in Beijing this week. The city had plenty of blue sky and light traffic. I was told authorities had arranged this in order to fix their image before the APEC meetings. They barred cars to prevent creating traffic, closed down factories and gave public employees a holiday. For a short time, China created a nicer version of Beijing.

Syrian air missile defense systems have locked onto Turkish military aircrafts almost 400 times this year, as compared to only once in 2012, Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz has disclosed.

45 (percent): The vote President (then Prime Minister) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) won in Soma in the March 30 local elections.

301: The number of miners who died in Soma in the tragic accident in May (after which this columnist predicted that Mr. Erdoğan would perform better in Soma).

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız has announced that the bodies of two of the 18 trapped miners in a flooded mine in Central Anatolia have been recovered 10 days after the disaster.

Seeing the country divided has always been an elemental fear in Turkey. Myths about “outside powers which are out to divide us” have always abounded in our political and social lore. Trying to maintain national unity by force has more often than not been the case.

A new board of experts from Istanbul Technical University will reexamine the digital data in the Balyoz (Sledgehammer) coup plot case, according to an interim court ruling.

The previous expert reports on digital data in the case were rejected by the Anatolian 4th Heavy Penalty Court in Istanbul, and a new board of experts will reexamine the data.

Eight people were detained by Istanbul anti-terror police early on Nov. 5 in an operation against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The Istanbul Police Department’s anti-terror teams, together with riot police, raided a number of addresses in the Pendik and Sultanbeyli districts, both located on the Anatolian side of the city.

All investments in Turkey’s eastern and southeastern provinces will henceforth be protected by the gendarmerie forces, in addition to private security firms, Interior Minister Efkan Ala has said.