Vasip Şahin

The 13th Istanbul Tulip Festival opened on April 3 at the Emirgan Park with the participation of Istanbul Governor Vasip Şahin. As part of the festival, the Istanbul Municipality has decorated many parts of the city with tulips. The festival will continue with various events throughout April. 

Authorities have taken all security precautions for the residents of Istanbul to celebrate New Year’s Eve, Istanbul Governor Vasip Şahin has said, adding that Istanbul police will be deployed to guard specific places too.  

There are no plans to grant citizenship to Syrians before the upcoming referendum on shifting Turkey to an executive presidential system, Prime Ministry sources have said. 

Turkey would not grant Syrians citizenship before the upcoming April 16 referendum on whether to shift to an executive presidential system, Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak stated on Feb. 23. 

Turkey and Israel will hold their first political consultations for six years on Feb. 1 following a normalization in ties thanks to a rapprochement deal signed on June 28, 2016.

There are 50,000 buildings in Istanbul that are at great risk of collapse, Turkish Environment Minister Mehmet Özhaseki has said, noting that the fate of the edifices had a bearing on the lives of upward of a million people.

At least 39 people were killed in an attack at the Reina nightclub in Turkey early on Sunday, authorities say.

Sixty-nine were injured (eight of them critically) by the attacker who entered the popular club and started raving through the crowd, Hürriyet Daily News quotes Istanbul Governor Vasip Şahin as saying.

A gunman opened fire on New Year revelers at a packed nightclub on the shores of Istanbul's Bosporus on Jan. 1 killing at least 39 people, including many foreigners, before fleeing the scene.

An attacker killed at least 39 people, including a police officer, in a gun attack held on Reina, a popular night club in Istanbul, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu announced on Jan. 1. A total of 15 of foreigners were among the ones killed in Istanbul attack, Soylu also said. Minister Soylu said that the search to apprehend the attacker is ongoing. 

Scores of people have hit the streets of Turkey's major cities to condemn a Dec. 10 attack that was claimed by an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) while expressing defiance as the death toll in the twin bombing attacks in the heart of Istanbul rose to 44.