Every so often, we go through serious destination crushes, and we bet you do too. When it was summer in New York City, we were all about looking up airfares to Iceland, but now that it’s cold and getting dreary, the exotic entrances. Which means that we’ve got our eye on Istanbul, and umm yea we’re totally going to spend the weekend wasting hours on Wikipedia pages and Netflix documentaries about the city’s history and landmarks. Or we could just book a flight and be done with it. That could also happen.
Luckily for travelers who also need a serious escape, Turkish Airlines just launched a sweet fare sale to coincide with the beginning of direct flights between Washington DC, Los Angeles and Istanbul. If you book before December 31 and travel before March 31, 2011, then flights on the DC route are $751 including taxes & fees and $999 on the LA route, same deal.
It’s almost as good as that mindblowing Lufthansa sale that ended last week, but with the Turkish Airlines flights, you don’t have to switch planes in Germany. These are direct, baby!
Here are all the details on the flights, and we’ll (maybe) see you at the Blue Mosque.
Swarovski opened its Bağdat Avenue store Thursday on the Anatolian side of Istanbul with the participation of several the luxury brand’s business partners.
There are a wide range of products at the Swarovski store on Bağdat Avenue, including pens, jewelry and luxurious crystal glassware.
The store is the first branch in Turkey bearing the Crystal Forest design, which was created especially for the brand by Tokujin Yoshioka. It opened as a part of the brand’s store design renovation project and was recently extended to leading fashion capitals around the world.
Crystal Forest concept stores are located in 150 countries worldwide.
The Turkish branch was the first to open among nearly 100 markets in the Africa and Central and Eastern European region, including such important regional centers as Russia, the Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary.
Swarovski Turkey Product Manager Aslı Tezcan said they had finally realized a dream. “The wait for the right place and the right time is finally over and we have opened the store at the exact location that we wanted to.”
She also said that Turkey was a very important market for Swarovski due to its rapid and consistent growth. “We want to register a remarkable growth here and open many stores in the future.”
Swarovski’s Central and Eastern Europe deputy manager for consumer products operation, Markus Ludescher, also attended the opening.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan calls on Yerevan to establish friendly relations with Turkey.
“Turkey can establish friendly ties with Armenia,” he told Turkish-Armenian journalist Ara Gochunyan, Editor-in-Chief of Istanbul-based Armenian newspaper Zhamanak (Time), Hurriyet daily reports.
“Turkey does not maintain hostile relations with any country. We have never used the painful events of the past for shaping the vision of future. After crowning our liberation struggle with success, we entered into a new period, establishing friendly ties with all those countries. We can do the same with Armenia. Leaving history to scholars and historians, we can walk towards the future. I do believe it is still possible. But some in Armenian diaspora do not have the same vision which creates obstacles for the process,” Turkish premier said.
Hurriyet interpreted Mr Erdogan’s above statement as a message addressed to Armenia via the Istanbul-based newspaper.
Turkish official also spoke about the Armenian community in Istanbul.
“I follow with great appreciation to the Armenian community’s efforts aimed at promoting internal peace and development in Turkey. I view Armenian community as Turkey’s richess,” he said.
As Turkey’s European Union membership process continues on its long and winding uphill road with no clarity, after so many decades, whether inshallah it will be completed one day with a happy orthodox marriage or a mateessüf (unfortunate) firm rebuff with an indecent offer of becoming a “privileged partner,” or mistress, of Europe, some European bureaucrats and politicians were reported to be shocked to see a sharp drop in the interest in the Turkish media to the just-released annual progress report…
Turks are of course frustrated with the European Union membership process. When they first knocked on the door of Europe with a request for membership it was in the early 1960s. In 1963 Turkey and the forefather of today’s EU signed the so-called Ankara Agreement, which called for Turkey’s membership in the community once it completed its preparations and improved its economy and democracy to meet European standards. The 1963 accord had two dimensions, an economic one and a political one. The economic dimension of the Ankara Agreement was completed, with considerable delay, in 1995, and Turkey joined in the European customs union and became the first-ever country to engage in the customs union scheme without completing full EU accession.
Indeed, from the day Turkey engaged in the customs union deal it agreed to a transformation of its membership-targeted EU process into a “mistress affair” or privileged partnership as by entering into the customs union without getting the political bonus, or membership and the right to contribute to the shaping of European policies, Turkey liberally opened its entire market to EU industry and commerce. That is, from 1995 on Turkey-EU relations have been something like semi-pregnancy; Turkey is in the EU, has to abide with EU decisions and policies, but it is not an EU member and thus totally out of the policy-making process of the EU.
Yet, though he refuses even to commit himself to a marriage sometimes in the future and insists on saying, “Well, we have an affair, let’s live it liberally… Perhaps, who knows what the day will bring, we may marry one day, or just part ways,” the European arrogant “husband” keeps on asking “mistress Turkey” to conform with this or that decision of the European family, walk the extra mile and offer some additional compromises to please the spoiled Greek Cyprus kid, provide some improvements in the rights and liberties of the non-Muslim as well as Muslim minorities and even take such steps that might seriously endanger the national and territorial integrity of the country.
As if such oddities were not enough, every other day Turkey would be insulted with some ludicrous claims regarding Cyprus or find itself trying to understand some masterpieces of Turkish animosity pouring out of the mouths of an arrogant small French man or a blunt German lady who happen to be sitting in governmental seats in their countries. Yet, European “friends” of Turkey are astonished to see a marked decrease in the support in Turkey for the country’s EU membership bid.
Come on, Europe must try to understand why a person like President Abdullah Gül, who over the past many years repeatedly expressed full support to EU membership, has started to talk all of a sudden about the probability of Turks saying no in a referendum – if the process is ever completed and Turks go to a referendum to make the final decision on accession – on EU membership. What Gül said is indeed what many people, including this writer, have been stressing for the past many years: Turkey needs Europe and Europe needs Turkey. If Europe does not want Turkey in, Turkey definitely does not want to be with the EU either. Turkey is no parasite which might think membership in the EU is an existential issue for itself.
Since the 2005 start of the accession talks process negotiations have started in only 13 headings, provisionally closed only in one heading but unfortunately most of the remaining 22 chapters of the 35 overall chapter acquis communitaire have been held hostage by either France or the Greek Cypriot administration.
While issues of freedom of expression, press freedom, democratic representation and such fundamental democracy shortcomings are not given adequate prominence in Turkey-EU political dialogue, held hostage by some extraneous issues, it is indeed sad to see Europeans complaining about why Turks feel frustrated with the EU process.
Perhaps Europe must try to find an answer to why Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in his typical arrogance, declared the other day that in the next 18 months or so Turkey might be compelled to make a final decision on its EU bid if Europe continues to ominously keep Turkey in a waiting room.
IN JAIL: Murat Yalçıntaş, president of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, is seen speaking in Istanbul in this file photo. Yalçıntaş remains under arrest after a bribery scandal. AA photo
Members of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce met for the first time Thursday since the arrest of their president, Murat Yalçıntaş, in a real estate bribery scandal that erupted last month. Converging on the chamber’s headquarters, the members requested the release of their chairman even as a daily newspaper published a document that could implicate Yalçıntaş.
Şekip Avdagiç, ICOC deputy chairman, said the chamber “has full trust” in Yalçıntaş. “A group of our members visited him Wednesday. They observed that he is in good condition and that he believes in his innocence. We are sure that Yalçıntaş will be [back among us] after proving his innocence in court.”
Daily Taraf, meanwhile, published a story Thursday about a document that it claimed was a “sign of bribery” of $2 million. According to Taraf, Yalçıntaş and members of the Istanbul Word Trade Center signed a document on Nov. 14, 2008. According to the document, nearly 1.25 million Turkish Liras was allocated to lawyers as an “advance payment.”
Disputed piece of land
The bribery case involves retired and active lawyers and judges. The case involves a piece of land situated between the IWTC and the CNR Expo Center near the Atatürk Airport. According to claims, IWTC allegedly bribed judges and lawyers to obtain a ruling against CNR Expo’s claims to the land. The ICOC owns nearly 42 percent of IWTC.
The Taraf story implied that the “lawyer money” was to be allocated to distributing bribes to members of the judiciary.
The document may have created a rift within the chamber, as was evident during a video presentation for journalists Thursday. When Yalçıntaş appeared on the wide screen, only half of the audience applauded, while the other half remained silent.
“The solidarity of members toward Yalçıntaş is about to fall apart,” a board member was heard telling another member by the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review after the press conference.
ICOC’s lawyers requested the release of Yalçıntaş last week, but were rejected. “We will file the same request once more next week,” Avdagiç said.
Businessman Zafer İpekçi, meanwhile, castigated Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, chairman of the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodities Exchanges, or TOBB. Addressing the board, İpekçi said Hisarcıklıoğlu “keeps changing his tone while talking about the arrest of our chairman.”
Noting that Sinan Aygün, the president of the Ankara Chamber of Commerce, was taken into custody in 2008 over claims about the ongoing Ergenekon case, İpekçi said: “Hisarcıklıoğlu displayed support for him at that time. Why does he not show his support for our chairman?”
The M.I.T. Enterprise Forum, a volunteer-based entrepreneurship organization founded as an initiative by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, has opened its ninth global office in Turkey.
FOUNDATION: The founders of M.I.T. Enterprise Forum Turkey pose at the opening ceremony of the organization.
The organization aims to become the most influential global entrepreneurial network by building a platform for networking, knowledge sharing and wealth creation for entrepreneurs worldwide, Richard Kivel, global president of the M.I.T. Enterprise Forum, said at the opening ceremony on Monday in Istanbul.
“We are focused on supporting the passion and creativity that every entrepreneur feels inside,” he said.
The Turkey branch will support young entrepreneurs who make a difference with new ideas, said Gülsün Bozkurt, president for the M.I.T. Enterprise Forum Turkey. “A distinguishing property of M.I.T. Enterprise Forum is that it is an organization of volunteers,” said Bozkurt, who is also an MIT graduate.
The organization has more than 900 volunteers globally, Kivel said. More than 88,000 people attended over 400 events organized by the Enterprise Forum last year, the president said.
The founding members of the M.I.T. Enterprise Forum Turkey hail from various professions such as antiques, information technologies and banking. They include Selçuk Kiper, Çağlan Kuyumcu, Burçin Ergünt, Tayfun Demirören, Atom Damalı and Volkan Ekinci.
Business Plan Competition
The first activity of the Forum will be a Business Plan Competition, with a total prize purse of $70,000.
Groups of three with at least two Turkish members will attend the three-phase competition with their business ideas, said Bülent Hiçsönmez, an M.I.T. Enterprise Forum Turkey board member and Google Turkey director.
The applications will be accepted until Feb. 1, he said. On March 1 the jury will make a shortlist of 30 nominees.
Nine groups will be named on May 3 and will cooperate with professionals such as lawyers and accountants that the Enterprise Forum provides to develop their plans, Hiçsönmez said.
Investors might be interested in business ideas by not only the winners but all attendees, said Ali Haydar Bozkurt, Toyota Turkey CEO, which is sponsoring the competition.
“There is a misunderstanding that entrepreneurs need investors,” said Bozkurt, at his speech at the ceremony. “But the truth is just the opposite. It is the investors looking for young and bright ideas.”
Along with the competition, the forum plans to organize several events including entrepreneurial workshops, a local conference and case studies. These events will provide chance for young entrepreneurs to develop networking with other institutions of MIT.
Turkey’s leading mobile telecommunication company, Turkcell, is also a sponsor of the organization.
Detailed information on the competition can be found at www.mitefturkey.org
