Category: Regions

Houston Welcomes Turkish Airways’ Direct Service to Istanbul

Turkish Airways Flight 34 arrives at Bush Intercontinental Airport / Photo credit: Brent Clanton

Houston is adding depth to its reputation as an international city of trade with the establishment of direct-service air travel to Istanbul, Turkey via Turkish Airlines.

Houston Mayor Annise Parker welcomed an entire delegation of Turkish dignitaries to Bush Intercontinental last night to usher-in a new age of commerce between Houston, Texas and Turkey.

Houston Mayor Annise Parker welcomes the Turkish Trade Delegation to Bush Intercontinental Airport / Phot credit: Brent Clanton

“It’s a bridge in the world, and it’s bridging the cultures, bridging the economy, and making it possible for us as Americans, and them as Turkish people, to communicate and do business for the future,” enthused Farouk Shami, Chairman of Farouk Systems Group, on hand to greet the first 777 flight to arrive direct from Istanbul.

Shami has done his homework, and with today’s signing of trade agreements with Houston and Turkey, he’s ready to do more business abroad: ”We’ll be working with two electronics tools for environmental beauty there,” Shami says. ”The economy is great in Turkey, and one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. I think we can share knowledge on how to improve our economy, as well.” Shami has already made three trips to Turkey to set up manufacturing and other alliances. ”There’s a big market that I can expand Farouk Business Systems into that,” he says.

When Turkey was shunned by the rest of Europe, the country turned eastward, and developed trade with partners in Asia and beyond. That’s turning into good fortune for Texas, with trade agreements opening the gates for more commerce…and easier access with Turkish Airways’ direct flights.

Houston’s Turkish Consul General, Cemalettin Aydin, says, ”It’s quite big because this flight will, I think, connect Houston to, I believe, one of the most-dynamic places in the middle of three continents, that is, Turkey, between Europe, Asia and Africa.”

Turkish Airways will operate four direct flights a week, increasing to six a week in July. Shami is looking forward to the trade reciprocity: ”Turkish Delights, for sure,” he laughs. “That is most-popular, you know, and they sell lots of hundred of millions of that, and we like sweets. That’s the first thing that comes to my mind.”

via Houston Welcomes Turkish Airways’ Direct Service to Istanbul | News 92 FM.

April 3, 2013
Turkey scraps flights to Armenia

ANKARA: Turkey has cancelled the first ever scheduled Turkish flights to its long-time rival Armenia, days before the first plane was due to take off, officials have said, following fierce opposition from Turkey’s ally and energy partner Azerbaijan.

The twice-weekly flights between Turkey’s eastern city of Van and the Armenian capital Yerevan were due to begin on April 3 and, encouraged by a US push for rapprochement, were meant to boost bilateral tourism and trade.

But with just over a week until the first flight, and with tickets already on sale, Turkey’s civil aviation authority stepped in and ordered the flights to be suspended.

Officials at Turkey’s transport ministry confirmed the flights had been stopped but declined to give a reason. BoraJet, the private Turkish carrier set to fly the 45-minute route, has also declined to comment on the stoppage. One BoraJet official twice denied the Van-Yerevan flights had ever been planned, even though the route was still available as a booking option on the firm’s website on Monday.

Narekavank Tour, a Yerevan-based travel agency which has spent the last three years organising the flights together with a Turkish travel agency in Van, said the reason was political.

“The organisers were keen on staying away from politics. It is very sad and discouraging that Turkish authorities were not able to do the same and finally let politics interfere with this promising initiative,” it said in a statement. Asked if he thought this was due to specific pressure from Azerbaijan, Armen Hovhannisyan, co-founder of Narekavank Tour, said: “Of course, it’s part of the whole formula, and maybe they have been working behind the scenes.”

Officially at war, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a bitter dispute over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh – a mountainous enclave within Azerbaijan with a majority Armenian population – which Armenian-backed forces seized along with seven surrounding Azeri districts in 1991.

Turkey, which has never opened an embassy in Armenia, closed its land border in 1993 in a show of solidarity with Azerbaijan, a Muslim and Turkic-speaking ally which also supplies Ankara with billions of cubic metres of Caspian natural gas each year.

Reuters

via Turkey scraps flights to Armenia.

April 3, 2013
Turkey rises again as a leading resort destination for Israelis

Turkey rises again as a leading resort destination for Israelis

Turkish airline and charter companies have ramped up their number of flights to and from Israel and are preparing to expand service to resort destinations.

By Zohar Blumenkrantz | Apr.03, 2013 | 3:05 AM | 1

An Antalya resort. Photo by David Bachar

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Zohar Blumenkrantz

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By Haaretz | Apr.03,2013 | 3:05 AM | 30

Interest among Israelis in vacation getaways to Turkey more than quadrupled during Passover week, sparked by a thaw in nearly three years of chilly relations between Jerusalem and Ankara, according to the Travelist website.

Turkish airline and charter companies have ramped up their number of flights to and from Israel and are preparing to expand service to resort destinations besides the traditionally popular Antalya, including Dalaman, Bodrum and Marmaris.

On Sunday, the eve of the last day of Passover, three Turkish charter flights left Ben-Gurion International Airport for Antalya, in addition to the two regular weekly charter flights on Sundays and Thursdays. Turkish charter operators, including Onur Air, Corendon Airlines and Freebird Airlines, are running 25 flights to Antalya from last Sunday until next Wednesday.

“Around 13,000 people have expressed interest in vacationing in Antalya, but due to the early stage of the thaw between Israel and Turkey, they’re still worried about booking,” said Travelist CEO Zion Madmon.

“In terms of interest expressed in vacation destinations, Antalya rose from 12th place to second place after Barcelona and ahead of Berlin, Prague, Paris and Rhodes. In terms of bookings, Antalya rose to fifth place, a 250% jump from last year and similar to Rhodes.”

According to Shai Pardo, chief executive of KTA International, which represents Turkish charter operators in Israel, “I’m pleased with the news, as is Israel’s entire airline and tourism industry. I hope the normalization of diplomatic relations between Israel and Turkey will restore normal tourism relations.”

Pardo is gearing up to add flights to holiday destinations Israelis once frequented besides Antalya. “Most travelers during the Passover period will be Jewish, but trips are also in the cards for the Arab community during their Muslim holiday,” he said.

The number of passengers traveling between Israel and Turkey rose 58.6% to 85,200 in January and February compared with the same period last year, according to the Israel Airports Authority. In 2012, 687,100 passengers flew between Ben-Gurion and Turkey, 18% more than in 2011.

Meanwhile, the Shin Bet security service is revisiting its policy for safeguarding Israeli airlines in Turkey following Arkia’s request to reinstate flights to Antalya. This began before the normalization was declared.Israeli airlines stopped flying to Turkey amid plummeting demand following the Mavi Marmara flotilla incident in 2010 and differences between the two countries over security arrangements.

via Turkey rises again as a leading resort destination for Israelis – Business – Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper.

April 3, 2013
Turkey files 307 applications for opening polling stations for Bulgaria early elections

Sofia. There are 307 initially filed applications for opening of polling stations for the Bulgarian parliamentary elections in Turkey, announced spokesperson of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, Dimitar Yaprakov, speaking at a briefing, FOCUS News Agency reporter informed.

“There will be at least two polling stations in Istanbul. Polling stations will be definitely opened in Bursa, too,” Yaprakov remarked.

“There are 61 paper applications from the U.S. but more expected to be filed electronically. 59 applications were already filed from Germany, 144 from Cyprus, 130 from the Great Britain, 88 from Spain, 20 from Ireland, 48 from Luxembourg, 27 from France, and 44 from Switzerland. These are just analogically filed applications – by post or personally,” Yaprakov explained, adding that the online applications are not included in the abovementioned figures.

via Turkey files 307 applications for opening polling stations for Bulgaria early elections – FOCUS Information Agency.

April 3, 2013
Feiglin: Turkey should apologize for ‘Struma’

Likud MK says Ankara towed and abandoned ship headed to Palestine, which resulted in death of 800 Jewish refugees in 1942.

The only extant photo of the Struma Photo: Courtesy Turkey must apologize for sinking a ship and killing nearly 800 Jews in 1942, MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud) said over a week after Israel apologized to Turkey for the 2010 raid of the Mavi Marmara.

Feiglin recounted in a Facebook post the tragic story of the ship filled with Jews hoping to immigrate to pre-state Israel.

The merchant vessel Struma left the Romanian port of Constanta in December 1941 at the initiative of the New Zionist Organization and the Betar Zionist youth movement. Its 781 passengers hoped to sail to Mandatory Palestine despite British-imposed Jewish immigration quotas, and escape the fascist regime of Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu.

The ship docked in Istanbul on December 16, 1941, due to engine failure. Waiting at the port, the Struma’s passengers learned the British would not give them visas to enter Mandatory Palestine and that they could not disembark in Turkey.

After a 10-week impasse between British and Turkish diplomats over the refugees, during which the Jewish community of Istanbul provided them with food, the Struma was towed into the Black Sea. The vessel was abandoned about 16 kilometers from the shore. On February 24, 1942, the Soviet Submarine Shch-213 torpedoed the ship, which sank quickly.

The only survivor of the Struma’s sinking was a 19-year-old refugee, David Stoliar. The ship’s wreck has yet to be found.

“This was the greatest tragedy in the history of ha’apala [illegal Jewish immigration to mandatory Palestine],” Feiglin wrote. “On the Turks’ giant peninsula, known as Asia Minor, a real continent, they could not find a permanent place of refuge for the refugees of fascism. The Turkish expelled the immigrants to their death.”

Still, Feiglin concluded that Israel does not need Turkey’s apology or money.

“The Jewish people have a special talent – they remember,” he wrote.

via Feiglin: Turkey should apologize for ‘Struma’ | JPost | Israel News.

April 2, 2013
Turkey Threatens To Go Its Way If EU Accession Further Delayed

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says that his country’s membership in the European Union is a strategic goal but Turkey could abandon this goal if the 27-nation bloc refuses “to unblock its path for entry.”

“If the EU clears our way [for membership], we would welcome it, as the EU [membership] is our strategic goal. But if it does not, they will go their own way and we will go ours,” Turkish media quoted him as telling a meeting of the local branch of his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in the western province of Manisa on Sunday.

Davutoglu’s remarks follow a January statement of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he had told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Turkey could drop its EU membership goal and join the Russian-Chinese-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) instead if Ankara was invited to do so.

Erdogan made the statement because of frustration with the stalemate in the EU accession bid. Turkey opened accession negotiations with the EU in 2005 but the progress had been very slow since then due to opposition in some EU countries to Turkish accession and the Cyprus issue.

by RTT Staff Writer

via Turkey Threatens To Go Its Way If EU Accession Further Delayed.

April 2, 2013