NEWS

The race code procedure implemented by the Ministry of National Education for student registration at non-Muslim schools has been subject to another lawsuit.

The State of Turkey, after having seized a building that belongs to the Bulgarian Exarchate Orthodox Church Foundation, is now demanding a fee in return for occupying the building for 3 years –after returning the building to the foundation. The Treasury has issued a 50 thousand TL fine to the foundation.

People continue their struggle to survive in Kessab, a town on the border of Syria with Turkey in the Hatay province area. Following the occupation of the town by Al-Nusra forces last year, the Armenians in the town had been dispersed, with most of them coming to Vakıflı Village in Hatay, and had returned after the Syrian army had retaken the town. However, the people of Kessab now face the threat of ISIS.

We spoke about Turks, Armenians, Turkey and the Diaspora with Arsinée Khanjian, the Canadian actress who is one of the three jury members of the international ‘Love & Change’ competition of the 14th !f International Film Festival.

Aybüke Ekici, General Secretary of the International Refugee Rights Association, has expressed concern over allegations that some Ozbek refugees may have been sent from Suruç to areas under the control of ISIS. Ekici added that they had received reports that ISIS was executing refugees that refused to join them.

Following the land dispute involving the plot on which Diyarbakır Airport today stands, the land plot on which Batman Airport stands has also become the subject of a lawsuit. Zuart Sudjian has filed a case claiming that the State had built an airport on the plot she had inherited. Sudjian’s land in nearby Diyarbakır had also been appropriated by the State, and the Diyarbakır Airport was built on a part of her plot.

Assaulted in Parliament during the meeting for the internal security package, HDP Member of Parliament described the fight that broke out: “You cannot but run for help when a friend of yours is being assaulted by thugs. If there is a price to pay for that, we are prepared, but the real problem here is that the Parliament is increasingly resembling a slaughterhouse.”

Journalist and writer Nuh Köklü became the target of a knife attack while playing snowball with his friends in Kadıköy, Istanbul. Köklü passed away at the Haydarpaşa Numune Hospital where he was taken.

Özgecan Aslan, the university student murdered by a minibus driver, was taken to her final resting place on the shoulders of women. Women across Turkey took to the streets to commemorate her, and to protest against male violence.

President Serzh Sargsyan issued a statement following a session of the executive body of the Republican Party on February 12, severely criticizing his one-time ally Gagik Tsarukyan of the Prosperous Armenia Party.