Turkey

The 2008 Turkish incursion into northern Iraq, code-named Operation Sun by the Turkish Armed Forces, began on February 21, 2008, when the Turkish... Army sent troops into northern Iraq to target the Kurdistan Workers Party . The ground offensive was preceded by Turkish Air Force aerial bombardments against PKK camps in northern Iraq, which began on December 16, 2007. This constituted the "first confirmed ground incursion" of Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Initial reports indicated that up to 10,000 troops had taken part in the operation, while later reports indicated just several hundred. In October 2007, Turkish jets and ground forces clashed with PKK forces in Turkey and over the border into northern Iraq. Turkey launched its first cross-border raid on December 16, 2007, involving 50 fighter jets. A Turkish military statement said that up to 175 militants were killed on that day alone, while Iraqi officials reported that the strikes had targeted 10 villages and killed one civilian. The PKK reported seven deaths.
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Operation Northern Watch, the successor to Operation Provide Comfort, was a US European Command Combined Task Force charged with enforcing its own... no-fly zone above the 36th parallel in Iraq. Its mission began on 1 January 1997. The coalition partners of the United States, United Kingdom, and Turkey provided approximately 45 aircraft and more than 1,400 personnel to support Operation Northern Watch. The joint U.S. forces of some 1,100 US personnel, included sailors, soldiers, as well as sorties from every arm of the United States armed forces. The original mandate from the Turkish government allowed the operation to continue for six months. Turkey subsequently approved two 6-month extensions, but indicated that it would not become a permanent mission. For the first year of the mission, northern Iraq was quiet, with no combat between Coalition aircraft and Iraqi forces. Operation Northern Watch forces did not take part in Operation Desert Fox in December 1998. After Operation Desert Fox Iraq announced they would no longer recognize the no-fly zones and began attacking Coalition aircraft. From December 1998 to March 1999, U.S.
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The Iraqi no-fly zones were a set of two separate no-fly zones , and were proclaimed by the United States, United Kingdom and France after the Gulf... War of 1991 to protect the Kurdish people in northern Iraq and Shiite Muslims in the south. Iraqi aircraft were forbidden from flying inside the zones. The policy was enforced by U.S., UK and French aircraft patrols until France withdrew in 1998. While the enforcing powers had cited United Nations Security Council Resolution 688 as authorizing the operations, the resolution contains no explicit authorization. The Secretary-General of the UN at the time the resolution was passed, Boutros Boutros-Ghali called the no-fly zones "illegal" in a later interview with John Pilger. The NFZ in the north of Iraq was established shortly after the Gulf War. In August 1992 the NFZ in the south to the 32nd parallel was established, but in 1996 it was expanded to the 33rd parallel. From 1992 to the United States-led coalition invasion of Iraq in 2003, there were two NFZs in Iraq. The northern NFZ extended from the 36th parallel northwards, while the southern extended from the 33rd parallel southwards.
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The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia was NATO's military operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The strikes lasted... from March 24, 1999 to June 10, 1999. The NATO bombing marked the second major combat operation in its history, following the 1995 NATO bombing campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The bombings led to the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Kosovo, establishment of UNMIK, a UN mission in Kosovo and put an end to the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. The bombing campaign was criticized, especially for the number of civilian casualties that resulted from the bombing. NATO's objectives in the Kosovo conflict were stated at the North Atlantic Council meeting held at NATO headquarters in Brussels on April 12, 1999: Michel Chossudovsky has argued that the real objective was economic colonialization of Serbia. Operation Allied Force predominantly used a large-scale air campaign to destroy Yugoslav military infrastructure from high altitudes.
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The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes. The World Bank's... official goal is the reduction of poverty. By law, all of its decisions must be guided by a commitment to promote foreign investment, international trade and facilitate capital investment. The World Bank differs from the World Bank Group, in that the World Bank comprises only two institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association , whereas the latter incorporates these two in addition to three more: International Finance Corporation , Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency , and International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes . The World Bank is one of five institutions created at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944. The International Monetary Fund, a related institution, is the second. Delegates from many countries attended the Bretton Woods Conference. The most powerful countries in attendance were the United States and United Kingdom, which dominated negotiations. Although both are based in Washington, D.C.
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The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was... the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. Its primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing war through collective security and disarmament, and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration. Other issues in this and related treaties included labour conditions, just treatment of native inhabitants, human and drug trafficking, arms trade, global health, prisoners of war, and protection of minorities in Europe. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members. The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a fundamental shift from the preceding hundred years. The League lacked its own armed force and depended on the Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, keep to its economic sanctions, or provide an army when needed. However, the Great Powers were often reluctant to do so. Sanctions could hurt League members, so they were reluctant to comply with them.
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The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human... rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation. It was founded in 1949, has 47 member states with some 800 million citizens, and is an entirely separate body from the European Union , which has only 27 member states. Unlike the EU, the Council of Europe cannot make binding laws. The two do however share certain symbols such as the flag of Europe. The Council of Europe has nothing to do with either the Council of the European Union or the European Council, which are both EU bodies. The best known bodies of the Council of Europe are the European Court of Human Rights, which enforces the European Convention on Human Rights, and the European Pharmacopoeia Commission, which sets the quality standards for pharmaceutical products in Europe. The Council of Europe's work has resulted in standards, charters and conventions to facilitate cooperation between European countries.
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The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security,... economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries, and to provide a platform for dialogue. It contains multiple subsidiary organizations to carry out its missions. There are currently 193 member states, including every internationally recognised sovereign state in the world but Vatican City. From its offices around the world, the UN and its specialized agencies decide on substantive and administrative issues in regular meetings held throughout the year.
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Selçuk University is state-owned higher educational institution, which was founded 1975 in Konya, Turkey. Selçuk University started... education in the academic year of 1976-1977 with two faculties. Faculty of Science and Faculty of Literature, 7 departments, 327 students and 2 permanent lecturers. Selçuk University has significantly improved the state of a modern university by its physical structure, technological equipment and social-cultural facilities in recent years with rapid development of new campus. Selçuk University is carrying out educational activities at 22 faculties, 1 State Conservatory and Application Centers. Selçuk University has nearly 85,000 students and a population of approximately 3,900 academicians and administrative personnel. Former faculties in Niğde, Karaman and Aksaray were separated from it in 2000s.
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Gazi University is a public university primarily located in Ankara, Turkey. It was established in 1926 by Kemal Atatürk as Gazi Teacher... Training Institute. In 1982, it was reorganized by merging with the Bolu Academy of Engineering and Architecture, Ankara Academy of Economics and Commercial Sciences, the Ankara College of Technical Careers, the Ankara Girls' College of Technical Careers, and the Ankara State Academy of Engineering and Architecture to become a large metropolitan university as part of the act which created the Board of Higher Education. Prior to 1982 when the Board of Higher Education Law came into effect, institutes of higher education in Turkey were organized under different structures as universities, academies, institutes, and schools. In 1992 faculties and vocational schools in Bolu became Abant Izzet Baysal University. Gazi University comprises 15 faculties, 9 vocational schools of higher education, 26 research centers and 6 graduate institutes. The student enrollment of Gazi University has reached approximately 57,000 in total of whom about 1,500 come from the Turkic states of Central Asia.
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Marmara University is a public university in Turkey. Situated in Istanbul, Marmara University has succeeded in becoming the second largest... university in the whole country. The University's mission is to impart and promote knowledge and values consistent with universal standards, to meet the technological, social and cultural challenges of a global society, to contribute to the creation of an informed society, which learns about and shares this knowledge and values and to emphasize the European dimension in the delivery of educational opportunities. The present Rector of Marmara University is Prof. Dr. Necla Pur who has held this position since July 2006. Marmara University is an institution with roots extending back into the 19th century when the Hamidiye College of Higher Commercial Education was established in the Cağaloğlu district of Istanbul on January 16, 1883. At the time, it was the only leading higher education institution for studies in commerce and economics.
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Ahmet Kaya singer from Malatya, Turkey, who died on November 16, 2000 in exile in Paris. He formerly sang in Turkish. Some of his most popular songs... include Ayrılık Vakti, Söyle, Ağladıkça, Oy Benim Canım, Birazdan Kudurur Deniz, Arka Mahalle, Nereden Bileceksiniz, Hani Benim Gençliğim, Yakarım Geceleri and Şafak Türküsü. Ahmet Kaya was the fifth and last child of his Kurdish father, who had immigrated from Adıyaman to Malatya , and Turkish mother. He first encountered with music was at the age of six when his father bought him a bağlama for his birthday. Ahmet Kaya worked for a while as a taxi driver in Istanbul before becoming well known as a singer in the mid-1980s. His first album, Ağlama Bebeğim, was released in 1985. His popularity continued to rise into the 1990s when in 1994 he released the album Şarkılarım Dağlara which was sold a record 2.8 million copies. All of his 1990 albums to chart-toppers. During his career he recorded approximately 20 albums and was known for his protest music and positions on social justice. Recurring themes in his songs are love towards one's mother, sacrifice, and hope.
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Sami Harun Tekin is a singer, musician and poet. He is one of the founding members and the vocalist of the Turkish rock band Mor ve ötesi. In... 1988 whilst being a student at German High School in Istanbul, Harun meets Kerem Kabadayı with whom he would later establish his first band. In 1996, Harun starts his B.Sc. studies at Boğaziçi University, and graduates as a philosophy major in 2001. Following the 1999 earthquake in Turkey, he joins Açık Radio to work at Earthquake Communication Centre. From September 2008, he has appeared on television in Kısa Devre on the Turkish channel Haberturk, together with the psychiatrist Cem Mumcu and actress Pelin Batu. Tekin is interested in philosophy, politics and playing football. He is a big fan of Radiohead. In 1990, Tekin, together with his school friend Kerem Kabadayı founded a group «Decision». Other members were Şahin Yalabık , Alper Tekin . When in 1991 the group moved to a rock sound, Harun started playing the guitar. Later, they were joined by Derin Esmer .
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Anjelika Akbar is a Turkish pianist. She was born Anjelika Rosenbaum 1969 - Karaganda, Kazakhstan to a family of a Jewish musician-philosopher father... and an Uzbek musician mother. She could play the piano and read music at the age of 2,5 . Akbar began taking private piano lessons when she became 3 years old. Her first master was V.Lipovetsky, one of the founders of Chinese Harbin Conservatory and a teacher at the Moscow Conservatory. At the age of 4, she was discovered to possess the Absolute Pitch, and admitted to the school for gifted children at the age of 4.5, drawing the interest of the Moscow State Conservatory academicians. She continued her education at the Tashkent division of the same school. . The unique trait of the school for gifted children was that lessons were taught by the most brilliant professors of the conservatory. Like the world-renowned Alexei Sultanov and Stanislav Ioudenitch, Akbar has claimed her place among the best students of the school. She studied her 11-year long piano and composition in the classes of Ass. Prof. V. Fadeyeva, Prof. A. Berlin and Prof. B.
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Evren Yiğit Geniş is a classical music composer. He started to compose in 1995, and he subsequently wrote his first symphony at the age of... 17. He studied at University of Vienna in Business Administration, and then Archaeology and History of Art at the Bilkent University. He did not receive a formal education in music. To date, he has written three books about musical history, and he is currently researching different aspects of musical and artistic progression of diverse historical periods. Geniş has composed over 300 pieces; including 5 symphonies, violin and piano concertos, and some chamber music, sonatas and suites. He sometimes includes electronic instruments and a notable percussion section along with an orchestra, as a combination of tradition and modernity, harmony, and rhythm. Dispositional patterns and considerable melodies always come up with the music of the neo-romantic, contemporary composer.
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Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the... Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia . Both "Persia" and "Iran" are used interchangeably in cultural contexts; however, "Iran" is the name used officially in political contexts. The 18th largest country in the world in terms of area at 1,648,195 km , Iran has a population of around 78 million. It is a country of particular geopolitical significance owing to its location in the Middle East and central Eurasia. Iran is bordered on the north by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. As Iran is a littoral state of the Caspian Sea, which is an inland sea, Kazakhstan and Russia are also Iran's direct neighbors to the north. Iran is bordered on the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by Iraq and on the northwest by Turkey.
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Georgia /ˈdʒɔrdʒə/ is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and... Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of Georgia is Tbilisi. Georgia covers a territory of 69,700 km² and its population is almost 4.7 million. Georgia is a unitary, semi-presidential republic, with the government elected through a representative democracy. During the classical era independent kingdoms became established in what is now Georgia. The kingdoms of Colchis and Iberia adopted Christianity in the early 4th century. A unified Georgia reached the peak of its political and economic strength during the reign of King David IV and Queen Tamar in the 11th–12th centuries. At the beginning of the 19th century, Georgia was annexed by the Russian Empire. After a brief period of independence following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Georgia was occupied by Soviet Russia in 1921, becoming the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic and part of the Soviet Union.
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Syria sirr-ee-ə; Arabic: سورية‎ Sūriyya or سوريا Sūryā;... Syriac: ܣܘܪܝܐ; Kurdish: Sûrî, officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest. In English, the name Syria was formerly synonymous with the Levant, known in Arabic as Sham, while the modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization of the third millennium BC. In the Islamic era, its capital city, Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate, and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. The population of Syria is 74% Sunni Muslim, with a 12% Alawi population, 10% Christian, and 3% Druze. Combined, some 90% of the Syrian population is Muslim, which largely includes Arabs and significant minorities of Kurds, and Circassians.
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Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq Jumhūriyyat al-‘Irāq, Kurdish: كؤماری... عێراق‎‎, Komara Îraqê is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert. Iraq borders Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, Jordan to the southwest and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south. Iraq has a narrow section of coastline measuring 58 km on the northern Persian Gulf. The capital city, Baghdad is in the center-east of the country. Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run through the center of Iraq, flowing from northwest to southeast. These provide Iraq with agriculturally capable land and contrast with the steppe and desert landscape that covers most of Western Asia. Historically, Iraq has been known by the Greek toponym 'Mesopotamia' and has been home to continuous successive civilizations since the 6th millennium BC.
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