Turkey on Cyprus: No More Mr. Nice Guy

Cyprus, that cute little island in eastern Mediterranean, has never been on the top of my following list. I have always wished all the best for its peoples, the Greeks and the Turks, but their never-ending disputes have been not just too complicated but also too uninspiring for me.

However, being Turkish inevitably means being connected to Cyprus, for the fate of the island is unavoidably linked with Turkey’s place in the international scene, including its bid to join the European Union. These days, especially, Cyprus looks more and more definitive for us, with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s recent bravado on the island

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LIBYA MEETING OPENS IN ISTANBUL

The 4th meeting of the Libya Contact Group set up by the international community to find a solution to the Libyan crisis is taking place in İstanbul.

The Libya Contact Group formed at the London Conference held at the end of March to defuse the crisis which emerged with the popular uprising in Libya and the Gadhafi administration's crack-down on its own people has convened in Istanbul in a bid to surmount this crisis.

 

The meeting co-chaired by Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, which hosted the previous meeting, is being attended 32 countries, 7 international organizations and 40 delegations comprised of the representatives of the Libya National Interim Council.

18 of the countries are being represented at foreign minister level.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and NATO Secretary General Rasmussen are also attending the meeting.

The 4th meeting of the Libya Contact Group started with a speech by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayid El Nahyan each.

The developments in Libya since the meeting in Abu Dhabi on June 9 will be taken up at the Istanbul meeting.

The quest for a political solution on the basis of a roadmap drawn up by Turkey will be the main item of the agenda.

The humanitarian aid to the Libyan people and Libya's re-construction are also among the items to be discussed at the meeting.

TRT-World

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Four parties to form new Turkish Parliament

Four party groups will take their place in Turkey’s new Parliament as electoral officials had opened more than 90 percent of the nation’s ballot boxes by late Sunday.

The ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, will form a majority government after winning over 50 percent of the popular vote; the incumbents will be joined again by the opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP, the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, and the Peace and Democracy Parliament, or BDP, in the legislature.

A party must have at least 20 MPs in order to form a parliamentary group.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived at AKP headquarters and is expected to address ecstatic party supporters, who have gathered in front of the building, cheering and chanting slogans.

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu also went to his party's headquarters. It was reported that Kılıçdaroğlu would issue a press statement later in the evening.

Around 35 BDP-backed independent candidates have been elected to the Turkish Parliament after the party supported a number of independents to circumvent the country’s 10 percent election threshold.

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China Mongols protest in Xilinhot over shepherd's death

Ethnic Mongolians in northern China have held a rare protest in front of a government building over the death of a shepherd.

Crowds of students this week marched to the building in Xilinhot, a city in Inner Mongolia, rights groups said.

They were angry at the 10 May death of a herder, Mergen, who they say was run over by a van driven by a Han Chinese, the country's dominant ethnicity.

The Xilinhot government has not commented on the protest. 

In a statement on its website, though, the government said police had arrested two Han Chinese for murder.

China's six million ethnic Mongols say their nomadic pastoral existence is being threatened by the growth of mining projects in the mineral-rich region.

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"MIGRATION SLOWS DOWN GLOBAL GROWTH," (UN-HABITAT)

The increasing number of shantyhouses in major cities impede global development, the Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Joan Clos said. 

 

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme HABITAT announced that excessive migration to cities in developing nations is one of the biggest impediments before global development. 

The report by the HABITAT Programme said that most parts of the cities are filled with shanties, a situation which adversely affects both human life and development. 

HABITAT Executive Director Joan Clos argued that the consumption of energy and natural resources has dramatically increased due to migration, which in turn has slowed down global improvement. 

Pointing out that the consumption of energy and natural resources contribute to global warming, Clos reminded that 15 % of the world’s population will be in danger once the sea levels begin to rise. 

 TRT-World

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Scottish National Party wins historic majority

The Scottish National Party won a historic majority on Friday in elections for the Scottish parliament, bringing an independence referendum a step closer.

In the first overall majority for any party since the parliament opened in 1999, the SNP battered the once dominant Labour Party and secured 65 seats in the 129-seat Holyrood Assembly, results showed.

Party leader and First Minister Alex Salmond pledged to bring forward a referendum on Scottish independence within the next four years, something he could not deliver in his first term as the SNP were outnumbered by unionists in the Holyrood parliament.

"Just as the people have bestowed trust in us, we must trust the people as well, and that is why in this term of the parliament we shall bring forward a referendum and trust the people with Scotland's own constitutional future," he said.

The result was a major turnaround given that around two months ago opinion polls suggested that the SNP were likely to be ejected from power by the resurgent Labour party.

The election on Thursday was held alongside polls for the devolved national assemblies of Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as local elections in England and a nationwide referendum on changing Britain's voting system.

Yahoo

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