* According to the Hurriyet Daily News, more Syrian refugees have arrived in Turkey within the last 1.5 months, bringing the number from 7500 to 9200.
  Speaking of Syria, in an interview with the Turkish daily Hurriyet a former diplomat and Turkey's head of intelligence Mr. Sönmez Köksal says that the regional environment surrounding Turkey is more dangerous now than it was in the 1990s as there is too much uncertainty as to what will happen in the Syria-Iraq-Iran triangle.
  On this slippery ground, the Kurdish issue is a factor that could be used against Turkey, according to Sönmez Köksal.

* Mr Köksal may have Iran to worry, but according to the Anatolia News Agency, Iranian foreign affairs minister is talking peace in the region with turkey's help.
  On Friday the Iranian minister said that Iran and Turkey could restore peace, security and stability in their region and cooperation and solidarity.
   The minister was speaking to a joint press conference with the visiting Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in the Iranian capital Tehran.

* Speaking of Kurds, as we reported to you last week 35 civilian Turkish Kurds were killed in a botched Turkish airstrike two weeks ago.
  The Turkish government is now saying that families of the dead will be given financial compensation.

* On Friday a court in Turkey ordered the arrest of the former chief of staff retired General Ilker Basbug. He is being charged in participating in an underground organization aimed at overthrowing the government.
  He is denying the chargers.
  Thousands of others, aspecially journalists and intellectuals have been charged for belonging to the same clandestine organization. Critics of the Turkish government say that it is using the courts to muzzle the opposition.
  The Hurriyet Daily News wrote on Friday that the government signaled the criteria for pre-trial detention could be tightened as the arrest of former Chief of General Staff unleashed a new wave of criticism of the government and raised fresh questions over the judiciary’s credibility.
  In related news, Agence France-Presse reported that an Istanbul court Thursday rejected a request to release two prominent Turkish journalists charged in the same organization.
  Also in related news, Reuters News agency writes that the arrests of the former army chief adds to a steady rise in political risk in Turkey that will scare away investors .

* Some weeks ago the Turkish parliament tried to increase the former lawmakers pensions to 8000 Turkish liras from the current 4980 Turkish liras. The Turkish president vetoed this attempt and a parliamentary commission has now decided on 6200 Turkish liras as the new pension, reports the Anatolia News Agency.
  The original 8000-lira pension was met with outrage by the Turkish public. The minimum wage in Turkey is only 630 Turkish liras a month, making even the new proposed amount significantly higher - about nine times - than the common laborers earn.

* According to the Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Vice President Joe Biden discussed the turmoil in Iraq in a phone call late Jan. 5.
  Mr. Erdoğan warned efforts expended so far to protect Iraq’s territorial integrity and stability would become meaningless if Iraq drifted away from democratic culture.

* According to the Anatolia News Agency, the prime minister of the Palestinian Administration in Gaza visited Turkey early this week.
  Mr. Ismail Haniya met with Turkish officials including the prime minister.
  Mr. Haniya said Monday that they were visiting Turkey in order to thank the Turkish government and people for support they extended to Palestine.
  Deputy chairman of Turkish ruling Justice & Development Party said on Tuesday that the party was supporting Gaza.
  Mr. Haniya, in his part, said Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan had earned a significant place in the hearts of Gazan people as well as all Palestinian people around the world because he supported Gaza and stood by Gaza during the blockade and war.

* According to the Wall Street Journal, Calik Holding, a Turkish conglomerate run by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's son-in-law, has put Sabah-ATV, the country's second-largest media group, up for sale.
  Private equity group TPG and Time Warner have shown interest, the Wall Street Journal writes.

* Turkish currency lira is depricating against foreign currencies especially against the US dollar mainly due to Turkey's growing foreign trade deficit and an increase in inflation.
  Overall decline for the Turkish currency against the U.S. dollar was 18% last year.
  However, according to the Anatolia News Agency, Turkey's central bank governor Erdem Basci thinks that the fate of the lira will be reversed and those who invest in it will gain in 2012.
  The Turkish central bank has been selling dollars in the last few weeks to prop up the Turkish currency.

* According to the Anatolia News Agency, Turkey's culture and tourism minister said on Friday that Turkey aimed to host 32.5 million tourists in 2012.
  In 2011 there were 30 million visitors to Turkey.

* The Anatolia News Agency reports that thousands of people visited Turkey's Central Anatolian province of Konya for ceremonies marking the 738th anniversary of Mevlana Jalaladdin Rumi’s death, the local mayor said during a press conference marking the festival’s end.
  "Twenty-one whirling dervish dance performances were held in 10 days. Many statesmen from various parts of the world came to the city for events," Konya Metropolitan Mayor Tahir Akyürek said.

* According to the Hurriyet Daily News influential Turkish artist Nil Yalter’s works have been purchased by Tate Modern and entered among the list of best works of 2011 as selected by Frieze art magazine.
  Yalter depicts issues such as gender, identity and womanhood in a piece of art where different materials and media work together. She is perceived as one of the most important female artists of the century.
  Using a wide variety of techniques, she reflects various perspectives on women’s issues, gender and migration, combining video, drawings and photographs to produce just one piece.
  Nil Yalter was born in 1938. She studied in Istanbul and Paris.
  See more at http://www.nilyalter.com/

* A new museum project to be established in the central Anatolian province of Karabük’s Safranbolu township, renowned for its historical houses, will bring together miniature models of unique clock towers that exhibit traces of Ottoman architecture from around Anatolia, the Asian part of Turkey, reports the Anatolia News Agency.
  Miniatures of clock towers ordered to be built throughout Anatolia in 1901 for the 25th anniversary of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II’s accession to the throne will be on display at the open-air Anatolia Miniature Clock Towers Museum.
  The museum is currently under construction over a 1,000-square-meter area next to the Safranbolu Clock Tower, itself built by Grand Vizier İzzet Mehmet Pasha in 1797. The exhibition will include miniatures of 12 clock towers from the northwestern province of Balıkesir to the eastern province of Erzurum.
  See a slideshow of the Safranbolu clock tower: safranbolu-saat-kulesi

* Children’s plays from Turkey and Spain will be staged within the scope of a project titled "Cultural Bridge Project Established by Traditional Children’s Plays", in Turkey's southern province of Kahramanmaraş, reports the Anatolia News Agency.
  "The goal of the project is to keep traditional children’s plays alive and promote them to the European Union countries," said Mehmet Köşk, chairman of the Information, Communication, Art, Education and Culture Youth Association, initiators of the project.

* Sixty students in Turkey's eastern province of Bitlis’ Güroymak township Doğuyorum Civilization Choir have made a name for themselves with their multi-lingual singing and plans for the future.
  According to the Anatolia News Agency, The children sing in Kurdish, English, Arabic, Turkish, Armenian, German, Persian, Spanish, Romanian, Albanian, Lazuri, Zazaki, Italian, Georgian and Moldavian.
  Famous Turkish musicians accompany the choir with their instruments in concerts.
  For more see Children's Choir