The Pigeon Express
Europe’s busiest airport shut down in Istanbul as a rare snowstorm blanketed swathes of the eastern Mediterranean region, causing blackouts and traffic havoc. The closure of Istanbul Airport, where the roof of one of the cargo terminals collapsed under the heavy snow, causing no injuries, grounded flights stretching from the Middle East and Africa to […]
Turkish police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd that gathered for a Pride parade in central Istanbul on Saturday. Several people were detained. Television footage showed police in riot gear pushing and dragging people, some waving rainbow flags as they assembled for the event in a side street off the city’s central Istiklal Avenue. […]
The killers of Jamal Khashoggi underwent paramilitary training in the United States a year before his murder, The New York Times reported. The training was approved by the US State Department. Tier 1 Group, a security company based in Arkansas, owned by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, started to provide the training in 2014 […]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated a mosque in Taksim Square , Istanbul. Thousands attended the ceremony, with some praying in the square itself because the mosque was full. The mosque features prominently next to a public space traditionally seen as a symbol of the secular Turkish republic. It also dwarfs a monument to the […]
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Istanbul over the weekend to mark the 10th anniversary of his country’s strategic partnership with Turkey and shore up support from his Black Sea neighbour as tensions escalate with Russia over Ukraine’s simmering war in Donbas. “Turkey’s support for the restoration of our sovereignty and territorial integrity is extremely important,” […]
Turkey withdrew from a European treaty protecting women from violence that it was the first country to sign 10 years ago and that bears the name of its largest city. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s overnight decree annulling Turkey’s ratification of the Istanbul Convention is a blow to women’s rights advocates, who say the agreement is […]
Saudi Arabia have rejected a report by US intelligence agencies released on Friday that assigns accountability to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia completely rejects the negative, false and unacceptable assessment in the report pertaining to the Kingdom’s leadership and notes that the report […]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered another ancient Orthodox Church that became a mosque and then a popular Istanbul museum to be turned back into a Muslim place of worship. The decision to transform Kariye Museum into a mosque came just a month after a similarly controversial conversion for the UNESCO World Heritage-recognised Hagia Sophia. […]
In a heartwarming incident, hospital staff rushed to the aid of a stray mother cat who carried her sick kitten to the facility. The incident occurred in Istanbul in Turkey – a city that is home to thousands of stray cats. Photos that have gone massively viral on social media show the mother cat in […]
An airplane careened off a runway at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen airport on Wednesday evening, dropping more than 100 feet to the ground where it broke into pieces. Turkish authorities say that at least three people were killed and 179 others were injured. The plane, from a Turkish low-cost carrier called Pegasus Airlines, was coming from the western […]
Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the Saudi Consulate, Istanbul’s chief prosecutor added that the 59-year-old Washington Post journalist’s body was then “cut into pieces and disposed of under a premeditated plan”. Mr Khashoggi was murdered during a visit to the consulate to obtain paperwork for his upcoming marriage on October 2, 2018. […]