A devastating earthquake has hit Turkey near its border with Iran. A 1976 earthquake in the same vicinity killed 5,000 people. The Kandilli Observatory has reported that a very powerful earthquake measuring up to 7.3 on the richter scale has hit near the city of Van in eastern Turkey. Described as devastating and expected to […]
Navies crowd into once placid waters as Turkey presses Cyprus on gas reserves Turkey has a corvette, frigate and helicopters escorting its exploration vessel, the Piri Reis, as it explores for gas and oil. The US has quietly dispatched an aircraft and Russian naval vessels have been seen patrolling. News reports say US reconnaissance planes […]
“They’re blazing a new path in Turkey” reads the headline over this photo of Akbıyık villagers standing in front of their new wind turbine. The lights in Akbıyık went out one and a half years ago, when the Turkish Electricity Distribution Company cut off the village’s electricity because of outstanding utility bills that amounted to TRY […]
Turkey has used wind energy for more than ten years now, but never from locally developed and produced wind turbines. That’s about to change. In what Turkish newspapers are calling “the biggest project in the history of the republic,” the Turkish government recently announced the country’s first National Wind Energy System. The project, which is […]
Heap leaching or dump leaching extracts nickel using a very toxic process. Turkish environmental groups are calling for increased awareness against toxic waste dumping like that in Lebanon. Toxic dumping is taking place in the Caldag region, about 60 km east of Izmir, where a mining concession was given to a UK mining company, Sardes […]
“If God allows, we will hold our baby in our arms”. 21-year-old Derya Sert (right) and her doctor Omer Ozkan pose for a photograph before her medical operation Derya Sert is the 21 year old who had the world’s first successful womb transplant at a Turkish hospital. On August 9th, 2011, doctors at Akdeniz University […]
Çağan Şekercioğlu founded ecological research and conservation NGO KuzeyDoğa in 2007 to promote biodiversity and resist environmental degradation in Turkey’s fast-developing eastern region. As thermal power plants and hydroelectric dams pop up more and more across Turkey’s landscape, the effects of these developments on the natural environment go largely unseen. Especially in Turkey’s rural, lightly […]
Turkish PM Erdogan on recent visit to Egypt; more energy influence at Israel’s expense. AP photo by Maggie Michael and Lee Keeth In a continuation of his anti-Israel and anti-Cyprus governmental and economic policies, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is trying to persuade Egypt to ship its natural gas to Europe, via the Nabucco […]
How should teachers incorporate environmental ethics and lessons on sustainability into their classrooms? That’s the focus of a four-year educational ecoliteracy project — Turkey’s first — which has just begun. A training program for Turkish teachers kicked off this week in an unusual classroom: an arboretum in the northwestern province of Yalova. Beneath Yalova’s graceful […]
As a birthday gift to famous model Naomi Campbell, Luis de Garrido from Spain designed an off-grid home complete with photovoltaic panels, a sophisticated geothermal system, an interior landscaped terrace, and – ahem – 25 bedrooms. For those who believe that the Eye of Horus from Egyptian mythology is actually an illuminati cult symbol, this […]
Egypt and Turkey entered into several new energy-sharing arrangements on a recent diplomatic visit to Cairo by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Energy Minister Taner Yıldız. Analysts speculate that the new alliance comes in response to a perceived Israeli-Cypriot alliance over natural gas extraction. Oil wars are so last century. The resource with the potential […]
Hotels and photographers along Turkey’s tourism-heavy southern coast are reportedly exploiting chimpanzees and other wild animals for profit — but Turkish authorities say they can’t put a stop to it. For the past several years, various international animal rescue groups have received complaints from tourists in Turkey, who say that their hotels offered guests the […]
Tamar undersea gas wells will soon supply Israel with needed natural gas – but at what costs? It has taken some time to reach this stage, but Israel’s undersea natural gas exploration activities by such companies as Noble Energy and the Delek Group have received greater attention as an energy source in the wake of […]
Greenhouse gas emissions from Turkey don’t just pose an abstract, future threat to the country — the same gases that contribute to climate change periodically envelop Istanbul in smog. Turkey’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have increased by a whopping 98 percent in the last two decades, from 187 million tons of CO2 equivalent in 1990 […]
Map showing disputed Cyprus underwater gas fields, as well as those being contested by Israel and Lebanon Undersea drilling for natural gas by the Greek Cypriot government now appears to be more problematic than just their fears of disturbing the undersea environment or undersea territorial claims by regional countries like Israel and Lebanon. Cypriot’s “neighbor,” the […]