Turkey

From paragliding to clubbing: Five fabulous Turkey holidays for every vibe

March 22, 2023 by metro.co.uk Leave a Comment

With the exchange rate firmly in Brits’ favour, it’s time to turn to the land of the lira for some sunshine

Enjoy the magic of Marmaris

Located on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, this lively port town is also home to several beautiful beaches with the obligatory crystal clear turquoise water and stretches of golden sand. When you’re done with topping up your tan, head to the buzzing marina for a cocktail with a side order of people-watching, and don’t miss the Dancing Fountains on central Youth Square, which provide an illuminated show every evening. The town has its own Grand Bazaar, where you’ll find an array of souvenirs, including rugs, handicrafts, spices and sweets.

How to do it TUI offers a seven-night holiday at the 4T The Beachfront, B&B, based on flights from London Gatwick on April 20, from £340pp.

Opt for Oludeniz

Once a hideaway for pirates and smugglers, this little gem on Turkey’s southwestern coast is still drawing visitors with its own unique treasures. Yes, there are beaches galore, but the beautiful Blue Lagoon is one of the most photographed places in the area. No boats are allowed to disrupt its still waters (Oludeniz means ‘dead sea’) and it is part of a national nature reserve.

Daredevils can also go paragliding around the resort – the sport is popular here thanks to the stable weather and panoramic views including of Babadag mountain, from which you can take off.

Prefer to be under the water rather than lounging beside it? There are plenty of opportunities for snorkelling and scuba diving (from £40pp, viator.com )

How to do it: Jet2 offers seven nights all-inclusive at the 3+ star Oludeniz Beach Resort by Z Hotels, flying from Leeds Bradford on April 21, from £419pp.

Experience the beauty of Bodrum

Founded by Greeks, ruled by Persia and (briefly) the Romans, the port city of Bodrum eventually fell under Ottoman control, a past that has left it with more than its fair share of historic sites.

Beyond its beaches, you can visit the remains of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus – one of the Seven Wonders Of The Ancient World – or the 15th-century Bodrum Castle. The latter sits at one end of the sweeping harbour, which is lined with plentiful cafés, restaurants and nightclubs.

Bodrum town truly comes alive at night, when crowds flock to Bar Street, the Marina Yacht Club or Club Catamaran, which is set in a glass-bottomed boat ( @clubcatamaran )

How to do it: easyJet Holidays offers seven nights at 4-star Jasmin Elite Residence and Spa, self-catering, from £344pp, departing from Edinburgh on April 22.

Win a seven-night luxury break for four in the Turkish Riviera

In our latest competition, we’ve teamed up with VIBE by Jet2holidays for a reader and three friends to jet off on a luxury seven-night escape to the Turkish Riviera, with return flights from your local airport, transfers and a 22kg baggage allowance each.

The four of you will be able to laze at the highly chic Cook’s Club Alanya. The contemporary and lush resort hotel sits in a prime location on the cusp of the stunning Kleopatra Beach, and just a short walk away from Alanya’s nightlife.

At Cook’s Club Alanya, you can tailor your getaway to your every need – choose to start your day with a yoga flow or Crossfit session before drifting to the resort’s focal point – the swimming pool where guests are invited to bask in the sun.

To be in with a chance of winning, sign up to The Getaway – Metro’s brilliant travel newsletter – and register your details here . Terms and conditions apply. Good luck!

Plus, VIBE by Jet2holidays is offering our readers an exclusive £60 off per booking on all holidays*. Simply enter the competition and you will be emailed your unique discount code to use when booking at jet2holidays.com/vibe .

*On bookings made ten weeks or more before departure. Full payment required by balance due date.

Come to Kemer

Just 45 minutes’ drive south from Antalya, and located on Turkey’s Turquoise Coast, Kemer is known for its pebbled beaches and large marina. With the backdrop of a scented pine forest that’s part of the Olympos Beydağları National Park – where cable cars run to the top of Tahtalı Mountain – it’s a peaceful enclave where you can escape the crowds.

A short drive away is Alca Su Paradise Cove, a hidden, rugged cove that is a locals’ hotspot, while Phaselis beach is next to a set of ancient Greco-Roman ruins. These include the remains of houses, public baths and even a former theatre.

How to do it: TUI offers seven nights at the 5T Rixos Sungate on an all-inclusive basis, departing from Birmingham on April 21, costs from £473pp.

Be charmed by cool Kusadasi

Located in the Aegean Region, the  modern and bustling beach resort of Kusadasi also has a charming old town – think cobbled streets lined with authentic Turkish restaurants, cosy cafés and colourful bazaars. But this is also the place to come for fun watersports. You can do everything from jet-skiing to bouncing around on a banana boat (from £17.50pp, novawatersports.com).

How to do it: easyJet Holidays offers seven nights at the 5-star Fantasia Hotel De Luxe Kusadasi on an all-inclusive basis from £456pp, departing from London Gatwick on May 10; easyjet.com/en/holidays.

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Turkey ratifies Finland NATO bid, but awaits final parliament approval

March 23, 2023 by www.euronews.com Leave a Comment

The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs commission approved a bill ratifying Finland’s bid to join NATO Thursday, according to state broadcaster TRT Haber . The bill is still waiting on approval from the parliament’s general assembly.

The move comes as Finnish President Sauli Niinistö formally sealed the Nordic nation’s historic bid to join the military alliance, Thursday, signing into law the required national legal amendments needed for membership of NATO.

Turkey and Hungary are the only two of NATO’s 30 existing members who haven’t ratified Finland’s bid. Admitting new countries requires unanimous approval from the alliance members, and the parliaments in Ankara and Budapest haven’t yet given the green light.

After delays of several months, the Hungarian parliament is finally expected to approve the Finnish accession into NATO on 27 March.

Despite, backing Finland joining NATO, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has held off approving Sweden’s bid. It isn’t clear either when Budapest will ratify Stockholm’s bid.

Last week Niinistö visited Ankara , where Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged to move forward with ratifying Finland’s application, ahead of Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 14 May.

Finland’s 200-seat Eduskunta parliament endorsed the country’s NATO bid with an overwhelming 184-7 majority at the beginning of March .

Finland and neighboring Sweden applied to become NATO members 10 months ago in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, abandoning decades of nonalignment.

This is seen by many experts as one of the biggest geopolitical ramifications of Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Finland’s border with Russia runs for a total of 1,340 kilometers (832 miles).

Finland and Sweden are close partners culturally, economically and politically. They submitted their bids together and planned to join the alliance at the same time.

On Wednesday, Swedish lawmakers overwhelmingly voted in favor of Sweden joining NATO , signing off on the country’s membership along with the required legislation.

EU warned over Turkey cash pledges as VDL ‘shovels money’ into Erdogan’s pockets

March 23, 2023 by www.express.co.uk Leave a Comment

Flood waters rage in Turkey after February’s deadly earthquakes

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Brussels has been warned to be “very wary” about approving funds to Turkey in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan should not be trusted to use the money wisely, it has been warned. The European Union and international donors on Monday pledged €7 billion (£6.2 billion) to help Turkey and Syria in the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated parts of the neighbouring countries last month.

The European Commission said after the fundraising conference in Brussels that €6.05 billion of the total pledge will be going to Turkey, in grants and loans.

The Commission added: “The European Commission and the EU Member States, as well as the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development represent more than 50 percent of this total pledge of grants, with €3.6 billion euros.”

But in a warning to the Commission over disbursing funds to Ankara, Dr Alan Mendoza, Executive Director of the Henry Jackson Society, told Express.co.uk the bloc should be “very wary about shovelling money into Mr Erdogan’s pockets”.

He said: “While nobody can fail to be moved by the scale of human suffering caused by Turkey’s earthquake, the EU should be very wary about shovelling money into Mr Erdogan’s pockets in terms of relief.

Ursula von der Leyen pledged funds to Turkey to rebuild the country after the earthquake and floods (Image: Getty)

Erdogan put the cost of reconstruction at $104 billion (Image: Getty)

“The disaster has highlighted the corruption endemic in Turkish infrastructure projects seeing as earthquake preparations that should have been in place were mishandled.

“Any funds sent to Erdogan should therefore be carefully scrutinised and only released in tranches where it has been proven they have been used for the purposes intended.”

The magnitude 7.8 earthquake on February 6 killed more than 52,000 people — the vast majority in Turkey.

Nearly 300,000 buildings in Turkey either collapsed or were severely damaged, according to the country’s president.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the time: “We have shown to the people in Turkey and Syria that we are supporting those in need.”

Survivors of the earthquake in rebel-held northwest Syria have received very little assistance because of deep divisions exacerbated by the country’s 12-year war. The EU said 15.3 million Syrians of a population of 21.3 million already required humanitarian assistance before the earthquake struck.

The bloc has been providing humanitarian aid to Syria since 2011 and wants to step it up. But it does not intend to help with reconstruction in the war-torn country, with EU sanctions against the Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad in place due to its continued crackdown against civilians.

Von der Leyen said the Commission pledged an additional €108 million in humanitarian aid for Syria on Monday.

FILM REVIEW; First, Go Cold Turkey, Then Go to Cold Jersey

July 28, 2004 by www.nytimes.com Leave a Comment

”Garden State,” Zach Braff’s small, smart, off-kilter comedy, has the cheek to present itself as ”The Graduate 2004,” although its affectionate subversion of a popular classic also stamps it as ”The Anti-Graduate 2004.” From its story of the awakening of an emotionally numbed young man — played by Mr. Braff, who wrote and directed the movie — to its editorial use of a contemporary pop soundtrack that throws in vintage Simon and Garfunkel (”The Only Living Boy in New York”), ”Garden State” obsessively refers to that 1967 generational landmark.

The New Jersey suburban landscape to which Mr. Braff’s 26-year-old alter ego, Andrew Largeman, returns from self-imposed exile in Los Angeles is a universe apart from the lotus land where he has lived for the last nine years in a chemical stupor. Because ”The Graduate” established the stock vision of suburban alienation that has persisted through ”American Beauty” and beyond, you expect ”Garden State” to uphold the cliché. Instead, it allows Andrew to discover some nuggets of spiritual gold in the East Coast wasteland he dreaded revisiting.

At one point ”Garden State” drops a comic reference to Aldous Huxley’s ”Brave New World” in which the author’s name is misidentified as Huxtable. Like many passing references in ”Garden State,” this one is far from accidental. Just as the happy citizens of Huxley’s dystopia were pacified by a drug called soma (a sort of idealized hybrid of Prozac and Ecstasy), Andrew has spent years cut off from his darker feelings with the aid of pharmaceuticals (including lithium) prescribed by his father, Gideon (Ian Holm), a pompous psychiatrist.

What necessitates Andrew’s return from the West Coast, where he works in a Vietnamese restaurant while struggling as an actor (he has had one prominent role in a made-for-TV movie), is his mother’s death. Paraplegic from a freak accident for which Gideon tacitly blames his son, who was 9 at the time, his mother died at home in the bathtub. The father and son have never confronted the complicated layers of blame and guilt that have festered under Andrew’s chemical insulation.

Because Andrew has left his medications in Los Angeles, his buried emotions begin to stir. If you take ”Garden State” as a generational statement, the plastics of ”The Graduate” have been replaced by prescription drugs as the symbolic soul-destroying enemy. Recreational drugs are also questioned in a scene in which Andrew and a bunch of high school friends break through uncomfortable social barriers with the shortcuts of Ecstasy and pot.

Without his medication Andrew experiences recurrent flash headaches. At his father’s urging, he consults a neurologist (Ron Liebman), who finds nothing physically wrong but who gently advises him to switch psychiatrists.

In the doctor’s waiting room Andrew meets Sam (Natalie Portman), a charming, uninhibited motormouth and pathological liar who suffers from epilepsy. The friendship they strike up quickly blossoms into something more. Andrew, who found himself unable to cry at his mother’s grave, squeezes his first real tear into a paper cup she holds under his left eye.

As precocious filmmaking debuts tend to be, ”Garden State” is too self-conscious by half, but its struggle to revitalize a cliché by turning it inside out is a worthy one. All the characters are aggressively quirky. Andrew’s best friend from high school, Mark (Peter Sarsgaard), is a gravedigger and pothead who takes Andrew and Samantha to a quarry inhabited by a bohemian couple who live in a boat. Another high school friend, Albert (Denis O’Hare), who has made millions from patenting a no-noise version of Velcro, lives in a mansion devoid of furniture.

There is no Mrs. Robinson to skewer as a predatory spiritual vacuum. The movie goes out of its way to appreciate two unusual moms: Mark’s pot-smoking mother, Carol (Jean Smart), and Sam’s ultra-homey mother, Olivia (Ann Dowd), who has taken an African student into their home. Ms. Portman’s manic Sam and Mr. Braff’s depressed Andrew make an appealing couple.

As an actor, Mr. Braff (familiar from the television series ”Scrubs”) is a homely but handsome screen presence, like Dustin Hoffman’s Benjamin Braddock. This movie’s artfully lightheaded visual style combines the freneticism of vintage Richard Lester with the whimsy of Wes Anderson. When not whizzing to and fro, Lawrence Sher’s cinematography occasionally pauses to frame an image with the same care for composition that Conrad L. Hall brought to ”American Beauty.”

But a scrupulous avoidance of any solemnity makes ”Garden State” a bit too light for its own good. Its method of skipping from one incident to another feels scatterbrained, and promising characters are left behind in the rush. The forced feel-good ending seems tacked on, a thudding final sentence with too many exclamation points.

”Garden State” is rated R (under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It includes some strong language.

GARDEN STATE

Written and directed by Zach Braff; director of photography, Lawrence Sher; edited by Myron Kerstein; music by Chad Fischer; production designer, Judy Becker; produced by Pamela Abdy, Richard Klubeck, Gary Gilbert and Dan Halsted; released by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Running time: 102 minutes. This film is rated R.

WITH: Zach Braff (Andrew Largeman), Ian Holm (Gideon Largeman), Ron Liebman (Dr. Cohen), Method Man (Diego), Natalie Portman (Sam), Peter Sarsgaard (Mark), Jean Smart (Carol), Ann Dowd (Olivia), Denis O’Hare (Albert) and Geoffrey Arend (Karl Benson).

Putin really isn’t getting his own way after Sweden votes to join NATO

March 22, 2023 by metro.co.uk Leave a Comment

Swedish politicians have overwhelmingly voted in favour of the country joining Nato, signing off on its membership along with the required legislation.

The 349-seat parliament authorised Sweden’s accession to Nato on a vote of 269-37, with 43 politicians absent.

It was the last required domestic hurdle to the country becoming part of the 30-member western military alliance.

Six of the eight parties represented in parliament were in favour of Nato membership, and the vote that followed a nearly seven-hour debate was seen as a formality.

‘Membership in Nato is the best way to safeguard Sweden’s security,’ said foreign minister Tobias Billstrom during the deliberations.

He called it ‘a historical event’ and “one of the most important security policy decisions ever for our country”.

Morgan Johansson of the Social Democrats- Sweden’s largest party, which once opposed Nato membership- said that joining the alliance was ‘about seeking in every situation the solutions that provide maximum security for the people of Sweden.’

Both Sweden and neighbouring Finland applied to join Nato in May 2022, abandoning decades of non-alignment in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Almost overnight, support for Nato membership leapt from an underwhelming one-third of Finns to almost 80%.

Two Nato countries, Turkey and Hungary, have yet to ratify the Nordic nations’ joint application, which requires unanimous approval from existing members.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last week that his government would move forward with ratifying Finland, paving the way for the country to join the alliance before Sweden.

But Mr Erdogan said Sweden still must resolve the Turkish concerns that had delayed action on the joint application.

The Turkish government previously accused both Sweden and Finland of being too soft on groups that it deems to be terror organisations, but expressed more reservations about Sweden.

During a meeting with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto last week Erdogan heaped scorn on the Swedish government, claiming they had embraced Kurdish militants, whom he labelled as ’terrorists’.

He also complained that Kurdish militant demonstrations had been allowed on the streets of Stockholm.

However, Mr Niinisto told reporters as he stood alongside the Turkish leader that the process of joining the alliance would ‘not be complete without Sweden,’ and said he hoped to see both countries in Nato in time for the July’s summit in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius .

The move is the latest thorn in Putin’s side after he was issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court last week, which seeks to prosecute the Russian president over the unlawful removal of children from Ukraine to Russia.

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