Restored Armenian church reopened with prayers as museum

Posted by meb at March 30th, 2007

Turkey, in a symbolic move that many expect will help ease long-standing animosity with Armenia, yesterday reopened an ancient Armenian church after a three-year restoration.But the Akhtamar Church, located on an island in Lake Van in eastern Anatolia, will serve as a monument and museum, despite Armenian demands that it be opened for worship. The spiritual leader of Turkey’s Armenian community, Patriarch Mesrob II, called for legal permission for use of the 10th (more…)

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Tofas to complete $1 bln in investment this year

Posted by meb at March 30th, 2007

Tofas, one of Turkey’s leading car producers and co-producer of Fiat, will make $1 billion in investments for modernization and expansion of capacity within the year, Ali Pandır, Tofaş CEO, said at a press conference yesterday.“We are planning to double our production capacity in two years, which is 180,000 per year now,” he said. He added that they were going to hire over 2,500 more workers and over 200 white-collar workers, mostly engineers, by the end of the year. (more…)

Posted in Airlines & Automotive, Export & Import| 1 Comment | 

Turkcell bids for 65% of a Bulgarian operator

Posted by meb at March 30th, 2007

Turkcell, Turkey’s largest mobile phone operator, with over 30 million subscribers, submitted a proposal for the tender of a 65 percent share of Bulgarian Telecommunications Company AD’s (BTC), operator of Bulgaria’s telecommunications infrastructure.
A release sent by Turkcell to the İstanbul Stock Exchange (İMKB) read that Turkcell’s international investing company, Turktell Uluslararası Yatırım Holding, had tendered a bid for BTC. Turkcell also participated in the tender for (more…)

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Oger Telekom makes early payment with $4.3 bln

Posted by meb at March 30th, 2007

Oger Telekom, which bought a 55 percent stake in Türk Telekom for $6.55 billion in November 2005, cleared its debt four years in advance. Oger Telekom paid $1.31 billion in 2005 and $1.431 billion (with interest) in 2006. The remaining $4.3 billion was paid on Wednesday making the total $7.55 billion.
Oger Telekom’s CEO Mohammed Hariri handed over a symbolic check to Finance Minister Kemal Unakıtan and Transport Minister Binali Yıldırım. The money is expected to arrive at the Treasury today. Hariri said they will continue to invest in Türk Telekom to make it the most successful company not only in Turkey (more…)

Posted in Foreign Investments, Telecoms & Media| No Comments | 

Mouthwatering plots from State Railways to be auctioned

Posted by meb at March 30th, 2007

Turkish State Railways will sell large and precious pieces of land to finance its high-speed train project. Major firms are queuing up at auction firm Eskidji that will organize the first wave of sales by public auctions

Major tourism, retailer and construction firms are queuing up for property the Turkish State Railways (TCDD) will put out for sale to finance the high-speed train project. A public auction will be organized on Apr. 12, 2007 in Istanbul by the auction firm Eskidji for the sale of 204 pieces of property belonging to the TCDD. Several firms looking for large shares of land for their new investments have (more…)

Posted in Real Estate, Tenders & IPOs| No Comments | 

Izmir Harbor to privatize via tender

Posted by meb at March 28th, 2007

A large crowd of interested parties of local and foreign groups is expected to gather on March 30 when the tender for the privatization of the İzmir Harbor is launched.

Companies have been waiting with bated breath for the privatization of the harbor, which is among the biggest container ports of the East Mediterranean. It seems that the tender had previously been postponed due to problems in (more…)

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Marble fair to raise $70 million

Posted by meb at March 28th, 2007

The 13th MARBLE-International Natural Stone and Technologies Fair will begin today and run through March 31 as part of the International İzmir Fair. İzmir Metropolitan Mayor Aziz Kocaoğlu said that they expected to have a $70 million contribution to the İzmir economy from the fair.

Talking in a press conference, Kocaoğlu, along with Izmir Fairs, Culture and Art Activities Inc. (İZFAŞ) General Manager Doğan İşleyen and Aegean Mining Exporters Association Chairman Arslan Erdinç stated that the improvements in the marble sector and the rise in export rates were parallel with the fair. (more…)

Posted in Export & Import, Fairs & Congresses| No Comments | 

Turkey world’s largest producer of six products

Posted by meb at March 28th, 2007

Turkey is the world’s largest hazelnut, fig, apricot, cherry, quince and pomegranate producer, according to a report by the Konya branch of the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (MÜSİAD).
However, Turkey cannot use its $500 billion agriculture potential efficiently because of a lack of sufficient and durable agriculture policies. Furthermore production in Turkey is very labor intensive; the average number of people working a single area in Turkey is almost triple that in the EU and nearly 15 times higher than (more…)

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