Weekly Turkey Report (4 -11 June 2021)

• Turkey launches campaign to clean Sea of Marmara of excess mucilage.

The sea  has been captured by the mucilage,also known as ‘’sea snot’’ for the past few months. The substance covers the surface of the sea almost completely which makes it hard to get rid of it.

Turkey on Tuesday launched its “largest and most comprehensive sea cleaning mobilization" ever to save the Sea of Marmara from this plague of mucilage.

All seven cities on the coast of the Sea of Marmara –are taking part in the cleanup efforts.

The environment and urbanization minister Murat Kurum said the project’s aim is "eliminating the mucilage problem that threatens our fish, all sea creatures, and all ecological life."

• The Çamlıca Tower became a new sembol for İstanbul with its technical features and architecture.

It will raise broadcasting quality and capacity in Turkey by providing the technical infrastructure needed to transition to terrestrial digital broadcasting,

Apart from offering  all necessary services to broadcasters and telecommunication operators, Çamlıca Tower also  has a cafe, restaurant and a couple of observation decks that enables visitors to observe  the unique view of the city.

Being  the tallest structure in Istanbul with a height of 587 meters and 49 floors,,Çamlıca Tower will  become a popular tourist attraction of Turkey. Officials expect to draw some 4 million or more visitors annually to the tower.

• Significant improvements have been made in the coronavirus crisis in Turkey.

The positive rate in coronavirus tests and the number of severely ill patients dropped radically in a month.

Turkey has so far administered over 31 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched a mass inoculation drive in mid-January, according to official figures .

More than 18.1 million people including,health care workers, teachers and people above 50 received their first doses of  COVID-19 vaccines , while over 13 million have been fully vaccinated,

This week musicians, film and TV series production teams in Turkey have also started to  get vaccinated without age limit.

• Turkey  sent 1,000 boxes of educational toys to Palestinian children who suffered from recent Israeli attacks.

My Play Box is an educational set that contains  31 materials and 52 products for early childhood education that are specially selected by scientists .

Turkey's national education minister  Ziya Selçuk said Turkey wants to support the education of  Palestinian children  to some degree and intends to do more in the future.

He also noted  that everyone should care more about what can be done for the Palestinian people and children, and expressed “deep sorrow” over the recent Israeli aggression.

• Green sea turtles have started laying eggs in Turkey's southern coasts.

Turkey’s southern Mediterranean coast is a significant breeding ground for green turtles that return to where they were born to lay their eggs.

This week green sea turtles arrived at the Akyatan Lagoon which is an internationally important wetland that welcomes green sea turtles every summer.

 The authorities  said that  they are carrying all-out efforts for the protection of the green sea turtles on the coasts from Hatay to Mersin provinces.

It is Reported that there are so far 17 nests of them along the coastline.