Weekly Turkey Report(6-13 Aug) : Wildfires are under control, National athletes break medal record

Devastating forest fires in Turkey have been brought under control.

All major fires have been extinguished with the last large-scale blaze that broke out in the Köyceğiz district of Muğla.

A total of 275 fires erupted in 53 provinces across the country in the last two weeks due to hot and windy weather conditions.

The most hardest-hit region was Manavgat, where entire villages were destroyed by flames. The city had been battling 21 fires for almost two weeks.

The fires have adversely affected forests and residential areas, causing the evacuation of several villages. A total of 9 people lost their lives as well as many animals that perished in the fires.

Turkey successfully ended the Olympics journey with a record of 13 medals.

Turkey this year won two gold medals, two silvers, and nine bronzes in the Games, beating its record from London 1948, where it bagged 12  medals.

Eleven of the 13 medals were won in martial arts competitions.

The second and final gold medal came from Busenaz Sürmeneli in women’s boxing.

Meanwhile, outpacing the other countries The karate team brought the most medals for Team Turkey with four ,one of which is the silver brought by Eray Şamdan.

Turkey finished the games ranking 35th in this year’s medal ranking, led by the US and China in the top two slots.

Indigenous corona-virus vaccine Turkovac proved to be effective against the alpha variant.

The vaccine's developers announced that their studies on transgenic mice resulted in one hundred percent efficiency against the alpha variant that is first detected in the United Kingdom.

The preclinical studies on the vaccine have been completed, and it is currently in phase-3 studies.

 Meanwhile, the developers are working on its effectiveness against the more widespread delta variant.

After the studies are completed, the vaccine is expected to be available to the general public by the end of this year.

Turkey's unmanned surface vessel herd prepares for mission.

Unmanned vehicle solutions carried out within the Turkish defense industry are now enriched by work in marine crafts.

The country has developed a certain capability in the field of unmanned systems that is matched by only a few countries worldwide.

The project aims to provide operational capabilities to unmanned sea vehicles, autonomy, and the execution of various tasks.

The herd will be able to safely continue its mission against various difficulties and with capabilities such as domestic communication and control systems.

Maritime traffic in the Turkish Straits will be controlled by locally produced software.

Turkish software and systems company Havelsan developed a project that made it possible to monitor and organize the maritime traffic movements in the Turkish straits.

With Turkish Straits Vessel Traffic Services that uses the latest technological infrastructure,  navigational safety will be increased in the Turkish straits.

Compared to other examples  in the world, the system is one of the largest in the field in terms of the length of the service areas and the number of sensors.

The project is expected to be completed by the end of the year.