ISTANBUL // For Ethem Salli, life in what he still calls one of the greatest cities on earth has been pared back to little more than his trips to and from work.
These days, with a string of extremist attacks in Istanbul fresh in his memory, the 41-year-old environmental engineer does not venture outdoors much.
“I am afraid just like everyone else around me. Because I don’t feel the government is able to provide much security,” Mr Salli said on Monday as he trudged through a snow-blanketed park near the Bosphorus Strait. “Now everyone is mainly feeling that anything can happen to anyone anywhere. And so Turkey and Istanbul have become scary places.”
It is not just Turkey and Istanbul.
From Berlin to Brussels, Florida to France, deadly attacks on public places are leaving citizens wondering whether they need to adjust their daily routines out of fear of a possible future attack.
In France, Parisian cafe society is largely back to normal after the November 13, 2015 attacks targeting the city’s nightlife, but many schools still limit outings for children, fearing they will become targets.
Belgium remains on its second-highest alert level, with soldiers and extra police now a routine sight on the streets. In Istanbul, the deadly New Year’s shooting spree by a gunman at a nightclub on the banks of the Bosphorus struck at the city’s wealthy elite and foreign visitors, but it also dealt yet another blow to the hopes and grand ambitions of this metropolis of more than 15 million that stands proudly at the crossroads of Europe and Asia.
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■ Survivors describe terror inside Istanbul nightclub
■ Gunman kills 39 in Istanbul nightclub massacre - in pictures
■ Manhunt under way for Istanbul nightclub attacker - video
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The deadly attack on the Reina nightclub, claimed by the ISIL group, left 39 dead. They were far from the only victims of a grim year in the historic city. In some of the other attacks, 10 German tourists were killed in a suicide bombing in the city’s historic heart on January 12, 2016, and dozens of people were killed at the city’s main airport in June.
The country’s leaders have gone out of their way to urge frightened Turks not to succumb to fear.
“Our citizens should not change their daily flow of life,” prime minister Binali Yildirim said last week. “If they do so, they will serve the agenda of these terrorist organisations. Their aim is to slow life down, to stop it, to make people afraid.”
People do not appear to be listening. On a recent day, it was not just heavy snow that was hurting trade at the cramped kiosk where Rumeysa Acar, 21, who sells everything from tobacco to gum, to razor blades and even sunglasses. The attacks, she said, are keeping people at home.
“We now think things like ‘will a bomb go off here?”’ she said. “Will something happen to us? Will we be able to make it home? We are afraid when we go out.”
In addition to the demoralising wave of terrorist attacks, the country is still hosting some three million migrants fleeing war in neighbouring Syria and Iraq and the nation remains under a state of emergency and crackdown launched by president Recep Tayyip Erdogan after a failed coup in July.
Turkey’s once-strong economy is suffering, as the lira currency plunged to an all-time-low against the US dollar on Tuesday.
Ferhat Kentel, a sociology professor at Istanbul’s Sehir University, said that the many problems assailing Turkey are demoralising the country.
“Tragedies have been prevalent in this country from the past. The latest incidents indicate that we are in a new traumatic process,” Prof Kentel said. “The attempted coup, what happened after the coup attempt, measures taken by the government and the state, the declaration of a state of emergency. All of this I think, combined with economic problems, wear down and corrode the souls of social groups as well as the individuals.”
Mr Erdogan also has sought to reassure the country.
“No one’s lifestyle is under systematic threat in Turkey,” he told the shocked nation after the New Year’s attack.
But that’s not how it feels for some. For Mr Salli, the recent snow storm was welcome as it left Macka Democracy Park all deserted but for a few students tossing snowballs at one another.
“Of course. We try to be in less crowded places,” he said. “Speaking for myself, my life has practically become going from work to home, from home to work, which isn’t satisfying in a place like Istanbul. Because Istanbul is one of the greatest cities in the world.”
* Associated Press
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
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The%20specs
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The specs: 2017 Maserati Quattroporte
Price, base / as tested Dh389,000 / Dh559,000
Engine 3.0L twin-turbo V8
Transmission Eight-speed automatic
Power 530hp @ 6,800rpm
Torque 650Nm @ 2,000 rpm
Fuel economy, combined 10.7L / 100km
Mina Cup winners
Under 12 – Minerva Academy
Under 14 – Unam Pumas
Under 16 – Fursan Hispania
Under 18 – Madenat
Company%C2%A0profile
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SPEC SHEET
Display: 6.8" edge quad-HD dynamic Amoled 2X, Infinity-O, 3088 x 1440, 500ppi, HDR10 , 120Hz
Processor: 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1/Exynos 2200, 8-core
Memory: 8/12GB RAM
Storage: 128/256/512GB/1TB
Platform: Android 12
Main camera: quad 12MP ultra-wide f/2.2, 108MP wide f/1.8, 10MP telephoto f/4.9, 10MP telephoto 2.4; Space Zoom up to 100x, auto HDR, expert RAW
Video: 8K@24fps, 4K@60fps, full-HD@60fps, HD@30fps, super slo-mo@960fps
Front camera: 40MP f/2.2
Battery: 5000mAh, fast wireless charging 2.0 Wireless PowerShare
Connectivity: 5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC
I/O: USB-C
SIM: single nano, or nano and SIM, nano and nano, eSIM/nano and nano
Colours: burgundy, green, phantom black, phantom white, graphite, sky blue, red
Price: Dh4,699 for 128GB, Dh5,099 for 256GB, Dh5,499 for 512GB; 1TB unavailable in the UAE
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
UAE SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Ali Khaseif, Fahad Al Dhanhani, Mohammed Al Shamsi, Adel Al Hosani
Defenders: Bandar Al Ahbabi, Shaheen Abdulrahman, Walid Abbas, Mahmoud Khamis, Mohammed Barghash, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Hassan Al Mahrami, Yousef Jaber, Salem Rashid, Mohammed Al Attas, Alhassan Saleh
Midfielders: Ali Salmeen, Abdullah Ramadan, Abdullah Al Naqbi, Majed Hassan, Yahya Nader, Ahmed Barman, Abdullah Hamad, Khalfan Mubarak, Khalil Al Hammadi, Tahnoun Al Zaabi, Harib Abdallah, Mohammed Jumah, Yahya Al Ghassani
Forwards: Fabio De Lima, Caio Canedo, Ali Saleh, Ali Mabkhout, Sebastian Tagliabue, Zayed Al Ameri
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN MARITIME DISPUTE
2000: Israel withdraws from Lebanon after nearly 30 years without an officially demarcated border. The UN establishes the Blue Line to act as the frontier.
2007: Lebanon and Cyprus define their respective exclusive economic zones to facilitate oil and gas exploration. Israel uses this to define its EEZ with Cyprus
2011: Lebanon disputes Israeli-proposed line and submits documents to UN showing different EEZ. Cyprus offers to mediate without much progress.
2018: Lebanon signs first offshore oil and gas licencing deal with consortium of France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek.
2018-2019: US seeks to mediate between Israel and Lebanon to prevent clashes over oil and gas resources.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
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Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
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Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
