February 12, 2016 - ISTANBUL, TURKEY - Two buildings have collapsed in central Istanbul. The structures were reportedly empty, but there were operational shops on the ground floor, prompting fears that people are trapped inside.
The collapsed buildings, one of them five story, are on the Zambak Street, near Istiklal Avenue, a busy shopping area.
Firefighters and medics were dispatched to the scene, with crew beginning the search for people, who might be trapped under the debris.
No casualties and nobody trapped in #Istanbul building collapse
Twitter: Mark Lowen
The cause of the collapse is yet to be established.Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin confirmed that two buildings “unfortunately” collapsed in the city on Friday.
It’s believed that no one was killed or injured in the incident, the governor stressed.
WATCH: 5-story building collapse in Istanbul.
“A building was used as a hotel. It had two customers. According to our information, neither of them were in the building at that time of the collapse,” he said, as cited by Dogan news agency. - RT.
February 9, 2016 - TURKEY - Heavy snowfall, which started falling in several provinces across
eastern Turkey on Saturday, caused the cancellation of many flights and
led to the closure of roads, the Cihan news agency reported on Sunday.
A total of 1,747 village roads were closed due to heavy snowfall and
storms in eastern Turkey. The roads include 791 in Erzurum, 362 in Muş,
262 in Kars, 252 in Ağrı, 50 in Erzincan and 13 in Ardahan.
Snow reached a depth of 95 centimeters in central Muş, 77 centimeters in Ağrı city center and 32 in central Kars.
Teams from the Special Provincial Directorate are working to clear snow from the roads.
The lowest temperatures in the region were recorded in Ağrı (minus 10 degrees Celsius), Erzincan (minus 9 degrees), Erzurum (minus 6 degrees), Kars (minus 4 degrees), Ardahan (minus 3 degrees) and Iğdır (minus 2 degrees).
Several flights to and from Muş and Erzurum on Sunday were cancelled due to the harsh weather conditions. - Today's Zaman.
January 29, 2016 - TURKEY - Turkey grappled on Tuesday with cold weather and heavy snowfall that led
to the cancellation of flights and ferries in İstanbul and that covered
many provinces in the rest of the country, Cihan news agency reported
on Tuesday.
The inclement weather caused a number of car accidents, and some schools
were forced to close. Authorities warned drivers to take extra care due
to the poor weather conditions.
Flights and ferries canceled in İstanbul
Snowfall hit İstanbul's higher elevations early on Tuesday and spread to
the rest of the city by the afternoon. Teams from the İstanbul
Metropolitan Municipality and district municipalities salted the roads
as a precaution against ice. Many İstanbul residents and visitors
enjoyed the snowfall in historic areas such as Sultanahmet and popular
tourism spots like Taksim Square.
Turkish Airlines (THY) and the İstanbul Ferry Lines (İDO) announced on
Tuesday that certain flights and ferries were canceled due to the harsh
weather conditions.
İDO canceled all its intra-city ferry services in İstanbul due to sea
conditions. Some of the inter-city ferries, including the
Kadıköy-Yenikapı-Bursa ferry and the Yalova / Kartal ferries, were also
cancelled.
THY cancelled 143 flights to and from İstanbul and warned of
further disruption in the coming days, as the city braces itself for
heavy snow on Wednesday.
Pegasus Airlines, Atlasglobal and Onur Air also cancelled 22, 10 and six flights, respectively, due to the snow.
Six injured in accident in Edirne due to icy road
A midibus in the Süloğlu district of Edirne collided with a truck on the
Edirne-Süloğlu Highway on Tuesday morning due to icy road conditions
following heavy snow. Six people were pulled out of the midibus after
its windows had been broken, and all were taken to the Edirne State
Hospital.
Meanwhile, a car overturned when the driver lost control of the vehicle in the Beylikdüzü district of İstanbul.
Thousands of village roads closed as a result of snowfall
Many villages roads have been closed as a result of snowfall in the
southeastern province of Bingöl. An elderly man suffering from a high
fever in the Kaşıkçı village of the Karlıova district took nine hours to
get to the Bingöl State Hospital, after snow teams cleared the village
road. A pregnant woman in the Şaban village of the Karlıova district was
also taken to Bingöl State Hospital, after a team from National Medical
Rescue (UMKE) had worked six-and-a-half hours to clear the snow on the
village road.
WATCH: Cold weather in Turkey.
A total of 2,500 village roads were closed due to heavy snowfall
and storms throughout the eastern provinces of Erzurum, Erzincan, Kars,
Ağrı, Ardahan, Erzincan and Iğdır. Snowfall reached up to 76
centimeters in Ağrı, 48 in Erzurum, 23 in Kars and 16 in Erzincan.Teams from the Special Provincial Directorates continued to work to clear snow from the roads on Tuesday.
The lowest temperatures in the region were recorded in Ardahan's
Göle district, with minus 27 degrees Celsius, whereas Erzurum saw the
temperature drop to minus 18 degrees, Kars saw minus 15 degrees, Muş saw
minus 11 degrees and Iğdır reached minus 6 degrees.
Snow also started to fall in the Black Sea provinces of Rize, Trabzon
and Samsun on Tuesday. It took an elderly man using a respirator in the
Derapazarı district of Rize six hours to get to the Rize Tayyip Erdoğan
Research and Teaching Hospital after his village lost power. The
snow reached depths of one meter in Rize's city center, while 348
village roads were closed as a result of persistent snowfall across the
province.
The snowfall that began on Saturday in Trabzon continued in full force
throughout Tuesday, with the temperature falling to minus 5 degrees
Celsius at the center of the city on Monday night. The Trabzon
Governor's Office released a written statement on Tuesday saying
pregnant women and disabled public servants would be given the day off
due to the weather conditions.
The depth of the snow in Uludağ, home to one of the most popular ski resorts in the country, reached 205 centimeters, as temperatures on the mountain fell to minus 16 degrees on Monday night.
Snow and extremely cold weather over the past three days have led to the
closure of close to 700 village roads in Bitlis and Hakkari provinces. A
total of 315 village roads in Bitlis and 382 in Hakkari have been
closed due to the heavy snowfall. - Today's Zaman.
January 12, 2016 - MIDDLE EAST - In five months of battling the Kurdish insurgency in southeastern
Turkey, Ankara has killed over 160 civilians, according to a rights
group report. Among them was an unborn child, whose mother was shot. Today, asuicide bomber carried out an attack in central Istanbul, killing
at least 10 foreigners, mostly German tourists, and injuring 15 more,
according to officials. Police said the suspect was of Saudi Arabian
origin. Meanwhile in Iraq, at least fifty one people lost their lives in a series of terrorist acts
that rocked the capital of Baghdad and two other towns on Monday.
Over 160 civilians, including unborn child, killed in Turkish crackdown on Kurds
In five months of battling the Kurdish insurgency in southeastern Turkey, Ankara has killed over 160 civilians, according to a rights group report. Among them was an unborn child, whose mother was shot.
In August, Ankara launched a ground operation to crack down on Kurdish fighters linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The violence ended a two-year truce with the Kurdish militants, who have been fighting a guerrilla war for independence for decades. An estimated 10,000 Turkish troops armed with heavy weapons and armored vehicles, including tanks, were deployed.Since August 16, Turkish troops have imposed at least 58 curfews in Kurdish regions, disrupting the lives of some 1.4 million people living in the affected provinces, Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT) said. Some lasted 10 hours or less, but others went on for days and weeks, and some are still ongoing. The curfews affected 19 districts in the provinces of Batman, Diyarbakır, Elazıg, Hakkari, Mardin, Mus and Sırnak.
While the curfews have been in place, at least 162 civilians have been killed. The death toll includes 29 women, 32 children, and 24 elderly people. One of the victims in the city of Cizre in Sırnak Province was an unborn child, who was killed by a gunshot to his mother's womb, the group said. The mother, Guler Yanalak, was seven month’s pregnant at the time and reportedly survived the injury.
The HRFT said at least 22 people were killed in their homes, some of them from heavy weapons used by the fighting sides. Four people were reported to have been killed in areas where no curfews had been declared. The violence against civilians appears to have escalated since December 11, the group said, with 79 civilian deaths reported since then.
The PKK, founded in 1978, has been fighting the Turkish state for Kurdish self-determination since 1984. Kurds make up between 10 percent and 25 percent of Turkey’s population. In late December, a congress of Kurdish non-governmental organizations called for Turkey’s southeastern regions to be granted autonomy via constitutional reforms.
The escalation of violence in Turkey came two months after the Kurdish militia in Syria, known as the YPG, as well as the Turkish pro-Kurdish party, the HDP, accused Ankara of aiding Islamic State in their offensive on Kurdish territories in Syria. At the time, the terrorists were laying siege to the Kurdish border town of Kobani.
Ankara has been stepping up its military operations on the border with Syria and Iraq since December. The area is a stronghold of the PKK, which is considered a terrorist group by Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to continue the operation until the area is cleansed of Kurdish militants.
At least 10 foreigners killed, 15 wounded in suicide bombing on central Istanbul square
A suicide bomber has carried out an attack in central Istanbul, killing at least 10 foreigners, mostly German tourists, and injuring 15 more, according to officials. Police said the suspect was of Saudi Arabian origin.
At least nine German citizens were injured in the blast, Reuters reports citing a senior Turkish official.
One more injured is Norwegian and another one is Peruvian, according to Dogan news agency. Norway’s Foreign Ministry later confirmed that one Norwegian citizen was injured in the blast and is receiving treatment at a local hospital.
"It's not a life-threatening injury," Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Guri Solberg said.
There was a group of German tourists on the square at the time of the blasts, an official from a tour company told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The explosion took place on Sultanahmet Square. It occurred close to the Sultanahmet tram stop and Dikilitas, the Obelisk of Theodosius, in the heart of Istanbul’s tourist district.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a Syrian suicide bomber is believed to be responsible for the deadly attack.
WATCH: Suicide attack in Istanbul.
"I condemn the terror incident in Istanbul assessed to be an attack by a suicide bomber with Syrian origin. Unfortunately we have 10 dead including foreigners and Turkish nationals... There are also 15 wounded," Erdogan said.
Istanbul authorities are investigating the incident and the type of the explosives used in the blast, the governor’s office said.
The suicide bomber was identified as a Syrian born in 1988, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş said during a press conference, adding that most of the victims of the blast are foreigners.
Dogan news agency later reported that the suspect had been identified as Saudi-born Nabil Fadlı. His birth year was confirmed as 1988, the agency said, citing police.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu also said the suspect may be a member of the terror group Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL). According to Turkish officials, he recently entered Turkey from Syria.
Erdem Koroglu, who was working at a nearby office at the time of the explosion, told NTV he saw several people lying on the ground following the blast.
“It was difficult to say who was alive or dead,” Koroglu said. “Buildings rattled from the force of the explosion.”
One woman who works at a nearby antiques store told Reuters that the explosion was very loud.
"We shook a lot. We ran out and saw body parts," she said.
"I started running away with my daughter. We went into a nearby building and stayed there for half an hour. It was really scary," a German tourist named Caroline told AFP.
"We're taking precautions against a second explosion," a police officer said.
Shortly after the blast, Turkish authorities slapped a media ban on covering it, Anadolu news agency said.
Sultanahmet Square, once a social center of the former Constantinople, is a popular tourist destination. A 30-meter-tall Obelisk of Theodosius made of red granite is located in the center of the square, as well as the famous German Fountain (The Kaiser Wilhelm Fountain) which was constructed by the German government back in 1900.
Another main attraction near the square is Hagia Sophia, one of the greatest surviving examples of Byzantine architecture, which draws hundreds of tourists every day.After the explosion, the German Foreign Office issued a statement, urging its citizens to avoid public places and tourist attractions in Istanbul. The office added that it fears there is a risk of terrorist attacks across Turkey, and called on its citizens to “avoid staying near government and military institutions.”
The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has also issued a travel warning for British citizens in Turkey.
51 killed in single day of terror attacks in Baghdad & nearby towns
At least fifty one people lost their lives in a series of terrorist acts that rocked the Iraqi capital of Baghdad and two other towns on Monday. The Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) extremist group has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks.
In the predominately Shia Muslim Baghdad al-Jadida district, a group of gunmen broke into the Jawaher mall after detonating a car bomb and staging a suicide attack at the entrance. At least 18 people were killed in the assault, which also left 50 wounded, AP reported, citing Iraqi officials.
Iraqi Samarra TV has released an alleged video of the attack.Initially, the country’s officials described the incident as a hostage situation, claiming that from 50 to 75 people were trapped inside the mall, but security forces quickly surrounded the building and deployed troops on the roof.As a result of clashes between the terrorists and security forces, two of the attackers were killed and four more arrested. Four police officers were also killed in the hour-and-a-half-long assault, AP reports, citing the police and medical officials.
Iraqi television channel Al Sumaria cited a statement from the county’s Interior Ministry that said the hostage crisis had been resolved.
Iraqi television channel Al Sumaria cited a statement from the county’s Interior Ministry that said the hostage crisis had been resolved.
“All the terrorists have been eliminated. The situation in the Baghdad Jadida district is under control,” the statement said.
The broadcaster also reported that all of the hostages inside the mall had been rescued.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on social media in which the terrorist group said it had targeted Shiite Muslims because it sees them as “rejectionist heathens.”
Gunmen charged into the mall after a car bomb exploded outside the building, in the largely Shia Muslim area of New Baghdad [AP]
ISIL has frequently targeted Iraq's Shia Muslim community with car bombs [Reuters]
Following the incident, Iraqi authorities shut down Baghdad’s highly fortified Green Zone, where a number of foreign embassies and most of the country’s political elite reside. A number of major roads, shopping malls, and bridges around the Iraqi capital were also closed.
In addition, at least 23 people were killed and some 50 injured in two bombing attacks in the Iraqi town of Muqdadiya, 80 kilometers northeast of Baghdad, where a terrorist committed a suicide bomb attack inside a casino and then a car bomb parked outside exploded as medics and civilians gathered at the scene, Reuters reported, citing security and medical sources. Islamic State also claimed responsibility of the twin blast in Muqdadiya.
At least seven more people died and 15 were wounded as another suicide bomber driving a car attacked a commercial street in the southeastern Baghdad Sunni suburb of Nahrawan.
Earlier on Monday, IS said it was behind a car bomb which had killed three people and wounded eight near a restaurant in the town of Baquba, which is located 65 kilometers northeast of Baghdad. In response, security officials imposed a curfew in Diyala province, where the towns of Muqdadiya and Baquba are located.
Monday’s attacks claimed the lives of 48 people in total, leaving the highest death toll in three months, according to Reuters.
Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman, Brigadier General Saad Maan, blamed “this terrorist group after they suffered heavy losses by the security forces,” without mentioning Islamic State by name.
Last month, Iraqi government forces achieved a major victory over IS militants by liberating the country’s western city of Ramadi and recapturing territory that was once the extremists’ stronghold.
- RT.
December 31, 2015 - TURKEY - Parts of Turkey have been paralyzed by heavy snowfall ahead of the country’s New Year’s Eve celebrations. Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport has been forced to cancel over a hundred flights, while there are major disruptions at other transport links.
Snow started to fall across many provinces in Turkey on Wednesday that has continued into New Year’s Eve, proving to be a nightmare for travelers wishing to take in the holiday celebrations.
Turkish Airlines was forced to cancel 265 flights in and out of Istanbul’s Ataturk airport and another 37 at Sabiha Gokcen, the city’s second air hub.
During a press conference held on Wednesday, Turkey’s Forestry and Water Affairs Minister, Veysel Eroglu, warned citizens they were in for a white start to 2016, urging those venturing outside to take extra care.
Here are several images from social media:
“I recommend children and elderly people not to go out [unless necessary] due to the freezing weather,” Eroglu said. He also warned drivers of icy roads and advised them to have ropes and chains in their cars in case they need to be towed home, Today’s Zaman reported.
Temperatures edged below freezing and between 10 and 20 centimeters of snow fell in Turkey’s largest city on Thursday.Ferry services, which help to transport people between the Asian and European parts of the city, have also been disrupted in Istanbul. The Istanbul Fast Ferries Company was forced to cancel a number of its ferries between Istanbul and the northwestern town of Bandırma.
At least one person was killed and 30 were injured in a mass pile-up on a major road into Istanbul involving 13 cars. Another large-scale accident saw 15 vehicles collide in a district of Istanbul, leaving three people with life-threatening injuries. - RT.
November 17, 2015 - TURKEY - A moderate earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale rattled
Turkey's biggest city Istanbul on Monday, causing a short panic but no
initial reports of damage or injuries.
The Kandilli Observatory in Istanbul said that the tremor struck at a
depth of 7.7 kilometers in the Sea of Marmara, to the south of the city,
at 5:45 pm (1545 GMT).
The quake was felt throughout Istanbul, a metropolis of some 16 million that serves as the country's financial and cultural hub.
Istanbul residents felt the ground shift, causing a brief panic, an AFP correspondent said.
Turkish and foreign seismologists agree that Istanbul could be struck by major earthquakes in the coming decades due to its location less than 20 kilometers from the North Anatolia faultline.
Some 20,000 people were killed in two massive quakes that devastated
Turkey's densely populated northwest -- including parts of Istanbul --
three months apart in 1999 as the eastern strand of the faultline
ruptured. - Al Arabiya News.
March 31, 2015 - TURKEY
- The worst power outage in 15 years struck most of Turkey on Tuesday,
grounding flights and crippling rail networks. Localized blackouts
continued as night fell.
Dogan News Agency reported that all
provinces, apart from Van in the east, which receives energy from Iran
were affected by the accident that took place at 10:36 a.m. local time.
The energy ministry later said that the problem originated on the main
Aegean lines, which distribute imported energy throughout the country.
Subway
systems and traffic lights went down in several major urban centers,
creating havoc on the streets, as an impromptu market opened on the
streets for generator fuel. Thousands of people were also trapped for
hours in elevators, and on funicular lines. Major industrial objects had
to be shut down for the majority of the day.
A widespread power outage in Turkey is affect flights.
By late afternoon,
the energy ministry said that electricity had been restored to 90
percent of Istanbul, and would "shortly" be back in the remainder of the
country.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says all potential causes are still being investigated, “including the possibility of a terror attack,".
A general view of Ambarli power station in Istanbul (Reuters / Osman Orsal)
"Whether
or not terrorism is a high possibility or a low one I can’t say at this
stage. I can’t say either whether it is a cyber attack," energy minister Taner Yildiz told reports.
This is the first outage event of such magnitude in 15 years, according to the daily Hurriyet paper.
WATCH: Infrastructure collapse from blackouts in Turkey.
A Turkish Airlines plane lies on the field after it overshot the runway
at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu March 4, 2015.
(Reuters /
Navesh Chitrakar)
March 4, 2015 - NEPAL
- Turkish Airlines passengers barely escaped serious injuries after
their Airbus A330 skidded off the runway in foggy Nepal and crash-landed
nose down in a grassy field.
The flight THY726 coming from
Istanbul missed the runway at Tribhuvan International Airport in
Kathmandu early Wednesday morning.
Because
the runway had become slippery after two days of rain and because of
dense fog, the aircraft bounced off the pavement to land in the field.
According to Air Traffic Controller, the Turkish Flight missed the
runway central alignment and landed in between the TIA runway and
taxiway that forced the aircraft to skid on grassy land.
The
front of the Airbus 330 was damaged and the plane became stuck in a
field. Airport officials said no deaths or serious injuries have been
reported on the plane which had 238 people on board, with passengers
suffering bumps and bruises.
WATCH: Turkish Airlines crash.
Officials suspect bad weather conditions
and low visibility to have been the main causes for the disaster. - RT.
Palestinian children play in the snow in the village of Tuqu' near the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Friday.
February 22, 2015 - MIDDLE EAST - A
rare cold front swept through the middle east on Thursday and Friday,
blanketing parts of Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon with snow.
Roads in and out of Jerusalem were closed and streets deserted in the Jordanian capital of Amman.
A Syrian refugee child clears snow in Istanbul, Turkey.
Snow blankets the ground either side of the separation wall in Jerusalem.
Palestinians cross a snow-blanketed street in the West Bank City of Nablus.
Syrian refugees walk in the snow a makeshift camp on the outskirts of Baalbek, Lebanon.
The snow covered large swathes of desert, and Jerusalem's famous
western wall and Bethlehem's nativity church were sprinkled with white.
The Syrian capital Damascus and surrounding mountains also got snow,while a snowstorm in neighbouring Lebanon closed most mountain roads, isolating villages. - BBC.
Turkish Airlines cancelled all domestic flights in
and out of Istanbul Atatürk International Airport on Thursday morning,
due to heavy snowfall.
February 20, 2015 - ISTANBUL, TURKEY - The heavy snowfall began on Tuesday, continued into Wednesday and caught over 14 million Istanbulites off guard.
Turkey's largest city İstanbul was hit by a storm that has dumped up
enormous amounts of snow in some areas, wreaking havoc on roads. The depth of the snow reached its deepest on İstanbul's European side neighborhood of Çatalca at 70 centimeters.
Turkey's national carrier, the Turkish Airlines (THY), canceled its
some flights on Thursday, both domestic and international, due to the
two-day snowstorm.
list of canceled flights is available on the THY website. İstanbul authorities also closed some ferry lines on Thursday.
The two-day snowfall caused hundreds of vehicle accidents across İstanbul with visibility dipping to around five meters.
Over
800 traffic accidents were reported on Tuesday and Wednesday, stemming
from icy roads and motorists who neglected to equip their vehicles with
winter tires or tire chains. - BGN News.
February 18, 2015 - TURKEY
- Barely a week after the last snowstorm pounded Turkey, another is
bringing snow across much of the country as a trough of low pressure
digs southward.
Moisture being pulled to the north from the
Mediterranean Sea will combine with cold air from Russia to produce a
widespread and long-lived snowstorm.
While western Turkey was
hit hard by the previous storm, the worst of this snowstorm is expected
to occur across central and east-central Turkey.
The higher
terrain of northwestern Turkey can still get a significant snowfall,
while Istanbul experiences rounds of snow squalls.
Additional
accumulating snowfall is expected in Istanbul Tuesday night through
Thursday. Rain will mix with the snow at times, especially during the
afternoon hours and when light precipitation falls, but snow will be the
primary problem.
Snow totals will vary greatly across the
Istanbul area; however, the hardest hit areas could get total snowfall
of 15-25 cm (6-10 inches) through Thursday. The period of heaviest
snowfall is expected on Wednesday when low visibility and snow-covered
roadways are expected.
Snow
began on Monday across many areas in central and eastern Turkey, but
the heaviest snow will fall into Wednesday in areas such as Erzincan and
Erzurum. Occasional snow may even continue to fall into Thursday in
some places.
Snow accumulations of 13-25 cm (5-10 inches) are
expected to be widespread in central Turkey with local amounts in excess
of 30 cm (12 inches). In the highest terrain, total accumulations could
near 60 cm (24 inches), which is great news for the many ski resorts
scattered across the region, but bad news for travelers.
Due to the long duration of the snow that is expected in central Turkey, residents that live in smaller towns and villages could be isolated for several days
until the snow ends and roads and cleared. Even travel in larger cities
will be difficult with schools and some businesses likely to close.
This storm system will have long-lasting and far-reaching effects on
the region through the week. While snow falls in Turkey, rounds of
showers will move into areas from Syria to Israel during the course of
the week. As cold air sinks to the south, snow is expected to fall in
the mountains from western Syria to northern Israel Thursday into
Friday.
It may not be until the weekend that the region has significantly drier conditions.
June 21, 2014 - TURKEY - A rare tornado descended on eastern Istanbul Thursday as Turkish
officials warned that up to 50 kilos of rain per square meter were
expected to fall.
Photo from Twitter/@EnginEvrenN
The tornado passed over the Marmara Sea before hitting the Pendik
and Tuzla neighborhoods in the east of Turkey’s biggest city and
port. It then continued its journey to the Kozaeli province.
It was accompanied by extremely heavy rain that disrupted traffic
and pedestrians Thursday evening, although no serious damage was
reported.
Tornadoes happen occasionally in southern Turkey, which has a more
arid climate, but rarely in Istanbul in the north of the country,
which straddles Asia and Europe on the Bosporus Straits.
The tornado was the latest extreme weather incident to hit
Istanbul, which had an unusually dry spring followed by
exceptionally heavy rain on June 2. The rains caused extensive
local flooding.
WATCH: Unexpected tornado hits Istanbul.
The Turkish tornado comes as ten people were killed by severe
flooding in neighboring eastern Bulgaria.
- RT.
June 03, 2014 - TURKEY - Heavy rain hit Istanbul on June 2, causing local flooding and creating chaos in the metropolis. Incredible images, like the one showing a minibus "cruising" alongside a Bosphorus ferry, have gone viral on social media. Here surreal scenes from Istanbul today:
Thousands of social media users posted unusual photos of floods in
İstanbul as heavy rain
wreaked life havoc in Turkey's financial
heartland.
The shoreline on the Bosphorus erased in the Üsküdar neighborhood on the
Asian side of Istanbul,
creating awkward scenes like this.
Here is how "the shower" over the Üsküdar neighorbood in Istanbul's Asian side
was seen from the European side of the city.
The border between the sea and the flooded shores could only be distinguished
thanks to the color of the cleaner Bosphorus water.
Cars also appeared as if they were cruising on the Bosphorus.
Many Istanbulites had to remove their
shoes while crossing the road, creating yet another surreal image
for a
city that was touted as European Capital of Culture in 2010.
Despite mega projects and the ongoing property boom, Istanbul's infrastructure is tested --and failed, again.
Bridges and overpasses turned into artificial waterfalls.
Opposition now has more ammunition to
criticize the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for its urban
management, weeks after its victory in March 30 local elections.
Pro-government social media users, however,
argued that heavy rain is a
blessing now, considering the preceding drought that threatened Istanbul
with water cuts this summer:
WATCH: Unusual flood images as heavy rain pounds İstanbul.
November 28, 2013 - TURKEY - The Sea of Marmara was shaken by two moderate earthquakes on Wednesday morning.
According to a statement made by the Prime Ministry’s Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD), an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.7 struck Marmara Ereglisi, near the city of Tekirdag at 6:21 a.m. and the same region was soon after hit by another quake with a magnitude of 4.1.
The statement added that earthquakes are observed 24/7 in the region and that the epicenter of Wednesday morning’s quake was 20 kilometers off of Marmara’s Ereğlisi coast. There have not been any casualties reported in the quakes. “In 1999, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake along the North Anatolian fault killed some 30,000 people in western Turkey. There is some evidence that another segment closer to the densely populated city of Istanbul could be next to rupture, which could create worse devastation.
In 2010, a team of Turkish, American and French scientists were on a Turkish research ship in the Sea of Marmara to image the faults and its overlying sediments to better assess the risk. The historic pattern suggests that the next quake should strike just south of Istanbul, beneath the Sea of Marmara. Here, the North Anatolian fault splinters into multiple fault strands, which created the depression that houses the present-day sea.”
June 19, 2013 - TURKEY - German and Turkish scientists on Tuesday said they had pinpointed an extremely dangerous seismic zone less than 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the historic heart of Istanbul.
Running under the Sea of Marmara just south of the city of some 15 million people, this segment of the notorious North Anatolian fault has been worryingly quiet in recent years, which may point to a buildup in tension, they wrote.
"The block we identified reaches 10 kilometres (about six miles) deep along the fault zone and has displayed no seismic activity since measurements began over four years ago," said Marco Bohnhoff, a professor at the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) in Potsdam, near Berlin.
"This could be an indication that the expected Marmara earthquake could originate there."
The North Anatolian fault, created by the collision of the Anatolia Plate with the Eurasia Plate, runs 1,500 kilometres (950 miles) along northern Turkey.
At the western tip of the fault, an earthquake took place in 1912 at Ganos near the Aegean Sea.
On its eastern side, a domino series of earthquakes in 1939, 1942, 1951, 1967 and 1999 displaced the stress progressively westwards, bringing it ever closer to Istanbul.
What is left now is a so-called earthquake gap under the Sea of Marmara, lying between the two fault stretches whose stress has been eased by the quakes. The "gap" itself, however, has not been relieved by an earthquake since 1766.
Seeking a more precise view of the gap, the GFZ and Istanbul's Kandilli Earthquake Observatory set up a network of seismic monitors in the eastern part of the sea.
They calculate that the Anatolian fault normally has a westward motion of between 25 and 30 millimetres (one to 1.2 inches) per year.
But this natural slippage is being blocked by a small section, about 30 km (19 miles) long, located under a chain of nine small islands known as the Princes Islands -- a popular destination for day-trippers from Istanbul.
"The seismic silence along the Princes Islands segment stands in contrast to the background activity in the broader Izmit-Marmara region," warns the study published in the journal Nature Communications.
The paper says that, conceivably, stress under the Princes Islands is being relieved "aseismically," in other words, the pressure is being eased so gradually as to be undetectable.
But this scenario is unlikely, it says.
"Our evidence indicates that this patch is locked and is therefore a potential nucleation point for another Marmara segment earthquake -- a potential that has significant natural hazards implications" for Istanbul, it warns.
The study does not make any prediction about the size of any future quake or when it could occur.
But it notes an estimate published in 2004 that found a 35-to-70 percent probability that the "gap" will be struck by an earthquake greater than magnitude seven by 2034.
Other scientists have also pointed to the possibility of several smaller "en echelon" type quakes, which may generate less ground motion but are likelier to cause tsunamis because they displace the sea floor.
The last big quakes on the North Anatolian fault in 1999 -- a 7.1-magnitude quake in Duzce and 7.4-magnitude quake in Izmit -- left some 20,000 people dead. - Space Daily.
June 17, 2013 - GREECE - A moderate 6.2-magnitude earthquake rumbled off the southern coast of the Greek island of Crete Saturday, according to the US Geological Survey, but there was no immediate warning of a tsunami.
USGS earthquake location.
The earthquake struck at 6:11 p.m. (1611 GMT) around 60
kilometers (37 miles) south of the town of Pirgos at a depth of 10
kilometers, the USGS said, adding that there were no immediate reports
of casualties or damage.
According to the Athens
Observatory, it was a “very strong” quake which it put at a magnitude of
5.9 and said its epicenter was located 483 kilometers southeast of
Athens in the Mediterranean.
USGS earthquake shakemap intensity.
The quake was especially felt in the city of Ierapetra
on Crete, it added. About 10 days ago, a quake was also registered off
of Crete, which did not cause any casualties or damage. Greece is the
European country that is most frequently hit by earthquakes. - Inquirer.
Tectonic Summary - Seismotectonics of the Mediterranean Region and Vicinity.
The
Mediterranean region is seismically active due to the northward
convergence (4-10 mm/yr) of the African plate with respect to the
Eurasian plate along a complex plate boundary. This convergence began
approximately 50 Ma and was associated with the closure of the Tethys
Sea. The modern day remnant of the Tethys Sea is the Mediterranean Sea.
The highest rates of seismicity in the Mediterranean region are found
along the Hellenic subduction zone of southern Greece, along the North
Anatolian Fault Zone of western Turkey and the Calabrian subduction zone
of southern Italy. Local high rates of convergence at the Hellenic
subduction zone (35mm/yr) are associated with back-arc spreading
throughout Greece and western Turkey above the subducting Mediterranean
oceanic crust. Crustal normal faulting throughout this region is a
manifestation of extensional tectonics associated with the back-arc
spreading. The region of the Marmara Sea is a transition zone between
this extensional regime, to the west, and the strike-slip regime of the
North Anatolian Fault Zone, to the east. The North Anatolian Fault
accommodates much of the right-lateral horizontal motion (23-24 mm/yr)
between the Anatolian micro-plate and Eurasian plate as the Anatolian
micro-plate is being pushed westward to further accommodate closure of
the Mediterranean basin caused by the collision of the African and
Arabian plates in southeastern Turkey. Subduction of the Mediterranean
Sea floor beneath the Tyrrhenian Sea at the Calabrian subduction zone
causes a significant zone of seismicity around Sicily and southern
Italy. Active volcanoes are located above intermediate depth earthquakes
in the Cyclades of the Aegean Sea and in southern Italy.
USGS tectonic plates for the region.
In the Mediterranean region there is a written record, several centuries long, documenting pre-instrumental seismicity (pre-20th century). Earthquakes have historically caused widespread damage across central and southern Greece, Cyprus, Sicily, Crete, the Nile Delta, Northern Libya, the Atlas Mountains of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. The 1903 M8.2 Kythera earthquake and the 1926 M7.8 Rhodes earthquakes are the largest instrumentally recorded Mediterranean earthquakes, both of which are associated with subduction zone tectonics. Between 1939 and 1999 a series of devastating M7+ strike-slip earthquakes propagated westward along the North Anatolian Fault Zone, beginning with the 1939 M7.8 Erzincan earthquake on the eastern end of the North Anatolian Fault system. The 1999 M7.6 Izmit earthquake, located on the westward end of the fault, struck one of Turkey's most densely populated and industrialized urban areas killing, more than 17,000 people. Although seismicity rates are comparatively low along the northern margin of the African continent, large destructive earthquakes have been recorded and reported from Morocco in the western Mediterranean, to the Dead Sea in the eastern Mediterranean. The 1980 M7.3 El Asnam earthquake was one of Africa's largest and most destructive earthquakes within the 20th century.
Large earthquakes throughout the Mediterranean region have also been known to produce significant and damaging tsunamis. One of the more prominent historical earthquakes within the region is the Lisbon earthquake of November 1, 1755, whose magnitude has been estimated from non-instrumental data to be about 8.0. The 1755 Lisbon earthquake is thought to have occurred within or near the Azores-Gibraltar transform fault, which defines the boundary between the African and Eurasian plates off the west coast of Morocco and Portugal. The earthquake is notable for both a large death toll of approximately 60,000 people and for generating a tsunami that swept up the Portuguese coast inundating coastal villages and Lisbon. An earthquake of approximately M8.0 near Sicily in 1693 generated a large tsunami wave that destroyed numerous towns along Sicily's east coast. The M7.2 December 28, 1908 Messina earthquake is the deadliest documented European earthquake. The combination of severe ground shaking and a local tsunami caused an estimated 60,000 to 120,000 fatalities. - USGS.
