A sweeping ban in the central-western province of Afyonkarahisar, which restricts the consumption and sale of alcohol in open areas, came into effect May 13, following a directive issued by the governor’s office on April 24.

Law enforcement officials fined 25 people 169 Turkish Liras yesterday for violating the new regulations against the consumption of alcohol in open areas, while Afyonkarahisar Deputy Police Chief Kasım Korkut said the ban would be enforced tenaciously and uncompromisingly.

Meanwhile, Afyonkarahisar Governor İrfan Balkanlıoğlu announced that he had removed picnic areas from the list of places where the ban would come into force. Balkanlıoğlu said he had already scratched out picnic areas from the list, but that it went down on the record as such by mistake.

Turkey, which had 127 Blue Flag-certificated beaches in 2002, increased this number to 324 in 2011, and now ranks fourth in the world after Spain, Greece and France.

Blue Flag is a certification given to beaches and marinas that meet the standards of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), and is becoming more important for areas that want to get their share from the world’s huge tourism cake.

The region with the highest number of blue flag beaches in Turkey is the southern Mediterranean city of Antalya, followed by the Aegean districts of Muğla and İzmir.

According to information compiled from the booklet “Beaches, Marinas and Yachts with Blue Flag Award,” prepared by the Turkey Environmental Education Foundation, there has been a consistent increase in the number of blue flag beaches.

There are 32 standards to get the Blue Flag Award. These standards are gathered under the headlines “sea water quality, environmental education and management, security and services.” When a beach meets all these standards, the Blue Flag is flown on the beach during the swimming season. If the beach does not meet the standards, it loses the flag permanently or temporarily.

The number of blue flags in Turkish provinces are Antalya (174), Muğla (73), İzmir (28), Aydın (20), Balıkesir (17), Mersin (5), Çanakkale (5), Tekirdağ (1) and Düzce (1).

Hurryet Daily News

The Istanbul Music Festival, the first festival of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2012. The 40th year special programme of the Istanbul Music Festival, which hosted more than 40,000 artists from Turkey and abroad with nearly 3,000 performances in 40 years, is announced at a press meeting on January 24.

The Festival’s 40th edition will be held between 31 May and 29 June. The 40th Music Festival will host more than 750 local and foreign artists in Istanbul and will present a month full of music. The 40th Istanbul Music Festival will host stars of classical music in Istanbul including Hélène Grimaud, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Milos, Gidon Kremer, Chamber Orchestra Vienna-Berlin and Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and will feature two special performances of the Zurich Ballet as part of the farewell tour of Heinz Spoerli, one of the leading choreographers of Europe. Along with concerts, the festival will also present talks, educational workshops and speeches.

The Istanbul Music Festival will continue to contribute to the contemporary music repertory with its commissions to two world-renown composers. One of the most productive artists of our time, the genius pianist Fazıl Say who gets standing ovations at every concert, and one of most valuable composers of Georgia, Giya Kancheli will have the world premieres of their new works commissioned by the Istanbul Music Festival within the scope of the festival.

Since 2011, the festival has started to build its programme around a theme. The theme of this year’s Istanbul Music Festival will be “Hope and Heroes.” The festival programme, as a result of an accurate repertory research, presents a range of specific works and special concert projects selected within the scope of two intertwined themes such as heroes and hope. Along with these, special projects entitled “Istanbul Music Festival in Search of Its Young Soloist,” “Young Masters and Their Heroes” and “Open Conservatory”, which will be held in Karaköy Greek Primary School, will be carried out as well.

Presenting 2 world premieres and 3 Turkish premieres, the 40th Istanbul Music Festival features 23 concerts including symphonic and chamber orchestras, vocal concerts, chamber music and recitals. The festival concerts will be held in 8 different venues including Hagia Eirene Museum, which continues to host the festival for the last 40 years, along with the Haliç Congress Center, Lütfi Kırdar International Convention and Exhibition Center, Garden of the Netherlands Consulate General, Süreyya Opera House, Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall, Istanbul University Rectorate Building and Istanbul Archaeological Museum.

The programme of the 40th Music Festival was announced in a press meeting held at the Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at the Bosphorus, giving venue and catering support to the festival’s press meeting for the last three years. İKSV Chairman Bülent Eczacıbaşı, Borusan Culture and Arts Chair of the Board of Directors Zeynep Hamedi and the Istanbul Music Festival Director Yeşim Gürer Oymak delivered speeches during the press meeting.

Madonna made a high-flying start to 2012 with her amazing performance at the Bridgestone Super Bowl Halftime, now Madonna World Tour 2012 promises huge parties around the globe where one stop will be in Istanbul, Turkey.
The Madonna 2012 World Tour kickstarts on May 29th 2012 in Tel Aviv, Israel. The shows will include arenas, stadiums, special concert halls and special outdoor sights including the Plains of Abraham in Quebec.

The new international terminal of Milas airport in Bodrum is due to be completed in spring 2012. 
The construction works started in 2009 with Turkish sub-contractors, however in February 2011 all the rights to complete the works were overtaken by a major Italian construction company “Astaldi”. 

The new terminal with the area of 95,000 sqm will have 9 boarding bridges in total with the one that will be able to accept large jumbo planes catering with two separate gate entrances. 

There will be 66 check-in desks, high tech security systems, Led information screens, baggage handling system as well as underground parking for 750 cars. 

The terminal will be able to accept annually up to 5 million passengers and serve about 40 different destinations, which means a significant increase in passenger traffic. 

The existing terminals will continue operating for domestic flights. 

In 2010 the airport served more than 25 thousand domestic and international flights and received about 3 million passengers, most of them were from Turkey, Britain, Germany and Russia.