Turkey

Located in Western Asia the Republic of Turkey as it is officially named is an Eurasian country that gained its independence in 1923 and set up its constitution in 1982. Since then it has been amended for five times. The Republic has been founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk the same year it declared its independence. 

As all republics it has the three branches Executive, Legislative and Judicial. 

The Executive consists of a president (chief of state), a prime minister (head of government) and a Council of Ministers (cabinet: Appointed by the president on the nomination of the prime minister).

The Legislative is represented by the Grand National Assembly which contains 550 members who are chosen by national elections at least every four years.

The Judicial is composed of the Constitutional Court, the Court of Cassation, Council of States and other courses.

Turkey has four main parties which have representatives in the Parliament:

AKP - Justice and Development Party (327 seats)

CHP - Republican People's Party (135 seats)

MHP - Nationalist Action Party (52 seats)

BDP - Peace and Democracy Party (29 seats)

Furthermore there are seven independents.

Every person in the about 74 million people containing population has the right to vote as the suffrage is given universally to every person of age 18 and older.

These 74 million people are living on a total area of 783 000 square km - which means the density is as low as 97 people/square km while in Germany for example it is 223 people/square km.

99% of these people are muslims, most of them sunni, while Christians, Bahai and jewish people share the remaining 1%. The two main ethnic groups are Turkish people (80%) on the one side and Kurdish ones (20%) on the other. These two groups are often involved in conflicts and are constantly fighting against each other as the Kurds feel suppressed and disrespected by the Turks. They pursue independence from the Turkish state - this conflict can be lead back to the time after the second world war where it developed. 

Tukey's capital city is Ankara though its largest city is Istanbul which is why most people often mistake it as the capital city. Other big and well-known cities are Antalya, Bursa and Izmir.

In opposition to the widespread assumption of Turkey as a economical rather weak country it has the worlds 15th largest GDP-PPP and the 17th largest GDP. It is one of the founding members of the OECD and the G-20 major economies. Between 1923 and 1983 the country mostly had a statist economical system with a lot of government planning and limitations over private sector participation and foreign trade issues. Then, in 1983 Prime Minister Turgut Özal initiated a series of reforms that changed the system from a stated, insulated one to a more private-sector, market-based model. This resulted in enormous economical growth, though there have been a few financial crises and setbacks relating to inflation, earthquakes and a lack of fiscal reforms.

Tourism


One of the most popular cities in Turkey to spend the vacations (at least for Europeans) is probably Istanbul. It is located directly at the Bosporus and has the proximity to Europe but already offers a completely different culture and world. It is divided into two parts while 25 of the 39 districts are on the European continent and 14 on the Asian one.

Some definite must-sees of this city are:
1. The Sultan Ahmed Mosque (see the picture on the left). It is definitely one of the most impressive mosques of the world with its six high minarets and the blue interior mosaic all over the walls and ceiling. It has been finished in 1616 and is also called the Blue Mosque due to the just described interior design. Though its outer appearance is often mistaken as the reason for this name even the roof of the building itself and the minarets appears blue during several times of the day due to the light then.

2. A bazaar.

The Arasta Bazaar is Istanbul's last standing example of an open bazaar as they were popular in earlier centuries. This particular one exists since the 17th century and offers a great variety of handmade carpets and rugs, as well as various souvenirs made of gold, silver and natural stones.

The Grand Bazaar is probably one of Istanbul's most popular and most well known bazaars. It is described as one essential place to go to to get a sense of the city and to "blend yourself with it". In this huge indoor bazaar you can find antique deales as well as jewelers, bag makers, leather shops, carpet sellers and a great variety of further businesses. It is like a little own world separated from Istanbul and is the world's largest and oldest bazaar at the mean time. It has been built on Sultan Faith's order to provide income for the Hagia Sophia Museum (The Hagia Sophia Museum has originally been a church, then a mosque and functions now as a museum).

Additionally to these two main attractions every tourist should have seen (by which I mean a mosque and a bazaar which don't implicitly have to be those ones presented) Istanbul and Turkey in general offer a great variety of things to visit, many cultural treasures and a terrific cuisine that should definitely be tried!
Some of examples of the culinary diversity:

EF New York

Marymount College has been gone for a few years now, we all know that. But what replaced it? EF Language Schools renovated the Campus from scratch and made it one of their biggest centers for international education. 

EF - Education First - a company from Sweden that has locations all over the world provides English classes for international students in different language levels and also SPIN classes to choose individually. 

Students from all different continents come here to combine vacation with an improvement of their English skills. "I need English for a job later and I thought I can learn English and visit New York at the same time" explains Christian Müller, 18, from Germany, who has been participating in the program for four weeks. 

Most of the students come to this place in order to obtain a Cambridge or TOEFL certificate which they need for their studies or employment. Marget Hutmacher, 19, from Switzerland explains why she chose this language school over the others. "I like the language and I need the Cambridge Certificate in the future. I chose EF because my friends told me that it's good". 

"EF should provide a place to study, because the rooms are very small and there is no space to study" complains Risa Suzuki, 20, from Japan. But although there are still some aspects students are not totally satisfied with, they evaluate their overall experience as very positive. "Describing EF in 3 words? New friends, fun, freedom!" Suzuki adds. But also teachers like being at this place and having the job "For me EF is…energetic, diverse and unpredictable" Candice Halliday, old enough, from Pennsylvania says laughing. "I was looking for a language school that wasn't in Manhattan," she explains. "EF is a job that doesn't seem like a job, I'm hanging out with the world all day!"

This statement shows the school not only offers an educational aspect but a social one - people from all over the world, with the most interesting backgrounds come together and share a room in a group of four. The adolescents get to know the differences in cultures, politics and languages in the different countries. "I like to meet the new people here from different countries," states Hutmacher.

Students can also choose to live in a host family, although not all of them are happy with this choice "I don't like my host family and I will change in two weeks. They were kind of nice but it didn't work out - they just wanted my money." The school is still looking for new families who provide students a good insight into the American way of life and help them make their gap year a great time. So if you are interested in getting to know international young people that can totally enrich your everyday life by showing you their culture as well and becoming part of your family contact the school:

EF Language School

100 Marymount Avenue

10591 Tarrytown

phone#: 746-194-6459

email: info@efny.com

New Technologies

A Medical Break-Through


Researchers might have found a technique, which could symbolize a new dimension of examination. They are developing an invisible tattoo that can track the sodium and glucose level in your body through the help of an iPhone App. Which sounds like a scene of a Science Fiction movie could soon be part of people's everyday life: "I don't think there's any doubt that this sort of technology will catch on." says Jim Burns, head of drug and biomedical research and development.
Originally developed as an alternative to the finger-prick bloodletting, which is the standard technique of measuring the glucose level of diabetic people, this technology might go a lot further: Scientists hope to soon be able to measure dissolved gases such as nitrogen and oxygen, which indicate respiration and lung function.
But first how this is supposed to work after all:
In a first step, a solution containing different types of nano particles is injected into the skin. They will stay at the place they have been injected but will be invisible until an iPhone with the special App is placed on top of them so that they start fluorescing.
As soon as the particles are under the skin, they start to attract their target particles (in this case for example glucose) as they have the opposite charge. Once the target particles are taken up, the sensor molecules release ions in order to maintain an overall neutral charge. This in fact changes the fluorescence of the tattoo when it is hit by the light of the iPhone.
Finally, the more target molecules there are in the patient's body, the more molecules will bind to the sensor in order to neutralize the uneven charge and the more the fluorescence changes.
The special iPhone case that provides the special light could soon be an every day life product, as it would look like a normal case containing a nine-volt battery, a filter that fits over the iPhone's camera and three LED's. The iPhone will take a photo of the fluorescence to later transfer it to a computer program which can measure the amount of the target particles.
This might be the only disadvantage so far - the time it takes from making the molecules fluorescence until the result is finally there. And, of course, the technique is still in the state of testing to make sure it doesn't affect the patient's health.


Charging cell phones at Starbucks
Who doesn't know this problem - you're on the run and don't have the time to charge your cell phone anymore. Sure, you're just meeting for a coffee with your friend, but though your cell phone battery will be empty by then and you might miss the important call of your boss. So what to do - standing your friend up for one hour of charging your phone?
Starbucks seems to have found a solution for this problem. Due to the latest decision of the WWCC (World Wide Cell phone Corporation) all cell phones sold in 2012 will have the same charging port which will allow one universal charger for all of them. "On average, each person buys a new cell phone every two years, so that until 2014 everybody will have one of the new cell phones with the universal port" explains Andy Callaugher, chairman at WWCC. Furthermore he says "this will save us up to 2000 tons of electronic litter each year". This is because each time you bought a new cell phone in the past, you had to buy a new charger for it as well so that the old charger (as well as the old phone) have been trashed.