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  • The Turkish model

    The Turkish model

    Due to major airport work in Istanbul, Turkey is attracting the attention of the region’s construction industry

    One of Turkey’s largest and most prestigious construction projects to date is the hotly-anticipated tender for Istanbul’s third airport, estimated to cost $5.6bn (see Intel on p4 for more details of this tender).

    The cream of the crop of Turkey’s construction companies are vying for this lucrative deal, including TAV Havalimanlari Holding, Alarko Holding and construction groups Varyap and Limak.

    Major foreign investors, including those from Japan, France, China and Germany, have already shown interest in the airport, which will be constructed in three phases, reports the Anatolia News Agency.

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has revealed that the airport will be built on a plot in the north of the European side of Istanbul, without elaborating on further details.

    The project will follow the build-operate-transfer model, also known as the “Turkish model,” according to Erdogan. This model has attracted $2bn in investment for airport construction across the country. The capacity produced by these private-sector projects has amounted to 90.5 million passengers a year, with government investment lagging.

    Regional airports, meaning facilities that serve more than one province, are crucial for civil aviation, Erdogan said. Ordu Giresun Airport in the north, Çukurova Airport in the south and Zafer Airport in the inner-Aegean region are three such projects.

    Zafer will be the first to be completed on 29 October, which is about 1.5 years earlier than the original deadline, due to the sterling efforts of the main contractor. The date marks the anniversary of the modern Turkish republic.

    A third airport in Istanbul, the largest city in the country, has long been on the agenda, as Ataturk Airport on the European side and Sabiha Gokcen on the Asian side are struggling to meet the rising demand with mainly Turkish Airlines, the national flag carrier, boosting its flights and the city attracting more visitors.

    The airport will have an initial capacity to handle 90 million passengers a year, extending eventually to 150 million, and three runways for simultaneous use. Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said earlier this month the aim was for the first stage of the airport to open in 2016.

    Yildirim announced the tender competition for the Istanbul airport last month, with a view to completing the bidding by the end of 2012 after spending 18 months choosing the site.

    Yildirim revealed that Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport was working 50% more than it was supposed to, thanks to recent renovations and capacity rehabilitations at the airport.

    “We will direct some flights to some other airports, and we will provide more opportunities to scheduled flights,” Yildirim told reporters in Istanbul. He added that all these were short- or medium-term measures that would relieve traffic at the airport.

    Ataturk accommodated 20.3 million international passengers, with international commercial flight traffic of around 178,817 in 2010. These figures were 11.8 million and 94,887 respectively for domestic traffic.

    Alarko Group general coordinator Ayhan Yavrucu has said Alarko might be interested in joining a consortium and entering the bidding for the tender for Istanbul’s third airport.

    “We are probably the company that has built the most airports in Turkey. We are interested in the third airport tender,” asserted Yavrucu. Alarko has already applied for the preliminary qualification for the privatisation of the Bosphorus bridges and highways project. He added that the company had not yet devised a concrete financing plan for the privatisation.

    TAV Group CEO Sani Sener said: “The company that wins the tender should have access to powerful financing and know-how. Istanbul is very important to our portfolio. The number of incoming tourists is rising; the economy is developing.

    If we think of Istanbul as a financial hub, its importance is even more key. Our partnership with French Aeroports de Paris also adds to the TAV brand value,” added Sener.

    According to Sener, the third airport can be completed in three years, and TAV is keen to win this major tender. He stressed that the airport construction should be awarded to a company that “knows the business.”

    Sener said: “This is not a terminal operation, it is an airport operation. We are talking about a $10bn project. Strong financing is necessary. One needs to be picky.”

    Sener said five to six firms with which it competes regularly would place bids in the upcoming third airport tender. He explained that the airport would be constructed on a plot of land containing coal mines, and would therefore be difficult to construct.

    TAV had a contract for Ataturk until 2021, and that the Transportation Ministry had assured TAV that its rights would be protected and that Ataturk was not likely to become a boutique airport. “If it is going to be a project that competes with Ataturk Airport, then it would not be a $10bn project,” he noted.

    via The Turkish model | ConstructionWeekOnline.com.

  • Iran to Give up 20 pct Uranium Enrichment if West Lifts Sanctions

    Iran to Give up 20 pct Uranium Enrichment if West Lifts Sanctions

    Iran’s permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asghar Soltanieh said Iran has offered to stop enriching uranium to a purity level of 20 percent if the West lifts sanctions against Tehran, semi- official Mehr news agency reported Wednesday.

    Soltanieh said that the offer was made in a meeting between Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in Istanbul earlier this month.

    “We are prepared to suspend enrichment to 20 percent, provided that we find a reciprocal step compatible with it,” Soltanieh was quoted as saying.

    “We said this in Istanbul,” he said, adding that “If we do that, there shouldn’t be sanctions.”

    On Sept. 18, Ashton met with Iranian officials in Istanbul in a bid to end the standoff over the Iranian nuclear program. Jalili said the two sides were satisfied with what they had agreed during the talks.

    On Wednesday, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Major General Mohammad-Ali Jafari said the Iranian enemies have resorted to economic sanctions and pressures since they have realized that they cannot engage in direct confrontation with the Islamic republic, semi-official Fars news agency reported.

    Jafari said the enemies have found out that their actions against Iran have backfired and the Islamic revolution has been exported to the world nations against their will.

    The Israelis still continue their threats, but at the same time they have realized that they cannot fight the Islamic revolution through a direct battle, Jafari said, adding that, for that reason they have resorted to exaggerating the social problems of our country and the Islamic ruling system.

    “Today, the world has found out that threatening the Islamic revolution is futile, yet those who are less wise and rational have still resorted to other methods such as different sanctions and political threats,” Jafari was quoted as saying.

    Also, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the imposition of sanctions by the global hegemony indicates its weakness in dealing with independent nations, Press TV reported on Wednesday.

    “Sanctions and the exertion of pressure by the global arrogance and bullying powers against independent nations are not indicative of a position of power but rather the weakness of these countries in dealing with the logic of the independent states,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying in a meeting with his Bolivian counterpart Evo Morales on the sidelines of the 67th UN General Assembly.

    “The enemies of the independent nations know better than anyone else that these pressures and sanctions will lead nowhere,” he added.

    China on Wednesday reiterated its opposition to sanctions on Iran over Tehran’s controversial nuclear program.

    “The Chinese side has long been opposed to any unilateral sanctions on Iran,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei.

    He added that sanctions cannot ultimately help to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue, but will only further worsen and escalate the issue, “which will do no good in regional peace and stability. ”

    All sides concerned should increase dialogues and boost cooperation to seek an appropriate solution to the issue through negotiations, said the spokesman.

    On Wednesday, Iranian deputy nuclear negotiator Ali Baqeri said that Iran insists on its “nuclear rights,” semi-official ISNA news agency reported.

    The Islamic republic persists the total vindication of its rights to enjoy all the capacities for peaceful nuclear technology, Baqeri was quoted as saying.

    During the meeting between Jalili and Ashton in Istanbul last week, Iran offered some proposals, reiterated its insistence on the nuclear rights and demanded Ashton’s response, Baqeri said.

    “Due to Iran’s clear logic in its proposals, it is now the turn of the P5+1 — the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany — to respond to these proposals,” said the Iranian official.

    Iran insists that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes, and warned that it will retaliate if it comes under an attack.

    Iranian nuclear talks in June ended without a breakthrough, while the P5+1 are expected to discuss with Tehran on the sidelines of the ongoing UN General Assembly in New York.

    via Iran to Give up 20 pct Uranium Enrichment if West Lifts Sanctions.

  • UK:Bahraini Bid For ‘Leeds United’ Football Club

    UK:Bahraini Bid For ‘Leeds United’ Football Club

    A private equity firm based in the Middle East has announced a deal to take control of Leeds United Football Club.

    A wholly-owned subsidiary of Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House (GFH) has been in talks with the club’s current owner Ken Bates for several weeks.

    Equity firm GFH Capital said it had “signed an exclusive agreement to lead and arrange the acquisition of Leeds City Holdings, the parent company of LUFC”.

    It added Leeds was “one of the best-supported clubs in English football with a higher than average match day attendance than most Premier League teams”.

    Citing a confidentiality provision, GFH Capital gave no financial details or any acquisition time frame but reports indicate a bid of around £50m for control.

    Company officials would not comment on whether the Bahraini unit would provide all the money for the purchase or whether other investors might be involved.

    It said the club would benefit financially from a recent renegotiation of television broadcast rights for football, if it won promotion to the lucrative Premier League.

    David Haigh, lifetime Leeds supporter and deputy-CEO of the equity firm, also posted a Twitter message hinting at the impending deal.

    Mr Haigh tweeted: “Good morning everyone. Thank you for all your messages of support. They are very important to us. #LUFC”

    Last weekend, club chairman Ken Bates confirmed advanced negotiations involving a “banking institution” were taking place, and GFH board members were spotted at Elland Road.

    Last June, details emerged that 80-year-old Mr Bates, who took control of the club in 2004, was in discussion with investors.

    Details of a possible sale end a four-month period where fans have been given little information about the club’s future.

    Having reached the semi-finals of the Uefa Champions League in 2001, the club was relegated from the Premier League in 2004 and dropped into the third tier of English football in 2007 before promotion to the Football League Championship in 2010.

    The on-field descent came against a backdrop of financial woes, which forced the club to sell key players and ultimately led to administration in 2007.

    “If you look back since the start of the Premier League, Leeds are without doubt the most successful club not to be in it right now,” Dan Jones, partner at Deloitte’s Sports Business Group, said.

    “If you can return it to the Premier League, then it could return to being one of the top 20 clubs in the world by revenue – that’s the scale of the club you’re dealing with.”

     

     

     

     

    Sky News

  • UK: ‘Missed chances’ in abuse scandal

    Social workers, police and the Crown Prosecution Service “missed opportunities” to stop a child exploitation ring abusing young girls, a report into the scandal has revealed.

    “Deficiencies” in the way children’s social care responded to the victims’ needs in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, were caused by “patchy” training of frontline staff, the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children Board (RBSCB) said in its review into child sexual exploitation.

    The review was ordered in the aftermath of a trial which saw nine Asian men jailed for grooming young white girls for sex.

    The picture which emerges from the report is one of vulnerable young girls, some as young as 10, who were being targeted for sexual abuse, being written off by those in authority who believed the girls were “making their own choices”.

    The review comes just days after The Times published a report which alleged that agencies in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, were aware of extensive and co-ordinated abuse of white girls by some Asian men and detailed a range of offences for which no-one has been prosecuted.

    Rochdale Council said it has used the review’s findings to implement a catalogue of changes and improvements.

    The report looked at how agencies including the council, police, NHS and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) worked between 2007 and 2012 to safeguard children and young people who were at risk of sexual exploitation.

    The report, which specifically followed the treatment of one 15-year-old victim, says: “While some organisations were consistently supportive in their response, overall child welfare organisations missed opportunities to provide a comprehensive, co-ordinated and timely response and, in addition, the criminal justice system missed opportunities to bring the perpetrators to justice.”

    The report also says: “Activity to disrupt alleged offenders was developing on the ground but this was not always followed through at a more senior level. The early investigations of crimes and the prosecution of alleged offenders were flawed.”

    RBSCB chairwoman Lynne Jones said: “We have responded to this review and improvements have been implemented. I believe organisations are working better together, sharing information to ensure children are protected and that perpetrators of these crimes are prosecuted.”

     

     

     

     

     

    Press Association

  • In Turkey, Religious Schools Gain a Foothold

    Turkish girls attend computer lessons at Kazim Karabekir Girls’ Imam-Hatip School, Istanbul, February 10, 2010.

    ISTANBUL — As parents wait to collect their children from Mehmet Akif Middle School, one father appears deeply concerned. Recent announcements regarding newly Islamized curricula — ostensibly for training imams and other clerics — caught many parents by surprise.

    “They will say, ‘put a headscarf on your child,’ and she’ll have to wear a longer dress. They will try to bring more backwardness into their lives. Nobody wants this,” he says. “We want our children to be educated following the principles of secularism. Until now it was like this and we were happy.”

    Converting schools into religious institutions known as Imam Hatips is part of the Islamist-rooted government’s education reforms, which, according to some parents, represent a welcome change.

    “We are a Muslim country and Imam Hatips are for teaching our religion,” says one mother donning a headscarf in accordance with her faith. “It is important for my child. I want my child to learn his religion. All this criticism is an exaggeration because we are a Muslim country, so religion must be in our education.”

    Imam Hatips like this one, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s alma mater and one of the oldest in Istanbul, were founded to teach imams. But the new curriculum, which combines normal education with hours of religious studies, are popular with Turkey’s religious population.

    Combining Quran recital class with the normal curriculum means an arduous workload for the children, but teacher Azmi Dogan says Imam Hatips play an important role in Turkey’s pious community.

    “Every child who leaves here is qualified to become an imam or a religious official,” he says, explaining that students are exposed to every field of Islamic study, from scriptural interpretation to the prophet’s words. “For the pupils this is not a problem, as their parents want their children brought up like this.”

    A lengthy debate

    Since their creation in the 1950s, Imam Hatips have been controversial in the debate about Turkey’s secular state, and many were shut down as part of the pro-secular, military-inspired crackdown on the country’s Islamist movement in the 1990’s.

    Turkey’s ruling party pushed through the school reform act earlier this year to allow schools to specialize in religious education combined with a modern curriculum, provoking arguments in parliament and mass protests by secular Turks and teachers who say the law promotes an Islamist agenda and threaten education standards.

    But Kenan Cayir, assistant professor of sociology at Istanbul’s Bilgi University, says the schools can have a positive impact.

    “They promote an understanding that religion does not necessarily conflict with modernity, so religion and modernity can be together,” he says. “This is very controversial in Turkey, because in the secular-civilization narrative it is argued that religion does necessarily conflict with modernity, so we have to leave religion behind.”

    The Islamist-rooted government officials say expansion of Imam Hatips is about restoring schools that were closed in the 1990s, a claim that has done little to curtail growing anger among some parents.

    At one protest outside of a newly converted school, parents claim the government is imposing the schools on their children. Ali Boga, a member of parliament for the ruling AK party, describes expansion of Imam Hatips as the beginning of a broader movement.

    “We are here as Imam Hatip graduates or as allies,” says Boga. “We will increase the number of these schools in records. We have the chance to turn all schools into Imam Hatip schools.”

    The government hasn’t denied has such plans. Instead, Prime Minister Erdogan has slammed critics of schools while his education minister said opponents of reforms were either terrorist supporters or fanatical secularists.

    The debate indicates that education could become another battleground in the increasingly polarized country.

    via In Turkey, Religious Schools Gain a Foothold.

  • Madonna: Obama Is ‘A Black Muslim In The White House,’ Deserves Votes – YouTube

    Madonna: Obama Is ‘A Black Muslim In The White House,’ Deserves Votes – YouTube

    Madonna: “Beyaz Saray’da siyah bir Müslüman, oyları hak ediyor”

    Madonna brought her MDNA Tour to Washington, D.C. on Monday night, and added a bizarre dose of politics to the show.

    “Y’all better vote for f–king Obama, OK? For better or for worse, all right? We have a black Muslim in the White House. Now that’s some amazing s–t,” she said. “It means there is hope in this country. And Obama is fighting for gay rights, so support the man, goddamnit.”

    Madonna 2nd Night Speech MDNA Tour Washington DC 9 24

    Madonna endorses Obama, calls him Muslim

    Madonna isn’t afraid to show her support for President Barack Obama, nor is she afraid to paint it on her body.

    Madonna Strips to Reveal Obama Endorsement

    via [HQ] Madonna: Obama Is ‘A Black Muslim In The White House,’ Deserves Votes – YouTube.