Last week was the time to vote for the local elections in Turkey. Results are still being discussed while the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) reported the formal results. The results show that the oppositional parties increased their votes while the leading parties had less votes comparing to the preceding elections.

As it can be seen from the chart, the current leading party, Justice and Development Party (AKP), had 38,5% of the votes, whereas the oppositional parties got votes of following percentages:

Republican People’s Party (CHP): 23,2%
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP): 16%
Democratic Society Party (DTP): 5,7%
Felicity Party (SP): 5,2%
Democratic Party (DP): 3,8%

A helicopter crashed in the mountains called Kes Mountains near the city Kahramanmaras. There were 6 people in this plane; 5 of them were the members of the Great Union Party whereas the other was a cameraman in Ihlas News Agency. The cameraman was the only one to survive after the crash; furthermore, he called the emergency and wanted help. His recorded speech showed that his leg was broken and he was struggling to stay alive in the snowy weather.

Corpses of 5 members of the Great Union Party, including the president of the party Muhsin Yazicioglu, was found 3 days later. The cameraman Ismail Gunes’s corpse was found 2 days later, after his struggle to stay alive.

It was wonderful to see the other politicians offering their condolences to the Muhsin Yazicioglu’s family, even if they shared different political opinions. May God rest all of those people in peace…

On March 9, 2008, the currency of Turkey, Turkish lira, had the lowest rate in US Dollars of past 10 years. The conversion rate of US Dollars to Turkish Lira was moving around 1.7 for a month; however, this movement lost its stability on March 9 and increased to 1.8. This conversion rate was the worst of the past 10 years. The conversion rate could come to only 1.7 as maximum in 2000 crisis, but in 2009 the rate changed to 1.8 as maximum. However the prime minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, stated that the crisis didn’t clearly affect our country, these stats prove that the affection of the global crisis is more in 2009 than it was in 2000.

In addition, this rate was moving around 1.17 and 1.18 in September 2008; besides, it increased continously since October 2008. January 2 was the alert of this recession in which the rate moved to 1,6424 from 1,5291.

Now, the government is expected to set new investment plans to minimize the effects of this recession on our country.

After I came to Turkey from the trip to Portugal, I saw that everyone was excited because of Obama’s planned trip to Turkey in April. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came to Turkey and talked with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In this meeting, Hillary Clinton explicated that Obama will be visiting Turkey in April. This statement of Clinton caused a general excitement in Turkey; everyone tried to guess the goal of Obama’s choice to visit our country. Turkish politicians said that it was because of the fact that Turkey is the most powerful country in its region and a predominantly Muslim and secular country. These seems to be logical reasons of Obama’s planned trip to Turkey. Apparently, Barack Obama will address to all Muslim countries from Turkey and try to establish peace between them and USA.

So, this choice of Obama can be seen as his first step to peace with Muslim countries and USA. In my opinion, Obama is the only leader to end the prejudices of both sides, Muslims and American people. Besides, everything about Obama’s peace establishing plans for Muslim countries will be clarified next month; I’m waiting curiously to see what will happen.

From March 4 to March 8, I attended the Community Service & Learning Conference which was held in Lisbon, Portugal. It was an awesome organization; moreover, I visited a mental hospital for the first time in my life. The people in there were not different than an ordinary people by their actions. “They are just like one of us… They are learning maths and creating new things which are being sold later.” as I mentioned in my speech group presentation. The most impressive things that I saw in there were the couples. Some of the patients were living as couples; furthermore, these couples cared about each other. For instance, one was giving the crayons while the other was painting. These people were amazing; my predictions were extremely false about these people because they were not different than ordinary people.

After visiting the mental hospital, our team leaders led us to take a city tour in Lisbon. Buildings were amazing, people were respectful, meals were good, so what could you expect more? In addition, nights of Cascais were wonderful too. By the way, Portuguese culture gives their teenagers more freedom comparing to many other countries. You can go into every night club that you wish to if you are over 16.

My Portuguese friends, thank you all for your hospitality and wish to see you in Turkey soon.