Turkish | Pakistan

A man who desecrated a copy of the Holy Quran outside the Turkish consulate in London was found guilty on Monday of committing a religiously aggravated public order offence, in a verdict critics said effectively reinstated an abolished blasphemy law. Hamit Coskun, 50, was fined 240 pounds ($325) at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court after being convicted of being disorderly by shouting “F*** Islam” as he held aloft the burning book near the consulate in central London in February. The lawyer for Coskun, whose father was Kurdish and his mother Armenian and who lived in central England, had argued that the prosecution amounted to an attempt to bring back a blasphemy law that was abolished in England in 2008. Coskun had denied the charge and said on social media he was carrying out a protest against the Turkish government. While he was holding the book aloft, he was attacked by a man with a knife who kicked and spat at him. “Burning a religious book, although offensive, to some is not necessarily disorderly...

Small Indian grocery shops and major online fashion retailers are boycotting Turkish products ranging from chocolates, coffee, jams and cosmetics to clothing amid growing anger at Turkiye’s support for Pakistan in a confrontation with India. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan expressed public solidarity with Pakistan after India conducted military strikes in response to an attack in occupied Kashmir. Cross-border fighting continued for four days before a ceasefire was declared. On Monday, the All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation (AICPDF), which supplies 13 million mom-and-pop grocery stores, said it was launching an “indefinite and total boycott” of all Turkish-origin goods, which would affect chocolates, wafers, jams, biscuits and skincare products. Indian fashion websites owned by Walmart-backed Flipkart and billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance have removed numerous Turkish apparel brands, according to three sources and a review of their websites. Flipkart’s fashion website Myntra removed listi...

A team of middle-school Pakistani students won the first prize in the Social Innovation category at the Teknofest aerospace festival held in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on Saturday. Teknofest is Türkiye’s first and only aerospace and technology festival organised in partnership with many organisations that play a critical part in the development of national technology in Türkiye, according to the information available on its website. Last year, the competition took place in Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir, hosting tech competitions spanning 41 categories, all aligned with the focal points of the future. These competitions attracted applications from over 333,000 teams and more than 1 million individuals from all 81 Turkish provinces and 96 countries. “Asma Fatima and Inaya Khan, along with their teacher Gohar Khursheed, met Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan to receive their first-place award at Teknofest 2025,” Pak-Turk Maarif International Schools and Colleges announced in a post on Instagram. View th...

KARACHI: Turkish naval ship TCG BÜYÜKADA arrived at Karachi Port on a goodwill visit. According to Pakistan’s state-run news agency, the APP, upon arrival, the Turkish naval ship was warmly welcomed by officials from both the Turkish and Pakistan Navies, said a press release issued by Directorate General Public Relations (Pak Navy) on Sunday. During […]