İstanbul will next week gain yet another international festival dedicated to music when the inaugural Yorgo Bacanos International Oud Festival of İstanbul gets under way on Monday for a weeklong celebration of traditional oud music.
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The festival is the newest effort by the İstanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency’s classical Turkish music directorate.

The 2011 İstanbul biennial will not have a title. But that is not to say that the prestigious major showcase of contemporary art will lack a concept; rather, it implies a minimalistic approach — one that is inspired by the work of the Cuban-American artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres.

Turkey will lay the foundation of the Gebze-İzmir highway and the İzmit Gulf Crossing Project that aims to dramatically shorten the distance between İstanbul and İzmir, on October 28.

Buildings in İstanbul will be reinforced and made more earthquake resistant against the risk of a major tremor that is feared to hit the city in the near future.

That İstanbul is the capital of Turkey’s economy was once again confirmed with the latest data released by the Foreign Trade Undersecretariat, which displayed that half of Turkey’s total foreign trade was conducted in İstanbul in the first eight months of 2010.