Fetullah Gulen, the U.S.-based leader of the terrorist organization behind last year’s defeated coup, pays at least half a million dollars a month for lobbying activities in Washington, according the partner-lawyer of an international law firm. “Gulen has spent a vast amount of money on donations to officials. He spends anywhere from half a million to a million dollars a month just on lobbying in Washington,” said Robert Amsterdam, an international lawyer in Amsterdam & Partners LLP, a law firm with offices in London and Washington DC. Amsterdam & Partners LLP was retained by Turkey to pursue a global investigation into the suspicious activities of Gulen, the mastermind of the July 15, 2016 coup attempt.

Cotton USA, which promotes US cotton fibre and manufactured cotton products worldwide, announced that US cotton sales were boosted at the recent Cotton USA quality conference, held from September 13 to 15, 2017, in Belek, Turkey. It helped strengthen the business relationships between the 127 attendees from Turkish textile mills and US cotton merchants. The 41 participating mills represented 74 per cent of 2016/17 US exports to Turkey, an estimated 1.1 million bales of US cotton. US exporters and textile mills reported sales of 113,528 bales of US cotton during the Cotton USA quality conference, valued at approximately $38.1 million. As a result of attending the event, textile mill buyers said they would likely purchase an additional 365,700 bales of US cotton during the next year, an estimated $122.9 million increase in sales.

The homeownership rate across the country hit 63.7 percent in the second quarter of the year, according to the Census Bureau. The jump is a full percentage point increase from the same time period last year, the Wall Street Journal reported. In the second quarter of 2016, the homeownership rate was 62.9 percent, a 50-year low, according to the publication.

By Yıldıray Oğur * / Ceren Kenar * - The first failed coup attempt in Turkey, after four ‘successful’ ones, happened on 22nd February 1962. In the elections held a month after the hanging of Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, the political parties that were a continuation of the political party he was head of, the Democrat Party won the majority. These results troubled a radical Kemalist group and Military Academy Commander Talat Aydemir attempted a coup. The coup was suppressed with difficulty; Captain Aydemir was told to resign and then duly pardoned. However the captain tried to organize a coup again a year later on 21st May 1963. There were clashes in front of the Parliament in Ankara, jets bombed the Military Academy. Talat Aydemir and the putschists surrendered. This time, the captain was brought to court. He was sentenced to death. At his trial he said: “If you set me free today, I’d organize a coup again”