Nearly $17B in EB-5 Funds Are Ready for Redeployment

A 10-year backlog in EB-5 applications has a silver lining: $16.6 billion that investors can reinvest in real estate or other businesses if they still want a green card. The origin of the money is a unique problem with the EB-5 program, in which investors can invest $500,000 in a U.S. business in exchange for a green card. But the program requires investors’ money to be “at risk” pending the outcome of the application. Since the U.S. only hands out 10,000 EB-5 visas a year, a years-long backlog means some developers want to return investors’ money before they obtain the green card.

US Support to PKK’s Syrian Wing Will Leave Scars on Turks Forever


By BARÇIN YİNANÇ - An urban legend throughout the 1990s was that “American helicopters have dropped arms to the PKK,” the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party. I have never received confirmation of this legend from Turkish Foreign Ministry officials. I have even questioned retired top Foreign Ministry diplomats, believing that they could speak more freely. But even they were unable to confirm it, either on or off the record. Maybe they simply could not access evidence gathered by the intelligence sources, which would be a rather unusual state of affairs.

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Asian World Film Festival Opens with Turkish Movie, “Ayla: The Daughter of War”


By Diane Garrett - Variety - Georges Chamchoum has a simple mission: He wants to share the rich and varied offerings from Asian filmmakers with Hollywood players and beyond. A cultural counter force to Washington isolationism, he has lined up a wide array of screenings, panels and tributes for the third annual Asian World Film Festival. The eight-day event kicks off Oct. 25 in Culver City and concludes Nov. 2, sponsored in part by Variety. This year’s installment is the broadest yet in scope. Movies range from “Dearest Sister,” the first film from Laos submitted for a foreign-language Oscar, and “Little Gandhi,” Syria’s first entry in that category, to pioneering Hollywood drama “Joy Luck Club,” part of a beefed-up Asian-American focus.

Ex-envoy Says U.S. Should Prepare to Lose Turkish Base

Relations between Ankara and Washington have grown so fraught during recent months that the Pentagon should prepare alternatives to a key Turkish air base for regional operations, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey said Tuesday. U.S. forces have operated out of Incirlik Air Base since the 1950s, but growing distrust between the NATO allies — from U.S. backing of Kurdish militias in Iraq to its refusal to extradite U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen — has put that military relationship at risk, according to former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Eric Edelman.

Suns' Assistant Coach Mehmet Okur Got Fired and Left A Legendary Instagram Post

The Phoenix Suns had a brutal Sunday afternoon that included the firing of their head coach, Earl Watson, and a subtweet from their veteran Eric Bledsoe about wanting to get the heck out of there. Then Bledsoe was openly recruited by conference rival DeAndre Jordan on Twitter. It was all somehow uglier than the two 40-plus-point losses the team suffered in its opening week. Now-former assistant coach Mehmut Okur added onto the pile.

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Yelp Review Gets Turkish Bartender at Disney Springs Fired, Lawsuit Says

A Turkish bartender at Disney Springs has filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against STK restaurant, saying he was fired after a Yelp review accused him of making anti-American comments. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Orlando said Serkan Sorkon was fired from STK Orlando in January after a negative posting about the bartender left on internet review site Yelp. The Yelp review, which is still online, said a Turkish bartender made disparaging comments about the United States, which Sorkon denies. “The Bartender, I don’t remember his name but he was from Turkey,” said the review from user “Joseph K. of Lakeland, FL.”

Turkey Cancels Justice Ministry Visit to U.S. Due to Visa Row

Turkey's Justice Ministry said on Tuesday it had cancelled a planned study visit to the United States due to the widening diplomatic row between the countries over the issuing of visas.  Local media earlier reported that U.S. authorities had rejected visa requests from members of the delegation, but the Justice Ministry said it had taken the initiative and cancelled the trip.  "Due to the recent visa crisis between the two countries, the visit was cancelled by our Ministry," it said in a statement, adding that there were no visa applications to be rejected. The delegation had planned a study visit to the United States, at the invitation of U.S. authorities, between Oct. 29 and Nov. 4, the ministry said. The pro-government Daily Sabah newspaper said the delegation had planned to study the U.S. penal system and visit American prisons.

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Golf’s Long Game in Turkey

By ADAM SCHUPAKOCT - New York Times- The Turkish Golf Federation president, Ahmet Agaoglu, likes to tell the story of the time Tiger Woods straddled two continents and struck golf’s first intercontinental shot from Asia to Europe. “To play a role in it was the greatest achievement of my life,” Agaoglu said. On Nov. 5, 2013, Woods stopped traffic on the Bosporus Bridge, which spans 5,118 feet and is 210 feet above the Bosporus. Well, at least half of it was closed as Woods stepped to a circular, platform AstroTurf tee. Cars and buses whizzed by in the three lanes on the opposite side of the bridge, renamed the July 15 Martyrs Bridge in 2016, into Europe as Woods, in his trademark Sunday red golf polo, blasted drives from Istanbul in western Asia into the southeastern corner of Europe on a windy afternoon.

German Tourist Arrivals in Turkey Seen Rising 15-20 Percent in 2018

ANTALYA, Turkey (Reuters) - Early reservations point to a 15-20 percent rise in the number of German tourists visiting Turkey next year, Michael Frenzel, president of the federal association of Germany’s tourism sector told Reuters. German visitors to Turkey fell sharply last year, mainly due to security concerns following a series of militant attacks and a failed military coup and as growing tension between Berlin and Ankara caused deep strains in diplomatic ties.

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Germany: Turkey Made 81 Extradition Requests Since Failed Coup

Since the failed coup of July 2016, Turkey has requested the extradition of 81 people from Germany, according to the Justice Ministry's response to an inquiry from the Left Party's parliamentary party. The Justice Ministry, however, did not provide information on how many of those requests were based on terrorism charges or whether Berlin complied with the requests. Turkey has accused Germany of harboring thousands of suspects allegedly involved in a failed coup on July 15, 2016 that left more than 200 people dead, including soldiers and civilians.

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