Association to begin teaching Turkish in Morocco, Jordan and Sudan

TASCA (Türk-Arap Bilim, Kültür ve Sanat Derneği or Turk-Arab Science, Culture and Art Association) is an association set up last year, that now plans on teaching Turkish to countries in the Arabic world, beginning with Morocco, Jordan and Sudan in its goal of making Turkish a world language. They seem to have chosen these three countries due to a scarcity of Turkish teachers vs. demand; one can only assume that nearby countries like Syria have more ample resources for those that want to learn the language.

On a related note, groups like this are why I scoff at the suggestion that minority languages like Welsh and Basque only survive due to government support - major languages receive much, much more support from governments and educational institutions to promulgate themselves in other countries whereas minority languages are busy simply maintaining their own languages in their areas of origin.

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22 dolar oil from Iraq to Jordan / Irak'tan Ürdün'e 22 dolara petrol

Zarqa, from a train on the Hejaz railway

Here's part of an article in Turkish from Zaman.

Irak, Ürdün'le varılan yeni anlaşma çerçevesinde bu ülkeye varili 22 dolardan petrol satmaya başladı. Anlaşma çerçevesinde ilk parti olan 11 bin varil petrol tankerlerle dün Ürdün'e taşındı. Ürdün Enerji Bakanı Haldun Kteyşat, önümüzdeki bir gün içinde bu miktarın 45 bin varile tamamlanmasının öngörüldüğünü belirtti.

Under a new agreement between the two countries, Iraq has begun selling oil to Jordan at 22 dollars per barrel. The first part of the agreement is 11,000 barrels of oil that were shipped yesterday to Jordan by tank trucks. Jordanian Energy Minister Haldun Kteyshat said that they expected the amount to reach a complete 45,000 barrels within a day.

Ürdün'ün Irak sınırındaki Zarka kentindeki rafinerilere getirilen petrolün Kerkük petrolü olduğu ifade ediliyor. Sübvanse petrol konusunda iki ülke bu yaz yeniden masaya oturarak daha önce Ağustos 2006 yılında varılan varil başına 18 dolarlık fiyatı 22 dolara yükseltmişti.

The petrol has been sent to refineries in the city of Zarqa (الزرقاء) on Jordan's border with Iraq, and is from Kerkuk. The subsidized oil was discussed once again this summer between the two nations, and was pushed up in price to 22 dollars per barrel from the 18 dollar price reached in August 2006.

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