The Haleplibahçe Museum Complex, which will open in two months in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, is set to take visitors for a trip back in time.The complex, built on an area of 200,000 square meters, includes an archaeopark and mosaic museums. It is the first and only museum in Turkey in terms of the number of objects in a closed area. When it is opened to visitors, history aficionados will have the chance to see hundreds of carved rocks with human and animal figures, tombs and inscriptions. Link

Greece on Saturday criticised the "negativism" of the British Museum in rejecting mediation by UNESCO to help resolve the decades-old dispute over returning ancient Parthenon sculptures to Athens. Link

Jewish worshippers in Turkey held a religious service on Thursday in the newly restored Great Synagogue in Edirne province, the first such ceremony in 46 years.An estimated 200-250 people attended the service in the synagogue which recently reopened after a four-year, $2.2 million restoration project. Link

Turkey’s volume of direct incentives for research and development projects will be 1.5 billion Turkish lira ($0.57 billion) in 2015, Turkey's Science, Industry and Technology Minister Fikri Isik said Wednesday.In a speech during the inauguration ceremony of Germany-based MAN’s new bus production plant in Ankara, Isik said the aim is to transform Turkey into a production and R&D hub. Link

A group of travelers who spray-painted their names on rocks in the vicinity of 8,000-year-old paintings on Beşparmak (Latmos) mountain near Lake Bafa have aroused anger from archaeologists and historians over the damage to the ancient site. Link

Turkey's Economy Minister Zeybekci said that the shape of a new Customs Union Agreement, including a solution to "the systematic problems" and a formula to include Turkey in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, will be ready in first half of 2016. Link

Excavation activities at the archaeological site in the ancient city of Perge, which was one of the centers of the Kommagene civilization, will soon commence with the aim of opening up the site for tourism. Excavations will begin soon in the ancient city, located in the southeastern province of Adıyaman, five kilometers away from the city center. It is home to some 200 stone tombs as well as a still-functional fountain.  Link

The ancient city of Sebastapolis will have a chance to come to light after local authorities ordered the transfer of the entire district of Sulusaray, which was built on top of the site. Link

Three 2,500-year-old tombs from the Hellenistic period that were unearthed five years ago in Bodrum have been covered over again and the area has been opened to traffic, despite the Bodrum Municipality’s project to protect the tombs. Özay Kartal, an adviser to Bodrum Mayor Mehmet Kocadon, has harshly criticized the situation in a statement, saying it represents “ISIL mentality in Bodrum.” Link

As Iraq struggles to protect its ancient sites and heritage from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the United States returned some 60 historical items to the country on March 16, many dating to thousands of years ago. Link1 Link2