Turkey's top 10 most significant events of 2015

Every year has its share of significant events in Turkey, and 2015 is no exception. The world witnessed many groundbreaking events and crises in 2015, so has Turkey. Some of those significant events have been heartbreaking, some full of adrenaline and tension, some of them made us laugh and some have filled us with pride. You might like to scan through the top 10 most significant events in 2015 in Turkey, which changed many lives and perspectives.

Here is our list of the top 10 most significant events of the year.

Shah Firat Operation, a Turkish military operation inside Syria to retrieve the remains of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Empire. The territory where the tomb of Suleyman Shah is situated, a small piece of land some 37 kilometers away from Turkish border, is Turkey's exclave in Syria according to a 1921 treaty between Turkey and France.

Since then, about 40 Turkish soldiers have been guarding the territory along with the tomb of Turks' fore-father.

The decision to relocate the tomb to a safer place came after increasing Daesh threats in the area.

The tomb was safely replaced to Ashme village, another area inside Syria close to Turkish border, in the operation which involved nearly 600 troops and 39 tanks.

A Turkish F-16 fighter jet shot down a Russian SU-24 bomber after it violated Turkish airspace near the Syrian border on November 24. The incident soured relations between Ankara and Moscow as Russian imposed sanctions on Turkish products, produce and other food imports in particular. The jet crisis accelerated ongoing tension between the West and Russia over the Syrian conflict. NATO, the EU, the US and other western countries backed the Turkish move and vowed to support Turkey against any potential threat from Russia.

NATO members sent warships to the Mediterranean Sea as Russian battleships came face to face with NATO powers.

In mid-November this year, the Turkish Mediterranean coastal city Antalya welcomed world leaders at the G20 Summit. Leaders of the most powerful countries came together to discuss the world economy as well as global terror, as the summit was held in the wake of deadliest terror attacks in Paris.

After the terror attack, security was one of the most important issues during the Summit as Turkey commissioned 1,400 special security personnel for the summit area.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan along with his Azeri and Georgian counterparts inaugurated construction work on the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project, to pipe Azeri gas to Western markets through Turkey.

TANAP, the “Silk Road of Energy," will deliver natural gas from the Shah Deniz II gas field of Azerbaijan to Europe via a 1,850 kilometer pipeline through 20 cities in Turkey.

The first gas flow through TANAP will take place in 2018. The transport capacity, which is planned to be initially 16 billion cubic meters per year, is aimed to increase gradually, first to 24 billion cubic meters and then to 31 billion cubic meters. TANAP will be the natural gas pipeline project with the greatest length and radius so far to be constructed within the borders of Turkey.

This year, Turkish nationals went to the polls two times to elect their lawmakers. In the June 7 general elections, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) failed to win a parliamentary majority. The AK party won 41% of the vote, which translated to 258 deputies in the 550-seat parliament. As none of the four parliamentarian parties gained the absolute majority to form a single-party government, AK Party leader Davutoğlu negotiated with the opposition for a coalition government.

After the failure of month-long coalition talks, Turkey went to an early election on November 1 and the AK Party won an unexpected majority of 49% of total votes. With its 317 deputies, the AK Party formed the single-headed government for the fourth time in Turkish history.

Turkey was shaken two times this year by deadly terror attacks in the southeastern border city of Suruç and capital city Ankara.

A suicide bomb attack in the Suruç district of Şanlıurfa province in southeastern Turkey killed 32 and wounded 104 others on July 20. This was possibly the first planned attack by Daesh on Turkish territory. After the attack, Turkey declared wide-range operations against terrorism and launched counter-terror raids inside Turkey, Syria and Iraq.

Months after the Suruç attack, Turkey was shaken with an attack which targeted the heart of the country. Two suicide bombers detonated themselves before a mass-rally near Ankara's main train station, killing 102 and wounding more than 400 people. The attack was the deadliest terror incident in modern Turkey's history.

Aziz Sancar, a Turkish professor at the University of North Carolina, wins Nobel Chemistry Prize along with Tomas Lindahl and Paul Modrich, with their work on how cells repair damaged DNA. Sancar became the second Turkish national to win a Nobel Prize after novelist Orhan Pamuk, who won the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature.

The chemists opened a dazzling frontier in medicine by unveiling how the living cell functions, as well as providing knowledge about the molecular causes of several hereditary diseases and about mechanisms behind both cancer development and aging.

Sancar, 69, was one of eight children in the small Turkish town of Savur. He conducts his scientific research in America. After receiving the Prize, Sancar met the Turkish President, Prime Minister and Chief of General Staff.

Turkey launched a pipeline project to deliver fresh water to Northern Cyprus, which desperately needed the water coming from Turkey to develop its economy as well as for household use. The pipeline project, which dubbed as “Project of the Century," was the world's first underwater pipeline which physically connected the mainland (Turkey) and an island (Northern Cyprus). After the inauguration on October 17, the pipeline transports more than 200,000 cubic meters of water per day which will be a total of 75 million cubic meters a year.

About ₺1.6 billion has been expended for the construction of the 107-kilometer-long pipeline along with two dams and two elevation centers.

Turkey launched its latest telecommunication satellite into orbit. The satellite will cover a wide geographic region between west of China and east of England spanning Turkey, as well as Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Turksat 4B, the sixth satellite of the Turksat series, was placed in a temporary geosynchronous orbit at 50.0 degrees on October 16 fromBaikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan.

Türksat 4b has a mass of approximately 4,910 kg (10,820 lb) and an expected on-orbit life time of 30 years and beyond.

Turkish and Japanese engineers at Mitsubishi Electric Corporation jointly produced the Turksat 4B telecommunication satellite.

This year, Turkey surpassed a new milestone by announcing a new mega project in Istanbul, the Three-level Big Istanbul Tunnel.

The 6.5 kilometer long tunnel, which will include a fast metro line and dual motorway, will be the first three-level tunnel in the world and will connect two continents, Asia and Europe, under water across the Bosphorus Strait.

The tunnel, which is estimated to cost $3.5 billion, was introduced on February 27 and expected to start operations in 2020.