Turkey will resist efforts by its NATO allies to persuade it to back an alliance defense plan for the Baltics and Poland until its demands are met over a plan for Turkey’s defense, a Turkish diplomatic source has said this week.

Turkey is refusing to back the plan for the Baltics and Poland unless it got more political support for its fight against Kurdish YPG militia in northern Syria.

Turkey wants NATO to formally recognize the YPG militia, the main component of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as terrorists and is infuriated that its allies have given the militia support.

Source – Deloitte, Polskie Radio

Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s new award-winning movie „Mr. Jones” about a 1930s famine in Soviet Ukraine was screened in Kiev for the first time on this week.

Mr. Jones tells the story of Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, who reported on the Great Famine in Soviet Ukraine, a man-made disaster that killed millions in 1932 and 1933. Holland told reporters at the film’s Ukrainian premiere in Kiev on Wednesday night that the disaster decades ago triggered a national trauma and continued to raise a lot of emotion in that country to this day.

Gareth Jones was murdered in 1935 under mysterious circumstances amid suspicion that his death had been engineered by the Soviet NKVD secret police. The Polish-Ukrainian-British co-production hit cinemas in Poland last month. 

The movie won the top Golden Lions award at the Polish Film Festival in the northern city of Gdynia in September. Mr. Jones had its world premiere screening at the Berlin Film Festival in February.

Source – Polskie Radio

Tigers rescued in Poland will find a new home in Spain

You may remember the recent story that we ran about a group of tigers who were saved from smugglers at the Polish-Belarusian border a few weeks ago. Officially, the tigers were travelling from Italy to Russia in cages stacked in a truck on their way to be delivered to a private zoo in Dagestan. However, it appears that they may have been bound to a grislier fate to be processed into Eastern medicine and aphrodisiacs.

Now, thankfully it has emerged this week that 5 of the group will find a new home in Spain. The animals were nursed back to health in Poznań Zoo and readied for transportation over the last few weeks.

36 Million Zloty for New Marinas for Yachts and Kayaks in Pomerania

A new investment of around 36 million zloty (8 million euros or $9 million) has been secured to implement several improvements as part of the „Żuławy Loop” and „Pomeranian Canoe Routes”. The Żuławy Loop is a 300 KM long network of waterways and an element of the International Waterway E 70 running from Rotterdam, through the Berlin node of inland waterways, northern Poland, to Kaliningrad, and then via the waterway of the Nemunas river to Klaipeda in Lithuania. The investment includes new berths, constructions and extension of marinas as well as new facilities for sailors and canoeists, and the 3 larges projects will be centred around Gdansk.

The Weather

Today it is going to be bright and sunny but cold with a moderate breeze. Temperatures will only reach 2 degrees centigrade (36 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day, and drop below freezing to -2 degrees centigrade (28 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight. It will cloud over on Sunday and remain cold with a gentle breeze.

What’s On this weekend in the Tricity

One of Europe’s most famous Christmas markets is on in Gdansk’s old city. A wonderful experience, especially in this weather.

Each Sunday until Christmas, between 12 and 6, the Walter Restaurant on Sopot’s Monte Cassino invites you to „Family dinners with workshops for children”. Each event will have a different theme including, painting of Christmas baubles, preparing Christmas cards and so on.

Now tomorrow we have a unique and challenging event to mention. The second edition of the Star Challenge at the Olivia Star building (the big skyscraper in Gdańsk Oliwa) will take place. The star challenge is a running event with a difference. It’s the only run in northern Poland where competitors tackle the stairs of the tallest building in Pomerania Olivia Star – which stands at 180 meters high, 34 floors and 723 stairs. There are a few different categories of races and the cost to enter depends on the category. The race has a large charity element with proceeds this year going to the Centre for Blind Children in Sobieszewo

Today’s is St. Andrew’s Day or “Andrzejki” as it’s called in Poland and there are many events going on today across the Tricity. One event in particular is a great one for parents of smaller children who might like to leave their little darlings for a few hours and spend some time together. The Filiko Playroom in Gdynia Orłowo will be laying on a fun filled evening of activities for kids from 3 to 8 from 7pm until midnight today. They will provide drinks, snacks and great fun and parents can take advantage of any number of hours of care from 7 until midnight. The cost of the first hour of care is 30 PLN for a child, with subsequent hours charged at 20 PLN. The program includes story-telling, dancing, face painting and other fun games, leaving the parent’s to only need decide what fun they can get up to for a few precious hours together!

If you’re a theatre lover, you may be interested to know that it’s Austrian week at the Shakespeare theatre in Gdansk from today onwards. The rich program will include drama, dance and opera performances, performance reading of dramas, as well as a concert, a photography exhibition, film reviews, and meetings with literature and lectures. Full details can be found on the website of Gdańsk Teatr Szekspirowski or just do a Google search for “Gdansk Shakespeare Theatre”

And finally for today, a real ballet rehearsal open to the public today, Saturday at the Baltic Opera House. The event is an open ballet rehearsal in the form of ballet brunch on Saturday morning. The first part will be a typical classical dance lesson. After a coffee break and a light brunch, the second part – a rehearsal for the performance. Everyday dancers, body tuning for performances and crossing your own borders – you can experience it live by watching the beauty of the dance and enjoy a cup of hot coffee during the break.

RGEN NEWS/AG