Hours after the removal of one of its MPs, Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu from the parliament on March 17, the Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals filed a lawsuit for the closure of the Kurdish-problem-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). In the indictment he sent to the Constitutional Court, the Chief Prosecutor Bekir Şahin claimed
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu gave the first signal that Turkey-Egypt dialogue resumed, a major policy change, when he said March 3 that talks began on the Mediterranean maritime jurisdiction zones. Two days earlier, Egypt had granted licenses for oil and natural gas search companies in line with the maritime jurisdiction map that Turkey presented to
The ruling Justice end Party (AKP) will gather on March 24 its general assembly and party congress, a key event in terms of President Tayyip Erdoğan’s political future and its People’s Alliance with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). According to political backstage information, Erdoğan and MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli have discussed scheduling the MHP congresses
The Economic Reform Package was announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on March 12. As an economist who specializes in monetary policy, I found the following statement rather struggling: “We will put the frequently mentioned price stability aside.” This remark can have opposite interpretations: 1) Frequent emphasis on price stability increased our awareness on the
The economic reform package announced by President Tayyip Erdoğan on March 12 compares to the Human Rights Action Plan he announced on March 2 in terms of failing to be convincing about introducing a structural change. If Erdoğan had named the plan he announced on March 2 an Administrative Reform in the Judiciary, it would
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan promised tax exemption for some 850,000 along with cutting public spending in the Economic Reform Package he announced on March 12, bringing Vice President Fuat Oktay to the top seat of the to-be-founded Economic Coordination Council. “Along with macroeconomic policies, a chain of structural measures and transformation are conditional to continue
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has revealed that Turkey is in diplomatic contact with Egypt to repair ties that were strained since 2013. “Our intelligence, diplomatic and economic cooperation process with Egypt continues. There is no problem. [The contract] is not at the highest level but one level below. What we want is to continue this
Egypt took into account the sensitivities of Turkey in the specifications of its recent tender for hydrocarbon search licenses in the Mediterranean Sea, triggering fresh diplomacy traffic among Athens, Cairo and Ankara.The area of 24 blocks put on tender on Feb. 18 ends on the southern border of the continental shelf declared by Turkey to
Pope Francis’ visit to Iraq on 5-8 March was important both historically and politically as its effects could extend over a long period. This first visit by a Pope to Iraq came at a time when the waters in the Middle East were heating up again. Some commentators argued that the pope also visited Arbil,