Turkey’s leading healthcare associations and labor unions went on a nationwide strike on Dec. 15 demanding better working conditions and a comprehensive regulation that protects the rights and safety of healthcare workers. They shout that “it is the last straw” as Turkey’s economic and social growth has been planned at a human cost. “Today all
Germany and France have been awarding human rights defenders worldwide with its Franco-German Human Rights and Rule of Law Award since 2016. This year, French and German diplomats in Turkey deemed Nebahat Akkoç, the founding president of Diyarbakır-based women’s rights foundation KAMER, worthy of the award. Akkoç received her award in a ceremony held at
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announced that Turkey and Armenia will appoint special representatives in a bid to normalize relations. “Soon, we (Armenia and Turkey) will mutually appoint special representatives for the normalization effort,” Çavuşoğlu said during the Foreign Ministry budget debates in the parliament on December 13. Answering the opposition IYI (Good) Party lawmaker Erhan
Professor of Law Dr. İzzet Özgenç, who advises President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on economic issues, stirred a debate with his social media post yesterday as he said we should be prepared for the declaration of the State of Emergency because of the current state of the Turkish economy. With this message, the efforts of the
“Turkey’s economy suffers because of the foreign attacks.” That was the prominent discourse of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for years. They instrumentalized this discourse to give an account for problems in domestic politics, stating that the attack of the West caused the issues. However, that discourse no
The Minimum Wage Determination Commission has been working to determine the minimum wage effective in 2022. The current gross and net minimum wages for those over sixteen are 3,577.5 and 2825.9 liras, respectively. [The net amount mounted $383 in January 2021 and is $218 in December 2021 due to the depreciation of the Turkish lira.]
Of course, not all Kurdish voters are living in East and South-East Turkey. That is a well-known fact that Istanbul hosts the densest Kurdish population globally. It was the Kurdish voters that determined June 23 2019, local elections where Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu has taken the Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor seat after 25
The World Health Organization (WHO) designated a new variant of Covid 19 as a variant of concern and named it Omicron on November 26. As of December 8, 57 countries announced Omicron within their territories. Yet Turkey’s Fahrettin Koca stated via Twitter on December 3 that there is no new variant in Turkey yet. I
Daily Hürriyet newspaper’s senior politics op-ed writer Abdulkadir Selvi broke backstage news yesterday. He said that the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu met his party’s Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. The breaking news was that the leader of the main opposition met his party’s mayor, pointing to a question whether there will be
American multinational consumer goods corporation Procter and Gamble’s shampoo brand Pantene is subjected to boycott calls of women in Turkey due to their sponsorship of an award given to superstar Ibrahim Tatlıses who is known for his violent behaviour towards women. “Boycott Pantene” many women’s rights activists wrote on social media accounts on December 5,