Journalist-Writer
The Ankara 22nd High Criminal Court handed down heavy sentences in the Kobani Trial on May 16. The most notable were the 42-year sentence for Selahattin Demirtaş and the 30-year sentence for Figen Yüksekdağ, both of whom were co-chairs of the HDP at the time. Their sentences were the natural headline in media. Like the
A few hours after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Hamas is “defending Anatolia’s frontline” in Gaza in Turkish parliament on May 15, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan appeared on a live NTV broadcast. Erdoğan grounded his assertion of “frontline defense” on the assumption that the radical government in power in Israil would eventually cast its
The phrase “Fascism does not prevent speech, it compels speech” belongs to French philosopher Roland Barthes. Whether out of genuine necessity or strategic maneuvering, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli’s recent remarks, stating that “he smells coup plot” by linking the ongoing Ayhan Bora Kaplan gang investigation by the Ministry of Interior on
Minister of Treasury and Finance, Mehmet Şimşek, finally unveiled long-awaited austerity measures in the public sector on May 13, under the watchful eye of Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz. Both underscored that these measures were meticulously crafted with the directive and approval of President Tayyip Erdoğan. Following the announcement, neither Yılmaz nor Şimşek take questions from
The most important outcome expected from the May 13 visit of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to Ankara as the guest of President Tayyip Erdoğan will be to avoid any unpleasantness. Yes, a series of protocols and agreements are on the table to fulfill the “Athens Declaration on Friendly Relations and Good Neighborliness” signed by
The Democratic Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) emerged as the opposition party providing the most explicit support for the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) new Constitutional initiative. For instance, while the CHP leader Özgür Özel expressed a desire to see the proposal President and AKP leader Tayyip Erdoğan would bring forward, DEM Party
In the past few days, Türkiye took two significant steps against Israel’s attacks in Gaza, which have claimed the lives of more than 35,000 Palestinians in the last six months. First, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced Türkiye’s decision to join in the case brought by the Republic of South Africa against Israel for genocide at
The most significant outcome of the shift in the political landscape after March 31 local elections yet was the meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel. The meeting, which started at 4:00 PM on May 2 and lasted about 1 hour and 30 minutes, took place
President Tayyip Erdoğan is using the constitutional amendment as a smokescreen to obscure and distract attention from the major problems ahead. On the night of April 28, days before Erdoğan’s meeting with CHP leader Özgür Özel, Chief Legal Advisor Mehmet Uçum published the text “What could be the main principles of the new constitution”, which
Meral Akşener followed a line similar to that followed in Western democracies, albeit with some delay. First, she declared an extraordinary congress for the İYİ (Good) Party, giving herself a margin of error regarding the defeat of the opposition block in the 2023 elections. In the 2024 -local- elections, she took the failure of