Journalist-Writer
Fear Not! The election video released by the opposition Felicity Party (Saadet Partisi) on March 12 began with this word on the screen. The date is the 102nd anniversary of the adoption of the National Anthem by the Turkish Grand National Assembly. The anthem, written by Mehmet Akif Ersoy and composed by Osman Zeki Üngör
The photograph above is taken on March 9, 2023 in Brussels. President Tayyip Erdoğan’s Chief Foreign and Security Policy Advisor and Spokesperson, İbrahim Kalın, with Deputy Foreign Minister Burak Akçapar on his left, holing a press conference. The topic is whether Türkiye should give its approval to Sweden and Finland, two countries that want to join
The international courtesy visits to Türkiye following the devastating earthquakes that destroyed a dozen cities continue with diplomatic turns. On February 27, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry was welcomed by Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in Adana. Following the 2013 coup in his country, he was the first Egyptian Foreign Minister to visit Türkiye in a
At their February 22 meeting, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) imposed broadcast suspensions and fines on Halk TV, Tele-1, and Fox TV for their earthquake coverage. On that evening, Halk TV was broadcasting a fundraiser to collect donations for tents and rental aid for earthquake victims. As the day turned to February 23,
The series of earthquakes that shook Türkiye and snuffed out lives has forced President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader Tayyip Erdoğan to change his electoral tactics. Both the impression from the ruling circles in Ankara and Erdoğan’s recent moves and outbursts suggest that the president is preparing to turn the state’s earthquake repair
The February 6 Kahramanmaraş double-earthquake not only shook Türkiye with terrible loss of life and destruction. It also upset the political balance and increased economic uncertainty ahead of a critical election. Politically, President Tayyip Erdoğan and his twenty-odd year old AK Party government have been the most affected by this trauma. Erdoğan has a difficult
In the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes that have shaken Türkiye and Syria into ruins, Turkish politics have embroiled in discussions about the possibility of postponement of the critical 2023 elections that is scheduled for June 18. Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu accused President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party
It turns out that the first night of the Kahramanmaraş double earthquake in Türkiye on February 6 was very difficult for the earthquake victims who received no or insufficient aid and this situation. It is an uphill struggle against time and freezing cold. By lunchtime February 7, more than 3482 people died (7108 as of
I asked Portuguese Foreign Minister João Gomez Cravinho, whom I met with a small group of journalists after his visit to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavuşoğlu in Ankara, how would Portugal react if Türkiye approved only Finland’s NATO application and not Sweden’s, even though they applied together? The question is meaningful because decisions in NATO
It would have escaped my attention if I had not followed the Twitter accounts of two terrorism experts. One from Türkiye, Nihat Ali Özcan of the think tank TEPAV, and the other from the US, Bruce Hoffman from Georgetown University. Both drew attention to the fact that The Washington Post, in the caption of the