Journalist-Writer
When I was writing my book “Kürt Kapanı (The Kurdish Trap)” about the full story of the capture of Abdullah Öcalan, the founding leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Süleyman Demirel, the Turkish President of the time, told me that İsmail Hakkı Karadayı, the Chief of General Staff at the time, had said
The most challenging hurdle was Abdullah Öcalan—who founded the PKK nearly half a century ago—declaring that the organization has run its course and should lay down arms and dissolve itself. This critical threshold was crossed when the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM Party) delegation, visiting İmralı for the third time on February 27, clearly
Following a cabinet meeting on February 24, President Tayyip Erdoğan made provocative statements likely to irritate European Union officials already caught between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to Erdoğan, “liberal democracy, the most captivating ideology of the last century, has entered a serious crisis and impasse.” He claims the resulting
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is seeking to run for office once again by securing a parliamentary majority and exploiting a constitutional ambiguity. The opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has two formidable potential candidates to challenge him: Mansur Yavaş, the Metropolitan Mayor of Ankara, and Ekrem İmamoğlu, the Metropolitan Mayor of Istanbul. While Erdoğan has thus
Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSİAD) Chairman Orhan Turan and High Advisory Council Chairman Ömer Aras were detained by police just hours after President Tayyip Erdoğan’s “Know your place” rebuke during the February 19 AKP parliamentary group meeting. The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office had already initiated an investigation against Aras for his speech at
Let’s summarize the current situation: On February 18, while US and Russian Foreign Ministers were discussing the Ukraine war in Saudi Arabia without Ukraine’s presence, the Ukrainian President was seeking consolation from the Turkish President in Ankara. The European Union was also absent from the table—a point we’ll address shortly. Shortly after this meeting, US
The series of investigations against Türkiye’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) began on February 10th with a probe into allegations that the 2023 Party Congress was “tainted.” On February 11th, CHP members woke up to news of deputy mayors and municipal council members being detained across several Istanbul districts. The pretext was allegations that
It is reported that Türkiye will take an active role in restructuring the Syrian military. According to the statement made by Ministry of National Defense sources, the proposal came from Syria and the first contact was established a week ago. Ministry’s statement came after Syrian interim President Ahmed Shara’s Ankara visit on February 4. Sources informed
The three-hour meeting between interim Syrian President Ahmed Shara and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the Presidential Complex in Ankara marked a historic moment in regional politics. Shara, arriving in a Turkish presidential aircraft from Damascus, was welcomed with full state honors, and the leaders discussed a wide range of issues from security cooperation
With “the crackdown” in the title, I’m referring to a series of judicial proceedings spanning from talent agent Ayşe Barım’s arrest in connection with the Gezi Park case to the latest investigation into Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu for exposing the identity of a common expert witness in cases against CHP municipalities, and extending to