Journalist-Writer
The Turkish media almost welcomed the recent appointment of the U.K.’s former ambassador to Ankara, Richard Moore, as the head of the British secret service MI6. Now, three diplomats who served in Turkey at the time and who speak Turkish head the world’s three major intelligence services. The remaining two are Gina Haspel, the head
Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya, the former Family Minister of the ruling Justice and Development (AKP) government, is upset. Because she finds the timing of the recent debate on the Istanbul Convention, a Council of Europe initiative to prevent violence against women, rather “noteworthy” under a “historic atmosphere where the chains of Hagia Sophia are broken
The government is holding the Turkish public opinion with agendas like reopening Hagia Sophia as a mosque, the debate about the Istanbul Convention against violence against women, internet bans. But this does not mean that nothing is happening in foreign policy; the usual subject to distract attention from difficulties in the economy. On the contrary,
A sentence from President Tayyip Erdoğan’s speech on the occasion of the opening of the National Intelligence Organization’s new building in Istanbul’s neighborhood of Maslak on July 28 is a distortion of history that is hard to digest. In his speech, the President did not mention the founder of Turkey’s first central foreign intelligence structure,
According to President Tayyip Erdoğan’s statement, 350,000 people attended the Friday prayer at the Hagia Sophia’s reopening as a mosque on July 24. He was the one reading the Fatiha surah, the opening verses of Muslims’ holy book Quran to the attendees. He said that “a nation’s decades-long longing has subsided”. He also granted due
July 21, 2020. Women were facing police brutality on the streets while protesting the murder of the university student Pınar Gültekin, as a recent chain of violence against women. Meanwhile, President Erdoğan was speaking at the assessment meeting of the first two years of the Presidential System of Government at his Presidential Complex at Beştepe,
On the evening of July 16, the Turkish Grand National Assembly condemned Armenia for the attacks on the border with Azerbaijan with the joint statement of four-party groups and declared it was with Azerbaijan. A few hours ago, National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, during a meeting with Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Defense and Commander of
On July 10, the 10th Chamber of the Council of State declared that “it’s the government that decides.” Minutes later, President Tayyip Erdoğan issued the decree to reopen the Hagia Sophia to worship as a mosque. The date was set: July 24. This was a historically-charged decision. It meant annulling Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s 1935 decision
President Erdoğan had stated that Turkey would indeed let go of the Istanbul Convention “if our people want to.” However, not many people, aside from a few fanatics here and there, responded to this statement that was testing the waters. Then stepped in the İsmailağa Congregation with a clear demand from the government: they wanted
President Tayyip Erdoğan’s efforts to control social media, after having taken care of conventional media, are not a new phenomenon. However, last week he voiced the desire to ban social media, and this is worrying from the freedom of press and expression standpoint. Taking a step back, we realize that by replacing the ownership of