Journalist-Writer
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
The Bolu Mayor Tanju Özcan claimed yesterday that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, under the helm of Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, is rushing to demolish the Grand Kartal Hotel where 78 people perished in the fire. This statement deeply pained me. The first person who came to my mind was journalist Uğur Mumcu, assassinated 32
On the evening of January 16, the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) Foreign Relations office made a brief but significant post on their X account. The English message was succinct: “United we stand, divided we fall. President Masoud Barzani met with SDF Commander Mazlum Abdi in Erbil.” The announcement came immediately after the meeting. The post
In light of recent developments, the CHP Central Headquarters is running out of options: as consecutive lawsuits mount against its mayors, the party is force to spent all its energy on defending them. The latest example was the detention of İstanbul’s Beşiktaş district Mayor Rıza Akpolat on corruption charges. CHP’s pledge to take to the