Thanks to strong reactions from the press, social media, some official institutions, and conservationists, nature is back in the hands of its real owners. In Turkey’s eastern province of Tunceli, the hunting permission for mountain goats, which have folkloric and spiritual value for the locals, got canceled. This prevents the wrong rulings that cause hunting.
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,
A total of 101 Turkish intellectuals, politicians, journalists and writers, “the grey-haired elders” as they name themselves, have made a call to the youth of the country and the opposition to unite for rights and freedoms “by joining around fundamental democratic principles.” The “the grey-haired elders” criticized the government in a statement on July 21
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
The flow of funds fuels the economy. By bringing together the borrower and the lender, financial markets direct savings into the economy. Savings finance production, production generates more income and hence more savings. What enables this circular flow is the payment to the saver. In modern financial systems, the saver receives an interest payment in
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
The Council of Europe (COE) Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention was opened for signature by Turkey on May 11, 2011. The convention eliminates the shortcomings of the Law No. 6284 on the Protection of Family and Prevention of Violence Against Women, which was
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
“The Amendment to the Lawyers Act and Some Other Laws” recently added to the already busy agenda of Turkey. Although the amendment is getting quite a lot of media coverage, most of the discussions I was able to follow were on a political level and did not get into the actual amendments and their consequences
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