Turkish Domestic Politics: Analysis and forecast on all relevant developments and insight about Turkish politics with its repercussions in its neighboring countries
According to the mood in the American administration, the U.S. relations with Turkey is the most problematic one by far, not even closer to the current strains with China or Russia. And that is exactly the mood in the Turkish government circles regarding its most important ally and it is likely to be tested once
In a press release on Nov 27 the Turkish National Security Council (MGK) said it would not allow an American “fait accompli” in Syria, without naming but clearly pointing at it. Slamming the cooperation of “some countries” with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) Syria wing the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the written statement said
A few days after the call of Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan on Turkish academics abroad to return their homes for incentives and attractive scholarships “to reverse the brain drain”, 13 Turkish academics were taken under custody on Nov 16 due to suspicions of undermining the government. There were prominent professor of law Dr Turgut Tarhanlı
There are still a lot of unknowns about the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in his country’s İstanbul Consulate on October 2 but there is enough to update the case based on the publicized information so far. Those might change along the way as new evidence comes up, most importantly the dead body
Saudi Arabia’s state TV reported late on Oct 19 that Riyadh has admitted that the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in Saudi Consulate General in Istanbul on Oct 2 where he went to get reportedly his divorce documents confirmed. The Saudi explanation is that Khashoggi was killed in a “fist fight” with consulate officials.
Murat Yetkin Enis Berberoğlu, a former veteran journalist and an MP of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), was released from Istanbul’s Maltepe Prison late Sept. 20, after a ruling by the Court of Cassation which approved the five-year and 10-month sentence for Berberoğlu but withheld it until the end of his term in