Turkish Domestic Politics: Analysis and forecast on all relevant developments and insight about Turkish politics with its repercussions in its neighboring countries
At their February 22 meeting, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) imposed broadcast suspensions and fines on Halk TV, Tele-1, and Fox TV for their earthquake coverage. On that evening, Halk TV was broadcasting a fundraiser to collect donations for tents and rental aid for earthquake victims. As the day turned to February 23,
On February 6, 2023, two equally destructive earthquakes struck Turkey leaving behind them an unprecedented loss of life and property. Eleven provinces were devastated. With every stone lifted, the ugly face of bad governance showed itself more clearly and exposed the level of incompetence that our institutions are suffering due to politicized appointments. The earthquake
The series of earthquakes that shook Türkiye and snuffed out lives has forced President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader Tayyip Erdoğan to change his electoral tactics. Both the impression from the ruling circles in Ankara and Erdoğan’s recent moves and outbursts suggest that the president is preparing to turn the state’s earthquake repair
The insistent proposal made by Bülent Arınç, a founding member of the AK Party, to postpone the elections set for June 18, 2023, seem like an attempt to hammer the last nail in the coffin of our hybrid democracy, which now may be more aptly called an elective autocracy. Mr Arınç is surreptitiously suggesting that
On February 20, Türkiye was jolted by another earthquake with magnitudes of 6.4 and 5.8 in the devastated city of Hatay, killing six people and injuring 294. The country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, AFAD, announced that Hatay’s Defne district was shaken by an earthquake of magnitude 6.4 at 20:04 (GMT +3) on February 20.
The February 6 Kahramanmaraş double-earthquake not only shook Türkiye with terrible loss of life and destruction. It also upset the political balance and increased economic uncertainty ahead of a critical election. Politically, President Tayyip Erdoğan and his twenty-odd year old AK Party government have been the most affected by this trauma. Erdoğan has a difficult
Recently, a team of international journalists uncovered an Israeli-based group called “Team Jorge” that allegedly influenced elections in various countries through disinformation campaigns, blackmail, sabotage and hacking. This group, said to manipulate public opinion through disinformation and propaganda campaigns using social media, brought to mind the 2017 Cambridge Analytica scandal that revealed Facebook users’ social
The search and rescue operations following the earthquakes, which is said to be the biggest natural disaster that Anatolia has experienced in the last two thousand years, have come to an end. On the 11th day of the earthquake, Mehmet Ali Şakiroğlu and Mustafa Avcı were the last victims to be rescued in Antakya after
Entering the second week after the two major earthquakes and thousands of aftershocks that devastated Türkiye and Syria, the death toll continues to rise amid a few reports on “miracle rescue” of victims taken out of the rubble defying the limits of the human body. Türkiye’s emergency and disaster authority, AFAD, announced on February 18
In the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes that have shaken Türkiye and Syria into ruins, Turkish politics have embroiled in discussions about the possibility of postponement of the critical 2023 elections that is scheduled for June 18. Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu accused President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party