The international courtesy visits to Türkiye following the devastating earthquakes that destroyed a dozen cities continue with diplomatic turns. On February 27, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry was welcomed by Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in Adana. Following the 2013 coup in his country, he was the first Egyptian Foreign Minister to visit Türkiye in a
After the 6 February earthquake disaster, many experts examined whether there will be an impact or change in our foreign policy as a result of the aid and support provided to our country by more than a hundred countries. While our country is healing its wounds, this assistance asserts the human element. Turkey has also
With 18.2 million students and 1.1 million teachers, the Turkish education system is a massive one. Including the tertiary education, more than 25 million students have been affected by the school closures in Turkey due to the devastating earthquake on February, 6. In the following week, The Council of Higher Education (CoHE) announced that the
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
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