Editorial Team

After eight AKP provincial heads stepped down from duty, all members of the Elazığ Provincial Executive Committee, including the newly appointed acting head, İbrahim Sencer Selmanoğlu, resigned.

As the CHP-led Ankara municipality braces for a possible wave of prosecutions, Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş has pressed for charges to be brought against former Mayor Melih Gökçek and his son, Osman Gökçek, an AKP deputy and owner of Beyaz TV.

At the 13th meeting of the National Solidarity, Brotherhood, and Democracy Commission, lawyers were heard on Oct. 2 and Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş stated that the listening phase is about to end. Although not announced officially, women’s and children’s rights defenders as well as the intelligence service are expected to be heard in the coming days, before concluding the listening phase.

The CAATSA sanctions imposed by the U.S. for the past six years have also negatively impacted Turkey's aircraft carrier projects.Originally designed to deploy F-35Bs, the first ship named TCG Anadolu was converted into an unmanned aerial vehicle carrier when aircraft could not be procured from the U.S.

Trumpeting that Turkey is on the way to making its fighter jet Kaan, Turkey faced the reality that it was impossible to produce them by 2028, the expected election year, as promised to the public. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan acknowledged that the future of the project depends on the U.S. Congress and U.S. CAATSA sanctions imposed on Turkey. Fidan’s goals and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s knowledge of the situation topped the agenda.

Talent manager Ayşe Barım, on trial for allegedly attempting to overthrow the government in connection with the 2013 Gezi Park protests, was briefly granted conditional release under judicial supervision—until an upper court overturned the ruling and issued a new arrest warrant just as she was about to undergo a medical procedure.

As the Turkish Parliament begins its new legislative year on Oct. 1, attention will center on MHP Chair Devlet Bahçeli—who launched the “Terror-Free Turkey” peace initiative a year ago—and on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s remarks regarding its future. Following a 70-day recess, Parliament will convene with a special General Assembly session at 2:00 p.m. As usual, Erdoğan will deliver an opening address, though the CHP will boycott the ceremony in protest of recent mayoral arrests and crackdowns on municipalities. This year, the political spotlight will remain on post-PKK arrangements such as the “Return Home” law, the “right to hope,” and amendments to the penal code.

Northern Cyprus’s presidential contest is more than a domestic struggle for the island’s Turkish-Cypriot leadership: it is a referendum on identity, economic survival and the shape of relations with Ankara, the EU and the Greek Cypriot.

New executives for Can Media—recently seized by Turkey’s Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) amid a money laundering investigation—have now been officially appointed.

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation into comments made on the YouTube channel Soğuk Savaş (Cold War) regarding the Islamic teaching that “alcohol is the mother of all evil.”