WITH VOTES SLIPPING, ERDOĞAN TURNS TO PENSIONERS EARLY
Losing votes over the fund scandal and shaken almost daily as new figures with party links are exposed, the AKP government launched its election campaign early.
Analysis
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Losing votes over the fund scandal and shaken almost daily as new figures with party links are exposed, the AKP government launched its election campaign early.
The crisis in Turkey’s Ponzi-style fund industry is heading for deadlock as the government refuses to disclose the 141 people and 73 companies that each made more than 100 million liras in unjust gains despite opposition demands for transparency.
The day jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was to begin his defense in the Istanbul Municipality trial for the first time since his arrest 19 months ago, a court-appointed trustee cut the live broadcast of the Halk TV, one of his staunchest supporters in the media.
“Flowers bloom on the mountains of Izmir / The golden sun scatters gold thread there / The routed enemies all flee like the wind / Long live Mustafa Kemal Pasha, long live! Your name will be inscribed on a jeweled stone.”
The government is seeking to create the impression that it is cutting ties with those involved in the stock market scandal and has launched an investigation, announcing that up to a million liras of losses will be repaid to investors soon. But the opposition calls it the 'corruption of the century' and is seeking a parliamentary inquiry.
After defeating the AKP in the 2024 local elections, the opposition set its sights on the presidency but the split and rivalry between the CHP and the Yeni Party are now weakening it by the day.
Clouds are gathering over opposition politicians. Each new development makes them darker. Judicial rulings block opposition parties at every turn.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş for the first time since the opposition took control of the capital amid rumors the mayor could be the next target of the judicial assault on opposition municipalities.
In a surprising move, former Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek — long accused of corruption but never prosecuted — has been summoned to testify before the Organized Crime Investigation Bureau of the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office on Sept. 4.
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who has been behind bars since March 2025, and his co-defendants are increasingly pessimistic about the outcome of the hearings in the Istanbul Municipality trial.
Following the framework law's acceptance by a high vote of 467 in parliament — legislation expected to end a half-century-long conflict in relation to the Kurdish issue— now eyes are on the next steps the government will take.
The long-awaited and kept-under-wraps framework bill that will start the return and release of PKK members was finally submitted to parliament, two years after the process was announced.