Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
The provision targeting LGBTQI+ individuals in the draft known as the 11th Judicial Package has been removed following strong backlash from human rights groups and civil society organizations.
Two Turkish unions sparked a backlash after distributing shopping vouchers worth thousands of liras to journalists at press events funded by workers’ subscriptions.
Bülent Arınç. Most recently, he stirred controversy with his criticism of the cancellation of Ekrem İmamoğlu’s diploma and his detention. “Neighborhood” has become a widely used concept that reflects the deep polarization in Turkish politics. There’s an “AKP neighborhood,” we say, and there’s an “opposition neighborhood.” But with his remarks, which carried a tone of self-criticism, Arınç managed to draw a backlash from both his own neighborhood and its direct opposite. For those who know him, Arınç’s remarks came as no surprise. Throughout the AKP’s 23 years in power, he has been one of the few — perhaps the only — figures to voice such open dissent from within. Why? He puts it this way: “I have a certain weight of my own. I’m not like the others.”