Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
A new case has been opened against former HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş on charges of insulting the president, days after the European Court of Human Rights upheld its ruling that he should be released.
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.
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 parliamentary National Solidarity, Brotherhood and Democracy Commission held two tense meetings this week, first hearing from Turkey’s bar associations and then from former parliamentary speakers.The MPs on the commission, who had so far avoided direct confrontation, engaged in their first open war of words after bar leaders gave long speeches stressing constitutional rights and the rule of law.
Turkey’s Constitutional Court has ruled that former HDP MP Hüda Kaya was unlawfully arrested and that her rights were violated after she was denied access to her file following her detention over the 2014 Kobani protests.
Ahead of CHP’s hesitations to join the parliamentary commission, DEM Party Co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan said that the party will maintain its opposition identity even if the process is successful. Bakırhan stated that the matter will eventually be brought before the DEM and that they will not approve the constitutional amendment if it does not satisfy their demands regarding the Kurdish issue, democratization, women's rights, youth, Alevis' right to equal citizenship, economic justice, and the environment.
After shaping Turkey’s Pravda-style media landscape as head of the Directorate of Communications since 2018, Fahrettin Altun has been appointed chair of the Human Rights and Equality Institution, a move that looks like a demotion.Deputy Foreign Minister Burhanettin Duran replaces Altun.
İmam nikahı, or dini nikah (religious wedding), has long been a battleground for women’s rights activists who strongly oppose religious marriage and support strict penalties for imams and muftis (Muslim clergy) who conduct religious unions without first ensuring that the couple has undergone a civil ceremony. Turkey’s laws on marriage are regulated by the 1926 Civil Code, which abolished polygamy, introduced civil marriage, and mandated that any religious ceremony—should citizens of the newly established secular state choose to hold one—must follow civil registration in a municipal office. In villages, chieftains (elected officials) conduct the ceremony, while consular officers perform civil ceremonies for Turks abroad. Under the 1926 laws, religious officers—whether imams, priests, or rabbis in Turkey’s multi-faith society— had no authority to perform official weddings, as they cannot verify the legal requirements, such as the age of the would-be spouses or whether they are already married.