Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
The parliamentary commission formed to pave the way for a new Kurdish peace process remains stuck over whether its members should visit jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. A planned session of the commission has been postponed once again, even as hopes rise for the release of imprisoned Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş following a third ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
An Ankara court on Sept. 11 overturned the ruling that appointed an interim committee to run the main opposition party’s Istanbul branch. According to the CHP, the decision from the Ankara 3rd Civil Court of First Instance effectively nullified the earlier ruling of the Istanbul 45th Civil Court, in line with CHP’s argument that only an Ankara court can rule since the party’s headquarters are in Ankara. Yet, the decision can be appealed in a higher court.
CHP Chair Özgür Özel sparked a political storm by accusing a senior AKP figure of bribing a businessperson to testify against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. The CHP leader also suggested that the AKP had used dirty tricks to push CHP Aydın Mayor Özlem Çerçioğlu to transfer to the AKP on the 24th anniversary of the ruling party. Just two hours before the AKP’s celebrations, Özel said that former AKP Central Decision and Executive Board member and lawyer Mücahit Birinci asked imprisoned businessperson Murat Kapki to pay $2 million and promised his release in return for signing a false statement.
The name of Beşir Atalay, a founding member of the ruling AKP and a former interior minister, has been removed from a university campus in Kırıkkale, causing controversy within the party.
Burcu Köksal, the CHP mayor of Afyonkarahisar, joined the AKP this week. With her addition, the number of mayors who have left the CHP and joined the ruling party since the 2024 elections has reached 17.
Afyonkarahisar Mayor Burcu Köksal will resign from the CHP to join the ruling AKP, several reports said.
The possibility of a court ruling that might replace the CHP administration continues to overshadow the party’s campaign efforts to force the government into early elections.
The CHP is seeking to win power but is trying to do politics while caught in a major judicial clampdown. Operations target municipalities on one front, and the threat of an “absolute nullity” ruling persists against the party center.
The MHP, a key partner of the ruling alliance under the leadership of the AKP, has seen a new wave of internal restructuring as the party leadership dissolved multiple regional organizations following the high-profile departure of Deputy Chair İzzet Ulvi Yönter.
The question of whether Turkey's Kurdish peace process — officially dubbed 'Terror-free Turkey' — has hit a deadlock is being asked more frequently, as tensions between the ruling AKP and DEM Party escalate over who bears responsibility for the lack of progress.
Three seemingly separate stories — a party purge, a criminal network, and a political assassination — are converging into a single story with the ruling alliance partner MHP at its heart.
Although its initial decision was overlooked by a local court, the Constitutional Court once again ruled a violation since its ruling was not applied for the jailed city planner Tayfun Kahraman, finding that its earlier decision had not been implemented.