Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
Journalist Deniz Zeyrek writes about a closed-door briefing organized by AKP's media and communications chief Faruk Acar, at which Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke to senior editors and Ankara bureau chiefs from pro-government outlets about Turkey's foreign policy. Zeyrek identifies three problems with the meeting.
Afyonkarahisar Mayor Burcu Köksal will resign from the CHP to join the ruling AKP, several reports said.
The AKP submitted a 15-item proposal to parliament as it pushes ahead with incentives to lure foreign investment and cash repatriation.
Concerned by the risk of being excluded from trade with Europe, the AKP government is planning to amend the public procurement law.
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.
Hungary’s parliamentary elections on April 12 — described as the toughest test of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s 16-year rule — will be closely watched not only in Europe but also in Turkey by both the AKP and the opposition.
The “process report” that charts the roadmap for Parliament toward solving the Kurdish question has been finalized. The document did not push the limits of the AKP and MHP too far; it received a cautious “hopeful” endorsement from the CHP on the grounds that accepted democratic demands “must not remain mere words on paper”; the DEM Party deemed it “better than nothing” despite its shortcomings; and the Yeni Yol group welcomed with a familiar “not enough, but yes.”
The CHP was shaken by the resignation of Ankara’s Keçiören Mayor Mesut Özarslan, but the political momentum shifted after the AKP did not move forward with his expected transfer, leaving him politically isolated. CHP Chair Özgür Özel challenged President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to publicly pin an AKP badge on Özarslan amid speculation he would join the ruling party.
The Turkish main opposition, the CHP, has been shaken by the resignation of Ankara’s Keçiören Mayor Mesut Özarslan, who is expected to join the ruling AKP soon. The move has added to growing signs that the CHP’s post-election momentum is under strain, compounded by profane WhatsApp messages sent by party Chair Özgür Özel shortly before the resignation was announced and later leaked online.
Economic hardship has long been measured through the humble simit -— the sesame-covered circular bread sometimes called the Turkish bagel. Now the ruling AKP is being accused of shrinking even that symbol. Once used by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to show that a family could not afford a single simit and tea with the minimum wage, the calculation has taken a new turn: a simit divided into three.
With the “Terror-Free Turkey” process on one hand and the row over operations targeting CHP-run municipalities on the other, it’s easy to forget that the country’s main problem is deepening poverty and social decay.