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DEMİRTAŞ: “NO ONE SPEAKS FOR ME”
Inside Turkey Nov 21, 2025

DEMİRTAŞ: “NO ONE SPEAKS FOR ME”

Jailed former HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş rejected remarks by former Parliament Speaker Bülent Arınç suggesting Demirtaş wished to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and tell him he held no resentment. After a visit to Edirne Prison, Arınç said Demirtaş wanted to tell Erdoğan, “I hold no grudge against you.” Demirtaş responded with a handwritten note, saying he never expressed such a thought. “What troubles me most is being associated with words and ideas I never hinted at,” he wrote.

Editorial Team
MORE CONTRADICTIONS SURFACE IN ISTANBUL INDICTMENT
Inside Turkey Nov 21, 2025

MORE CONTRADICTIONS SURFACE IN ISTANBUL INDICTMENT

Inconsistencies continue to emerge in the Istanbul Municipality indictment, fuelling CHP attacks on the charge sheet and the notification to the Court of Cassation that there may be grounds to close the main opposition party.

Editorial Team
ÖZEL ESCALATES ATTACKS ON ERDOĞAN
Inside Turkey Nov 20, 2025

ÖZEL ESCALATES ATTACKS ON ERDOĞAN

Rallying frequently since the arrest of CHP’s presidential candidate and Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu in March, CHP Chair Özgür Özel has continued directing sharp criticism at President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in each major political debate.

Editorial Team
ZEHİRLENME/POISONING
Word of the Week Nov 20, 2025

ZEHİRLENME/POISONING

In Turkish, zehirlenme or poisoning is one of those words that lands with a sting. Its genealogy stretches back through Ottoman Turkish to Persian zahr (poison), but the word has given birth to colorful idioms: zehir saçmak (to scatter venom), zehir zemberek sözler (barbed words that blister on impact), ağzı zehir gibi (a tongue sharp enough to wound).

Nazlan Ertan
REALIGNING CORRIDORS: U.S. ENERGY DIPLOMACY AND TURKEY’S STRATEGIC CROSSROADS
Guest Voices Nov 13, 2025

REALIGNING CORRIDORS: U.S. ENERGY DIPLOMACY AND TURKEY’S STRATEGIC CROSSROADS

In early November 2025, two gatherings revealed the evolving architecture of Eurasian energy and resource corridors: the “3+1” Energy Ministerial in Athens, bringing together Greece, Cyprus, Israel, and the United States, and the C5+1 Summit in Washington between the United States and the five Central Asian republics—Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

Guest Voices
DEMİRTAŞ, STRASBOURG, AND THE NEVER-ENDING POLITICAL DRAMA SERIES
Guest Voices Nov 13, 2025

DEMİRTAŞ, STRASBOURG, AND THE NEVER-ENDING POLITICAL DRAMA SERIES

Selahattin Demirtaş has long been more than a defendant; he is a barometer of how politics manages law, another act in a long-running political drama in Turkey. This is not a scripted series that keeps millions guessing on Thursday nights; it is a real-world production about the country’s future.

Guest Voices
HAKEM /REFEREE
Word of the Week Nov 13, 2025

HAKEM /REFEREE

In Turkish, the word hakem conjures, for the average football fan, the image of a man with a whistle — revered when he blows it in your favor, reviled when he doesn’t. Yet the word has a far deeper pedigree. Hakem comes from the Arabic ḥakam, meaning “one who judges,” sharing roots with hakim (judge or ruler) and hikmet (wisdom). The referee is, linguistically at least, meant to be a wise arbiter among impassioned players and fans — no small task given the layers of expectation and resentment attached to every call.

Nazlan Ertan
IS MERAL AKŞENER MAKING A COMEBACK?
Portrait of the Week Nov 13, 2025

IS MERAL AKŞENER MAKING A COMEBACK?

You may ask, “Meral Akşener? Where did that come from?” It’s been a year and a half since she bid farewell to both the İYİ Party leadership and active politics. She has remained completely silent since. Yet, in recent days, an unexpected Akşener debate has been simmering—not in the headlines, but in İYİ Party circles. The discussion did not start with her; she has kept her silence. But when Esma Bekar—Akşener’s former chief of staff and perhaps the person closest to her—posted a message, the question suddenly arose: “Is Akşener returning?”

Anonymous