Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
Turkey has postponed its moon landing project, which it had aimed to carry out in 2023 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Republic but later delayed to 2026, this time to 2027. The government established the Turkish Space Agency in 2018 to coordinate space activities.
Around 150 Turkish activists and four opposition deputies joined the Global Sumud Flotilla, which set sail from Tunisia on Sept. 4 to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. Saadet Party MPs Necmettin Çalışkan and Mehmet Atmaca, Hüda-Par’s Faruk Dinç, and Gelecek Party’s Sema Silkin Ün took part, while no AKP deputies joined.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing on Sept. 3, having what appeared to be a cordial conversation, with Putin doing most of the talking and gesturing.
Akın Gürlek, Istanbul’s chief public prosecutor known for ordering probes and detentions against the opposition CHP, spoke on camera for the first time at the opening of the new judicial year. He said indictments related to the Istanbul Municipality would be ready in September and October.
In Turkish, teşhirci (exhibitionist) is a word with two lives. In everyday use, it is an insult, hurled at women whose clothes are judged too revealing or at men who flaunt their cars and watches. In the Criminal Code, however, teşhircilik has a very precise meaning: exhibitionism. Article 225 punishes those who “publicly exhibit their sexual organs” with up to six months in prison. A word meant to describe a trench-coat flasher in a public park has, over time, swollen into a moral cudgel: used less to prosecute streakers and more to police women’s bodies.
Numan Kurtulmuş is currently the speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, and as such also chairs the “National Solidarity, Brotherhood, and Democracy Commission” formed to seek a solution to the Kurdish question. But if we were to borrow the rhetorical style of MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli, we might ask: “Who is Kurtulmuş, where did he come from, and where is he heading?”
İsmet Sayhan, the former head of the state-owned Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKE) and a close associate of MHP Chair Devlet Bahçeli, was arrested in Ankara. Amid speculation that the detention was a sign of cracks in the ruling alliance, Bahçeli and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met in Bitlis’s Ahlat and Malazgirt on Aug. 25–26, posing for cameras to signal the strength of their alliance in their first meeting since July 10. They even listened to folk songs together.
Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu was fined 9,267 lira for speeding.
Anna Kviloriya, the TV anchor wife of Belarusian Ambassador to Ankara Anatoliy Glaz, said that her husband warned her not to wear a low-cut dress for their credentials ceremony at the presidential complex.
A higher court has upheld a Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) penalty that will take TELE1 off the air for five days starting the night of Aug. 31, unless the broadcaster’s latest appeal succeeds.
The Public Servants Arbitration Board has finalized wage hikes for 6.5 million civil servants and retirees, setting raises far below inflation and poverty thresholds after collective bargaining collapsed.
As soon as talk emerged about a possible meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Turkish press began speculating about the potential venue—expressing wishful hopes that Turkey might serve as the host for the highly anticipated summit.