ERDOĞAN’S ADVISER SIGNALS MARCH OR APRIL 2028 FOR ELECTIONS
Presidential Chief Legal Advisor Mehmet Uçum once again said that the next presidential election is set for March or April 2028, coinciding with renewed efforts to draft a new constitution.
Analysis
In-Depth Analysis
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ERDOĞAN FUELS HOPE ON PEACE PROCESS BUT STALEMATE CONTINUES WITHOUT ANY PROGRESS
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has fueled hope for progress in the Kurdish process but his stance doesn’t amount to real movement, according to the DEM Party. Soon after dismissing claims of a deadlock in the "Terror-Free Turkey" process as "noise" at the April 23 reception, Erdoğan reiterated that the process is advancing as intended and urged all actors to act responsibly during a turbulent regional period.
MAY DAY CLAMPDOWN OVERSHADOWED BY ERDOĞAN’S ITALIAN CHARM OFFENSIVE
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan paid a one-day official visit to Italy on April 29. He was received in Rome with pomp by his counterpart Sergio Matarella as well as Prime Minister Georgia Meloni. This was a visit of niceties on each side. To Erdoğan’s satisfaction, the Italians did not raise any political issues, especially those pertaining to his iron fist authoritarian rule and Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoglu’s arrest.
COURT KEEPS ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST BEHIND BARS
Esra Işık, an activist from the village of İkizköy in Muğla’s Milas district who has spent years fighting to save her community's olive groves and farmland from coal mining expansion, was brought to her first court hearing on April 27 in handcuffs, escorted by gendarmerie officers from Şakran Prison in İzmir — more than 100 miles from her hometown where her case is being tried.
CENTRAL BANK KEEPS INTEREST RATES UNCHANGED AMID INTENSIFYING POLITICAL PRESSURE
The central bank kept its benchmark policy rate unchanged at 37% on April 22, meeting the expectations of most analysts. The decision comes following intensified criticism of both the bank and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek, 59, from the business world and media outlets close to the government.
INWARD TURMOIL, OUTWARD TALKS: THE PARADOX OF TURKEY’S EU MOMENT
“Turkey gives its children no chance to concern themselves with anything but itself,” said Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, a prominent Turkish poet and novelist who died in 1962. While the world was preoccupied with Donald Trump’s tariffs and the international media’s coverage focused on the reactions, Turkey was only discussing the opposition's call for an economic boycott implemented on April 2.
NEW CODES OF TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTRY
When a Canadian camera was found in a downed Turkish drone in the war in Nagorno Karabakh, the Canadian government canceled the product’s export permit in April 2021. “The use of technology in this way is inconsistent with Canada’s foreign policy and Turkey’s end-user commitments,” said the country’s then-foreign minister.