Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
Bursa lawmaker Cemalettin Kani Torun, who left the Yeni Yol Party group of conservative opposition lawmakers in August soon after the Gelecek Party dissolved itself, joined the AKP and will be an adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the Terror-Free Turkey process and on Africa policy.
For nearly half a million retail investors caught in Turkey’s worst financial storm in years, compensation has finally begun to flow. But the first cash distributions came as the fallout spread beyond Turkey’s borders: global index provider MSCI froze index changes for Turkish equities on Oct. 15 and warned of a possible downgrade, while prosecutors broadened their probes and lawmakers scrambled to pass emergency legislation.
Trade Minister Ömer Bolat has taken ownership for managing the EU’s “Made in Europe” initiative, which threatens Turkey with being shut out from the bloc’s new rules on supply chains and public procurement schemes.
The pro-Kurdish DEM Party has called for the peace process law to be freed from the “tutelage” of the National Security Council (MGK), as a delayed council decision holds up implementation.
Expectations that the Framework Law on the Terror-Free Turkey process would take effect in October have shifted to December.
The court released four defendants, while informants who testified under effective remorse provisions refused to answer most questions from defense lawyers during cross-examination, claiming their previous testimonies were based on hearsay.
Former Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım won a defamation lawsuit against his predecessor Ahmet Davutoğlu, pro-government columnist Abdülkadir Selvi revealed.
Ahmet and Hülya Gökçek, the son and daughter-in-law of former Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek, were questioned as suspects on Sept. 7 and released under judicial control with a ban on leaving Turkey.
In Pirates of the Caribbean, cornered by the Black Pearl, Elizabeth Swann invokes “parley” under the Pirata Codex. Barbossa, with the convenience of a man who commands the only ship in sight, decides the Code is not quite law. Closer, he explains, to guidance.
In recent weeks, Turkey has been debating claims of a new constitution, a revision of the system of government, and changes to the electoral law.
With the framework law in force and mechanisms in place to allow the return of PKK militants, the peace process has moved into a new phase — not without controversy.
On Aug. 10, Turkey’s parliament passed what many will call an amnesty for PKK members, on the strict condition that no one call it that. The word appears nowhere in the law, which is titled, in Turkish, the Law on Strengthening National Solidarity and Social Integration.