Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
Who is back? Ümit Kocasakal. He won the election for president of the Istanbul Bar Association on Oct. 25, returning to the post he held from 2010 to 2016. And which slogan did he bring back with him? “We are the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal.” He and his supporters chanted it together after his victory.
Losing votes over the fund scandal and shaken almost daily as new figures with party links are exposed, the AKP government launched its election campaign early.
On Oct. 24, journalists marched simultaneously in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa, Eskişehir, Antalya, Adana, Kocaeli, Diyarbakır and Van, answering a call from press unions and professional organizations including the Diplomatic Correspondents Association under the slogan “No to censorship, freedom for news.”
Sweeping reforms to capital markets institutions will hinge on a State Audit Council (DDK) report on the multi-billion-dollar investment fund scandal, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan awaiting its findings before taking action.
On Jan. 20, 1921, as the War of Independence was still being fought, the Grand National Assembly adopted a Constitution whose first article began: Sovereignty belongs unconditionally to the nation (Hâkimiyet bilâ kaydü şart milletindir). On Oct. 29, 1923, the assembly added another sentence to that same article: The form of government of the Turkish state is the Republic (Türkiye Devletinin şekl-i hükûmeti Cumhuriyettir).
Azerbaijan has welcomed the United Arab Emirates’ candidate for UN secretary-general just as Ankara prepares to put forward its own. Then, President Ilham Aliyev decided to skip the Organization of Turkic States summit in Ankara on Oct. 30.
The crisis in Turkey’s Ponzi-style fund industry is heading for deadlock as the government refuses to disclose the 141 people and 73 companies that each made more than 100 million liras in unjust gains despite opposition demands for transparency.
To get off the streets in the winter time and have access to food, a homeless man in the Mediterranean resort Alanya insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan since he had nowhere to live. The court sent him to prison as he wanted, reportedly not for the first time, while thousands of people try to escape from similar legal cases.
Journalists will take to the streets on Oct. 24 to urge the government to end the detentions, arrests, blockages, access bans and all kinds of pressure on media members as the crackdown escalated after the liquidation of investment funds.
More than a month after the fund collapse occurred, the shockwaves continue to rock the stock market. The crisis wiped out trillions of liras in corporate market capitalization and drove key valuation metrics to multi-year lows in Borsa Istanbul.
Turkey’s automotive sector is fighting a rearguard battle in Brussels after France and Germany agreed on Oct. 16 to a “Made in Europe” definition that includes the UK and Norway but leaves Turkey out.
Next month Antalya hosts COP31, Nov. 9-20. Ankara has sent two invitations to Cyprus: one, through the conference organizers, to the president of the Republic of Cyprus, and one, from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.