AKP KEEPS THE CLOCK RUNNING ON OPPOSITION MAYORS THROUGH RAIDS, RULINGS AND DEFECTIONS
Muğla and Manisa mayors denied switching to the AKP as operations against CHP and Yeni Party municipalities continued and courts delivered a string of rulings.
Analysis
In-Depth Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
WHERE’S THE PARTY?
CHP tears itself in two, Özel ponders a new party; Stay till the end, he says, and take it back, hearty; But should the courts not bend, he's got a backup plan: 110 MPs, and himself as the new man.
TURKEY COURTS IRAQ AND SYRIA AT CRITICAL MOMENT FOR PEACE PROCESS
Turkey made simultaneous overtures to Iraq and Syria at a critical moment for the peace process, as the government prepares to submit the bill to parliament before the summer recess. National Intelligence Organization (MİT) chief İbrahim Kalın completed a three-day tour of Iraq while Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi held security talks in Damascus.
MASSIVE ARREST WAVE HITS ANKARA AHEAD OF NATO SUMMIT
More than 200 people were detained in police raids ahead of the upcoming NATO summit scheduled for July 7-8 in Ankara. Following the sweeping operations launched by the Ankara police on June 23, courts have already ordered the formal arrest of 103 individuals out of 129 referred to the judiciary.
GOVERNMENT AIMS TO SPEED UP COURTS AND STREAMLINE APPEALS
The government is planning legislation to accelerate court cases, ease access to justice and possibly make radical changes to the appeals system.
FOUR JOURNALISTS SENTENCED TO PRISON
Two Turkish courts have handed down prison sentences to four journalists who were facing the same accusation of 'spreading information misleading to the public,' under Article 217/A of the penal code.
SEVERAL COURT CASES KEEP CHP UNDER JUDICIAL SIEGE
On Feb. 23, four separate courts in Istanbul and Ankara heard cases involving the CHP congress, corruption claims by businessperson and confessor Aziz İhsan Aktaş, accusations about its provincial chair, and the trial of a party bus driver.
STRASBOURG’S TIME MACHINE: İMAMOĞLU, “PRIORITY”, AND TURKEY’S RETURN TO THE 1990S
There are mornings when you wake up and discover someone has quietly replaced your streaming subscriptions with a box of VHS tapes. The picture is grainy, the dialogue familiar, the plot depressingly simple: detention, indictment, polarisation, and non-functioning courts. Welcome back to the future, 1990s Turkey in the 21st century.
WOUNDS BANDAGED, SCARS REMAIN: WHERE IS THE PEOPLE’S ALLIANCE HEADED?
Excluding their early courtship phase, the AKP and MHP have now completed seven years of formal partnership. In their partnership, branded the “People’s Alliance,” the two parties have gone through five electoral contests — one referendum, two general elections, and two local elections. Like any relationship, this one has had its ups and downs. Many of the rifts that the public interpreted as “cracks” or “crises” within the alliance were quickly smoothed over through mutual statements. But, the crisis of the past two weeks has been among the deepest since the alliance was formed.