Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
“Casablanca” ends on a fogbound airfield. The plane to Lisbon has gone, and the idealists with it. What remains is a cynic and a prefect of police, each of whom has just discovered how useful the other might be. “Louis,” says Rick, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
TA began delivery of T625 Gökbey helicopters to the police, while also completing the first flight of the serial produced Hürjet jet trainer.
Police forcibly intervened on Aug. 13 against striking miners outside the Energy Ministry in Ankara, detaining union leaders and multiple workers on the fourth day of their protest over unpaid wages.
In a surprising development, police have detained prominent pro-government journalist Cem Küçük in Istanbul, soon after he parted ways with İhlas Media Group.
Reports of police mistreatment and physical abuse during police detention are rising, as figures, such as journalists and comedians after detentions or arrests speak louder.
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.
Teachers have begun hunger strikes in a central Ankara park after encountering violent treatment from the police during protests outside the Education Ministry.
Turkey's oldest and main opposition party, the CHP, is now effectively divided in two after a court annulled the party's November 2023 congress and reinstated former chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in place of Özgür Özel. The split became more visible when both camps held rallies simultaneously at 2 p.m. on May 30. Kılıçdaroğlu returned to party headquarters to chants of 'Kılıçdaroğlu, the people's hope' — a stark reversal from just days earlier, when another crowd had branded him a 'traitor' and 'the AKP's hope' on May 24, reacting to the court-ordered change in the party leadership carried out with police support. The first head-to-head show of strength between the two camps laid bare a simple reality: Özel commands greater grassroots support, but Kılıçdaroğlu holds the formal authority to run the party.
A former top prosecutor, wanted for nearly a decade over his alleged ties to the Gülenist movement, which Turkey officially designated as a terrorist group, was arrested after police found him hiding in a secret compartment inside a wardrobe.
The financial crimes police raided Şile Municipality on July 10, detaining Mayor Özgür Kabadayı as part of the widening corruption investigations targeting CHP-run municipalities. It was yet another ordinary day for the main opposition, which has been facing near-daily legal turmoil since Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was detained on March 19. CHP Istanbul Chair Özgür Çelik said Kabadayı and several others were detained in house raids at 1:30 a.m. Arrest warrants were issued for at least six individuals, said the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appointed a new national police chief and reassigned several governors and provincial police directors in a presidential decree published in the Official Gazette on April 30.
So our word of the week is soygun, robbery - as in art heist. On a quiet Sunday morning in Paris, the world’s most visited museum turned into a crime scene. In under eight minutes, thieves hit the Louvre’s Galerie d’Apollon (the home of France’s Crown Jewels) and fled with royal pieces tied to Empresses Marie-Louise and Eugénie, and Queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense. Investigators say the crew used a lift to breach an upper window. Ministers Rachida Dati and Laurent Nuñez confirmed that the alarm tripped and police arrived within minutes. The symbolism stings more than the price tag. (Think eight figures.)