TURKEY has launched a staunch defence of its military campaign in north-eastern Syria following an international backlash. The country began a large-scale military incursion, which it has called Operation Peace Spring, on Wednesday, 9 October, with the aim of creating a “safe zone” on the other side of its border with Syria. The operation went […]
In conversation with Anthony Loyd, Hannah Lucinda Smith analyses Turkey’s ailing democracy – and what Erdoğan’s continuing hold on power means for the rest of us. More than fifteen years before Donald Trump ascended to the American presidency, Turkey was the crucible for the new, authoritarian populism now shaking the world. Its President, Recep Tayyip […]
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has accused one of his former ministers of “abandoning the common cause” after he decided to quit the Justice Development Party (AKP) he helped form. Ankara MP Ali Babacan, one of the founders of the AKP who served as Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Affairs Minister and Economy Minister during a […]
Binali Yıldırım conceded defeat just two hours after counting started, such was the gulf between him and Republican People’s Party candidate Ekrem Imamoğlu, who won Istanbul’s Mayoral election re-run with 54% of the vote on Sunday, 23 June. The former AK Party Prime Minister was aiming to overturn a slender defeat of some 13,000 in […]
Ten million Istanbul residents are returning to the polls today, Sunday 23 June, to elect a mayor after opposition candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu’s surprising win in the March Local Elections was annulled. The relatively unknown İmamoğlu, 49, beat political veteran Binali Yıldırım by 30,000 votes, later whittled down to 13,000 votes after several recounts. Unwilling to […]
Ekrem İmamoğlu, the main opposition candidate fighting for a second time to become mayor of Istanbul, has hit out at a “smear campaign” targeting his ethnicity. Supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his AK party’s candidate Binali Yıldırım have reportedly been suggesting that Mr İmamoğlu is of “secret” Greek heritage, with less than three […]
On Sunday, 31 March, voters across all 81 provinces in Turkey head to the polls to select their local representatives, from city council leaders to village heads. It will be the country’s first elections since last year’s Presidential Elections that the incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan won in the first round. Since then the country has […]
Turkey and Australia are “making progress” in mending their relations after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan angered Prime Minister Scott Morrison by warning that those who come to Turkey with ill intentions would be sent back in coffins “like your grandfathers were” in 1915. Mr Erdoğan was referring to the fate of soldiers from Australia and […]
Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) will support President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the country’s three largest cities in next year’s local elections, it has been reported. MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli said that his party would not put forward any mayoral candidates in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir for the elections due […]
A mega new international airport for Turkey’s biggest city will open as scheduled on Turkish Republic Day this year . The confirmation came from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the wake of strikes by builders working on the site. “The opening date is Oct 29, tests have been carried out… The terminal building is […]
