Category Archives: Turkey

More than 1,100 detained in Turkey amid huge demonstrations over mayor’s arrest – as it happened

Posted on by

Tens of thousands gathered in Istanbul with unrest likely to continue over treatment of presidential challenger to Erdoğan

The Danish national police force said it has sent extra personnel and sniffer dogs to Greenland as the island steps up security measures ahead of a planned visit this week by second lady Usha Vance, AP reports.

Spokesperson René Gyldensten said the extra officers were part of regular steps taken during visits by dignitaries to Greenland, a self-governing, mineral-rich territory of American ally Denmark.

Continue reading...

Istanbul mayor jailed on day of likely presidential nomination

Posted on by

Ekrem İmamoğlu, rival of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, placed in pre-trial detention along with dozens of staff and officials

An Istanbul court has formally arrested the city’s mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, on corruption charges, sending him to pre-trial detention on the day he is expected to receive his party’s nomination to run for president.

The mayor of Turkey’s largest city and a rival of the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was jailed on charges of leading a criminal organisation, bribery, misconduct and corruption, along with dozens of his staff and municipal officials.

Continue reading...

Turkey’s protests over Istanbul mayor grow into ‘fight about democracy’

Posted on by

Anger over detention of Ekrem Imamoğlu becomes a touchstone for opposing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

When demonstrators gathered ­at Istanbul’s city hall last week in outrage at the arrest of mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, 26-year-old Azra said she was initially too scared to defy a ban on gatherings. As protests grew on university campuses and in cities and towns across Turkey, she could no longer resist joining.

“I saw the spark in people’s eyes and the excitement on their faces, and I decided I had to come down here,” she said with a grin, standing among tens of thousands that defied a ban on assembly to fill the streets around city hall on Friday night. Despite the crowds, Azra feared reprisals and declined to give her full name. Many demonstrators were masked in a bid to defy facial recognition ­technology and fearing the teargas or pepper spray sometimes deployed by the police. Others smiled and took ­selfies to celebrate as fireworks illuminated the night sky.

Continue reading...

‘This is about injustice’: crowds defy ban to protest over Istanbul mayor’s detention

Posted on by

People gather at city hall and students march in anger at arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu, a likely opposition candidate for presidency

Outside Istanbul’s city hall on Wednesday night a mass of protesters gathered in the freezing air to defy a city-wide ban on gatherings. A banner bearing a portrait of the Istanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, giving a speech alongside the words “sovereignty belongs unconditionally to the nation” covered part of the facade of his now vacant office.

In dawn raids that morning police had detained İmamoğlu, the only contender seen as capable of defeating Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in presidential elections. For many residents of Turkey’s largest city, the arrest symbolised how far the state was willing to go to remove a perceived threat to the incumbent president.

Continue reading...

Istanbul mayor arrested days before likely presidential nomination

Posted on by

Ekrem İmamoğlu of CHP opposition party detained alongside 100 others accused of corruption and links to terror groups

Turkish police have arrested the mayor of Istanbul, detaining the primary challenger to the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in dawn raids that also ensnared 100 politicians, businesspeople and municipal officials accused of corruption and links to terror groups.

Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor, released a video statement as police gathered outside his residence in Istanbul, speaking to the camera as he put on a shirt and tie before his arrest. In a caption accompanying the video posted to social media, he wrote: “This is a blow to the will of the people.”

Continue reading...

Global celebrations and protests mark International Women’s Day

Posted on by

From Istanbul and Warsaw to Athens and Madrid, activists demand equality and the end of gender-based violence

Women took to the streets of cities across Europe, Africa and elsewhere to mark International Women’s Day with demands for ending inequality and gender-based violence.

On the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city Istanbul, a rally in Kadiköy saw members of dozens of women’s groups listen to speeches, dance and sing in the spring sunshine. The colorful protest was overseen by a large police presence, including officers in riot gear and a water cannon truck.

Continue reading...

PKK declares ceasefire with Turkey after more than 40 years of conflict

Posted on by

Kurdish militant group responds to call from its jailed leader, Abdullah Öcalan, to lay down arms

Outlawed Kurdish militants have declared a ceasefire with Turkey after a landmark call by the jailed PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan, asking the group to disband.

It was the first reaction from the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) after Öcalan this week called for the dissolution of the group and asked it to lay down arms after fighting the Turkish state for more than four decades.

Continue reading...

Jailed Kurdish leader calls for PKK to disarm – in shift that could shake up Turkey and Middle East

Posted on by

Abdullah Öcalan’s message, which follows four decades of guerrilla warfare, will have far-reaching implications

The ageing leader of a Kurdish militant group imprisoned on a remote Turkish island has called on the group to disarm and dissolve itself, opening the door to a fragile peace with Turkey after four decades of guerrilla warfare, attacks and reprisals.

Abdullah Öcalan, a founding member of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), a group long regarded as a terrorist organisation in Turkey as well as in Britain and the US, issued the message in a letter read out by allies in Istanbul.

Continue reading...

Why has PKK leader called on group to dissolve – and why does it matter?

Posted on by

Abdullah Öcalan’s declaration paves way for end to 40-year conflict between militant Kurdish groups and Turkish state

The jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) has called on the group to disarm and dissolve, a major development that paves the way towards ending the 40-year conflict between militant Kurdish groups and the Turkish state and has far-reaching implications for the rest of the Middle East.

“I am making a call for the laying down of arms and I take on the historical responsibility for this call,” Abdullah Öcalan was quoted as saying in a letter read out by political allies in Istanbul. “All groups must lay down their arms and the PKK must dissolve itself.”

Continue reading...

Bulgarian police ‘blocked rescue’ of teenage migrants who froze to death

Posted on by

Report by rights groups alleges border police refused to rescue boys and blocked activists’ efforts to save them

Bulgarian authorities have been accused of ignoring emergency calls and obstructing efforts to rescue three Egyptian teenage boys, who later died in sub-zero temperatures near the Bulgarian-Turkish border in late December.

A dossier of evidence compiled by two humanitarian organisations, seen by the Guardian, contains photos, testimonies and geolocations allegedly showing the authorities’ failure to save the boys, who called for help as they struggled cold and lost in the forests of Burgas, in south-eastern Bulgaria.

Continue reading...

Dozens dead as people jump from windows to escape fire at Turkish ski resort hotel

Posted on by

Witnesses say people used bed sheets or jumped to try to get out of the 12-storey Grand Kartal hotel after fire broke out early in the morning

Seventy-six people died and 51 others were injured when a fire engulfed a popular ski resort hotel in Turkey’s Bolu mountains, forcing guests to jump out of windows or attempt to use bed sheets to flee the building.

The fire broke out at about 3.30am on Tuesday in the restaurant of the 12-storey Grand Kartal hotel in the resort of Kartalkaya in Bolu province, north-west Turkey.

Continue reading...

Kurdish general urges Trump to leave US troops in north-east Syria

Posted on by

Exclusive: SDF leader says removal of 2,000-strong force would leave door open for Islamic State resurgence

The leader of the Kurdish forces that control north-eastern Syria has called on Donald Trump to maintain a US military presence in the region, warning that a retreat would risk a resurgence of Islamic State in the country.

Gen Mazloum Abdi, the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said IS had increased its strength in the desert after seizing arms from the collapsed Assad regime, while the Kurdish forces were coming under increased pressure from Turkey and its Syrian proxies.

Continue reading...

Strasbourg court finds Greece guilty of ‘systematic’ pushback of asylum seekers

Posted on by

In ‘potentially trailblazing’ decision, European court of human rights finds country engaging in illicit deportations

The European court of human rights has found Greece guilty of conducting “systematic” pushbacks of would-be asylum seekers, ordering it to compensate a woman forcibly expelled back to Turkey despite her attempts to seek protection in the country.

In a judgment described as potentially trailblazing, the Strasbourg-based tribunal awarded the complainant damages of €20,000 (£16,500), citing evidence that the frontline EU state was engaging in the illicit deportations when she was removed.

Continue reading...

Airstrikes hit hospitals in Syria’s Idlib region as insurgents fight Assad forces

Posted on by

White Helmets say at least 18 people killed in strikes on five healthcare facilities including maternity hospital

A wave of airstrikes has pummelled hospitals and neighbourhoods in the rebel-held region of Idlib in northern Syria as Islamist insurgents continued to battle forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad after the militants’ lightning assault on Aleppo.

White Helmets civil defence forces based in Idlib, from where the insurgents had launched their attack, said Russian airstrikes had struck five healthcare facilities including a maternity hospital. At least 18 people were killed and 35 injured, they said, adding that they feared numbers could rise.

Continue reading...

Syria crisis due to Assad’s refusal to engage with opposition, says Turkish minister

Posted on by

Iran’s foreign minister blamed Israel’s intervention instead, but emergency talks in Ankara said to be ‘constructive’

The crisis in Syria is the result of President Bashar al-Assad’s refusal to engage in political dialogue with the opposition, and not external interventions, the Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, said after meeting his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, for emergency talks in Ankara.

Araghchi, by contrast, blamed intervention by Israel for the crisis. But the two sides appeared to agree on the need to convene an urgent summit between Turkey, Iran and Russia, the three main external powers inside Syria.

Continue reading...

Trump Pentagon pick attacks UN and Nato and urges US to ignore Geneva conventions

Posted on by

Revealed: Pete Hegseth writes scathingly of key institutions and says ‘If you love America, you should love Israel’

Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, has attacked several key US alliances such as Nato, allied countries such as Turkey and international institutions such as the United Nations in two recent books, as well as saying US troops should not be bound by the Geneva conventions.

At the same time, the man who would head America’s gigantic military has tied US foreign policy almost entirely to the priority of Israel, a country of which he says: “If you love America, you should love Israel.”

Continue reading...

Turkish woman convicted under anti-terror laws for sharing Guardian article

Posted on by

Peri Pamir given suspended sentence after posting article about UK woman killed fighting with Kurdish forces in Syria

A Turkish woman who shared a Guardian article on social media about a British woman killed fighting with Kurdish forces in Syria has described how she was twice convicted of “sharing terrorist propaganda” in an Istanbul court.

“I am basically just an ordinary citizen, there is no reason why I should attract any special attention. This is the disturbing part,” said Peri Pamir, a 71-year-old retired researcher.

Continue reading...

Woman from Wales died after gastric sleeve surgery in Turkey, inquest hears

Posted on by

Janet Savage went into cardiac arrest after injury to abdominal aorta during operation in August last year

A woman died during an operation after travelling to Turkey for slimming surgery, an inquest heard.

Janet Savage, 54, was undergoing a gastric “stomach sleeve” operation but never came around from the procedure.

Continue reading...

Turkish film festival scrapped over Daniel Craig gay drama censorship

Posted on by

Mubi cancels four-day event in protest as local government blocks screening of Luca Guadagnino-directed movie Queer

Organisers of an Istanbul film festival announced its cancellation on Thursday to protest against a local authority ban on the screening of Queer, a drama starring Daniel Craig.

The arthouse film streaming platform Mubi said it was cancelling the entire four-day festival just hours before it was set to open in Kadikoy, on the Asian side of Istanbul.

Continue reading...

Turkey strikes in Syria and Iraq after attack on defence firm near Ankara

Posted on by

Airstrikes launched against suspected Kurdish militant targets after PKK blamed for Tusaş attack

Turkey has launched airstrikes against suspected Kurdish militant targets in Syria and Iraq after blaming the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) for a deadly attack on the headquarters of the Turkish national aerospace company on Wednesday that killed five people.

Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization said it had targeted numerous “strategic locations” used by the PKK, or by Syrian Kurdish militia affiliated with the militants, the Anadolu Agency reported.

Continue reading...