Category Archives: Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Turkey likely to be excluded from Gaza stabilisation force after Israeli objection

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Doubts over whether Ankara will be part of 5,000-strong force to be deployed to prevent postwar power vacuum

Turkey will probably be excluded from the 5,000-strong stabilisation force that is to be set up inside Gaza after Israel made clear it did not want Turkish troops taking part.

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said it was a requirement that Israel is comfortable with the nationality of the multinational force, set up to prevent a security vacuum when the massive task of reconstruction in Gaza starts. Turkey has said it is willing to offer troops, but Israel has let it be known that it disapproves of Turkish troops taking part in the force.

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Putin, Modi and Erdoğan among leaders in China for talks with Xi

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Chinese president hosts bilateral meetings on sidelines of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin

Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin have met on the sidelines of a showpiece summit in China that seeks to challenge US-led, western-dominated blocs and is being attended by the leaders of more than two dozen nations.

The Chinese and Russian leaders, who are closely allied under what they have termed a “limitless” partnership, discussed Putin’s recent meeting with Donald Trump, according to a Kremlin official, who gave no further details.

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Turkish police arrest more than 50 people before banned Istanbul Pride parade

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City’s bar association says people ‘deprived of their liberty through arbitrary, unjust, and illegal detention’

Police arrested more than 50 people in Istanbul on Sunday ahead of a banned LGBTQ+ Pride march, the city’s bar association said.

“Before today’s Istanbul Pride march, four of our colleagues, including members of our Human Rights Centre, along with more than 50 people, were deprived of their liberty through arbitrary, unjust, and illegal detention,” the Istanbul Bar’s Human Rights Centre posted on X.

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Erdoğan tells protesters against Islamification in northern Cyprus they will fail

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Turkish president at odds with thousands of Turkish Cypriots who object to his attempts to undermine their secular way of life

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has warned protesters in breakaway northern Cyprus not “to sow seeds of hatred” amid mounting discord over Ankara’s perceived attempts to Islamise one of the world’s most secular Muslim societies.

In a whirlwind visit to the Turkish-occupied territory on Saturday the leader had tough words for Turkish Cypriots who have stepped up demonstrations against policies he openly endorses, not least a controversial law allowing headscarves to be worn in schools.

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Erdoğan lambasts Israel for undermining stability in Syria

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Turkey’s president lashes out shortly after talks with Netanyahu’s government aimed at defusing tensions

The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has lambasted Israel for undermining stability in neighbouring Syria during a diplomatic forum, days after the two countries held talks aimed at defusing an escalating conflict between them on Syrian soil.

“Turkey will not allow Syria to be dragged into a new vortex of instability,” Erdoğan told attendees at the Antalya diplomacy forum on the southern Turkish coast, accusing Israel of “trying to undermine the 8 December revolution”, in reference to the insurgency that toppled the former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad after decades in power.

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Turkish opposition leader calls for weekly rallies and deeper economic boycott

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Özgür Özel expanded call to boycott companies perceived as close to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Turkey’s anti-government protesters are weighing their options, amid calls by the main opposition leader for weekly rallies, a growing economic boycott and a groundswell of fired-up student demonstrators determined to stay on the streets.

The leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Özgür Özel, expanded a call to boycott goods and services from companies perceived as close to the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, during a rally in support of the jailed Istanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu.

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Turkish opposition rallies in defence of jailed Istanbul mayor in mass protest

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Hundreds of thousands gather for Ekrem İmamoğlu outside Istanbul centre in move to keep momentum after clashes with police

Turkey’s main opposition has rallied in defence of the jailed Istanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, in a move to sustain the largest anti-government demonstrations in years.

Hundreds of thousands of people attended the protest called by the head of the opposition Republican People’s party (CHP) in a spot far from the Istanbul city centre. The party leader, Özgur Özel, claimed 2.2 million people attended.

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‘It’s disinformation’: Turkish state TV avoids any coverage of mass street protests

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News of protests has been preserve of a few newspapers and channels outside well funded pro-government networks

At the same time as the sound of clanging pots and pans rang out through the streets of opposition strongholds in Istanbul on a recent evening, marking another mass anti-government demonstration, a different reality was being broadcast to viewers of Turkish pro-government channels.

Public television showed the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, speaking to a gilded conference room after an iftar dinner. He boasted of his government’s achievements, of hiring new teachers and attracting youth to an aerospace and technology conference.

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Eight journalists covering anti-government protests held in Turkey

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Arrests condemned as ‘unlawful’ by press freedom groups, highlighting growing repression amid demonstrations against President Erdoğan

A prosecutor in Istanbul has remanded eight journalists in custody, reversing a decision to release them after they were arrested for covering Turkey’s largest anti-government protests in years.

The journalists were among 10 arrested in dawn raids on their homes earlier this week. An Istanbul court initially ruled the journalists should be released before reversing the decision and issuing an official arrest order, according to their lawyers and representatives.

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Ekrem İmamoğlu: jailed rival to Turkish president who could emerge stronger

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Istanbul mayor has become the only politician capable of challenging Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the ballot box

When crowds of police arrived at the residence of the Istanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, to arrest him in a dawn raid last week, his response was calm and deliberate. The mayor of Turkey’s largest city – a longtime rival of the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan – issued a video message to his supporters, filming himself as he put on a crisp white shirt and tie to be dressed for his detention.

“A small group is trying to usurp the will of the people,” he said. “I will stand strong.”

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Istanbul mayor jailed on day of likely presidential nomination

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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Istanbul mayor arrested days before likely presidential nomination

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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.”

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Terror attack blamed as five killed and 22 wounded at Turkish aerospace firm

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Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemns ‘heinous’ attack after explosion and reports of gunfire at Tusaş HQ near Ankara

Turkey’s interior minister has blamed a “terrorist attack” for an explosion and assault at the headquarters of the national aerospace company, Tusaş, outside Ankara that has killed five people and wounded 22 others.

The large blast happened outside the building at 4pm on Wednesday, and there were reports that gunfire was also heard in the vicinity.

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UN chief calls Middle East crisis ‘nightmare’ amid push for Lebanon ceasefire

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António Guterres says violence puts region at risk as Hezbollah and Israel seem unwilling to dial down fighting

The UN secretary general has told world leaders that Lebanon is on the brink of becoming a second Gaza, adding that the crisis has “become a non-stop nightmare that threatens to take the whole region down”.

António Guterres made his warning as diplomats meeting in New York for the UN general assembly battled to impose a ceasefire in Lebanon and to hold Israel back from a possible ground invasion.

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Fury in Turkey as animal lovers and politicians attack ‘massacre law’ to deal with 4m stray dogs

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A new bill forcing local authorities to remove homeless animals from city streets has led to a furious backlash

Next to the network of the highways that crisscross Turkey, among the lush forests or mountain peaks that dot the country, large stray dogs are a common sight. Most are pale white Akbaş dogs or Kangal shepherds, with their distinctive dark muzzle, pale golden coat and large bodies designed to herd livestock, although on the streets of Istanbul they are more commonly found lazing outside coffee shops, rotund and docile from a lifetime of treats.

In cities at least, the stray dogs are popular enough to be seen as part of the architecture. One particularly large and sleepy example that dozes outside an ice-cream shop on Istanbul’s main shopping street has become a local celebrity nicknamed “The Boulder”, complete with a string of rave reviews left by delighted tourists. The dog is marked as an Istanbul tourist attraction on Google Maps, which features a recommendation to avoid petting him.

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Egypt and Turkey’s nascent alliance tested by new crisis in Libya

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Fallout from Libyan central bank governor’s dismissal presents immediate challenge for Sisi and Erdoğan

A new alliance between Egypt and Turkey designed to end a long-running dispute over events in the Middle East faces it first major test in the shape of a worsening political crisis in Libya linked to control of its oil wealth.

Egypt and Turkey fell out in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab spring, primarily because of the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s coup against his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi, an ally of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

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Turkey parliament descends into chaos as dozens of MPs take part in fistfight

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Staff were left cleaning bloodstains from the floor after brawl which started when one MP called the ruling majority ‘terrorists’

Dozens of lawmakers became embroiled in a fisticuffs brawl in Turkey’s parliament on Friday as they argued over a jailed opposition deputy stripped of his parliamentary immunity this year.

The 30-minute ruckus, which left at least two lawmakers injured, forced the suspension of the hearing. Deputies eventually returned for a vote that rejected an opposition move to restore the parliamentary mandate of lawyer and rights activist Can Atalay.

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Turkey approves ‘massacre law’ to remove millions of stray dogs

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Animal lovers fear legislation will lead to many of the dogs being killed or ending up in overcrowded shelters

Turkish legislators have approved a law aimed at removing millions of stray dogs from the country’s streets that animal lovers fear will lead to many of the dogs being killed or ending up in neglected, overcrowded shelters.

Some critics also say the law will be used to target the opposition, which made huge gains in the latest local elections. The legislation includes penalties for mayors who fail to carry out its provisions and the main opposition party has promised not to implement it.

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