Turkish authorities have ordered the arrests of dozens of people facing corruption allegations, including opposition party members, in Istanbul and the city of Adana. The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued detention orders for 47 people and detained 30. Others detained included local municipal mayors and Istanbul officials. The operation is the fifth wave of...
Airline passengers to Turkey will be fined if they stand up before the seatbelt sign turns off after landing, regulators have said. The Turkish civil aviation authority said it imposed the order after receiving complaints from passengers. The rules came into effect earlier this month. Turkish media reports say fines will be about about US$70...
Russian President Vladimir Putin is not among the names listed by the Kremlin as being due to attend peace talks on the war in Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday, despite calls from Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky for him to attend. Russia’s delegation will instead be headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, according to the Kremlin statement....
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he will travel to Turkey’s capital Ankara to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and will be available for direct talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Istanbul on Thursday. “We will do everything to ensure that this meeting takes place,” he told reporters in a hastily-arranged briefing. Russia...
Access to the social media account of Istanbul’s jailed opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, has been blocked by the authorities in Turkey. Imamoglu, who is the main rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, can no longer send messages in Turkey to his 9.7 million followers on X. His account is still accessible abroad. His social media...
A trial of nearly 200 people arrested in protests against the Turkish government has opened in Istanbul. Mass demonstrations began on 19 March after Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu – a key rival of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan – was detained on corruption charges, which he denies. Most of the 189 defendants in the trial, which opened...
. The Communist Party of Britain stands in solidarity with the Communist Party of Turkey and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of TKP members and other prisoners who have been detained and arrested in the recent protests against state repression! Below is a letter from our General Secretary, Robert Griffiths: Dear Comrades of TKP,...
‘We’re trying to bring democracy back’: BBC reporter speaks to protesters on the ground in Istanbul I had just sent my family a message saying how happy I was to be back in Turkey, where I used to live, and how it felt like coming home. Then, the phone in my hotel room rang. “We...
BBC correspondent Mark Lowen has been deported from Turkey after being arrested in Istanbul on Wednesday, the BBC has said. Lowen had been in Turkey for several days to report on the ongoing protests that were sparked by the Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu’s arrest last week. Imamoglu – who is being held in jail on...
Thomas Mackintosh BBC News Reuters Thousands of people in Turkey have turned out for a seventh night of protests which have so far seen more than 1,400 people detained, including students, journalists and lawyers. The nightly unrest began last Wednesday when the city’s Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu – who is seen as the President Recep Tayyip...
International outrage and charges of “viciousness” and “outright autocracy” have followed Sunday’s imprisonment of Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s top political rival, the popular Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is seen as Erdogan’s likeliest opposition challenger in upcoming national elections. The corruption charges levied against İmamoğlu, a member of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), are...