A document recently brought to public attention by the FOX TV channel has revealed that in September, the National Police Department warned police stations across the country to take strict security precautions because the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) was planning to carry out a large-scale attack in Turkey.
Acting prime minister and Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Chairman Ahmet Davutoğlu signaled his party's intention to establish a matchmaking agency in order to assist those who wish to get married, during an election rally on Thursday.
Davutoğlu's remarks, which sparked wide commentary on Turkish social media, came during a rally in Şanlıurfa, where he called on people to turn to the government if they have difficulty finding a spouse.
A delegation of the world's leading watchdogs for press freedom ended an unprecedented emergency press freedom mission to Turkey, expressing solidarity with Turkish journalists and calling for an end to the aggressive oppression of the media that it said was hurting Turkish democracy.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has ramped up the rhetoric against Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, saying he should “look in the mirror” if he wants to see a murderer, referring to Demirtaş’s chanting of “murderer state” after the deadly Oct.
An investigation has been launched by the Dutch authorities about an election campaign letter sent by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) to Turkish citizens living in the country, seeking to find out if the privacy of those Turkish citizens was violated in order to obtain their addresses, the Zaman daily said on Monday.
Ninety-four ballot boxes from eight different neighborhoods will be combined into one ballot box in a school building in each of the neighborhoods in the southeastern province of Batman, the media reported on Tuesday.
Opposition party leaders have furiously responded to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s claims that a government without the Justice and Development Party (AKP) would lead to a period similar to the 1990s, an era of unsolved murders and disappearances mostly in the predominantly Kurdish-populated eastern and southeastern Anatolia.
According to new leaked minutes of a meeting of Justice and Development Party (AK Party) officials, the AK Party has created polarization in society for years in order to gain more votes and a new type of polarization must be created on the eve of the general election on Nov. 1.
The polls opened for more than 90,000 Turkish citizens living in the United States on Oct. 17 for the snap Turkish parliamentary elections on Nov. 1, and will last until Oct. 25.
Ballot boxes at seven Turkish representatives across the U.S. were set up on Oct. 17 for some 91,304 Turkish electorates living in the U.S. to cast their votes for the upcoming elections.
Turkish voters have begun to vote at Turkey’s representatives in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Boston and Miami.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has pledged to give support to four Turkish demands on which Ankara has insisted in return for agreeing to a migrant action plan with the European Union.
“There are four elements. Germany is ready to give support on these issues,” Merkel said Oct. 18 during a joint press conference with her Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoğlu.
Merkel made the trip to Turkey amid increasing pressure at home after hundreds of thousands of refugees poured into Germany over the summer.
The source of the current instability in Turkey was the Justice and Development Party (AKP), Turkey’s nationalist leader has said while delivering a speech to a huge crowd at an election rally in Istanbul.
“Turkey is going to the polls [again]… It is clear, in the current environment and conditions, the reason for instability [in Turkey] is the AKP,” Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) head Devlet Bahçeli said on Oct. 18, during his party’s election rally in Istanbul’s Yenikapı neighborhood, Cihan News Agency reported.
A Kurdish problem-oriented Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy candidate for the June 7 elections has claimed he was tortured while under detention for allegedly sharing posts on Twitter which gave information in advance about the Ankara bombing on Oct. 10, daily Cumhuriyet reported on its website on Oct. 18.
The HDP deputy candidate for the June 7 elections and Özgür Gündem columnist, identified only by the initials M.S.P., said he had been ill-treated and tortured while detained by the Anti-Terror Department in Turkey’s southeastern province of Şanlıurfa.
According to a survey released by the Pew Research Center on Thursday, Turks are split on whether democracy in their country is working while positive perception of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is at its lowest point since 2012.
The survey of 947 people, which was conducted between April 5 and May 15, showed the majority of Turks still prefer a democratic form of government rather than a leader with a strong hand.
Acting Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said the June 7 election results, in which the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) lost its parliamentary majority, shocked the party.
The Press for Freedom (ÖiB) platform has pointed to a more direct censorship of thefree media in Turkey in its latest monthly report, mentioning the online TV streaming service Tivibu's removal of TV channels that are critical of the government.
The Republican People’s Party (CHP) has decided to completely cancel all its public election rallies, while the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has opted to continue as planned with the rest of its campaign rallies ahead of the Nov. 1 snap election.
“We have decided to resume the campaign process via initiating one-to-one-contacts with citizens and through district visits instead of mass rallies,” Erdoğan Toprak, the chief advisor to CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, told state-run Anadolu Agency on Oct. 13, citing the Oct. 10 deadly bomb attack in Ankara.
The İstanbul 8th Penal Court of Peace ruled on Wednesday to release Today's Zaman Editor-in-Chief Bülent Keneş pending trial after deliberating on a petition by the lawyers of Keneş, who was arrested on Saturday and detained at Silivri Prison.
Keneş's lawyer, Hasan Günaydın, challenged on Monday the decision to arrest his client, submitting a 14-page petition to the İstanbul 7th Penal Court of Peace. Günaydın asked the court to reconsider its ruling or send the petition to another court to look into.
Turkey’s opposition parties have mobilized to have the country’s national assembly involved in the investigation of the Oct.
Two polling stations in Turkey’s southeastern province of Şırnak have been moved despite a decision by the Supreme Election Board (YSK) rejecting the relocation of ballot boxes for “security” reasons.
The election council in Şırnak’s İdil district reached a decision to move two polling stations located in schools to two other schools within the same neighborhood. The council’s decision was announced through the municipality’s speakers.
