Noticias

In preparation for the run-up to a two-round presidential election scheduled for August, opposition parties have started to consider nominating a joint candidate.

The idea behind a joint candidate is to name the strongest possible competitor to the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) candidate, who will most likely be Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The elections scheduled for August will be different to those of the past, as Turks will be electing their president through direct voting for the first time.

A Turkish court in Ankara has granted a stay of execution for a ban on YouTube following an appeal by the company’s lawyer, Gönenç Gürkaynak.

Access to YouTube was blocked March 27 by Turkey’s Telecommunications Authority (TİB) without being supported by a court decision, hours after recordings of a key security meeting on Syria were leaked online.

The decision by Ankara’s 4th Administrative Court paves the way for a lifting of the ban on the popular video-sharing website.

Parliament will gather today for a long-delayed session, during which summary of proceedings for four ex-ministers of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) facing graft charges will be debated.

The session comes after a one-and-a-half month delay due to the local elections held on March 30 and also a procedural flaw in the related motions.

Details of a democratic autonomy project offered by pro-Kurdish politicians to settle the Kurdish issue are now being clarified, with politicians and academics affiliated with the People's Democracy Party (HDP) noting that the canton model emerging in the Kurdish region of Rojava in the north of Syria could be used as a model for Turkey as well.
 

On May 1, Freedom House published its 2014 rankings, in which Turkish press freedom regressed from the "partly free" to the "not free" category. With the release coming just two days before World Press Freedom Day, Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) could not ignore the report's findings, which opened up a Pandora’s box of reaction from the government and its supporters.

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has decided to maintain a three-term limit for its deputies, the clearest signal yet that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan will run for the presidency in an August election, the party said on May 2.

There has been speculation the AKP would change its rules to enable Erdoğan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade, to stay on as prime minister for a fourth term and finish off a power struggle with U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gülen he accuses of seeking to topple him.

The prosecutor who sparked controversy by sending a summons “by mistake” to the main opposition leader, Republican People’s Party (CHP) head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, said the matter had been “exaggerated." In an extensive written statement released on May 2, he also confirmed that the plaintiff was the Turkish prime minister’s son, Bilal Erdoğan.

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has decided to maintain a three-term limit for its deputies, the clearest signal yet that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan will run for the presidency in an August election, the party said on May 2.

There has been speculation the AKP would change its rules to enable Erdoğan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade, to stay on as prime minister for a fourth term and finish off a power struggle with U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gülen he accuses of seeking to topple him.

The complaint that led to the prosecution of Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on insult charges was filed by Bilal Erdoğan, the son of the Turkish prime minister, daily Hürriyet reported on April 30.

The investigation was publically revealed after Kılıçdaroğlu was asked to testify in a case on April 30, despite being legally immune from prosecution as a parliamentary deputy.