Noticias

Opposition parties have ratcheted up their criticisms against the government over massive corruption and graft claims in their pre-election rallies, accusing the prime minister and government members of robbing the state and the people. 

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has continued his salvo against the opposition during his party’s rally in the southern province of Adıyaman on March 4. 

Not a day passes by without another headline indicating the imminent “fall” of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. And not a day passes by without Erdogan and Justice and Development Party (AKP) officials answering every allegation by referring to the “the ballot box.” Erdogan has turned the upcoming municipal elections into a "vote of confidence” for himself.

Turkish Parliament finalized a heavy-scheduled plenary on Saturday and went to recess until the local polls following the adoption of “democratization package” that brings about the right to political campaign in one’s mother language. 

Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) applied to the top court for the annulment of a controversial judicial bill, hours after it was approved by President Abdullah Gül.  CHP made its application on the grounds that the bill was unconstitutional. 

Last week, CHP has filed an application to the Constitutional Court demanding that a law restructuring Turkey’s top judicial institution be declared null and void, but its demand was rejected since the bill was not approved by the president. 

During a “Sunday coffee chat” with journalists in the Huber Palace, which has an impressive view of the Bosphorus, President Abdullah Gül frankly admitted that all efforts to impose bans on the Internet would bear no results. “Even the Americans gave it up,” he said. “As far as I know, they tried a lot after the Snowden leaks.”

A controversial law approved by Parliament over the weekend turns the justice minister into a “Chief Qadi” for the country, as the law empowers him with extraordinary authority, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has suggested. 

Speaking at a press conference at Parliament on Feb. 17, CHP Deputy Chair Faruk Loğoğlu said the law’s eventual aim was to “transform the state into a Sultanate.”