Noticias

Two more Kurdish issue-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputies have been stripped of their parliamentary status following criminal verdicts against them were read out at a parliamentary session.

The summaries of proceedings against MPs Ahmet Yıldırım and İbrahim Ayhan included the final verdict of separate legal cases against them and was read aloud at parliament’s General Assembly on Feb. 27.

Turkey’s opposition said on Thursday new electoral regulations proposed by President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party and its nationalist allies could open the door to fraud and jeopardise the fairness of 2019 elections.

Under a draft law submitted to parliament on Wednesday, security force members will be allowed into polling stations when invited by a voter, a measure the government says will stamp out intimidation by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

El número de personas detenidas en Turquía por criticar la ofensiva militar en el enclave kurdosirio de Afrín, lanzada el pasado 20 de enero, asciende a 786, informó hoy el canal CNNTürk. De esta información se desprende que 120 ciudadanos fueron detenidos por la policía turca en la última semana, ya que el balance anterior del Ministerio del Interior, publicado hace una semana, era de 666.

Both and Turkey and the Iraqi central government said on Oct. 26 that the results of an independence referendum held by Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) last month should be annulled.

The damage caused by the independence vote is “unrecoverable,” Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said on Oct. 26, while earlier in the day, his Iraqi counterpart Haider al-Abadi vowed that Baghdad “will not accept anything but the cancellation of the referendum.”

Changes, subject to a referendum, are to expand president's powers as head of executive while abolishing prime ministry.

Turkey's parliament has approved a draft bill that would dramatically expand the president's powers - paving the way for a referendum later this year.

The government insists the proposal to create an executive presidency will ensure more simple, more stable and more effective administration, but critics say it will give the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, more power that is unchecked.

Turkey’s parliament is set to commence two-stage discussions on government-drafted constitutional amendments on Jan. 9 that are set to usher in a major change in the country’s governance system for an executive presidency despite oppositional concerns that it will lead to authoritarian rule.

  While the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) plans to finish the discussions on the 18-article constitutional proposal in the general assembly in six days, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which opposes the proposal, is planning to block the talks.

The political mercury in Turkey is expected to hit record highs in April, when the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) plans to put a crucial constitutional amendment on a referendum. Given the current political and social trends, the electorate is highly likely to approve the amendment and mark Turkey’s transition to an executive presidency regime — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s biggest dream.

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) officially delivered its draft for a new constitution to the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) on Nov.

The government will implement a constitutional change and shift to a presidential system, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has said, hinting that a meeting with Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli on the charter had been positive. 

“With the MHP, we will make the constitutional change and realize the presidential system, God willing,” Yıldırım said Nov. 11 in the Black Sea province of Trabzon.