For second time Erdogan's AKP looses the election for mayor of Istanbul

(Photo The Pessoptimist)

The candidate of the Republican People's Party (CHP) on Sunday won the second ballot during the election of the mayor of Istanbul.   After 95% of the votes had been counted, the candidate of the governing AK Party of  Recep Tayip Erdogan conceded he lost. ''According to the result as of now, my competitor Ekrem Imamoglu is leading the race. I congratulate him and wish him good luck," Binali Yildirim said. The CHP had more than 53% of the vote at that moment, while the AKP candidate reached 534,4 percent.
De win of the CHP in Istanbul election ends the 17 year rule by the AK Party in Turkey's largest city and commercial hub. The Istanbul mayoral election was first held on March 31. At that vtime Imamoglu won with 48.8 percent of the vote, while the AK Party's Yildirim got 48.55 percent, so that Imamoglu became mayor with a very small margin. But at the instigation of president Erdogan the AKP contested the results, which had the consequence that the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) annulled the results on dispututede grounds and scheduled a rerun.

Erdogan's AKP loses big cities in election

Erdogan (Wikipedia)

The Justice and Development Party (AKP), the party of president Erdogan has won Sunday's elections in Turkey, although it lost votes compared to the last elections. Nationwide it scored, together with its coalition partner,  more than 50 percent. But the ruling party lost in the capital, Ankara, and in also in Istanbul.

The party made known however that it is objecting to the resultas. Bayram Senocak, the AK Party's top official in Istanbul, said on Tuesday he has submitted objections to results in all 39 of the city's districts, seeking a recount to fix alleged irregularities and a reassessment of invalid votes.

The same happend in Ankara. There Hakan Han Ozcan, AK Party's chairman, told reporters they were also filing an appeal in 25 districts of the city.

Erdoğan wins narrow victory in referendum for sweeping powers

 The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has achieved a narrow victory in a historic referendum on a package of constitutional amendments that will grant him sweeping new powers.
Sadi Güven, the head of Turkey’s high electoral board (YSK), confirmed the passage of the referendum on Sunday night, based on unofficial results.
The yes campaign won 1.25m more votes than the no campaign, with only about 600,000 votes still to be counted, Güven told reporters in Ankara, meaning the expanded presidential powers had been approved.
However, disparities persisted into Sunday evening, with the opposition saying not all ballots had been counted and they would contest a third of the votes that had been cast.
Güven said the YSK had decided to consider unstamped ballots as valid unless they were proved to be fraudulent, after a high number of complaints – including one from the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) – that its officials had failed to stamp some ballot papers.
The no campaign said the YSK’s last-minute decision raised questions about the validity of the vote. But Güven said the decision was taken before results were entered into the system and that members of the AKP and the main opposition were present at almost all polling stations and signed off on reports. He said official results were expected in 11-12 days.

Bombs kill 38 people in Istanbul, most of them policemen

 (Foto AFP)
Turkey said on Sunday that Kurdish militants may be responsible for the two bombs that killed 38 people and wounded 155 in what looked to be a coordinated attack on police outside a soccer stadium in Istanbul after a match between two top teams.
The blasts on Saturday night - a car bomb outside the Vodafone Arena, home to Istanbul's Besiktas soccer team, followed by a suicide bomb attack in an adjacent park less than a minute later - shook a nation still trying to recover from a series of deadly bombings this year in cities including Istanbul and the capital Ankara.
There was no claim of responsibility, but Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said early indications pointed to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has carried out a three-decade insurgency, mainly in Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast. Ten people have been detained so far, he said.

Turkish parliament lifts immunity of HDP-members

The Turkish Parliament has approved a controversial constitutional amendment to lift the immunity of 139 MPs. Deputies from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) are now expected to be arrested on terror-related charges and an anticipated wave of social unrest.
Some 376 out of 550 deputies voted in favor of the motion in the second and final vote on May 20, comfortably passing the required 367 majority to have it approved without the need to go to a referendum. The first and second clauses of the amendment were accepted in the second round of voting, with 373 and 374 votes respectively.
Proposed by the 316-seat ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and heavily backed by the 40-seat Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the draft received 357 votes in the first round of vote as the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the HDP deputies did not vote in favor.
However, it is believed that around 20 lawmakers from the CHP voted in favor of the motion in the second round in order not to cause a referendum that would jeopardize the societal order.

Heavy sentences for two Turkish journalists who reported weapons transport

Erdem Gül (left) and Can Dündar. (Foto Milliyet)
 
Two prominent Turkish journalists were sentenced to at least five years in jail for revealing state secrets on Friday, just hours after a gunman tried to shoot one of them outside the courthouse in Istanbul. Can Dündar, editor-in-chief of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, who was unscathed in the shooting, was given five years and 10 months. Erdem Gül, the newspaper's Ankara bureau chief, was sentenced to five years. They were acquitted of some other charges, including trying to topple the government.The case, in which President Tayyip Erdogan was named as a complainant, has brought widespread condemnation from global rights groups.
Hours before the verdict was handed down, an assailant attempted to shoot Dündar. In full public view, before a courthouse.The man shouted "traitor" before firing at least two shots in quick succession. A reporter covering the trial appeared to have been wounded. The assailant was detained by police. "We experienced two assassination attempts in two hours: one by firearms, the other by law," Dündar told reporters following the trial."

Suicide bombers kill more than 100 at peaceful Kurdish, leftist rally in Ankara

(Photo AFP)

Updated. Twin explosions caused by two suicide bombers killed more than 100 people at a rally of pro-Kurdish and leftist activists outside Ankara's main train station on Saturday. Witnesses said the two explosions happened seconds apart shortly after 10.00 a.m. as hundreds gathered for a planned march to protest over a conflict between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants in the southeast. There were no claims of responsibility for the attack.
Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu told a news conference that 86 people had been killed and 186 wounded, 28 of whom were in intensive care. The death toll could rise further. 
Turkey has been in a heightened state of alert since starting a "synchronized war on terror" in July, including air strikes against Islamic State fighters in Syria and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) bases in northern Iraq. It has also rounded up hundreds of suspected Kurdish and Islamist militants at home.

After joining fight against IS, Turkey attacked Kurdish bases and arrested some 600 people

 In massive operations Turkey arrested about 600 Kurds and IS-supporters all over Turkey on Friday and Saturday.(Photo AFP)

Turkey said on Saturday that its fighter jets hit militant camps of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq overnight, and Turkish ground forces struck the PKK and Islamic State fighters in northern Syria. The strikes against PKK targets are likely to be a major blow to the stalled Kurdish peace process.
Turkey also started a massive operation to arrest Kurds and IS sympathizers all over teh country. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said at a press conference on Saturday that in addition to 302 people detained on Friday, 288 more were detained in operations that took place in 22 provinces throughout the night and early on Saturday. “As of now, a total of 590 terror-linked people who pose potential threat to Turkey are under detention,” he said. Turkish police launched first raids on Friday targeting ISIL, the PKK and the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) in 13 provinces across Turkey and detained 297 suspects.
Early on Saturday police teams raided addresses in a number of provinces, including İstanbul, Ankara, Konya, Adana and Erzincan and detained many people. In Adana, 54 people were detained in an operation that targeted ISIL and the Patriotic Revolutionist Youth Movement (YDG-H) -- an affiliate of the PKK.

Turkey bombs positions of PKK

Smoke from bombardments rises above the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobani. (Photo: Reuters) 

Turkish air force bombed Kurdish fighters of the PKK who were furious over Ankara's refusal to help protect their kin in Syria on Tuesday, Reuters reprioted. The PKK accused Ankara of violating a two-year-old cease-fire with the air strikes, on the eve of a deadline set by the group's jailed leader to salvage a peace process aimed at halting a three-decades-long insurgency.
The Hürriyet daily reported Tuesday that the PKK had been attacking a military outpost in the Dağlıca region. The air operation was the most comprehensive one since the government launched what it calls the settlement process aimed at solving the decades-old Kurdish issue, the daily said. It added that the air strikes caused "major damage" to the PKK.

Kurds flee in the thousands to Turkey after ISIS captured area around

Fleeing Kurds at the Turkish border.  (Photo AA).

 Turkish authorities opened the border with Syria on Sept. 19, allowing hundreds of Kurds fleeing from brutal attacks by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to cross into Turkey.
“We will take in our brothers fleeing to Anatolia from Syria or any other place, without any ethnic or sectarian discrimination,” Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said during a visit to Azerbaijan after the government was forced to act by refugees streaming to the border and locals in Turkey converging on the area, demanding that their ethnic kin be permitted to cross.
He said he personally ordered the borders opened for the refugees who had gathered along the wire fences separating the two countries since Sept. 16, amid escalating clashes. “The entries have started now,” Davutoğlu said at the press conference.

Davutoğlu designated as AKP leader and Turkey 's new prime minister

Davutoğlu en Erdoğan (r) shake hands at the AKP meeting in Ankara (Photo HürriyetDailyNews, 21 August 2014) 

 Turkey’s ruling party has formally designated Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu to be the successor of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as both prime minister and chairman of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), marking the start of a new era in Turkish political life.
The AKP’s Central Executive Board (MYK), which was convened under Erdoğan’s leadership, decided to propose Davutoğlu’s name for the chairmanship of the party, which will be elected during the AKP’s extraordinary congress in Ankara on Aug. 27.
The decision was announced by Erdoğan after a three-hour meeting at the party headquarters. ''Our nominee is our foreign minister, our Konya deputy, our brother Ahmet Davutoğlu," Erdoğan told the crowd, which included government ministers and journalists, at the AKP headquarters in Ankara.

Erdogan offers condolences to Armenians on the eve of 99th anniversary of massacre

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, in a statement issued on the eve of the 99th anniversary of the death of large numbers of Armenians at the hand of Turkish soldiers, described the events of 1915 as "inhumane". It was more conciliatory language than any Turkish leader before him.Turkish government officials said it was the first time a Turkish prime minister had offered such explicit ''condolences'' and described the statement as a historic step.
Erdogan's words, however, were dismissed as "cold-hearted and cynical" by an influential U.S.-based Armenian advocacy group. Experts also pointed out that expressing condolences fell way short of apologizing, while also the way Erdogan expressed himself left doubt about the sincerity of his intentions.

Initial results Turkish local elections show: Erdoğan wins

Initial results in Turkey's local elections suggested a strong showing for Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan's ruling party on Sunday, an outcome likely to bolster his authority in battling "traitors" within the state he accuses of seeking to topple him.

With around half of the votes counted, results broadcast on Turkish television put Erdoğan's Islamist-rooted AK Party ahead with 44-46 percent of the vote. The main opposition CHP, the party of the modern secular republic's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, captured around 23-28 percent.
The nationwide elections are widely being seen in Turkey as a referendum on Erdoğan's 11-year rule, a test of his support as he battles corruption allegations and security leaks he has cast as a "dirty campaign" of espionage by his political enemies.

Erdoğan calls tapes of conversations with his son ''a fabrication''

The Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan denied the authenticity of the latest wiretap recording incriminating him of corruption during a Feb. 25 parliamentary group speech. “Yesterday they published a play that they have montaged and dubbed themselves. What has been done is a vile attack against the prime minister of Turkey,” he said.
The fresh wiretap leaked into the Internet Feb. 24 containing four phone conversations between Erdoğan and his son dating back to Dec. 17, the day when massive graft raids were conducted by the police.
“I was making calls for weeks. I said: Publish everything you have, disclose whatever you’ve got. And they go and make an immoral montage and publish it. But even fabricating has morals and decency,” Erdoğan said, announcing that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) would use the same technology and publish similar tapes featuring opposition leaders.

Turkish opposition asks Erdoğan to quit after leak of telephone conversations

 

 Turkish main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has said the Turkish government has lost its legitimacy and called on Turkish Prime Minister to resign immediately after Erdoğan's voice recording surfaced online.   

CHP Deputy Chairman Haluk Koç said in a press conference on Monday that the government has lost its entire legitimacy from "this hour" and that Turkey cannot move forward with this "dirt."
The remarks by Koç came during an emergency meeting of the CHP Central Executive Board (MYK), where they discussed a new voice recording published online about a discussion allegedly between the prime minister and his son on their plan to hide $1 billion cash stashed at several houses.
In the new voice recording, Erdoğan and his son Bilal allegedly discuss during five wiretapped phone conversations on plans how to hide huge sums of cash on the day when police raided a number of venues as part of a corruption investigation that has implicated sons of three Turkish ministers, businessmen and chief of the state bank.
Today’s Zaman couldn’t immediately verify the authenticity of the voice recording. It was not clear if the sound that is similar to Erdoğan's voice is real.
The Prime Ministry released a forceful statement late on Monday, claiming that the voice recording is a "product of montage" and it is "completely false." The Prime Ministry vowed in the statement to sue those who orchestrated this "dirty plot."

Turkish journalists concerned about new draconian internet law

A new draconian Turkish law concerning the internet which was approved by President Abdullah Gül, has caused serious concern among Turkish journalists as the country experiences one of the most serious democratic crises in its history.
The new regulations … will simply rub more salt in the open wounds in Turkey,” journalist Yavuz Baydar said in an interview with Sunday's Zaman. Baydar was sacked from the pro-government daily Sabah for his columns commenting on the Gezi Park protests and media freedom in Turkey.
Gül announced on Feb 18. via Twitter that he was going to approve the Internet law introduced by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AK Party). By supporting his political rival, Gül embarassed many Turks and deepened concerns about the freedom of expression in Turkey.
Turkey already has strict Internet laws, under which more than 40,000 websites have been blocked, according to engelliweb.com, which tracks access restriction. Turkish Internet legislation also contains a reference to an old law that makes insulting the memory of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk punishable with prison sentences.

Turkey deports journalist over tweets

Mahir Zeynalov and wife. (Photo Today's Zaman)

A document released by the Interior Ministry on Tuesday proves that the decision to deport Mahir Zeynalov, a Today's Zaman journalist and blogger, was made over tweets Zeynalov posted. This contradicts another document issued by the ministry on Friday which says the journalist was ordered to leave as the result of the expiration of his residence permit.

The Interior Ministry document Today's Zaman obtained was dated Feb. 4 and states that the Prime Ministry's Coordination Center (BİMER) demanded the deportation or exclusion of Azerbaijani national Mahir Zeynalov for his “statements that are contrary to fact” and “against the state and government.”
The Interior Ministry found it appropriate to deport Zeynalov over his tweets, sent from the @MahirZeynalov_ account and targeting high-level state officials, the document states. Zeynalov was also included in the category of ‘'Foreign nationals whose entry into our country [Turkey] has been barred.”

Turkey again arrests two generals for complicity in 1997 coup

The Turkish paper Daily Zaman reports:
  Ankara prosecutors on Wednesday referred five top commanders of the Feb. 28, 1997 postmodern coup for arrest after they testified as part of the investigation into the coup. The court ruled to jail two of the prominent generals.
Just one day before the 16th anniversary of the Feb. 28, 1997 postmodern coup, five retired generals, including former Land Forces Commander retired Gen. Erdal Ceylanoğlu and former Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Aslan Güner, and one active duty colonel were summoned to the Ankara Courthouse on Wednesday to testify as part of an investigation into the coup.Early on Wednesday, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office demanded the testimony of Güner and Ceylanoğlu -- who were top commanders during the coup period -- as well as retired Maj. Gens. Mehmet Başpınar and Yücel Özsır and Col. Mehmet Cumhur Yatıkkaya. The prosecutors demanded the arrest of the top five generals for their alleged role in the Feb. 28 military intervention. Retired Gen. Erdal Ceylanoğlu and Yücel Özsır were sent to jail while the remaining three commanders were conditionally released by the court.

Gen. Aslan Güner (L) and  Gen. Erdal Ceylanoğlu. 

Ceylanoğlu was the commander of the Ankara Etimesgut Armored Division in the Feb. 28 period and is known as the one who ordered tanks into the streets of Ankara during the Feb. 28 period in a show of power against the government. Güner, who was at the helm of the General Staff's intelligence department during the coup era, is remembered for refusing to shake the hand of President Abdullah Gül's headscarved wife, Hayrünnisa Gül, during an official ceremony in 2007.
More than 10 generals and admirals have been arrested over the last month as part of the same probe. Currently, 72 people have been jailed as part of the Feb. 28 coup probe. The prosecutors have so far heard from 70 victims of the Feb. 28 coup.
On Feb. 28, 1997, the Turkish military forced the coalition government led by the now-defunct conservative Welfare Party (RP) out of power, citing alleged rising religious fundamentalism in the country. The Feb. 28 coup brought a series of severe restrictions on religious life, including an unofficial but widely practiced ban on the use of headscarves by women at university campuses and in positions of public service.

Three senior female leaders of Kurdish PKK murdered in Paris

Sakine Cansiz, one of the founders of the PKK

An office of the Kurdish Institute of Paris was attacked by unknown people in the French capital Paris late yesterday, resulting in the deaths of three women, including one of the founders of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Sakine Cansız, one of the PKK founders in 1978, Kurdistan National Congress' (KNK) Paris representative Fidan Doğan, and Leyla Söylemez were found dead in the office, located near Gare du Nord station.The women were alone in the office at noon yesterday, the Kurdish association representative Leod Edart said, daily Le Parisien has reported. Their bodies were discovered at around 01:30-02:00 a.m. this morning.
French police have launched an investigation into the incident. The three women were all found shot in the head, but the investigation will unveil further details, according to a police source.

A spokesman for the ruling Turkish AK- party, Hüseyin Çelik, blamed the murder on 'an internal feud' related to the ongoing peace talks between Turkish authorities and Kurdish representatives.
The PKK's Europe representative and executive council member of Kurdistan Communities Union's (KCK) Zübeyir Aydar also said the attack was in response to the talks, in a statement to the Rudaw news portal.
"These attacks are oriented against the talks between İmralı [imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan] and the Turkish government ... This attack was executed by dark forces against the new process," Aydar said, claiming that "dark forces" came from within the Turkish state.

Turkish president Özal may have been poisened

An autopsy on the exhumed body late President Turgut Ozal, who led Turkey out of military rule in the 1980s, has revealed evidence of poisoning, a newspaper reported on Monday.
There had long been rumors Ozal, who died of heart failure in 1993 aged 65, was murdered by militants of the "deep state" - a shadowy nationalist strain within the Turkish establishment of the day. He had angered some with his efforts to end the Kurdish conflict and survived on assassination bid in 1988.
His body, dug up last month on the orders of prosecutors investigating suspicions of foul play in his death, contained the banned insecticide DDT and the related compound DDE at ten times the normal level, Today's Zaman cited sources from the state Forensic Medicine Institute (ATK) as saying.
"Ozal was most likely poisoned with four separate substances," the paper reported the sources as saying, also naming the toxic metal cadmium and the radioactive elements americium and polonium as substances found in Ozal's remains.
Forensic institute officials declined to comment. (The picture was taken at Özal's fueral in 1993)

he picture is of Özal's fueral in 1993)