Category: Politics

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday accepted the resignation of Berat Albayrak, former minister of treasury and finance and his son-in-law.

“As is known to the public, our treasury and finance minister on Sunday, November 8, 2020, released a statement on one of his social media accounts in which he asked to be relieved of duty, citing health issues,” the statement, released by the Communications Directorate, said.

“After consideration by the president, the request of Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak has been approved.”

Albayrak resigned as the country’s finance minister in a statement on his verified Instagram account on Sunday.

The unexpected resignation of Albayrak came shortly after Erdoğan dismissed the head of Turkey’s central bank, Murat Uysal, and replaced him with former finance minister Naci Ağbal as the Turkish lira hit record lows over the last few weeks.

“I have decided that I can no longer continue to carry out the tasks of minister as I have for the past five years due to health reasons,” Albayrak, 42, who has been serving as Turkey’s treasury and finance minister since July 2018, said in his resignation statement

He said he would spend more time with his family.

Albayrak served as the country’s energy minister between 2015 and 2018.

Albayrak has frequently been blamed for the deterioration of the Turkish economy as the Turkish lira’s decline in value, nearly 30 percent so far this year, has led to higher inflation via imports priced in hard currencies.

Prices have also remained elevated due to an increase in borrowing and rising food prices, leading the country’s central bank to raise its year-end inflation forecast last week to 12.1 percent from 8.9 percent.

Democratic nominee Joe Biden has defeated President Trump in the 2020 presidential election after winning Pennsylvania and securing 20 electoral votes, according to projections by The Associated Press and NBC News.

Biden released a statement on Saturday: “I am honored and humbled by the trust the American people have placed in me and in Vice President-elect Harris.” Trump also released a statement: “The simple fact is this election is far from over.” – The latest state projections – Updates from the Biden and Trump campaigns – Fact-checks from journalists and fact-checkers.

Ayhan Bilgen, co-mayor of the eastern city of Kars from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), and two other HDP politicians were hospitalized for food poisoning while in police custody, Turkish Minute reported on Monday, citing the party officials.

Can Memiş and İsmail Şengün were hospitalized along with Bilgen, allegedly due to food poisoning from meals provided by police officers, HDP Deputy Chairman Ümit Dede announced on Monday.

Earlier on Friday, 82 HPD politicians, including Bilgen, Sırrı Süreyya Önder and Ayla Akat Ata, were detained in police raids on their residences over the 2014 Kobane protests.

The claims of food poisoning were first raised by the detainees’ lawyers on Sunday, when they were finally allowed to meet with their clients. The HDP officials’ request to see their colleagues was approved by the authorities.

The HDP released a message on Twitter saying that the party had been unable to obtain information about the health of the hospitalized party executives.

Ankara Emniyet Müdürlüğünde gözaltında tutulan Ayhan Bilgen, avukatlarına akşam yemeğinden zehirlendiklerini, hastaneye götürülmediklerini söyledi. Avukatların Bilgen ile yeniden görüşmesine izin verilmiyor, yöneticilerimizin sağlık durumu ile ilgili bilgi alamıyoruz. pic.twitter.com/9CeVZukQGC

— HDP (@HDPgenelmerkezi) September 27, 2020

In protest, a group of HDP members gathered in front of the Ankara police station. The HDP’s Dede was then allowed to see three of the detainees, Bilgen, Önder and Ata.

Dede said later in a statement that Bilgen, co-mayor of the eastern city of Kars, was returned to police headquarters after a blood test detected an infection. He was given a prescription, while Memiş and Şengün were still in the hospital. Bilgen reportedly told Dede that the other two were also in good condition.

Dede added that Ata also felt sick but not seriously enough to be taken to the hospital. The HDP spokesman added that all the detained HDP politicians were complaining about the food served in detention.

“Fellow attorneys who met with their clients during the day said everyone [under detention] was complaining about the food and that they were given old and bad food,” the BiaNet news website quoted Dede as saying.

The HDP members are under detention as part of a newly initiated investigation that came six years after the violent Kobane protests of 2014. They are accused of having a role in the protests in Kurdish majority cities against the Turkish government’s tacit approval of the Kobane siege in October 2014. At the time, Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants had laid a prolonged siege to the Kurdish town of Kobane in northern Syria.

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has ordered the detention of 82 prominent pro-Kurdish politicians, with some of them detained as of Friday morning in police raids, Turkish Minute reported, citing the state-run Anadolu news agency (AA).

According to AA, the detention warrants were issued over the politicians’ alleged role in protests in Kurdish majority cities against what is seen by many as the Turkish government’s tacit approval of the Kobane siege in 2014, when the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants laid a prolonged siege to a Kurdish town in northern Syria.

Among the detainees are Ayhan Bilgen, co-mayor of the eastern city of Kars; and Altan Tan, Sırrı Süreyya Önder, Emine Ayna, Nazmi Gör and Beyza Üstün, former MPs from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). According to the Turkish media, citing the prosecutor’s office, they will be held in detention for four days.

Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor Yüksel Kocaman recently sparked criticism for visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the presidential palace with his bride immediately after their wedding. The visit has become a subject of discussion as an indication of the current state of judicial independence, or lack thereof.“Such would be the honeymoon of a prosecutor from the AKP [the ruling party]: ‘Many HDP members were detained as part of a probe launched by Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor Yüksel Kocaman, who went to the palace to visit Erdoğan after a family wedding,” tweeted Can Dündar, a Turkish journalist in exile who survived a 2016 assassination attempt in Turkey.

Selahattin Demirtaş, the imprisoned former co-leader of Turkey’s Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), who was taken to a hospital for an examination on Monday, nearly a week after he fainted in his prison cell, has no life-threatening medical condition, according to a statement from the Trakya University Hospital in Turkey’s Edirne province.

Earlier on Monday, lawyer Aygül Demirtaş said her brother and client Demirtaş, 46, lost consciousness in prison in Edirne last Tuesday and had still not been fully evaluated by medical authorities.

Just hours after Aygül tweeted the information, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement: “Upon receiving a complaint by Selahattin Demirtaş, who said he fell ill last Tuesday, [the prison management] had called an ambulance and a doctor conducted the necessary examination.”

“Even though there was no health issue detected, he was today [Monday] transported to Trakya University Medical School Hospital for further evaluation.”

Following tests at the university hospital, a statement from the chief physician’s office said Demirtaş was examined by the cardiology, neurology, gastroenterology and pulmonology departments and that the relevant lab tests and screenings were carried out, as a result of which no acute or life-threatening conditions were detected.

The statement said Demirtaş had left the hospital with a recommendation to have polyclinic check-ups.

The Kurdish politician was an outspoken critic of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, before he was jailed. He ran twice against Erdoğan in presidential elections held in 2014 and 2018. Demirtaş conducted his election campaign from jail for the 2018 presidential election.

A Turkish court found Demirtaş guilty in September 2018 of disseminating terrorist propaganda and sentenced him to four years, eight months in prison.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled in November of the same year that Demirtaş’s pre-trial detention was a political act and ordered his release. Turkish courts refused to implement the European court’s ruling, and a regional appeals court in Turkey on Dec. 4 upheld Demirtaş’s sentence for disseminating terrorist propaganda.

In September, a high criminal court in Ankara ruled to release Demirtaş pending trial, but he was not allowed to leave prison since he had been convicted in another case.

Australian troops will remain in Iraq despite Iranian missile attacks on coalition forces in the country, after Prime Minister Scott Morrison met with his national security committee on Thursday.

Mr Morrison said his government remained focused on ensuring stability in Iraq, after United States President Donald Trump spoke about finding a new peace deal with Iran.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirms Australian troops will remain in Iraq after Iranian bombings on US-led military bases in the country.

“We remain committed to carrying on this important work,” Mr Morrison told reporters on Thursday after the national security committee meeting.

The Prime Minister said “the situation overnight has stabilised”, which was part of the reason why Australia had decided to keep troops in the Middle East.

Mr Morrison has also discussed the unfolding situation in Iraq with the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“We remain together and working together to ensure not only the safety of our own people, but to also ensure that we are in a position to continue to build a stronger Iraq,” he said.

Australia has several hundred troops deployed to Iraq along with a team of diplomatic staff.AAP

A Turkish court ruled on Tuesday to keep businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala in jail, despite a European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) call for his release, as his trial over his involvement in 2013 protests continues, Reuters reported.

Kavala has been in custody for more than two years, charged with attempting to overthrow the government by organizing and funding nationwide protests against then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Kavala, who faces life in prison if convicted, denies the allegations. Fifteen other defendants are on trial along with Kavala, who is currently the only one in pretrial detention. Their trial was adjourned until Jan. 28.

The European court called for his immediate release two weeks ago, saying there was a lack of reasonable suspicion that he had committed an offense. ECtHR rulings are legally binding, but Turkey has frequently not implemented them.

The Turkish court said it decided to keep Kavala in jail due to the severity of the alleged crimes and was awaiting a response from the Justice Ministry on whether the ECtHR ruling was final.

The indictment cited tapped phone calls in which Kavala discussed sending pastries, milk, juice and gas masks to protesters as evidence that he financed the protests.

A total of 15,530 members of the Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) have been detained and 6,000 of them arrested since 2015, according to a report drafted by the HDP, the Bianet news website reported.

The HDP publicized the report on rights violations in 2019 on the occasion of Human Rights Day, marked every Dec.10.

The report showed that the number of HDP members or officials detained to date 2019 is 674, of whom 200 have been arrested.

The HDP has been one of the main targets of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) particularly after a coup attempt in July 2016, following which the government launched a massive crackdown on its opponents under the pretext of an anti-coup fight.

The report also showed that 20 co-mayors elected from the HDP in the March 31 local elections have been arrested, while 28 co-mayors have been removed from office on terrorism allegations.

The controversial practice of removing and arresting mayors was also widely implemented during Turkey’s two-year-long state of emergency following the attempted coup in 2016.

Ankara accuses the HDP of links to militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been waging a bloody war in Turkey’s Southeast since 1984.

Seven former HDP deputies are also in jail, according to the report: former party-chairpersons Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş, and deputies Çağlar Demirel, İdris Baluken, Gülser Yıldırım, Selma Irmak and Abdullah Zeydan.

A regional court of appeals in İstanbul has ruled to uphold the prison sentence of nine years, eight months handed down to Canan Kaftancıoğlu, a prominent member of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), over her social media posts, the T24 news website reported on Tuesday.

Kaftancıoğlu received the sentence due to a number of tweets she had posted from 2012 to 2017 that earned her criminal charges of insulting the president, insulting public officials, denigrating the Republic of Turkey, provoking hatred and enmity among the public and spreading propaganda on behalf of terrorist organizations.

Kaftancıoğlu will be able to appeal to the decision at the Supreme Court of Appeals.

The head of CHP’s İstanbul branch is a rising figure in the country’s main opposition party and is considered to be one of the architects of the local election victory the CHP scored against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in İstanbul last year.

An appeals court in Istanbul has demanded the reversal of the sentence against Selahattin Demirtaş, the imprisoned former co-leader of pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Cumhuriyet said on Sunday.

Demirtaş was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison in 2018 for his speech at a Kurdish new year celebration (Newroz) during the peace process in 2013.

The court said the Kurdish leader’s speech was evaluated incorrectly and if the speech was taken as a whole, his words would remain within the bounds of freedom of expression, according to Cumhuriyet.

Meanwhile, Demirtaş’s right of defence was violated because he was informed of the charges only two days before his defence, according to the ruling.

Demirtaş has been in prison since November 2016 on charges of propagating terror propaganda and membership of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed organisation engaged in a conflict with the Turkish state for over three decades that has been designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union, and the United States.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in November 2018 demanded Demirtaş’s release, stating that the extension of his detention throughout two crucial elections had been designed to stifle pluralism and limit political debate.