Category: World

The report said many newspapers in Turkey, which are faced with falling revenues and increased paper and other costs as the Turkish lira has fallen almost 50 percent against the US dollar over the past year, are struggling to survive.

Anti-government media are more vulnerable to the economic crisis than pro-government outlets, the report said, adding that it is because government organizations advertise almost exclusively in pro-government outlets, and those critical of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, such as Fox TV News, Tele 1 and Halk TV, are repeatedly fined by the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), the country’s broadcasting watchdog.

“… These fines amounted to nearly $2m in 2021, leaving independent media outlets in an even more difficult position,” the report added.

Political censorship places additional pressures on independent media, according to the report, with online news outlets continuing to be occasionally blocked or asked to remove content deemed inappropriate or offensive, such as stories about abuses of government contracts and the impact of increasing inflation.

“Further, prominent independent journalists are constantly detained or face lawsuits for reporting on issues not approved by the government. … Even more concerning is the increasing physical violence against journalists. Several journalists were physically attacked because of their reporting. In February, the owner of a local newspaper which reported on local corruption was murdered in his office,” the report said.

It further underlined that international news outlets in Turkey had also come under increasing political pressure within the past year, with RTÜK requiring the Turkish services of Euronews, Deutsche Welle and Voice of America to obtain broadcasting licenses for their websites and Euronews removing video content from its website to avoid the need for a license, while DW and VoA’s appeals are due to be decided in court.

“Given all these attempts to affect citizens’ rights to access news in Turkey, it is unsurprising that only 23 percent of respondents think that media are independent of political influence,” the report said.

News consumption via social media continues to grow in Turkey, a country with a population of 83 million and Internet penetration of 83 percent in total, and is important for independent media, according to the report, with Instagram and YouTube proving to be particularly useful for visual content and generating traffic for social and economic issues, such as women’s rights, which are largely ignored by the pro-government media.

Among the most popular offline news sources in the country are Fox TV, critical of the ruling AKP; the opposition Sözcü daily; and the 24-hour news channel CNN Türk, the report said, adding that the pro-government A Haber news channel was at the bottom of the list.

Fox TV News online, Sözcü online and Sondakika.com are the most used online sources, according to the report, which also said that only 36 percent of Turks trust the news overall and 44 percent say they trust the news sources they use.

The Turkish government increased its crackdown on critical media outlets and journalists in the aftermath of a coup attempt in July 2016, following which dozens of journalists were jailed, while more than 200 media outlets were closed down under the pretext of an anti-coup fight.

TurkishMinute

Turkish authorities on Sunday detained 10 people during a wedding in Istanbul’s Esenyurt district for wearing traditional Kurdish scarves in the colors of the Kurdish flag, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported, citing Turkish media.

The groom, Mesut Karçık, and nine guests were detained for wearing yellow, red and green-colored scarves. They were also accused of singing Kurdish folk songs and spreading terrorist propaganda. The detainees were scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.

Yellow, red and green are colors of the Kurdish flag, which was first used in 1920 by people seeking an independent Kurdistan. The Turkish state strongly opposes the flag since sympathizers of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) use it widely.

Moreover, Turkey has prohibited use of the Kurdish language, clothing, folklore and names since 1937. After a military coup in 1980, speaking Kurdish was officially forbidden even in private life.

Hüseyin Boğatekin, the detainees’ lawyer and a member of the Association for the Freedom of Lawyers (ÖHD), said his clients were only expressing their cultural heritage and were not part of any illegal organization.

Boğatekin tweeted on Wednesday that the prosecutor was demanding his clients’ arrest.

Kurds in Turkey are often pressured not to speak their native language. Authorities frequently claim that people speaking in Kurdish are actually chanting slogans in support of the PKK, which has been leading an armed insurgency against Turkey’s security forces since the ’80s in a campaign that has claimed the lives of some 40,000 people.

TurkishMinute

Millions of tons of wheat are currently stuck in Ukrainian ports, either blockaded or occupied by Russian forces, and vessels face the danger of mines.

According to the Turkish foreign minister, the UN has submitted a plan to facilitate exports.

Under the plan, safe corridors could be established without de-mining in the Black Sea for grain exports from Ukraine, he said.

“If Russia answers positively, there will be a four-partite meeting in İstanbul,” Çavuşoğlu said.

The UN Secretary-General’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Ankara had an important role in resolving the situation which has raised the prospect of worldwide food shortages.

“We have been in very close contact and we are working in close cooperation with the Turkish authorities on this issue,” he said.

“I think the role of the Turkish military will be critical in that regard.”

Çavuşoğlu last week hosted his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Ankara to discuss the issue, but without conclusive results.

Prior to the war, Ukraine was a major exporter of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but shipments have been blocked since Russia invaded its neighbor in late February, causing food prices to soar worldwide.

Countries in the Middle East and Africa depend on Ukraine’s exports.

At the request of the UN, Turkey has offered its services to escort maritime convoys from Ukrainian ports, despite the presence of mines — some of which have been detected near the Turkish coast.

After hosting talks between Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers in March aimed at ending the war, the country has positioned itself as a neutral mediator as it maintains a delicate balancing act between its two Black Sea neighbors.

TurkishMinute

Turkey said on Wednesday it was waiting for a “written response” from Sweden and Finland to Ankara’s objections to their NATO bids, Agence France-Presse reported.

“We have transmitted our questions in writing to these two countries,” Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told reporters.

“Now we’re waiting for their written responses,” he said.

The two Nordic countries reversed decades of military non-alignment by applying for NATO membership in May, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Any NATO membership deal must, however, be unanimously approved by all 30 members of the alliance, and Turkey has thrown a wrench in the works and blocked their bids.

Ankara is accusing the Nordic neighbors of providing a safe haven for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told members of his party on Wednesday that “as long as Sweden and Finland don’t adopt concrete measures on the fight against terrorism, our position will not change.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday, during a visit to Sweden, that NATO was working “hard and actively” to resolve Turkey’s concerns “as soon as possible.”

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin acknowledged on Tuesday that the Nordic bids could stall if an agreement with Turkey is not reached before a summit later in June.

TurkishMinute

Hundreds of people rallied outside Turkey’s highest administrative court on Tuesday as it examines a case hoping to overturn the country’s withdrawal from an international treaty protecting women’s rights, Agence France-Presse reported.

Feminist groups, human rights campaigners and representatives of bar associations across Turkey again called for the withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention to be scrapped.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pulled Turkey out of the Convention last year. Social conservatives in the country claim it promotes homosexuality and threatens traditional family values.

There have been many legal attempts to cancel the withdrawal, and groups including political parties and NGOs have taken the case to Ankara’s Council of State.

Outside, demonstrators shouted: “We don’t give up because we are right!” and “The Istanbul Convention gives life to women!” as they paraded purple banners, the color of the feminist movement in Turkey.

“Turkey’s withdrawal from the Convention is contrary to basic human rights and democracy. We are telling the Council of State this today,” said Yelda Koçak, a lawyer and member of the Women’s Platform for Equality group.

The Istanbul Convention requires countries to set up laws aimed at preventing and prosecuting violence against women.

Campaigners believe the withdrawal has left women in Turkey more vulnerable to violence.

The We Will Stop Femicide Platform said 166 women have been killed in Turkey so far this year, the majority by family members. There were 423 such killings last year.

The Council of State hearing was still underway on Tuesday afternoon.

TurkishMinute

Support for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has declined to 29.8 percent, while 55.6 percent of Turkish voters are against the re-election of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, local media reported on Wednesday, citing the results of a survey conducted by the Yöneylem Social Research Center.

According to the poll, which was conducted on 2,700 voters in 27 provinces, 55.6 percent of participants said they would “never” vote for Erdoğan in a possible presidential election in June, while 31.9 said they would “definitely” vote for him and 10.4 percent said they may or may not vote for him.

When asked “If the presidential election were to be held next Sunday, would you vote for Erdoğan or the opposition candidate?” 52.5 percent of participants answered they would support the opposition candidate.

The survey also revealed that Erdoğan would be defeated by each of his two potential rivals — main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and the party’s İstanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu — in a possible presidential election in which one of them is running against the incumbent president.

In the event that Erdoğan and Kılıçdaroğlu qualify for the second round of a presidential election, the CHP leader would receive 43.5 percent of the vote and Erdoğan would get 35.1 percent, according to the poll, which also showed that İmamoğlu would receive 49.4 percent against Erdoğan’s 34.5 percent in a similar scenario.

When respondents were asked the open-ended question “Which party would you vote for in a general election this Sunday?” 29.8 percent said they would vote for the AKP, followed by the main opposition CHP (29.5 percent), the İYİ (Good) Party (13.2 percent), the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) (10.3 percent), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) (6.9 percent), the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) (2.3 percent), the New Welfare Party (YRP) (2.3 percent), the Victory Party (ZP) (1.8 percent), the Felicity Party (SP) (1 percent), the Turkish Workers’ Party (TİP) (0.8 percent), the Future Party (GP) (0.2 percent) and other parties (1.9 percent).

Sixty-two percent of participants answered in the affirmative when they were asked if they would want an early election to be held in November.

In the last general election held in June 2018, the AKP garnered a nationwide vote of 42.6 percent. However, public surveys have increasingly been showing the party’s public support to be slipping.

Erdoğan, whose ruling AKP has been in power as a single-party government since 2002, was elected president in 2014 and re-elected in 2018. His election in 2018 was under a presidential system as Turkey switched from a parliamentary to a presidential system of governance with a public referendum in 2017.

Under the presidential system, Erdoğan is accused by critics of establishing one-man rule in the country, engaging in massive corruption and using the state’s resources for the benefit of his family and cronies while the Turkish people are overwhelmed by the increasing cost of living caused by the depreciation of the Turkish lira and a record level of inflation at around 73.5 percent, according to official figures.

TurkishMinute

On May 11 students at Istanbul’s Yıldız Technical University (YTÜ) protested against the rector for purchasing 12 Mercedes Benz cars on the university budget, leaving a cardboard model car in front of the rector’s office. Student Sümeyye Gülsüm Şen, who organized the protest, was subject to a disciplinary investigation and suspended for a month.

Rector Nur Bekiroğlu denied the suspension on Twitter; however, Şen shared the notification she received from the university on June 8 on social media. “I had to share the document after the rector accused me of lying,” she said. “I will miss all my exams and will have to repeat this year.”

Two students at Eskişehir Anadolu University, Egehan K. and Alpay A., were beaten and detained for attempting to unfurl a banner during their graduation ceremony on June 11. The students wanted to commemorate Ali Ismail Korkmaz, a 19-year-old university student who died of his injuries after being battered by police during the Gezi Park protests in July 2013. Korkmaz was a student at the university at the time of his death.

Egehan K. said displaying a banner was not a crime and that their only aim was to commemorate Korkmaz. “We had no warning, they [security officers] just attacked us. They surrounded us so parents and other students couldn’t see what was going on. We were beaten and dragged away from the ceremony area,” he said. “We have hospital reports documenting our injuries, and we will file a complaint against the security officers.”

Alpay A. said they were severely beaten although they did not resist. “We tried to calm the officers and save ourselves. But they just kept on hitting us. I was subjected to violence in front of my young nephews and family. It was a traumatic experience,” he said.

Students protesting high housing prices across the country were detained in September 2021 in another instance of government pressure.

Hundreds were taken into custody during the Boğaziçi University protests, a prolonged series of protests that broke out at the university in early 2021 after Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appointed Melih Bulu, a founding member of the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) Sarıyer district branch and former deputy chairman of the AKP’s İstanbul provincial chapter, as rector.

Two students, Berke Gök and Pelit Özen, were arrested in October 2021 and were kept in solitary confinement in İstanbul’s Metris Prison until January 2022 when they were released pending trial.

In May 70 students were briefly detained for attending a Pride March. Moreover, dozens of students have been detained or arrested for links to the Gülen movement.

The Turkish government accuses the faith-based Gülen movement of masterminding a coup attempt on July 15, 2016 and labels it a “terrorist organization,” although the movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.

TurkishMinute

“The report… is not based on primary research but reproduces older findings by the (UN refugee agency), foreign media reports and the recommendations of non-governmental organizations,” a Greek migration ministry source said.

The ministry source added that such claims are “already under investigation as to their validity” but insisted that past checks had so far “never confirmed illegal actions (by Greece) whilst guarding its borders.”

“The Greek coastguard and Greek police on a daily basis save people whose life is at risk at sea and land borders,” the source added.

The UN’s special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Felipe Gonzalez Morales, had earlier shared the report saying that “in Greece, pushbacks at land and sea borders have become de facto general policy.”

“UNHCR has recorded almost 540 separate incidents during the period 2020–2021, 40 involving at least 17,000 people who were reportedly returned by force, informally, to Turkey,” said the report, which will be formally presented on June 23.

“The Special Rapporteur concludes that pushbacks remain the de facto general policy in many states and continue to seriously impede the enjoyment of the human rights of migrants who cross international borders,” the report said.

Greece routinely denies that its border forces engage in illegal pushbacks, despite repeated claims to the contrary by rights groups and asylum seekers.

Rights groups have also repeatedly accused EU border agency Frontex of illegally returning migrants across EU borders.

The Greek government last week declined to comment on the resignation of Frontex head Fabrice Leggeri in April amid an investigation by the European Anti-Fraud Office, reportedly into alleged mismanagement.

“(Greece) has nothing to observe,” government spokesman Yannis Economou said Thursday.

TurkishMinute

Security concerns raised by Turkey in its opposition to Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership applications are legitimate, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday during a visit to Finland, Reuters reported.

“These are legitimate concerns. This is about terrorism, it’s about weapons exports,” Stoltenberg told a joint news conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto while visiting him at his summer residence in Naantali, Finland.

Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO last month in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But they have faced opposition from Turkey, which has accused them of supporting and harboring Kurdish militants and other groups it deems terrorists.

Stoltenberg said Turkey was a key ally for the alliance due to its strategic location on the Black Sea between Europe and the Middle East and cited the support it has provided to Ukraine since Russia sent troops into its neighbor on Feb. 24. Moscow calls its actions a “special military operation.”

“We have to remember and understand that no NATO ally has suffered more terrorist attacks than Turkiye,” Stoltenberg said, using the Turkish pronunciation of the country’s name, as preferred by Turkey and its President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Stoltenberg and Niinisto said talks with Turkey would continue but gave no indication of progress in the negotiations.

“The summit in Madrid was never a deadline,” Stoltenberg said, referring to a NATO meeting in Madrid at the end of June.

Earlier this week the rector’s office said in an email sent to students that security measures would be taken if the students insist on holding the “unauthorized march,” adding that there are efforts to present ODTÜ as the center of these marches and that such efforts damage the prestige of the university.

According to Turkish media reports, police officers, including riot police, broke up the march, employing batons, plastic bullets and pepper spray to disperse the students and detain some of them.

Nils Muižnieks, Amnesty International’s Europe Director, called on Turkish authorities to “immediately and unconditionally” release the students who were detained for exercising their right to peaceful assembly by “marching peacefully for their rights to dignity and equality.”

“Scenes of peaceful Pride marchers on the METU campus being confronted with police using unnecessary and excessive force, including pepper balls, are deeply disturbing, particularly as this is a repeat of the brutality we saw here three years ago,” Muižnieks said.

The pride march was organized by the university’s LGBTI organization Solidarity Club, established in 2011. The club, which has been organizing pride marches at the university since 2011, had not been able to hold the gay march for the last two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The previous pride march at the university took place in 2019 despite a ban from the rector’s office, when police battered and detained some students who took part. Eighteen students and a professor who were later indicted for violating the law on demonstrations and public meetings were acquitted of the charges. An Ankara court ruled in 2020 that the ban on the pride march had no legal basis.

Homosexuality is not illegal in Turkey, but homophobia is widespread. After a spectacular Pride March in İstanbul drew 100,000 people in 2014, the government responded by banning future events in the city, citing security concerns.

It is common for ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) politicians and their leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to attack LGBTI individuals and accuse them of perversion and destroying family values.

Meanwhile, Turkey was ranked 48th among 49 countries as regards the human rights of LGBT people, according to the 2021 Rainbow Europe Map published by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA)-Europe in May.

TurkishMinute