Turkey
Istanbul based reporter for a decade, tries to tell the world about #Turkey, mostly in English. Former AFP correspondent and BBC Turkish journalist. Currently works as a freelancer, usually contributing to The New York Times, the Guardian among others.
ISTANBUL - A Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility on Sunday for a double bombing that killed 39 people and wounded 154 outside a soccer stadium in the heart of Istanbul the night before.
The jailings are the most obvious example of an effort to muzzle not just the free press, but free speech generally. More than 3,000 Turks have faced charges of insulting the president, including a former Miss Turkey, Merve Buyuksarac, who posted on Instagram a satirical rewording of the country's national anthem as if Mr. Erdogan were singing: I am like a wild flood, I smash over the law and beyond I follow state bids, take my bribe and live.
It was 7.30 am on a Monday when Ayşe Yıldırım's phone started ringing. The columnist at Cumhuriyet, Turkey's last leading newspaper critical of the government, picked up the phone. It was her boss, the newspaper's editor-in-chief, Murat Sabuncu, one of a dozen of her colleagues who would be in a jail cell by the end of the day.
Turkish prosecutors are demanding a sentence of life in prison for a top opponent of the country's president accused of plotting a coup. Fethullah Gülen, a Pennsylvania-based cleric, is accused of attempting to overthrow the government and forming a terrorist organisation. His trial in absentia began on Wednesday in Istanbul.
Türkiye'nin otomotiv üssü haline gelen Bursa'da, üretimi durdurma eylemi yan sanayiye de sıçradı. Otomotiv devleri Renault ve Tofaş'ın ardından, Cuma gecesi vardiyasında Coşkunöz Farbikası'nda da üretim durdu. Renault ve Tofaş işçileri Cumartesi gecesi valiliğin devreye girdiğini, bugün işveren temsilcileriye görüşme olacağını söylüyor. BBC Türkçe'den Şafak Timur, eylemdeki işçilerle konuşarak taleplerini dinledi.
Başbakan'ı Soma'da protesto eden göstericiye tekme attığı belirtilen Başbakanlık müşaviri Yusuf Yerkel 'e BBC Türkçe telefonla ulaştı ve görüntüleri sordu. Sosyal medyada dolaşan görüntülerdeki kişinin kendisi olup olmadığı iddiasına dair "Siz misiniz?" sorusuna "Evet" diyen Yerkel, "Gereken açıklamayı yapacağım. Oradan ayrıntıları takip edebilirsiniz" dedi.
Turkish fighter jets killed 35 Kurds in an air strike the country's ruling party admitted Thursday could have been a "blunder" that mistakenly hit civilians instead of Kurdish separatists. Turkey's military command said it had launched an air raid on Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants after a spy drone spotted a group moving toward its sensitive southeastern border under cover of darkness late Wednesday.
ISTANBUL - Two Syrian men were sentenced to more than four years in prison on Friday for the death of a young Syrian boy whose body washed up on a beach in Turkey in September.
Turkish media are coming under what local journalists have described as one of the worst crackdowns in the republic's history in the run-up to crucial parliamentary elections that may put an end to over a decade of single-party rule by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Justice and Development party (AKP).
In simultaneous actions in Ankara, the police detained Figen Yuksekdag, the other co-chairman of the party, known as the H.D.P., along with nine other parliamentarians. Since declaring a state of emergency after the failed coup attempt in July, Mr. Erdogan has dismissed tens of thousands of teachers and civil servants, purged the armed forces, detained journalists and shut more than a dozen media outlets.