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Former ECHR Judge and CHP Izmir MP Riza Turmen stressed that Turkey is obliged to comply with the ECHR’s Demirtas ruling. Former ECHR Judge and CHP (Republican People's Party) Izmir MP Riza Turmen stressed that Turkey is obliged to comply with the ECHR’s Demirtas ruling. Riza Turmen called for compliance with the European Court of Human Rights ruling and stressed that Selahattin Demirtas should be released without delays. Turmen stated that noncompliance with the ruling, which references Article 18 of the European Convention on Human Rights and poses a precedent for other political prisoners, will be the confirmation that Demirtas’s...

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday said that Turkey is not bound by verdicts of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) following the court’s decision calling for the release of Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtaş from a lengthy pre-trial detention. “ECtHR decisions do not bind us. Up until now, most of the decisions about the organization [Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)] have been negative. There is a lot to be done in reaction [to the verdict]. We will take steps in response and finish the case. Terrorism continues,” Erdoğan said in parliament after the ruling. The ECtHR on Tuesday urged Turkey...

ANKARA (Reuters) - Tayyip Erdogan is seen falling short of a first-round victory in Turkey’s presidential election and his ruling AK Party is forecast to lose its parliamentary majority in the June 24 vote, a survey by pollster Gezici showed on Thursday. Erdogan called the snap elections in April, more than a year early, saying Turkey needs to switch to a powerful executive presidency to tackle economic and security challenges. The new presidential powers were narrowly approved last year. Gezici’s survey of 6,811 respondents, conducted between May 25-26, showed Erdogan receiving 48.7 percent of votes in the first round of...

After sixteen years in power, Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) is facing a serious challenge from an allied opposition in the run-up to June 24 national election. Turkish voters will head to the polls that Sunday to vote on candidates for parliament and the presidency. The election is the first up-or-down vote for the AKP’s leader and current Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, following a national referendum last April. In the referendum, voters narrowly passed a series of changes to the constitution to transform the Turkish political system from a parliamentary model to a highly centralized presidential system of...

An international observer denied access to the trial of HDP co-chair Figen Yüksekdağ in Turkey recounts her experience. Earlier this month the trial of Figen Yüksekdağ, co-chair of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), began in Turkey’s capital of Ankara. Accused of supporting Kurdish separatists in the country’s southeast, Yüksekdağ has already been stripped of her place in Turkey’s parliament — but now the Erdoğan government is pursuing terrorism-related charges which come with the threat of an eighty-three-year jail term. Yüksekdağ is represented, symbolically, by 1,200 lawyers, whose numbers represent a political stand against the government’s attacks on opposition politicians. Her...

HDP supporters protest the arrest of their members in Istanbul with a poster reading, "We are not afraid of you." People’s Democratic Party (HDP) spokesman and Urfa Deputy Osman Baydemir shared data about HDP members under detention in a press conference on Sunday. Close to a thousand HDP administrators are currently in prison in addition to 13 deputies, said Baydemir.A thousand administrators behind bars“37 province co-chairs and 97 district co-chairs have been arrested since July 2016. 27 province co-chairs and 84 district co-chairs who are members of the party administration are currently in prison. A total of 13 deputies, two members...

HDP Şırnak parliamentarian Ferhat Encü, who had been arrested during the political genocide operations and held hostage for 104 days before his release on Wednesday, was re-arrested after the prosecutor's objection in Şırnak and sent to Kocaeli Kandıra Closed Prison. Ferhat Encü met with his lawyers and sent the following message: "Certain judges continue to break the law and issue unlawful decision against the lawful decision given by judges few in number. Şırnak 1st Heavy Penal Court sacrificed law and justice to political pressures and ruled against the decision of Şırnak ins Heavy Penal Court. This scandalous decision has shaken...

Turkish police have detained more than 800 people over alleged links to Kurdish fighters in nationwide operations, according to state media. Police conducted simultaneous raids in 37 provinces and taken 834 people into custody, state-run Anadolu Agency quoted police forces as saying on Tuesday, Aljazeera reported. Authorities received intelligence that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) would escalate attacks after February 15, the day marking the 1999 capture of imprisoned PKK leader, Abdullah Ocalan. Along with the suspects, two Kalashnikovs, 11 guns, 15 rifles and ammunition were seized, police said. The operations come as Turks prepare to vote on April...

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Central Executive Board (MYK) released a statement regarding the increasing operations of political genocide as part of which hundreds were taken into custody across Turkey today. The statement announced that more than 318 people including administrators, provincial-district co-chairs and members of the HDP have been detained in Istanbul, İzmir, Van, Adana, Adıyaman, Kocaeli, Antep, Siirt, Bingöl, Malatya, Bursa and Ağrı provinces and their districts today. The statement by the HDP said the following: "The operations against our party, ongoing since July 2015, continue increasingly without a pause since the coup attempt of July 15, 2016. As...

There is a potential black swan event taking place in Turkey on Sunday and no one seems to care. That is, the media isn’t devoting nearly enough coverage to Turkish elections considering the impact the outcome will invariably have on the situation in Syria, on the fate of the lira, and on the Pentagons strategy with regard to embedding spec ops with the YPG. As a reminder, Turkey held elections back in June and the outcome did not please President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. AKP lost its absolute majority in parliament thanks in no small part to a relatively strong showing...

ISTANBUL — Turkish voters delivered a rebuke on Sunday to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as his party lost its majority in Parliament in a historic election that dealt a blow to his ambition to rewrite Turkey’s Constitution and increase his power. The election results represented a significant setback to Mr. Erdogan, an Islamist who has steadily increased his power as president, a partly but not solely ceremonial post. After more than a decade as prime minister, Mr. Erdogan has pushed for more control of the judiciary and cracked down on any form of criticism, including prosecutions of those who insult...

The mould-breaking outcome of TurkeyÂ’s general election on Sunday will be viewed as a personal rebuff for the president, Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, and as a historic political breakthrough for the countryÂ’s 18 million-strong Kurdish minority, which will be represented by a political party in parliament for the first time.

More than 53.7 million Turkish voters head to the polls on June 7 for a crucial parliamentary election. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has framed the June 7 election in Turkey as a key hurdle on the path to the powerful presidential system that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wants to introduce. With about 99 percent of the vote counted and despite being well ahead of other parties with the support of around 42 percent of the populace, the AKP seemed set to received fewer than 276 seats – the bare minimum to keep its parliamentary majority. The Kurdish...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suffered a serious setback in the parliamentary elections Sunday, according to initial reports. Four hours after the ballots closed, it appeared that Erdogan's AKP party will not have the required majority for passing reforms in the Turkish constitution. With 90% of the votes counted, the Kurdish HDP party received about 11% of the votes, according to Turkish-language CNN. This places it past the 10% threshold required for entering parliament and would give it about 80 MPs. The party has never before passed the threshold. According to reports, AKP received 42 or 43% of the...

Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). For the first time, is running as a political party instead of independent candidates. The ruling Party (AKP), has won every single election—presidential, legislative, and municipal—without serious opposition since first coming to power in 2002, is looking to introduce an executive presidency. After serving three terms as prime minister, the AKP’s charismatic leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, became the country’s first directly elected president by winning 51.8 percent of the popular vote in August 2014.