Turkey

Extremist groups have attacked the LeMan magazine, while a Turkish court issued an arrest warrant for the chief editor and three other people, including the cartoonist. Erdogan calls the cartoon a "clear, vile provocation" and accuses the authors of immorality. Activists and civil society movements condemn the manner of the arrest, comparable to "torture", and the posting of its video.

Built in 1898, it is the second largest wooden building in the world. Returned to the Phanar in 2010, it is listed as a European Cultural Heritage Site. Behind the decision are the substantial costs of running the facility and safety concerns. For the patriarchate, it can no longer “remain standing without generating income”.

At least four waves of arrests have decimated the leadership of the Istanbul municipality. In addition to the mayor and opposition leader, more than 200 people are in jail. The CHP accuses the government of weaponising the judiciary. In the background, the president's overtures to the PKK are an attempt to win over the Kurds in his plan to change the constitution.

The arrest of Istanbul’s mayor has reversed the positive course the country had embarked upon. A study by the EBRD confirms that boycotts and protests have disrupted efforts to curb inflation, triggering "turmoil". In April, the Central Bank raised interest rates after months of holding steady. New arrests among university students have followed clashes with police.

President Subianto's announcement came during his visit to the Turkish capital yesterday. Turkey’s first fighter jet is set to replace the F-16s. The Indonesian government also plans to participate in submarine development with Turkey. In February, in West Java, the two leaders signed several agreements on trade and defence.

The incident in the district of Ortahisar, near a gazebo set up by the Republican People's Party. The opposition relaunches the campaign for the economic boycott of pro-government companies and organisations. Ankara responds with new arrests, targeting personalities from the entertainment world. Young people are at the forefront of the protest, for the freedoms and the (economic) future of the nation.

While the world's spotlight is on the tragedy in Myanmar, the rebirth of the Turkish region struck by an equally powerful quake on 6 February 2023 is still far away. “The earthquake is always with us, in the trauma we experienced, in the people we lost, in the destroyed buildings we walk through every day,” said one survivor. In the place where Jesus’s followers were first called "Christians," local Christians are forced to go back and forth from a nearby town.

Stories filter out of Istanbul reeling from the mayor’s arrest. While the city’s main sites are cordoned off by police, supporters of Erdoğan’s main rival continue to protest in more peripheral streets and alleys. Still Turkish public opinion is split, but most Istanbulites stand with Imamoğlu who was voted by almost 15 million people in the opposition CHP presidential primary.

Hundreds of people took to the streets in protest over the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor. So far Turkish President Erdoğan has remained silent, while the police respond to the protest with new arrests. Tensions and social unrest are likely to increase, while Imamoğlu's fate in the upcoming presidential race remains uncertain.

Police impose restrictions on Turkey’s business capital, including road blocks and slow Internet. Members of the country’s main opposition party take to streets, while CHP party leader confirms that the mayor will be its candidate in the next presidential election. So far, the President’s Office has not released any statement. Human rights groups call the charges politically motivated.

After days of violence and more than a thousand dead, including some Christians, the al-Sharaa government has declared the operation against the Alawites on the west coast of the country over. Damascus also signed a merger agreement with the Kurds. For the archbishop of Homs, peace requires an international presence and the end of sanctions. So far, the authorities have not fulfilled their promises.

A Kurdish source in Diyarbakir told AsiaNews that this is “the end of an era and the beginning of a new phase". The Kurdish leader yesterday met with a delegation in prison, giving them a message in which he calls on the party to lay down its arms and dissolve itself. However, the picture is still one of great uncertainty, with "two different groups”, one wants an “end to the clashes”, while the other believes that the Kurdish question “will continue to be a big problem in Turkey.”