Hello dear readers, we’re back in business after a short break — yes, we survived the budgetary talks of the Turkish parliament. From now on, every weekday (you know, actual working days), we’ll be sharing news from and about Türkiye. Do try to contain your excitement.
Politics
☕✊ KESK to Down Tools Nationwide (Just for a Day)
Turkey’s Confederation of Public Employees’ Trade Unions (KESK) has announced a nationwide work stoppage on Wednesday, 14 January, in support of public workers’ economic and social demands. The decision was conveyed—very efficiently—via a social media post by KESK Co-Chair Ahmet Karagöz, who said the action targets poverty, job insecurity, and injustice, and seeks improved economic, professional, democratic, political, and social rights. Invoking the power of collective labour, Karagöz summed it up with a familiar union refrain: there’s little point going it alone—either everyone stands together, or no one does.
🏥⚠️ Apparently Not That Dangerous: Hospitals Face a Downgrade in Risk Status
Turkey’s Ministry of Health has applied to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security to have public hospitals reclassified from “very dangerous” to merely “dangerous” workplaces—on the grounds that hospitals are not, strictly speaking, mines or shipyards. Citing official accident statistics and the prevalence of what it calls “low-energy incidents” (falls, needle injuries, the odd musculoskeletal complaint), the ministry argues that long-standing protocols on infection control, radiation safety, and quality standards already do much of the heavy lifting. Health workers’ groups are unconvinced. The Health Workers’ Rights and Struggle Association (SAHADER) warns that risks in hospitals are constant, cumulative, and often invisible—ranging from biological and chemical exposure to violence and burnout—and that downgrading the hazard class looks suspiciously like a cost-cutting exercise dressed up as common sense. Critics note that the practical result would be fewer safety checks, less specialist oversight, and longer intervals between health screenings—because nothing says “worker protection” quite like doing it less often.
🏛️✂️ Order, Please: Turkish MPs May Soon Pay—Literally—for Bad Behaviour
Turkey’s parliament is quietly dusting off the rulebook, with plans to toughen internal discipline in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM)—this time with penalties that hit both wallets and door passes. Under proposals inspired by the French Parliament, MPs who insult, threaten, or otherwise turn proceedings into performance art could face a four-tier system ranging from polite warnings to salary cuts, suspension from sittings and even temporary bans from entering the building. The discussion gained momentum after comments by TBMM Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş, alongside a parliamentary research report suggesting a more commission-centred legislative model—apparently efficiency and good manners are both back on the agenda. Notably, similar pay-cut provisions were struck down by the Constitutional Court in 2018, but lawmakers seem keen to try again, perhaps hoping that this time discipline will stick—if only because it now comes with a price tag.
🚶♂️⚖️ Protest Is, In Fact, Legal: Teachers Beat the Governor’s Ban in Court
In a ruling likely to be bookmarked for future reference, the Private Sector Teachers’ Union has won its legal challenge against the Istanbul Governorate, which had attempted to block the union’s march from Istanbul to Ankara. The court found that the governorate’s ban was unlawful and confirmed that marching—peacefully, with a point to make—remains a legitimate democratic right. The union had pressed on regardless, completing the march and stopping along the way to highlight teachers’ grievances across several cities, before taking the matter to court on principle. Union leaders say the decision sets a valuable precedent for other workers considering similar action, politely reminding authorities that public order and public protest are not mutually exclusive. The struggle, they add, continues—now with a court ruling in their back pocket.
🛢️🌾 Sliced Thin and Drilled Anyway: An American Oil Firm Tries Again in Diyarbakır
Journalist İlayda Sorku reports that US-based TransAtlantic Petroleum has returned—undeterred—to seek approval for oil exploration and production in Diyarbakır, just days after a court cancelled an earlier project following local opposition. The company’s plans would place drilling, storage and construction sites amid prime irrigated farmland and close to water sources, with daily output projected at 80 tonnes of crude, while licences have been extended until 2038. Despite assurances of “modern standards” and job creation echoed by Alparslan Bayraktar of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, the numbers suggest modest employment and a state share of production that barely reaches an eighth. In short, large tracts of land, small returns for the public—and a company that, having been told no once, appears to be trying again, only this time in smaller, more convenient pieces.
🧾💉 Pay First, See the Doctor Later: Health Reports Get a Price Tag
Writing for Cumhuriyet, journalist Berkay Sağol reports that as of 2025, many optional health reports once issued free of charge at Family Health Centres now come with a fee—₺250 to start, with more increases quietly expected. Under a decision by the Ministry of Health, everything from driver and sports certificates to occupational health and mental fitness reports is now payable, leaving millions to weigh paperwork against groceries. Doctors warn the policy is already restricting access to healthcare, particularly for low-income citizens. Sibel Uyan, head of the Family Medicine branch of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), notes that patients often assume doctors pocket the fees—an awkward misunderstanding—while stressing that mandatory reports people simply cannot afford are turning healthcare into a test of solvency rather than need. In short, health may still be a right on paper, but it’s starting to look suspiciously like a line item on the bill.
🚭🏛️ No More Smoke and Mirrors: Tighter Indoor Smoking Rules on the Way
Turkey’s Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu has announced that new legislation aimed at curbing smoking in enclosed spaces will soon be brought before parliament, signalling what he described as a “much more effective” phase in the fight against tobacco use. Speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Health, Memişoğlu said the planned regulations would strengthen existing bans and be complemented by parallel efforts targeting unhealthy diets and excessive sugar consumption, in coordination with the Agriculture Ministry. Turkey already has a long history of anti-smoking laws—from banning indoor smoking in public spaces in 2008 to plain packaging in 2020—but the message now is that compliance, enforcement and public health outcomes need sharpening. In short: the era of lighting up indoors was meant to be over years ago, and the government appears keen to make quite sure everyone got the memo.
Ruling Government (JDP)
🏥😬 AKP Whispers Get Louder: “Voters Can’t See a Doctor—and They’ll Remember It”
Discontent is bubbling rather audibly within the AKP, where senior figures are now openly fretting that failures in healthcare delivery are costing votes—and could prove painfully expensive at the ballot box. Party insiders say the Health Ministry tops the complaint charts at CİMER, with citizens struggling to get appointments, reach staff, or even find someone willing to listen. The irony, they note, is that the post–Fahrettin Koca era was meant to tidy up the system; instead, many privately admit they’re “nostalgic” for his tenure. Add to this a tone-deaf text-message campaign reminding patients how much the state has spent on them (received about as warmly as a hospital bill), and you have what insiders now call a full-blown political risk—made all the more awkward by the fact that, despite the alarm bells, the Health Ministry’s name is conspicuously absent from cabinet reshuffle gossip. In short: healthcare was once the party’s safest bet; now it’s giving even loyalists a headache.
🏛️☕ AK Party’s Top Brass Gather: Security, the Economy, and the Local Balancing Act
The Central Executive Board (MYK) of the Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) convened at party headquarters under the chairmanship of President and party leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, with a packed but familiar agenda. High on the list was the much-invoked goal of a “terror-free Turkey,” including updates on security policies and the latest situation on the ground, as briefed by relevant institutions. Economic matters also featured prominently, with discussions expected on inflation, the impact of current policies, and steps aimed—at least in principle—at investment, employment and easing public anxiety. Rounding out the meeting were local government strategies, assessing municipal performance and plotting the road ahead, alongside a review of citizens’ demands and complaints—because nothing says attentive governance quite like putting it all “on the table.”
Opposition (RPP)
🗳️☕ Özgür Özel Weighs In on Syria, Economics, and the Small Matter of Who Gets the Money
Speaking after a meeting at the presidential candidate office, Özgür Özel, leader of Republican People’s Party (CHP), delivered a wide-ranging statement covering foreign policy, Syria, and the cost of living—clearly with an eye on governing rather than merely commenting. Özel criticised what he described as an erratic, non-institutional foreign policy that has left Turkey paying for fighter jets it cannot use and making generous concessions abroad, while insisting at home that there is “no money.” On Syria, he stressed CHP’s support for territorial integrity and stability, underlining the importance of adherence to the 10 March agreement to avoid renewed conflict and regional spillover. Domestically, he promised to raise the minimum pension to the level of the minimum wage, arguing—politely but firmly—that the state somehow finds hundreds of billions in tax breaks for large companies, yet struggles to locate a comparatively modest sum when retirees ask for a little breathing room.
⚖️🩺 Jailed Mayors Make a Polite but Pointed Appeal: “Release Murat Çalık—Now, Please”
From Istanbul’s Marmara Prison in Silivri, detained mayors Rıza Akpolat and İnan Güney have called for the immediate release of fellow detainee Mehmet Murat Çalık, who is undergoing surgery today amid serious health concerns. Akpolat described the situation—forcing a cancer survivor with ongoing medical issues to face high-risk operations while in custody—as “cruelty, plain and simple,” while Güney asked, with restrained incredulity, whether what Çalık and his family have endured might finally be deemed sufficient. Both warned that what is meant to be an exceptional measure has drifted into a direct threat to life, urging authorities to listen to the country’s conscience and act before “too late” becomes the official policy.
🗳️ CHP Preps a New Membership Push
At a weekend meeting with provincial party leaders, Özgür Özel, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), reviewed upcoming fieldwork and unveiled plans for a new membership campaign with the refreshingly blunt slogan, “If you can’t put up with it, join us.” Pending formal approval from party management later this month, the campaign is expected to take CHP onto the streets with a simple pitch to weary voters: if you’re tired of unemployment, hunger, inadequate wages, lack of merit and general unfairness, there’s a membership form with your name on it. Alongside recruitment, the party plans to circulate short, accessible summaries of its programme—because no one has the patience for a manifesto on the pavement. Özel also instructed party organisations to finalise ballot-box security preparations, including a full-scale election rehearsal—early start, full attendance, no excuses—suggesting that CHP intends to treat the next election as less of a possibility and more of an eventuality.
Crime
🧒⚖️ Nearly 5,000 Children Behind Bars—But Who’s Really at Fault?
A new report from Turkey Foundation for the Re-Liberation of Children offers a quietly damning snapshot of Turkey’s juvenile justice reality: around 4,800 children aged 12–18 are currently in prison, some 70% of them detained without conviction—because presumption of innocence, it seems, is optional. The foundation’s long-running Youth Centre Programme (GEM), designed to keep at-risk children out of the justice system altogether, shows rather inconveniently good results: none of the 21 participating children entered the system, risk-taking behaviours fell sharply (especially among the highest-risk group), and psychological resilience, confidence, and social skills all improved. The findings suggest that when children are offered support, stability, and someone actually paying attention, they tend not to end up in prison—an awkward conclusion for anyone insisting that the problem lies solely with the children themselves.
🎒🏫 Ideology, but Make It Educational: Ülkü Ocakları Turns Up at a State School
A state school in Trabzon’s Beşikdüzü district recently played host to a presentation by Ülkü Ocakları, promoting its Distance Education Centre under a protocol signed with the Ministry of National Education. Photos shared proudly on social media show the session taking place in a classroom—teacher seated obediently at the front—while a representative of Ülkü Ocakları delivered the pitch beneath a logo and a rather familiar portrait of Devlet Bahçeli. The organisation insists its aim is merely to raise “awareness,” though critics remain unconvinced. Speaking to Cumhuriyet, All Teachers’ Union (TÖBSEN) education secretary Serkan Bebek argued that the initiative has less to do with education and rather more to do with ideological grooming, noting that Ülkü Ocakları’ close ties to the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP)make its political character unmistakable. The state, he reminded everyone—somewhat pointedly—is meant to provide neutral, secular education, not pick a youth movement and roll out the smart board.
✈️🕵️ A New Twist in the Libya Jet Crash Probe: This Time, It’s the Cabin Crew
The investigation into the plane crash that killed Muhammed Ali Al-Haddad and his delegation has taken a quietly dramatic turn, with a flight attendant from the crew that brought the jet to Turkey taken into custody. According to journalist Tolga Şardan, writing in T24, the cabin crew member—reported to be a Greek Cypriot national—was detained at her hotel in Ankara following inquiries initiated by National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and questioned by counter-terrorism police. Thus far, investigators have found nothing particularly concrete, though they are continuing to examine possible links, discreetly and at length. Meanwhile, the technical side of the investigation rolls on: the black box is heading to the UK for analysis, while prosecutors in Ankara continue to sift through the wreckage—literal and otherwise—suggesting the case is far from cleared for landing.
🚨 Ankara Nightclubs Raided After Minors Speak Out
A police investigation in Ankara has led to the closure of 11 nightclubs and pavilions after two underage girls told authorities they had been forced into sex work—prompting prosecutors to open a sweeping case into human trafficking and coercion. Following coordinated raids by public order and morality units, dozens of business owners and staff were detained, while the affected children were placed under state protection. According to reporting by İsmail Saymaz, as many as 15 minors may have been exploited, some allegedly pressured into prostitution for a set fee and threatened with dismissal if they refused. The investigation also includes deeply disturbing claims of drugging, sexual assault and the circulation of recorded abuse. Authorities say 60 suspects have been arrested so far—an outcome that suggests the problem was neither isolated nor especially well hidden, despite everyone apparently managing not to notice until children went to the police themselves.
Daily Lives
❄️📚 Snow Says “Not Today”: Schools Closed Across Much of Turkey
After snowfall arrived with enthusiasm and little regard for lesson plans, governors’ offices and district authorities across Turkey issued a cascade of snow-day announcements, suspending education in dozens of provinces and districts on Tuesday, 13 January. From Sinop and Kastamonu on the Black Sea to Hakkari, Muş and Bitlis in the east, and from Adıyaman to Kayseri and Sivas, officials cited heavy snow, ice, transport disruption and—where applicable—the small matter of avalanche risk. As ever, students were sent home, parents reached for the kettle, and public employees who are pregnant, disabled, chronically ill or caring for young children were granted administrative leave. Universities mostly carried on regardless, because tradition. Authorities urged caution, while winter quietly reminded everyone that, in Turkey, it still gets the final say on the school timetable.
💸📉 Numbers Don’t Lie (Unfortunately): Turkey’s New Pay Figures Paint a Grim Picture
Fresh figures released by the Presidency of Strategy and Budget reveal what many already suspected but perhaps hoped wasn’t quite this bleak: millions of people are earning well below the poverty line, and in many cases even below the hunger threshold. The average civil servant’s pension still fails to clear the “hunger line,” while minimum pensions for workers, civil servants and the self-employed have effectively been levelled downwards, making years of extra contributions largely symbolic. With the minimum wage already set beneath basic subsistence levels, even full-time work offers little protection from hardship. Data from Türk-İş put the hunger line at over ₺30,000 and the poverty line near ₺100,000—figures that render most pensions, salaries and social benefits painfully inadequate. Critics point out that the government’s long-running “minimum pension” policy may simplify accounting, but it also neatly erases the difference between those who paid in for decades and those who did not—an arrangement that is efficient, equal, and rather spectacularly unfair.
🤖🏆 World Champions of ChatGPT—But Not Quite for the Reasons You’d Hope
According to the Digital 2026 Global Overview Report, Turkey sits comfortably—and conspicuously—at the top of global ChatGPT usage, with a staggering 94.49% adoption rate, well ahead of the world average. At first glance, it looks like a digital success story: tech-savvy, curious, bang up to date. Look closer, though, and the picture shifts. In Turkey, ChatGPT isn’t so much a glimpse of the future as a coping mechanism for the present—less a tool for innovation than a reliable stand-in for thinking out loud. People aren’t asking it to design systems or reimagine industries; they’re asking it to explain, tidy up, phrase things safely, finish the thought they couldn’t quite land. It thrives in a space where ideas exist but circulation is hard, expression feels risky, and institutions offer little support. While other countries embed AI into industry, public services and decision-making, Turkey embraces it as a patient, non-judgemental conversational partner—useful, calming, and blissfully consequence-free. The result is record-breaking usage without matching transformation. So yes, Turkey is on top of the ChatGPT league table—but as ever, being top doesn’t necessarily mean being ahead.
Corruption
🕸️💰 Gold, But Make It Rotten: Inside Turkey’s Trillion-Lira Bullion Web
In a characteristically meticulous exposé, investigative journalist Timur Soykan lays out how Turkey’s gold sector has reportedly become a playground for smuggling, fake exports, tax evasion and money laundering—despite all the polished shop windows. Over the past three months alone, three major operations have targeted some of the country’s largest precious-metals firms, with prosecutors alleging public losses running into the hundreds of billions of lira. The claims range from gold smuggled via airports and quietly rebranded to dodge import quotas, to “exported” gold plates that turned out to be brass, to elaborate schemes using shell companies and incentives meant for genuine trade. Add in lax oversight, repeated asset amnesties and an enthusiasm for not asking awkward questions, and gold—traditionally the safest of havens—appears to have joined the long list of things that have quietly gone off. The investigations continue, though for now they stop conveniently short of politics and bureaucracy, which, as ever, remain reassuringly untouched by the spotlight.
💼💸 Public Purse, Private Comfort: ₺28.7 Million for State Bosses
Newly disclosed accounts submitted to parliament show that senior executives at TRT, PTT, TCDD and ÇAYKURreceived a combined ₺28.7 million in pay in 2024—at a time when much of the country is being gently encouraged to make do with less. Critics argue that under successive Justice and Development Party (AKP) governments, public enterprises have become something of a rewards scheme for the well-connected, with “loyalty” allegedly counting for more than expertise. The standout spender was TCDD, despite posting eye-watering losses, followed closely by PTT, which has struggled since being folded into the Turkey Wealth Fund. The figures have revived familiar complaints about merit, money, and priorities—because nothing reassures the public quite like generous boardroom payouts during an era of belt-tightening, provided it’s always someone else’s belt.
🕸️🏙️ Protection Money, Now With a Sea View: Istanbul’s Extortion Network Goes Upmarket
In a sobering piece, journalist Ayça Söylemez dismantles the comforting fiction that organised crime in Istanbul is confined to the city’s poorer outskirts. According to indictments, the so-called Casperler gang—led by İsmail Atız, alias “Hamuş”—has allegedly built an extortion network stretching from Şirinevler to Beşiktaş, Kadıköy and beyond, demanding “the street’s share” from businesses in districts better known for eye-watering rents than gunfire. Pages of testimony describe cafés, garages, clubs and hotels threatened, torched or shot up when payments—sometimes reaching ₺15 million—were refused. The list of alleged attacks reads like a grim city tour, suggesting that even a single gang can now operate citywide. In short, the problem is no longer neighbourhood-specific: the gangs have left the margins, and all of Istanbul is very much on the map.
Ankara
🚗 Yavaş on Traffic: “Shopping Malls Are Doing the Blocking”
Speaking at the general assembly of Ankara’s drivers’ and transport workers’ association, Mansur Yavaş, Mayor of Ankara, laid the city’s traffic woes squarely at the door of poor urban planning—particularly the enthusiastic placement of shopping malls. Yavaş pointed out that many districts were designed for modest populations but later packed with far more residents (and, inevitably, far more cars), all funnelled onto the same few roads. The result, he said, is most visible around AVMs, where tens of thousands of vehicles enter and exit daily, turning nearby streets into permanent bottlenecks. While insisting he is not opposed to malls as such, Yavaş argued that building dense commercial complexes without accounting for traffic flow achieves very little beyond gridlock. His remedy is a familiar but unfashionable one: stronger incentives for public transport, new electric buses, and dedicated lanes for buses, minibuses and taxis—possibly approved by public vote—because, as he dryly noted, Ankara’s roads have not expanded at anything like the same pace as its car ownership.