⚖️ Justice System and Everyday Life in Türkiye
Training helicopter crashes in field near Ankara, two injured
A two-seater R44 training helicopter came down in a field in the Temelli area of Ankara, along the Ankara–Eskişehir road, on Wednesday morning for reasons that have yet to be established. The civilian aircraft, operated by a private company and reported to belong to Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ), was carrying two people, both of whom were injured in the crash. Gendarmerie, fire and ambulance crews were dispatched to the scene, though no detailed information on the condition of the injured has yet been released. The Ankara West Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into the incident.
Court publishes reasoning in Leyla Aydemir case: cause of four-year-old’s death remains undetermined
A court in Ağrı has published its reasoned judgment in the case of Leyla Aydemir, the four-year-old girl whose body was found by a stream 18 days after she went missing in the village of Bezirhane in June 2018, explaining its decision to sentence her uncle, Yusuf Aydemir, to aggravated life imprisonment for the deliberate killing of a child. The Ağrı 1st Heavy Penal Court found that the girl had not simply gone missing but had been held against her will by a close relative and hidden in a home in the village — most likely in a cool place such as a well or storehouse — where the uncle cared for her and fed her milk until her death, which the court concluded occurred before 26–27 June 2018, in a manner forensic examiners were unable to determine. The judgment noted that the autopsy found no injuries, internal bleeding or skeletal damage, and ruled out death from hunger or thirst, while the body’s storage in a cold environment prevented the Forensic Medicine Institute from fixing the precise time of death. The court also cited telephone records showing that the internet connection on Yusuf Aydemir’s SIM card was switched off between 15 June and 2 July 2018 and reactivated only after the body was found, rejecting his explanation that he had swapped his smartphone for a basic handset, and concluded that he had deliberately left the child’s body, transported by tractor, in a spot near the village where it was likely to be discovered once searches had eased. Seven defendants, one of them in custody, were retried in the case, and the judgment observed that witnesses appeared to have consciously avoided discussing the matter because the crime was known within the family.
Ahbap investigation widens: prosecutors to take statements from high-profile figures
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office is to take statements from five well-known figures — news presenters Ece Üner and Fatih Portakal, lawyer Feyza Altun, singer Gökhan Özoğuz and television host Öykü Serter — as part of its ongoing investigation into the Ahbap charitable association. Three operations conducted so far in the inquiry have led to the arrest of 28 people, among them Ahbap’s chairman, the musician Haluk Levent, and Babala TV presenter Oğuzhan Uğur, on allegations including establishing an organisation for the purpose of committing crime, aggravated fraud, abuse of trust in the course of service, and laundering the proceeds of crime. Judicial control measures have been imposed on some suspects, while assets belonging to the association and certain individuals have been seized.
NATO Summit arrests: TEMA volunteers, journalists and academics released
Large numbers of people detained in operations ahead of the NATO Summit held in Ankara on 7–8 July, among them volunteers from the TEMA Foundation, journalists and academics, have begun to be released. Thirty TEMA volunteers who had been remanded in custody on charges of membership of the TKP/ML terrorist organisation, including the foundation’s Ankara provincial representative Nevzat Özer, were freed in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Journalist Yıldız Tar, academic Associate Professor Emel Memiş and Umut-Sen spokesperson Burcu Arıkan, who had been arrested during the same period on the same charge, were also released. The original arrests were made by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on allegations of membership of various terrorist organisations.
🏛️ Politics
Turkish parliament delays summer recess by a week to pass pensions and student amnesty measures
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) has extended its working calendar by a week after the General Assembly approved a proposal from the ruling AK Party group, postponing a summer recess that had been due to begin on Friday 24 July. Under the revised schedule, a bill amending various laws and decrees — including a provision to raise the minimum retirement pension — moves to the top of the agenda, with a second bill covering a student amnesty and other higher education measures placed immediately behind it. The chamber has agreed to sit on Friday if this week’s deliberations are not completed, and will continue into the following week, when it is due to take up the ratification of a law-enforcement cooperation memorandum with Libya’s Government of National Unity on Tuesday 28 July, a protocol amending the 1992 international road transport agreement with Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday 29 July, and a debt cancellation agreement with the Kyrgyz Republic on Thursday 30 July.
Justice Ministry denies claims that no DNA was taken from Rojin Kabaiş’s clothing
Turkey’s Ministry of Justice has rejected as untrue media claims that the Forensic Medicine Institute failed to take DNA samples from the clothing of Rojin Kabaiş or to carry out the necessary biological examinations as part of the investigation into her death. In a statement issued on social media on Monday evening, the ministry said the garments reportedly removed from Kabaiş’s body were first sent to the Van Gendarmerie Criminal Laboratory, where biological examinations were conducted and a report prepared, before being forwarded to the Forensic Medicine Institute’s specialist biology department for further analysis. According to the ministry, numerous stain and swab samples were taken from different areas of the underwear, tracksuit top and tracksuit bottoms, and were subjected to visual stain examination, tests for blood and human blood, analysis for menstrual blood, and both autosomal STR and Y-STR DNA analyses, rendering the allegation that no DNA samples were taken demonstrably false. The ministry urged the public not to give credence to unverified, misleading and disinformative content concerning the ongoing investigation.
Wife of governor dismissed over cycling attire reportedly handed surprise Istanbul post
Esengül Korkmaz Çiçekli, wife of former Ardahan Governor Mehmet Fatih Çiçekli — who was removed from office on 18 July after drawing criticism for wearing cycling tights — has reportedly been appointed a deputy governor of Istanbul. According to a report in Sözcü, her husband’s recall to the Interior Ministry’s central organisation triggered a change in her own posting under ministry rules governing the assignment of married bureaucrat couples to the same city, and the decision to move her from her role as deputy governor of Ardahan to Istanbul is expected to be published in the Official Gazette this week. Mr Çiçekli’s dismissal followed a row in parliament after images of him in professional cycling gear circulated, with CHP Kars MP İnan Akgün Alp describing the outfit as “tights”, claiming it was unbecoming of a governor and calling for his removal.
🤝Ruling Government (AKP, MHP, CHP and DEM coalition aka People’s Alliance)
Davutoğlu responds to talk of new party: “It falls to us to wish them well”
Ahmet Davutoğlu, leader of the Future Party, has responded to CHP leader Özgür Özel’s announcement that a new party is to be founded, telling journalists after his Yeni Yol Group’s weekly meeting that it would not befit political courtesy to comment negatively on developments within another party. He said that if a new party were being established, it fell to him to wish it well, though he advised that the opposition should look beyond minor disagreements to identify where common ground could be found, arguing that Turkey needed to revisit its shared values, moral standards and political vision, and that the limits of constant fragmentation and mutual recrimination had been reached. Mr Davutoğlu contended that the government was shaping the law and the system to its own design, and that disputes within the opposition were making it harder for a strong alternative to emerge. He also reiterated his opposition to the “absolute nullity” ruling issued against the CHP, describing it as a wrong decision that amounted to an interference in politics.
🗳️ Opposition Parties (Özgür Özel’s New Party and others)
No Treasury funding for Özel’s new party: even 90 MPs will not be enough
The new political party that Özgür Özel intends to found after announcing his departure from the CHP will be unable to draw on state Treasury funding, whatever its strength in parliament, under Turkey’s current Political Parties Law. Although the new formation is expected to attract a large number of CHP deputies — potentially exceeding 90 MPs and quickly forming a parliamentary group — supplementary article 1 of Law No. 2820 ties state aid to a party’s performance at the most recent general election, requiring participation in that election and at least 3 per cent of the valid vote. Because the new party did not contest the 2023 general election, it has no vote share on which an entitlement could be calculated, and neither MP transfers, group formation nor a high seat count generates any right to funding on its own. The party will only become eligible if it wins at least 3 per cent of the vote at the first general election it contests, qualifying it for the following funding period; until then, it is expected to finance its activities through membership fees, donations and other lawful sources of income. Reports indicate the party’s founding application will be lodged on 27 July.
Deputy mayor of Eyüpsultan detained in widening Çankaya municipality investigation
The investigation into Ankara’s Çankaya Municipality has widened, with detention orders issued for H.K., a deputy mayor of Istanbul’s Eyüpsultan Municipality, along with G.G., an employee of a municipal subsidiary company, and one other person. H.K. and G.G. were taken into custody on Wednesday morning and brought to the Istanbul Police Headquarters before being transferred to Ankara to give statements, according to a report by Halk TV. No search was carried out at the Eyüpsultan Municipality building, though computers belonging to the two detainees were examined. The operation against Çankaya Municipality had already seen 24 people arrested on 14 July, among them Mayor Hüseyin Can Güner, who was suspended from office by the Interior Ministry.