Justice System and Everyday Life in Türkiye
🔍 AKP-linked inspector who probed İmamoğlu now leads Gülistan Doku investigation
Civil Service Chief Inspector Arif Yıldırım, who oversaw investigations into Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) and Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu during Süleyman Soylu’s tenure as interior minister and stood as an AKP parliamentary candidate for Mersin in 2015, has been appointed to head the inspection team examining the Gülistan Doku case, according to a column by T24 writer Tolga Şardan. Doku, a young woman from Dersim, has been missing since 2020. Şardan recalled that Yıldırım had previously been criticised by İmamoğlu for what the mayor described as a politically motivated approach during the İBB inquiries, and questioned whether the current Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi was aware of the appointment, suggesting the move either signals a willingness to continue working with bureaucratic figures from the Soylu era or, if made without the minister’s knowledge, raises the prospect of an internal manoeuvre bypassing him. The columnist concluded by asking whether Yıldırım would bring the same level of zeal to the Doku file as he had shown in the İmamoğlu investigations.
🚢 When the Bosphorus Comes Knocking at Your Front Door
Spare a thought for the yalı set of Yeniköy this morning, who awoke to find a 148-metre Russian-laden container ship, the KAPPA, parked rather closer to the breakfast room than one might ideally like — a steering fault having nudged it ashore mere metres from the waterfront mansions that cost roughly the GDP of a small principality. The Coastal Safety lot scrambled tugs KURTARMA-5, 6 and 8, plus frogmen and a rescue boat, while Bosphorus traffic was politely paused in both directions; the vessel was eventually refloated and the strait reopened by 07:50, presumably to the immense relief of homeowners whose insurance brokers had just spat out their Turkish coffee. Charmingly, this is the same ship that suffered an engine failure off Kandilli back in 2022 — so if you happen to own a yalı and spot the KAPPA on the horizon, perhaps consider taking the morning off.
Politics
🪧 Ankara district governor removed and investigated over social media posts
Türkiye’s Interior Ministry has dismissed Muharrem Eligül from his post as governor of the Ayaş district of Ankara and launched an investigation into him over a series of social media posts, appointing an inspector to the case. Eligül has since been reassigned as a legal adviser to the Edirne Governor’s Office. The controversy began around 23 April national celebrations, when allegations emerged that the press officer of the local municipality had been barred from the ceremony venue by the district governor’s office. Eligül published a statement opening with the phrase “Bismillahirrahmanirrahim” in both Turkish and Arabic, which he later deleted, in which he sarcastically asked who had taken the many photos at the event “if I had used public authority to block them — was it aliens?”. Ankara Governor’s Office subsequently launched an inquiry, and CHP Ankara MP Umut Akdoğan signalled he would raise the matter in parliament, prompting Eligül to respond with the dismissive Turkish exclamation “Kes lan!” (roughly, “Shut it!”).
⚠️ Türkiye tops Europe in fatal workplace accidents as ‘day of safety’ becomes day of mourning
On the World Day for Safety and Health at Work, established by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 2003, professional bodies in Türkiye warn that the date has effectively become a day of mourning, with the country ranking first in Europe and among the worst globally for fatal workplace accidents. According to figures from the Social Security Institution (SGK), 733,646 workplace accidents were recorded in 2024, yet only 888 cases of occupational disease were officially identified. The Chamber of Mechanical Engineers, part of the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB), described the data as far from reflecting reality, noting that an average of around five workers die in workplace incidents each day and that 25 years of SGK records show only 128 occupational disease deaths against 17,690 recorded cases — whereas ILO figures suggest at least 10,000 workers die from occupational diseases in Türkiye each year. TMMOB chair Emin Koramaz argued that the problem is structural rather than incidental, blaming the outsourcing of occupational health and safety services to private joint health and safety units and curbs on the powers of professional bodies, and called for an independent and effective inspection regime backed by binding, deterrent sanctions on employers. Dr Figen Şahpaz of the Turkish Medical Association added that the issue lies in implementation rather than legislation, noting that 90 per cent of safety services are now run by private joint units, that only 11 million of Türkiye’s 27 million workers are covered, and that the number of labour inspectors has roughly halved in recent years, with only 0.4 per cent of workplaces inspected. At least 24,860 workers died between 2013 and 2025, while the number of working children rises to as many as three million in the summer months; at least 852 child workers have died between 2013 and 2026, more than half of them in agriculture, with hundreds of thousands of children under the MESEM apprenticeship scheme reportedly working shifts of up to 10 hours a day. Şahpaz also drew attention to the often invisible risks faced by women workers, where informal employment, precarious work and domestic responsibilities combine to heighten exposure.
⛏️ Turkish interior minister says wages of striking miners in Ankara will be paid
Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi has announced that the unpaid wages of miners who marched on Ankara and went on hunger strike will be settled, after weeks of unrest involving workers from Doruk Madencilik, part of the AKP-linked SSS Yıldızlar Holding, who had not been paid for months. Speaking to Hürriyet columnist Ahmet Hakan, Çiftçi said he had personally contacted the holding’s owner, Sabahattin Yıldız, urging him to pay the workers and bring the protest to an end, and that the outstanding amounts would be transferred to the miners’ accounts on the morning of the announcement. The minister also defended police conduct during the demonstrations, in which workers had been subjected to forceful intervention, claiming after speaking with the Ankara police chief that “marginal illegal groups” had infiltrated the protest, and saying he had instructed officers to separate alleged provocateurs while treating the miners themselves with care and as much tolerance as possible.
🏥 Turkish health authority denies hospitals are being sold off
Türkiye’s General Directorate of Health Investments has rejected reports circulating in some media outlets and on social media claiming that public hospitals are being put up for sale, following the publication of a list of properties in the Official Gazette. In a written statement, the directorate said the decision concerns the reassessment of properties that are unused or have lost their function, and that properties belonging to institutions providing healthcare will be preserved, with only idle portions of those sites being subdivided and reallocated. The statement noted that the process is ongoing, with the possibility that some properties may remain partially in use while others are excluded altogether, and stressed that no active public hospital is being sold. The directorate added that an administration which over the past 23 years has delivered 27 city hospitals, 21 training and research hospitals, 760 state hospitals, 449 annexes, 128 oral and dental health centres and 151,000 qualified beds would not divest active healthcare facilities, and urged the public to rely only on official communications.
🍽️ Erdoğan’s five-day Rize visit racks up 13 million lira meal bill for security personnel
Public spending records have revealed that catering for personnel deployed during President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s five-day Eid visit to his hometown of Rize, beginning on 20 March, came to 12,928,620 Turkish lira. According to procurement records, the Rize Provincial Police Directorate paid the sum for a total of 22,277 meals — covering breakfast, lunch and dinner — supplied by Çelikoğlu Yemek Sanayi Temizlik Turizm Nakliyat Pazarlama İnşaat Medikal ve Tüketim Maddeleri Ticaret, a company with no apparent corporate website and whose telephone went unanswered when contacted. CHP Rize MP Tahsin Ocaklı, citing data from the Electronic Public Procurement Platform (EKAP), calculated that the spend amounted to roughly 4.3 million lira per day and implied a daily security deployment of around 6,700 people. Ocaklı questioned whether such a scale of security was truly necessary in the president’s own hometown, asking how high the total cost would climb once transport, accommodation and fuel were added in. Drawing attention to pensioners and minimum-wage earners struggling beneath the hunger threshold, the MP argued that the figure reopens the line between “necessity” and “waste”, noting that the same resources could have funded school meals for hundreds of thousands of pupils, supported thousands of retirees, or provided food aid to low-income households and small-scale assistance to producers.
Ruling Government (AKP, MHP and DEM coalition aka People’s Alliance)
🗳️ Erdoğan eyes November 2027 early election timed to AKP’s 25th anniversary
The ruling AKP has rebuffed CHP leader Özgür Özel’s call for a snap “interim” election, signalling instead that any early vote will take place at a date of the government’s own choosing — most likely November 2027, to coincide with the party’s 25th anniversary in power. According to a report in Hürriyet, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has asked for the AKP’s founding anniversary on 14 August 2026 to be marked under a “25th year” theme, with the election campaign to be built around the same framing. A bringing-forward of the vote is required for Erdoğan to stand again. AKP figures argue that opposition parties would find it politically impossible to refuse an election once one is formally tabled, raising the prospect of targeted lobbying of smaller opposition groupings, independents, and MPs without re-election prospects, with some claiming even certain CHP deputies could ultimately back the move. The decisive factor, however, is widely seen as the position of the DEM Party, whose 56 MPs would give the ruling bloc the numbers needed to call an early vote. DEM, currently engaged in the “resolution process” with the government, has neither opposed nor endorsed CHP’s call for a snap poll, with its members pressing for the process’s legal reforms to be completed swiftly and warning that an election could derail it. While DEM continues to reject suggestions that the process is being used to clear the way for another Erdoğan candidacy, political insiders see it as plausible that the AKP will time key legislative steps close to the election in order to bring the party on board.
Opposition Parties (CHP and others)
🇪🇺 European rapporteurs warn İmamoğlu’s detention is undermining local democracy in Türkiye
Rapporteurs from the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, the European Parliament and the chair of the European Committee of the Regions’ Türkiye Working Group have sent a joint letter to Turkish Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi expressing serious concern about the detention of elected mayors. The letter is signed by PACE rapporteurs Lord David Blencathra and Yves Cruchten, Congress rapporteur Bryony Rudkin, European Parliament rapporteur Nacho Sánchez Amor and Jelena Drenjanin, and notes that the detention of Istanbul Mayor and Union of Municipalities of Türkiye chair Ekrem İmamoğlu has now entered its second year since 23 March, alongside the prolonged detention of numerous other opposition-affiliated locally elected representatives. Drawing on the Venice Commission’s report of 24 October 2025, the rapporteurs argue that detaining elected mayors in circumstances which fail to meet the requirements of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights damages local democracy and undermines voters’ right to freely choose their representatives. They state that the joint démarche, raising the matter together across all the European institutions of which Türkiye is a member or candidate member, marks a clear shift: the situation is now logged at European level not as an internal Turkish legal-political matter but as a crisis of local democracy. Affirming their commitment to the shared values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, the rapporteurs offered to continue the political dialogue with Turkish authorities and to provide further support as Türkiye seeks to meet its democratic obligations as a Council of Europe member and an EU strategic partner.
🏛️ CHP’s Zeki Işık elected acting mayor of Eşme after Tozan’s suspension
CHP councillor Zeki Işık has been elected acting mayor of Eşme in Türkiye’s Uşak province following the suspension of Mayor Yılmaz Tozan, who was arrested earlier this month. At an extraordinary meeting of the municipal council, Işık stood as the CHP group’s candidate against AKP nominee Altan Aydemir, prevailing in a secret ballot in the third round by 7 votes to 4 after the first two rounds failed to deliver the required majority. Pledging to work jointly with all sides and not to marginalise anyone, Işık acknowledged the weight of the responsibility ahead. Tozan was among seven suspects detained on 17 April as part of an “extortion through coercion” investigation conducted by the Eşme Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office under the coordination of the Uşak Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office; he was one of three suspects subsequently remanded in custody, while two others were released under judicial control and two more were freed after questioning. The Interior Ministry announced his suspension on 22 April, citing the ongoing inquiry into “extortion through coercion” and “forming an organisation to commit crime”.
🪨 CHP’s Keçiören district headquarters attacked with stones in Ankara
The Keçiören district headquarters of Türkiye’s main opposition CHP was targeted in a stone attack in Ankara, with party officials also describing the assault as having involved a knife. CHP Keçiören district chair Görkem Yıldırım condemned the incident on social media, calling it the direct result of years of deliberately fuelled hate speech, polarising politics and the targeting of opponents, and pledged that the party would not be intimidated, would not retreat and would not be silenced by those seeking to suppress democratic politics through pressure and a climate of fear. CHP Ankara MP Semra Dinçer also denounced the attack, framing it as a consequence of the country’s increasingly toxic political climate, vowing to counter hatred with brotherhood and fear with hope, and extending her wishes for a swift recovery to Yıldırım and to all party colleagues affected by the assault.
Thanks for reading this far, I will see you tomorrow. ☕