Man on the left: “What do you reckon, will this Iran business blow back on us too?”
Man on the right: “Say it does, so what? Will our inflation go up? Will unemployment rise? Will fuel prices increase? Will meat and dairy go up every single day? Will pensioners and minimum-wage workers be left destitute? Will the whole system collapse? What exactly would be new?”
Justice System and Everyday Life in Türkiye
⛏️ Turkish Miners Defy Chinese Owners in Standoff at Izmir Pit
Workers at the Polyak Mine in Kınık, Izmir, marked the eleventh day of their dispute with Chinese operator Qitaihe Longcoal Mining by issuing a deadline for the company to leave the region, after rejecting an offer to resign in exchange for their outstanding pay. When negotiations broke down, gendarmerie moved in with pepper spray and batons, detaining two miners, a union lawyer, and an organising specialist. The workers, affiliated with the Independent Mining Workers’ Union, are demanding three months of unpaid wages, full severance entitlements, and a change in the mine’s ownership structure. Their employer — which also involves Turkish conglomerate Fiba Holding — had given staff until 6 March to resign voluntarily. The workers refused, vowing to remain at the pit and declaring that, as the people who extract the coal, they should ultimately be the ones running it.
🪨 Landslide Closes Gümüşhane–Giresun Road in Both Directions
A landslide in the Kürtün district of Gümüşhane has forced the complete closure of the Gümüşhane–Giresun road to traffic in both directions, after rocks and soil were swept onto the entrance of a tunnel. Gendarmerie units have been deployed to the area as a precaution against further slippage, whilst teams from the General Directorate of Highways and the Provincial Special Administration have begun clearance work. Özkürtün Mayor Yakup Turgut confirmed the closure to the Anadolu Agency, noting that traffic is currently being rerouted via the village of Araköy. It is not yet known when the road will reopen.
🔪 A Teacher Warned Her School About the Boy Who Would Go On to Kill Her
A biology teacher, Fatma Nur Çelik, 44, was stabbed to death at a vocational secondary school in Çekmeköy, Istanbul, by a 17-year-old pupil who also wounded a second teacher and a 15-year-old student before being detained by police. The attack has been deepened in its impact by the revelation that Çelik herself had flagged the suspected attacker to her school's disciplinary board the previous year, following a separate stabbing incident between two pupils, at which time she was reported to have said: "Our lives are not safe — we could be next." The Ministry of National Education announced the appointment of an inspector and the opening of an administrative inquiry, whilst Justice Minister Akın Gürlek confirmed that a criminal investigation had been launched by the Istanbul public prosecutor's office, pledging that "those responsible will be held to account before the law." Teaching unions across Istanbul — including Eğitim Sen, Türk Eğitim-Sen, and several others — announced a one-day work stoppage in tribute to Çelik, who is survived by a primary-school-age child and was known among colleagues for sharing folk songs she performed herself on social media.
Politics
🗳️ Turkey Redraws Its Electoral Map Ahead of Next General Election
Turkey’s Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) has published updated constituency seat allocations in the Official Gazette, following the latest national census results released by the Turkish Statistical Institute. Under the new arrangement, Istanbul is divided into three constituencies returning a combined 96 seats, Ankara into three returning 37, İzmir into three returning 28, and Bursa into two returning 21. Among the notable changes from the previous allocation, Antalya gains one seat — rising from 17 to 18 — whilst Karabük loses one, falling from three seats to two. In Istanbul, the First District, covering the Anatolian side of the city, gains a seat to reach 35, whereas the Second District drops from 26 to 25. The district of Güdül has also been moved from Ankara’s Second constituency to its Third. The Electoral Constituency Seat Allocation Law requires the YSK to complete this process within six months of census results being announced.
🏛️ The Vote That Kept Turkey Out of the Iraq War — and the Backstage Manoeuvring Behind It
On the 23rd anniversary of the 1 March 2003 parliamentary motion — which would have allowed the United States to use Turkish territory as a launching pad for the invasion of Iraq — Turkish journalist Sedat Bozkurt has revisited the behind-the-scenes machinations that led to its surprise defeat. Drawing on accounts from those present, Bozkurt describes how then-Prime Minister Abdullah Gül told cabinet ministers in a closed session, with recording devices switched off and officials removed from the room, that party leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was privately opposed to the motion — a disclosure that gave wavering ministers the confidence to vote against it. Erdoğan has since publicly claimed the opposite, insisting he supported the motion and that others covertly worked to sink it. Bozkurt notes that parliamentary speaker Bülent Arınç was among those who actively sought its rejection, and that several AKP ministers — including Ertuğrul Yalçınbayır and Hüseyin Çelik — openly declared their votes against. Crucially, Erdoğan appears to have changed his position abruptly in the final hours before the vote, arguing to colleagues that Turkey could not afford to miss the financial package on offer from Washington; when the economics minister Ali Babacan was asked to verify the claim that civil servant salaries could not be paid the following month, he reportedly said it was untrue. Bozkurt also notes that, shortly after becoming prime minister, Erdoğan had the cabinet meeting room completely demolished and swept for listening devices — a detail he suggests invites its own conclusions.
Parliament
💸 Retirees Left Empty-Handed as AKP’s Omnibus Bill Skips Pension Bonus Rise
Turkey’s ruling AKP party has submitted a sweeping 19-article omnibus bill to parliament, disappointing pensioners who had widely expected it to include an increase to their religious holiday bonus — which will instead remain at the same 4,000 lira paid last year. Beyond the pension question, the bill introduces a new transaction tax of 0.03 per cent on cryptocurrency trades, brings crypto gains into the income tax net, removes VAT exemptions from a range of goods and services including printed books and healthcare provided to foreigners, and writes off BOTAŞ’s tax and penalty debts against state compensation owed to the company — a provision opposition parties have singled out as particularly egregious given that no equivalent debt relief is on offer for ordinary citizens. The bill also raises the fee for purchasing an exemption from military service by 25 per cent, extends privatisation powers for surplus public properties, introduces a special consumption tax on diamonds and precious stones, and grants the president authority to adjust cryptocurrency tax rates and unemployment insurance contribution levels. The opposition has characterised the legislation broadly as a package that widens the tax burden on citizens, curtails parliamentary oversight of public funds, and concentrates significant economic powers in the hands of the presidency.
Editor’s note: It is worth noting that Erdoğan has a well-established pattern of personally swooping in at the eleventh hour to announce last-minute increases to retirees’ benefits, leaving open the question of whether the omission from this bill is truly the final word on the matter.
🍽️ Opposition Party Holds Separate Iftar to Signal Rejection of Kurdish Peace Process
Turkey’s parliament is hosting a high-profile Ramadan iftar dinner this evening, organised by parliamentary speaker Numan Kurtulmuş and attended by President Erdoğan, cabinet ministers, senior bureaucrats, and former speakers — an event widely described in political circles as a symbolic show of unity around the government’s ongoing Kurdish reconciliation process, known informally as the “Terror-Free Turkey” initiative. However, the nationalist opposition party İYİ Parti has taken a formal group decision to boycott the joint dinner and hold its own separate iftar within the parliament building, in a deliberate gesture of dissent against the process and the manner in which it is being conducted. The split echoes tensions from last year’s parliamentary iftar, which drew widespread attention after footage emerged of Erdoğan shaking hands and conversing with the late deputy speaker Sırrı Süreyya Önder — a moment that sparked considerable debate about the scope and direction of the reconciliation effort. This year, the two parallel dinners under the same roof are being read by political observers as a visible reminder that the fault lines opened by the peace process have yet to close.
📰 Turkish Parliament Spent 3.2 Million Lira Monitoring Media Coverage of Its Own MPs
Turkey’s Grand National Assembly has spent 3.2 million lira over the past five years on a media monitoring service that tracks press, digital, and social media coverage of individual members of parliament, it has emerged following a parliamentary question tabled by Yeni Yol Party deputy Selçuk Özdağ. Deputy speaker Bekir Bozdağ confirmed in his written response that the assembly has a contract with Interpress Media Services, under which MPs receive a daily email by 07:30 each morning containing links to articles mentioning them by name, alongside access to a password-protected online system archiving television content and news coverage throughout the year. The contracts, covering 2024, 2025, and 2026, have been charged to the assembly’s budget under the heading of “subscription and internet access expenditure.”
Ruling Government (JDP and NMP coalition aka People’s Alliance)
🕊️ Erdoğan Launches Diplomatic Blitz After US-Israeli Strikes on Iran Kill Khamenei
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has conducted an intensive round of telephone diplomacy following US and Israeli strikes on Iran and the subsequent regional escalation, speaking with Donald Trump, the leaders of Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Erdoğan conveyed condolences to the Gulf states, several of which also appear to have sustained attacks, and expressed concern that without urgent intervention the conflict risked grave consequences for regional and global security. In each conversation, he pressed the case for a return to dialogue, stating that resolving disputes through diplomacy and negotiation was “the most rational option” and that Turkey stood ready to support peace efforts. Erdoğan also published a formal condolence message following the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the strikes, expressing sorrow on behalf of the Turkish state and people and pledging that Ankara would continue working resolutely toward an end to the conflict and a restoration of stability across the region.
Opposition Parties (RPP and others)
🌊 Opposition Files Criminal Complaint Over Road That Turned Into a Lake After Rainfall
A section of the Antalya–Konya highway passing through the Eynif Plain has been closed since 16 February after heavy rainfall caused floodwaters to submerge it to depths of up to two metres in places, and CHP deputy leader Deniz Yavuzyılmaz has now filed a criminal complaint over the incident, naming three cabinet ministers and the construction firm Makyol as suspects. Yavuzyılmaz argued that the flooding was not a natural disaster but the foreseeable consequence of a flawed 2017 contract awarded through a negotiated tender process, alleging that the road’s elevation was poorly chosen, drainage solutions were inadequate, flood risk was ignored, and environmental impact assessment requirements were improperly waived. The contract, she said, had cost the state the equivalent of 179 million US dollars — including cost overruns — making the road’s submersion a matter of public financial loss as well as a safety failure. She named the ministers of transport, environment, and agriculture as among those bearing responsibility.
⚖️ Opposition Mayor Arrested and Suspended from Office on Extortion Charges
Tanju Özcan, the CHP mayor of Bolu, has been suspended from his post by the Interior Ministry after a court ordered his arrest on charges of extortion — specifically “extortion by coercion” — as part of a broader investigation into the municipality. Özcan and his deputy mayor Süleyman Can were remanded in custody by Bolu’s 2nd Magistrates’ Court on 2 March, whilst eleven others detained in the same operation were released under judicial supervision conditions. A total of thirteen people had initially been taken into custody in connection with the investigation. The Interior Ministry cited Article 127 of the Constitution and Article 47 of the Municipal Law in announcing Özcan’s suspension, describing the measure as a temporary precaution pending the outcome of legal proceedings.
🗣️ Jailed Istanbul Mayor Rallies Behind Arrested Bolu Counterpart: ‘When the Wolf Decides to Eat the Lamb, It Will Always Find an Excuse’
Ekrem İmamoğlu, the imprisoned Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor and CHP presidential candidate, has spoken out against the arrest of Bolu Mayor Tanju Özcan, posting a statement from his presidential campaign office’s social media account in which he characterised the detention as politically motivated. İmamoğlu claimed Özcan had been arrested not for corruption but for providing scholarships to young people and students in Bolu, and invoked a Turkish proverb — “when the wolf decides to eat the lamb, it will always find an excuse” — to suggest the charges were a pretext. He urged Özcan to keep his spirits up and vowed that “those who are brazenly carrying out this lawlessness will, God willing, be held to account before an independent judiciary.”
🗳️ CHP Sets Out Its Stall With 90 Pledges Across 13 Policy Areas — and a Jailed Candidate in the Background
Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has held a policy launch event at its Ankara headquarters, unveiling nearly 90 priority pledges spanning 13 areas including democracy, judicial reform, the economy, foreign policy, education, health, housing, and women’s and youth rights. Party leader Özgür Özel opened by condemning the US-Israeli strikes on Iran and accusing the AKP government of blindly aligning itself with the Trump administration, before outlining commitments that include a transition back to a parliamentary system, an independent judiciary, a minimum pension raised to the level of the minimum wage, a basic citizens’ income within the first 100 days of government, free school meals, the reinstatement of the Istanbul Convention on violence against women, and a guarantee of employment, internship or training for all under-25s within four months of completing their education. The event was held with photographs of imprisoned Istanbul Mayor and CHP presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu displayed prominently in the hall; his wife and Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş attended in person, while İmamoğlu himself delivered a video message from detention in which he said the country was “at a genuine crossroads.” Özel closed by insisting that İmamoğlu would stand in the election regardless, and that the party had a duty to pursue power not for personal ambition but for the sake of the country.
🗳️ CHP Builds Bespoke Ballot-Monitoring App and Plans a National Election Drill in September
Turkey’s main opposition CHP has developed a dedicated mobile application called “Sandığım” (”My Ballot Box”) to coordinate and manage its polling station monitors ahead of the next general election, party leader Özgür Özel has revealed in an interview. Özel said the party has already assigned monitors to 180,000 of the country’s 194,000 ballot boxes, with 146,000 of those individuals having been contacted by a 100-strong call centre operating out of the party’s assembly hall and confirmed their participation; the target is to reach 190,000. The application shows each monitor the list of voters registered to their assigned ballot box, allows notes to be taken on individual voters during door-to-door visits — of which six are planned before polling day — and identifies party members who can be approached first. Özel also announced a nationwide election drill planned for September, in which all monitors will simultaneously travel to their assigned schools at six in the morning to rehearse the full process. In the same interview, Özel revealed that President Erdoğan is said to refer to Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan privately by the same nickname Özel himself coined — “TikTok Hakan” — reflecting Erdoğan’s reported irritation at Fidan’s apparent political ambitions; and he defended his post-election “normalisation” gesture towards Erdoğan in 2024, insisting it was never a softening towards the president personally but a deliberate signal to opposition-leaning voters that a CHP government would govern for all citizens rather than seek revenge.
Economics
📊 Independent Researchers Put Turkish Inflation at 54% — Nearly Triple the Official Figure
Turkey’s independent Inflation Research Group (ENAG) has published its alternative consumer price index for February 2026, recording a monthly rise of 4.01 per cent and an annual inflation rate of 54.14 per cent — a figure that stands in stark contrast to the official statistics expected from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) later the same morning. ENAG’s figures show a slight easing from January, when it recorded a monthly rise of 6.32 per cent and an annual rate of 53.42 per cent. The group, which applies its own independent methodology, has consistently produced inflation readings significantly higher than those published by the state statistics agency, whose figures have long been a source of public and academic controversy in Turkey.
⛽ Diesel Prices Jump 10.5% at the Pump as Iran Conflict Sends Oil Markets Higher
Diesel fuel prices in Turkey are rising by 6.69 lira per litre from tomorrow, a increase of roughly 10.5 per cent, in the wake of surging global oil prices following the US and Israeli strikes on Iran. The hike pushes the pump price close to 70 lira per litre in several cities, with diesel reaching 67.09 lira in Istanbul, 68.19 lira in Ankara, 68.46 lira in İzmir, and expected to exceed 70 lira in eastern provinces such as Şırnak, Bitlis, and Bingöl.