Justice System and Everyday Life in Türkiye
🌫️ Saharan Dust Cloud to Blanket Istanbul for Three Days With Health Warning for Vulnerable Groups
A dust cloud originating from the Sahara Desert has moved over Istanbul and is expected to remain in effect until Friday, turning skies yellow, orange, and red particularly around sunrise and sunset. Meteorologists from Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul Aydın University, and Boğaziçi University’s Kandilli Observatory all advised people with asthma, COPD, allergies, and other respiratory conditions — as well as the elderly and children — to avoid prolonged time outdoors, wear masks, and monitor air quality updates. The dust is visible on vehicle and surface deposits and will spread from the Marmara region to other parts of Turkey after Friday. Experts noted that whilst the dust poses health risks, it also carries phosphorus and iron-rich minerals from the Sahara that act as natural fertiliser for plants in spring. No wet deposition is expected as there is no rainfall forecast, meaning the dust will remain airborne rather than washing out.
🚇 Brief Fire Panic at Taksim Metro Station After Lift Blaze
A fire broke out in a lift at Taksim Metro Station at around 20:30, causing heavy smoke in the area and brief panic among passengers. Fire, health, and police crews were dispatched and extinguished the blaze without any injuries. Metro Istanbul announced that the Cumhuriyet Tüneli exit of Taksim Station on the M2 Yenikapı-Hacıosman line was closed to passengers whilst an investigation into the cause was launched.
🏫 School Attacker Buried Quietly as Four Officials Suspended Over Siverek Shooting That Left 16 Wounded
Ömer Ket, the 19-year-old who opened fire with a shotgun at his former school in Siverek, Şanlıurfa, wounding 16 people before taking his own life, was buried quietly under police escort at a cemetery in Şanlıurfa city rather than his home district, with his family taken into state protection and moved elsewhere for security reasons. Of the 16 wounded — ten students, four teachers, a police officer, and a canteen worker — seven have been discharged from hospital, whilst teacher Cihat Edim remains in a serious condition. Some students jumped from classroom windows to escape. Ket, who had been held back a year due to absences and expelled before transferring to an open-learning school, had posted explicit threats on social media days before the attack, writing “be ready, there will be an attack at this school in a few days” and “tomorrow we meet, I will destroy you all.” Investigators say he blamed the school administration for his academic failures and harboured a grudge, and that he regularly used violent language online and played violent computer games. Two friends who exchanged revenge-themed messages with Ömer Ket on social media have been detained. In the wake of the attack, Şanlıurfa governorate announced that two district police officials and two district education administrators have been suspended from duty, with reports indicating the school management had previously informed police of Ket’s threats.
⚖️ İliç Mine Disaster Trial: One Detainee Released, New Expert Report Ordered as Two CHP MPs Ejected From Courtroom
The seventh hearing in the trial of 43 defendants — five of them in pre-trial detention — over the İliç mine disaster in Erzincan in which nine workers lost their lives produced several significant developments. The court ordered the release of detained defendant Selçuk Çiftlik, whilst keeping the remaining detainees in custody and maintaining judicial supervision conditions for others. The hearing was adjourned to 7 July pending completion of missing files and a new expert report. Complainants’ lawyer Ümit Altaş presented the court with press reports alleging that one of the expert panel’s professors has a commercial relationship with the mining company, raising conflict of interest concerns. The court accepted a request to hear former Metallurgical Engineers Chamber president Cemalettin Küçük as a witness, but rejected requests to hear CHP deputy leader Deniz Yavuzyılmaz as a witness and to conduct an on-site inspection. A notable incident occurred when CHP deputy leader Yavuzyılmaz and CHP Bursa MP Orhan Sarıbal became involved in an argument with a defence lawyer, prompting the presiding judge to clear the courtroom and bar the two MPs from re-entering for the remainder of the session. The prosecution has previously requested sentences of up to 24 years for one defendant and up to 22 years and six months for twelve others, calling for penalties near the upper limit given the number of deaths and the defendants’ degree of fault.
⚖️ Second Cerrahpaşa Report Finds No Negligence in Newborn Death at Centre of ‘Baby Gang’ Trial
A second expert report from Cerrahpaşa Medical Faculty’s forensic medicine department has found no negligence attributable to Güney Hospital chief physician Dr Ali Dirik in the death of baby Kaya, one of ten infants named as victims in the high-profile “Newborn Gang” trial in which 62 defendants including ten in pre-trial detention stand accused of directing emergency infant cases to private hospitals in exchange for kickbacks. The 41-page report, submitted to Bakırköy 22nd Heavy Criminal Court, concluded that baby Kaya — born at just 500 grams — died from extreme prematurity, respiratory distress syndrome, and resulting severe asphyxia, and that no direct causal link could be established between the treatment provided and the death. The report described the obstetrician’s decision to accept the case and the subsequent neonatal intensive care treatment as a good-faith effort under extremely difficult circumstances, noting that emergency services had failed to find a suitable bed for the mother at public or private facilities for approximately four hours — a delay the report identified as a significant contributing factor to the outcome. The report was critical of the Forensic Medicine Institute’s earlier conclusions, finding no concrete evidence to support allegations of falsified lab results, swapped X-rays, or manipulated records, and describing the ATK reports as relying heavily on templates and prosecution documents rather than detailed independent medical review. The court had earlier ordered the ATK’s Supreme Council to produce separate reports for each of the ten deceased infants after identifying contradictions in existing expert opinions.
Politics
🏛️ Erdoğan Warns Israel Against Sabotaging Ceasefire and Tells Israeli Defence Minister ‘No Power Can Wag a Finger at Turkey’
President Erdoğan used his AKP parliamentary group address to deliver a series of sharp messages on the Middle East war, energy security, and the school shooting. On the Iran ceasefire, he said the 15-day window must be used to the full and warned that Israel — which he said is known to be deeply unhappy with the ceasefire — must not be allowed to set it on fire, noting that Israeli attacks on Lebanon have already dealt the first blow to peace hopes and that tensions at the Strait of Hormuz are rising again. He said Turkey is actively urging all parties to de-escalate and extend the ceasefire. Responding to Israeli Defence Minister Yisrael Katz’s remarks targeting Turkey and himself, Erdoğan said Turkey is not an ordinary state and that no power can wag a finger at Turkey or its president, thanking MHP leader Bahçeli and politicians across party lines for joining in the condemnation. He praised Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for standing firm against what he called the threats of “the Gaza butcher Netanyahu.” On energy, Erdoğan said Black Sea gas currently supplies four million households and will reach eight million this year and 16 to 17 million by 2028. He also announced that Turkey’s deep-sea drilling vessel Çağrı Bey has reached Somalia to begin hydrocarbon exploration at the CURAD-1 well, which at 7,500 metres will be the world’s second deepest offshore drilling operation. On the Siverek school shooting, he expressed grief and confirmed that one person has been detained, four administrators suspended, and that nine of the sixteen wounded remain in hospital.
⚓ Turkey Working to Extract Eight Ships Still Trapped in Strait of Hormuz
Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu has given an update on Turkish-flagged vessels caught in the Strait of Hormuz amid the ongoing US blockade threat, saying that of the 15 Turkish ships in the area, three have been successfully extracted and four others have chosen not to request extraction. Diplomatic efforts are under way through the Foreign Ministry to bring out the remaining eight, with the minister expressing hope they can be cleared in the coming days. Foreign Minister Fidan confirmed that contacts with relevant parties for safe passage are continuing. Separately, four ships passed through the strait in the first 24 hours of the US blockade, including a Liberian-flagged dry cargo vessel and three tankers — two of which are on US sanctions lists.
⚖️ Justice Minister Gürlek: Gülistan Doku Investigation Reopened on Prosecutor’s Own Initiative, Not Ministry Orders
Justice Minister Akın Gürlek has told parliament that the reopening of the Gülistan Doku missing persons investigation was driven entirely by the public prosecutor’s office and not by any ministerial instruction, stressing that the Justice Ministry has no authority to issue orders to ongoing investigations. Gürlek said serious suspicions exist in the file and that meticulous work is being carried out, with detentions continuing and evidence gathering still under way. He added that in investigations the key factor is the existence of a crime, not the position of those involved, and that cases wounding the public conscience must be pursued to the end. On other matters, Gürlek said the ministry is working intensively on the 12th Judicial Reform Package with a focus on accelerating court proceedings, and that circulars have been sent to all 81 provincial prosecutor’s offices as part of a determined crackdown on illegal betting, drugs, and online gambling. On the Terror-Free Turkey process, he said all legislative arrangements are a matter for parliament’s will, with the ministry providing only technical support.
🏫 Education Minister Warns One Teacher May Suffer Permanent Damage From Siverek School Attack
Education Minister Yusuf Tekin has said that while none of the 16 people wounded in the Siverek school shooting face life-threatening conditions, there are concerns that one teacher may suffer lasting physical damage that could affect their normal daily functioning. Tekin said the Curriculum Board president cut short his schedule to travel to the region immediately after the attack and monitored the situation throughout the day. On the question of school security, the minister said schools are categorised by risk level in a joint assessment with the Interior Ministry at the start of each term, with some schools having permanent police presence at the gate, others with patrol coverage, and others under plain-clothes police monitoring. He declined to draw conclusions about specific failures before the investigation is complete, saying no one should be placed under suspicion before the facts are established, and that all evidence will be assessed by inspectors and the judicial process.
Ruling Government (AKP, MHP and DEM coalition aka People’s Alliance)
🏛️ Former Parliamentary Speaker Arınç Calls for Sanctions Against University Rector Who Called MPs ‘Hypocrites’ and Dismissed Republican Era as ‘Rotten’
Former TBMM Speaker and Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç has demanded that President Erdoğan, Parliamentary Speaker Kurtulmuş, and the Higher Education Council chair take action against Şırnak University rector Abdurrahim Alkış, who sparked outrage by describing MPs who criticised him as “hypocrites who bark and go rabid” and declaring himself not to be a rector of “the diseased, putrid, rotten order of the old Republic.” Arınç, himself a five-term MP and former speaker, said it has never been anyone’s place to call elected representatives hypocrites, and that a professor of Sufi studies who holds a rectorship descending to such disrespect — and characterising the Republican era in those terms — cannot be understood or forgiven. Arınç noted that Alkış has previously attracted criticism for his appointments and statements, and called on the president as the appointing authority, the parliamentary speaker, and the YÖK chair to initiate the necessary investigations and impose appropriate sanctions without delay.
🕊️ AKP: ‘We Want to See Weapons Laid Down, Not Just Hear Words About It’
AKP strategists have given their most direct account yet of their frustration with the pace of PKK disarmament, telling ANKA that while politics has fulfilled every obligation placed upon it — establishing the parliamentary commission, facilitating İmralı visits, producing a joint report endorsed across party lines — the organisation has produced nothing tangible beyond a symbolic ceremony since the process began on 5 August. The AKP officials said the commission convened 137 institutional representatives, victims’ families, civil society groups, and former parliamentary speakers; the DEM Party delegation visited Öcalan on İmralı; and a unanimous commission report was produced. In return, they say, northern Iraq has not been cleared as initially expected, and apart from the initial token gesture there has been no verifiable evidence of disarmament. “We want to see weapons laid down, not just hear words about it,” the officials said, adding that claiming disarmament has occurred whilst continuing to assign tasks to the political side is incompatible with good faith. On legislation, AKP officials said they are working on a framework “code law” drawing on Articles 221 and 314 of the Turkish Penal Code that would define what constitutes disarmament and set out the legal status of organisation members who have or have not committed crimes — but said the opposition should publish their own proposals first so the substance can be debated openly, challenging DEM Party and CHP to put their draft texts before the public.
🗳️ AKP’s Şamil Tayyar Breaks Ranks Over Party’s Mayor Recruitment Drive: ‘Transfers Rot Politics’
As four more mayors — two from CHP, one from Yeniden Refah, and one from Saadet — are expected to join AKP at today’s group meeting, bringing the total of mayors who have switched to AKP since the March 2024 local elections to 70, the party’s own Şamil Tayyar has posted an implicit rebuke of the practice. Tayyar wrote that transferring sitting MPs or mayors harms neither the one who leaves nor benefits the one who gains them, but simply rots politics and deepens the public perception that politicians are untrustworthy. He said any elected official wishing to change parties should first resign their position, with a possible exception only for those who have parted ways with their party as the result of a principled dispute. Tayyar added that this bad habit of old Turkey has unfortunately been inherited by new Turkey and that no party has any right to lecture another on the matter since all do it when they get the chance. The four mayors expected to join today are from Serik in Antalya, Bozköy in Niğde, Çat in Tokat, and Yaygın in Muş.
🐺 MHP Announces New Istanbul Provincial Executive Board Following Last Week’s Dissolution
MHP deputy leader and Istanbul MP Feti Yıldız has announced the new executive board of the Istanbul provincial organisation, a week after the entire provincial and 39 district structures were dissolved by party headquarters. Provincial chair Volkan Yılmaz will be joined on the board by Ahmet Yasak, Ömer Çölüoğlu, Mustafa Kemal Dalan, Mustafa Karaçam, Burak Arkaz, Mehmet Çamur, Hamit Şahinoğlu, Mustafa Nohut, and Zafer Yalçın.
Opposition Parties (CHP and others)
⚖️ Ankara Municipality Calls Investigation Permit Against Yavaş ‘Intimidation Attempt’ as CHP Leader Highlights Double Standard
The Interior Ministry has authorised an investigation into Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş over allegations that municipal vehicles were used at a CHP campaign rally in Karabük during the May 2023 general elections. Ankara Metropolitan Municipality rejected the move as baseless, pointing out that the ministry’s own decision text acknowledges finding no evidence that Yavaş issued any order or instruction — meaning the investigation rests solely on the assumption that he could not have been unaware of the alleged use. The municipality said Yavaş even forfeited his mayoral salary during the campaign period, referred the vehicle matter to internal inspection himself when it was first raised on television, and that the inspection found nothing. The statement described the investigation permit as an act of intimidation and reputational damage without concrete evidence, and promised a press conference and formal appeal. CHP leader Özgür Özel highlighted what he called a glaring double standard, noting that President Erdoğan used state vehicles and resources throughout the 2023 campaign whilst breaking traditional norms against official engagements during election periods — yet faced no scrutiny — whilst the possible use of a single municipal vehicle by Yavaş’s team is being treated as a matter requiring investigation.
🗳️ Serik Mayor Kumbul Resigns From CHP Ahead of Expected Defection to AKP
Serik Municipality Mayor Kadir Kumbul, elected under CHP in the March 2024 local elections, has resigned from the party, CHP’s Antalya provincial organisation announced. The resignation comes as AKP’s parliamentary group meeting is expected to welcome several mayors switching parties. CHP’s Antalya branch said provincial chair Nail Kamacı, MPs, and local executives will hold a press conference outside Serik Municipality at 15:00 tomorrow.
🏛️ Ankara Municipality’s 2025 Activity Report Approved Over AKP, MHP and BBP Opposition
Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş presented his municipality’s 2025 activity report to the city council, with the reports of ABB, the water authority ASKİ, and public transport operator EGO all approved by majority vote — with AKP, MHP, and BBP members voting against. Yavaş highlighted a third consecutive European Council governance excellence award, the addition of 21 million square metres of green space, a renewed bus fleet, four metro projects brought to implementation-ready stage including the groundbreaking of the Dikimevi-NATO Yolu line, entry onto CDP’s A-list for carbon emissions reduction, and the establishment of a modern Disaster Coordination Centre. He said his administration has transformed the municipality from a welfare distributor into a local development actor organising production, and maintained financial discipline throughout a difficult economic period whilst continuing investment.
⚖️ IBB Trial Day 22: Phone Restrictions Lifted for 27 Defendants Without Organisation Charges as İmamoğlu Stands Firm Against Gendarmerie
The 22nd day of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality trial opened with the defence of KİPTAŞ board chairman Ali Kurt, whose lawyer Şerif Dede argued that his client’s phone showed nothing incriminating, the MASAK financial intelligence report was in his favour, and that the rights of defendants had not been explained to them during the investigation phase nor were they given adequate time to gather evidence. Dede also challenged the coherence of the indictment, saying it remained unclear which defendant was accused of which specific act, and that the court should have returned the indictment as deficient — adding drily that he was unsure whether the case would ever conclude within their lifetimes given the expanding scope. The session also produced a significant procedural development: the court issued letters to prisons ordering that phone time restrictions be lifted for 27 detained defendants — including former CHP MP Aykut Erdoğdu — against whom no charges of organisation membership or aiding an organisation have been brought. A notable moment came at the lunch recess when gendarmerie intervened to move İmamoğlu away from his lawyers; İmamoğlu sat back down, said “I’m not going,” and on eventually leaving the courtroom told observers that those who lack the courage to call an election also lack the courage to face him, and that he remains in the people’s hearts. His 90-year-old uncle, seated in the public gallery, was seen unable to hold back tears.
🐺 İYİ Party Leader Dervişoğlu Mocks Bahçeli’s Russia-China Alliance Proposal: ‘May No One Suffer the Unbearable Lightness of This Path’
İYİ Party leader Müsavat Dervişoğlu has delivered a cutting response to MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli’s proposal for a Turkey-Russia-China alliance, saying: “May God spare anyone the unbearable lightness of having been schooled by Alparslan Türkeş in their youth only to end up doing politics in the style of Doğu Perinçek in their old age” — a pointed comparison between Bahçeli’s nationalist mentor and the pro-Russian Patriotic Party leader. Dervişoğlu said Turkey has no room to move closer to Russia and China, pointing to the existing imbalance in bilateral trade, and argued that what is needed is serious negotiations to address that imbalance rather than alliance-building trips to Moscow and Beijing. Broadening his attack on the government, Dervişoğlu said the ruling coalition is not governing the state but parcelling it out, not fixing the economy but growing citizens’ debt, not strengthening the welfare state but sending collection notices to the needy, and not conducting foreign policy in the national interest but making Turkey available for others’ agendas — adding that his party’s opposition goes beyond any single appointment or policy and amounts to a rejection of the entire model of governance.
Thanks for reading this far, I will see you tomorrow. ☕