Justice System and Everyday Life in Türkiye
📈 Violent Incidents in Turkey Rose 75% in a Single Year as Strangers Replace Intimates as Primary Perpetrators
A report by Istanbul Kültür University’s forensic psychology laboratory has found that recorded interpersonal violence in Turkey surged 75 per cent in 2025 compared to the previous year, reaching 2,289 incidents, with the most striking finding being a shift in the nature of that violence: the proportion of cases involving a perpetrator unknown to the victim leapt from 13.2 per cent in 2024 to 38.8 per cent in 2025, indicating that violence is moving out of the domestic sphere and into public space. The geographic centre of gravity has also shifted, away from the Marmara region and towards the Mediterranean and South-east Anatolia, with Şanlıurfa recording a roughly thirteenfold rise in incidents and Adana a fivefold rise, making them new criminological hotspots. Firearms were used in 62 per cent of homicide cases, dramatically raising the lethality of violent incidents, whilst 95.5 per cent of perpetrators were male — a figure the report’s authors say confirms the entrenched link between patterns of masculinity and violent crime. September emerged as the most dangerous month, with extreme heat identified as a contributing factor. The report’s director, associate professor Ayhan Erbay, said the data points to a society in which interpersonal trust is eroding and individuals are increasingly perceiving one another as threats, and called for the designation of high-risk districts as special security and social services zones, tighter restrictions on firearms, and the establishment of rehabilitation centres specifically targeting the profile of the aggressive male offender.
⚖️ Two Men to Face Murder Trial Over Killing of Journalist Hakan Tosun, Who Was Kicked to Death in an Istanbul Street
An indictment has been accepted by a Istanbul court charging two suspects with the intentional killing of journalist Hakan Tosun, who was beaten to death in the street in Istanbul. The Institute of Forensic Medicine found that Tosun died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head causing skull and facial fractures, intracranial bleeding, brain haemorrhage, and destruction of brain tissue. Camera footage confirmed that suspects A.M. and A.Ş. kicked the victim repeatedly, and the indictment establishes a causal link between their actions and his death. Bakırköy 17th Heavy Criminal Court ruled that both defendants should remain in pre-trial detention, citing strong reasonable suspicion and the proportionality of remand given the nature of the charges.
🔥 Trial Opens in Factory Fire That Killed Seven Workers as Families Rage That Bosses Blame the Dead and Officials Face No Charges
The first hearing has been held in the case arising from a fire at a cosmetics factory in Dilovası, Kocaeli, that killed seven workers and injured six others, with 16 defendants appearing before Gebze 7th Heavy Criminal Court at a hearing held at Kandıra prison complex. Outside the courtroom, politicians, lawyers, and survivors held a press conference at which DEM Party MP Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu condemned the fact that no public officials from the Labour Ministry, Kocaeli governorate, or Dilovası municipality are among the defendants despite what he described as their shared responsibility for the disaster. Gergerlioğlu also alleged that defendant İsmail Oransal had sought to deflect blame onto his own father, Kurtuluş Oransal, who died in the fire — a claim directly contradicted by surviving workers, one of whom said she heard Oransal giving orders inside the factory daily, urging staff to work faster. Defence lawyers criticised the decision to hold the hearing at remote Kandıra, with phones and press barred from the courtroom, which they said was designed to keep the case away from public scrutiny.
💊 Fourteen Detained in Istanbul Drugs Operation Targeting Celebrities Including Members of the Sabancı Family
Istanbul police have detained 14 people in a sweeping drugs operation targeting well-known public figures, with arrest warrants issued for 16 suspects in total following simultaneous raids on 16 addresses by the narcotics branch. Those detained include socialite Güzide Duran, Hakan Sabancı and Kerim Sabancı of the prominent Sabancı business family, and television presenter Didem Soydan. Actress Hande Erçel, also named in the warrants, is believed to be abroad; arrest warrants have been issued for her and one other fugitive suspect. Istanbul’s public prosecutor’s office said the investigation was opened to protect public morality and family values, with suspects alleged to have either possessed drugs for personal use or facilitated drug use by others. Former Beşiktaş football club chairman Fikret Orman and former Galatasaray chairman Burak Elmas are also among those named in the warrants.
Politics
📞 Erdoğan and Qatari Emir Exchange Condolences Over Helicopter Crash and Discuss Regional War
President Erdoğan has spoken by telephone with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to discuss the latest regional developments, with both leaders also exchanging condolences over a helicopter crash that occurred within the Qatar-Turkey Combined Joint Force Command. The Emir thanked Erdoğan for his efforts to bring the war in the region to a halt, and said the two countries’ teams would remain in continuous dialogue.
📞 Erdoğan Spoke With Kazakhstan’s Tokayev Yesterday as Cabinet Meeting Addresses War’s Economic Toll
President Erdoğan spoke by telephone with Kazakhstani President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev yesterday, following a cabinet meeting at which regional developments and their economic consequences featured prominently. In his address to the nation after the 60th cabinet session, Erdoğan declared Turkey’s determination to remain outside the ring of fire engulfing the region, warning that retaliatory strikes against Gulf states risk deepening mutual hatred and sowing discord between neighbours. He said Brent crude has risen 40 per cent since the strikes on Iran began on 28 February, that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz — through which a fifth of the world’s energy trade passes — has sent the global economy into serious turbulence, and that Turkey is deploying measures including the fuel price escalator system to shield its citizens from the shock. Erdoğan also called for an immediate halt to what he described as Netanyahu’s war of political survival, saying the world cannot afford further destruction before dialogue begins, and urged every country that values global peace to stop adding fuel to the fire Israel has lit in the region. On a domestic note, he said the Interior Ministry had been instructed to manage the rollout of new vehicle registration plate and audio-visual compliance rules carefully to avoid causing unnecessary grievances for citizens.
🏛️ Mustafa Mis Elected as Division President at Turkey’s Court of Auditors
Mustafa Mis, a member of the First Division of the Court of Auditors, has been elected Division President at a meeting of the institution’s General Assembly. Born in Iğdır in 1968, Mis graduated from Ankara University’s Faculty of Political Science in 1990, joined the Court of Auditors in 1992, and was elected as a member of the court by the Grand National Assembly in 2013. He speaks French and is married with two children.
🤝 Spain Thanks Turkey for Supporting Evacuation of Spanish Troops From Iraq
Spain’s embassy in Ankara has published a message of gratitude to Turkey for its assistance during the withdrawal of Spanish forces from Iraq, thanking the Turkish Armed Forces, border control personnel, Foreign Ministry counterparts, and staff at İncirlik Air Base for their support and seamless cooperation throughout the operation. The embassy marked the occasion by noting that Turkey and Spain have maintained peaceful relations for 244 years since 1782, describing the episode as an example of Spanish-Turkish friendship.
⚡ Iran Cuts Gas Supplies to Turkey After Israeli Strike on South Pars Field
Iran has halted natural gas exports to Turkey following an Israeli strike on the South Pars gas field on 18 March, according to Bloomberg, which reported that Turkey has sufficient stocks and continues to import gas from its main suppliers Russia and Azerbaijan. Iran had supplied roughly 14 per cent of Turkey’s gas needs last year, making the interruption significant though not immediately critical. The duration of the cut remains unclear. The strike on South Pars — the world’s largest gas field — prompted Iranian retaliatory attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure including the Ras Laffan facility in Qatar, which produces around a fifth of global liquefied gas supply. The exchanges have driven European gas futures to their highest level in more than three years, with prices running some 70 per cent above pre-war levels.
⚔️ National Defence University Rector Denies Telling Erdoğan ‘These Swords Are Drawn Against You’ Over Cadet Video
Erhan Afyoncu, rector of the National Defence University, has flatly denied claims published by journalist Müyesser Yıldız alleging that he orchestrated the filming of a video showing cadets drawing swords and chanting “We are Mustafa Kemal’s soldiers” at a commissioning ceremony, then presented the footage to President Erdoğan with the words “these swords are drawn against you” in order to secure an extension of his own rectorship. Afyoncu said the allegations, attributed by Yıldız to the lawyer of dismissed lieutenant Ebru Eroğlu, are entirely false, that no such statement appears anywhere in court documents or hearing transcripts, and that Yıldız’s own article inadvertently undermines the claim by quoting the lawyer as hedging his words with phrases such as “right or wrong” — an admission, Afyoncu argued, that even the source was uncertain of what he was saying. Afyoncu announced he would file a criminal complaint against those responsible for the statements and take legal action against those who have publicly disseminated what he described as lies and slander.
Ruling Government (AKP, MHP and DEM coalition aka People’s Alliance)
⚖️ MHP’s Architect of Disinformation Law Defends It as Targeted Measure, Not Censorship
Feti Yıldız, the MHP deputy leader responsible for legal affairs and one of the original signatories of Turkey’s disinformation law, has pushed back against criticism from former public prosecutor and BirGün columnist İlhan Cihaner, insisting the legislation is not a censorship law and that its critics have either not read it properly or failed to understand it. Yıldız argued that the offence requires five conditions to be met simultaneously — including that the content be false, that it relate to internal or external security, public order, or public health, that it be disseminated publicly, that it be capable of disturbing public peace, and that it be motivated by the intent to cause fear, anxiety, or panic — and that no crime is committed unless all five are present. He also cited a provision explicitly stating that expressions of opinion made for the purpose of criticism and within the bounds of reporting do not constitute an offence. Yıldız made no reference to the ongoing detention of journalist İsmail Arı or other journalists prosecuted under the law, which critics say has been used precisely to silence legitimate reporting rather than to combat deliberate disinformation.
Bahçeli Adviser Breaks With MHP Deputy Leader, Calls on Justice Minister to Hold Full Press Conference Over Property Records Row
A public split has emerged within MHP ranks over the controversy surrounding Justice Minister Akın Gürlek’s property holdings, after CHP leader Özgür Özel made public land registry records he claimed belong to the minister. Whilst MHP deputy leader İzzet Ulvi Yönter declared the party stood behind Gürlek “to the end” and dismissed the allegations as an assassination of reputation, Yıldıray Çiçek — press adviser to MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli — struck a conspicuously different note in a column published in the MHP-aligned Türkgün newspaper, calling on Gürlek to hold a comprehensive press conference and provide the public with a detailed account of the land registry and e-Government records in question. Gürlek has previously described the allegations as “a product of imagination,” saying he has only four properties and has regularly submitted his asset declarations to the relevant authorities, whilst CHP maintains his denials do not square with the records it has obtained.
🏛️ Second Land Registry Official Detained as Authorities Hunt Down Who Looked Up Justice Minister’s Property Records
A second land registry official has been detained in connection with searches of Justice Minister Akın Gürlek’s property records, after the district land registry director of Çobanlar in Afyonkarahisar was taken into custody following the earlier morning arrest of a clerk at the Kaş land registry office. The detentions follow the identification of officials at various land registry offices who had queried the records after CHP leader Özgür Özel held a press conference alleging that Gürlek owns 12 properties with a combined value of 325.5 million lira — far more than the four properties the minister has publicly acknowledged. Three registry staff have been suspended from duty and two are now in custody. The episode has drawn sharp criticism, with the detentions seen by opponents as an attempt to pursue those who accessed the records rather than address the substance of the allegations against the minister.
Opposition Parties (CHP and others)
🕊️ Opposition Warns Peace Process Laws Must Cover Jailed Journalists, Not Just Disarmament
As debate intensifies over what legislation the Kurdish peace process will produce, opposition members of the parliamentary commission that drafted the joint report are pressing for the democratisation provisions in its seventh chapter to receive equal attention alongside the disarmament measures, reminding the ruling coalition that AKP and MHP signatures appear beneath those commitments too. Commission members say they expect the legislative process to follow normal parliamentary procedure — with the government bringing bills to the floor and potentially consulting party groups beforehand — and that a post-Eid meeting of the report team discussed by the speaker remains a stated intention rather than a scheduled event. On the substance, opposition members say that when legislation does come before parliament, they intend to raise the cases of recently detained journalists and push for the abolition or reform of offences such as “publicly disseminating misleading information” and “insulting the president,” pointing to a specific clause in the joint report on strengthening freedom of expression that all parties signed. Their message, in short, is that the peace process cannot be reduced to a question of weapons alone.
🏗️ Istanbul Governorate Fires Back at Jailed Şişli Mayor, Saying It Was the Developer Who Was Wronged
Istanbul Governorate has issued a point-by-point rebuttal of the courtroom defence delivered by detained Şişli Mayor Resul Emrah Şahan in the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality trial, in which Şahan claimed he was being prosecuted precisely because he had sealed an unlicensed construction site belonging to the Taşyapı group and refused to yield to pressure — including repeated calls from Governor Davut Gül urging him to let the skyscraper project proceed. The governorate described Şahan’s account as distorted in its entirety, and offered an alternative version of events: that Taşyapı had obtained all necessary permits from Şişli Municipality as far back as 2008, when the council approved a preliminary project for a 72-storey tower, but that the municipality then inexplicably withheld the construction licence until 2015, forcing the company to escalate to the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning, which approved a revised 38-storey design. The governorate said Şişli Municipality subsequently obstructed construction on various pretexts, prompting the company to file complaints with the Interior Ministry, the governorate, the district governorate, and the public prosecutor’s office — and that it was this grievance, not any improper pressure on Şahan, that formed the subject of the conversation between the governor and the mayor.
⚖️ Key Istanbul Trial Witness Retracts Confession, Says He Signed False Statements to Protect Family and Secure Release
The full text of a petition submitted by Murat Kapki — one of the most prominently featured “confessors” in the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality corruption case — has emerged, revealing in extensive detail his claim that the statements he gave prosecutors were extracted under duress, with promises of release that were never honoured. Kapki says that when he was brought before a prosecutor, he understood within an hour-long private meeting that he would not be freed unless he accepted certain allegations and provided new testimony against others, and that with his wife facing imminent arrest and his brother already detained, he gave statements he knew to be false in order to protect his family. He says he met İmamoğlu exactly twice in his life — once shaking hands at a thousand-person iftar dinner and once at a funeral where they did not even greet each other — and that his relationship with the municipality predates İmamoğlu’s tenure by many years, having previously rented advertising space under AKP-era management. He denies being a member of any criminal organisation, says he and the alleged organisation’s supposed supervisor Murat Ongun actively disliked each other and barely spoke, and notes that he has received a presidential commendation — evidence, he says, that everyone in his industry knows he is not a CHP supporter. Kapki also alleges that whilst he was in custody, associates he had trusted transferred his properties and withheld proceeds running to 1.75 million dollars, that he reported this to prosecutors repeatedly without any action being taken, and that he is now suffering a serious spinal condition requiring surgery that cannot be performed in prison conditions.
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