Weather in Türkiye
❄️🌧️ Winter Keeps Its Grip on Turkey, Will Istanbul See Snow Today?
Turkey’s Meteorological Service has published its forecast for Wednesday, 14 January, and it’s very much a tale of two winters. Large parts of the country—from eastern Marmara and the Black Sea to eastern Anatolia—are set for rain, sleet and widespread snowfall, with heavy snow warnings in provinces such as Hakkari and Şırnak, alongside risks of frost, ice and avalanches in higher regions. Istanbul, however, looks set to dodge the full wintry drama: the city is expected to see cloudy skies with light rain rather than snow, at least for now. Elsewhere, strong winds approaching gale force are forecast in the southern Aegean and inland Mediterranean, making this a day for caution, warm coats and lowered expectations of a snow-covered Bosphorus.
❄️🚧 Snow Brings Van to a Standstill, Nearly 300 Settlements Cut Off
Heavy snowfall has effectively frozen large parts of eastern Turkey, with 296 neighbourhoods and hamlets in Van province cut off from transport after overnight snowfalls. Snow depth has reached up to 50 centimetres in some districts and exceeded a metre in higher areas, prompting school closures in Çatak and Bahçesaray, and the suspension of transport-based education in Muradiye and Başkale due to avalanche and ice risks. Authorities have also imposed time restrictions on traffic along the Van–Çatak road, where avalanche danger remains high. For residents, it’s a familiar winter scenario: stunning scenery, paralysed roads—and a day best spent staying put.
Politics
📄🇹🇷Atatürk Removed from School Reports
Turkey’s Ministry of Education has sparked fresh controversy by replacing traditional report cards with “student development reports” for first- and second-year primary pupils—documents that conspicuously omit the image of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. While older primary students will continue to receive the familiar certificates bearing Atatürk’s portrait, educators and parents argue that applying different symbolic standards within the same education system is neither pedagogical nor accidental, but plainly ideological. Teaching unions warn that symbols introduced at an early age shape children’s values, and say the change aligns neatly with the new Maarif curriculum rather than any educational necessity. The ministry, for now, is keeping its counsel—leaving critics to conclude that this is less about child development and more about rewriting the visual language of the classroom.
🌈📺 TRT Teases “Rainbow Fascism” Documentary: Culture Wars, Now Streaming
Turkey’s public broadcaster has firmly entered the culture-war arena, with TRT Director General Mehmet Zahid Sobacı announcing a new documentary titled “Rainbow Fascism” on the network’s digital platform, Tabii. Sharing the trailer on social media, Sobacı framed the film as an exposé of what he called an “ideological siege” allegedly targeting the family, children and traditional values, quoting the ominous line: “Can you hear it? These are the footsteps of fascism.” The trailer itself features a rather unsubtle metaphor—a rainbow-coloured elephant smashing up a glass-walled child’s bedroom—leaving little doubt about the intended message. The documentary is set to premiere on 18 January, promising viewers not so much quiet reflection as a full-throated contribution to Turkey’s ever-expanding culture wars.
⚖️ The Courts Say “Sorry, Kids”, Justice Finds Its Manners (Eventually)
In a quietly awkward turn of events, a children’s court in Istanbul has acquitted minors detained during the Saraçhane protests that followed the detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu in March 2025. Five teenagers aged between 15 and 17 were arrested at a rally and charged with failing to disperse after police warnings—warnings they say they never heard, largely because they were trying to leave. One child told the court he was struck on the head with a truncheon; others said police offered no exit route before using tear gas. The judge, noting the lack of clear, convincing evidence, cleared four of the five outright, with one case separated. After months of proceedings—and after many adults had already been acquitted on similar grounds—the judiciary has, in effect, muttered an institutional “pardon”. Not quite justice at first glance, perhaps, but at least it arrived in the end.
🎓🕌 Friday Prayers vs Lecture Timetables, Faith and Freedom Back on Campus
Turkey’s long-running debate over religion and education has resurfaced after the Higher Education Council (YÖK) instructed universities to adjust classes, exams and work schedules if they clash with Friday prayer times. Citing constitutional protections for both freedom of belief and the right to education, YÖK reminded institutions of an earlier prime-ministerial circular allowing flexibility for Friday prayers—an intervention revived, pointedly, after a pro-government newspaper column reignited the issue. Critics warn that aligning academic schedules with religious observance risks blurring the line between accommodation and imposition, potentially exposing who does—and does not—attend prayers, with all the awkward implications that brings. Education unions have reacted sharply, arguing universities should be arenas of science and free thought, not belief-based timetable engineering. Once again, Turkish higher education finds itself debating faith, not rankings—an all-too-familiar pattern.
🚧🚓 Urban Renewal, or Urban Pressure? Residents Cry Foul in Etiler
Tensions are rising in Istanbul’s Etiler district after residents accused developer Taşyapı of forcing through a controversial urban transformation project under police escort. Homeowners on Toprakkale Street say core samples were taken from buildings without the legally required majority consent, despite unanimous refusal to hand over land shares, fuelling claims of intimidation and procedural abuse. Locals fear being pushed out of their homes with little clarity on what—if anything—they would receive in return, warning of steep rent costs, uncertain housing prospects and memories of unfinished promises elsewhere. As legal disputes continue and engineers dispute earlier assessment reports, critics argue that what’s being marketed as “renewal” increasingly looks like pressure—applied firmly, and with official backing.
Parliament
📜 Parliament Cancels Its Friday Plans, AKP Pushes for Extra Sitting if Needed
Turkey’s parliament has agreed—by AKP and MHP votes—to extend its working week if required in order to push through a key legislative package. Under the newly approved schedule, the Grand National Assembly will continue debating amendments to the Highway Traffic Law, including higher traffic fines, throughout the week and will also convene on Friday, 16 January, should discussions overrun. The decision clears parliamentary space as well for the renewal of a protocol establishing the OECD’s Istanbul Centre, with debate on separate amendments to the National Parks Law set to begin the following week. In short, if the bills aren’t finished on time, Friday will no longer be a day of rest—at least not in Ankara.
🏦✨ Turkey’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Gets a VIP Pass, “Privileged” Companies, Fewer Rules
A new “omnibus bill” submitted by the AKP would place companies bought by Turkey’s Sovereign Wealth Fund (TVF)—and its subsidiaries—outside the usual web of public-sector rules, effectively granting them a bespoke legal status. Under the proposal, these firms would no longer be bound by cornerstone regulations such as the Public Procurement Law, the Civil Servants Law or State Audit oversight, and would instead operate purely under private law and commercial codes. The government says this flexibility is needed to keep TVF-backed companies competitive and agile in fast-moving sectors from finance to mining, following earlier Constitutional Court objections over legal ambiguity. Critics, however, see something else entirely: publicly owned entities enjoying private-sector freedoms, strategic investments shielded from scrutiny, and a growing class of state-linked companies that answer to far fewer rules than the rest—privileged, by design.
Here you can find the details of the draft law.
Ruling Government (JDP)
🏛️AKP Troll Released Pending Trial
Furkan Bölükbaşı, described in the Turkish press as an “AKP troll”, has been released following two months in pre-trial detention. Bölükbaşı was arrested after a social media post about President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan triggered an investigation on charges of “attempted assassination and physical attack” under Article 310 of the Turkish Penal Code. The post, later deleted, referenced former prime minister Adnan Menderes, who was executed in 1961, and drew widespread backlash online amid claims it amounted to a threat. The decision to release him was announced by his partner, Nisa Çaydan, bringing a pause—if not exactly clarity—to a case that has stirred equal parts outrage, confusion and weary familiarity.
🧨🇹🇷AKP’s “Crypto-Kurdish” Row Erupts — “Care to Explain, Gentlemen?”
A fierce internal spat has broken out within pro-government circles after comments on the fighting in Aleppo by Mehmet Metiner, Hüseyin Çelik and Orhan Miroğlu triggered accusations of being “crypto-Kurdish” sympathisers. What began as criticism of military-first policies in Syria—calling for dialogue and warning against conflating Kurdish civilians with armed groups—quickly spiralled into a full-blown ideological brawl, fuelled by columnists and social media figures accusing the trio of covert ethnic partisanship. Metiner and Miroğlu hit back angrily, describing the label as both dishonest and corrosive, while politicians, journalists and Islamist commentators piled in from all sides. With one camp demanding loyalty tests and another warning of moral and political decay, the episode has laid bare the AKP’s deep unease over Syria, the Kurdish question, and who is still allowed to ask awkward questions—hence the pointed refrain now echoing online: “Hayırdır beyler?” (“What’s going on, then?”).
🧾£1.47bn Arbitration Bill, Allegedly “Misplaced” AKP Accused of Trying to Make It Vanish in the US
Turkey’s ruling AKP is facing fresh accusations over a $1.47 billion international arbitration penalty linked to unauthorised oil shipments via the Iraq–Turkey crude pipeline. According to CHP deputy leader Deniz Yavuzyılmaz, court filings from Washington, DC suggest the government is attempting to offset the fine—imposed over irregular oil transport—against decades-old debts owed to Turkey from the pre-AKP era, effectively hoping the bill might quietly evaporate on American soil. Yavuzyılmaz argues this manoeuvre would make both the offence and the penalty “disappear”, though he insists the liability remains very much on the books, describing it as a colossal loss to the public purse. His message to Ankara is blunt: even sheltering under Donald Trump’s political wing, he says, won’t make a $1.47bn mistake go away—eventually, the reckoning arrives.
🗣️🛑 “No Talks, Just Toughness” Says AKP’s Tayyar, Time for a ‘New Page’, Apparently
AKP figure Şamil Tayyar has weighed in on the renewed debate around Syria and what some are calling a second “peace process”, insisting—once again—that there will be no negotiating with anyone bearing a three-letter acronym. Responding to clashes between Syria’s transitional authorities and SDG forces, Tayyar lumped together the PKK, KCK, YPG and SDG as indistinguishable terrorist outfits, allegedly riddled with foreign intelligence links and serving as a permanent source of regional instability. His message was blunt: Turkey does not need “İmralı’s wisdom” nor the goodwill of armed groups, because talks don’t work—force does. Still, in a nod to balance, Tayyar added that democracy, prosperity, legal certainty and civil liberties should be strengthened, all while the fight against terror continues “relentlessly”. A hard line, then—softened slightly by the promise of a “new page”, just not one involving negotiations.
⚖️Arınç’s Folksy Warning on İmamoğlu, “The Early Crowing Rooster Loses Its Head”
Bülent Arınç, former parliamentary speaker and one of the AKP’s founding figures, has offered a characteristically earthy assessment of Ekrem İmamoğlu’s political predicament. Speaking on Sözcü TV, Arınç suggested that İmamoğlu may have brought trouble upon himself by declaring his presidential candidacy too early, remarking that in politics “the early crowing rooster gets its head cut off”—and adding that, had the announcement come later, arrest might have been avoided. While insisting İmamoğlu should be tried without detention, Arınç also criticised the treatment of Gezi prisoner Tayfun Kahraman, calling for his release on health grounds. As for former Ankara mayor Melih Gökçek, Arınç was brisk: he would rather not mention him at all—though, he noted pointedly, he would turn up if a prosecutor ever called.
🎤🤨 AKP Grumbles as MHP Steals the Microphone, “Are They the Shadow Cabinet Now?”
Quiet irritation is reportedly building within the AKP over the MHP’s habit of announcing government policy before anyone in the senior partner gets a word in. According to Ankara insiders, from the Kurdish issue to pandemic amnesties and prison regulations, it is increasingly MHP figures—particularly deputy chair Fethi Yıldız—who appear first in public with figures and frameworks, sometimes before details are fully settled. This has left AKP officials privately muttering about blurred lines of authority and an unexplained leak in the flow of information, with some likening their junior coalition partner to an unofficial “shadow cabinet”. The irony, of course, is hard to miss: while the AKP wrestles with who is meant to brief whom, key decisions are being learned not from government benches, but from the next seat along.
Opposition (RPP and others)
🕵️♂️🏛️ Whispers of a Crackdown in İzmir
Turkish columnist Can Ataklı has stirred the pot by claiming that a large-scale police operation targeting CHP-run municipalities in İzmir is scheduled for 19 January. Writing in Nefes, Ataklı says he was tipped off by a well-connected local source who alleged that all police leave in the city has been cancelled for that day and officers placed on full alert—hardly the usual preparation for a quiet Sunday. When pressed on the reliability of the information, the source reportedly pointed towards AKP insiders, who, when asked, offered only knowing smiles and an unhelpfully breezy reference to a Göztepe–Rizespor football match taking place the same day. Whether this is political theatre, coincidence or something more concrete remains to be seen—but İzmir, it seems, is being told to watch this space.
🔍⚖️ The Elusive Expert to Be Brought In—By Force, If Necessary
In the long-running “expert witness” case sparked by remarks from Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, an Istanbul court has finally lost patience. At the fourth hearing of the trial involving journalists from Halk TV, the judge lifted all overseas travel bans on the defendants but ordered the compulsory appearance of Satılmış Büyükcanayakın—the very expert witness İmamoğlu once dubbed “remarkably talented” and likened to a “hidden turnip in the sack”. The court noted gaps in the file and agreed that the complainant’s repeated absence was no longer helping matters, postponing the case until 13 February. After months of hearings, arrests, travel bans and much talk of journalistic intent, the message was fairly clear: if the man at the centre of it all won’t come to court voluntarily, the court will make the effort on his behalf.
🪧 İmamoğlu Fires Back at AKP Posters: Names the Time, Names the Place
Ekrem İmamoğlu, the CHP’s imprisoned presidential candidate and elected mayor of Istanbul, has responded to large-scale posters put up by the AKP across the city with a video message of his own—this time complete with a date, a time and a crowd invitation. With his trial less than two months away, İmamoğlu dismissed what he called “perception campaigns” and urged supporters to answer not with slogans but with presence, calling on citizens to gather at Beşiktaş’s Barbaros Square at 7:30pm on 14 January for the “Defending the Will of the People” rally. His message was pointed and succinct: the real test of public opinion, he suggested, isn’t on billboards—it’s in the squares.
🔥 CHP Keeps Up Its Pension Protest, “Stand Up and Challenge This Government”
The CHP’s unusual “do not leave Parliament” protest is now in its sixth day, as opposition MPs remain in the Grand National Assembly demanding higher pensions and a minimum wage of 39,000 lira. Speaking from the chamber, CHP MP Veli Ağbaba urged retirees to take matters into their own hands, calling on those “condemned to 20,000 lira” and public-sector pensioners denied flat-rate increases to stand up, raise their voices and confront the government. With a parliamentary committee set to discuss a modest 1,000-lira rise, Ağbaba dismissed the move as political theatre and insisted that only collective action—inside and outside Parliament—could break what he described as a system of entrenched poverty. In short: no solo acts, no quiet resignation, and certainly no polite applause.
🚓 Police Move In on Antalya City Hall, Fourteen Detained in Fresh Operation
A new operation has been carried out against Antalya Metropolitan Municipality, with police detaining 14 municipal employees. The action reportedly targeted two municipal subsidiaries, ASAT and ALDAŞ, both operating under the city authority. While details of the allegations have yet to be made public, the latest detentions add Antalya to the growing list of opposition-run municipalities facing law enforcement scrutiny. For now, officials are keeping quiet—leaving observers to read between the lines, as usual.
🏛️📛 Top Court Says “Not Our Problem”, CHP Loses Party Name Challenge
Turkey’s Constitutional Court has rejected an application by the CHP seeking the removal of the “Republican Nation Party” from the political register over claims that its name and emblem were confusingly similar. Ruling by majority, the court said it could not even examine the substance of the complaint because the party in question was not formally registered with the Chief Public Prosecutor’s political party records at the time of the application. In other words, there was nothing legally on the books to strike out. The judges did, however, note—helpfully—that should the party register in future, the CHP would be free to return with the same objection. For now, then, the matter is closed, not on principle but on paperwork.
🔥 CHP’s Emir Hits Back at Minister Işıkhan, “Your Mighty Rule Left a Pensioner to Die”
CHP deputy group leader Murat Emir has delivered a scathing response to Labour and Social Security Minister Vedat Işıkhan, who criticised the opposition’s ongoing “do not leave Parliament” protest over low pensions. Emir accused the government of moral bankruptcy, contrasting its willingness to wipe out billions in tax debt for favoured companies with the death of a 66-year-old pensioner, Cemal Ertürk, who reportedly died in a scrap car after being unable to afford rent. While the minister busied himself with accounting for municipal social security debts, Emir said, the promised “rising prosperity” amounted to a lonely death on the street. His closing line was pointedly brutal: that abandoned car, he argued, was not an exception but a fitting monument to the government’s much-vaunted “Century of Turkey.”
Overseas & Foreign Missions in Türkiye
🇹🇷🇺🇸Quiet Diplomacy in Ankara, Fidan Meets US Envoy Tom Barrack
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has held talks in Ankara with the United States’ Ambassador and Special Envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, according to Foreign Ministry sources. While no details were disclosed, the meeting comes against the backdrop of ongoing regional manoeuvring over Syria and wider Middle Eastern dynamics. On the same day, Fidan also spoke by phone with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Erakçi to discuss recent developments in Iran—suggesting a busy round of diplomatic housekeeping. As ever, the readouts were brief, the tone measured, and the real substance left politely between the lines.
🦓🚨Safari Trip Turns Fatal in Ethiopia: Two Turkish Tourists Killed
A holiday in Ethiopia has ended in tragedy after two Turkish nationals were shot dead during a safari-style excursion in a rural area near the town of Tum, in the country’s Southern Nations region. Businessmen Erdoğan Akbulak and Cengizhan Güngör were killed alongside their Ethiopian driver when their vehicle came under attack on the morning of 12 January, Turkey’s ambassador in Addis Ababa confirmed. Two other Turkish tourists travelling in a separate car managed to escape unharmed and reported the incident. The survivors and the victims’ bodies have since been flown to Addis Ababa, with the remains due to be returned to Istanbul. Ethiopian authorities are continuing their investigation into the attack, in a region normally frequented by tourist groups—an unsettling reminder that even well-trodden routes can carry unforeseen risks.
Crime
🚓“‘Casperlar’ Busted Across the Country”
An operation has been carried out against the armed criminal group publicly known as the “Casperlar”, allegedly led by İsmail Atız, who goes by the codename “Hamuş”. Acting on instructions from the Bakırköy Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, police launched coordinated raids across 21 provinces, issuing detention orders for 117 suspects.
⚖️🚨 A Grim Irony at the Courthouse, Prosecutor Who Shot Judge ‘Once Worked in Violence Prevention’
A shocking incident at Istanbul’s Regional Court of Appeal has taken an even darker turn after reports emerged that the prosecutor accused of shooting a female judge previously served in a bureau tasked with preventing violence against women. Judge Aslı Kahraman was wounded in her chambers in Kartal following an argument with prosecutor Muhammed Çağatay Kılıçarslan, who has since been detained on charges of attempted murder; she is hospitalised but not in life-threatening condition. The revelation that Kılıçarslan allegedly worked between 2022 and 2024 in the Anatolian Chief Prosecutor’s Office’s Violence Against Women Prevention Bureau has prompted dismay and bitter disbelief. As investigators piece together how a professional dispute escalated into gunfire, the case has become an unsettling emblem of institutional contradiction—one that raises deeply uncomfortable questions about oversight, judgement and the meaning of “prevention” itself.
Economy
🚀📈 ASELSAN Breaks the $30bn Barrier, A First for Turkish Markets
ASELSAN has become the first Turkish company to surpass a market capitalisation of $30 billion, marking a milestone moment for Borsa Istanbul. The defence and technology giant’s rise has been fuelled by its expanding footprint in international markets and sustained investment in high-tech products, pushing its valuation into previously uncharted territory. In a market more accustomed to volatility than landmarks, ASELSAN’s achievement stands out as a rare moment of corporate certainty—proof that, at least for one Turkish firm, scale, strategy and timing have aligned rather nicely.
🏢📋 New Faces at TÜSİAD, Candidate Board List Takes Shape
Turkey’s heavyweight business association TÜSİAD has settled on its prospective management list ahead of its General Assembly on 15 January, with Ozan Diren emerging as the sole candidate for the presidency. The proposed board for the 2026–27 term features a notably professional-heavy line-up, with senior executives taking centre stage and relatively few familiar family surnames—Emre Eczacıbaşı being the main exception. Observers have noted the quiet absence of most founding-family representatives from the main list, hinting at a deliberate shift towards technocratic management rather than legacy leadership. If approved by the General Assembly, the new team will signal a subtle but telling generational and stylistic change at one of Turkey’s most influential business lobbies.
🚗📈 World Bank Shifts Up a Gear for Turkey, Growth Forecasts Revised Upwards
The World Bank has struck a more optimistic tone on Turkey’s economic outlook, revising its growth forecasts upwards in its latest Global Economic Prospects report. The Bank now expects the Turkish economy to grow by 3.7% this year and 4.4% next year, an improvement on its previous projections. The upgrade is attributed to resilient domestic demand, particularly robust construction investment, easing monetary conditions and rising real wages supporting private consumption amid gradual disinflation. While the report notes that Turkey’s current account deficit may widen, it also foresees a narrowing fiscal deficit as earthquake-related reconstruction spending tails off. All this comes against a backdrop of modestly improved global growth expectations—hardly a boom, but enough for Ankara to claim the wind is, for once, at its back.