Mediaboss Marketing

FOR EIGHT years, Turkeys public enemy number one, Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), had not been allowed to meet his lawyers. Hundreds of other Kurdish inmates went on hunger strike in late 2018 to demand an end to his isolation. At least eight committed suicide. The blackout ended on May 2nd, when a pair of lawyers visited Mr Ocalan in his island prison on the Marmara Sea, where he has been held for nearly two decades.

The news was quickly overshadowed by political drama. Only four days after the visit Turkeys election board voted to overturn the outcome of a mayoral election in Istanbul, in which the opposition scored a remarkable upset, and ordered a repeat.

Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks.

The two decisions, to reopen channels with Mr Ocalan and to try to overturn the mayoral vote, could not have happened without the involvement of Turkeys president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, analysts say. Many of them see a connection.

More than any other group, it was Kurdish voters who helped the oppositions candidate for Istanbul mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, score a narrow victory in late March.

Displaced from villages and towns in Turkeys south-east by decades of war between the PKK and the army, as well as poverty, millions of Kurds have settled in the west of the country. Istanbuls population of 15m people includes at least 2m Kurds, more than in any city in the mainly Kurdish south-east of the country. Most of them support the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), an alliance of liberals and Kurdish nationalists, which did not field its own candidate in the Istanbul vote, and endorsed Mr Imamoglu instead. On election day over 80% of the HDPs voters backed Mr Imamoglu, according to research by TEPAV, a think-tank. The remainder appear to have abstained.

To win the repeat election, Mr Erdogans Justice and Development (AK) party might have to reel in at least some of the abstainers, as well as conservative Kurds, to secure the election of its candidate, a former prime minister, Binali Yildrim. Erdogans loss has entirely to do with Kurdish dissent, says Asli Aydintasbas, a fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. He might have to pivot to the Kurds simply to keep power.

The decision to allow Mr Ocalan to meet his lawyers appears to be part of the outreach, says Ms Aydintasbas. The move comes amid rumours that Turkish spooks recently met members of the PKKs Syrian franchise, known as the YPG, to discuss a possible safe zone in Syrias north-east. Despite opposition from America, which teamed up with the YPG to crush Islamic States caliphate, Mr Erdogans government has repeatedly threatened to attack the YPGs strongholds in Syria. In a statement passed on to his lawyers, Mr Ocalan called on Turkey and the Kurdish insurgents to shun violence and pursue a settlement within the framework of a united Syria.

To make any new inroads with Kurdish voters ahead of the repeat election in Istanbul, scheduled for June 23rd, Mr Erdogan will have to do much more than put out feelers to the PKKs leader. During his first decade in power, Turkeys strongman offered the Kurds new cultural rights and launched peace talks with the separatists. Over the past four years, however, he has presided over ruthless army operations against PKK fighters in cities across the south-east, the arrests of thousands of Kurdish activists, an alliance with Turkish ultranationalists, plus what many Kurds consider a land grab in Syrias Afrin province. Mr Erdogan has just over a month to chip away at that legacy. He may be too late.

Read more here:
Why Erdogan needs the Kurds if he hopes to win a repeat ...

ATHENS, Greece (AP) Nine people jailed before a 2017 visit by Turkeys president and accused of belonging to a militant group were cleared of terrorism and criminal arms charges in Greece on Wednesday.

Defense lawyer Aleca Zorbala said that the Athens court acquitted three of the defendants of all charges. The others received sentences of two years and seven months in prison for misdemeanor weapons possession and forged documents. All nine were in jail since November 2017.

The prosecutor at the trial had also called for the defendants to be acquitted of the terrorism charges.

There was no evidence, Zorbala said.

The arrests followed a major anti-terrorism police operation days before Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans visit.

They were charged with belonging to the far-left Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union.

Zorbala said her clients arrests were linked with the Turkish leaders visit.

The timing was not at all a coincidence, she said. (Greek authorities) wanted to show Erdogan that people he considers to be terrorists face arrest here and that he would be safe in Greece.

The defendants are of Kurdish, Turkish or Arab origin. Six are recognized political refugees.

Originally founded in the late 1970s as Dev Sol, the Marxist-Leninist DHKP-C is believed to be responsible for a string of assassinations and bombings in Turkey, including a 2013 suicide bomb attack on the U.S. Embassy in Ankara.

See original here:
Greek court clears 9 jailed before Erdogan visit

April 24 is the anniversary of the genocide, when much of the world honors the over 1.5 million Armenians killed between 1915 and 1923. The Ottoman Empire also ethnically cleansed Turkey of Assyrians and Greeks in that time. Turkey has yet to apologize for the killings or even acknowledge them as a genocide, and its government condemns those who do.

Erdogans comments came on Wednesday, which marked the anniversary.

The forced removal of the Armenians was among the various drastic measures the Ottoman Empire took against the group that ultimately resulted in genocide.

Erdogan reportedly declared ata symposium Wednesday:

The relocation of the Armenian gangs and their supporters, who massacred the Muslim people, including women and children, in eastern Anatolia, was the most reasonable action that could be taken in such a period. The doors of our archives are wide open to all seeking the truth.

Armenians maintain that a genocide campaign at the hands of Ottoman forces executed 1.5 million ethnic Armenians from 1915 to 1923 in Anatolia, the heartland of present-day Turkey. Turkey claims the deaths took place in battle after the Christian group sided with an invading Russian army.

While Turkey denies the genocide, it acknowledges the forceful displacement of a large number of predominantly Christian Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks in 1915, Al Masdar News points out.

In addition to the Armenian genocide, the Ottoman Empire carried out the deportation and genocide of an estimated 750,000-1,000,000 Assyrians (Seyfo Genocide) and Greeks, it adds.

Some American cities including Los Angeles, which is home to one of the largest Armenian communities in the United States also marked the genocide acknowledgment day on Wednesday.

Thousands of people reportedly took to the streets in Los Angeles to demandU.S. President Donald Trump officially recognize the genocide, which he described as a mass atrocity in a statement.

In the U.S. capital, Armenian-Americans marked the genocide anniversary outside the Turkish embassy, accusing Ankara of supporting the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), which continues with its campaign to annihilate the Christian faith despite the complete demise of their so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria last month.

Protesters in Washington, DC, urged the international community to recognize what some described as the Armenian Holocaust.

Despite a push from the American Congress, the United States still does not recognize the genocide.

According to an Armenian genocide-focused online organization, only 28 countries have officially recognized the mass executions as genocide.

See the rest here:
Erdogan: Armenian Genocide Was a Most Reasonable Relocation

FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, April 8, 2019. Maxim Shipenkov/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the West was putting pressure on the Turkish lira, inflation and interest rates, but that these games would be thwarted after a re-run of Istanbuls mayoral election in June.

Ahead of the last election, the West tried to corner us by applying pressure on the currency, interest rates and inflation, Erdogan said on Saturday in a televised question and answer session with university students in Istanbul.

All these games will be thwarted once we get over the election, he said, after Turkeys election board ruled on a re-run of Marchs election, which was won by the main opposition candidate in a shock loss for Erdogans party.

Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Daniel Wallis

Read the original post:
Erdogan: West's economic manipulation will be thwarted after ...

ISTANBUL, TURKEY

Ekrem Imamoglu caused a political earthquake in recent local elections in Turkey when he won the Istanbul mayorship, ending 25 years of domination by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. However, in a controversial move, Turkey's election board annulled the March vote and ordered a re-run. Now the ousted mayor is at the center of a political storm.

Imamoglu, of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), claims his short tenure was enough to uncover gross overspending and waste by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), ammunition that he is set to use in the June 23 re-vote.

During his 19 days in office, Imamoglu toured the city and held mass rallies, where he repeated his pledge to bridge Turkey's deep political divide and bring about good governance.

The rallies were in many ways preparing for another election, with the widely held expectation Erdogan's ruling AKP would not accept the loss of Turkey's most important city, by a mere 13,000 votes.

This month the High Electoral Board made up of mainly Erdogan appointees upheld the AKP's claims of fraud and irregularities. The move drew national and international condemnation.

"This is a blow that will be written in history as a dark stain, this is very clear," said Imamoglu about the annulling of his victory.

"That's why I am very sad," he added, "it is not a sadness directed towards myself; this is sadness for wider society. This is a sadness I feel for seeing such a blow to Turkey's democracy. However, correcting this wrong is down to us. And that's the fight we are now giving."

Imamoglu says his determination to win Istanbul again is buoyed by what he discovered during his short tenure in office.

"Waste!" he said, "the amount of waste that I saw at the stanbul metropolitan municipality! There is a need for big savings in expenditure."

Istanbul accounts for around a quarter of Turkey's population and a third of country's economy, making it Turkey's most important political prize.

"Istanbul presents so many patronage opportunities," said international relations professor Soli Ozel of Istanbul's Kadir Has University. "It greases the wheels of politics of those who control it, and the AKP has truly mastered."

Istanbul based pro-government media, most belonging to business conglomerates with close ties to Erdogan, were in the forefront of lobbying for the Istanbul vote to be overturned.

Protests continue

Analysts say the annulling of the vote will damage Erdogan's political legitimacy that is built on electoral success.

Istanbul's streets continue to reverberate to the sound of nighttime protests over the annulling of the vote, as momentum builds for next month's re-vote, touted as one of the country's most important.

"It is obvious that this vote is not only about Istanbul," said Imamoglu. "This is both a local election and a fight for democracy. That's why our campaign will grow much bigger, and hundred thousands of people will participate."

Imamoglu claims tens of thousands of volunteers have already signed up for the election campaign. The CHP's Istanbul success, coupled with last year's unexpectedly competitive presidential challenge, is seen as re-energizing the opposition party.

"Winning is an acquired habit the more you do it, the better you get at it, sort of muscle memory," said analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners. "If they win again (Istanbul re-vote), they will have the wind behind them."

In Imamoglu, the CHP believes they have found a winner, who can finally challenge the AKP, after nearly two decades of defeat.

"Coming out of a very small borough of Istanbul and mounting a very effective election campaign to the point of drawing pro-AKP voters to at least listen to him is impressive," said Yesilada. "And the fact he has retained rather effective [public relations] agencies also attests to his skills."

Mayor of Istanbul's Beylikduzu district, a distant suburb, Imamoglu was largely a political unknown, before being the surprise choice as candidate for city mayor.

But his background is seen to give him advantages. Imamoglu is from the Black Sea region, whose people make up the largest constituency of Istanbul. He also has conservative roots, that analysts say helps to allay concerns of religious AKP voters.

In an image usually associated with Erdogan, Imamoglu routinely breaks fast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan with Istanbul families. He appears to cross the divide between the secular and pious effortlessly. Until now Erdogan has successfully portrayed the pro-secular CHP, as "elitist and anti-religious."

Rather than engaging in the politics of polarization, Imamoglu says he's seeking to offer a new kind of politics in the June vote.

Read the original post:
Erdogan Fights to Keep Control of Istanbul