To western eyes, re-electing a leader accused of corruption and autocratic tendencies is puzzling, but it may in fact be good news Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoan had deliberately projected the 30 March local elections in Turkey as a referendum on his rule. Results give his party, the AKP, about 45% of the votes up 5% from the last local elections with its principal challenger the CHP more than...
Recep Tayyip Erdoan may use this result to justify clampdowns on press freedom and protests in 'defence of national security' The results of Turkey's nationwide municipal elections amount to a remarkable personal victory for the country's long-serving prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoan. But the outcome will be seen by his opponents as a significant defeat for Turkish democracy and a worrying omen...
Prime minister vows to make political enemies 'pay the price' as party triumphs in local elections despite corruption allegations The Turkish prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, declared victory for his party in local polls and said he would "enter the lair" of enemies who have accused him of corruption and leaked state secrets. "They will pay for this," he said. Erdogan, fighting the...
Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivers withering assessment of opposition parties after casting his vote in local elections The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, voted in nationwide local elections on Sunday, and said he was confident that "our people will tell the truth today". More than 52 million people are eligible to vote in the elections, which are the first popular test for Erdogan...
Javier Espinosa and Ricardo García Vilanova released but Islamist extremists still hold over 40 other western hostages Two Spanish journalists kidnapped in northern Syria last September were freed by their captors on Saturday night, ending a six-month ordeal in the hands of an extremist Islamist group that continues to hold more than 40 other western hostages. Javier Espinosa, a veteran correspondent...
The prime minister is not even standing in Sunday's local elections, but in the divided capital the talk is of no one else Turkey may be in turmoil and the vast city of Istanbul in ferment, bridling at the antics of a government struggling to cope with scandal and sleaze, but in Kasimpasa quarter, the prime minister's troubles raise barely a shrug. A conservative, lower-middle-class district bordering...
The prime minister is panicking as corruption claims spill out across social media, and the country is poised to go to the polls Turks greeted the news that YouTube has been blocked in the country with the grimly raised eyebrows Brits reserve for an unusually bad weather forecast. "So it's come to this", they say, but no one is overly shocked. Internet bans are becoming a weekly occurrence....
Letter from Zadie Smith, Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, Salman Rushdie and other writers says Turkey's social media ban is an "unacceptable violation of the right to freedom of speech" Turkey's Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk has said that the situation in his country "is going from bad to worse and even towards terrible" following the government's attempts to block access to Twitter, as a phalanx...
We are writers from around the world who love, live and breathe words. We are united in our belief that freedom of expression is a universal and fundamental human right. We are gravely concerned about "the freedom of words" in Turkey. We connect both within and across borders through words, written and spoken. A free exchange of ideas is essential for democracy, as well as for creativity,...
In one Istanbul district, armoured cars guard 'border' separating Erdogan loyalists and those backing the opposition A 10-minute drive from the heart of Istanbul, armoured police cars guard the "border" separating a conservative government loyalist area from a neighbourhood backing the leftwing opposition. Under the embattled prime minister, Recep Tayipp Erdogan, the district of Okmeydani...
Turkish PM's office claim voice recordings posted to YouTube created 'national security issue' leading to website block one week after restricting access to Twitter The Turkish government reinforced its heavily criticised clampdown on social media on Thursday, blocking YouTube a week after it restricted access to the micro-blogging platform Twitter. The latest curbs came hours after an audio recording...
Deputy prime minister says Turkish government will accept court decision to lift ban on microblogging website Turkish Twitter users are expected to regain access to the microblogging platform after a local court issued a stay of execution on last week's decision by a local telecommunications authority to ban the website. According to some local media reports, the ban will be lifted as soon as the administrative...
Bloodshed, not just refugees, is crossing the border from Syria – and the picture gets bleaker by the day The downing of a Syrian plane by Turkish aircraft on Sunday is a sharp reminder that the regional spillover from Syria's civil war is not just an issue of hundreds of thousands of desperate refugees trekking to neighbouring countries. The danger of armed clashes across mutual borders is rising...
Block imposed by Turkey's telecoms authority ahead of elections has not yet been removed A Turkish court has upheld an appeal against a block on Twitter that has provoked public outrage, local media said, though it was not immediately clear whether that meant the bar would be removed. Turkey's telecoms authority (TIB) blocked access to Twitter on Friday as the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,...
Second sustained attack mounted on area around Qardaha, as government troops protect Syrian leader's ancestral village. Syria's civil war edged closer to the home village of Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday, with opposition groups mounting their second sustained attack on the area in the conflict. The push, which is entering its second week, has seen government troops and paramilitaries rush to reinforce...
Move follows threats from Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he would 'root out' the social media network Turkey has stepped up its efforts to block access to Twitter after many users found ways to flout its ban. Internet service providers in the country are now blocking the addresses used by the site, making it significantly more difficult to get around the restrictions, analysts have...
Turkish reports say jet went down in buffer zone along border as Syria says incident is a 'blatant aggression' Turkish fighter jets shot down a Syrian warplane after it violated Turkey's airspace on Sunday, Turkey's prime minister said. The Syrian military confirmed the incident, saying the plane was downed in Syrian airspace while attacking rebels. The unnamed spokesman quoted on Syrian state TV...
Turkish PM announces shooting down of Syrian jet in speech on plans to 'take measure against every attack' on national security Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan rallied hundreds of thousands of supporters on Sunday, dismissing accusations of intolerance by western and domestic critics. "I don't care who it is. I'm not listening," he said to cheers. Erdogan, tackling a corruption scandal that...
Users easily circumvented Erdogan's Twitter ban. But be wary of assuming the net is always a liberating force Here we go again: authoritarian ruler finds that social media are making life uncomfortable for him in the run-up to elections; finds Twitter particularly annoying; instructs local authorities to shut off access for his citizens; announces that he is unbothered by international criticism of...
Recep Tayyip Erdogan's attempted ban on Twitter was a foolish mis-step Recep Tayyip Erdogan , Turkey's abrasive prime minister, made a fool of himself when he tried (and failed) to ban Twitter. Erdogan blames social media for helping to publicise leaked tapes allegedly linking him to a corruption scandal that has rocked his government. He has threatened similar action against YouTube and Facebook....