Today is the 6th anniversary of the reopening of Hagia Sophia Mosque for worship. Hagia Sophia, which was given the status of a museum and closed to worship in 1934, was reopened to worship by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on July 24, 2020, after 86 years. Demirören Publications has prepared a special work for the 6th anniversary of Hagia Sophia’s reopening for worship. The distinguished work titled “The Seal of Conquest: Hagia Sophia-i Kebîr Câmi-i Şerîfi”, which deals with Hagia Sophia in all its aspects and is a collection, will be on the shelves as of today. The work, which covers the centuries-old story of Hagia Sophia from a comprehensive perspective with scientific sources and rich archive documents, and is enriched with engravings and miniatures, will also include never-published photographs. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wrote the presentation of the collection’s special work titled “Seal of Conquest: Hagia Sophia-i Kebîr Câmi-i Şerîfi”. Erdoğan stated the following in his introduction:

FOUND TO LIFE AGAIN: With the conquest of Istanbul, Hagia Sophia Mosque gained a new identity as a sacred temple that witnessed one of the greatest turning points in human history. This work, which was in a ruined and neglected state after the victorious entry of Mehmed the Conqueror to Istanbul on May 29, 1453, was revived in a short time and came to life again under the spiritual banner of Islam. Hagia Sophia, which was converted into a mosque with the conquest, has become the symbol of the great victory that opened and closed an era, the seal of conquest and one of the most magnificent symbols of our civilization.

HISTORICAL RESPONSIBILITY: Hagia Sophia Mosque is not just a place of worship; It is a monumental symbol of our nation’s historical consciousness, claim to civilization, power of faith and spirit of conquest. The preservation and maintenance provisions included in the endowments of the Ottoman sultans are the strongest evidence of the care shown to this sacred trust. Today, we consider it a historical responsibility to protect this precious legacy, which we inherited from our ancestors, with the same consciousness and sensitivity, to keep it alive and to pass it on to future generations in the best possible way.

IT WILL BE TRANSMITTED TO FUTURE GENERATIONS: Hagia Sophia Mosque, which is the symbol of victory of the blessed conquest that opened and closed an era, will continue to rise in all its magnificence in the silhouette of Istanbul and maintain its exceptional place in the world cultural heritage. The work in your hand; It was prepared with the aim of transferring the centuries-old story of Hagia Sophia, its architectural elegance, spiritual depth and civilizational heritage to future generations.

IT RECEIVED ITS PRINCIPAL IDENTITY: Hagia Sophia-i Kebîr Mosque, which filled the sky with the sounds of adhan for centuries and left an eternal joy in the hearts, continues to shed light on the common conscience and cultural memory of humanity, beyond being just a place of worship, as a sacred temple that regained its original identity by the will of the nation on July 24, 2020, in accordance with the spirit of conquest. I wholeheartedly believe that it will.

‘HATAY IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE BROTHERHOOD CLIMATE’
President Erdoğan published a message on the 87th anniversary of Hatay’s joining the motherland. Stating that Hatay’s reunification with the homeland on July 23, 1939 was one of the most exceptional victories of the nation’s spirit of unity and solidarity, belief in its rightful cause and strong diplomatic will, Erdoğan said, “Hatay, which has been an integral part of the same civilization, the same culture and the same climate of brotherhood for centuries, continues its rise in line with our Turkey Century goals. This ancient city of ours, where different beliefs, cultures and civilizations have lived together in peace throughout history, is a place of unity.” “And it continues to be one of the most beautiful symbols of our unity. We, as the state and nation, mobilized all our means to revive Hatay after the February 6 earthquakes. We will carry Hatay to the future as a stronger, more prosperous and more resilient city in every field, and we will revive and build our ancient city more beautifully than before.”

MESSAGE FROM ERDOĞAN TO ERZURUM CONGRESS
In his message published on the 107th anniversary of the Erzurum Congress, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, “This high consciousness still inspires us today and gives us strength in our march to the future. Today, I once again remember with perfect decorum the members of the congress who said ‘The homeland is a whole within national borders’, who rejected mandates and patronage altogether, and who gave unlimited support to the national forces.”

The corruption investigation carried out by the Istanbul Anatolian Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office against the CHP’s Şile Municipality and the expert report prepared revealed the huge profiteering in the tender for the 35th International Şile Cloth Culture and Art Festival. It was determined that the tender given to the “Sur Music” company, owned by Mehmet Sait Köse, for 38 million TL in official records, was actually carried out by the “Koşan Adam” management company, owned by Haluk Levent’s brother Berkant Emergency. While it was determined that Sur Music was used only as a front on paper; It has been documented that CHP Mayor Özgür Kabadayı and Private Secretary Oğuz Kaçmaz were given 4 million TL cash bribes and brand new unboxed iPhone 15 Pro Max phones in exchange for payments. Although a total of 22.79 million TL was paid to the artists by the municipality, it was determined that only 1.93 million TL was paid to the artists, and the public resource of 20.86 million TL evaporated.

In the corruption investigation carried out against Kocaeli’s Izmit Municipality, 20 suspects, including CHP Mayor Fatma Kaplan Hürriyet and her husband Murat Hürriyet, were arrested. The procedures of the suspects detained in the investigation of the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office have been completed at the Istanbul Police Department. The suspects, including Izmit Mayor Hürriyet and her husband Murat Hürriyet, who were accused of “establishing an organization to commit a crime”, “bribery and tender rigging”, were sent to the courthouse. Of the suspects whose statements were completed at the prosecutor’s office, 21 were referred to the criminal judgment of peace on duty with a request for arrest and 9 for judicial control measures. The suspects are Hürriyet and Murat Hürriyet, Fatih Yaşar, Mehmet Ersoylu, Ramazan Kırıcı, Yusuf Kırıcı, Yüksel Kırıcı, Adem Ok, Ali Han Ünal, İrfan Can, Kenan Yılmaz, Nihat Önal, Seyhan Özcan, Burak Güreşen, Cemil Yılmaz, Çetin Sarıca, Gökhan Ercan, Hakan Oral, Nusret Ömürhan Yılmaz and Zekiye. Köstekli Oral was arrested. It was decided to impose judicial control measures on 10 suspects.

The GNAT Şanlıurfa and Kahramanmaraş School Incidents and Digital Risks Investigation Commission convened under the chairmanship of AK Party Tokat Deputy Yusuf Beyazıt. Speaking at the opening of the commission meeting, Beyazıt said, “The purpose of today’s meeting is to jointly evaluate the areas of duty and responsibility of the relevant institutions and platforms and to develop applicable solution proposals. The responsibility of the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) is to ensure the implementation of broadcasting principles that protect children’s privacy, normalize violence and do not encourage the attacker through visibility in the reporting of school attacks and youth violence. Continuous repetition of violent images, showing attack methods in detail and revealing the identities of children may lead to new grievances.”

‘SAFE MEDIA ENVIRONMENT IS OUR MAIN PRIORITY’

RTÜK President Mehmet Daniş said that while digitalization facilitates children’s access to information, it also reveals new risk areas. Daniş said, “Violent content, cyber bullying, privacy violations, disinformation and publications inappropriate for their age can negatively affect the physical, mental and emotional development of children. Moreover, the content that all children encounter is not determined solely by their own preferences. Algorithmic recommendation systems can constantly highlight similar content based on their viewing habits and sometimes increase the visibility of harmful content. Therefore, protecting children in the digital environment is not an individual issue that can be left only to families. This issue is a matter of public institutions, publishers, technology companies, the education community and our society.” “As the Radio and Television Supreme Council, it is among our main priorities for children to have access to a safe media environment in both traditional broadcasting and on-demand broadcast services offered over the internet,” he said.

‘WE EXPANDED THE PROTECTION APPROACH TO VULNERABLE GROUPS’

Emphasizing that one of the most effective tools for the protection of children is smart signs and protective symbol system, Daniş stated that efforts are continuing to update licensed digital broadcasting according to the changing needs. Daniş said, “In the new protective symbol system, which we will start implementing in a short time, we have developed special written warnings for on-demand broadcast services such as types of violence, discrimination and suicide. We have strengthened the criteria for the protection of children. We have further expanded the protection approach for vulnerable groups. Bullying, which is an important problem for children today, has been addressed in a multidimensional way for the first time. It is planned to add two new content symbols, namely addiction and inappropriate language, by paying attention to behavioral addiction such as gambling, substance use such as drugs and the correct use of language. In addition, ’10+’ in age categories.” “and ’16+’ symbols will be added and the broadcast hours of broadcasts containing negative content towards children will be rearranged in the light of new symbols,” he said.

‘ADMINISTRATIVE SANCTIONS WERE APPLIED 454 TIMES IN THE LAST 5 YEARS’

Daniş stated that they closely follow the effective provision of parental control, child profile, PIN application and content filtering tools on digital platforms and that they strengthen the practices in the field of publishing through awareness studies. Daniş continued by stating that they impose sanctions against content against general morality towards children, vulgar use of language, productions that pose the risk of addiction, crime, violence and abuse, and continued as follows;

“Administrative sanctions have been imposed 454 times in the last 5 years. The total of administrative fines imposed is around 345 million TL. However, our approach is not only to impose penalties after the violation. We attach importance to strengthening preventive guidance, joint responsibility and children’s rights-oriented publishing understanding in constant dialogue with broadcasters. The size of the digital broadcasting environment and the speed of change make it necessary to develop the control capacity together with technology. In this direction, with the VIA Project, we are strengthening our artificial intelligence-supported monitoring, analysis and reporting capacity in the digital broadcasting environment. “We aim to intervene in risks more quickly and effectively. Today, it is not just about what content children watch, but how that content is presented to children, with which design tools it is presented and how it is recommended by algorithms is as important as the content itself. Therefore, increasing algorithmic transparency, developing age assurance systems, strengthening parental control tools and disseminating child rights impact assessment should be among the main areas of work in the coming period.”

‘9 OUT OF 10 YOUTH ARE ACTIVE ON SOCIAL MEDIA’

RTÜK Deputy Chairman Deniz Güler stated that they conducted a research on young people’s media use and digital literacy in 2025 with 7 thousand 511 young people between the ages of 15-21, and as a result of the research, they found that young people use social media for an average of 3 hours 24 minutes a day, radio for 38 minutes, social media is used almost every day, and 77 percent of them watch television. Güler said, “First of all, this table shows us that the media center of young people is now digital networks rather than traditional screens and radio; that is, 9 out of every 10 young people are active on social media. As RTÜK, we have updated our supervision approach by taking this transformation into account and are examining these areas more closely from the perspective of child protection within the digital platforms and social media ecosystem. Daily television viewing time, which was approximately 3 hours in 2018, decreased to 40 minutes in 2025. This transformation of the media “It is a clear indication that regulation cannot be considered solely based on television. Today, 6 out of 10 young people actively connect to and use digital platforms. 89.2 percent of them have at least 1 social media account. Here, 25 percent stated that their social media profiles are open to everyone. This creates a shadow area where family control is weakened.”

5 MORE NAMES WERE SUMMONED TO TESTIFY

Ece Üner, Fatih Portakal, Feyza Altun, Gökhan Özoğuz and Öykü Serter were summoned to testify yesterday within the scope of the investigation carried out regarding the allegation that “donations collected on behalf of the Friends Association were transferred to the accounts of the suspects”.

OPERATION

The Istanbul Police Department’s Financial Crimes Fighting Branch Directorate, under the coordination of the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, carried out work to prevent the crimes of “establishing an organization for the purpose of committing a crime”, “qualified fraud” and “laundering of assets resulting from crime” and to catch the suspects.

In this context, as a result of the MASAK reports prepared for the Friends Association employees, account activity reviews and technical and physical follow-up studies, it was determined that the suspects had high amounts of money movements that were incompatible with their financial profiles, high amounts of money transfers were made between them, they placed bets by transferring large amounts of money to their games of chance accounts and lost large amounts of money in this way, and they also carried out many chain title deed transfer transactions among themselves in a short time.

Among the 54 suspects detained within the scope of the investigation, 28 suspects, including the founder of the Dude Association, singer Haluk Levent and Oğuzhan Uğur, were arrested.

The assets of the association and some suspects were confiscated.

Çiftçi announced that 118 thousand 172 sports competitions were held with the participation of 21 million 234 thousand fans in the 2025-2026 season, and that 1 million 277 thousand police officers and 335 thousand private security guards were on duty for security. Çiftçi emphasized that for the first time in the new season, the rules for protocol stands will be strictly enforced and gave the message: “Protocol stands should be areas where sports ethics, common sense and exemplary behavior are exhibited, not where the rules are violated.”

Minister of Internal Affairs Mustafa Çiftçi made important statements at the closing of the Sports Safety Evaluation Meeting, which was held with the participation of the Turkish Football Federation, Turkish Volleyball Federation, Clubs Association, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Youth and Sports and representatives of the police force. Stating that increasing peace and security in sports activities, preventing violence and disorder, strengthening inter-institutional cooperation and new term sports security strategies were discussed at the two-day meeting, Çiftçi emphasized that sports are not just about competitions, but are an important area that strengthens social unity and solidarity.

“WE WILL STAND WITH DETERMINATION AGAINST THOSE WHO TRY TO MAKE TURKISH SPORTS A TOOL OF PROVOCATIONS”

Stating that sports bring together different age and social segments around a common excitement, Çiftçi said that the organizations make significant contributions to the promotion, tourism and economy of cities. Stating that sports should be kept alive with the spirit of friendship, solidarity and sportsmanship, Çiftçi stated that holding the competitions in peace is their main priority and said, “We will stand determinedly against those who try to fuel social unrest through sports, pit fans against each other and turn Turkish sports into a tool of provocations.”

PROVINCIAL SPORTS SECURITY COMMITTEES WILL MEET UNDER THE PRESIDENCY OF THE GOVERNORS

Minister of Internal Affairs Çiftçi also announced the security measures to be implemented in the new season. Accordingly, Provincial Sports Security Boards will meet under the chairmanship of governors in Super League competitions. Fixed Competition Security Chiefs will be appointed for each stadium and team, and a total of 127 security chiefs will be on duty this season. Stating that the security chiefs who will be constantly working in the same stadiums will get to know the fan profiles and possible risks more closely, Çiftçi noted that risk analyzes will be prepared in line with the facts on the field, not at the desk.

PROTOCOL BRANDS SHOULD BE AREAS WHERE SPORTS ETHICS, COMMON SENSE AND EXEMPLARY BEHAVIOR ARE EXHIBITED”

Stating that technological opportunities are also integrated into the security system, Çiftçi said that risky competitions are followed with 582 lapel cameras allocated to the provinces, and the stadiums are monitored instantly through KGYS and camera monitoring centers. Minister Çiftçi also stated that it is aimed for fans as well as managers to enter the stadiums and sports halls with the Passolig and e-ticket system, and said, “The rules should apply not only to our fans, but also to everyone entering the sports field. The order and rules in the protocol tribune are also of great importance in ensuring peace and security in sports. Protocol tribunes should not be areas where the rules are violated; they should be areas where sports ethics, common sense and exemplary behavior are exhibited.”

“LAW NUMBER 6222 WILL BE IMPLEMENTED WITHOUT COMPROMISE”

Declaring that 118 thousand 172 sports competitions were held throughout Turkey in the 2025-2026 season and 21 million 234 thousand people participated in these organizations, Çiftçi stated that 1 million 277 thousand police officers and 335 thousand private security personnel worked for security. Ciftci stated that action was taken against 5 thousand 832 people in a total of 548 competitions within the scope of Law No. 6222 on the Prevention of Violence and Disorder in Sports, and emphasized that they would not be complacent despite the positive picture obtained. Addressing the police force, Çiftçi said that he demanded the uncompromising application of the law in sports fields and that legal proceedings would be continued with determination against any attempts aimed at violence, insults, damaging public property and disrupting public order.

“EVERY COLOR IS OURS, EVERY TEAM IS OURS”

At the end of his speech, Minister of Internal Affairs Mustafa Çiftçi drew attention to the unifying power of sports and called for avoiding statements that would pit fans against each other, especially on social media. “Every color is ours. Every team is ours. Every athlete is the asset of this country.” Çiftçi stated that they will continue to strengthen a sports culture where peaceful, safe and sportsmanship prevails, together with all stakeholders, and expressed his hope that the Sports Safety Evaluation Meeting will lead to beneficial results.