Politics
Erdoğan says ‘new phase’ begins in bid for a ‘terror-free’ Turkey after Öcalan’s call
Duvar English
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdoğan said on Feb. 28 that a disarmament call from the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, started a new phase in the efforts for a “terror-free Turkey”.
Thursday’s call from PKK leader Öcalan for the group to disarm and disband could potentially lead to ending a 40-year-old conflict and have far-reaching political and security consequences for the region.
“The efforts for a terror-free Turkey… have entered a new phase as of yesterday,” Erdoğan said in a speech in Istanbul, in his first comments after the Thursday’s call.
“We have the opportunity to take a historic step on the path to the goal of tearing down the wall of terror.”
Ocalan’s call, prompted by a surprise proposal last October from an ultra-nationalist ally of the Turkish president, has been welcomed by the United States, European Union, and other Western allies, as well as by Turkey’s neighbours Iraq and Iran.
“We will closely follow up through our relevant institutions whether the process that has started has been fulfilled by all elements,” Erdoğan said.
“We will show the utmost caution against any provocation that may arise during this process and take all necessary measures,” Erdoğan also said.
The PKK has not yet reacted to the call, but the Syrian Kurdish YPG, the spearhead of the key U.S. ally against Islamic State in Syria that Ankara views as an extension of the PKK, has said Ocalan’s message did not apply to them.
Erdogan’s ruling AK Party spokesman Omer Celik said all Kurdish militia in Iraq and Syria, including the U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), must lay down their weapons.
“Regardless of what name it uses, the terrorist organization must lay down its weapons and disarm itself, along with all its elements and extensions in Iraq and Syria,” Celik told reporters.
Also on Friday, Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party called on Erdoğan’s administration to take immediate steps towards democratisation, stressing that his government’s response is critical.
The PKK launched its insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984 and is now based in the mountains of northern Iraq. It is designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and European Union. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
Ankara has repeatedly called on the YPG to disarm since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last year, warning that it would face military action otherwise.
Remarks by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chair Özgür Özel against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stoked anger at the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). The party’s deputy chair and spokesperson, Ömer Çelik, told reporters on Saturday that Özel succumbed to pro-Israeli propaganda as the latter criticized Erdoğan’s stance on the Palestine-Israel conflict.
The CHP was quick to exploit a move by the Turkish Foreign Ministry not to immediately sign the Hague Group statement, claiming the government turned its back on the Palestinians. Ankara later expressed its reservations on specific topics in the statement, which may jeopardize its maritime sovereignty, but declared that it had signed most of the articles in the statement. In a recent speech, Özel had questioned Erdoğan’s loyalty to the Palestinian cause and claimed the president was afraid of a reaction by the U.S., a major ally of Israel.
“Özel’s remarks can be easily assessed as Israeli propaganda, especially by people in Gaza,” Çelik told reporters. He slammed Özel for groundless allegations under the guise of criticism. “It is crystal clear. The world now has a humanity front comprised of all faiths, ethnicities and nations (opposing Israel’s attacks on Gaza). All members of this front affirm that Mr. President is the loudest voice for humanity and a leader taking concrete steps. Özel’s statements cannot be justified and are not something people should take seriously,” Çelik said. Çelik noted that President Erdoğan was “the most targeted leader by the Zionist propaganda machine.”
The spokesperson underlined that the CHP also made mistakes in all other foreign policy issues. He reminded that CHP politicians in the past supported “armed groups opposing Türkiye.” “While there has been a Türkiye-friendly government in Libya, CHP’s politicians issued statements openly supportive of armed groups opposing Türkiye there. CHP politicians also reject Blue Homeland and openly attack it,” he said, referring to Turkish doctrine for preserving the maritime sovereignty of the country in the Aegean Sea.
Çelik gave other examples of CHP’s misalignment in Türkiye’s foreign policy. “Türkiye conducted land offensives like Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch so that it won’t have a terrorist statelet on its immediate border, but the CHP criticized it. A CHP lawmaker lied and said Türkiye sent jihadists to Karabakh while Azerbaijan was fighting for its own land there. That CHP lawmaker tried to overshadow Azerbaijan’s fight and Türkiye’s support for Azerbaijan,” he said.
“Palestinians and Palestinian leaders openly say that Erdoğan, both while he was prime minister and during his presidency, gave the strongest, uninterrupted support in tough times to the Palestinian cause. Our president is the first Turkish leader to announce that the Palestinian cause is the national cause of Türkiye. We took many steps and executed action plans,” Çelik stressed.
Already tainted with a corruption scandal, the former mayor of Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district reportedly covered the expenses of his extramarital affair with money he had accumulated from bribes. An article published by the Sabah newspaper on Monday says Rıza Akpolat used a “municipal fund” made of bribes he allegedly took from businesspeople to pay for hotel stays and plane tickets for Yeşim Ağırman and her family.
Ağırman, former head of the women’s branch in Istanbul for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), married Akpolat in 2024, shortly after she and Akpolat, a popular mayor of the CHP in Istanbul, had their extramarital affair exposed by the media and their divorce from their respective spouses. Ironically, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, who was himself arrested on corruption charges in March, officiated at the wedding.
Akpolat was arrested in January with other municipal officials and a businessman accused of benefiting from the municipality’s lucrative public tenders in exchange for bribes to Akpolat and others.
The report by Sabah states that Akpolat established a private fund at the municipality, allegedly using bribes he had accumulated for the care of Ağırman and her two children from Ağırman’s previous marriage. Expenses for Ağırman and her family were apparently recorded in detail in a list of the costs submitted to the authorities by a municipal staff member after Akpolat’s arrest. The list shows that Akpolat utilized the fund to cover business-class flight expenses for himself and Ağırman in 2022, two years before their divorce. He also paid for the U.S. trips of Ağırman’s daughters and their accommodations at hotels there.
The former mayor also covered private expenses of his own parents, as well as those of his former wife, from the same fund. The article in Sabah says he spent $266,000 (TL 10.82 million) on his wedding to Ağırman from “a bribery fund.”
An earlier report by Turkish media indicated that the same fund, comprised of bribes, was utilized to fund journalists supportive of CHP. Akpolat spent some TL 56 million on journalists.
The list of funded journalists includes pro-CHP names, such as Nevşin Mengü, Altan Sancar, Ali Haydar Fırat and Ismail Küçükkaya, as well as pro-CHP TV stations Halk TV and Tele 1. A payment recorded in the list shows that Küçükkaya was paid TL 500,000 in March 2024, while Halk TV was paid TL 750,00 for a live broadcast. Mengü was paid TL 200,000 in April 2024, while Fırat was paid $5,000 in May 2024. The list shows that the Politikyol website, run by Altan Sancar, received TL 670,000 in June 2024, with payments recorded as “salaries.”
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov discussed bilateral relations and regional issues on Monday.
Fidan spoke with Bayramov over the phone, according to Turkish Foreign Ministry sources. No further details were given.
Türkiye and Azerbaijan frequently coordinate on several regional issues, including the ongoing war in Gaza and developments in the Caucasus.
Since Azerbaijan’s short-lived independence in the early 20th century and the establishment of the new state after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the two countries have enjoyed good relations. However, the Shusha Declaration, signed in 2021, took it to a new level, particularly by demonstrating the will to act together against threats that one country faces, ranging from threats to independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity to border security. For a long time, Armenia remained the major threat to Azerbaijan as it held sway over territories it illegally captured from Azerbaijan, namely Karabakh, where Shusha is located. Azerbaijan’s victory over Armenian separatists in the region marked a turning point in the region and nowadays, Azerbaijan and Armenia are pursuing a peace deal, with the support of Türkiye, which may fully normalize its relations with Armenia if the two countries finally put aside their disagreements.
Syrian media reported seven people were injured on Saturday when the terrorist group YPG launched an attack in the south of Manbij, a town liberated from terrorists in the wake of the fall of the Assad regime last year. Syrian state-run media said military units staved off an attempt at infiltration by the YPG near a village in rural Manbij, and the YPG targeted civilian areas with rockets. Media reports say four soldiers and three civilians were among the injured.
Syria’s Defense Ministry described the attack as irresponsible and without justification, while the YPG, a dominant group in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), claimed it responded to an unprovoked artillery assault targeting civilian-populated areas.
In March, the YPG signed a deal with Damascus to join Syria’s state institutions.
The deal aims to stitch back together a country fractured by 14 years of war, paving the way for the YPG, which controls parts of northeastern Syria, to merge with Damascus.
However, the deal did not specify how the SDF would be merged with Syria’s armed forces. The SDF has previously said its forces must join as a bloc, while Damascus wants them to join as individuals.
A Turkish Defense Ministry source said last month that the YPG must prove it is adhering to the agreement with the Syrian government. The YPG is the Syrian wing of the terrorist group PKK, which has killed tens of thousands of people across Türkiye since the 1980s.
The group was openly supported by the U.S., which had designated the PKK as a terrorist group years ago. Washington justified the armament of the YPG as part of its anti-Daesh coalition. The YPG took control of parts of northeastern Syria after the civil war broke out in Türkiye’s southern neighbor more than a decade ago. Türkiye launched a cross-border offensive during the civil war to limit the expansion of the YPG and succeeded in confining it to a narrower area.
After the fall of the Assad regime last December, the terrorist group managed to negotiate a deal with the new administration in Damascus. The deal, which involves integration of the YPG into the new army of the country, is not final, and the YPG’s high-ranking leaders, including Ferhat Abdi Şahin, have repeatedly rejected “submission” to Damascus by disarming.
Using the recent Druze unrest that erupted at Israel’s instigation in Suwayda as an excuse, the group also demanded “autonomy” under the guise of “decentralization.”
“The YPG is committed to the March 10 deal, but its implementation will take time. Integrating 100,000 fighters into the Syrian Defense Ministry is a major operation,” Şahin said last week in an apparent about-face.
He said Damascus has formally demanded the return of government facilities in Raqqa, Hasakah and Deir el-Zour, northern cities the YPG occupies.
“In return, Damascus is prepared to approve our demands for Kurdish language and cultural rights,” Şahin said.
Şahin’s remarks follow Ankara’s warnings to “intervene” if the YPG refuses to comply with the integration agreement and follow the PKK’s example in dissolving itself.
“It’s time to integrate. Türkiye hopes no one attempts to divide Syria because we will intervene,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said last week.
Şahin’s remarks also come after the U.S. has admitted the group is an offshoot of the PKK and that Washington does “not owe the group an autonomous administration within an existing state.”
“The YPG aims to turn the ‘cease-fire’ in northeastern Syria into comprehensive peace,” he said, adding that the YPG was in “constant” contact with both Damascus and Türkiye.
A report by the Sabah newspaper says Rıza Akpolat, a former mayor of Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district, who was arrested on corruption charges, funded journalists supportive of his Republican People’s Party (CHP). A municipality staff member handed over to prosecutors a list of journalists and others who had been paid a budget of TL 56 million ($1.38 million), which Akpolat had accumulated through bribes.
Akpolat and other municipal officials were arrested in January on charges of corruption involving a businessman who benefited from lucrative public tenders in exchange for bribery. The anti-graft probe later expanded to the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) and led to the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, another prominent figure in the CHP, in March.
The list includes prominent journalists with direct and indirect links to CHP, including Nevşin Mengü, Altan Sancar, Ali Haydar Fırat and Ismail Küçükkaya, as well as pro-CHP TV stations Halk TV and Tele 1.
A payment recorded in the list shows that Küçükkaya was paid TL 500,000 in March 2024, while Halk TV was paid TL 750,00 for a live broadcast. Mengü was paid TL 200,000 in April 2024, while Fırat was paid $5,000 in May 2024. The list shows that the Politikyol website, run by Altan Sancar, received TL 670,000 in June 2024, with payments recorded as “salaries.”
The list is not an official municipal record, but it was saved on a computer at the municipality building, according to media reports. It listed all payments in elaborate detail, from flight and accommodation expenses and event expenses spent by Akpolat. Media reports indicate that some individuals on the list have admitted to the making of the payments.
Similar allegations of journalists funded by CHP-run municipalities emerged earlier. Witnesses in the case against Imamoğlu have previously told investigators that Imamoğlu’s close associate, Murat Ongun, personally paid cash to some journalists in secret meetings at parking lots, in exchange for pro-Imamoğlu propaganda.
The party’s former chair, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, in the past implied that some journalists were funded by Imamoğlu, fueling a debate among journalists who accused each other on social media of receiving payments from municipalities. Barış Yarkadaş, a former CHP lawmaker, has claimed some journalists asked for payments in exchange for having a publicized dinner with the mayors.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had a phone call with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on Sunday, Foreign Ministry sources said. The two ministers discussed efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza and cease-fire negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis.
Egypt’s state-affiliated Al-Qahera News TV said on Sunday that two fuel trucks carrying 107 tons of diesel were set to enter Gaza, months after Israel restricted the entry of goods and aid into the Gaza Strip.
The enclave’s Health Ministry has said that fuel shortages were hindering the operation of hospitals.
Six more people died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza over the past 24 hours, its Health Ministry said, underlining the enclave’s humanitarian emergency.
The new deaths raised the toll of those dying from what international humanitarian agencies say may be an unfolding famine to 175, including 93 children, since the war began, the ministry said.
Israel severely restricted aid access to the enclave before easing it somewhat as starvation began to spread.
Fuel shipments have been rare since March, when Israel restricted the flow of aid and goods into the enclave.
In response to a rising international outcry, Israel announced steps last week to let more aid reach the population, including pausing fighting for part of the day in some areas, approving air drops and announcing protected routes for aid convoys.
United Nations agencies have said that airdrops of food are insufficient and that Israel must let in far more aid by land and open up access to the war-devastated territory where starvation has been spreading.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, said 35 trucks have entered Gaza since June, nearly all of them in July.
More than 700 trucks of fuel entered the Gaza Strip in January and February during a cease-fire before Israel broke it in March in a dispute over terms for extending it and resumed its major offensive.
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