Politics
Impressions from İmamoğlu’s Antalya rally
Ceren Deniz / DUVAR
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is seeking to run for the presidency in the next election, on March 9 held the Antalya leg of the public meetings.
This weekend, İmamoğlu held four rallies, in İzmir, Kayseri, Antalya, and Adana, prior to the primary election of his Republican People’s Party (CHP).
The CHP on March 23 will hold a primary election to name its presidential candidate, in which İmamoğlu is the only candidate.
The hall and the surrounding square were mostly full of people at the rally held at the Cam Piramit in the city center of Antalya.
The crowd chanted the slogan “Everything will be beautiful,” while those who stayed outside watched İmamoğlu on two screens set up.
However, the excitement of the crowd turned into a reaction to the organizational failures from time to time due to the overcrowding.
İmamoğlu first had iftar at a farmer’s house and then came to the rally area. At that moment, journalists from 10 news outlets and TV channels encountered a security barrier and could not enter the hall.
Security guards told them that the audience had entered early and that there was no room inside. In response, the press members who had stayed outside turned on their cameras and started to report that they were not allowed into the hall.
While Antalya Mayor Muhittin Böcek was addressing the crowd, some reporters were still waiting outside.
Some of them said, “There is a harsher attitude than the minister’s bodyguards,” to which authorities from the Antalya Municipality responded, “The program is not ours, it’s Ekrem İmamoğlu’s.”
As the tension outside was growing, an executive from the Antalya Municipality security unit allowed reporters to enter the hall.
İmamoğlu took the stage after Böcek and addressed the crowd in a hoarse voice as Antalya was the last leg of the four-rally marathon.
He also repeated his symbolizing stage gesture, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt. His speech was often cut due to the crowd’s slogans.
He also commemorated CHP’s former chair, the late Deniz Baykal in his hometown.
Again, organizational shortcomings drew ire as the people in the back could not see İmamoğlu properly.
In his speech, İmamoğlu mentioned the economic turmoil in Turkey several times.
“I know that Antalya also had its share of economic shortsightedness. Antalya is one of the 3 provinces in Turkey with the highest rent increases in terms of real estate. (The state) made foreigners who bought a house for 250 thousand dollars citizens, right? They sold it at a higher price after 3-4 years, they both made money and gained citizenship, and I am against this.”
“While the people of this country cannot pay their rent, foreigners cannot be allowed to profit from this. This city used to be a city where civil servants used to rejoice when they were relocated because they were going to a comfortable city. Now it is a city where civil servants do not want to work,” he added.
He also talked about several judicial investigations he is facing and said, “(Erdoğan) want to enter the race without Ekrem İmamoğlu, this nation will not make that election. Illegitimate threats will not deter me, I trust my nation.”
“Those who were alarmed by our decision to nominate the candidate were even more frightened when they learned that we would hold primaries because they do not know democracy. Our party’s decision to hold primaries is a revolution in democracy. Those who wanted to impose top-down politics on Turkey were very afraid of the primaries. Because democracy is contagious,” he added.
The popular mayor said goodbye to the crowd on the stage together with his party members, deputies, and mayors.
“Are you ready to go to the polls for your presidential candidate?” İmamoğlu received an enthusiastic ‘yes’ from the crowd.
“Our only crime is that we beat them 4 times. Are you ready to send (Erdoğan) home for the 5th time? I disturbed their sleep, let’s do it together,” he concluded.
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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