Politics
Türkiye’s child protection law toughens sentences for young offenders
Turkish Parliament’s General Assembly passed a bill amending the Child Protection Law on Saturday, putting an end, for now, to a debate over minors getting away with serious crimes such as murder.
The law stipulates prison terms of between 19 and 27 years for offenses punishable by aggravated life imprisonment when committed by offenders who were between the ages of 15 and 18 at the time of the crime. It also mandates prison terms of between 15 and 18 years for offenses punishable by life imprisonment.
The bill has been on lawmakers’ agenda for some time in light of several notorious murders committed by offenders under the age of 18, often targeting their peers, as well as the rise of criminal gangs exploiting young people to carry out crimes such as extortion and contract killings targeting rival gangs and businesses that refuse to pay extortion demands.
Under the new law, judges are granted discretionary authority so that age-based sentence reductions may not be applied to children in the 15-18 age group who commit intentional homicide or aggravated injury resulting in severe consequences. In addition, the penalty regime applicable to an older age group may be applied to children in the 12-15 age group.
Any person who enables a child to obtain a firearm as a result of failing to fulfill their duty of care and supervision will be sentenced to imprisonment from one to three years, provided that the act does not constitute another offense carrying a heavier penalty.
The phrase “juvenile pushed into crime” in the Child Protection Law has also been replaced with “child in the judicial process.” If a public prosecution is initiated against a child, the case will be reported to the provincial or district directorates of the Ministry of Family and Social Services and the Ministry of National Education so that the necessary administrative measures can be taken.
A new article added to the Child Protection Law establishes “guidance measures” as child-specific security measures for children involved in judicial proceedings who lack criminal responsibility. Under the amendment, conducting a social investigation will be mandatory for children under the age of 15. If a social investigation is not conducted by the public prosecutor, the court, or the juvenile judge for a child aged 15 or older, the reasons must be specified in the indictment or judicial decision.
Justice Minister Akın Gürlek hailed the new law and regulations in a social media post on Sunday. He said the legislation paved the way for more deterrent sanctions for serious crimes, adding that efforts to combat the exploitation of children by criminal groups had also been strengthened.
“While protecting our children from the dangers of criminal organizations, street gangs, drugs, violence and the digital world, we will also decisively fulfill the requirements of justice in the face of serious crimes that threaten the lives and property of our citizens. Under the leadership of our president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, we will continue to develop our justice system for a safer and fairer Türkiye, where our children grow up in safety and the peace of our families is strengthened,” Gürlek said.
Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi said the law had become “the voice of the voiceless.”
“This law does not merely punish; it cuts off the path leading to crime, anticipates risks before they emerge, and serves as a shield for our children,” Çiftçi said in a social media post on Sunday.
Turkish officials assured that the passage through the Turkish Straits to the Black Sea was continuing amid spillover of the Russia-Ukraine war into the latter.
On Saturday, Bloomberg News reported that Ankara had restricted commercial ship traffic entering the Black Sea following attacks on vessels there, including Turkish-owned ships. Türkiye has issued repeated warnings to Moscow and Kyiv over the attacks in the Black Sea, urging the warring sides to take measures to ensure navigational safety in the area. On Saturday, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Ankara had conveyed to Moscow and Kyiv that they should declare a moratorium on their attacks in the Black Sea.
Two Turkish government officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said Türkiye had implemented some temporary measures because it had been highly uncomfortable about security for some time, but that passage was clear under the conditions of the Montreux Convention. They did not give further detail.
The 1936 Montreux Convention of the Regime of the Straits gives Türkiye control over the Bosporus and Dardanelles, and the power to regulate transit of naval warships. It also guarantees the free passage of civilian vessels in peacetime and restricts the passage of ships not belonging to Black Sea countries. Türkiye, which has NATO’s second-largest army, has maintained cordial ties with both Kyiv and Moscow since the Russia-Ukraine conflict erupted in 2022. It has refused to join Western sanctions on Russia, while providing military support, including from its own inventory, to Ukraine.
Apart from attacks on Turkish-owned ships, Türkiye has also seen stray drones falling on its territories and territorial waters. On Sunday, the governorate of Artvin in northeastern Türkiye announced that an unmanned maritime vehicle detected off the Black Sea shore of Hopa district was demolished in a controlled way. The governorate did not specify the origin of the vehicle but said in a statement that the discovery was similar to those in the past after the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war.
The Turkish Parliament passed a critical law early Monday for the martyrs’ and veterans’ families to boost their rights and benefits, particularly in financial terms.
The General Assembly approved the law just hours before it was set to vote on a law as part of the terror-free Türkiye initiative.
Martyrs are mostly members of the security forces, including military personnel and law enforcement officers, who were killed in counterterrorism operations or terrorist attacks, as well as civilians killed in such attacks.
In the past few decades, the terrorist groups PKK and Daesh have been primarily responsible for deadly attacks, both across the country and abroad, targeting Turkish nationals.
The new law passed with the votes of 382 lawmakers in the 600-seat parliament. It provides for increases in monthly payments to the families of martyrs. The total payment to the parents of martyrs will be no lower than the net monthly minimum wage, which is currently slightly above TL 28,000.
The additional payment provided to veterans and people left disabled by injuries sustained in terrorist attacks and who require personal care will also be increased. The payment for people in these groups will be raised to 2.5 times the net minimum wage.
Monthly payments for noncommissioned officers, village guards (local civilians, particularly in eastern and southeastern Türkiye, who are employed to defend rural areas against attacks by the PKK and other terrorist groups), military cadets and civilians who were left disabled on duty will also be increased.
Monthly pensions will be granted to those injured while carrying out counterterrorism duties but who are not considered disabled under existing laws.
Monthly pensions will also be granted to public servants and civilians who were injured while attempting to thwart the July 15 coup attempt by the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) or terrorist attacks but are not considered disabled under the law.
Commenting on the law, Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş said a new era was beginning in strengthening the rights of the families of martyrs and veterans.
In a statement posted on her social media account Monday, Göktaş said they were providing the families of martyrs and veterans with stronger rights.
She said the new regulations would improve monthly payments to the parents of all martyrs so that they would not fall below the minimum wage.
She added that those injured in the fight against terrorism but not classified as disabled would, for the first time, receive monthly pensions, along with social benefits such as free public transportation and discounts on electricity and water bills.
“Under the leadership of our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, we will continue to stand by the precious families entrusted to us by our martyrs and our heroic veterans,” the minister added.
Suspended Menderes Mayor Ilkay Çiçek in the western city of Izmir announced Monday that he had resigned from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) after being jailed pending trial in a corruption investigation involving bribery and extortion allegations.
The Izmir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office had ordered the detention of 16 suspects, including Çiçek, as part of an investigation into alleged offenses including forming and joining a criminal organization, bribery, extortion, forgery of official documents, abuse of office and causing zoning pollution.
All 16 suspects were referred to court following proceedings by the gendarmerie. Ten, including Çiçek, were arrested pending trial, while six others were released under judicial supervision.
The Interior Ministry later suspended Çiçek from his post as Menderes mayor as a temporary measure.
Çiçek said he reluctantly resigned from the CHP after the party referred him to disciplinary proceedings seeking his expulsion without first obtaining his defense.
Çiçek was elected mayor of the small Aegean coastal district in the 2024 municipal elections, replacing another CHP mayor in a district that has been a stronghold of the opposition party for years.
Over the past months, dozens of CHP mayors have been the subject of criminal investigations, and many have been detained or arrested on corruption charges, along with a sizable number of municipal bureaucrats.
Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker made his inaugural visit to Türkiye since taking office last year and met with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the Presidential Complex on Monday. The visit comes at a time of flourishing relations between the two countries whose ties deteriorated in the past decade. The last Austrian chancellor to visit Türkiye was Karl Nehammer, who was the first Austrian official in that post to visit Türkiye in 2023, after a 22-year hiatus.
Türkiye and Austria turned their hostilities in the Middle Ages into somewhat steady relations in the 18th century. This evolved into an alliance in World War I, and in 1924, the fledgling Republic of Türkiye signed a friendship agreement with Austria.
Quoted by Austrian media before his trip to Ankara, Stocker stated that the main topics he would discuss with Turkish officials would be the economy and migration. Stocker defined Türkiye as “an important economic partner” and hailed good relations between the two countries. He stated that Austria and Türkiye had more potential, especially in tourism and Austrian investments in Türkiye.
Stocker is accompanied by Peter Hanke, minister for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology, and Wolfgang Hesoun, vice president of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber. He will meet Erdoğan for the second time since he took office, after a May 2025 meeting in Albania on the sidelines of the European Political Community summit.
Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger sought to upgrade relations between the two countries as she met her Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Türkiye last April.
Austria and Türkiye’s trade volume exceeded $4.3 billion in 2025, and the countries aim to elevate it to $5 billion in the short run. Foreign direct investment in Türkiye by Austria surpassed $11.2 billion between 2005 and 2025, while the Turkish investments in Austria in the same period were $887 million.
Turkish and Austrian officials will also hold a high-level roundtable meeting on economic ties during Stocker’s visit. Türkiye is among key export markets outside the European Union for Austria.
Austrian officials say that Hanke’s meeting with Turkish Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Abdülkadir Uraloğlu would focus on cooperation on modernization of transport infrastructure, especially railways.
Austria also has a large Turkish community numbered around 350,000 people, while Türkiye is popular among Austrian tourists. In 2025, more than 563,000 Austrian tourists visited Türkiye.
Once Türkiye’s main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) is now a pale shadow of its former self after former Chair Özgür Özel left the party and founded the New Party (YP). Lawmakers and other members resigned from the CHP en masse to join Özel in his new party, but party sources say most of them were not longtime members of Türkiye’s oldest political party. Instead, a significant portion of those who resigned had joined the CHP during Özel’s tenure as chairperson, which began after an intraparty election in November 2023.
The CHP and the YP have been engaged in a bitter dispute since Özel sought to reclaim the chairmanship he lost following a court ruling in May. Özel appealed the verdict, while his predecessor, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, returned to office and pledged to weed out “corrupt” members, referring to officials close to Özel whose names became entangled in corruption investigations. Before and after Özel established the YP, a wave of resignations and expulsions swept through the CHP.
The YP claims that nearly 700,000 people have resigned from the CHP, while CHP officials reject that figure and maintain that resignations have largely come to a halt. As the debate continues, the CHP leadership is also carrying out an internal review of the resignations. According to the CHP’s findings, the vast majority of recent resignations involve individuals who joined the party between 2024 and 2026, during Özgür Özel’s tenure as chairperson. Approximately 450,000 new members joined the CHP during that period.
Shortly after assuming the party leadership, Özgür Özel carried out what was described as a historic purge of supporters of former Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Between 2024 and 2026, he expelled nearly 2,500 party members and placed newcomers, many of whom had never previously been part of the CHP’s ranks, in key positions within a significant number of local party organizations.
It is alleged that the majority of recent resignations from the CHP involve these “stacked members,” who were reportedly recruited by certain local political figures close to Özel in order to secure victories in internal party elections. It is also claimed that nearly all of those who resigned belong to the same group that has been helping establish the YP’s new local organizations.
Türkiye marked on Monday 12 years since Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as Türkiye’s first president elected directly by popular vote, a period that has seen the country overhaul its system of government and expand its diplomatic and defense footprint.
Erdoğan was elected Türkiye’s 12th president on Aug. 10, 2014, following a 2007 constitutional amendment that allowed the president to be chosen directly by voters for the first time in the country’s history.
He won 51.79% of the vote, receiving more than 21 million of about 40.5 million valid ballots.
Presidential Communications Director Burhanettin Duran on Monday described the 2014 election as a major turning point in Turkish democratic history, saying the direct election of the president strengthened the role of the popular will in governing the country.
Duran said Erdoğan’s election marked the beginning of a new period in which Türkiye increasingly determined its own priorities and shaped its future through the will of its people.
He said that process continues under Erdoğan’s “Century of Türkiye” vision.
“Türkiye is resolutely advancing toward a more effective, more independent and stronger position in its region and the world,” Duran said.
Shift to presidential system
Erdoğan’s presidency has coincided with a fundamental transformation of Türkiye’s system of government.
On April 16, 2017, voters approved constitutional amendments replacing the country’s parliamentary system with an executive presidential system. The referendum passed with 51.41% voting in favor and 48.59% against.
Türkiye held its first presidential and parliamentary elections under the new system on June 24, 2018.
Erdoğan, backed by the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and its Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) ally, won the presidential election. He was later sworn in as the first president under the new system, and the first Cabinet under the presidential system was unveiled in July 2018.
Türkiye returned to the polls for presidential and parliamentary elections in May 2023.
Erdoğan finished first in the initial presidential vote on May 14 with 49.52%, followed by then-main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu with 44.88%. Neither candidate secured the majority required to win outright.
Erdoğan defeated Kılıçdaroğlu in the May 28 runoff, winning 52.16% of the vote against his rival’s 47.84%, securing another term as president.
Growing diplomatic role
Foreign policy has become a major component of Erdoğan’s presidency, with Türkiye seeking a more active role in regional and international crises.
Ankara has pursued diplomatic initiatives surrounding the Russia-Ukraine war and Israel’s attacks on Gaza, while also engaging in regional diplomacy amid tensions involving Iran. Türkiye was also a major supporter of Azerbaijan during its conflict with Armenia over Karabakh.
Most recently, Erdoğan hosted NATO leaders in Ankara for the alliance’s 36th summit on July 7-8.
The gathering at the Presidential Complex brought together leaders from NATO’s 32 member countries, with Erdoğan holding a series of bilateral meetings on the sidelines as Ankara sought to underline Türkiye’s role in the alliance and regional security.
Erdoğan also signed a trilateral defense agreement in Mecca on Aug. 7 with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The Mecca Joint Defense Agreement is aimed at strengthening defense cooperation, burden-sharing and collective security among the three countries, according to Turkish officials.
Defense industry expansion
Türkiye has also expanded its domestic defense industry during Erdoğan’s presidency, increasing production of drones, missiles, naval platforms and other domestically developed systems.
The country has emerged as an increasingly prominent defense exporter and now ranks among the world’s top 15 countries in terms of defense production capacity.
Duran pointed to advances in the defense industry, domestic technology, energy, the “Blue Homeland” maritime strategy and space technologies as examples of Türkiye’s transformation over the period.
The government has also focused on reconstruction following the devastating earthquakes that struck southeastern Türkiye on Feb. 6, 2023.
More than 455,000 independent housing and commercial units have been completed in the earthquake-hit region as authorities continue rebuilding areas affected by the disaster.
‘Terror-free Türkiye’ initiative
Domestic security has meanwhile taken center stage with the government’s “Terror-free Türkiye” initiative, which authorities say is aimed at ending decades of terrorism and strengthening national unity.
A parliamentary commission established as part of the process began work under the name National Solidarity, Brotherhood and Democracy Commission.
On Aug. 8, Parliament’s Justice Committee approved proposed legislation on strengthening national solidarity and social integration as part of the initiative.
Duran said the process reflected the government’s broader emphasis on national unity, security and political stability.
“The strong will demonstrated by our nation is inspiring not only development initiatives but also the goal of a terror-free Türkiye, which strengthens our national unity and solidarity and prioritizes peace and security,” he said.
Twelve years after the landmark 2014 vote, Erdoğan remains at the center of Türkiye’s political system as his government pursues what it describes as a more independent foreign policy, expanded defense capabilities and the “Century of Türkiye” agenda.
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