Politics
US judge dismisses removal case against Turkish student held by ICE
A U.S. immigration judge on Monday terminated removal proceedings against Turkish graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk, ending the government’s effort to deport her nearly a year after her arrest by immigration agents, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said.
Özturk, a Tufts University Ph.D. student in child development, was detained by plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in March 2025 in Somerville, Massachusetts, after co-authoring a pro-Palestinian opinion piece in a student newspaper. Her lawyers said the judge found that the Department of Homeland Security lacked legal grounds to remove her from the U.S.
“Today, I breathe a sigh of relief knowing that despite the justice system’s flaws, my case may give hope to those who have also been wronged by the U.S. government,” Öztürk said in a statement released by the ACLU.
She added that while the harm she endured could not be undone, the ruling showed “some justice can prevail after all.”
The Trump administration had argued that Öztürk was removable under the Immigration and Nationality Act, claiming her activities posed adverse foreign policy consequences and amounted to support for the Palestinian group Hamas. Öztürk’s lawyers have said the allegations were retaliatory and tied solely to her protected speech.
Following her arrest, Öztürk was transferred across multiple states – from Massachusetts to Vermont and later Louisiana – without prior notice to her attorneys, according to court filings. A federal judge in Vermont ordered her release on bail six weeks later.
Öztürk’s legal team challenged her detention as unconstitutional, arguing that it violated her First and Fifth Amendment rights.
In December, a federal judge ruled that the government had wrongfully terminated her student visa record, allowing her to resume her academic program. The government has appealed that ruling, though her visa record remains reinstated.
“The Trump administration has weaponized our immigration system to target valued members of our communities, including scholars like Rümeysa,” said Mahsa Khanbabai, one of Öztürk’s attorneys.
She said the case illustrated how immigration laws were used to silence advocacy related to Palestinian rights.
Jessie Rossman, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, said the ruling highlighted the importance of judicial oversight in immigration cases.
“Without federal court jurisdiction, the government could punitively and unlawfully detain any noncitizen for months based solely on their speech,” Rossman said.
Öztürk’s separate civil lawsuit challenging her detention remains pending in the federal appeals court. She is among several international students targeted in the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestine campus activists, including Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi.
The Trump administration has alleged that Öztürk, Khalil and Mahdawi engaged in activities supporting Hamas but has not presented evidence to substantiate the claims.
An unsealed State Department memo revealed last month that U.S. officials had no evidence against Öztürk beyond the article she co-authored for a student magazine, even as officials moved to revoke her student visa.
The internal memo, dated March 21, 2025, and unsealed by a federal judge, states that the Department of Homeland Security referred Öztürk for visa revocation after she co-authored an opinion piece in the Tufts student newspaper criticizing the school’s response to Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
U.S. Senator Ed Markey welcomed the judge’s decision while criticizing the case as unjustified from the outset.
“I’m grateful a judge has terminated removal proceedings against Rümeysa Öztürk. But let’s be clear: she never should have faced removal in the first place.
“Rümeysa is an example to us all of what it means to speak truth to power. Her courage and grace are inspiring,” Markey said on the U.S. social media company X’s platform.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan Al-Shaibani will visit Türkiye on Thursday, where he will meet his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, Turkish diplomatic sources announced on Wednesday. His talks with Fidan will focus on bilateral relations between the two neighbors and the issue of the YPG, the Syrian wing of the PKK terrorist group, which has long remained a security threat to Türkiye.
Diplomatic sources said Fidan and Al-Shaibani are expected to make a comprehensive assessment of multilateral efforts backed by Türkiye to restore permanent stability and security in Syria, where the decades-long oppressive Baathist regime was toppled in a revolution led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa in 2024. Türkiye initially pursued diplomatic efforts to end the civil war and began admitting refugees fleeing attacks by the Assad regime after those efforts failed. It also supported the Syrian opposition in liberating areas near the Turkish border from terrorist groups, including Daesh and the YPG, through landmark cross-border offensives during the civil war.
Sources said Fidan is also expected to highlight the improving counterterrorism capacity of post-Assad Syria and reiterate Türkiye’s commitment to cooperation with Syria in this field.
Fidan is also expected to reiterate Türkiye’s goal of further strengthening cooperation with Syria within an institutional framework, and the two ministers will discuss future high-level visits between the two countries. President al-Sharaa last visited Türkiye during the NATO summit in July, while Syria’s top diplomat has been a frequent visitor. Turkish officials, including Fidan, have also visited Syria, along with other ministers. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has praised the Syrian revolution on every relevant occasion, has not yet visited post-Assad Syria, although he recently hinted at a possible visit in a speech. Fidan is also expected to highlight the need to add a parliamentary dimension to bilateral relations, referring to the convening of Syria’s new Parliament last month, the first since the collapse of the Baathist regime.
On the YPG, the two ministers will discuss the progress of the group’s integration into the central government in northeastern Syria. Syria has integrated about 9,000 former YPG members into its national security institutions as part of a broader effort to unify the country’s armed forces, while appointing a former senior YPG official as a deputy defense minister, according to officials familiar with the process.
The integration marks one of the most significant steps in implementing an agreement between Damascus and the YPG aimed at dissolving the terrorist group. Roughly 5,000 former YPG members have joined the Syrian Defense Ministry, while another 4,000 have been incorporated into the Interior Ministry, officials said. Non-Syrian foreign members previously affiliated with the YPG have been removed from the country as part of the restructuring process.
Syrian authorities describe the process as a gradual, reciprocal approach under which security, administrative and political measures advance simultaneously to build confidence between the two sides.
Military integration has accelerated in recent months, while negotiations continue over local governance, political representation, constitutional reforms and language rights for Kurdish communities.
Fidan will also underline that Israel’s policies and actions aimed at undermining Syria’s efforts to maintain stability and security are unacceptable and will highlight the importance of Syria continuing its normalization efforts without being drawn into a new cycle of violence.
Diplomatic sources said that during the meeting, the Turkish foreign minister would also emphasize the need for the international community to take action to stop Israel’s attacks on Gaza despite the implementation of the second stage of the Gaza peace plan. He is also expected to stress the importance of ending Israel’s occupation in southern Lebanon for the sake of regional security and stability. Fidan will further underline Türkiye’s support for diplomatic efforts to ensure a cease-fire between the United States and Iran, secure the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and achieve lasting peace.
Invoking a remorse law, former army captain Burkay Karatepe, who went on the run when the 2016 coup attempt failed, explained in detail how he was associated with the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), his visits to the United States to meet its leader, and the orders he received from fellow military infiltrators of the group to capture President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during the coup attempt.
Karatepe was apprehended last week in western Turkish province of Afyonkarahisar, almost exactly 10 years after he disappeared. He was brought to a courthouse in Muğla, the province where he and fellow putschist officers tried to kill Erdoğan during the coup attempt and was questioned.
He agreed to collaborate with authorities, hoping that his sentence would be reduced, and confessed how he was introduced to FETÖ in 1998, when he was a middle school student. His life story was typical of a FETÖ infiltrator, as he noted that he was supplied with questions and answers to a military school exam by FETÖ members beforehand. He confessed that FETÖ assigned him a civilian “handler” while he was at military school and he guided him and fellow military infiltrators throughout the school. He said he was later assigned another handler.
Karatepe said he was attending an official course to be a “staff officer” before the 2016 coup attempt and he joined fellow FETÖ infiltrators and civilian handlers for a meeting about one week before the attempt. He stated that they met at the residence of a handler in Istanbul. “The handler told us that there would be ‘an important activity’ soon, and Şükrü Seymen, a major, would command them for this ‘activity.’ “He ordered us to follow Seymen’s orders,” he said. Karatepe also claimed that he came across fellow students at staff officer course during the meeting and was not aware that they were also members of FETÖ beforehand. Karatepe told interrogators that he and other officers were later summoned by Col. Ahmet Zeki Gerehan (a fugitive FETÖ member now) at the military academy and Gerehan instructed him and others to “follow the orders” at the extraordinary meeting on July 15 afternoon. He said they were then ordered to leave for an air base in Izmir and boarded a military helicopter. He said Şükrü Seymen was there too, along with general Gökhan Şahin Sönmezateş, one of the planners of the assassination plot targeting Erdoğan. “Seymen asked us if any of us not from ‘hizmet’ and I found out everyone else there were also loyal to ‘hizmet’” using a Turkish name FETÖ calls itself. “Sönmezateş and Seymen told us that they were trying to locate the president and we were supposed to take him,” he said.
He also recounted how he met FETÖ leader Fetullah Gülen in his retreat in Pennsylvania, United States, while he was attending a military course in Columbus, Ohio, in 2012.
Karatepe also explained how he remained in hiding for a decade and received aid from next of kin and acquaintances. Members of the team of assassins were captured within a few days after they fled, in the countryside near Marmaris, while Karatepe disappeared and was believed to have fled abroad. Karatepe said he first traveled to Izmir when the coup attempt failed. He said he first took shelter in the residence of a couple originally from his hometown in Afyonkarahisar. He said he later contacted his father before leaving for his hometown, where he hid in a house owned by his grandfather. He said his next of kin gathered in that house and everyone was aware how he was involved in the coup attempt. Karatepe then met his father and he helped him hide in the countryside near his hometown.
He said he later moved to central Afyon and used a fake ID under the name of “Salih” and lied low there, working odd jobs, including at construction sites and as a junk collector.
One day after prosecutors sought the lifting of his parliamentary immunity, New Party (YP) lawmaker Veli Ağbaba is under renewed scrutiny in another investigation. Ağbaba’s brother was among the two suspects detained on Wednesday in a probe in the western city of Izmir focusing on alleged tender-rigging involving a subsidiary of the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality.
Prosecutors said Hür Ağbaba was detained in connection with the investigation into Egeşehir. The subsidiary’s manager and employees of two construction companies were already arrested in May on charges of tender-rigging. Veli Ağbaba is charged with the same offense, though details of his alleged connection to the case remain unclear.
On Tuesday, the Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office sent a request to the Justice Ministry seeking the lifting of Ağbaba’s parliamentary immunity after he recently switched from the Republican People’s Party (CHP) to the YP. The office said in a statement that Ağbaba is the subject of a bribery investigation.
The statement added that Ağbaba, acting on the instructions of former CHP Chair and YP founder Özgür Özel, allegedly obtained money from Gökhan Böcek, the son of former Antalya Mayor Muhittin Böcek, in exchange for securing the latter’s nomination in the municipal elections. Gökhan Böcek has already been arrested on corruption charges.
Ağbaba is also accused of influencing a tender issued by the CHP-run Çankaya Municipality in Ankara by helping award a waste collection contract to a company of his choice and collecting cash from municipalities in Izmir to be used in the 2024 election campaign.
Ağbaba, widely regarded as one of Özgür Özel’s closest political allies and expected to play a prominent role in the newly established YP, has been named in several judicial investigations and political controversies.
He has been mentioned in allegations related to the disputed CHP congress, municipal candidate selection, public tenders and appointments within CHP-run municipalities.
Gökhan Böcek alleged that Ağbaba, acting “on Özgür Özel’s instructions,” demanded TL 30 million (nearly $650,000) during his father’s nomination process for the Antalya mayoral candidacy.
Most recently, Ağbaba’s name resurfaced during the corruption investigation into the Etimesgut Municipality in Ankara. The investigation led to the detention of 55 people, including Mayor Erdal Beşikçioğlu. Prosecutors are examining the appointment of Deputy Mayor Mutlu Kerimoğlu, who has ties to Ağbaba, Beşikçioğlu and former Bakırköy Mayor Bülent Kerimoğlu. According to claims cited by pro-CHP sources, Kerimoğlu was appointed deputy mayor at Ağbaba’s personal request.
Etimesgut corruption
In related news, media outlets reported that corruption in the CHP-run Etimesgut Municipality was not limited to bribes allegedly paid in exchange for building and zoning permits. The Sabah newspaper on Wednesday published a report detailing the investigation into allegedly inflated municipal bills.
In one instance, investigators found that the municipality paid TL 100 million to organize an event that would have cost at most TL 8 million. Serkan Kozan, a municipal bureaucrat cooperating with authorities, helped expose what investigators describe as widespread corruption within the municipality.
Kozan told investigators that Deputy Mayor Taylan Özgüven encouraged staff to engage in corruption.
“Help yourselves to whatever you can. We are here for another five years,” he reportedly told staff, referring to the municipality’s term in office.
Kozan also told investigators that municipal bureaucrats would not approve permits without first receiving bribes and that public tenders were routinely awarded to companies selected in advance by municipal officials.
Jordan on Wednesday will host foreign ministers from a number of countries, from Egypt to Indonesia, as well as the secretary-general of the Arab League, for a ministerial-level meeting on developments in Palestine, particularly Jerusalem, a sacred city for multiple faiths whose eastern part is under Israeli occupation.
Turkish diplomatic sources said that at the meeting, Fidan is expected to emphasize the religious, historical and cultural significance of Jerusalem for Muslims, underscore that preserving the city’s historical and legal status is a shared responsibility of the international community, and express concern over Israel’s actions aimed at altering the historical and legal status of Al-Aqsa Mosque, settler violence and provocative acts, as well as violations targeting Christian holy sites and institutions in Jerusalem.
He is also expected to stress that the relocation of some countries’ embassies to Jerusalem is contrary to international law and relevant United Nations resolutions, undermines the city’s internationally recognized status and damages the prospects for a two-state solution. Fidan is also expected to express deep concern over measures aimed at altering the demographic composition of East Jerusalem, including the forced displacement of Palestinians and the demolition of their homes.
Türkiye’s support for the rights of Palestinians and its backing of the Palestinian cause, particularly since Oct. 7, 2023, has cost it the opportunity to resume ties with Israel. Nevertheless, Ankara has remained unwavering in its support for Palestinians in the face of what it describes as Israel’s genocide, which it says has evolved into a broader expansionist campaign threatening the entire region.
The foreign minister is also expected to draw attention to what Türkiye describes as the increasing implementation of de facto annexation policies and settler violence in the occupied West Bank, while emphasizing the importance of the international community taking concrete steps against Israel’s alleged violations of international law and ensuring that such acts do not go unpunished.
Gaza peace plan
Meanwhile, Türkiye has continued to pursue diplomacy in search of a peaceful resolution to the Palestine-Israel conflict. It has joined international efforts to advance a Gaza peace plan aimed at securing an end to Israel’s attacks on the Palestinian enclave. Israel, however, has repeatedly violated the cease-fire. At the Amman meeting, Fidan is expected to state that Türkiye has made constructive contributions to developing a road map for implementing the Gaza peace plan and that it expects the process to yield positive outcomes for the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well.
He is also expected to say that the Netanyahu government continuing its military operations in Gaza despite the agreement reached on a road map for implementing the Gaza peace plan is unacceptable and should be condemned in the strongest terms.
Finally, Fidan is expected to underscore the key role that participants at the meeting can play in increasing international diplomatic pressure on Netanyahu, saying the Israeli administration is advancing an expansionist agenda by keeping the region in a continuous cycle of conflict.
Ibrahim Kalın, head of Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT), met Hamas Political Bureau Chairperson Khalil al-Hayya and an accompanying delegation in Istanbul on Monday, where they discussed efforts to advance the second phase of the Gaza peace plan, according to sources.
The meeting focused on a road map for the transition to the second phase of the peace plan, with participants emphasizing Hamas’ positive response to the proposal, the sources told Anadolu Agency (AA). The sides also expressed concern that Israel had intensified its military operations in Gaza instead of responding to the road map. They stressed that the international community should act as soon as possible to stop Israeli aggression.
Participants also discussed violations of Palestinian rights in the West Bank and East Jerusalem while Israel’s military campaign in Gaza continues. They highlighted ongoing illegal Israeli settlement activity in the occupied territories and a sharp increase in violence by Israeli settlers.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza was also discussed during the meeting, and Türkiye reaffirmed its support for the enclave through both political efforts and initiatives to improve humanitarian assistance, the sources said. The meeting also underscored Türkiye’s efforts to mobilize the international community to end Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, prevent violations of Palestinian rights in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and increase humanitarian aid to the enclave. Participants reaffirmed the joint efforts of Türkiye, Qatar and Egypt to help secure peace in Gaza.
The Hamas delegation also thanked President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for Ankara’s efforts to help achieve peace in Gaza.
Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the government’s ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and one of the architects of the terror-free Türkiye initiative, was among the first politicians to sign the bill, which seeks to move the process to a new stage. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) presented the Law on Ensuring National Solidarity and Social Integrity to lawmakers across the political spectrum. Once enough signatures are collected, it will be submitted to the Office of the Speaker of Parliament before being brought before the General Assembly.
The bill, or “framework law” as it is known, is expected to be enacted once Parliament votes in its favor. That outcome is considered likely, as most parties support the initiative to permanently end the PKK terrorist group’s campaign of violence, which began in the 1980s.
Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş signed the draft law on strengthening national solidarity and social integration later on Tuesday.
The draft legislation follows the establishment of a parliamentary commission last year to oversee the initiative. For months, lawmakers from the parliamentary parties heard testimony from academics, victims of PKK terrorism and the families of PKK members before compiling recommendations that helped shape the bill. Parliament is expected to vote on the legislation on Sunday, according to media reports.
The exact contents of the bill have not yet been fully disclosed, but lawmakers behind it insist that it will not provide a blanket pardon for PKK members. The terrorist group’s imprisoned ringleader, Abdullah Öcalan, who is serving an aggravated life sentence at an island prison near Istanbul, will not benefit from any reduction in his sentence. Other members of the group who were not involved in acts of terrorism, however, are expected to benefit from reduced sentences, according to media reports. The law will be temporary and will only take effect once Turkish intelligence confirms that the PKK has genuinely laid down its arms.
The bill consists of approximately 15 articles and explicitly states that only members of the PKK and the KCK, an umbrella organization that includes the PKK, will be eligible to benefit from the legislation. The provision is intended to make clear that other organizations, particularly the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), are excluded from its scope.
Senior leaders of the terrorist group and individuals convicted of murder will also be excluded from the legislation. The number of people in this category is estimated at around 500. For other members of the organization who are in prison or have been convicted of offenses other than acts of terrorism, the government plans to introduce a system of phased sentence deferrals based on the length and nature of their prison terms.
The legislation will also establish a monitoring board to oversee the PKK’s dissolution and disarmament process. In addition, a parliamentary committee will be formed to monitor implementation and receive progress briefings every six months.
Last month, AK Party spokesperson Ömer Çelik said the initiative would not undermine the values of the nation, responding to criticism from some far-right groups that viewed the process as a concession to the PKK. Speaking at a news conference, Çelik said the initiative had now entered a new phase focused on establishing the necessary legal framework.
Çelik described the process as highly comprehensive, encompassing political, legal, intelligence and strategic dimensions.
“The determination demonstrated so far by the People’s Alliance, the work being carried out under the leadership of our Speaker of Parliament through the commission established in Parliament, the fact that this process is being implemented as a state policy under the instructions of our president, and Mr. Bahçeli’s statements, which strategically paved the way for this issue, have made this a highly dynamic period. Throughout this process, nothing has been done that would cast a shadow over the fundamental characteristics of our state or the values of our nation.
“As we have always said, the essential objective is to protect Türkiye’s core values and free our country from the burden of terrorism. Reaching this point is important. Now we have entered a more delicate stage. In a sense, the process is only just beginning. Establishing a legal framework is, of course, essential to achieving the goals of a terror-free Türkiye and a terror-free region, but the political atmosphere that has been created is equally important. What matters is whether it contributes positively to the social climate,” he said.
Colonel Özlem Karapınar has become the first woman to attain the rank of general in the Turkish Air Force after being promoted to brigadier general under decisions approved by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the Supreme Military Council (YAŞ).
Karapınar’s path to becoming the Turkish Air Force’s first female general began with a pivotal decision after high school. Although she had secured a place at Ege University’s Faculty of Medicine, she chose to join the Turkish Air Force Academy after receiving an invitation, pursuing a career in aviation instead.
She served as a staff officer in the Turkish Air Force for many years, holding assignments at various units and headquarters throughout her military career. Her promotion to brigadier general marks a historic milestone as she becomes the first woman to attain the rank of general in the Turkish Air Force.
YAŞ meeting was chaired by President Erdoğan and members of the council (Cabinet ministers and commanders of the Turkish army’s branches).
The tradition of high-level military councils in Türkiye dates back to the Ottoman era, with the first Supreme Military Council established in 1837 under Sultan Mahmud II. Initially tasked with drafting military regulations, resolving service-related issues and adapting Western military practices, the council underwent several reorganizations and periods of abolition during the late Ottoman era.
Following the founding of the Republic of Türkiye in 1923, the modern Supreme Military Council was formally established in 1925. In its early years, it operated during peacetime, advising on military affairs and promotions, with the president serving as its ex officio chair.
Over the decades, its structure and leadership evolved, reflecting shifts in Türkiye’s political system and civil-military relations.
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