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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 23/09/2026

Ankara’s mayor has made his move. He leaves the CHP – the party that embraced him more than 16 years ago – and vows to sit as an independent, saying his first responsibility is to the voters who elected him.

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 22/05/2026

His critics say Kılıçdaroğlu’s deeds, not his words, show that he is no elder statesman for the party. He once marched from Ankara to Istanbul to protest against Turkey’s politicised judiciary, they say, so why now support a court decision that happens to put him back in office?

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 22/05/2026

It is the day after the night before and the anger at Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has been visceral: we’ve seen instances of his portrait being torn down in party offices, of crowds chanting “Traitor Kemal”. According to some reports today, he’s been left rather upset by it all.

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 21/05/2026

So, what happens now? The latest in a long string of court rulings against Turkey's main opposition party is an order to remove the party's leader, Özgür Özel. Is he still in office – and is the country heading for early elections?

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 10/02/2026

In a pretty stunning move, President Erdoğan has tonight appointed Istanbul’s chief prosecutor Akın Gürlek – the man who led many of the judicial cases against the opposition’s jailed presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu – as his new justice minister.

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 23/04/2025

Today’s the Turkish parliament’s 105th anniversary. Some, like independence war veteran Rauf Orbay below, believe this – and not 29 October 1923 – is Turkey’s true birthday. It was since then, he argues, that the country operated as a republic. Either way, happy birthday 🇹🇷

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 15/04/2025

Sırrı Süreyya Önder, one of the most recognised pro-Kurdish politicians in Turkey and member of the delegation holding talks with PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, has been rushed to hospital tonight with a suspected tear to a heart valve. His party says his condition is serious.

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 14/04/2025

Parliamentary arithmetic still matters. A reminder that Turkey's governing party does not have a majority, and its de facto coalition does not wield a three-fifths majority in the Grand National Assembly. You need the latter to change the constitution or call an early election.

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 23/03/2025

Also, note posts like this by a senior pro-Kurdish MP implying Ankara mayor Mansur Yavaş, who has Turkish nationalist roots, is a fascist. The row is about his view of a recent Kurdish rally. It will be tough to keep an opposition alliance together.

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 23/03/2025

The justice minister says this is an independent judicial process and any suggestion of political influence is plainly wrong. The opposition, and countless observers documenting an increasingly politicised judiciary in Turkey, tell a different story.

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 23/03/2025

Next, there is the question of the mayoralty. Can it be taken away from İmamoğlu permanently? Yes: the notorious kayyım process – where a mayor is removed and replaced by the government – remains an option for the interior minister. He has chosen not to use it right now.

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 23/03/2025

Now that Ekrem İmamoğlu has been formally charged and he has been stripped – temporarily, we are told – of his Istanbul mayoralty, what happens next? A thread 🧵

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 22/03/2025

Take this from a deputy leader of the MHP – Erdoğan’s governing partners. He says the CHP’s upcoming congress is illegitimate because the 2023 congress is now in question. An unsurprising view, perhaps, but it’s clear how things could get very ugly.

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 22/03/2025

Turkey's opposition CHP has called an extraordinary party congress. What happens now – and is Özgür Özel's leadership under threat? A thread 🧵

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 19/03/2025

This morning's police raids targeted 106 suspects but the focus, of course, is on the man who is Turkey's most recognisable politician after Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Where now for Ekrem İmamoğlu, President Erdoğan and Turkey? A thread after a tumultuous 24 hours.

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 26/02/2025

Ahmet Sever died suddenly yesterday of a heart attack. He was 65. Abdullah Gül was among those attending his funeral today.

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 09/01/2025

Launching soon: Turkey’s 165th active political party Yeni Yol – the New Path Party – will be a significant one, at least in parliament, because it involves the merger of three existing parties which are crowded into the same ideological space. For now, Deva, Gelecek and Saadet ride together.

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 29/12/2024

“For this process to succeed, all political circles in Turkey must…operate constructively and avoid narrow, periodic calculations. One of the most important places for these contributions will doubtless be parliament.” A key passage in Abdullah Öcalan’s reply to Devlet Bahçeli.

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 24/11/2024

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 06/11/2024

The man who runs elections in Turkey was in the US this week to observe electronic voting booths – and was apparently left impressed by the process. Turkey currently votes with using stamps and ballot papers that are up to one metre wide. @nevsinmengu.bsky.social

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 21/10/2024

There certainly won't be any public show of grief in Turkey today over Fethullah Gülen, whose death was announced overnight. The 83-year-old's name is toxic, and not just because the government blames him for the 2016 coup attempt. That notoriety makes him a pivotal figure. 🧵

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 12/12/2023

Spot the difference On the left: Turkish authorities permit new political party name with a remarkable resemblance to a banned movement. On the right: Turkish authorities reject new political party name with a remarkable resemblance to a banned movement.

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 21/11/2023

Turkey’s far-right leader says the country’s president should still be elected by absolute majority. It’s a blow to President Erdoğan, who’s mused about a lower threshold (maybe resetting term limits too). Devlet Bahçeli remains the hardest leader to read in Turkish politics.

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JamesInTurkey.com @jamesinturkey.com · 05/11/2023

It’s official. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has become the first major Turkish political party leader this century to be defeated in a leadership contest. Is this a seminal moment in Turkish politics, or merely the final whimper of the movement defeated by President Erdoğan in May?

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