Bolu Mayor under scrutiny & more – 4th Jan 2024

Merhaba from BA! This is the Rorshok Turkey Update from the 4th of January twenty twenty four. A quick summary of what's going down in Turkey.

On Friday the 29th of December, the Turkish Football Super League finalists Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe declined to participate in the Super Cup final match in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This decision reportedly came after Saudi authorities prohibited any display of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, just hours before the scheduled match.

The teams, in light of this censorship during the Republic of Turkey's centennial, decided to return to Turkey. Fenerbahçe reported that Saudi officials confiscated their banner bearing Atatürk's quote, "Peace at home, peace in the world." Despite efforts to resolve the issue, they couldn’t reach an agreement.

This issue caused a nationwide outrage against the Saudis. Many called out the country for disrespecting the Turkish Republic while others blamed the government and the Turkish Football Federation for holding the Super League match in a country which openly dislikes Atatürk and the secular republic. In the end, the match was canceled.

On the topic…

Bolu Mayor Tanju Özcan put up LED billboards, congratulating Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe football teams for reminding the greatness of Atatürk to the ‘desert rat bedouins,’ referencing Saudi Arabians. The message added "There is no Turkey without Atatürk.”

However, on Tuesday the 2nd of January, the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in Bolu launched an investigation into the billboards for being disrespectful and had them removed. In response, Mayor Özcan reshared the message on social media, criticizing the investigation.

Let’s talk about what the new year brought to the country…

While some may say happiness and joy, for Turkey it’s always price hikes. The special consumption tax on fuel and alcohol increased over 25%.

Fuel used to be over seven liras, around twenty cents of a dollar. Now it’s over nine liras, or thirty cents. This tax surge increased the price of a liter of gasoline and diesel fuel by over two liras, around 6 cents. The price of a liter of gas went up from twenty-eight liras to thirty-four liras, that is; from around a dollar to a dollar and thirty cents.

On a different note, on Monday the 1st of January the pro-government Turkey Youth Foundation, or TÜGVA, organized a rally at Istanbul’s Galata Bridge in solidarity with Palestine, drawing over two hundred thousand attendees. The Foundation named the rally “Mercy to Our Martyrs, Support to Palestine, Curse Upon Israel,” somehow tying the massacre in Gazza to the Turkish soldiers who died on duty last week. Bilal Erdoğan, TÜGVA board member and son of President Erdoğan, denounced the Israeli attacks in Gaza as “genocide” and called for increased boycotts at the rally.

Speaking of the raly, on the same day, an Istanbul court arrested Ege Akersoy, a university student, for punching a man waving a jihadist flag at the rally. The flag represents Islamic monotheism and the ruling of a single Islamic leader, commonly used by radical Islamist groups. The flag conflicts with Turkey's secular values.

There was already a tense atmosphere about Islamist in the country following the issue with the Super League match. Akersoy said that his reaction was in self-defense, citing his nationalist values and frustration with the absence of the Turkish flag during the march, following its censorship by Saudi Arabian officials.

Akersoy's arrest faced criticism from opposition figures. Many criticized the authorities for detaining Akersoy while not pursuing charges against the man with the flag, who went against the secular republic.

On Sunday the 31st of December, Tahir Demirtaş, father of Selahattin Demirtaş, imprisoned former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party, passed away at the age of 78. Despite his loss, Demirtaş chose to mourn privately in prison and didn’t apply to get permission to attend his father’s funeral. He added that he wouldn’t ask for anything from the government.

Other incarcerated Kurdish politicians were either not allowed to attend their relatives' funerals or faced mistreatment. So, it’s understandable he wanted to skip the hassle.

Even though Demirtaş couldn’t attend the funeral, many opposition politicians took part in it.

Let’s see what’s up at the parliament…

According to the reporting of the Evrensel newspaper, in the seven months since the parliamentary elections, fifty-eight MPs haven't spoken in any sessions or committees in the parliament. Out of these, forty-six are from the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP.

What’s interesting about this is, the AKP’s list also includes six former ministers that President Erdoğan himself nominated. Many believe that he only nominated them to give them parliamentary immunity, and the fact that they’ve not participated in the meetings supports that belief.

On Tuesday the 2nd, police detained thirty three people suspected of spying for Mossad, Israel's intelligence service. Turkey’s Interior Minister stated on social media that the suspects aimed to identify, monitor, assault, and kidnap foreign nationals, especially Palestinians.

An official alleged that Mossad recruited its personnel through job ads on social media, contacted them through encrypted messaging and used intermediaries and cryptocurrency for payments to conceal transactions.

Last month, Israel announced its plan to pursue Hamas members globally, listing Turkey among the targeted countries. Turkish officials cautioned Israel against it, and warned them that there would be serious consequences. Now, it seems that Turkey is taking action in response to these concerns.

On Wednesday the 3rd, Özgür Özel, the head of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, stated that the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, struggles to find competitive mayoral candidates against CHP's Ekrem İmamoğlu in Istanbul and Mansur Yavaş in Ankara for the upcoming local elections in March. Özel pointed out that President Erdoğan previously said that the AKP would announce candidates in mid-December, however, they couldn’t because polling companies weren’t able to find a strong candidate against CHP’s candidates after surveying potential names.

Additionally, Özel addressed the Good Party's refusal to collaborate in the local elections, he said that he was confident Good Party voters would unify to prevent CHP municipalities from transferring to the AKP or the Nationalist Movement Party, even if the Good Party itself didn’t support the CHP’s candidate.

Recall that last week, a court sentenced a woman to post the image of the Turkish flag on her social media as punishment for making terrorist propaganda for the Kurdish Workers’ Party, or PKK. Many thought that the sentence was bizarre and that is the reason why the Diyarbakır Bar Association appealed it. And on Friday the 29th, the court lifted the sentence.

Let’s talk about new salaries now…

New year means salary increases. The government announced that the salaries of public servants and pensioners will increase over 40% in the new year. With the new increase, the lowest civil servant salary has risen from 22,000 liras,almost 750 US Dollars, to 32,860 liras, over a thousand US Dollars. Similarly, the salaries of civil servant pensioners went up from 9,876 liras, or 300 US Dollars, to 14,739 liras, almost 500 US Dollars. Well, this would be a good increase, if the pensioner salary wasn’t below the hunger threshold

The Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions revealed that the hunger threshold reached over fourteen thousand liras, around 480 US Dollars, in December. Public servant pensioners just about meet this threshold, but it's more challenging for private sector pensioners. Their salaries seem to fall significantly below, hovering around 11,000 liras, about 400 US Dollars. However, these figures are not official, as the government may still incorporate a welfare share into the total amount.

Aaand that's it for this week!

Happy New Year from the Rorshok family! These are our wishes for twenty twenty four: 1) that you tell your friends about us. 2)... Noup, that’s about it.

Remember you can help us financially with the link in the show notes.

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