Journalist in Trouble & more – 9th Jan 2024

Merhaba from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Turkey Update from the 9th of January twenty twenty-four A quick summary of what's going down in Turkey.

Recall that last Monday the 1st, a court arrested Ege Akersoy for punching a man carrying a jihadist flag, which symbolizes Islamic monotheism and the rule of a single Islamic leader. This conflicts with Turkey's secular values. Following the incident, Fatih Altaylı, a renowned opposition journalist, tweeted “thank you” with no context. This was called into question as the journalist might have been thanking Akersoy for putting the jihadist in his place but, since he didn’t quote or reply to anyone, doubt arose. However, a court seems to know exactly what he referred to, as it launched an investigation into him for praising crime and criminals.

Later on, a court launched a separate investigation into him about his remarks on the lawsuit against him in a YouTube video he made. He questioned how the authorities knew who he was praising and said that he could be praising Akersoy or the people who caught him. In the video he said, ” How would they know?” Well, these words cost him a “publicly inciting hatred” charge. On Friday the 5th, the court imposed an international travel ban and judiciary control on him.

Let’s dive into the upcoming mayoral elections…

Well, the parties have begun revealing their mayoral candidates in each city. One of the opposition parties, the Republican People’s Party, had previously stated that Ekrem İmamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş, the current mayors of Istanbul and Ankara would run for a second term. Both candidates have widespread popularity, making it challenging for the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, to present candidates matching their public appeal.

On Sunday the 7th, President Erdoğan announced that Murat Kurum, an AKP deputy and former urbanization minister, will run for the Istanbul Municipality mayorship. He also revealed the provincial mayoral candidates for twenty-five other provinces. Among those, perhaps the one that received the most attention was Eskişehir’s city candidate, Nebi Hatipoğlu, who recently switched from the nationalist opposition Good Party to the AKP.

Erdoğan has yet to unveil the mayoral candidate for Ankara, but he said he would make the announcement on the 15th of January.

Some updates on the Constitutional Court vs Court of Cassation drama…

The Court of Cassation has recently rejected the Constitutional Court's second ruling regarding Can Atalay's imprisonment, which called it a violation of the right to freedom and to be elected. Recall that a court sentenced Atalay to eighteen years for alleged involvement in the twenty thirteen Gezi Park protests. He was expected to be released after being elected as an MP. However, the court of Cassation argued that Atalay’s immunity doesn’t cover his charges. In the end, the Court of Cassation has the authority to lift the sentence. Over this, Atalay applied to the Constitutional Court for the third time to have his sentence suspended.

In the meantime, the head of the Court of Cassation highlighted a long-standing disagreement with the Constitutional Court. He said that this dispute predated the case of Atalay. This dispute, spanning five to six years, revolves around the controversy surrounding the Constitution's acceptance of individual applications and the ruling bloc’s will to change the Constitution.

On to diplomacy…

On Saturday the 6th, the U.S. Secretary of State visited Turkey and had a meeting in Istanbul with President Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. The trio talked about the situation in Gaza and Sweden's NATO accession. Recall that recently the foreign affairs division of the Turkish parliament approved Sweden’s NATO’s bid and it’ll go through the parliament for final approval.

The two countries didn’t share a joint statement but Minister Fidan pointed out Turkey's expectation for the finalization of F-16 jet purchases from the U.S. and stressed that the Turkish Parliament holds the decisive role in Sweden's NATO membership.

Back to the court of cassation…

On Friday the 5th, daily Hürriyet reported that the Chief Public Prosecutor of the Court of Cassation suggested bringing back the death penalty for femicides. He said that the current most severe punishment for femicide is aggravated life imprisonment, but he believes it’s ineffective as a deterrent. He believes that certain crimes, such as brutally murdering a pregnant woman, should warrant the death penalty instead of an aggravated life sentence. Back in two thousand four, Turkey abolished the death penalty as part of its efforts to align with European Union standards.

On Thursday the 4th, Hüseyin Çaksen, a medical professor at a university, sparked controversy for his non-scientific take on a medical condition in an academic publication.

In the twenty twenty-three article published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Pediatric Neurology, Çaksen reportedly suggested that while scientifically unproven, the main cause of multiple sclerosis, a brain disease, in some patients could be connected to religion. He described the disease as a gift, test, or punishment from Allah. The article suggested that medical professionals should receive training on "supernatural causes with religious context." His remarks caused a public outrage on social media. Some pointed out that, as worrisome as it is, this person is also a faculty member of the state-run Necmettin Erbakan University, teaching the next generation of doctors.

On Wednesday the 3rd, the Children and Women First Association filed a criminal complaint against well-known doctor and TV personality Canan Karatay. It accused her of threatening public health since she said that the Human Papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine causes paralysis. The association argues that Karatay's statements intentionally spread misinformation about the HPV vaccine.

Getting a HPV vaccine has a great stigma around it at the moment. Because it’s a sexually transmittable disease, many call people who get the shot sluts or cheaters. Even though it’s a potential life-saving vaccine that prevents cervical cancers, most people are worried about their reputation over their health. So, when Karatay talked smack about the vaccine with no scientific data, this upset the vaccine advocates and medical professionals alike.

The Transportation Coordination Center in İstanbul, best known as UKOME, announced that it increased fares for public transportation by up to 30%. The full fare has gone up from fifteen to almost eighteen liras, that is from fifty to sixty US cents, and the student fare increased from around seven liras, or twenty US cents, to almost nine liras, or thirty cents.

The price of taxi and school bus services also increased by 30%. On top of that, the starting fare for taxis increased to ninety liras, three US dollars, up from seventy liras, a little more than two US dollars.

However, taxi drivers seem to be upset about the new fares since they think they should be higher. They had previously requested the starting fare to be 150 liras, around five dollars. On Monday the 8th, they held a meeting at the UKOME headquarters and attacked the building with stones. They broke security railings, threw objects at the building, and damaged windows. Riot police intervened, leading to the detention of several taxi drivers. Some people got injured.

During the evening prayer at Fatih Mosque, an unstable man started shouting, “Allahu Akbar, curse Israel. Wake up, Muslims." Upon this, private security guards removed him from the mosque. After the prayer, the man entered the imam's own room, demanding to speak with him. A mosque-goer tried to intervene, but the man stabbed him and the imam.

The police detained the culprit and the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation into the incident, which took over social media. The government issued several press releases with updates on the case. He assured the public that they’d follow up on the investigation.

Aaand that's it for this week!

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