TURKEY: Agents of Influence Law & more – 12th Nov 2024

Merhaba from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Turkey Update from the 12th of November twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Turkey.

After the U.S. election, President Erdoğan congratulated Trump and expressed hope for stronger relations between the two countries under his leadership, positioning Turkey as a bridge in regional conflicts. Erdoğan urged him to halt U.S. arms support to Israel, believing this could help limit Israel’s actions in Palestine and Lebanon.

Erdoğan highlighted Turkey’s pressing security concerns, particularly over Kurdish groups in Syria that the U.S. supports but Turkey views as threats. He invited Trump to visit Turkey, hoping it could open new paths for cooperation. In Trump’s previous term, tensions flared due to U.S. sanctions on Turkey over its defense ties with Russia and its actions in Syria. Still, Erdoğan expects Trump’s more flexible approach will ease these strains, strengthening trade and security and improving stability for Turkey and the broader region.

We’ve recently mentioned that the MPs of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, and its ally, the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, have proposed a new agents of influence law aimed at strengthening efforts against espionage. The law would punish those acting in the interests of foreign states or organizations with prison sentences of three to seven years.

However, on Monday the 11th, an opposition MP revealed that several parliament members from the AKP and MHP had signed a NATO declaration criticizing a similar law passed in Georgia, despite proposing it in their own countries. They raised concerns that the law could target journalists, activists, and civil society groups, reflecting opposition fears that it could be used to silence critics of the government in Turkey.

On another note, Zeynel Emre, an MP from the Republican People’s Party or CHP, raised concerns over Turkish food exports being returned because they had harmful chemicals, including pesticides and lead, that can even cause cancer. He shared that in September, pears sent to France and dried figs to the Netherlands were rejected for containing pesticides. Emre stated that these products likely found their way to the Turkish market and that’s why the domestic market continues to receive these unsafe goods. He urged authorities to take action to prevent unsafe food from reaching consumers.

On Wednesday the 6th, President Erdoğan announced that Turkey was ready to adopt the new thirty-four-letter Common Turkish Alphabet. This updated alphabet, agreed upon in Baku last September, adds five new letters to the existing twenty-nine.

Erdoğan emphasized that this change will help unify the Turkic world. He urged all countries in the Organization of Turkic States to adopt the new alphabet, saying that Turkey, Azerbaijan, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus are ready. He suggested that Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan should take the lead in the transition.

The proposal was called into question as there were concerns that the new letters didn’t serve a purpose, as Turkish doesn’t have the sounds that those letters represent. The president’s move could also be an attempt to introduce Kurdish letters into the Turkish alphabet.

In other news, on Saturday the 9th, Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of the Istanbul Municipality, attended the opening of the Kırıkhan Vocational High School, a new high school in Hatay, built to address the devastation from the February earthquakes. The Municipality employees funded the construction.

During the ceremony, İmamoğlu questioned why Turkey had not better prepared for such disasters, despite the lessons from the nineteen ninety-nine earthquake. He pointed out that over 60% of Hatay's buildings were destroyed, and many students were still going to schools made of shipping containers. İmamoğlu stressed the need for equal educational opportunities for Hatay’s youth. He also criticized the absence of local officials during the inauguration, saying it was rude not to attend.

Next up, on Saturday the 9th, protesters gathered at a copper mine project in the Kaz Mountains in Çanakkale province, where Cengiz Holding, a company with close ties to the government, had been cutting trees for ten days. After the gendarmerie lifted a barricade, activists from nearby regions entered the area. Local residents, mayors, and officials from the CHP joined the protests, all condemning the environmental destruction.

The Kazdağları Ecology Platform warned that the project would result in the loss of nearly a million trees and the erasure of local villages. Protesters called on the Çanakkale Governor’s Office to revoke the project’s permits, accusing officials of failing to protect the environment.

In more environmental news: Shelton Construction has paused the Environmental Impact Assessment for its planned 1,220-room hotel in Muğla, as the company reconsiders its plans. This assessment, crucial for construction approval on forested or sensitive lands, evaluates environmental risks and enforces sustainability standards. However, the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change rarely enforces these protections, treating assessments more as a formality rather than a meaningful environmental safeguard.

Still, The Ministry confirmed that Shelton requested the assessment’s suspension to modify the project. Even though the company proposed building on forested land, which should be under protection, zoning records label the area as general land—despite local plans marking it as forest. This discrepancy has raised concerns over how the land might ultimately be used.

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has been investigating the promotion of illegal betting, issuing arrest warrants for twenty-three suspects, including Serdar Ortaç, a well-known singer, Mehmet Ali Erbil, a famous TV host, and Batuhan Karadeniz, a former footballer. The police arrested sixteen of them, including Ortaç and Erbil, following raids, and sent them to court. Authorities are still searching for five suspects abroad and two others within Turkey.

Over the past three years, delays in prisoner releases have become a major issue in jails. A regulation passed in twenty twenty-one allowed Administrative and Monitoring Boards to postpone parole, affecting nearly 9,000 convicts. Muharrem Kurşun from the Human Rights Association’s Prison Commission highlighted that political prisoners are particularly affected, often facing longer sentences under unequal conditions. He cited examples like Kadir Karabak, convicted for his ties to the Kurdish militants. Even though he served his full sentence, the Board postponed his release four times, keeping him in prison for eight years instead of the original six-year term.

Kurşun noted that while the regulation affects both political and criminal prisoners, only political prisoners seem to face these delays. He called for the cancellation of the regulation, labeling it a human rights violation.

Shifting gears, students are struggling to survive on Higher Education Credit and Hostel Institutions or KYK bursaries and loans that haven’t kept up with inflation. In response, they launched a petition on change.org, calling for dollar-indexed adjustments to restore their value. In twenty fourteen, the KYK bursary was about one hundred and thirty US dollars, but now it’s worth only forty-six, barely covering basic needs.

Inflation has doubled costs for essentials, while KYK aid increased by only thirty percent. With housing and dorm costs soaring, students face mounting financial pressures. The petition urges raising KYK bursaries to around one hundred and fifty US dollars to help meet students’ basic needs and secure their right to education.

On Thursday the 7th, the streaming platform MUBI Turkey announced that it canceled the MUBI Fest Istanbul, scheduled to start on the same day, after the Kadıköy District Governor’s Office banned Luca Guadagnino’s LGBTI+ themed film Queer just hours before the event’s start.

MUBI Turkey explained it canceled the entire festival in response, stating that the ban restricted artistic freedom and took away the festival’s purpose of celebrating cultural diversity. The district governor’s office said the film contained provocative content that could disrupt public peace and cited security reasons for the ban. MUBI Turkey expressed disappointment, asserting the festival had been intended as a space for diverse voices.

And to close this edition, on Sunday the 10th, Turkey marked the 86th anniversary of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s death. Atatürk led Turkey’s War of Independence and founded the Turkish Republic in nineteen twenty-three. Every year, people visit Anıtkabir, his mausoleum in Ankara, to honor his legacy. President Erdoğan also visited the mausoleum and wrote in the memorial diary, pledging to build a Turkey of peace and justice. Senior political figures, including Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş and opposition leaders, joined the commemoration.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!