TURKEY: Cable Car Accident & more – 16th Apr 2024

Merhaba from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Turkey Update from the 16th of April twenty twenty-four A quick summary of what's going down in Turkey.

Sadly, we have to kick off this edition with some tragic news… On Friday the 12th, a cable car accident in Antalya's Kepez district claimed the life of one person and injured ten, including two children. The accident occurred when a cable car cabin collided with a fallen pole at the Tünektepe Cable Car Facility. The cabin broke apart upon impact, causing its occupants to fall into a rocky area.

Emergency teams swiftly responded, evacuating the injured via a Coast Guard helicopter. Additionally, the teams rescued over 180 people stranded in airborne cabins, though they remained stranded there for a whole night.

Investigations are underway, and the police have detained thirteen people in connection to the accident. The Turkish Disaster Management Agency stated that the initial accident report suggests a broken screw at the cable tower's top caused the accident.

One of the thirteen individuals arrested is Mesut Kocagöz, the Mayor of the Kepez district, led by the Republican People’s Party, or CHP. Özgür Özel, the head of the party, denounced the decision, deeming it politically motivated rather than based on legal grounds since public officials weren't investigated in similar circumstances. Nevertheless, he stressed the importance of holding all those involved in the accident accountable, without exception. He also assigned MPs to monitor the situation closely.

Speaking of Özel, he said he wanted to enter into a dialogue with Erdoğan, the president and the head of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP. Even though the two parties are at odds with each other, delegates from both convened to celebrate Ramadan. Reportedly, the two groups also discussed the situation in Palestine and Turkey’s recent decision to restrict trade with Israel.

Özel also called Erdoğan to celebrate Ramadan, and give him his good wishes. This is a significant development for both parties, as they barely see eye to eye.

Similarly, Davut Gül, Istanbul’s Governor and a close government figure, paid a congratulatory visit to Ekrem İmamoğlu, the city’s mayor from the CHP, for his successful outcome in the local elections. He said that he hoped to provide the best service for the city and the whole country together.

About the parliament… In early March, the General Assembly adjourned its sessions for a month due to the local elections, and it was set to reopen on the 2nd of April. However, due to the growing objections to the election results, the parliament extended the break until Tuesday the 16th. With the parliament beginning sessions this Tuesday, it's expected to focus on a law proposal concerning energy regulations, including its plan to turn imported and domestically produced natural gas into liquified gas and sell it on the global market.

Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict… Well, it is not limited to Palestine and Israel anymore. On Sunday the 14th, shortly after Iran’s drone attack on Israel, Hakan Fidan, the Foreign Minister, spoke to Abdullahiyan, his Iranian counterpart, on the phone and said that Turkey wants a de-escalation of tensions in the region. Abdullahiyan assured that Iran's retaliatory operation had ended but warned of a stronger response if Israel launched another attack.

On a related note, Lebanon closed its airspace due to Iran's attack on Israel on Saturday the 13th. AJet, a Turkish airline, first postponed its flights from Lebanon to Turkey to Monday the 14th, but later canceled them altogether. Passengers complained about employees not announcing the postponement and the cancellation, which led them to spend the night at the airport, with no worker reaching out to them. Since the situation between Iran and Israel is tense at the moment, AJet was unable to provide a clear return date and advised passengers to seek alternative routes that they have to pay out of pocket. However, alternative flights cost between thirty to forty thousand liras, around a thousand US Dollars, leaving passengers stranded and facing exorbitant expenses, like accommodation and food.

These add up to almost ten times the initial cost of the flight, with no compensation in sight.

Talking about travel, during last week's Ramadan festival, a surge in travel for family visits and seaside vacations led to congested roads and increased demand for buses. On Sunday the 14th, the Ministry of Transportation announced that it inspected over four thousand buses to tackle price gouging and illegal transportation. They fined companies selling inflated tickets five million liras, approximately 155,000 US Dollars.

However, the fines were called into question since the ministry could have intervened earlier to prevent overpricing. This late intervention might have been a scheme to put more money into the government’s bank rather than a moral decision.

Moreover, the festival time is also notorious for the high number of car crashes, with more than four thousand this year.

In other news… Yılmaz Tunç, the Justice Minister, reported that since the introduction of electronic notices, a summons of services for things like lawsuits and debts, in twenty fifteen, the country has sent over 200 million e-notices. These have saved over seven billion liras, around 216 million US Dollars, of public funds and seven thousand tons of paper.

About the court of cassation… Recall that it has been trying to elect its new president since late March. Well, it still hasn't. The court held its last election on Monday the 15th, and will hold another one on Tuesday the 16th. It’ll be the 17th round this time!

Following the local elections, the Siirt Municipality, led by the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy, a pro-Kurdish party, displayed banners across the province revealing the municipality's debt inherited from the previous trustee mayor that the ruling AKP appointed. Reports indicate that the total debt amounts to 456 million liras, around fourteen million US Dollars. Displaying the debts of a municipality has become a popular practice among municipalities taken over from the AKP. Most of them share one thing in common: they owe millions.

Since we mentioned the ruling party, last week, an AKP deputy shared a photo of a lavish lobster dish she ate in Monaco. It sparked outrage amid the country’s high cost of living. Both AKP members and opposition figures condemned the post. Another AKP member demanded her resignation, criticizing her insensitivity to the nation's struggles. Following backlash, Bursalı apologized, attributing the post to an oversight amidst family holiday celebrations.

In some transportation news, Mansur Yavaş, the mayor of Ankara, recently stated that the municipality was renovating taxi stands, citing their negative impact on city aesthetics. He aims to replace outdated stands with modern, comfortable ones for drivers.

However, not everyone is pleased. Oğuz Alper Öktem, the founder of the MARTI TAG company that provides private taxi and rent-a-moped services, questioned why the municipality was spending taxpayer money for taxi drivers' benefit, stating that they were also private entities and weren’t related to the government. He advocated for facilities for couriers and his own drivers instead. He might be speaking for clout. Yet, some think it is good to improve the city's appearance and provide comfort for workers, especially if the municipality has the budget to do so.

And to wrap up this edition, some cultural updates … In the past (dating back even to the Ottoman Empire), smugglers took many artifacts from Turkey abroad. Teams under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism actively work to recover these treasures. So far seventeen items returned to their home this year, from France, the UK, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany. Data from the Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums shows that since the eighties, the country has brought back over twenty-five thousand smuggled historical artifacts and cultural assets.

And that’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

Do you know that besides the Turkey Update, we also do others? Our latest ones are the Arctic Update, about the area north of the Arctic Circle, and the Ocean Update, about the 70% of the world covered in salt water. The other ones are all country updates, we have a selection of countries from Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe. Check roroshok.com/updates to see the full list. Find the link in the show notes as well.

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