TURKEY: Drought & more – 19th Aug 2025

Merhaba from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Turkey Update from the 19th of August twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Turkey.

Let’s start off this edition with some alarming news: drought and heavy summer demand have placed severe strain on the water systems of İzmir, a popular summer destination in the west coast. Last week, the İzmir Municipality began rotating water cuts across the city, where shrinking reservoirs and depleted groundwater pushed authorities to ration supply.

On Thursday the 14th, the watercuts widened, with nightly outages between 11pm and 5am across eleven districts to save the remaining water. Restrictions continued as dams stayed low and demand remained high, leaving neighborhoods across the city dry overnight.

In some tragic news, on Sunday the 17th, twenty-three-year-old Hakan Çakır died after he intervened when his mother and fifteen-year-old sister faced harassment over a road dispute. Video footage showed that the attackers included a father and his three sons, with some of them already having multiple previous offenses despite still being minors. Çakır’s father and brother also suffered stab wounds but got discharged from the hospital later. Another video showed the same group swinging a sword in a previous street fight

The killing sparked outrage, with many linking it to the recent murder of the fourteen-year-old Ahmet Minguzzi, who got stabbed to death by another teenager while out shopping, showing how repeat violent offenders often roam freely.

On the same day, the Istanbul Provincial Presidency of the ruling Justice and Development Party or AKP referred Mücahit Birinci, a party member, to its disciplinary board for possible expulsion. This prompted him to resign from the party. The decision followed allegations that Birinci offered to use his political influence to help Murat Kapki, a businessman jailed in a corruption investigation against the Istanbul Municipality for alleged financial misconduct.

Özgür Özel, the head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party or CHP, said Birinci met Kapki in prison, drafted a false statement for Kapki, asking him to sign it and present it to authorities as if it were his own official account of events, and allegedly offered to smooth the investigation in exchange for two million dollars. Kapki said he refused to sign it, saying he couldn’t provide false testimony.

In other news, on Tuesday the 19th, authorities in Ankara reported that someone set a Renault White Toros on fire near the Parliament building. The White Toros has long carried political connotations in Turkey, symbolizing the nineteen nineties-era clandestine abductions in the country that were carried out in White Toros cars, mainly targeting Kurdish activists and political dissidents.

Police reported that the suspect had a history of psychological issues and multiple prior offenses. Officers quickly extinguished the fire and took the suspect into custody. The Ankara Police Department confirmed an investigation has been launched to determine the full circumstances surrounding the incident.

On another note, on Monday the 18th, more than six million public employees and retirees went on a one-day strike after talks with the government collapsed. Unions rejected the government’s proposed pay rises of 10% for the first half of twenty twenty-six and 6% for the second half, followed by a 4% rise for each half of twenty twenty-seven. Unions say they fell far short of the annual inflation, which is currently around 35%.

The strike disrupted daily life, halting trains in many cities, while many public offices stood empty. In Ankara, members of the Public Workers Unions Confederation marched to the Ministry of Labor.

Shifting gears, on Friday the 15th, during the Religious Affairs Directorate’s weekly nationwide Friday sermon, the head of the directorate said that denying daughters their legally assigned share under Islamic inheritance rules, or refusing the portion God grants them, is considered morally and religiously wrong in Islam. However, on the other hand, he suggested that women who demand equal inheritance under Turkish law could also be acting against Islamic principles, which allocate smaller shares to women than to men.

The message drew criticism from all kinds of groups and individuals. Turkish law guarantees equal inheritance for men and women, and the Constitution requires the Religious Affairs to remain neutral. The Turkish Women’s Associations Federation said using religious rules to challenge legal rights distracts from urgent issues like gender-based violence, women’s rights, and child protection.

In an update to a story from our previous show… Last week, we reported on the devastating fires that swept into Çanakkale city. Residents faced yet another blaze on Saturday the 16th when a forest fire broke out, spreading rapidly due to strong winds. Authorities evacuated seven villages as a precaution

Çanakkale, a key tourist site in the northwest, famed for its World War I battlefields and independence war landmarks, temporarily closed down its historic areas, including the 57th Regiment and Conkbayırı, to protect visitors. The Governor confirmed the historic sites remain unharmed.

The World Wildlife Fund warned that these fires are increasingly out of control and called for stronger prevention measures alongside firefighting.

On Wednesday the 14th, Özlem Çerçioğlu, the Mayor of the midwestern city of Aydın under the CHP, resigned from the party and joined the ruling AKP, despite having secured over sixty percent of the vote in the twenty twenty-four local elections as a CHP candidate. She later said she switched sides after raising concerns about a controversial zoning plan change in the Kuşadası district, alleging it boosted building density and created windfall profits worth billions. The party’s Kuşadası District Chair rejected her account as baseless. He said that the mayor had the authority to adjust zoning in the city, which meant every approval went through her, and accused her of trying to stir controversy.

The switch triggered sharp backlash in Aydın, with residents accusing her of betraying their trust, as most voted for the party rather than the candidate.

Speaking of the CHP, on Friday the 15th, the police detained forty people, including the CHP Mayor of Beyoğlu in central Istanbul, in a corruption investigation. He became the sixteenth CHP mayor that the police have taken into custody in less than a year. In that time, security forces have also arrested more than five hundred opposition figures.

Reportedly, the detainees in the latest operation ran fraudulent activities through companies tied to the Istanbul municipality. The CHP rejects the accusations and says President Erdoğan wants to silence any democratic alternative. The government insists the cases are legitimate.

Also on Friday the 15th the police conducted an operation across five provinces including İstanbul and Ankara, targeting a suspected armed criminal organization. They arrested Selahattin Yılmaz, the alleged leader of an armed criminal organization, and known for his close ties to Devlet Bahçeli, the head of the Nationalist Movement Party. On top of that, he faces charges of planning an assassination against Aziz İhsan Aktaş, a cooperating witness in the investigation into the Istanbul Municipality.

Yılmaz denied all allegations and described the case as a politically motivated setup linked to the Gülen Organization, which Turkey believes is responsible for the twenty sixteen coup attempt.

After his arrest Bahçeli publicly supported Yılmaz and called him a comrade and expressed his belief in his innocence, saying the truth would be revealed over time.

And to wrap up this edition, on Tuesday the 19th, the Interior Ministry published new traffic regulations in the Official Gazette, setting rules for mandatory vehicle tracking and camera systems, recording devices, and emergency buttons. The rule kicks in right away for any newly registered cars. Older cars get more time: those made in twenty seventeen or earlier have until the first of January twenty twenty-eight.

There’s another timeline for school buses. Those registered between February and October this year will have until the end of twenty twenty-seven to switch to the new system.

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

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