TURKEY: ‘Kafkaesque’ Charges & more – 30th Sep 2025

Merhaba from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Turkey Update from the 30th of September twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Turkey.

On Sunday the 28th, Mücahit Birinci, a former Justice and Development Party or AKP board member, said Istanbul suffers because courts refused to jail Ekrem İmamoğlu, the Mayor of İstanbul from the Republican People’s Party or CHP and the party’s presidential candidate, on terrorism charges. He argued this blocked a trustee appointment and called it a ‘critical mistake.’ Birinci pointed to traffic jams, uncollected garbage, damaged roads, and failing transport as proof of collapse.

Back in March, we reported that the police had detained İmamoğlu in a corruption probe and sent him to jail for financial crimes. Prosecutors also asked the court to hold him on charges of aiding a terrorist group, but judges rejected the request, saying his detention on financial grounds was enough. These remarks fueled public belief that the crackdown on the opposition serves political aims rather than addressing corruption.

Since we mentioned İmamoğlu, this week, he described the charges against him as ‘Kafkaesque’ in an article published in the French daily Le Monde. Writing from Marmara Prison, he compared his trials to Kafka’s The Trial, calling them arbitrary and without explanation.

He wrote that Istanbul University unlawfully canceled his diploma and that the dean resigned instead of approving the decision. İmamoğlu argued that the diploma cancellation aimed to block his presidential candidacy.

He said Turkey’s people have been committed to democracy for over a century and would overcome these Kafkaesque trials, framing his situation as moving from Kafka to Orwell.

Speaking of the opposition, on Monday the 29th, a court sentenced Selçuk Tengioğlu, a passerby who punched Özgür Özel, the head of the CHP, to twelve months in prison for attacking him. The incident happened back in May, outside the Atatürk Cultural Center in Istanbul, after a memorial for pro-Kurdish politician Sırrı Süreyya Önder. Tengioğlu hit Özel in the face, and security quickly detained him. Afterwards, he stated that he just felt like it at the moment.

During the trial, Tengioğlu said he regretted the attack and that he didn’t plan it beforehand. Forensic reports showed that Özel suffered only minor injuries. The court gave Tengioğlu a one-year sentence but allowed him to leave immediately, citing a law that allows prisoners to be released if their sentence is lower than three years.

The release has stirred debate about whether the punishment fits an attack on a public official.

On to education, as on Monday the 29th, the Cumhuriyet newspaper reported that schools in Turkey are still struggling to provide clean water and healthy meals, especially for the ten million children living in poverty out of twenty-two million. Education experts say clean water and safe classrooms are basic rights, not luxuries. They said that the government’s White Flag project, aiming to improve school hygiene, mostly stayed on paper.

The project started in two thousand six with the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Health partnering up. Yusuf Tekin, the then Undersecretary and now Minister of National Education, promised a hygiene revolution in twenty sixteen. But the ministry ended the project in twenty twenty-one, leaving schools without proper hygiene standards.

Parents and teachers want the program to be resumed.

On Monday the 29th, the Court of Accounts released an audit of university hospitals, revealing serious issues in financial and operational practices.

At Ankara University, auditors found that some faculty received performance payments for patient care tasks, even while attending conferences, taking leave, or submitting medical reports.

Karadeniz Technical University’s Farabi Hospital charged 145 cancer patients over 1.3 million Turkish lira or over thirty thousand dollars for services meant to be free, prompting refunds.

Düzce University’s pharmacy failed to track medication expiration, and some patients received expired drugs.

These findings raise questions about oversight and accountability in Turkey’s university hospitals.

The gap between wages and living costs in Turkey is widening fast. A report from the Turkish Workers’ Union stated that a single worker now needs about 36,000 liras (about 1,150 dollars) to cover basic expenses, but the minimum wage falls more than 14,000 liras, around 450 dollars, short.

For a family of four, the hunger threshold climbed to nearly 28,000 liras (900 dollars) while the poverty line passed 91,000 liras (about 2,900 dollars). Rising food prices drive much of the pressure: Meat, eggs, and lentils saw sharp hikes, and cooking oils nearly doubled. Only potato prices dropped, offering little relief.

These figures sparked debate across Turkey, with unions warning that workers cannot keep up as paychecks lose value each month.

In some international news, on Monday the 29th, the Johnny M, a ship in the Global Sumud Fleet carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, broke down in the Mediterranean after its engine compartment took on water. The fleet is one of the largest humanitarian missions to Gaza. The boat sent a distress call near the triangle between Crete, Cyprus, and Egypt. Turkey quickly coordinated to evacuate the passengers with the support of the Turkish Red Crescent. Passengers included people from Luxembourg, France, Finland, Mexico, and Malaysia.

The fleet’s U.S.-based social media account said Turkey’s rapid response and the Red Crescent’s on-site help made the evacuation smooth.

Officials said the incident would not affect the fleet’s overall schedule.

On Monday the 29th, Ali Yerlikaya, the Interior Minister, announced that since the fall of the Assad regime in December twenty twenty-four, over 500 thousand Syrian nationals have voluntarily returned to their homeland. This brings the overall number of voluntary returns since twenty sixteen to 1,250,000.

Yerlikaya emphasized that Turkey continues to support Syrians in their voluntary return process, ensuring it remains safe, dignified, and orderly. He highlighted the Adana Sarıçam Voluntary Return Coordination Center as a key facility supporting these returns. The Ministry of Interior aims to set an example to the world with its migration management approach.

This week, news that Hacettepe University removed twelve academic staff members, including eight State Theater artists, from its Theater Department sent shockwaves through the arts community. Two more resigned in protest, leaving the school short of fourteen academics.

An instructor said one of the two remaining staff has no theater background. He blamed Tamer Karadağlı, the State Theater General Director and a name close to the ruling party. He reportedly told the rector that faculty members worked with opposition municipalities. He added that Karadağlı, who had once failed Hacettepe’s entrance exam but now oversees the same institution through a government appointment, might carry some lingering resentment.

The animal disease outbreak in Greece continues to hit livestock hard. Until Monday the 29th, authorities reported that over 128,000 animals had been culled in the Eastern Macedonia-Thrace region, which includes northeastern Greece and northwestern Turkey.

To stop the disease from spreading further, officials banned the slaughter of lambs and baby goats in the worst-hit areas. The ban aims to limit the movement of farmers, transporters, and vehicles.

Officials said controlling the disease is urgent to protect the remaining animals and prevent further economic losses for the region.

For our final story this week, on Saturday the 27th, Nigerian sources reported that a group of politicians from Nigeria’s Adamawa State recently took a pricey trip to Turkey with their wives, reportedly worth over 380 thousand US Dollars, under the banner of leadership training. The tour included local government chairs and reportedly used public funds. A Nigerian opposition figure called it wasteful.

The trip sparked a debate in Nigeria over the misuse of resources and government accountability, with many questioning why officials would spend heavily abroad while local needs go unmet. The discussion also resonated in Turkey, where citizens often criticize the government for prioritizing showy spending instead of addressing pressing public needs.

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

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