TURKEY: Nevşin Mengü Arrested & more – 17th Dec 2024

Merhaba from BA! This is the Rorshok Turkey Update from the 17th of December twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Turkey.

On Thursday the 14th, Turkey reopened its embassy in Damascus after a twelve-year hiatus. Embassy operations ceased in twenty twelve, during Syria's civil war, but the Syrian Consulate in Istanbul remained active throughout the conflict.

President Erdoğan said the reopening shows Turkey’s commitment to supporting Syria’s reconstruction. He appointed Burhan Köroğlu, the former ambassador to Nouakchott, as Temporary Charge d’Affaires last week.

Speaking of Syria, on Friday the 15th, Yaşar Güler, the Turkish defense minister, said that Turkey is willing to offer military training to Syria’s new administration if requested. Güler emphasized that the new administration had expressed a commitment to respecting government institutions and international organizations, and that Turkey was prepared to give them a chance to govern. Güler also stated that Turkey remains focused on eliminating the Kurdish YPG militia, which it believes to be a branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party.

Turkey has several military agreements in place and is ready to support the new government, especially regarding national security concerns.

On Thursday the 14th, authorities arrested journalist Nevşin Mengü following an investigation into her interview with Salih Muslim, the former co-chair of the Democratic Union Party (or PYD), who is wanted on an Interpol Red Notice. The PYD is the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which Turkey considers a terrorist organization. Authorities argued the interview included statements that praised a terrorist organization. The police later released her under judicial control with an international travel ban.

A day earlier, on Wednesday the 13th, Mengü deleted the interview on her Youtube channel and made a post on social media explaining why. She said that the interview aimed to discuss Syria’s post-Assad future but after receiving legal advice that the interview might contravene Turkish Penal Code provisions, she removed it to avoid misunderstandings, though it was too late.

In other news, on Thursday the 14th, President Erdoğan postponed the United Metalworkers' Union strike for sixty days. The strike, which would have impacted at least 2,000 workers, followed failed negotiations with the Turkish Metal Industrialists' Union. Workers rejected a 37% percent pay raise offer, demanding 125% instead.

The government postponed the strike, citing national security concerns under the Law on Trade Unions and Collective Labor Agreements. As a result, workers will delay their protests at GridSolutions, Hitachi Energy, Schneider Elektrik, and Arıtaş Cryogenic factories for two months. This move will give the government time to mediate the dispute and avoid potential disruptions in key industries, but it also puts pressure on both sides to reach a solution before the delay expires.

On Monday the 16th, it came to light that the Ankara Municipality purchased the Transformers robots at the controversial Ankapark Theme Park using the social welfare budget. The robots, bought in twenty thirteen during Melih Gökçek’s tenure as Ankara Municipality mayor under the ruling Justice and Development Party, cost almost eighteen million Turkish liras, which was around nine million US Dollars back then.

The municipality’s Youth and Children Branch coordinated the purchase , with the money coming from social services. The spending sparked controversy, prompting members of the Ankara City Council to demand that the Municipality Social Services Department publicly account for the expenses from their budget, especially as they were intended to support Ankara’s low-income residents.

Next up, some updates from the parliament. On Sunday the 15th, opposition lawmakers protested trustee appointments to municipalities during the speech of Ali Yerlikaya, the interior Minister. Members of the Republican People’s Party (or CHP) and the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (or DEM) party held placards stating, “Trustees are a coup against the will of the people.”

The government appointed trustees to DEM-run municipalities in eastern provinces like Hakkari and Van after the March elections, citing alleged ties to terrorism. In October, the government dismissed and imprisoned the CHP mayor of Istanbul’s Esenyurt district for alleged links to the PKK. Just this year, the government appointed eight trustees to eight municipalities, including two from the CHP and six from the DEM Party.

On an unrelated note, on Thursday the 14th, the Turkish Competition Board fined Google 2.61 billion Turkish liras, which is around seventy-four million US Dollars, after an investigation into its advertising practices. The board found that Google violated competition laws in its online advertising services.

The investigation looked into allegations that Google restricted YouTube ads to its own platforms and blocked independent verification services. It also examined whether Google gave preference to its own ad services over others.

Even though the board didn’t find issues with Google’s platform activities, it ruled that Google unfairly favored its own ad services in the market. Now Google must change its practices to ensure equal access to third-party ad services within six months.

On Friday the 15th, Eren Peker, a university student who drove a taxi on weekends to support himself, tragically died after three individuals attacked and fatally stabbed him following a traffic dispute. Despite emergency responders rushing him to the hospital, he didn’t survive. Peker had reportedly lost his father at a young age and took on taxi driving to cover his expenses.

The incident highlighted both the tragic violence and the financial struggles faced by university students due to insufficient support in the country.

Also on Friday, Mustafa Destici, the leader of the Great Unity Party, launched the Married Life Project. He says that nonmarital lifestyles harm societal values, Turkish-Islamic culture, and economic growth. Destici argues that media and propaganda promote individualism and single life, leading to declining birth rates, now at 1.50 children per woman compared to 2.60 in two thousand one.

The project promotes lifelong marriage, and early unions, and rejects gender-neutral ideologies and lifestyles he labeled deviant, calling marriage the foundation of Turkish culture. However, it was called into question as Destici’s remarks attempt to enforce outdated ideals on personal choices.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday the 13th, authorities in Tunceli fined Ünal Kahraman, a nationalist opposition Good Party lawmaker and other individuals 650 thousand liras, which is over eighteen thousand dollars, for illegally hunting protected wild goats. Wildlife teams in the Pertek district pursued the suspects and found a weapon linked to the incident. Officials filed a report and continued investigations after locals reported that another wild goat had been killed.

Two days earlier, individuals were fined over a million liras, which is thirty-seven thousand dollars, for hunting a protected wild goat in the area, an incident that was caught on drone footage.

Wild goats in the Alevi-majority Tunceli are revered in Alevi tradition and associated with Khidr, a mystical figure in local legends.

On Monday the 16th, two Russian oil tankers sank in the Black Sea during a storm, spilling tons of oil into the sea. Experts blamed Russia’s use of poorly maintained fifty-five-year-old tankers, unfit for severe weather. Marine biologists warn the oil spill poses further risks to Black Sea marine life, already affected by war-related pollution.

Environmental groups, including Greenpeace, emphasized the urgency of protecting the Black Sea, a vital ecosystem for Turkey and its neighbors.

To know more about this story, check out the Rorshok Ocean Update with the link in the show notes!

To wrap up the show, Bilal Erdoğan, the son of President Erdoğan, criticized Üsküdar Municipality in İstanbul for allowing mixed-gender usage of a public swimming pool. He voiced his disapproval over the pool's policy change, which had previously allowed men and women to swim at separate times, now permitting mixed-gender swimming except for one day. Erdoğan questioned the reasoning behind the change, emphasizing that many people benefited from the facility.

The remarks were called into question as the practice could be imposing conservative religious values on public services. However, supporters of the move say that people’s religious sensitivities should be taken into consideration as well. Üsküdar, which had long been a stronghold of Erdoğan's conservative Justice and Development Party, voted in the main opposition CHP during this year's local elections.

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

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