TURKEY: Opposition Protests & more – 25th Mar 2025

Merhaba from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Turkey Update from the 25th of March twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Turkey.

On Tuesday the 18th, İstanbul University revoked the diploma of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of İstanbul from the main opposition, the Republican People’s Party or CHP, over irregularities in his nineteen ninety transfer to its Business in English program from a university in Cyprus. Because the university believes that the authorization of the transfer was made under shady circumstances, the university believes he shouldn't have been accepted, and canceling the authorization of the transfers means nullifying his diploma. The university’s board ruled that İmamoğlu and twenty-seven others had graduated based on invalid transfers, revoking their diplomas.

While the decision to revoke diplomas should have come from the university’s Faculty of Business, it was instead made by the university rector, raising concerns about its legality.

The next day, on Wednesday the 19th, before the public could even process the news, authorities arrested İmamoğlu as part of an unrelated corruption investigation. Officials also detained twenty-seven others throughout the week, including the mayors of İstanbul’s Şişli and Beylikdüzü districts.

Prosecutors accused İmamoğlu of forming a criminal organization, bribery, and bid rigging, but a court dismissed terrorism-related charges. By midday, the court gave its ruling, and in the afternoon, the police transferred İmamoğlu and the others to Marmara Prison.

Speaking of verdicts, on Friday the 21st, a court ruled to remove İbrahim Kaboğlu, the president of the Istanbul Bar Association, and its board. The decision followed a lawsuit demanding their dismissal and new elections.

The case stemmed from the bar’s call for an investigation into the deaths of journalists Nazım Daştan and Cihan Bilgin in Syria, stating that targeting journalists in conflict zones violated international humanitarian law, accusing the government of inaction. Prosecutors accused the bar of spreading misleading information and terrorist propaganda.

Kaboğlu said the ruling was unjust and aimed at silencing lawyers. The bar plans to appeal, and the current board will remain until the decision is final.

After years of undemocratic and unjust practices like these by the ruling Justice and Development Party or AKP, the latest developments were the last straw, bringing people to the streets in protest. Demonstrators of all ages marched, chanting slogans about resistance, justice, and democracy across the country.

Protesters faced police intervention as governors imposed protest bans. Officers used tear gas and water cannons. They also detained many young demonstrators after the protests during house raids. These crackdowns turned attention to Constitutional Court rulings on assembly rights, which have surged from fifty-three violations in twenty nineteen to nearly fifteen hundred in twenty twenty-four.

Going back to news from the CHP, on Sunday the 23rd, the party members voted in their primaries to choose their presidential candidate. The election, held across all provinces and districts, had İmamoğlu as the sole candidate. The election was for party members only, but non-members cast symbolic votes in solidarity ballot boxes.

Özgür Özel, the CHP’s leader, announced at a massive rally at İstanbul’s Saraçhane square (which has been going on since İmamoğlu’s arrest) that nearly fifteen million people voted.

Since we mentioned the rally, on Saturday the 22nd, the eastern Van’s Bar Association filed a criminal complaint against Mansur Yavaş, the mayor of Ankara from the CHP, for remarks he made there.

Yavaş criticized the police response to the opposition protests, comparing it to the special treatment of the attendees at Kurdish New Year celebrations known as Newroz. He pointed out that while the police cracked down on protesters, they handed out cotton candy at the celebrations, where participants openly carried Kurdistan Workers’ Party flags, which he dismissed as being rags. He argued that authorities were favoring terrorists over the opposition.

The Van Bar Association condemned his statements, accusing him of inciting division. Quoting his speech, the head of the pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy or DEM Party called Yavaş a fascist on Twitter.

On a similar note, on Monday the 24th, authorities approved an investigation into thirty-three concerts that Ankara’s Municipality held, citing alleged public financial loss. Inspectors had reviewed 130 concerts from twenty twenty-one to twenty twenty-four, concluding that ninety-seven did not warrant further action.

Ankara Municipality stated that previous audits by the Court of Accounts and the Ministry of Interior found no issues. Nine municipal employees under investigation plan to appeal the decision.

Following the recent operation against Istanbul Municipality and the detention of İmamoğlu, Yavaş suggested that political rivals were attempting to undermine him through legal challenges.

On to the economy. Following the growing political tension in the country, the economy got a big blow. The Central Bank responded by selling around twenty-six billion dollars in just three days to curb the lira’s decline, which hit historic highs. By Friday the 21st, the US dollar reached almost forty-two liras, compared to thirty-seven before İmamoğlu’s detention. Since then, the rate has dropped to thirty-eight liras per dollar.

The Turkish stock market also saw significant losses, with BIST 100, the leading market in the country, dropping by 15% over the week, marking the steepest decline since the economic collapse in two thousand.

Back to Van, on Tuesday the 25th, T24 News Outlet reported that the trustee appointed to Van’s Municipality from the DEM Party canceled several social programs for women earlier this year. The decision ended the Social Support Card program, which helped low-income women, and shut down facilities where women could socialize and work.

One of the projects affected was the Jin Women's Library, a floating library that opened in January this year. The previous administration had converted a former protocol vessel into a library to promote women's participation in municipal life. The trustee reversed this, restoring the vessel to its original use.

On Tuesday the 25th, the trustee appointed to Şişli Municipality in İstanbul shut down the Şişli branch of the Municipality’s public restaurants (Kent Lokantası) that offer four-course meals for forty liras, which is around a dollar.

On Saturday the 23rd, the Interior Ministry replaced Resul Emrah Şahan, the arrested mayor from the CHP, with Şişli District Governor as the trustee. The two restaurants that opened under Şahan’s administration haven’t been operating since the appointment, and the municipality’s mobile restaurant truck was moved to a garage.

Şahan had planned to open another Kent Lokantası in Paşa Mahallesi next week.

Next up, on Saturday the 22nd, the Ministry of Health announced a new rule adjusting pharmacies' profit margins based on medicine price updates. These margins will now increase with price hikes caused by currency exchange rates. Pharmacies currently earn 28% on medicines priced up to 300 liras, which is ten US Dollars, 18% on those between 300 and 600 liras, between eight and twenty US Dollars, and 13% on medicines over 600 liras.

With the new rule, the ministry will update these brackets whenever prices change, ensuring pharmacies’ earnings keep pace with rising costs. The change applies to both locally produced and imported medicines, preventing pharmacises from losing income due to inflation.

In other news, back in February, Devlet Bahçeli, the head of the ultranationalist Nationalist People's Party, had heart surgery. He hasn't been around since the operation. This led to speculation about his health, with some even suggesting he was dead. On Tuesday the 25th, the Directorate of Communications denied the allegations that his health was worsening.

Officials stated there was no change in Bahçeli’s condition and that he remains in a planned recovery period while working from home. Authorities warned against misinformation.

And to wrap up this edition, on Sunday the 24th, a court sentenced twenty people to prison for their role in the Amasra mining disaster that killed forty-three workers three years ago. Sentences ranged from three to seventeen years, while three defendants were acquitted. Among those sentenced were the facility director and senior engineers.

The explosion occurred on 14th of October twenty twenty-two, at the Turkish Hard Coal Authority’s Amasra facility, injuring nine workers as well.

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

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