TURKEY: The Hair-Brading Protest & more – 27th Jan 2026

Merhaba from Oakley! This is the Rorshok Turkey Update from the 27th of January twenty twenty-six. A quick summary of what's going down in Turkey.

On Saturday the 24th, members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party or DEM Party triggered a wide public debate after launching a symbolic hair-braiding protest. The action came after a video circulated showing people cutting the braid of a woman described as affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces, whose core force is the People’s Protection Units, a Kurdish armed group operating in northern Syria that the Turkish government considers a terrorist organization.

DEM Party lawmakers shared videos of themselves braiding their hair in solidarity. Supporters on social media described the act as a stand against humiliation and violence toward women. However, many argued that braids are part of Turkic cultural heritage and said turning them into a Kurdish political symbol was inappropriate.

In an update to the ongoing opposition crackdown, on Monday the 26th, prosecutors submitted a 702-page indictment to court in the sprawling corruption and bribery case tied to the Republican People’s Party or CHP-led Antalya Municipality and Muhittin Böcek, the former mayor of Antalya.

The case accuses Böcek, who authorities arrested and removed from office earlier this year, of playing a central role in a wide corruption network at the Antalya Municipality. Prosecutors listed twenty-six alleged criminal acts, including unlawful acquisition of property, bribery, influence trading, and money laundering.

The indictment covers forty-one suspects in total and seeks the confiscation of assets worth around 258 million lira, (six million dollars) from the suspects. The case also names a former provincial police chief and several business figures.

Meanwhile, in an update linked to the İstanbul Municipality investigation, Derya Çayırgan, a professional volleyball player whose name appeared in the case file, addressed allegations circulating online that she had a romantic relationship with Ekrem İmamoğlu, the imprisoned CHP mayor of İstanbul, received fifty thousand euros from him, and travelled on a private jet with him.

Çayırgan rejected these stories, saying they were damaging and directly targeted both her reputation and her family. She added that she stayed silent at first to avoid feeding misinformation. Addressing questions raised during her testimony, Çayırgan said her current regular income comes from rental earnings of around forty thousand lira, just under one thousand dollars, per month and that her assets were built through nearly twenty years of professional volleyball, club salaries, and sponsorships.

On Monday the 26th, Fatih Altaylı, a journalist detained on charges of threatening the president and released in late December after around 190 days, returned to his YouTube channel and addressed speculation that he made a deal with the government to be released. Altaylı said no one offered him freedom in exchange for silence and no representative from the government contacted him, adding that only opposition politicians advised him to be cautious about his comments. He explained that he delayed restarting his program to spend time with his family and described prison life as restricted and distant, saying meaningful interaction with other detainees was nearly impossible.

He added that he plans to focus more on science and knowledge-based content rather than daily political debate going forward, noting public fatigue with political debate.

On Tuesday the 27th, fuel prices in Turkey jumped again as petrol stations applied a hike of over a lira per liter on gasoline. The move follows a 1.40 lira or a three-US-cent rise in diesel fuel that took effect on Friday the 23rd, driven by ongoing swings in Brent crude oil, exchange rates, and tax adjustments.

After the latest change, gasoline generally sells between fifty-five and fifty-six lira per liter, which is around a dollar and twenty cents, while diesel now ranges between fifty-seven and fifty-nine lira (about a dollar and thirty cents) per liter.

Drivers online expressed their frustration, noting how fuel costs have steadily climbed and continue to affect household budgets.

On Wednesday the 21st, the Mayor of the western city of İzmir said that the city is preparing a cloud-seeding project to ease the growing water shortage and confirmed that the municipality has received the necessary permissions from the authorities. He said the plan aims to increase rainfall using artificial rain seeding.

A meteorology professor who previously observed similar projects in Turkey said the method is scientifically accepted and now works more precisely with new technology and AI. He explained that the system doesn’t create rain from nothing but boosts rainfall from existing clouds. He said rainfall could rise by 10 to 25% if the project is carried out correctly. He stressed that it must be done over water basins rather than cities, and warned against speculations linking the method to flooding.

Also on Wednesday, officials from the Competition Authority carried out on-site inspections at the Turkish office of the Chinese e-commerce platform Temu, examining company computers as part of a wider regulatory review.

Shortly after, Temu disabled its Overseas Shipping option for users in Turkey, stopping direct orders from China. Purchases are now limited to products stocked in Temu’s Turkey-based warehouse. Users say items previously available in the platform’s global section no longer appear on the app or website.

The change follows a decision announced by the Ministry of Trade earlier this month, which removes the simplified customs procedure for products priced below thirty euros.

In similar news, on Monday the 26th, Sözcü news outlet reported that the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies, or TÜRSAB, has filed a lawsuit seeking access bans on ten widely used international travel platforms, including Airbnb, Trip.com, and Hotels.com.

TÜRSAB reportedly argued that these platforms operate in Turkey without the required licenses, tax obligations, or regulatory oversight. The association says this creates unfair competition for licensed travel agencies that must comply with national rules. It also said the legal action aims to prevent consumer harm linked to unregulated services offered through these sites.

On Tuesday the 20th, the Trade Ministry launched price inspections for restaurants, bakeries and butcheries in Ankara ahead of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting that begins in late February, a period when food demand traditionally rises. Ministry teams checked whether menus and price lists were clearly displayed at entrances and on tables, as required under the updated pricing rules. Teams fined businesses separately for each product that violated the rules.

On social media, some users welcomed the inspections and said they could help curb excessive prices before Ramadan. There were also calls for similar inspections across Turkey.

In an article published in English, Yusuf Tuna Koç interviews economist Erinç Yeldan on the forty-sixth anniversary of the 24th of January measures, which reshaped Turkey’s economy in the eighties.

Yeldan describes the measures as a package focused on export-led growth, currency devaluation, cuts to public spending, wage suppression, price increases for basic goods, and the liberalization of trade, finance, and capital movements. He says the program aimed to restore capital profitability after the global slowdown of the seventies and could only be enforced through authoritarian rule, made possible after the military coup.

According to Yeldan, the outcome was a long decline in real wages, union power, and labor’s share of national income, alongside the rise of insecure and fragmented work that still defines Turkey’s economy today.

Check out the article with the link in the show notes!

On Monday the 26th, Ali Yerlikaya, the Interior Minister, said that police in the southern city of Mersin dismantled an organized crime group with an unusually narrow business plan: taking over the city’s lavaş bread market, which produces a type of tortilla. Officers detained thirty-eight suspects in coordinated raids. Courts later jailed the group’s leader and seventeen others, while nineteen suspects faced judicial control measures.

Investigators said the group pressured lavaş producers across Mersin through threats, assaults, and repeated shootings at workplaces, apparently to push rivals out of the market. Police seized unlicensed weapons, vehicles, and dozens of bank accounts linked to billions of lira in transactions.

Also on Monday, Timco Mucunski, North Macedonia’s foreign and trade minister, shared on social media that he had visited the newly renovated North Macedonian consulate in Istanbul during his trip to Turkey. The renovation of the consulate building aims to give visitors a brighter, more open space and faster service. Naser Alim, a North Macedonian businessman who operates in Turkey, helped fund the work.

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

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