US Shoots Down Turkish Drone in Syria & more–10th Oct 2023

Merhaba from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Turkey Update from the 10th of October twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Turkey.

On Thursday the 5th, the United States shot down a drone that was flying near US troops in Syria. A US-based news outlet alleged that it was a Turkish drone. However, the Turkish government denied the allegations. Later, the US military confirmed that the drone did in fact belong to the Turkish forces. However, it also said that it didn’t believe that Turkey intentionally targeted the US army.

Turkey has been undertaking airstrikes in Northern Syria against Kurdish military targets as a response to the bombing they carried out in Turkey’s capital Ankara. The US military said that it shot down the Turkish drone during those airstrikes because it came very close to the US base.

In other news…

On Thursday the 5th, Turkish police detained eight students from İzmir's Dokuz Eylül University for protesting against a 200% hike in meal prices in the dining hall. The students banged cutlery and created noise to express their anger over the price increase.

The university management increased the meal prices from almost six to seventeen liras or twenty to sixty US cents. The students argued that the price hike was unfair, especially for those who come from low-income families, adding that Dokuz Eylül is a public university and should ideally be way more affordable.

Speaking of affordable education…

Students are finding it very difficult to finance their studies. Over a decade ago, the government gave students a 280-lira scholarship. Back then, it was worth around 140 US dollars. Since then, the scholarship amount has increased almost fivefold to one thousand and two hundred fifty liras. However, now it’s worth less than fifty US dollars, and the purchasing power has decreased significantly, too.

Moving on to some news on the opposition…

On Sunday the 8th, the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, held the 38th Ordinary Istanbul Provincial Congress at the Haliç Congress Center to elect new congress members.

Recall that the CHP has been divided internally. One group supports the current regime with Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the CHP, and the other argues that the party needs a new and reformed system.

There were two candidates for the position of the party’s provincial head: Cemal Canpolat, who had the support of the party's central leadership, and Özgür Çelik, a former provincial deputy whose supporters, including Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and party’s Deputy Chairman Özgür Özel, wanted a change within the party,

In the end, Çelik won by receiving 342 votes to Canpolat's 310. The victory is seen as a sign of the growing strength of the reform movement within the party.

In his victory speech, Çelik said that this congress was a historic one and a new beginning. He vowed to spread hope from Istanbul to the rest of Turkey and to win the local elections in Istanbul again.

The congress was rather eventful…

While Canan Kaftancıoğlu, the current head of the CHP’s Istanbul branch, was speaking, a group of people booed her and started chanting “the appointed chairman will go, Özgür will come”. Kaftancıoğlu didn’t reach to the negative comments. Instead, she defended the importance of dissent within the party, saying that "having a single voice brought this country to this state." She also urged the delegates to listen carefully to all speakers at the congress, and not dismiss people for sharing different ideologies.

Like Kaftancıoğlu, Imamoglu also received negative comments during the congress.

Özgür Özel, CHP’s deputy chair and party leader candidate, also spoke at the Congress. During his speech, he acknowledged the problems Kurdish people face and “promised to resolve them without making them a subject of political exploitation.”

Özel also criticized the government's practice of appointing trustee mayors in place of elected mayors from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party over alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (or PKK).

Özel received a standing ovation from CHP members for minutes after his speech.

Moving on, some cultural news…

On Sunday the 9th, Turkey inaugurated the first church built in the history of the modern Turkish Republica. The Mor Ephrem Syriac Orthodox Church is located in the Yeşilköy district of Istanbul.

The Turkish government approved the construction of the church in twenty nineteen, after years of the Syriac Orthodox community lobbying. President Erdoğan, Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, and other religious and political leaders attended the inauguration ceremony.

In his speech, Erdoğan said that the inauguration of the church was a sign of Turkey's commitment to religious freedom. He also said that the church would be a symbol of unity and peace in the country.

The inauguration of the church is a significant event for the Syriac Orthodox community in Turkey. The community has a long history in the country, but it has faced discrimination and persecution in the past.

Speaking at the inauguration, President Erdoğan also commented on the war between Israel and Palestine. He said that the Palestine conflict is at the heart of the region's problems and that peace will not come before it is resolved.

He called for a two-state solution with a Palestinian state based on the boundaries set in the nineteen sixties with Jerusalem as its capital.

Erdoğan said that Jerusalem is a blessed place and that the rights of Muslims and Christians living there have been gradually violated as the Ottomans withdrew from the region. He added that Jerusalem turned from a place of peace into a symbol of usurpation and destruction.

About Erdoğan…

On Saturday the 7th, the ruling Justice and Development Party (or AKP) held an extraordinary congress to elect its new leader and executive board members. Unsurprisingly, the party unanimously re-elected Erdoğan as the party’s leader. He got all one thousand and three hundred ninety-nine of the votes. He also overhauled the party's executive board, bringing in new faces and promoting people close to him.

Next up, Turkish police have arrested eighty-two suspects in simultaneous drug raids across eighty different addresses in the cities of Nevşehir and Niğde. The police seized a significant number of drugs and unlicensed weapons. The number of drugs the police seized was put into question as it might have been seen as a sign of the scale of the drug problem in the two provinces. However, from a different point of view, this could be seen as a successful step in the fight against drug trafficking in these cities.

If you're a short-term rental host in Turkey, you'll want to pay attention to this story…

The Turkish parliament has proposed a new law that would regulate short-term rentals, such as those offered through Airbnb. The law would require hosts to obtain a rental permit and would limit the duration of rentals to 100 days per year. If the parliament passes the law, hosts will have to pay a penalty for violating the regulations, such as fines of up to 100,000 Turkish liras, about five thousand US dollars.

In the meantime, if you're planning on renting out your home for tourism purposes, be sure to check with your local government to see if you need a permit.

And to close this edition…

Last weekend, the Çanakkale Municipality removed a bust of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, from a park after people on social media said that the bust didn’t look like Atatürk. They pointed out that the bust's nose was too large, its lips were too thin, and its eyes were too small.

In response to the backlash, the Çanakkale Municipality removed the bust. It said that it wanted to ensure that the bust had a more accurate likeness to Atatürk and that the artist would revise the bust and reinstall it later on.

Aaaaand that’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

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