Turkey

Turkey: challenges to Erdoğan

The earthquakes in Turkey and Syria at the beginning of February laid bare the failures of Erdoğan’s rule in Turkey. This was not simply a freak act of nature that could not have been predicted: Turkish seismologists have been warning of a coming earthquake in this area for years, but the special earthquake tax collected to build robust infrastructure was merely used to line the pockets of the corrupt construction bosses. On 14 May, Turkey will hold parliamentary and presidential elections. This is the biggest electoral challenge Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) has faced since...

After the earthquake: Solidarity and accountability!

Scores of provinces in south-eastern Turkey woke up on 6 February to the biggest earthquake in the history of the republic. A 7.7 magnitude earthquake occurred at about 4 in the morning centred around Pazarcık in the Maraş province. Ten minutes later there was a 6.6 magnitude earthquake centred around Nurdağı in the Antep province, and a few hours later another 7.5 magnitude earthquake occurred in Elbistan, again in the Maraş province. As shown by the separate earthquakes that took place at the same time in Malatya, many movements have been triggered along a fault line hundreds of kilometres...

Erdoğan must pay the political price

Despite the storm of earthquakes that caused great destruction across ten provinces there are still not enough aid teams or construction equipment in the region, and temporary shelters have not been sent. Additionally, millions of people are trapped outside on the street in sub-zero temperatures without bread and water. In the region where electricity and natural gas has been cut off, it is extremely difficult to get a hold of liquid fuel in many places. Therefore not only the tens of thousands of people trapped under the rubble, but also the millions of people saving their lives are faced...

Online meeting, 16 February, 3pm: Earthquake relief and international workers' solidarity, with UID-DER, Turkey (Uluslararası Işçi Dayanışması Derneği, Association of International Workers Solidarity)

Thursday 16 February, 15:00-17:00

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89802934171?pwd=NEh5MzJzTWp0eWptSE9WaDA1NlhOdz09

Facebook event here.


Tens of thousands of people have been killed following a massive earthquake on the Turkey-Syria border. In the wake of this tragedy and unfolding...

41 dead in Turkish mining disaster

The carnage at the Amasra coal mine in the Northern Turkish Province of Bartin has again highlighted the appalling safety record of Turkish mines. By mid-afternoon Saturday 15 October the death toll had reached 41. It may get higher. It is the worst disaster since that of the Soma mine in 2014 which killed 301; while back in 1992, 263 miners perished at the Zonguldak mine. Records show that between 2000 and 2014 there have been more than 1,308 deaths in Turkish coalmines. This puts the Turkish mining industry’s abysmal safety record on a par with that of China (although statistics for China...

Police break up Istanbul Pride

The Istanbul Pride march, 26 June, was broken up by police, and 373 activists were detained, including 30 minors. The Pride march has been banned since 2015. Chants included “Kurdistan exists, queer people exist”, “Trans murders are political”, and “The world would shake if faggots and queers were free”. At a student LGBTI+ protest at Istanbul University, counter-protesters threatened violence and chanted “Takbir, Allahu Akbar”. In 2016 it was reported that Turkey has the highest transgender murder rate in Europe. Last year Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul Convention meant to combat violence...

Remembering Hrant Dink, fifteen years on

On Wednesday 19 January, it will be fifteen years since Hrant Dink, the editor of the leftwing Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos , was shot dead on the streets of Istanbul. He was not only the enemy of the far rightists who killed him, but also of the Turkish state: at the time of his murder he was being prosecuted by the government for “denigrating Turkishness”. In 1914 there were approximately 1.5 to 2.4 million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire: most of these were murdered during the Armenian Genocide, and today about 50,000-70,000 Armenians live in Turkey. Dink was painted by his...

Kino Eye: Turkey in the 80s

Yılmaz Güney (1937-1984) was a Kurdish actor and then director who dedicated himself to making films depicting the struggle of the poor and oppressed in Turkey. Persecuted by the authorities, he was sentenced to prison allegedly for sheltering anarchists in his flat. On his release he accidentally encountered the judge who had previously sentenced him; the details are obscure and disputed but a brawl of some kind ensued and the judge died. Güney always denied responsibility but was convicted of murder. He escaped from prison in 1981 and sought refuge in France. It was there that he made his...

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