FASCIST REGIME
Turkey arrests more than 120 city hall members in opposition stronghold Izmir
Turkish police on Tuesday arrested more than 120 city hall members in the western city of Izmir, a known stronghold for opposition to Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The detainees arrested on corruption charges include a former mayor and the regional president of the opposition Republican People's Party.
Issued on: 01/07/2025 -
By: FRANCE 24
Turkish police stand guard as they stop protesters attempting to march to Taksim Square during a rally marking International Workers' Day, Istanbul, on May 1, 2025. © Kemal Aslan, AFPTurkish police have arrested more than 120 city hall members in the opposition bastion of Izmir, local media and the CHP opposition party said on Tuesday.
The arrests, on charges of alleged corruption, came after a similar operation in opposition-run Istanbul on March 19 that saw the arrest of its popular mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, the main political rival of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Read moreNearly 200 students, journalists go on trial in Turkey over Istanbul protests
In Izmir, Turkey's third-largest city that the opposition has run for years, a former mayor and numerous "senior officials" were among those detained, Murat Bakan, the vice president of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) wrote on X.
In total, some 157 arrest warrants were issued in the operation, local media reported.
"We are faced with a process similar to that in Istanbul," Bakan wrote, adding that Tunc Soyer, a former mayor, and Senol Aslanoglu, the party's regional president, were among those detained.
"These dawn arrests were not a legal obligation, but a clear political choice," Bakan wrote, saying that many of those detained had already been under investigation.
"If they had been called to testify, they would have done so," he said.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Istanbul police on Monday fired rubber bullets and tear gas to break up a mob of protesters who attacked a bar frequented by staffers from LeMan satirical magazine following its publication of a cartoon believed to be of the Prophet Mohammed. Authorities detained the artist and two staffers despite the magazine's insistence the cartoon had been "misinterpreted".
Issued on: 01/07/2025 -
By: FRANCE 24
Clashes erupted in Istanbul Monday with police firing rubber bullets and tear gas to break up an angry mob after allegations that a satirical magazine had published a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed, an AFP correspondent said.
The incident occurred after Istanbul's chief prosecutor ordered the arrest of the editors at "LeMan" magazine on grounds it had published a cartoon which "publicly insulted religious values".
"The chief public prosecutor's office has launched an investigation into the publication of a cartoon in the June 26, 2025 issue of LeMan magazine that publicly insults religious values, and arrest warrants have been issued for those involved," the prosectors office said.
A copy of the black-and-white image posted on social media showed two characters hovering in the skies over a city under bombardment.
"Salam aleikum, I'm Mohammed," says one shaking hands with the other who replies, "Aleikum salam, I'm Musa."
"In this work, the name of a Muslim who was killed in the bombardments of Israel is fictionalised as Mohammed. More than 200 million people in the Islamic world are named Mohammed," he said, saying it had "nothing to do with Prophet Mohammed".
"We would never take such a risk."
As the news broke, several dozen angry protesters attacked a bar often frequented by LeMan staffers in downtown Istanbul, provoking angry scuffles with police, an AFP correspondent said.
The scuffles quickly degenerated into clashes involving between 250 to 300 people, the correspondent said.
Cartoonist, two others held
In several posts on X, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said police had arrested the cartoonist responsible for "this vile drawing", the magazine's editor-in-chief and its graphic designer.
Police had also taken over the magazine's offices on Istiklal Avenue and arrest warrants had been issued for several other of the magazine's executives, presidential press aide Fahrettin Altin wrote on X.
In a string of posts on X, LeMan defended the cartoon and said it had been deliberately misinterpreted to cause a provocation.
"The cartoonist wanted to portray the righteousness of the oppressed Muslim people by depicting a Muslim killed by Israel, he never intended to belittle religious values," it said.
Akgun said the legal attack on the magazine, a satirical bastion of opposition which was founded in 1991, was "incredibly shocking but not very surprising".
"This is an act of annihilation. Ministers are involved in the whole business, a cartoon is distorted," he said.
"Drawing similarities with Charlie Hebdo is very intentional and very worrying," he said of the French satirical magazine whose offices were stormed by Islamist gunmen in 2015.
The attack, which killed 12 people, occurred after it published caricatures lampooning the Prophet Mohammed.
Read more
"There is a game here, as if we were repeating something similar. This is a very systematic provocation and attack," Akgun said.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc an investigation had been opened on grounds of "publicly insulting religious values".
"No freedom grants the right to make the sacred values of a belief the subject of ugly humour. The caricature or any form of visual representation of our Prophet not only harms our religious values but also damages societal peace."
Istanbul governor Davut Gul also lashed out at "this mentality that seeks to provoke society by attacking our sacred values".
"We will not remain silent in the face of any vile act targeting our nation's faith," he warned.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Turkey lifts Deutsche Welle ban
Turkey’s media watchdog RTUK has lifted a ban that was introduced to block Deutsche Welle Turkish back in 2022, the watchdog said on June 27.
In 2019, Turkey introduced a legislation to push foreign news outlets to establish offices in the country.
After Deutsche Welle and Voice of America (VOA) refused to comply with the legislation, both services were blocked in June 2022. They used alternative domains but they had to close Turkey offices.
Dwturkce.com, which was blocked by a court order in 2023, meanwhile, still remains blocked.
The ban on VOA, which is targeted by Donald Trump, also remains in effect.
Christian democrats are back
Between 2021 and May 2025, social democrat party SDP led the ruling coalition in Germany. German social democrats hesitate to pose in good manners with the Erdogan regime on the media albeit the Turkey-Germany partnership continued undeterred during the SDP-led government.
On May 6, Christian democrat CDU’s Friedrich Merz, a former employee of BlackRock (New York/BLK, the dominant asset manager in the world), took over the chancellor post.
German Christian democrats are not shy when it comes to their alliance with the Erdogan regime.
On June 25, Merz and Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, exhibited their close relationship before cameras in The Hague in the Netherlands on the sidelines of a Nato summit.
Two days after the meeting RTUK lifted the Deutsche Welle ban.
Turkey’s EU accession path ended in the Middle East
In 2002, when Erdogan took over the government in Turkey, then German chancellor Gerard Schroeder, a SDP member, was among the champions of Turkey’s EU accession along with Jacques Chirac in France, Silvio Berlusconi in Italy and Tony Blair in the UK.
The next generation of elites in Europe led by CDU’s Angela Merkel, who held the chancellor post in Germany between 2005 and 2021, blocked Turkey’s membership process while supporting the Erdogan regime’s slide to autocracy.
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