Turkey's main opposition party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), made significant gains in the country's urban areas during local elections, winning municipalities in nearly half of Turkey's provinces. Incumbent Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu of the CHP led by a wide margin in Istanbul, with the CHP gaining 37% of the votes nationwide, marking their greatest electoral victory in two decades. This marked a significant defeat for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AK Party, signaling a potential change in Turkey's political landscape.
On Sunday, millions of voters in Turkey head to the polls to elect mayors and administrators in local elections, gauging President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's popularity as his ruling party aims to regain key cities lost five years ago. Campaign rallies and banners across Istanbul showcase the competition between Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Republican People's Party (CHP), with the election serving as a significant test for Erdogan's political strength.
Millions of voters in Turkey are set to elect mayors and administrators in local elections, determining President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's popularity. Legal experts are training thousands of volunteer election monitors to detect fraud and ensure a fair vote in the upcoming elections. The ruling party is aiming to regain key cities lost five years ago, making these elections crucial for political dynamics in Turkey.
The Turkish local elections of 2019 were held on Sunday 31 March 2019 throughout the 81 provinces of Turkey. A total of 30 metropolitan and 1,351 district municipal mayors, alongside 1,251 provincial and 20,500 municipal councillors were elected, in addition to numerous local non-partisan positions such as neighbourhood wardens (muhtars) and elderly people's councils.The governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) contested the elections in many provinces under a joint People's Alliance. Likewise, the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the İYİ Party entered some of the races under the Nation Alliance banner. The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) did not openly announce support for either alliance, but did not field candidates in some areas to improve chances of opposition candidates. The strategic voting and the refraining from fielding candidates by the HDP in contested areas like Ankara, and Istanbul allowed the opposition parties to gain a majority in these cities, through cooperation.Campaigning was described as distinctly negative and divisive, with the opposition criticizing the government for Turkey's economic downturn, misuse of public funds and corruption. In response, the government alleged that the opposition parties were acting in the interests of 'foreign powers and terrorists'. Particular controversy surrounded the AK Party's allegations of financial fraud against the opposition's Ankara mayoral candidate Mansur Yavaş, which later turned out to have been made by an unverifiable source. The use of video footage of the Christchurch terrorist attack by AK Party leader and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during his election rallies additionally received international condemnation and caused diplomatic relations between Turkey and New Zealand to sour. Five people were killed and two were injured during political violence on election day, in two separate incidents in Gaziantep and Malatya. The election was criticized by observers due to excessive media bias in favour of the governing People's Alliance.The members of the Nation Alliance were initially beset with issues concerning candidate selection and inner-party divisions, stemming from their general election loss in June 2018. However, both the CHP and the İYİ Party collectively managed to outperform expectations, securing 'shock' victories in Turkey's major metropolitan areas. These included winning control of both Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey's capital and largest city respectively. The CHP also held control of İzmir, Turkey's third largest city, and now governs 5 of Turkey's 6 largest population centres (the only exception being Bursa, where the governing coalition narrowly won). The Communist Party won control of a provincial capital, namely Tunceli, for the first time. In provinces where the AK Party and MHP contested as separate parties, there was a substantial swing from AK Party candidates to the MHP. Nevertheless, AK Party leader and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan claimed victory, announcing that the People's Alliance had secured over 50% of the vote and thus maintained support from the majority of the electorate (final results actually gave the People's Alliance just under 50%, while the Nation Alliance won 38%).The election was beset by a number of controversies, including an unexplained results blackout on election night just when the opposition were on the verge of victory in Istanbul. The Electoral Board also invalidated the successful election of by the approved candidates from the pro-Kurdish HDP and following awarded the mayorships to the AK Party. The Istanbul mayoral election, where CHP candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu defeated AK Party candidate and former Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım by just under 14,000 votes (0.17%), remained disputed for two weeks after the vote. This result was made public after a blackout, by which point the CHP candidate was up by more than 24,000 votes. Numerous recounts, electoral complaints, legal disputes, alleged corruption, accusations of terrorist involvement and police operations took place after the election, initiated mainly by the AK Party. İmamoğlu was sworn in as mayor, though a new election was held on 23 June. The result was an unexpected landslide victory for İmamoğlu, who defeated Yıldırım by over nine points, 54.2% to 45%.
The June 2019 Istanbul mayoral election was held on 23 June 2019. It was a repeat of the March 2019 mayoral election, which was annulled by the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) on 6 May 2019. The original election had resulted in a narrow 0.2% margin of victory for opposition candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, causing the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party) to successfully petition for a by-election.The Nation Alliance (formed of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Good Party) fielded their initial candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, who ran a positive campaign under the slogan Her Şey Çok Güzel Olacak (Everything will be fine). The governing People's Alliance (formed by the AK Party and the Nationalist Movement Party) reselected their initially unsuccessful candidate Binali Yıldırım. The non-aligned Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) did not stand their own candidate and announced their support for İmamoğlu. The election featured a televised debate between the two main candidates, for the first time in Turkey since 2002. Campaigning focused highly on rival accusations of misconduct during and after the initial March 2019 election, during which both sides alleged that they had been a victim of the other's antics.The results showed a substantial swing in favour of İmamoğlu, who multiplied his initial 13,700-vote margin of victory 57-fold to win 54.2% of the vote against Yıldırım's 45.0%. The opposition's victory defied opinion polls, which predicted a much narrower victory, and was a record in the history of Istanbul local elections in terms of both popular vote and percentage share. İmamoğlu also won pluralities in 28 of Istanbul's 39 districts. Yıldırım, on the other hand, lost 11 districts he had won in March and saw a 4% decrease in his previous vote share, conceding defeat soon after indicative results became public. The result was seen as a huge defeat to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who had once said that if his party "lost Istanbul, we would lose Turkey." Commentators viewed the result as a backlash against Erdoğan, the initial annulment of the March vote (which was largely seen as an anti-democratic manoeuvre), economic mismanagement and negative campaigning. It was also seen as a backfire against the government's last-ditch attempt to involve the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)'s imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan in the process, in an attempt to convince HDP voters to boycott the election.The opposition's landslide was characterised at the time as the "beginning of the end" for Erdoğan, with international commentators calling the re-run a huge government miscalculation that led to a potential İmamoğlu candidacy in the next scheduled presidential election. It was suggested that the scale of the government's defeat could provoke a Cabinet reshuffle and an early general election, though this did not come to pass. İmamoğlu would end up not being chosen as the opposition's presidential candidate in 2023, and Erdoğan would end up being narrowly re-elected, defeating Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
In Istanbul, voters are deciding the leadership for the next five years in local elections held across Turkey, with a focus on the battle to win Istanbul, the country's largest city. The city, known for its minaret-punctured skyline and bustling waterways, features landmarks like the Suleymaniye Mosque and Hagia Sophia. The backstreets offer a glimpse into daily life with aromas of fresh bread and spices, the local spirit raki, and the presence of stray cats, attracting both residents and tourists.
Turkey is set to hold local elections to determine control of key cities including Istanbul. Candidates from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Republican Peoples Party (CHP) are campaigning for leadership positions in Istanbul ahead of the elections.
Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, held mayoral elections on 31 March 2024. Preliminary results suggested incumbent mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was re-elected.
The Justice and Development Party (Turkish: Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, Turkish pronunciation: [adaːˈlet ve kaɫkɯnˈma paɾtiˈsi]; AK PARTİ), abbreviated officially as AK Party in English, is a political party in Turkey self-describing as conservative-democratic. It has been the ruling party of Turkey since 2003. Third-party sources often refer to the party as national conservative, social conservative, right-wing populist and as espousing neo-Ottomanism. The party is generally regarded as being right-wing on the political spectrum, although some sources have described it as far-right since 2011. It is one of the two major parties of contemporary Turkey along with the Republican People's Party (CHP).Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been chairman of AKP since the 2017 Party Congress. The AKP is the largest party in the Grand National Assembly, the Turkish national legislature, with 263 out of 600 seats, having won 35.6% of votes in the 2023 Turkish parliamentary election. It forms the People's Alliance with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The current AKP parliamentary leader is Abdullah Güler.Founded in 2001 by members of a number of parties such as FP, ANAP and DYP, the party has a strong base of support among people from the conservative tradition of Turkey, though the party strongly denies it is Islamist. The party positioned itself as pro-liberal market economy, supporting Turkish membership in the European Union. Orange is the party's main colour. Other colours include white for the logo, blue for the flag, and orange-white-blue-red for the corporate design.The AKP is the only party in Turkey with a significant presence in all provinces of Turkey. Since the beginning of Turkey's multiparty democracy in 1946, AKP is the only party to win seven consecutive parliamentary elections. The AKP has headed the national government since 2002 under Abdullah Gül (2002–2003), Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (2003–2014), Ahmet Davutoğlu (2014–2016), Binali Yıldırım (2016–2018) and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (2018–present). The AKP's rule has been marked with increasing authoritarianism, expansionism, censorship and banning of other political parties and dissent.The party was an observer in the European People's Party between 2005 and 2013. After not being granted full membership in the EPP, the party became a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (ACRE) from 2013 to 2018.AK Party has dominated Turkish politics since 2002. It is the sixth largest political party in the world by membership and the biggest in the world outside India, China and the U.S.
The March 2019 Istanbul mayoral election took place on 31 March 2019, as part of the 2019 Turkish local elections. In addition to a mayor for the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, all 39 Istanbul districts elected their own individual mayors as well as district councillors.Early results on election night showed that People's Alliance candidate Binali Yıldırım held a small lead over his Nation Alliance rival Ekrem İmamoğlu. However, as the lead narrowed and a blackout occurred over the reporting of new results, İmamoğlu overtook Yıldırım according to the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) on noon on 1 April. Both candidates declared victory, with banners showing Yıldırım's image and the message 'thank you Istanbul' appearing in numerous places overnight.Yıldırım and his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) announced that they would contest the results, citing electoral irregularities and a series of enumerating errors when recording results. AK Party complaints for a complete recount of all votes were accepted by the electoral authorities in 5 of Istanbul's 39 districts, with the remaining 34 districts being approved for a recount of invalid and blank votes only. The recount process ended on 16 April, 16 days after the election, with results showing İmamoğlu still in the lead by around 14,000 votes, down from the 23,000 lead he had after the initial count.The AK Party then submitted an extraordinary complaint to annul and repeat the election. The party's officials cited a claim that voters had been illegally registered to vote in the district of Büyükçekmece, where police began an operation to locate fraudulent voters. A number of ballot box officials and civil servants were taken into custody. A number of pro-government media outlets also accused the FETÖ organisation of interfering in the results, but without any proof.Following the conclusion of a full recount in Maltepe on 16 April, İmamoğlu was summoned by the electoral authorities to receive his certificate of election. However, his mayoralty was cut short by the AK Party's request for the election to be annulled, lasting 18 days; on 6 May, the YSK decreed that the election would be annulled and repeated on 23 June 2019. The re-run resulted in a victory for İmamoğlu with a much greater margin, so he resumed his duties on 27 June.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954), commonly referred by to his initials RTE, is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. He also co-founded the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2001.Erdoğan was born in the Kasımpaşa neighbourhood of Beyoğlu, Istanbul, where he attended primary school. He graduated from the İmam Hatip high school in the Fatih district of Istanbul in 1973 and studied business administration at the Aksaray Academy of Economic and Commercial Sciences, before working as a consultant and senior manager in the private sector. During this time, Erdoğan became active in parties led by veteran Islamist politician Necmettin Erbakan, starting as his party's Beyoğlu district chair in 1984 and Istanbul chair in 1985. Following the 1994 local elections, Erdoğan was elected mayor of Istanbul, where he implemented a series of reforms that modernized the city's infrastructure and economy. In 1998 he was convicted for inciting religious hatred and banned from politics after reciting a poem by Ziya Gökalp that compared mosques to barracks and the faithful to an army. Erdoğan was released from prison in 1999 and subsequently abandoned openly Islamist politics, breaking with Erbakan to form the AKP, a party designed to follow the example of the European Christian democratic parties.Erdoğan led the AKP to a landslide victory in the election for the Grand National Assembly in 2002, only a year after founding the party. After his political ban was lifted by prime minister Abdullah Gül, Erdoğan became prime minister after winning a by-election in Siirt in 2003. Erdoğan led the AKP to two more election victories in 2007 and 2011. Reforms made in the early years of Erdoğan's tenure as prime minister granted Turkey the start of EU membership negotiations. Furthermore, Turkey experienced an economic recovery from the economic crisis of 2001 and saw investments in infrastructure including roads, airports, and a high-speed train network. He also won two successful constitutional referendums in 2007 and 2010. Erdoğan reduced the military influence on politics, withstood the criticism of the armed forces' e-memorandum documents and remained controversial for his close links with the Gülen movement, with whom the AKP was accused of orchestrating purges against military officers through the Balyoz and Ergenekon trials. In late 2012, his government began peace negotiations with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to end the Kurdish–Turkish conflict, negotiations which ended three years later.In 2014, Erdoğan became the country's first directly elected president. Erdoğan's presidency has been marked by democratic backsliding and a shift towards a more authoritarian style of government and has faced allegations of human rights abuses, suppression of dissents and suppression of freedom of speech. He has been criticized for his handling of several issues, including the 2013 Gezi Park protests, the 2016 failed coup attempt, his economic policies and the ongoing conflict in Syria, which is believed to have contributed to the bad results of the 2019 local elections, in which his party lost power in large cities to opposition parties for the first time in 15 years. Erdoğan supported the 2017 referendum, changing Turkey's parliamentary system into a presidential system, introducing term limit for the head of government (two full five-year terms), and greatly expanding executive powers. This new system of government formally came into place after the 2018 general election, where Erdoğan became an executive president. His party however lost the majority in the parliament since then and is currently in a coalition (People's Alliance) with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Especially starting from 2018, he has decreased the independence of the Central Bank and pursued a highly unorthodox monetary policy, leading to high inflation rates and the depreciation of the value of the Turkish lira. From 2020, he led Turkey's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination rollout. In foreign policy, as a result of the Syrian civil war, Turkey became the world's largest refugee hosting country since 2014 and launched operations against the Islamic State, Syrian Democratic Forces and Assad's forces. Following the ratification of the Libya–Turkey maritime deal, Turkey has sent military assistance in support of the United Nations-recognized government. He responded to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine by closing the Bosphorus to Russian naval reinforcements, brokering a deal between Russia and Ukraine regarding export of grain, and mediating a prisoner exchange.
General elections took place on 14 May 2023. Presidential elections are held to elect the President of Turkey using a two-round system. Simultaneously, parliamentary elections are held to elect 600 Members of parliament to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.
The Republican People's Party (Turkish: Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, pronounced [dʒumhuːɾiˈjet haɫk 'paɾtisi] , acronymized as CHP [dʒeːheːpeˑ]) is a Kemalist and social democratic political party in Turkey. It is the oldest political party in Turkey, founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the first president and founder of the modern Turkish Republic. The party is also cited as the founding party of modern Turkey. Its logo consists of the Six Arrows, which represent the foundational principles of Kemalism: republicanism, reformism, laicism (Laïcité/Secularism), populism, nationalism, and statism. It is currently the second largest party in Grand National Assembly with 129 MPs, behind the ruling conservative Justice and Development Party (AK Party).The political party has its origins in the various resistance groups founded during the Turkish War of Independence. Under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, they united in the 1919 Sivas Congress. In 1923, the "People's Party", soon adding the word "Republican" to its name, declared itself to be a political organisation and announced the establishment of the Turkish Republic, with Atatürk as its first president. As Turkey moved into its authoritarian one-party period, the CHP was the apparatus of implementing far reaching political, cultural, social, and economic reforms in the country.After World War II, Atatürk's successor, İsmet İnönü, allowed for multi-party elections, and the party initiated a peaceful transition of power after losing the 1950 election, ending the one-party period and beginning Turkey's multi-party period. The years following the 1960 military coup saw the party gradually trend towards the center-left, which was cemented once Bülent Ecevit became chairman in 1972. The CHP, along with all other political parties of the time, was banned by the military junta of 1980. The CHP was re-established with its original name by Deniz Baykal on 9 September 1992, with the participation of a majority of its members from the pre-1980 period. Since 2002 it has been the main opposition party to the ruling AKP. Özgür Özel is the chairman of the CHP since 5 November 2023.It is a founding party of the Nation Alliance, a diverse coalition of opposition parties against the AKP and their People's Alliance. In addition, CHP is an associate member of the Party of European Socialists (PES), a member of the Socialist International, and the Progressive Alliance. Many politicians of CHP have declared their support for LGBT rights and the feminist movement in Turkey. The party is pro-European and supports Turkish membership to European Union and NATO.
Gunmen opened fire at a campaign event for upcoming municipal elections in Istanbul, critically wounding one person. The attack took place as Aziz Yeniay, a candidate for mayor, was visiting an association. A 32-year-old woman was critically wounded and the attackers escaped. Police are reviewing security camera footage and investigating the incident. The ruling AKP party hopes to retake crucial cities and districts it lost to the opposition Republican Peoples Party five years ago in the upcoming elections.
Ekrem İmamoğlu (Turkish: [ecˈɾɛm iˈmamo:ɫu]; born 4 June 1970) is a Turkish businessman, real estate developer, and social democratic politician serving as the 32nd Mayor of Istanbul. He was first elected with 4.1 million votes and won with a margin of 13 thousand votes against his AKP opponent in the March 2019 mayoral election as the joint Nation Alliance candidate of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Good Party, but served only from 17 April 2019 until 6 May 2019, when the election was annulled. He was then reelected in a renewed election on 23 June 2019 by an even larger margin of 800,000 votes. He ran for the office again in the 2024 Istanbul Mayoral elections. He won by approx. 50 percent majority, securing another 5 year term. He had previously been the Mayor of Beylikdüzü, a western district of Istanbul, between 2014 and 2019.İmamoğlu emerged as a dark horse candidate to be the Nation Alliance's joint candidate for Istanbul Mayor, overtaking more prominent contenders such as Muharrem İnce, the CHP's 2018 presidential candidate. On the eve of the elections, İmamoğlu gained a narrow lead in the mayoral race, with initial results showing his lead to be around 23,000 votes. His lead was eventually cut to 13,729 after a series of recounts backed by the government.İmamoğlu was sworn in as Mayor of Istanbul on 17 April, following the conclusion of all recounts. On 6 May 2019, the Supreme Electoral Council convened and voted to annul the results of the mayoral election. Members of the Council accepted the Justice and Development Party's objection to the local election results in Istanbul, with seven members of the High Court voting in favour of calling a new election and four against. The election board also cancelled İmamoğlu's mayoral certificate until the renewed elections. A new election took place on 23 June 2019 in which İmamoğlu was re-elected as the mayor by a margin of approximately 800,000 votes. He was sworn into office on 27 June 2019. Because of the scale of his victory and popularity, he had been called a possible candidate for the Turkish presidency in 2023 general election.On trial since January 2022 for "insulting electoral officials", İmamoğlu was sentenced to 2 years, 7 months, and 15 days of prison and was further banned from politics by a judge on 14 December 2022. The political ban has not yet been enacted as it must first be upheld by the court of appeals and the Court of Cassation.İmamoğlu is seen as a potential CHP candidate for president in elections scheduled for 2028.
The New Republican People's Party (Turkish: Yeni Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi), New CHP (Yeni CHP), or YCHP, is a term used to describe the ideological shift of the Republican People's Party, especially during the tenure of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who was the leader of the party from 2010 to 2023.
Turkey is a founding member of the OECD and G20. The country's economy ranked as the 17th-largest in the world and 7th-largest in Europe by nominal GDP in 2023. It also ranked as the 11th-largest in the world and 5th-largest in Europe by PPP in 2023. According to the IMF, as of 2022, Turkey had an upper-middle income, mixed-market, emerging economy. Turkey has often been defined as a newly industrialized country since the turn of the 21st century. The country is the fourth most visited destination in the world, and has over 1,500 R&D centres established both by multinational and national firms. Turkey is among the world's leading producers of agricultural products, textiles, motor vehicles, transportation equipment, construction materials, consumer electronics, and home appliances. Over the past 20 years, there have been major developments in the financial and social aspects of Turkey's economy, such as increases in employment and average income since 2000. A period of strong economic growth between 2002 and 2013 (except for 2009) was followed by a slowdown in growth in terms of USD-based nominal GDP figures between 2014 and 2020, especially during the 2018 Turkish currency and debt crisis, although the growth sustained in these years as well in terms of nominal GDP. Furthermore, there has been a steady recovery and a faster pace in growth in Turkey's GDP figures since 2021, which have reached their all-time highest values by the end of 2023. Growth-focused financial policies, such as the preference to keep interest rates as low as possible (dubbed Erdoganomics) have led to high inflation in recent years.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Istanbul to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan aimed to negotiate an end to Russia's war in Ukraine and discuss ensuring navigational safety in the Black Sea. Turkey has previously facilitated meetings between Russia and Ukraine to broker deals, including a grain shipment agreement. Zelenskyy also visited shipyards in Istanbul where Turkish companies are constructing two corvettes for the Ukrainian navy. The two leaders met at the Dolmabahce Palace, with discussions focused on the conflict with Russia and Black Sea navigation.
The Republican People's Party is a political party in Turkey.Republican People's Party may also refer to:Republican People's Party (Egypt)Republican People's Party (El Salvador)Republican People's Party (Kazakhstan)Republican People's Party (Moldova), now called "Our Party"
Turkish police detained seven individuals in Istanbul suspected of selling information to the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. These suspects were apprehended in raids conducted with Turkey's National Intelligence Organization, accused of gathering data on individuals and companies in Turkey for Mossad. Similar arrests have taken place in Turkey previously, with tensions escalating between Turkey and Israel following the Israel-Hamas war. Turkey and Israel had normalized ties in 2022 but relations soured again after recent events.
The third inauguration of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as the president of Turkey took place on Saturday, June 3, 2023, at the Presidential Complex in Ankara.
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye (Turkish: Türkiye Cumhuriyeti), is a country mainly in Anatolia in West Asia, with a smaller part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; Iraq, Syria, and the Mediterranean Sea (and Cyprus) to the south; and the Aegean Sea, Greece, and Bulgaria to the west. Turkey is home to over 85 million people; most are ethnic Turks, while ethnic Kurds are the largest ethnic minority. Officially a secular state, Turkey has a Muslim-majority population. Ankara is Turkey's capital and second-largest city; Istanbul is its largest city, and its economic and financial center, as well as the largest city in Europe. Other major cities include İzmir, Bursa, Antalya, Konya and Adana.Human habitation began in Late Paleolithic. Home to important Neolithic sites like Göbekli Tepe and some of the earliest farming areas, present-day Turkey was inhabited by various ancient peoples. Hattians were assimilated by the incoming Anatolian peoples. Increasing diversity during Classical Anatolia transitioned into cultural Hellenization following the conquests of Alexander the Great; Hellenization continued during the Roman and Byzantine eras. The Seljuk Turks began migrating into Anatolia in the 11th century, starting the Turkification process. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, when it disintegrated into Turkish principalities. Beginning in 1299, the Ottomans united the principalities and expanded; Mehmed II conquered Istanbul in 1453. During the reigns of Selim I and Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire became a global power.From the late 18th century onwards, the empire's power and territory declined; reforms were also made. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, persecution of Muslims during the Ottoman contraction and in the Russian Empire resulted in large-scale loss of life and mass migration into modern-day Turkey from the Balkans, Caucasus, and Crimea. The Second Constitutional Era ended with the 1913 coup d'état. Under the control of Three Pashas, the Ottoman Empire entered World War I in 1914. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Greek and Assyrian subjects. After its defeat, the Ottoman Empire was partitioned. The Turkish War of Independence resulted in the abolition of the sultanate in 1922 and the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. The Republic was proclaimed on 29 October 1923, modelled on the reforms initiated by the country's first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.Turkey is an upper-middle-income and emerging country; its economy is the 17th- or 11th-largest in the world. It is a unitary presidential republic with a multi-party system. Turkey is a founding member of the OECD, G20, and Organization of Turkic States. With a geopolitically significant location, Turkey is a regional power and an early member of NATO. An EU-candidate, Turkey is part of the EU Customs Union, CoE, OIC, and TURKSOY. Turkey has coastal plains, a high central plateau, and various mountain ranges; its climate is temperate with harsher conditions in the interior. Home to three biodiversity hotspots, Turkey is prone to frequent earthquakes and is highly vulnerable to climate change. Turkey has universal healthcare, growing access to education, and increasing innovativeness. It has 21 UNESCO World Heritage sites, 30 UNESCO cultural heritage inscriptions, and a rich and diverse cuisine. Turkey is a leading TV content exporter and is the fourth most visited country in the world.
Two attackers, a man and a woman, were killed in an attempted assault at the main courthouse in Istanbul. The attackers were members of the Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), a Marxist-Leninist armed group. Six people, including three police officers, were injured in the attack. The incident took place at the Caglayan Courthouse and is being investigated by Turkish authorities. The DHKP-C has previously carried out attacks in Turkey, including a hostage situation and killing of a prosecutor at the same courthouse in 2015.
This is a list of the largest cities and towns in Turkey by population, which includes cities and towns that are provincial capitals or have a population of at least 7,000. The total population of Turkey is 85,279,553 according to the 2023 estimate, making it the 18th most populated country in the world.Istanbul, Turkey's economic and cultural capital is the largest city with a population of 15.84 million in its metropolitan area as of 2021.Ankara, the capital of Turkey and Turkey's second-largest city has a population of 5.7 million in its metropolitan area as of 2021.Izmir, Turkey's third-largest city has a population of over 4.3 million in its metropolitan area as of 2019.Bursa, Turkey's fourth-largest city has a population of over 3.1 million in its metropolitan area as of 2021.Antalya, Turkey's fifth-largest city has a population of 2.6 million in its metropolitan area as of 2019.
The Republican People's Party (Arabic: حزب الشعب الجمهورى, romanized: Hezb Al-Shaeb Al-Gomhuri) is an Egyptian political party made up of former government ministers.The party supported Amr Moussa in the 2012 Egyptian presidential election. Hazem Omar denied that the party was composed of remnants (feloul) of the National Democratic Party, which was in power during the Mubarak era.
The victim of a shooting at a church in Istanbul, Turkey, has been named as Tuncer Cihan. Two men, alleged members of the Islamic State, burst into the Santa Maria church and fired several shots, killing Cihan. Turkish officials believe it was a targeted attack against Cihan rather than against the Catholic church. The two gunmen, one from Tajikistan and the other from Russia, have been arrested. Cihan's nephew states that his uncle had no connection to politics or criminal organizations and believes that the church was the target.
Turkey is negotiating its accession to the European Union (EU) as a member state, following its application to become a full member of the European Economic Community (EEC), the predecessor of the EU, on 14 April 1987.After the ten founding members in 1949, Turkey became one of the first new members (the 13th member) of the Council of Europe in 1950. The country became an associate member of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1963 and was an associate member of the Western European Union from 1992 to its end in 2011. Turkey signed a Customs Union agreement with the EU in 1995 and was officially recognised as a candidate for full membership on 12 December 1999, at the Helsinki summit of the European Council.Negotiations for full membership were started on 3 October 2005. Progress was slow: out of the 35 chapters necessary to complete the accession process, only 16 had been opened and one had been closed by May 2016. The early 2016 refugee deal between Turkey and the European Union was intended to accelerate negotiations after previous stagnation and allow visa-free travel through Europe for Turks.Since 2016, accession negotiations have stalled. The EU has accused and criticized Turkey for human rights violations and deficits in rule of law. In 2017, EU officials said that the strong presidency created by the 2017 Turkish constitutional referendum would violate the Copenhagen criteria of eligibility for an EU membership.On 20 February 2019, a European parliament committee voted to suspend the accession talks, sparking criticism from the government of Turkey. Turkey's accession negotiations have therefore effectively come to a standstill and no further chapters can be considered for opening or closing and no further work towards the modernisation of the EU-Turkey Customs Union is foreseen.On 30 January 2023, the Table of Six (then-main opposition alliance) in Turkey released a memorandum of understanding for common policies. It re-affirmed the opposition's intent to continue the EU accession talks if they were to be elected in that year's elections.It is one of nine current EU candidate countries, together with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Ukraine.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Stadium (also known as Kasımpaşa Stadium) is a multi-use stadium in the Kasımpaşa neighbourhood of Istanbul, Turkey. It is currently used mostly for football matches, and is the home stadium of Kasımpaşa S.K. The stadium capacity was extended to 14,234 spectators. Due to extension works, Kasımpaşa played most of its home matches in the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in the 2007–2008 season. It is named after the incumbent Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a native of Kasımpaşa and a football player in his youth.
Republican People's Party Youth (also known as CHP Youth) (Turkish: Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi Gençlik Kolları or CHP Gençlik Kolları) is the youth organization of the Republican People's Party in Turkey. The organization has been a member of International Union of Socialist Youth since 2012 and Young European Socialists since 2011.They hosted the YES Summer Camp 2013 in Foça, İzmir.
Turkish security forces have arrested seven people on suspicion of passing information to the Israeli intelligence service Mossad. The arrests came after a joint raid by police and officials from Turkey's MIT intelligence agency in Istanbul and the city of Izmir. Turkey's president has warned Israel of "serious consequences" if it targets Hamas members on Turkish soil. Turkey does not classify Hamas as a terrorist organisation and there is strong support for the Palestinians in the country. Mossad is believed to have recruited Palestinians and Syrian nationals living in Turkey as part of its operations.
The Bharatiya Janata Party will hold a late night meeting to finalise the remaining seats in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, sources said on Saturday. Sharad Pawar, who heads the NCP (SP), on Saturday declared MP Supriya Sule as their candidate from Maharashtra's Baramati Lok Sabha seat, amid speculation that Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's wife Sunetra Pawar could be fielded from there. Police have lodged a case of culpable homicide against three organisers of the Mahashivratri procession, in which 16 children and two others Former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Saturday said a clear picture would emerge on Sunday after the BJP election committee meeting on party's candidates in Karnataka. Arriving here days after being made BJP nominee for Varanasi Lok Sabha seat for the third time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was accorded a rousing reception at the Varanasi airport on Saturday. The IndiGo flight coming from Mumbai to Istanbul has been delayed due to a technical issue, the airline said on Saturday.
Istanbul (Turkish: İstanbul) is the largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, cultural and historic hub. The city straddles the Bosporus Strait, lying in both Europe and Asia, and has a population of over 15 million residents, comprising 19% of the population of Turkey. Istanbul is the most populous European city and the world's 15th largest city.The city was founded as Byzantium (Greek: Βυζάντιον, Byzantion) in the 7th century BCE by Greek settlers from Megara. In 330 CE, the Roman emperor Constantine the Great made it his imperial capital, renaming it first as New Rome (Greek: Νέα Ῥώμη, Nea Rhomē; Latin: Nova Roma) and then as Constantinople (Constantinopolis) after himself. In 1930, the city's name was officially changed to Istanbul, the Turkish rendering of εἰς τὴν Πόλιν (romanized: eis tḕn Pólin; 'to the City'), the appellation Greek speakers used since the 11th century to colloquially refer to the city.The city served as an imperial capital for almost 1600 years: during the Roman/Byzantine (330–1204), Latin (1204–1261), late Byzantine (1261–1453), and Ottoman (1453–1922) empires. The city grew in size and influence, eventually becoming a beacon of the Silk Road and one of the most important cities in history. The city played a key role in the advancement of Christianity during Roman/Byzantine times, hosting four of the first seven ecumenical councils before its transformation to an Islamic stronghold following the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 CE—especially after becoming the seat of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1517. In 1923, after the Turkish War of Independence, Ankara replaced the city as the capital of the newly formed Republic of Turkey.Istanbul has surpassed London and Dubai to become the most visited city in the world, with more than 20 million foreign visitors in 2023. The historic centre of Istanbul is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the city hosts the headquarters of numerous Turkish companies, accounting for more than thirty percent of the country's economy.
Emine Erdoğan (née Gülbaran; Turkish pronunciation: [emine ˈæɾdoan] née [ɟylbaɾan]; born 16 February 1956) is the current first lady of Turkey, and the wife of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Two gunmen took seven hostages at a Procter & Gamble factory in Istanbul, Turkey, in protest of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The captors, one of whom was pictured wearing a suicide vest and holding a gun, were reportedly former employees. The hostage situation has since been resolved, and all personnel are safe. Procter & Gamble expressed gratitude to the authorities and first responders who handled the situation. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been critical of Israel and has accused the United States of supporting 'genocide' in Gaza. Turkish online campaigns are calling for boycotts of US products such as Coca-Cola and Starbucks.
At least 22 people, including seven children, died in a rubber dinghy capsizing off Gokceada island in the Aegean Sea, with the victims' nationalities not yet disclosed. Separately, another rubber dinghy sank off Turkey's northern Aegean coast, resulting in at least 16 deaths, including infants and children. The migrants, of unknown nationalities, were attempting to reach Greece or Italy from Turkey. Turkey and Greece have long-standing disputes over migration, with Greece accusing Turkey of facilitating illegal crossings and Turkey accusing Greece of pushbacks. The Mediterranean route has seen 3,129 deaths and disappearances since 2017, making it the deadliest for migrants and refugees.
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