For much of 2020, Recep Tayyip Erdogan relied on foreign-policy adventurism to divert attention from Turkey’s economic crisis and his AK Party’s political travails.
His aggressive forays in Libya, Nagorno-Karabakh and the Eastern Mediterranean helped him overshadow the political reversals of the previous year, when the AKP lost local elections in major cities none more embarrassing than that of Erdogan’s old stronghold of Istanbul and a significant decline in membership.
But the strategy may have reached its limits: Neither investors nor the general public seem to be buying Erdogan’s promise of a new economic era. More generally, the president and his party seem to be losing the confidence of large political constituencies, including urbanites and young conservatives.
ISTANBUL: The Turkish government’s silence on the discovery of listening devices in the offices of an opposition party has caused concern, with a human rights lawyer saying that such wiretaps revealed a “serious and deep-rooted illegality.”
Dozens of bugs were found hidden in lamps and sockets across 40 district offices belonging to the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in Istanbul, and are believed to be a government attempt to spy on its political activities.
The wiretapping devices were discovered when party officials tried to use a triple plug socket during a press conference. The device was found when they realized the socket was broken. The HDP has demanded that Turkish prosecutors launch an investigation, but a legal process has yet to start.
By Reuters Staff
3 Min Read
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey’s government urged “tight discipline” on Wednesday as the country prepared for new weekend curfews, online schooling and limits on restaurants and cafes that are to begin Friday evening and last through year end to contain the pandemic.
FILE PHOTO: Man wearing a protective mask stands in front of a fish and bread restaurant, amid the spread of COVID-19 in Istanbul, Turkey November 7, 2020. REUTERS/Murad Sezer
President Tayyip Erdogan announced the tighter restrictions on Tuesday in response to a coronavirus surge that has brought reported daily cases tmsnrt.rs/3nAYinX and deaths tmsnrt.rs/35LkG8h to levels last seen in late April, just after the initial peak.
US sanctions spark rare show of unity in Turkey s parliament
Members of the parliament within sessions held at Grand National Assembly of Turkey on November 10, 2020 in Ankara, Turkey [Özge Elif Kızıl/Anadolu Agency] December 15, 2020 at 8:45 pm
Turkey s parliament showed rare near-unity on Tuesday in condemning US sanctions over its procurement of Russian defence systems and said the country will not hesitate to protect itself in the face of threats.
On Monday, Washington imposed the sanctions targeting NATO member Turkey s Presidency of Defence Industry (SSB), its chairman and three other employees in a move Ankara called a grave mistake .