Zeynep Bilginsoy is a freelance journalist in Istanbul, Turkey.
AP — Days before his victory in last weekend’s elections, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unveiled his plans for a revamped state structure of administrative offices, policy councils and ministries. A visual representation of it on the official news agency brought comparisons to a “solar system” — with all bodies orbiting around the president.
Read MoreAP — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was proclaimed the winner early Monday of a landmark election that ushers in a government system granting the president sweeping new powers and which critics say will cement what they call a one-man rule.
Read MoreAP — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has never lost an election, is taking a gamble that will consolidate his hold on power in Turkey if he emerges victorious from Sunday’s landmark presidential and parliamentary vote.
Read MoreAP — Turkish voters will vote Sunday in a historic double election for the presidency and parliament. It will either solidify President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s grip on the nation of 81 million people, or restrain his political ambitions.
Read MoreAP — A Turkish court on Wednesday convicted journalists and other senior staff members from the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper on terror charges, in a case that has exacerbated concerns over press freedom.
Read MoreAP — An American pastor imprisoned in Turkey is going on trial for alleged terror ties and spying in a case that has increased tensions between Washington and Ankara. Andrew Craig Brunson, a 50-year-old evangelical pastor from North Carolina, is facing up to 35 years in prison on charges of “committing crimes on behalf of terror groups without being a member” and “espionage.”
Read MoreAP — A man suspected of raping a sleeping 4-year-old girl during a wedding in southern Turkey narrowly escaped a neighborhood lynching attempt, sparking a public outcry and calls for the government to prevent and more severely punish child sexual abuse.
Read MoreAP — Four more Turkish soldiers have been killed in northern Syria, the Turkish military announced late Saturday, bringing the day’s death toll to 11 in what has been the most lethal day since Ankara’s offensive on Syrian Kurdish militia began.
Read MoreAP — Turkey said eight of its troops were killed Saturday in Ankara’s military operation against a Syrian Kurdish militia, the deadliest day in the two-week-old offensive in the enclave of Afrin, while in another part of Syria, al-Qaida-linked militants downed a Russian fighter jet, then shot and killed the pilot.
Read MoreAP — Turkey has launched an air and ground campaign into Afrin, a Kurdish-controlled enclave in northwestern Syria. Codenamed “Operation Olive Branch,” it’s the latest chapter in a decades-long conflict between Turkey and Kurdish militants. Here’s a look at why this is happening now and what’s at stake.
Read MoreAP — A commercial airplane that skidded off a runway after landing in northern Turkey dangled precariously Sunday off a muddy cliff with its nose only a few feet from the Black Sea.
Read MoreAP — Breaking with years of courting the U.S., Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called Wednesday for the United Nations to replace Washington as a Mideast mediator and suggested he might not cooperate with the Trump administration’s much-anticipated effort to hammer out an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.
Read MoreAP — The U.S. said Sunday it was suspending non-immigrant visa services at its diplomatic facilities in Turkey following the arrest of a consulate employee, prompting Turkey to halt visa services in the U.S.
Read MoreAP — The Turkish parliament on Saturday renewed a bill allowing the military to intervene in Iraq and Syria if faced with national security threats — a move seen as a final warning to Iraqi Kurds to call off their Monday independence referendum.
Read MoreAP — Students in Turkey are returning to school Monday where they will be taught evolution for the last time in their biology classes. Next fall, evolution and Charles Darwin will be scrapped from their textbooks.
Read MoreAP — A media advocacy group on Monday accused Turkey’s president of trying to silence the country’s main opposition newspaper and the free press generally, as the second hearing in the trial of staff members of the paper began Monday.
Read MoreAP — Turkey’s president reiterated Saturday that new cross-border operations into Syria are in the works as the country boosts its military presence along the border against threats from Kurdish militants in war-torn Syria.
Read MoreAP — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to “rip the heads off” of terror groups and coup-plotters who tried to end his more than decade-long rule on Saturday, as Turkey marked the anniversary of the country’s crushed military coup with a series of rallies and other commemorative events.
Read MoreAP — A year ago Saturday, a group of Turkish soldiers using tanks, warplanes and helicopters launched a plot to overthrow Turkey’s president and government. The coup attempt failed, but the fallout continues a year later. Here is an account of how the July 15-16 coup unfolded.
Read MoreAP — The leader of Turkey’s main opposition party completed a 25-day “March for Justice” from the capital Ankara to Istanbul Sunday and joined hundreds of thousands of supporters at a rally against a large-scale government crackdown on opponents.
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