Author: Daily Sabah

Zafer Sırakaya, deputy chair of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), was the first high-ranking official of Türkiye’s ruling party to visit post-Assad Syria. Sırakaya, who also acts as the party’s foreign affairs chairperson, held talks with officials in Syria’s Idlib and Aleppo on Wednesday. Sırakaya told Anadolu Agency (AA) that his visit aimed to demonstrate Türkiye’s support for the rebuilding of Syria and contribution to regional peace. Türkiye maintains close ties with the new administration of Syria and was one of the first countries to open its embassy in Syria on Dec. 14 after the fall of the…

The founder of the Turkish far-right in the modern era is on the fast track to becoming a political “martyr” after his arrest but Ümit Özdağ’s provocative rhetoric has already been the subject of lawsuits. The Victory Party (ZP) chairman was arrested on charges of inciting hatred on Tuesday evening, hours after he was detained on a separate charge of insulting the president. Imprisoned in Istanbul, Özdağ will appear before a court on an unscheduled date while his supporters claim the charges against him are politically motivated. The opposition parties, not very different than ZP in their anti-migrant, anti-refugee discourse,…

An Islamophobic attack targeting a Turkish-owned mosque in northern France has left the local Muslim community rattled. Unknown people left a plaster grenade used in drills outside a mosque managed by the Turkish-Islamic Union of Religious Affairs (DITIB) in the city of Saint-Omer, DITIB said in a statement on Instagram late Tuesday. A similar incident took place last year during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan when several people left a pig’s head outside the same mosque. “We strongly condemn this hateful attack on our mosque. Such attacks on houses of worship, symbols of peace and fraternity, are unacceptable,” the…

Sırrı Süreyya Önder and Pervin Buldan, who formed a delegation as part of the ambitious terror-free Türkiye initiative, made their second visit to Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the PKK terrorist group. Lawmakers from the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), which is known for its links to the group, traveled on Wednesday to Imralı, a Marmara Sea island where Öcalan is incarcerated. Öcalan, who already expressed support for the initiative, is expected to take action to further advance it, namely by calling the PKK to lay down arms after DEM’s second visit. Önder and Buldan, accompanied by…

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will introduce Türkiye’s new and fourth legal reform strategy document on Thursday, a move aimed at boosting timely facilitation of justice, according to the Justice Ministry on Wednesday. The document, which acts as a roadmap for the four years from 2025 to 2029, has been prepared with the vision for a predictable justice system that will not be delayed and be based on the supremacy of the law, the ministry said in a statement. The reform outlines five primary principles, including the strengthening of the corporate structure and the human resources capacity, restructuring of processes, increasing…

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on Wednesday that a total of 240 suspects were apprehended in two weeks of “Operation Mace-39” and “Operation Mace-40” across Türkiye against the PKK/KCK terrorist group. The PKK has been responsible for the killings of thousands of people since the 1980s in its brutal campaign of violence. The KCK is a so-called political umbrella group that includes the PKK’s wings in Iran, Syria and Iraq. The minister said police and gendarmerie forces have been conducting operations against the terrorist group in 43 provinces, including the capital Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir. Captured suspects included members of…

Syria’s north is the scene of joy and concern as the U.S.-backed terrorist group YPG, the Syria wing of the PKK, which killed thousands in Türkiye, struggles for survival. For residents of Tal Rifaat, a district of Aleppo, YPG losses are good news. The Syrian National Army’s (SNA) operations, which ran parallel with anti-regime forces’ advance in late December that toppled the Assad regime, drove out terrorist groups from the occupied districts where it displaced thousands. The YPG, however, stands ground elsewhere, especially around strategic Tishrin Dam, where it killed two people in a rocket attack on Tuesday. Resilient despite…

Ankara is looking to gain momentum in long-frozen ties with the European Union as the bloc’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Kaja Kallas, is set to pay Türkiye an official visit this Friday for talks on regional developments and bilateral ties. Kallas is expected to hold high-level talks with Turkish officials on regional foreign policy issues, steps in defense and security, and the development of Türkiye-EU relations. In 2024, Türkiye-EU ties were discussed at length, and in 2025, Türkiye expects the European Investment Bank (EIB) to overcome obstacles at high-level political dialogue meetings on the economy, transport,…

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had a surprise guest earlier this week. Ahmet Uğurlu, an elderly Alevi dede (a socio-religious leader for the community) met Erdoğan at the Presidential Complex. Media reports say Uğurlu conveyed the Alevi community’s requests to the president, whose tenure has been marked by a new outreach to the community. According to a report by the Sabah newspaper, among these requests are the establishment of schools to train dedes, similar to imam-hatip schools that provide a curriculum with extra theology lessons to train imams, and state funds to pay wages for staff at cemevis, the community’s self-styled…

A magnitude 5.2 earthquake shook Türkiye’s northwestern Çanakkale province late Tuesday, the country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said. In a statement, AFAD said the quake took place at 11:38 p.m. local time. The quake took place in the Aegean Sea, 6 kilometers off the coast of Çanakkale’s Ayvacık district, according to AFAD. No adverse situations have been reported so far and field assessment efforts are ongoing, AFAD said. Türkiye is one of the most seismically active regions in the world due to its location at the intersection of several major tectonic plates, including the Eurasian, African and Arabian…