Ankara

When you read the comments of those who have come to know Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, the opposition’s joint candidate, you realize that few would doubt he harbors the necessary criteria to be president.

The release of 230 officers who had been accused in the “Sledgehammer” (Balyoz) case of conspiring to overthrow the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has left Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a quandary. He is praising the Constitutional Court for ruling that the defendant’s rights were violated, but this is the same court that he declared war on a few months ago.

Turkey has requested bids from global motor companies GE, Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney to present bids to power Turkey’s future fighter jet.

An Ankara prosecutor has objected to the release of five suspected police officers detained as part of an investigation into the illegal wiretapping of the prime minister’s office.

The prosecutor’s remarks come just a day after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan publicly complained about their release.

Some 250 Turkish citizens are leaving Libya, after a call from a renegade Libyan general to Turks and Qataris to leave the country’s east within two days or suffer a backlash from the public.

Most Turkish nationals have left the country since the Foreign Ministry issued its own warning, Anadolu Agency quoted Turkey’s Benghazi Council General Ali Sait Akın as saying on June 23.

Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek’s nearly two million Twitter followers had a surprise this morning, with tweets inviting them for a delicious simit in the city’s main square and announcing free public transportation, which sounded too goofy even by the eccentric standards of the social media-loving mayor.

A long-awaited decree reshuffling the Foreign Ministry’s key diplomats has been finalized with appointments to crucial posts like Moscow, Tehran, Rome and Madrid. One of the most important reshuffles is the appointment of deputy undersecretary Ömer Önhon, who was responsible for the Middle East, particularly Syria, to Madrid as Turkey’s ambassador.

The Turkish government is rolling up its sleeves to improve the local digital game market, which has reached over $300 million over the past few years, using a new roadmap.

It has already become certain that ISIL’s (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) invasion of Mosul will pass into history as the “pre-Mosul and post-Mosul era.” The post-Mosul order turns the regional balance of power upside down. Hence, Turkey has to make a completely new reading of the region and adapt its policies accordingly.

The Constitutional Court’s landmark verdict on the Balyoz (Sledgehammer) coup case came only a few days after officials from Turkey and the European Union met at a working group meeting to allow the former to fulfill benchmarks for the opening of Chapter 23: Judiciary and fundamental rights.