CHP

After night-long debates and even a fist fight, Turkey's parliament on Wednesday accepted a new bill with the votes of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling coalition, which greatly expands the powers of the night watchmen, or neighbourhood guards.

They can now stop and search people if and when they see necessary, and may now carry weapons and use force.

Turkish authorities arrested three opposition lawmakers on Friday after they were stripped of their parliamentary status the day before.

In last two days, unknown persons in Turkey have hacked mosques' digital audio systems in the coastal city of Izmir and played the anti-fascist song Ciao Bella and other songs with revolutionary messages.

After videos of the stunt were widely shared, Izmir police announced that they had started an investigation on Thursday and detained several people for insulting religion.

"There are no serious articles in the economic package for workers and employers," said Enes Ozkan, an economist at Istanbul University.

The crisis, he said, would have "serious effects on the already-wounded Turkish economy."

Turkey's three largest metropolitan municipalities, of Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir, which are all ruled by the opposition parties, have been accused of running a "parallel state" by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the nation fights the COVID-19 pandemic.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suffered a major defeat after the opposition candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu, won a landslide victory in Sunday's re-run mayoral elections in Istanbul.

Imamoglu, from the Republican People's Party, CHP, received 54 per cent of total votes cast and finished the race nearly 800,000 votes ahead of his rival according to semi-official results.

Voters in Istanbul on Sunday go to the polls to elect a new mayor for a second time after the results of the first round of mayoral elections on March 31 were cancelled when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's coalition complained of irregularities following its major defeat in them.

The Turkish Supreme Election Council, YSK on Monday ordered a re-run of March's mayoral elections in Istanbul after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's coalition complained of irregularities following its defeat at the polls in the country's biggest city.

Turkish opposition politician Muharrem Ince rallied thousands of supporters in the predominantly Turkish-populated city of Kardzhali in southeastern Bulgaria on Thursday.

International election monitors have delivered a scathing verdict on the conduct of Turkey’s controversial referendum to grant expansive new powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.