Emma Sinclair-Webb

A Turkish court ruled on April 7 to suspend the trial in absentia of 26 Saudis accused in the gruesome killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and for the case to be transferred to Saudi Arabia.

Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu. Photo: Gergerlioglu's personal archieve

"We are right, we are strong and we will win. We have won with resistance." Gergerlioglu said defiantly at a press conference held at the HDP headquarters in Ankara on Tuesday night.

Tens of thousands of Turkish women rallied across the country on Thursday evening to protest the government's decision to pull out of the so-called Istanbul Convention on domestic violence and women's rights.

Turkish riot police use plastic bullets securing an area during a protest against President Erdogan's appointed rector at Bogazici University in Istanbul, 2 February 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/TOLGA BOZOGLU

Experts warn that the planned measures would have serious consequences for tech companies' activities, and may result in some leaving the country.

The draft law on social media has been sent to the business world and unions for consultation, but the opposition is sure it will come back to parliament soon.

The European Parliament has called on Ankara to release all journalists in prison without proof of alleged involvement in the July 15 failed coup attempt.

Meeting in Strasbourg, the parliamentarians passed a resolution calling on Turkey to "narrow the scope of emergency measures, so that they can no longer be used to curtail freedom of expression."

The Turkish government and the Kurdish problem-focused Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) have given vastly different accounts of the plight of 28 civilians sheltering in a cellar in violence-hit Cizre in the southeastern province of ??rnak.

The results of the June 7 parliamentary elections demonstrated the Turkish society is ready for more inclusive and pluralistic politics and it is against further increase of power in the presidential office, according to a written statement published by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) on June 8.

A trial against 35 individuals associated with Beşiktaş’s football fan group çArşı on charges of “attempting to overthrow the government” during last year’s Gezi Park protests has started at Istanbul’s Çağlayan Courthouse.

The group received massive support from a crowd that included main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputies.

Human Rights Watch has expressed concerns that Turkey’s new security bill adopted by Parliament last week dangerously increased the powers of the national police force and could undermine human rights.