Government of Turkey

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has stated that the government wants to imprison him and called on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to lift his immunity because he is not afraid of it.

The CHP leader shared a video on his Twitter account on July 3, saying that "Let's lift my immunity right now; let's do it together."

The 2021 season excavations at the Ayasuluk Hill and St. Jean Monument will start on July 4 in Izmir.

Expert researchers from Istanbul University, Akdeniz University, Ege University, Dokuz Eylül University and Manisa Celal Bayar University will take part in the excavations.

Turkey's AKP on July 1 submitted a long-awaited bill on animal rights to the Parliament's Speaker Office.

Under the bill, "animals will no longer be seen as products, but as life," Mahir Ünal, the party's deputy parliamentary group chair, told reporters in parliament.

Also under the bill, the sale of cats and dogs by pet shops will be banned, he said.

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has outlined 29 principles for a return to the parliamentary system if it comes to power following the 2023 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Shared Interests

European Union flags. Photo: EPA-EFE

In an exclusive opinion piece for Balkan Insight, the foreign ministers of the EU's 'Trio Presidency' - Germany, Portugal and Slovenia - reaffirm the EU's commitment to enlargement and opening accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has vowed to complete the multibillion-dollar Kanal Istanbul project in six years, which he said will create two new earthquake-proof residential areas on the two banks of the canal, denouncing the opposition's campaign against the project.

On the Turkish end, the NATO summit could not have come at a worse time.

Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) has inked a deal with Ukraine's Motor Sich to purchase 14 heavy class attack helicopter engines.

According to a statement from TAI on June 29, the deliveries will be completed by 2025 with the first two engines to be handed over in September 2022.

Turkey has taken all necessary measures related to the drought and there will be no problem in the future, the country's agriculture and forestry minister said on June 29. 

Touching on supply problems during the coronavirus pandemic globally, Bekir Pakdemirli said Turkey has never seen this type of problem thanks to its measures.

Turkey has a limit to the burden it will carry on migration, according to a statement by the spokesman for Turkey's AKP.

Ömer Çelik criticized the European Union at a news conference late on June 29 for "reducing the issue of migration to merely financial aid," which he viewed as "a lack of vision, unsustainable in the long run, a grave mistake."