Grand National Assembly of Turkey

As the rivalry on the pitch heats up in the Ziraat Turkish Cup, a match between Istanbul giants Galatasaray and third-tier Diyarbakır Büyükşehir Belediyespor witnessed unexpected tensions mirroring the country’s political fault lines.

The parties involved in the Kurdish peace bid have jointly declared that a new phase in the process has begun, as committees under the guidance of the Undersecretariat of Public Order and Security will meet with the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, while the İmralı delegation of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) will also join the meetings.

Turkey does not deserve to be robbed in the name of religion, the country’s main opposition leader has said, while adding that government interference that prompted a parliamentary commission to postpone a decision on whether four former ministers should stand trial on graft claims has cast a shadow on the panel.

Both the government and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) have simultaneously announced that the stalled peace process has entered “a new phase,” with the latter emphasizing that the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) will assume a more central role in the new phase.

A crisis in the Kurdish peace bid has passed and a new phase in the process has started, Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Istanbul deputy Sırrı Süreyya Önder has said, noting that issues that need to be resolved in the process would be done so urgently.

Turkey’s prime minister has vowed to “cut off the arms” of those who attempt to engage in corruption, yet still describing last year’s graft probes as “coup attempts” during a speech Dec. 21.

Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç has opposed the detention of two media chiefs who were taken into custody in controversial weekend raids on journalists and television staff linked to U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

"It is not right to deprive a person of their personal freedom for even a single day," Arınç told reporters on Dec. 19.

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has referred to a tragic seven-year-old event from Japan to criticize the government and a former Cabinet minister over alleged bribery and corruption.

Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç had said of the mysterious Twitter user identified as Fuat Avni, "If what he says turns out to be true, then it is a grave situation."

On the morning of Dec. 14, it was understood that they were indeed true and indeed grave.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said he has two documents proving that the main opposition Republican People Party's (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu engaged in nepotism during his tenure as the head of the country's social security institution.