The two-decades-long domination of Turkish politics by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was shaken March 31 when his Islamist-based Justice and Development Party (AKP) suffered an unexpected and unprecedented defeat in nationwide municipal elections. For the first time the secular opposition…
The course of the Turkish and Syrian governments, alongside intervention by Washington, Moscow, Tehran and others, is exacerbating the disastrous consequences of earthquakes that struck Syria and Turkey Feb. 6. More than 45,000 people have died as of Feb. 17,…
As of Feb. 14, the deadliest toll from an earthquake in Turkey in almost a century reached some 35,000 with the bodies of countless others still buried in the rubble. More than 5,500 died so far in northern Syria. Hundreds…
A devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria Feb. 6, triggering a social catastrophe. More than 11,000 people have been killed. Rescue efforts, with international help, are continuing. Southern Turkey is home to many of the country’s…
Saban Yildirim, one of 41 miners killed in an Oct. 14 coal mine disaster in Amasra, Turkey, had told his wife that “the mine had been smelling of gas inside for 10 days,” his father Kemal Yildirim told the press.…
Statement issued Oct. 19 by Alyson Kennedy, Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor of Texas. A former coal miner, Kennedy was part of a Militant reporting team to Soma, Turkey, in 2014. The methane gas explosion in the state-owned Turkish…
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Tehran July 19, in the shadow of Moscow’s war on Ukraine. All three powers at the summit clash with Washington, but each has its…
The authoritarian government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey moved to ban the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the nation’s third-largest and chief opposition party, March 18. The HDP was formed in 2012 to represent the fight for national rights of…
For over a month students in Turkey have been mounting protests at Bogazici University in Istanbul, one of the country’s most prestigious schools. They’re calling for the resignation of a new rector appointed at the beginning of January by President…
Mounting competition and threats over the plunder of oil and gas resources between several rival capitalist powers across the eastern Mediterranean lies behind stepped-up clashes between the rulers of Turkey and Greece. These conflicts are exacerbated by pressure from the…
