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☆ Turkey’s opposition faces an uphill battle in runoff with Erdogan
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Tamara Qiblawi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Istanbul CNN —A hushed silence fell over the crowd outside the Istanbul headquarters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development (AK) party. Sullen faces turned to the election count on the large screen — Erdogan’s vote had dropped below the 50% threshold needed to clinch the first round of Sunday’s historic election. Erdogan secured a five-point lead over his principal opponent, destining them to a run-off vote. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his wife Emine Erdogan meet supporters outside a polling station in Istanbul, Turkey May 14, 2023. Then our President Erdogan saves us.”Ahead of the run-off vote, Erdogan now has two weeks in which to save himself – and all the indications are that he begins, as ever, from a place of strength.

☆ ANALYST VIEW Markets tumble as Turkey faces runoff election after Erdogan leads first round
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/2] Supporters of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan wave flags outside the AK Party headquarters, in Ankara, Turkey May 15, 2023. DEBT: Five-year credit default swaps jumped over 100 basis points from Friday and dollar bonds fell more than 7 cents. STOCKS: Borsa Istanbul issued a market-wide circuit breaker after the benchmark index (.XU100) dropped 6.38% in pre-market trading and was last down 2.7%. PIOTR MATYS, SENIOR FOX ANALYST, IN TOUCH CAPITAL MARKETS, POLAND:"When/if President Erdogan is re-elected, the lira should be trading far more freely. CLEMENS GRAFE AND BASAK EDIZGIL, GOLDMAN SACHS, LONDON:"The (rates and CDS) market dynamics post the initial move will be dependent on the FX market.

☆ Erdogan's milestones as Turkey faces May 28 runoff vote
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

[1/2] Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan greets supporters at the AK Party headquarters in Ankara, Turkey May 15, 2023. August 2001: He establishes the Justice and Development Party, or AK Party (AKP), and is elected chairman. November 2002: The AKP wins elections with nearly 35% of votes after the worst economic slump since the 1970s, promising to break with past mismanagement and recessions. June 2018: Erdogan wins snap presidential elections. Though his popularity has suffered due to a cost-of-living crisis, Erdogan wins more votes than his rival but falls short of the 50% threshold needed to win in the first round, teeing up a May 28 runoff.

☆ The Turkey candidates for president and other key figures
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Only three candidates remain in the race for president after Muharrem Ince, representing a small party, withdrew. CHP LEADER KEMAL KILICDAROGLUKilicdaroglu, 74, head of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), was named the six-party opposition alliance's presidential candidate in March. Previously a staunch opponent of Erdogan, Bahceli's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) began to work with the president and his AKP after a 2016 attempted coup. OPPOSITION FIGURES:IYI PARTY LEADER MERAL AKSENERFormer interior minister Meral Aksener, 66, leads the second-largest party in the opposition alliance, the centrist and nationalist IYI Party. ANKARA MAYOR MANSUR YAVASNationalist politician and lawyer Mansur Yavas, 67, defeated the AKP's Ankara mayoral candidate 2019 as the CHP candidate backed by an opposition alliance.

Reuters interviews with Kar and a dozen other voters in Antakya reflected anger over what some viewed as a slow initial government response to the disaster. The voices are a small snapshot of Antakya and the wider area of southern Turkey hit by the earthquake, a region home to nine million voters and traditionally an Erdogan stronghold. Only 4.3% of voters viewed the quake as Turkey's biggest problem last month, with most more concerned by an economy racked by rampant inflation. Nearby, excavators resound as they demolish some of the 80-90% of buildings estimated to have suffered quake damage. The opposing sides present very different narratives about Erdogan and his government's response to the disaster.

☆ Factbox: Key players in Turkey's election campaign
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Turkey's longest-serving leader logged more than a dozen election victories and survived an attempted coup in 2016. CHP LEADER KEMAL KILICDAROGLUKilicdaroglu, 74, head of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), was named the six-party opposition alliance's presidential candidate in March. HOMELAND PARTY LEADER MUHARREM INCEFormer physics teacher and headmaster Muharrem Ince, 58, is seen as having little chance of becoming president. OPPOSITION FIGURES:IYI PARTY LEADER MERAL AKSENERFormer interior minister Meral Aksener, 66, leads the second-largest party in the opposition alliance, the centrist and nationalist IYI Party. ANKARA MAYOR MANSUR YAVASNationalist politician and lawyer Mansur Yavas, 67, defeated the AKP's Ankara mayoral candidate 2019 as the CHP candidate backed by an opposition alliance.

☆ Erdogan's milestones before Turkey's election
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

August 2001: He establishes the Justice and Development Party, or AK Party (AKP), and is elected chairman. In his early days, Erdogan tours Europe and the United States to promote his policies and advance Turkey's bid to join the European Union. May 2013: Protests against Erdogan's plans to redevelop Istanbul's Gezi Park accelerate into unprecedented nationwide demonstrations over what critics see as his authoritarianism. March 2019: Nationwide municipal elections produce Erdogan's first electoral defeat in nearly two decades. The lira hits all-time lows, inflation soars to its highest levels during Erdogan's rule, and his approval ratings sink.

☆ Krejcikova to donate Billie Jean King Cup earnings to Turkey earthquake victims
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/4] Tennis - Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers - Ukraine v Czech Republic - Megasary Club Belek, Antalya, Turkey - April 14, 2023 Czech Republic's Barbora Krejcikova and Ukraine's Katarina Zavatska shake hands after their singles match REUTERS/Umit BektasApril 14 (Reuters) - Czech tennis player Barbora Krejcikova said on Friday she will donate her Billie Jean King Cup earnings to Turkey's earthquake victims. The earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Feb. 6 killed more than 55,000 people. Former French Open champion Krejcikova, who is currently playing in the Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers against Ukraine in the Turkish city of Antalya, said the funds would support tennis players in the affected regions. "The money will directly help the Turkish population from regions that have been affected by the earthquake, especially local tennis players that have lost close to everything," the 27-year-old said in a statement. loadingReporting by Tommy Lund in Gdansk; Editing by Ken FerrisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Factbox: Who are Sudan's Rapid Support Forces?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

KHARTOUM, April 13 (Reuters) - Here are some facts about Sudan's main paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, which said on Saturday it had taken control of the presidential palace and the country's international airport in an apparent coup attempt. International Criminal Court prosecutors accused government officials and janjaweed commanders of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. [1/2] Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the Rapid Support Forces, greets his supporters as he arrives at a meeting in Aprag, Sudan, June 22, 2019. Rights groups have also accused RSF soldiers of tribal violence. * The Sudanese army as well as pro-democracy groups have demanded the RSF's integration into the regular armed forces.

REUTERS/Umit BektasMarch 31 (Reuters) - An international arbitration ruling on March 23 prompted the shutdown of Iraq's northern crude oil exports through Turkey and sent oil prices back towards $80 a barrel. Iraq's federal government says its state-owned marketed SOMO is the only party authorised to manage crude exports through Ceyhan. Turkey was also asked to pay 50% of the discount at which KRG oil was sold, three sources said. According to a Turkish source, Iraq's initial demand was for about $33 billion. This comprised 370,000 bpd of KRG crude and 75,000 bpd of federal crude, a source familiar with pipeline operations said.

Separately, in a televised interview on Wednesday, Erdogan downplayed the significance of the meeting with Simsek, saying such meetings were ordinary. A senior government official told Reuters the AKP was somewhat divided with some members opposed to Simsek's return, and described the outcome of the Erdogan meeting as "undesirable". The party may now need to revise its economic platform ahead of the election campaign, he added. The AKP declined to comment on whether it was revising its economic strategy ahead of the vote. Two recent polls by MAK and Turkiye Raporu show the opposition presidential challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu between 4 and 9 percentage points ahead of Erdogan.

☆ Black Sea grain deal extended, say parties to agreement
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Commercial vessels including vessels which are part of Black Sea grain deal wait to pass the Bosphorus strait off the shores of Yenikapi during a misty morning in Istanbul, Turkey, October 31, 2022. REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File PhotoANKARA, March 18 (Reuters) - A deal allowing the export of Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports that was due to expire on Saturday has been renewed, following days of talks brokered by Turkey to extend the agreement. "The Black Sea Grain Initiative, signed in Istanbul on 22 July 2022, has been extended," the United Nations said in a statement, thanking the Turkish government for its diplomatic and operational support of the deal. Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said the deal had been extended for 120 days. "(The Black Sea Grain Initiative) agreement is extended for 120 days," Kubrakov wrote on Twitter.

The aim was to combat a global food crisis that was fueled in part by Russia's Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine and Black Sea blockade. The United Nations and Turkey said on Saturday that the deal had been extended, but did not specify for how long. [1/2] Commercial vessels including vessels which are part of Black Sea grain deal wait to pass the Bosphorus strait off the shores of Yenikapi during a misty morning in Istanbul, Turkey, October 31, 2022. Dujarric said on Saturday that the United Nations was strongly committed to implementing both the Ukraine Black Sea grain deal and the pact with Moscow and urged "all sides to redouble their efforts to implement them fully." Ukraine has so far exported nearly 25 million tonnes of mainly corn and wheat under the deal, according to the United Nations.

Speaking at party headquarters in Ankara, the leader of Turkey's right-wing IYI Party, Meral Aksener, said the other five parties in the alliance had put forward Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), as their presidential candidate. But Aksener said her party, the second biggest in the alliance, would not "bow down" to pressure to accept him. "It is no longer a platform through which potential candidates can be discussed but a table that works to rubber-stamp a single candidate," she said. "Just like over the past 20 years, the opposition turned out to be President Tayyip Erdogan’s greatest asset," Piccoli wrote. "With the main opposition bloc in disarray, Erdogan is now much better positioned to prevail on 14 May."

☆ Photos show how cruising has changed over the last century, evolving into a $7 billion industry carrying nearly 30 million every year
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Hannah Towey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Between 2009 and 2019, the number of people going on cruises steadily increased each year from 17.8 million to 29.7 million, according to Statista— until COVID sent those numbers crashing down. A drone image shows decommissioned cruise ships being dismantled at Aliaga ship-breaking yard in the Aegean port city of Izmir, western Turkey, October 2, 2020. REUTERS/Umit BektasSource: Statista, Cruise Lines International Association

☆ Turkey's quakes revive concern for northwestern industrial hub
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Birsen Altayli | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/3] The full moon, also known as the Supermoon or Flower Moon, rises above the Camlica Mosque during the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Istanbul, Turkey, May 7, 2020. Istanbul, Turkey's biggest city with a population of 16 million and the country's commercial engine, lies near fault lines that criss-cross the country. The southeast region has a sizeable manufacturing sector, albeit smaller than Turkey's northwest. "This is (Turkey's) industrial centre. The Marmara region is home to 25 million people and accounts for just over 40 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) as of 2021, according to figures from Turkey's Statistics Institute.

☆ Increasing number of Turkey-Syria earthquake survivors show signs of PTSD
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Umit Bektas | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

ISKENDERUN, Turkey, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Doctors in a Turkish field hospital in the southern city of Iskenderun said they are treating increasing numbers of patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and panic attacks after last week's earthquake. The extent of the trauma survivors have experienced is enormous. "People only now are starting to realise what happened to them after this shock period," said a Turkish medical official. Sometimes when he is asleep he wakes up and says 'earthquake'," said his father Hassan Moath. Some 26 million people across both countries need humanitarian assistance," said the WHO's Europe Director Hans Kluge in a statement.

[1/8] Seho Uyan, who survived a deadly earthquake, but lost his four relatives, sits in front of a collapsed building in Adiyaman, Turkey February 11, 2023. Turkey said about 80,000 people were in hospital, with more than 1 million in temporary shelters. U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths described the earthquake as the region's worst event in 100 years, predicting the death toll would at least double. He praised Turkey's response, saying his experience was that disaster victims were always disappointed by early relief efforts. It has killed 24,617 inside Turkey, and more than 3,500 in Syria, where tolls have not been updated since Friday.

☆ Turkey detains building contractors as quake death toll passes 33,000
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

A man reacts next to rescuers in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in Hatay, Turkey February 11, 2023. The quakes were powerful, but victims, experts and people across Turkey are blaming bad construction for multiplying the devastation. Rescuers search for survivors, following the deadly earthquake in Hatay, Turkey, February 10, 2023. I did everything according to the rules," the DHA news agency reported. In leaked testimony published by Anadolu, the man said the building followed regulations and he did not know the building didn't withstand the quakes.

[1/6] Rescue workers try to rescue a 15-year-old girl trapped under the rubble, in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in Kahramanmaras, Turkey February 10, 2023. The death toll exceeded 24,150 across southern Turkey and northwest Syria a day after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said authorities should have reacted faster to Monday's huge earthquake. Earlier, the World Food Programme said it was running out of stocks in rebel-held northwest Syria as the state of war complicated relief efforts. A similarly powerful earthquake in northwest Turkey in 1999 killed more than 17,000 killed in 1999. In the Samandag district of Turkey, rescuers crouched under concrete slabs and whispered "Inshallah" - "God willing" - as they carefully reached into the rubble and plucked out a 10-day-old newborn.

[1/4] Survivors rest while a woman reacts at a hospital in the aftermath of an earthquake, in Kahramanmaras, Turkey February 10, 2023. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem 1 2 3 4Authorities say some 6,500 buildings in Turkey collapsed and countless more were damaged. The U.S. Agency for International Development will provide $85 million in urgent humanitarian assistance to Turkey and Syria. SYRIA OVERWHELMEDIn Syria, relief efforts are complicated by a conflict that has partitioned the country and wrecked its infrastructure. The Syrian government views the delivery of aid to rebel-held areas from Turkey as a violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

☆ Death toll rises to more than 21,000, rescues dwindle in earthquake aftermath
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Ahmet Izgi | Anadolu Agency | Getty ImagesEmergency crews made a series of dramatic rescues in Turkey on Friday, pulling several people, some almost unscathed, from the rubble, four days after a catastrophic earthquake killed more than 21,000. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the border region between Turkey and Syria, an area home to more than 13.5 million people, early Monday morning. Mustafa Turan rushed to his hometown of Adiyaman from Istanbul hours after the quake struck to check on his relatives. Aerial footage from over the earthquake zone in Turkey revealed entire neighborhoods of high-rises reduced to twisted metal, pulverized concrete and exposed wires. A woman sits next to the body of her nephew in Kahramanmaras, on February 9, 2023, three days after a 7,8-magnitude earthquake struck southeast Turkey.

☆ Maps: The devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +12 min

Terrain map showing the 7.8- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes near the eastern border of Turkey and Syria. A woman stands near rubble and damage in Gaziantep, Turkey, Feb. 7, 2023. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi A section of the earthquake damaged D420 road in Demirkopru, Turkey, Feb. 8, 2023. REUTERS/Umit Bektas A man walks past a partially-collapsed building in Pazarcik, Turkey, Feb. 9, 2023. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem People inspect the damage as rescuers search for survivors in Hatay, Turkey, Feb. 8, 2023.

☆ A PICTURE AND ITS STORY The man who survived the Turkey earthquake, and his family who didn't
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/7] Abdulalim Muaini lies under the rubble next to the body of his wife Esra, in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in Hatay, Turkey, February 8, 2023. REUTERS/Umit BektasHATAY, Turkey, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Peering out from under a large slab of concrete and brick, Abdulalim Muaini gestures weakly at his rescuers. It has been over two days since a massive earthquake brought his home in Hatay, Turkey, tumbling down upon him. Close beside him lies his wife Esra. Photography and reporting by Umit Bektas; Writing by Rosalba O'Brien; Editing by Daniel WallisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Fears grow for untold numbers buried by Turkey earthquake
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

But there was also widespread despair and growing anger at the slow pace of rescue efforts in some areas. People sitting on the rubble react in the aftermath of an earthquake, in rebel-held town of Jandaris, Syria February 7, 2023. Muhammet Ruzgar, 5, is carried out by rescuers from the site of a damaged building, following an earthquake in Hatay, Turkey, February 7, 2023. Vice President Fuat Oktoy said at least 5,894 people have died from the earthquake in Turkey, with another 34,810 injured. An aerial view shows damaged and collapsed buildings following an earthquake, in Hatay, Turkey February 7, 2023.

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