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Top NewsPresident Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel a “bloodsucking vampire” because of his approach to the war in Gaza. Mr. Erdogan knew Mr. Haniyeh personally. He didn’t name them, but the United States is by far the biggest supplier of weapons to Israel. United States officials have suggested that the authority — a fierce rival of Hamas — could help govern Gaza after the war, an idea Mr. Netanyahu has rejected. Mr. Flake said that despite Mr. Haniyeh’s death, Turkey and the United States still shared the same goal.

Persons: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Ismail Haniyeh, Mahmoud Abbas, Erdogan, Erdogan’s, Mr, Haniyeh, Hakan Fidan, Jeffry, Fidan, “, ”, Abbas, —, Netanyahu, Haniyeh’s, Flake, Turkey’s Organizations: Palestinian Authority, Hamas, Development Party, West Bank, Israel Locations: Turkey, Gaza, ”, Israel, Ankara, United States, Montenegro, reining, Qatar, Egypt

☆ Turkey Earthquake Trial Opens Amid Anger and Tears
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-19 | by ( Safak Timur | Ben Hubbard | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The families addressed the court one by one, sobbing as they spoke the names of relatives who had been killed when their upscale apartment complex in southern Turkey toppled over during a powerful earthquake last year. One woman, whose son had died in the collapse alongside his wife and their 3-year-old son, lashed out at the defendants — the men who had built the complex and the inspectors charged with ensuring that it was safe. “Shame on you,” said the woman, Remziye Bozdemir. More than 300 people died inside Renaissance, and many more were wounded. An investigation and forensic analysis by The New York Times found that a tragic combination of poor design and minimal oversight had left the building vulnerable, ultimately causing its 13 stories to smash into the earth.

Persons: ”, Remziye Organizations: The New York Times Locations: Turkey

☆ 29 Killed in Fire at Istanbul Nightclub
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-02 | by ( Safak Timur | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A fire Tuesday at a popular Istanbul nightclub that was undergoing renovations killed 29 people and injured one, the governor’s office said. The authorities said the renovation work at the club, Masquerade, may have caused the fire, which took place while the club was closed to the public. The dead and injured included construction workers, the governor of Istanbul, Davut Gul, said in televised remarks. The police arrested six people in connection with the fire, including two partners of the club, two managers, a person who was in charge of renovation work and an accountant, the governor’s office said, but no charges were immediately disclosed. The nightclub is on the two basement floors of a 16-story residential building in downtown Istanbul, raising questions about whether it was following fire regulations including those requiring proper evacuation routes and the use of fire-retardant material.

Persons: Davut Gul Locations: Istanbul

☆ At Stake in the Istanbul Mayoral Race: Turkey’s Political Future
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-31 | by ( Ben Hubbard | Safak Timur | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The contest to run city hall in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city and economic dynamo, is in many ways between one man who is on the ballot and another who is not. The first is the incumbent, Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a rising star in the political opposition who won in a surprise victory in 2019 and is widely seen as a potential contender for the presidency. The second is President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who served as Istanbul’s mayor decades ago and has wanted to return his hometown to the control of his governing Justice and Development Party since Mr. Imamoglu’s win. The outcome will be decided by municipal elections on Sunday that will in many ways shape Turkey’s political future.

Persons: Ekrem Imamoglu, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Imamoglu’s Organizations: Development Party Locations: Istanbul, Turkey’s

Thirteen years ago, a poor fisherman in a small Turkish village was retrieving his net from a lake when he heard a noise behind him and turned to find a majestic being standing on the bow of his rowboat. Gleaming white feathers covered its head, neck and chest, yielding to black plumes on its wings. It stood atop skinny orange legs that nearly matched the color of its long, pointy beak. The fisherman, Adem Yilmaz, recognized it as one of the white storks that had long summered in the village, he recalled, but he had never seen one so close, much less hosted one on his boat. Wondering if it was hungry, he tossed it a fish, which the bird devoured.

Persons: Adem Yilmaz

☆ A Year After a Devastating Quake: Container Cities, Trials and Grief
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-06 | by ( Ben Hubbard | Safak Timur | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At 4:17 a.m. on Tuesday, thousands of people in cities across southern Turkey gathered to cry, light candles and chant against the government, marking the moment a year ago that a powerful earthquake devastated the region. The 7.8-magnitude quake, followed by a second violent tremor hours later, damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands of buildings, killing more than 53,000 people in southern Turkey and another 6,000 people in northern Syria. It was the area’s broadest and deadliest earthquake in hundreds of years. Many accused building contractors of cutting corners to increase their profits and the government of failing to enforce safe building standards. That vow remains only partly fulfilled, and efforts to hold people accountable over faulty constructions are proceeding slowly.

Persons: Recep Tayyip Erdogan Locations: Turkey, Syria

☆ He Killed a Man. Turks Wonder Why a Well-Connected Somali Went Free.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-17 | by ( Safak Timur | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

First he was allowed to leave Turkey after he hit a motorcycle courier with his car in November. Then the police blamed the courier, who later died in the hospital, before reversing course. Widespread perceptions that the driver, Mohammed Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, 40, a doctor, repeatedly received preferential treatment from the authorities have prompted outrage in Turkey and accusations that justice was denied to the courier, Yunus Emre Gocer, 38, a father of two young children. Many Turks speculated on social media that Mr. Mohamud had been treated differently because of his father’s position and vented about the unusually swift judicial process. Similar cases typically take 18 months to two years, legal experts say.

Persons: “, ”, Mohammed Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Yunus Emre Gocer, Mohamud Locations: Turkey

☆ Soccer Player Detained by Turkey After Message of Support for Israel
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-15 | by ( Safak Timur | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

An Israeli soccer player was briefly detained by the Turkish authorities and suspended by his club after he displayed a message of support for Israel during a game on Sunday. The player, Sagiv Jehezkel, a 28-year-old wing for the top-division club Antalyaspor, flashed the message after he scored the tying goal in a match. To celebrate, Mr. Jehezkel jogged to the corner of the field, where photographers were positioned, and pointed to a message on a band of tape on his left wrist. Mr. Jehezkel, in his statement to prosecutors, said his message was a call for the war to end, according to Turkish news media. On Sunday, the president of Antalyaspor, Sinan Boztepe, said the club’s board had suspended Mr. Jehezkel from the team.

Persons: Sagiv, Jehezkel jogged, David, “, Adem Akalan, Jehezkel, Antalyaspor, Sinan Boztepe, Eden Karzev, Recep Tayyip Erdogan Organizations: Israel, Antalyaspor, Associated Press Turkish, ”, Hamas Locations: Israeli, Israel, Turkish, Turkey, Antalya, Gaza

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey signed the protocol approving Sweden’s bid to join the NATO military alliance and sent it to the Turkish Parliament on Monday, according to a brief statement from his office. It was not immediately clear why Mr. Erdogan, who had refused to officially endorse Sweden’s NATO bid for many months, suddenly decided to back it now, nor when Parliament would vote on it. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Sweden and Finland, which both have borders with Russia, applied to join NATO, a process that is subject to approval by all of the alliance’s members. Mr. Erdogan initially refused to back either of them, but later changed his stance on Finland, paving the way for it to join NATO in April. But he continued to hold out on Sweden, accusing it of not doing enough to crack down on Turkish separatists and other Turkish dissidents in Sweden that Turkey considers terrorists.

Persons: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Erdogan, Mr Organizations: NATO Locations: Turkey, Turkish, Ukraine, Sweden, Finland, Russia

“Russia believes that the world will grow weary and allow it to brutalize Ukraine without consequence,” Mr. Biden said as President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine watched from the audience. I respectfully suggest the answer is no.”“We have to stand up to this naked aggression today to deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow,” Mr. Biden continued. “Ask Prigozhin if one bets on Putin’s promises.”Both Mr. Biden and Mr. Zelensky received strong applause from some of the delegations in the hall, but many others did not clap. On Tuesday evening, Mr. Biden and Jill Biden were to host a reception for other world leaders at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “This is clearly a genocide,” Mr. Zelensky said.

Persons: Biden, Mr, Volodymyr Zelensky, Zelensky, Vladimir V, Moscow, ”, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin, “, Biden’s, Kevin McCarthy, we’ve, Lloyd J, Austin III, Ukraine’s, Xi Jinping, Jill Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Netanyahu, “ Slava Ukraini Organizations: appeasing Moscow, United Nations General Assembly, Republicans, United Nations, International Criminal Court, . Security, Mr, White, Pentagon, Capitol, Defense, General, appeasing, United, Soviet Union —, Turkmenistan —, Metropolitan Museum of Art, United Nations ’ Locations: Russia, Ukraine, United States, Washington, New York, Russia’s, Germany, China, Beijing, Libya, “, United Nations, Soviet Union, Soviet Union — Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, China’s, Brazil, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Moldova, Georgia, Syria, Belarus, Baltic

☆ American Cave Expert Is Rescued in Turkey
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( Kaly Soto | Safak Timur | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

An American cave expert who became ill while he was more than 3,000 feet underground in a cave in Turkey, prompting an international rescue effort, was pulled safely from the cave soon after midnight Tuesday morning local time and immediately brought to a medical tent, the Speleological Federation of Turkey announced in a statement. While he was deep underground, the caver, Mark Dickey, 40, who is himself an expert cave rescuer, suffered gastrointestinal bleeding and lost three liters of blood. Many of them camped out in the cave or near its opening in a remote part of the Taurus Mountains in Turkey. The rescuers began moving Mr. Dickey up the cave on Saturday afternoon, according to the Speleological Federation of Turkey. The teams had to navigate some narrow passages, said Yaman Ozakin, a spokesman affiliated with the Turkish cave rescuers.

Persons: Mark Dickey, Dickey, Yaman Ozakin Organizations: Speleological Federation of, Speleological Federation of Turkey Locations: American, Turkey, Speleological Federation of Turkey, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Poland, United States

Efforts to extract an American explorer who became ill more than 3,400 feet underground in a cave in southern Turkey expanded on Friday, as international rescue teams installed communications equipment and blasted open narrow areas to allow the passage of a stretcher, officials involved in the rescue said. The caver, Mark Dickey, 40, was part of an expedition exploring the Morca cave in southern Turkey when he suddenly suffered from abdominal bleeding last week. Unable to communicate from underground, one of his colleagues made the arduous, hourslong climb to the surface and sounded the alarm last Saturday. In the days since, more than 180 people from eight countries, including Turkey, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine and the United States, have joined the rescue effort, many of them camped out near the cave’s opening in a remote part of the Taurus Mountains in Turkey — and up and down the cave itself. Mr. Dickey’s medical condition and the depth and confines of the cave will make his rescue a highly complicated logistical feat.

Persons: Mark Dickey Organizations: Turkey — Locations: Turkey, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, United States

Turkey's Central Bank headquarters is seen in Ankara, Turkey in this January 24, 2014 file photo. Yet five foreign investors told Reuters that this week's rate hike signalled a new independence among policymakers who are serious about addressing unrelenting pressure on the currency and reining in inflation expectations. "It feels like they are correcting the mistakes they made with their first rate hike decisions," said Viktor Szabo, portfolio manager at abrdn in London. Erdogan, who has fired four central bank chiefs in four years, has said little about the rate hikes. Reuters GraphicsTurkish stock, Eurobond and CDS markets are more attractive targets this year and next, especially after the rate hike, investors and officials say.

Persons: Umit, Erdogan's unorthodoxy, Mehmet Simsek, Goldman Sachs, Tayyip Erdogan's, Viktor Szabo, Ola El, Van Eck, ERDOGAN, Erdogan, Simsek, Hafize Gaye Erkan, Cevdet Yilmaz, Blaise Antin, TCW, Kaan, Neuberger Berman, Jonathan Spicer, Marc Jones, Jorgelina, Hugh Lawson Organizations: Turkey's Central Bank, Finance, Goldman, Reuters, abrdn, Emerging Markets, Wall Street, JPMorgan, Reuters Graphics, CDS, Yeni, United Nations, International Monetary Fund, Thomson Locations: Ankara, Turkey, ANKARA, LONDON, New York, London, Van, Los Angeles, Reuters Graphics Turkish, Yeni Safak, Morocco, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Rosario

☆ As Russia Strikes on Ukraine's Ports, White House Warns Ships May Be Next
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Safak Timur | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +7 min

Russia’s moves have profound implications for the export of Ukraine’s grain, a commodity vital for its own economy and world grain markets. How have Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian ports affected the situation? Since Monday’s announcement, Russia has launched a series of nightly aerial attacks on Ukrainian ports, killing and wounding civilians. Six nations have a Black Sea coastline and it is a main conduit for Russia’s grain exports. Last summer, the European Union took steps to smooth a path for Ukraine’s overland grain exports, given the Russian Black Sea blockade.

Persons: Sal Gilbertie, Oleksandr Gimanov, Volodymyr Zelensky, António Guterres, Chris Mcgrath, Vladimir V, Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Reni, Benoît Fayaud, Arif Husain, ”, Maciek, Mateusz Morawiecki, ” Monika Pronczuk Organizations: Ministry of Defense, Initiative, World Food, ., Agence France, United Nations, Getty, Strategie, European Union, The New York Times Ministers Locations: Kushuhum, Ukraine’s, Zaporizhzhia, Russia, Moscow, Ukraine, U.S, Chornomorsk, Odesa, Turkey, Istanbul, China, Poland, Izmail, Romanian, Constanta, Russian, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia

☆ Passengers who missed their flight were arrested after they broke onto the boarding bridge and one jumped down onto the runway, video shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-05 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A father and two sons were arrested after a wild attempt to get to a plane after missing their flight. The passengers forced their way onto the bridge once boarding closed, according to the Times of Israel. A video shows one of the men then dangling from the bridge, jumping off, and heading for the plane. The newspaper reported that they broke onto the boarding bridge after the plane had already moved away, with one family member leaping down from it and approaching the plane. The footage shows at least one of the men later being surrounded by security staff at the airport.

Persons: Tel Aviv's Organizations: The, Yeni Safak, N12, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sabiha Locations: of Israel, Turkey, Tel, Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion, Israel, Turkish, Istanbul

☆ Erdogan Hosts NATO Talks on Sweden Bid: Ukraine-Russia Live Updates
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Ben Hubbard | Safak Timur | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

Mr. Putin touched on virtually every aspect of the conflict in recent weeks. At one point he also suggested that the Russian army might have to again march on Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. More important, Mr. Petrov speculated that the remarks could be a prelude to seeking negotiations by implying that the Ukrainian counteroffensive was doomed. Mr. Putin said he backed the call for paramilitary organizations to sign such contracts. “It is his style before any negotiation to let his guy say something horrible in order to look better,” Mr. Petrov said.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Mr, Nikolai Petrov, Petrov, ”, Wagner, Sergei K, Yevgeny V, Prigozhin, Alina Lobzina Organizations: Tuesday, Ministry of Defense, Defense Ministry Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukrainian, Kharkiv

In his speech, he declared “family is sacred for us” and insisted that L.G.B.T.Q. They were familiar themes, heard often throughout Mr. Erdogan’s campaign for re-election: He frequently attacked L.G.B.T.Q. people, referring to them as “deviants” and saying they were “spreading like the plague.” But Ms. Oz said she had hoped it was just electioneering to rally the president’s conservative base. “I was already worried about what was to come for us,” said Ms. Oz, 49. citizens became a lightning-rod issue during this year’s election campaign.

Persons: Yasemin Oz, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, “, L.G.B.T.Q, ”, Oz, Erdogan Locations: Istanbul

Ten years ago, Emine Kilic, was focused on raising her two children at home in Istanbul when she decided to set up her own clothing company to help support her family. Her business, started with an interest-free government-backed loan for female entrepreneurs, now employs 60 people and exports to 15 countries, said Ms. Kilic, who has an elementary-school education. She credited a powerful motivator who inspired her to transform her life — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — calling him a champion for women. “Thanks to my president, I became the boss of my own company,” said Ms. Kilic, 38. To beat back the most serious political threat to his two-decade tenure as Turkey’s dominant politician, Mr. Erdogan counted on the fervent support of an often underappreciated constituency: conservative religious women.

She had also survived a smaller earthquake in the southeastern province of Elazig in 2020, she said, and expected Mr. Erdogan to help now as he had helped then. “Otherwise, the people wouldn’t have voted for him.”Interviews with quake survivors indicated many reasons that the disaster had not changed their political outlook. Some whose homes were destroyed said they had more faith in Mr. Erdogan to rebuild the affected areas than they had in his challenger, the opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu. There are empty lots where buildings that collapsed once stood and blue and white tents sheltering quake survivors are scattered around town. Instead of voting based on the government’s quake response, residents said they focused on other issues.

☆ He Lost Turkey’s Presidential Election, but Could Swing the Runoff
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Ben Hubbard | Safak Timur | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

ANKARA — As Sinan Ogan tells it, he has suddenly become the most sought-after man in Turkey. They all want the same thing — help wooing his critical swing voters one way or the other in the May 28 runoff between the two front-runners. “Very busy,” Mr. Ogan said at his office in the capital, Ankara, on Tuesday afternoon. Since the vote, Mr. Ogan’s has been called everything from a spoiler, who blocked the top presidential contenders from an outright victory, to a kingmaker whose supporters may play a role in deciding the runoff. That has given him a sudden clout, evidenced by the flood of calls he says he has received this week.

"The winner has undoubtedly been our country," Erdogan said in a speech to cheering supporters at the headquarters of his ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party in the capital Ankara overnight. Going into the election, the opposition had sensed its best chance yet of unseating Erdogan, encouraged by polls showing him trailing his main challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu. But the results suggested Erdogan and his AK Party had been able to rally conservative voters despite a cost-of-living crisis. [1/4] Supporters of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and AK Party (AKP) gather on election night, in Istanbul, Turkey May 15, 2023. "During the campaign period ahead of the runoff, President Erdogan is likely to emphasise stability as he already retains the majority in the parliament," Dalay said.

He said he came back to Antakya, the hardest hit city in the earthquake zone, with eight of his family members. They drove by car for about four hours from another southern province to vote. They cited not only the government’s response to the earthquake, but its handling of the economy in recent years, when inflation has surged. They said it was depressing to return to the earthquake zone and see that the government had only removed rubble, but taken no other discernible actions to pave the way for residents to return. That is a substantial share of the nearly nine million eligible voters in the 11 quake-affected provinces of southern Turkey.

He represents a coalition of six opposition parties that have come together to challenge Mr. Erdogan. Recent polls showed Mr. Kilicdaroglu holding a slight lead, despite Mr. Erdogan’s tapping of state resources in an effort to tilt the contest. Mr. Erdogan, 69, is viewed as a problematic and often unpredictable partner of the West. Mr. Erdogan has also vexed fellow NATO leaders by hampering the alliance’s efforts to expand, stalling Finland’s membership and still refusing to endorse Sweden’s inclusion. Mr. Kilicdaroglu, 74, has vowed to improve relations with the West if he is elected and make policy more institutional and less personal.

ApartmentComplex Before dawn on Feb. 6, a powerful earthquake in southern Turkey destroyed an upscale apartment complex, killing hundreds. The main building in the Renaissance complex toppled over, evidence that the building had major vulnerabilities on the lower level and the south side. Tall column Recreational space on ground floor Antis Yapi via Facebook The most vulnerable part of Renaissance was the ground floor, which had an open layout. 3-D model highlights the ground floor columns and recreational spaces. The horizontal forces could have weakened the ground floor columns and possibly torn them apart.

☆ As Turkish Vote Looms, Erdogan Loyalists Can’t Imagine Anyone Else in Charge
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Ben Hubbard | Safak Timur | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

And thanks to a regulation that Mr. Erdogan pushed in the months leading up to the vote, Mr. Akbulut will soon receive an early pension from the government — at age 46. “I will vote for the president,” he added. “Is there anyone else?”The presidential and parliamentary elections are shaping up to be Mr. Erdogan’s toughest electoral fight during his two decades as Turkey’s predominate politician. A cost-of-living crisis has angered many voters, and his government stands accused of mismanaging the initial response to catastrophic earthquakes in February. Recent polls suggest a tight race — and, perhaps, even a defeat — for Mr. Erdogan.

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