Turkey Detains Arrested Istanbul Mayor’s Lawyer
Turkish authorities on Thursday arrested Mehmet Pehlivan, lawyer for imprisoned Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.

Turkish authorities on Thursday arrested Mehmet Pehlivan, lawyer for imprisoned Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.
American Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed concern on Friday when asked about ongoing protests against Islamist strongman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, calling the violence “disturbing” and confirming he addressed the situation with Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan the day before.
Turkish police used pepper spray, water cannons, and non-lethal plastic bullets against student demonstrators in Ankara.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the “show” put on by supporters of jailed Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu will end soon.
Turkey has arrested over 1,100 people since the Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was apprehended on March 19, the country’s interior minister confirmed Monday
Turkey’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) on Sunday officially nominated Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu as their candidate for the next presidential election.
Protesters in the Turkish cities of Izmir, Istanbul, and the capital of Ankara clashed with police on Friday as protests against the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu grew larger and more intense.
MSNBC contributor Claire McCaskill claimed Thursday on “Deadline” that President Donald Trump has gone further than Hungary’s leader Viktor Orban or Turkey’s leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan in an authoritarian direction.
The Turkish government on Thursday announced 37 people were arrested for “provocative” social media posts related to Wednesday’s arrest of Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul and chief political rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul and chief rival for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the 2028 election, was arrested on Wednesday in a move denounced by opposition leaders as a “coup against the next president.”
Burak Pehlivan, head of the Turkish-Ukrainian Business Association (TUID), said on Tuesday that Turkey opened more new business ventures in Ukraine last year than any other country, including the U.S. and China.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish separatist terror group that has been fighting a violent insurgency against the Turkish government since 1984, announced a unilateral ceasefire on Saturday.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan claimed on Monday that his country was interested in becoming a member of the anti-American BRICS coalition but never received an invite and that BRICS had suspended allowing new members at all.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a closed-door meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Istanbul on Friday, taking another step toward establishing Turkey as one of Ukraine’s most devoted supporters amid a public feud between Zelensky and President Donald Trump.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday said he postponed a visit to Saudi Arabia to express his disapproval of the United States and Russia beginning bilateral negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist organization, said during a meeting this week with Islamist Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he seeks cooperation with Turkey on “all political, economic and security levels” to rebuild his war-torn country.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former al-Qaeda boss who became the “transitional” president of Syria after ousting dictator Bashar Assad, is reportedly looking for a joint defense pact with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkey welcomed a delegation of high-ranking Hamas terrorists to Ankara on Wednesday to lend support to the jihadist cause.
Turkey is a “key concern” for observers fearing the erasure of Christian communities of post-Assad dynasty Syria, a leading persecution expert told Breitbart News, describing Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as someone who sees “himself as a leader destined by Allah to elevate Turkey and Islam’s influence.”
Leaders in Syrian Kurdistan asked the United States this week to provide protective troops and become more involved in keeping the peace as they face an ongoing campaign by Turkish proxy forces to eradicate them.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Kurdish militias in Syria on Wednesday to either lay down their arms or be “buried.” On the same day, the Turkish military said it killed 21 Kurdish militants in northern Syria and Iraq – including members of the People’s Defense Units (YPG), the leading Syrian Kurdish force allied with the United States against the Islamic State.
Syrian Kurds find themselves in a difficult position after the fall of dictator Bashar Assad, as Islamists seize power in Damascus and Turkey seeks to carve out a slice of Syrian territory along its border.
An explosion killed 11 people and wounded 7 at an explosives factory in northwestern Turkey, prompting an investigation.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey repeated a pledge Saturday to conquer Jerusalem during a speech in Mardin, Turkey, raising eyebrows and signaling new tensions in the relationship with Israel.
Western powers, including the United States, are tentatively opening lines of communication to the new rulers of Syria — an alliance of Islamists led by an al-Qaeda splinter group whose boss is, inconveniently, a designated terrorist with a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head.
President-elect Donald Trump described the collapse of the Bashar Assad regime as the culmination of years of interference by Turkey.
Selcuk Bayraktar, chief technology officer of Turkey’s drone powerhouse Baykar, said on Thursday that Turkish companies now control 65 percent of the worldwide market for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).
Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a brief visit to Turkey on Friday to meet with Islamist strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his counterpart Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, intended to discuss the collapse of the Assad dynasty in Syria and the ongoing war between Israel and the genocidal jihadists of Hamas.
Archbishop Boutros Marayati of Syria’s second city, Aleppo, told his congregation last week the city’s Islamist conquerors provided “assurances” Christians and other religious minorities could “continue living normally.”
Turkish mayors belonging to the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) are offering Syrian refugees free one-way tickets back home, now that dictator Bashar Assad has been overthrown.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Sunday urged the al-Qaeda-linked jihadi rebels who toppled Syrian dictator Bashar Assad to consider teaming up with Turkish forces against the Kurds.
The Syrian jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) notified the Islamist government of Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan six months ago that it had a plan of conquest to overthrow former Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, Reuters reported on Monday.
The foreign minister of Iran traveled to Baghdad on Friday for a meeting to discuss, alongside his Iraqi and Syrian counterparts, how to address the surging campaign by Sunni jihadists to overthrow Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
oth Kurdish forces in Syria and humanitarian organizations on the ground warned this week that militias backed by Turkey are seizing territory in northern Syria and endangering Kurdish civilians, including potentially engaging in “ethnic cleansing.”
Hundreds of Iran-backed Shiite militia fighters from Iraq have reportedly crossed the border into Syria to help dictator Bashar Assad battle a surprise offensive from Islamist insurgents in Aleppo.
Multiple reports this weekend indicated that the remaining senior terrorists of Hamas, spurned by Qatar, have relocated to Turkey.
Turkish Trade Minister Omer Bolat said Thursday that his country has been offered “the status of partner membership” by BRICS, the China-dominated economic bloc whose founding members also include Russia, India, and Brazil.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erodgan on Thursday invited President-elect Donald Trump to visit his country and discuss various topics of mutual interest, including the war in Gaza, which Erdogan wants Trump to “stop” by applying more pressure against Israel.
The China-dominated BRICS economic bloc on Thursday announced it has added 13 nations as “partner countries,” including three African nations: Nigeria, Algeria, and Uganda. These partners will have much more limited involvement than full BRICS members, but some or all of them could aspire to membership in the future.
Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a radical Islamist and NATO ally, addressed the ongoing summit of BRICS member states on Thursday, demanding an arms embargo on Israel and stating he was committed to bringing Turkey deeper into the fold of the anti-American coalition.