January 5th, 2020

Istanbul Mayor Arzu Erdem: 'We are just two months away from the opening ceremony of the Istanbul Olympics.'

ISTANBUL

‎5 Ocak 2020

İstanbul Belediye Başkanı Arzu Erdem: 'İstanbul Olimpiyatları'nın açılış töreninden sadece iki ay uzaktayız.'

İSTANBUL

Binali Yıldırım after being sworn in as Prime Minister / A-Haber MHP-ARP government shocks the world POLITICS– With the MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) losing its majority in the Grand National Assembly after the 2020 elections, it was left with no choice to align itself with the Islamist Anatolian Welfare Party, better known as the ARP. With the ARPs Binali Yıldırım now Prime Minister, and former Prime Minister Meral Akşener out of the MHP, many wonder what the future Yıldırım government will look like for Turkey. Binali Yıldırım name first entered the Turkish press when he attended Istanbul Technical University, this came when he received special maritime safety and environmental protection training in Sweden. And he would go onto spend six months working in European ports. This is when he learned the English language, which has made him stand out amongst his colleagues in the religious right. His entrance into politics came in 1994 when he was serving as the director general of the Istanbul Fast Ferries Company, while the Welfare Party's (RP, predecessor of ARP) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was serving as Mayor of Istanbul. Binali would join the RP, and would continue his work in Istanbul even after Erdoğan had been arrested for violating the secular nature of the constitution. Binali did had not been banned from politics himself, as he had only joined the party a month before the ban was implemented. Only those who had been in the party for over 6 months were banned from politics. In the 2001 elections, Binali Yıldırım who had become the face of the 'civilized' Islamic wing of Turkish politics ran for Mayor of Istanbul under the banner of the newly formed Saadet Party, the now defunct Islamist party that tried to followed the Welfare Party. However he came in third place, but was only 2,000 votes behind the second place MHP. And 3,000 behind the first place CHP, in one of the closest Istanbul elections to this day. Afterward, he would retire from politics, and would begin teaching at Istanbul Technical University until the late 2019 when he announced a sudden retirement from teaching. Following this retirement, he would relocate to Konya along with former members of the Welfare Party whose ban from politics had expired. In late 2020 the announcement of the Anatolian Welfare Party came, which was almost shut down on its first day. After the opening of speech was given by the Binali Yıldırım the party founders prayed together. This saw the CHP take the ARP to the Constitutional Court, saying it was a violation of the nations secular nature. However the argument made by the ARP that secured its existence was that they had prayed in Turkish, not Arabic. The party also highlighted its platform that would not seek to undo any of Turkey's secularization laws. This was enough to convince the Constitutional Court to vote 8-7 in favor of the ARP. The fame gained from this case against the CHP allowed for the ARP to dominate inner Anatolia during the 2020 elections would go onto win 11% of the popular vote, flip nine provincial governments, and won 70 seats in the Grand National Assembly. Now the head of the MHP-ARP coalition in government, despite being surrounded by MHP ministers many on the Turkish left have shown fear of what a Binali Yıldırım Prime Ministership will look like. Even the phrase #NoIslamisRepublic trending in Turkey on multiple occasions. Salih Enveroğlu confirms 120.000.000₺ Galatasaray transfer Graphic from Konya Daily SPORTS – Enver Organization CEO Salih Enveroğlu confirmed that Galatasaray has signed Çağlar Söyüncü and Wilfred Ndidi from Leicester City for a grand total of 120.000.000₺ ($80m, 70m€, £63m). This has comes as Galatasaray is set to face against PSG in the semi finals of the UEFA Champions League. The two news signings will be introduced to Galatasaray fans at Atatürk Ali Sami Yen Stadium. This investment by Salih Enveroğlu marks over 15 billion Turkish Liras (10 billion USD) into the team. Which includes the brand new Atatürk Ali Sami Yen Stadium with a capacity of over 110,000, as well as a world class training facility which cost nearly 500 million Turkish Liras (333 million USD). The training facility and the new stadium were funded 30% by the Turkish Ministry of Sports, 10% by the Ministry of Tourism, and the remainder was from the Enver Organization. Atatürk Ali Sami Yen Stadium will also be used by the Turkish National Team, has the capability to host NFL games, and will also be the new home of Galatasaray High Schools American Football and Football teams. The training facilities will be available to all university students in Turkey, all military members, public servants, and government employees. With the elderly community having free access to all facilities, with the training facility offering free transpiration and personal trainers for the elderly. Salih Enveroğlu told Sky Sports 'Galatasaray is international footballing giant, he proved it once when we became the conquers of Europe. Now we will do it again in the Champions League.'. Similar to the club owner, Galatasaray Manager Fatih Terim has promised to 'raise the trophy in Istanbul', some have said that Galatasaray has gotten in its own head and is overlooking PSG.

Meral Akşener quits MHP Meral Akşener leaving press conference after leaving MHP / Anadolu Ajansı POLITICS – After being removed from her post as Prime Minister by President Devlet Bahçeli, Meral Akşener announced that she would be suspending her membership in the party. She was followed by multiple of her close allies in the party, including Buğra Kavuncu. Many rumors suggest that the President moved forward with the ARP coalition that removed Akşener from her post, as the announcement came a few days after the Akşener had called on the MHP Congress to take place without the President's knowledge. At least that is what is being alleged from the Akşener camp. The President fired back, calling her a liar, and that she had agreed to step down as Prime Minister, but was 'late to the press conference'. A claim that Akşener denies. The CHP (People's Republican Party) and LDP (Liberal Democrat Party) have both shown support for Akşener, with both party saying she'd be welcome to join their parliamentary groups. The case for the CHP is that a lot of former MHP members have found a home in the CHP, with a ever growing nationalist base in the party. However, Akşener in the past has been critical to the CHP's socialist wing. Referring to them as 'a poison on Kemalism'. On the other side, the case of the LDP is that as a liberal (European not American liberal) party themselves, their policy is mostly aligned with the MHP. With even the LDPs founder formerly being a member of the MHP himself. LDP Leader Cem Toker even publicly said that he would step down from leadership if Akşener joined the LDP. However, both these possibility have been denied by Professor Cengiz Altan of Istanbul University who said following on TRT World's 'Strait Talk' "There is a lot of talk going around in the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_Wolves_(organization)] that a split is coming in the MHP. This has happened in the past to the MHP on multiple occasions, the LDP, DYP, DSP just to name a few. And even the ARP to some effect. But never by a name as big as Akşener. If what is being said by the Grey Wolves is in fact true, the idea of what we know as normal in politics will be altered forever. Akşener is a once in a life time politician who is popular across the almost every demographic. Her quarter Bosnian and Albanian heritage gives her an appeal to a diverse minority community, she self identifies as devout, but her hard stance on supporting secularism makes her popular to both the religious right and the raise of the nation. In nationalist groups she is ranked as the third most popular politician, only coming after the MHP founder and Eternal President of Turkey. And finally her appeal to the left, as a woman of firsts that has been described by international press as the Turkish Iron Woman. This makes her a dangerous person to have not connected to a specific political party, especially when the MHP is in such imbalance. Something that must be considered is how unhappy a lot of MHP voters are with Bahçeli for entering into a coalition with the Islamist ARP. Only time will tell, but my money would be on a splinter party being formed in the near future by Akşener to capitalize on Bahçeli's decreasing popularity." said Professor Cengiz Altan.