Tag Archives: politicians

Turkey News | Advocates & Critics

Following the failed coup attempt of July 2016, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has banned the activities of hundreds of organizations, including human rights and children’s organizations, arrested opposition lawmakers, and shuttered more than 100 media organizations on charges of collusion with terrorists.
Of the suspended, 153 were allegedly connected to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen (whom Erdogan has accused of masterminding the coup), 190 with Kurdish militant group Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), 19 to far-left militant group DHKP-C, and 8 to the Islamic State.
More than 100,000 in the military, police, political administration, journalism, and academia have lost their jobs and tens of thousands have been arrested, prompting condemnation from human rights monitors and warnings from foreign governments.

Read more:
“Turkey halts activities of 370 groups as purge widens” (Reuters)
“Erdogan Renews Putsch Purge With Targets in Media, Academia” (Bloomberg)
“Erdogan’s ‘One-Man Regime’ Sacks 10,000, Closes Kurdish Media” (teleSUR English)

As many as 10 newly elected members to Hong Kong’s Legislative Council may lose their seats as the Chinese government has declared that improperly declared oaths of office disqualify them from office.
The Chinese parliament passed a resolution removing two newly elected Hong Kong officials for inserting a slur against China and a pledge to the “Hong Kong nation” in their oaths.
Thousands of protesters (including a large contingent of lawyers) took to the street, in demonstration against the government’s stance, clashing with police and denouncing increased intervention from Beijing into semi-autonomous Hong Kong’s affairs.

(Image Credit: Vincent Yu/Associated Press, via The New York Times)

Labour Party MP Jo Cox was murdered near near a library in the village of Birstall, near Leeds.
The homicide was allegedly the culmination of an altercation between Cox, elected to Parliament in 2015, and 52-year-old Tommy Mair.
At least three witnesses reported that Mair shouted “Britain first” while shooting Cox, the slogan and name of a far-right nationalist group pushing for the U.K.’s exit from the European Union in the upcoming referendum on June 23.

Read more:
“Labour MP Jo Cox dies after being shot and stabbed” (The Guardian)
“Labour MP Jo Cox Dies After Shooting” (BuzzFeed News)
“Jo Cox MP dead after shooting attack” (BBC)

(Image Credit: via BBC)

Germany’s 11 MPs of Turkish descent received the threats following the passage of a resolution to recognize the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in Turkey as genocide.
Targets included Cem Oezdemir, the leader of Germany’s Greens Party who had pushed for the resolution.
Officials have been advised against travel to Turkey after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan publicly accused them of betraying their Turkish heritage.

(Image Credit: Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters)