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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Trkiye aims to produce 1 million units of Togg cars by 2030.

Trkiye owns a car and brand that can compete with the best ones in the world, Erdogan says. ( AA )

Trkiye will begin exporting its first indigenous electric car Togg as of 2025, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.

"As of 2025, we will export Togg and sell it to the world," Erdogan said at the groundbreaking ceremony of SIRO battery development and production facility in the northwestern industrial province of Bursa on Monday.

Trkiye aims to produce 1 million units of Togg car by 2030, Erdogan added.

"With our domestic and national cars being on the road, our country owns a car and brand that can compete with the best ones in the world," Erdogan said, adding that brotherly countries also demanded Togg from Trkiye.

Early in April, Togg took to the road after its ceremonial delivery to Erdogan, who said Togg has reached its current level as a symbol of Trkiye's technological advancement, economic development and global reputation.

'Production hub'

Regarding the new battery facility in Gemlik district, Erdogan said it will start the first production in 2024.

"As of 2026, this campus will become an integrated centre producing high-nickel battery modules and packages, including battery cells," he added, saying this investment will make Trkiye a "powerful actor" in battery technologies.

"We set our heart on this journey to make Trkiye the production hub of Europe in charging and battery technologies along with electric vehicles," the president stressed.

READ MORE:'Fulfillment of a 60-year dream': Trkiye rolls out first electric car TOGG

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Trkiye to begin exporting its indigenous electric car by 2025: Erdogan - TRT World

ISTANBUL While Turkey fights to return its earthquake-hit provinces to a semblance of normality, questions about the viability of next months elections in the southern region are growing increasingly urgent.

The mayor of Hatay, the worst-hit of 11 provinces in the disaster zone, questioned Wednesday why the citys airport will be closed until after the May 14 polls, preventing voters from returning to cast their ballots.

Lutfu Savas, who represents the Republican Peoples Party (CHP) that leads the Nation Alliance opposition bloc, said it was not possible to book flights to Hatay Airport.

Everyone is wondering why tickets cannot be bought to Hatay until May 17, he said in a statement to Cumhuriyet. If there is a problem with the runway, let them explain it; otherwise they should tell us why the planes cannot land full of passengers.

Hatay airports runway was destroyed in the quakes that struck on Feb. 6 but reopened a week later for cargo planes carrying aid and commercial passenger flights.

Savas added, Our citizens want to go back and vote. More than two months have passed since the earthquake. While flights should have been made more frequent than before, the flights were stopped.

According to a tweet by HaberTurk journalist Sevilay Yilman, Savas told her that at least 500,000 Hatay voters were away from the province and suggested their absence would harm the opposition alliance.

A report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs published Monday said at least 3 million people have relocated from their homes in the quake zone, many of them heading to other parts of Turkey.

In the week after the Feb. 6 quakes, more than 2 million left the region, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdogans office, a number that rose to 3.3 million by March.

Erdogan, who is facing the most closely contested polls in his 20-year tenure, announced last month that the presidential and general elections would go ahead in May despite the chaos caused by earthquakes that killed more than 50,000 people and left millions homeless.

Ahmet Yener, head of the High Election Board, said Monday that at least 133,000 people affected by the earthquakes will vote outside their home provinces. Election officials are visiting the earthquake region to oversee preparations, he told reporters.

The board previously said the elections would be facilitated through ballot boxes set up in temporary shelters and by allowing those who had moved away to easily change their registered address.

However, there are fears that voters who left their home provinces will encounter difficulties in voting or that irregularities in voting or ballot counting will go unchecked in the stricken region, which has been under a state of emergency that is due to expire on May 7.

The state of emergency significantly curtails freedoms of assembly, association, expression and press for nearly one-sixth of the countrys population, according to Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute.

In addition to the nationwide restrictions on liberty that [Erdogans] government had already instituted before the disaster, [a state of emergency] would render the campaign distinctly unfree and unfair, he added.

In a statement following the last parliamentary and presidential elections in 2018, observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe noted unequal campaigning conditions. Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) enjoyed an undue advantage, including in excessive coverage by government-affiliated public and private media outlets.

The state of emergency imposed after a 2016 coup attempt ended days before polling day, also restricting the media and freedoms of assembly and expression, the observers said.

They added that important legally prescribed steps were often omitted during the ballot count. The restrictions we have seen on fundamental freedoms have had an impact on these elections, said Ignacio Sanchez Amor, leader of the observer mission.

Similar concerns face election monitors ahead of next month.

A decision by the election board during a 2017 referendum that transitioned Turkey to a presidential system allowed unsealed ballot papers to be considered valid, contradicting election law.

Turgut Kazan, former president of the Istanbul Bar Association, described the decision, which still stands, as completely unlawful and arbitrary.

Meanwhile, Adem Sozuer of Istanbul Universitys law faculty said voters had lost confidence in the High Election Board.

There is widespread suspicion in a significant part of society that elections will be rigged, he said. Changes to election law seen as favoring the AKP and the removal of senior judges as the heads of local election boards also raised suspicions, Sozuer said.

Erdogan and his ministers have been allowed to harness state resources during the campaign while the election authorities turned a blind eye to this illegality.

Sozuer added, The most important thing to do now is to prepare to prevent fraud and irregularities on and after the voting day.

See the article here:
Is Turkey's shutdown of Hatay airport designed to help Erdogan in ... - Al-Monitor

11 April 2023

President Erdogan's powers have increased dramatically since he first led Turkey in 2003

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has launched his ruling party's bid to stay in power, as he seeks to extend his leadership of Turkey beyond 20 years.

He is facing his stiffest challenge yet from six opposition parties who have combined forces for presidential and parliamentary elections on 14 May.

Turkey faces soaring inflation and is reeling from twin earthquakes that have left 50,000 people dead. Mr Erdogan and his ruling AK Party say they will bring inflation down to single figures, a commitment already made by their opponents.

Turkey has become increasingly authoritarian under President Erdogan and the opposition is seeking to reverse that.

Any candidate that can secure more than half the presidential vote on 14 May is the outright winner. Failing that, the race goes to a run-off two weeks later.

Whichever party wins the parliamentary vote is seen as having a psychological advantage if the presidential election goes to a second round.

Erdogan's challenge

Turkey's voters have been polarised for years, but Mr Erdogan, 69, is under pressure as never before. Turkey has become increasingly authoritarian under its current leader, who runs Turkey from a vast palace with much of the media controlled by his allies.

He has ruled Turkey since 2003, initially as prime minister but then as president since 2014, dramatically increasing his powers three years later after a failed 2016 coup. His AK Party has been in power since November 2002.

Increasing numbers of Turks have blamed him for soaring inflation, because of his unorthodox refusal to raise interest rates. The official inflation rate is just above 50%, but academics say it is actually higher than 100%.

Image source, Mustafa Kamaci/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

President Erdogan's government has been criticised for its response to the twin earthquakes

Turkey's president and ruling party have also been widely criticised for failing to adapt Turkey's construction practices before the 6 February earthquakes and for mishandling the search and rescue efforts afterwards.

Millions of Turks were left homeless in the 11 provinces affected by the quakes. Since many of them are seen as Erdogan party strongholds, the election could be won and lost in the east.

His AK Party is rooted in political Islam, but he has forged an alliance with the ultra-nationalist MHP.

Six opposition parties - one candidate

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, 74, comes across as a mild-mannered, bookish opponent and he has presided over a string of election defeats at the helm of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).

But this time could be different as he is fighting as a unity candidate for six opposition parties, ranging from his own centre-left party and the nationalist Good party to four smaller groups, which include two former Erdogan allies one of whom co-founded the AK Party.

Image source, ERDEM SAHIN/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Kemal Kilicdaroglu has agreed that the leaders of his alliance will all share the role of vice president

Mr Kilicdaroglu also has the unofficial backing of Turkey's pro-Kurdish HDP, which is running for parliament under the banner of another party, the Green Left, because of a court case alleging links to Kurdish militants.

His selection was not universally popular, because some considered the mayors of Istanbul and Ankara as better candidates after they took control of the cities in 2019 for the CHP for the first time since 1994.

A former civil servant who is part of the Alevi minority, Mr Kilicdaroglu led a 24-day march for justice in 2017 which was seen as the biggest show of defiance against President Erdogan's rule for years.

His Nation's Alliance, also known as the Table of Six, are united in their desire to return Turkey from the presidential system created under Mr Erdogan to one led by parliament. To change the system, they need to win 400 of Turkey's 600 MPs, or 360 MPs to take a proposal to a referendum.

The leaders of the other five members of the alliance have agreed to take on the roles of vice-president.

Turkish opinion polls are notoriously unreliable, but any chance Mr Kilicdaroglu had of winning the election outright in the first round appears to have been dashed by the decision of a former centre-left party colleague, Muharrem Ince, to join the presidential race.

Mr Ince, 58, was the Republican People's Party presidential candidate in 2018, but left two years later because of differences with Kemal Kilicdaroglu, He now runs the secular nationalist Homeland Party and has faced accusations of diluting the opposition vote and playing into President Erdogan's hands.

But he has a strong presence on social media and young voters in particular have been impressed by his dance moves on TikTok.

One other candidate with little chance of significant success is ultra-nationalist Sinan Ogan, but he too has the potential to be a kingmaker.

How does the vote work?

To enter the 600-seat parliament, a party needs to attract 7% of the vote or be part of an alliance that does. That is why alliances have become so important in Turkey, and the six-party opposition have highlighted changing that as one of their proposed reforms.

Meral Aksener, leader of the Good Party, is one of the main backers of the opposition alliance

Turks vote for party lists rather than candidates under proportional representation, so seat numbers correspond to votes cast per party rather than alliances. In some seats, the opposition has agreed to fight under one party banner.

Candidates running for the Green Left instead of the pro-Kurdish party are part of the Labour and Freedom Alliance.

Under the Erdogan reforms, it is now the president who chooses the government, so there is no prime minister. And if his broad People's Alliance fails to win a majority in parliament, he may struggle to rule in the same way as now. The pro-Erdogan People's Alliance currently has 334 MPs.

Mr Erdogan has already served two terms as president, so a third appears to go against the rules of Turkey's constitution.

But Turkey's YSK election board ruled that his first term should be seen as starting not in 2014 but in 2018, when the new presidential system began with elections for parliament and president on the same day.

Opposition politicians had earlier asked the YSK to block his candidacy.

How would the opposition change Turkey?

The Kilicdaroglu-led Nation's Alliance alliance wants to restore Turkey's parliamentary system and reform the presidency, removing the head of state's right to veto legislation, cutting the post's ties to political parties and making it electable every seven years.

The six parties also want to kickstart Turkey's decades-long bid to join the European Union and restore "mutual trust" with the US, after years of fractious relations during the Erdogan years.

They have pledged to bring inflation below 10% within two years and send Syrian refugees home voluntarily. Turkey currently hosts some 3.6 million Syrian refugees.

Read more here:
Turkish elections: Erdogan kicks off race to hold on to power - BBC

6: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan kicked off his reelection campaign Tuesday in a bid to defeat six opposition parties that have joined forces ahead of the May 14 poll. Erdogan, who has been in power for two decades, vowed to cut inflation now at 50%, thought analysts say it's higher to single digits, though his aggressive slashing of interest rates continues to baffle economists.

100: Around 100 people, including children, are thought to have been killed on Tuesday when Myanmars military junta launched air raids on the central town of Pazigyi in the Sagaing region, 110 kilometers (45 miles) outside of Yangon. The region was considered a hotbed of opposition after the junta staged a coup in Feb. 2021.

1,200: The Italian coastguard is trying to rescue around 1,200 migrants stranded on two overcrowded boats off the coast of Sicily. One vessel originated in Libya, while the origin of the other fishing boat carrying 800 people is unclear. Italian ministers declared a state of emergency Wednesday that will free up cash to deal with the uptick in migration to Italy. How are Rome and Brussels responding to the surge? Read our primer.

13,000: A 78-year-old Missouri woman named Bonnie Gooch has been arrested for bank robbery. She allegedly gave a bank teller a note last week demanding 13,000 small bills while banging erratically on the counter. This is her third such arrest, with her first heist dating back to 1977. Bonnies in jail with a $25,000 bond hanging over her head, and were left wondering: Wheres Clyde?

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Hard Numbers: Erdogans opposition, Myanmar militarys deadly air raids, Italian coastguards rescue mission, Bonnie without Clyde - GZERO Media

Two major earthquakes rocked Turkey on February 6, killing more than 50,000 people and injuring thousands more. Hundreds are still considered to be missing, while millions of earthquake victims found temporary shelter with relatives and friends in other cities.

The deadly earthquake and its aftermath will serve as the backdrop to Turkey's parliamentary and presidential elections on May 14, which have the potential to upend Turkey's political landscape. For the first time since taking office more than 20 years ago,President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not the favorite in thepresidential race.

During his two decades in office, first as prime minister then as president, Erdogan has shaped the country like no other politician before him. He has changed legislation to reshape the Turkish state in his image. Since introducing the presidential systemhe has ruled the country as a de facto autocrat, relegating parliament to insignificance.

Two months after the earthquake and one month before the vote, polls point to a close race between the government camp and the leading opposition alliance. Some institutes have predicted a defeat for Erdogan's electoral alliance. In the race for the presidency, Erdogan is trailinghis main challenger,Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who leads the largest opposition alliance.

Erdogan, however, remainsan excellent tactician: he hasn't lost an election since 2002 and survived mass protests, including the 2013 Gezi Park demonstrations and an attempted coup in 2016.

Even now, he knows how to look out for himself politically. The 69-year-old recently secured the support of small Islamist splinter parties for his electoral alliance, the People's Alliance and they could tip the scales in a close race.

The New Welfare Party (YRP) recently joined Erdogan's People's Alliance. That party's demand to abolish Law 6284 whichobliges the state to protect women from violence and, if necessary, to guarantee them anonymity has led to indignation in Turkey.At least 234 women in Turkey were victims of femicide in 2022, and the We Will Stop Femicideplatform lists an additional 245 suspected cases.

Laws protecting women have long been a thorn in the side of Islamist communities and parties in Turkey. They have blamed such laws forrising divorce rates, and see them as an expression of Western interference in Muslim-Turkish family structures. These Islamic groups have put significant pressure on Erdogan's AKP government to reverse such laws. Just two years ago, Turkey withdrew from the international Istanbul Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women.

The addition of the YRP brings Erdogan's electoral alliance to four parties, the other three being the Islamic-conservative AKP, the ultranationalist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Great Unity Party (BBP). In Germany, constitutional protection authorities have been monitoring the structures of these three parties for years though not the parties themselves.

The MHP and BBP are rooted in the nationalist "Ulkucu" movement, better known as the Gray Wolves. German authorities list the far-right organization as ultranationalist, antisemitic and racist. Convinced of the superiority of the Turkish nation, they see mainly Kurds, Jews, Armenians and Christians as their enemies. They aim for a homogeneous state of all Turkic peoples under Turkish leadership, from the Balkans to western China.

Erdogan's largest partner in the alliance, the MHP, is "the original organization of the Gray Wolves," the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) told DW. The Federation of Turkish Democratic Idealist Associations in Germanyrepresents the MHP's interests in Germany, according to the BfV. It says that, with 7,000 members, it is the largest umbrella organization within the Gray Wolves' group.

Erdogan's second major partner, the BBP, is also rooted in the Gray Wolves' ideology. The party sees Islam as an important component of Turkish identity. The BBP is believed to be behind numerous political murders in Turkey, and itsmembers are also alleged to have been involved in the 2007 assassination of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. Its organization in Germany, according to the BfV, is the Federation of World Order in Europe.

Erdogan's new partner, the YRP, is rooted in the ideology of Milli Gorus, whose structures are also under surveillance in Germany. It wants to replace the "Western order of injustice" with an Islamic "just order," according to the BfV. The YRP is currently polling at 0.8% to 2%of the vote.

The Islamist Hda-Par party which, according to the North Rhine-Westphalia State Office for the Protection of the Constitution,is close to Turkish Hezbollah also supports Erdogan. Back in the 1990s, Turkish Hezbollah tortured and murdered numerous human rights activists, businesspeople and politicians in Anatolia. According to German authorities, the group has 400 members in Germany and is also being monitored.

In recent years, Erdogan has built up a strongpower apparatus. He created his own elite by means of state contracts, nepotism and corruption, and endowed numerous Muslim orders with privileges. Should he lose the election, that elite would lose influence and wealth which is presumably why Menzil, Turkey's largest orthodox Sufi order, recently announced its support for Erdogan's alliance.

Erdogan's electoral alliance is a combination of political Islam and ultranationalism, according to the Austrian political scientist Thomas Schmidinger. "Menzil in particular has already replaced the Gulen movement as one of the AKP's most important religious networks since the coup attempt in 2016," Schmidingertold DW, adding that it makes sense for the order to try and defend its newfound privileges.

In 2016, the Turkish government declared the Gulen movement a terrorist organization suspected of being behind the coup attempt on July 15, 2016. From the time Erdogan came to power in 2002 until 2016, the movement was animportant AKP ally.

Should Erdogan win the vote on May 14, Schmidinger does not expect any immediate political changes. Erdogan will likelycontinue to pursue an aggressive foreign policy to compensate for domestic problems, he said.

However, Schmidinger said an election victory for the governing electoral alliance looks unlikely. Due to the failed economic policy and poor crisis management after the massive earthquakes in February, the AKP-led alliance is no longer backed by a majority of the electorate, he said.

"Even in Turkey, elections can only be rigged to a certain extent," he added, referring to allegations of fraud in previous years.

Schmidinger said he doubted Erdogan would voluntarily concede the field in the event of a defeat.The Turkish state is, after all, largely controlled by Erdogan's cronies, he argued. Erdogan's followers have stocked up on weapons since the attempted coup, Schmidinger added, which could make armed conflicts possible. As a result, he said, even in the event of an election defeat, a change of regime might not go smoothly.

This article was originally written in German.

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Turkey vote: Who are Erdogan's allies? - DW (English)