Turkish Media Highlights — Nov. 7, 2017
TGRT Haber
New Ankara Mayor Mustafa Tuna demanded resignations of all holdovers from the previous administration of Melih Gokcek who resigned last week. With the move, bureaucrats and senior officials who worked with former Mayor Gokcek for more than two decades will be removed their posts.
Cumhuriyet
— Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu announced that his party will bring claims of off-shore accounts and assets of Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and his family into Parliament agenda to be discussed. Newly released Paradise Papers includes members of Mr. Yildirim’s family and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s son-in-law, Berat Albayrak, who is also Energy Minister of Turkey.
— Newly found nationalist IYI Party designated heads of 31 provincial branches as part of its initial steps to finalize the institutionalization of the party.
— Prime Minister Binali Yildirim rejected claims of corruption and tax-evasion after his sons’ names appeared on Paradise Papers.
Birgun
Zekai Kafaoglu has been named as the new mayor of the western province of Balikesir.
Haberturk
Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs will hire 100 Syrian imams to serve Syrian refugees in Turkey.
Reuters
— President Tayyip Erdogan announced on Monday plans to demolish a culture center in Istanbul named after the founder of modern secular Turkey, in a move critics see as another attempt by the Islamist-rooted ruling party to roll back secularism.
–The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development sharply raised growth forecasts for 37 countries, including Turkey, saying improving exports, a revival in investment and firmer commodity prices were supporting a broad upswing.
The EBRD now sees Turkey growing at 5.1 percent this year and 3.5 percent in 2018.
AFP
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim hailed the U.S. visa move as a positive step.
Daily Sabah
Turkish Justice Minister Abdulkadir Gul held a phone conversation with his U.S. counterpart Jeff Sessions to discuss extradition of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen.
Hurriyet Daily News
— Main opposition CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu called for new elections for resigned mayors who were forced to quit their posts after pressure from President Erdogan.
–A new legal regulation over individual gun ownership should be brought to the Turkish parliament’s agenda, a parliament spokesperson has said, amid a growing concern in Turkey over easy access to guns.
