Hasip Kaplan

Police officers and one child have been wounded in clashes that erupted during Nevruz celebrations in eastern Turkey.

Peoples? Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Selahattin Demirta? and HDP Deputy Parliamentary Group Chair Pervin Buldan will be exempt from a rule in the party?s internal regulation that limits deputies to two consecutive terms in parliament.

If the ?old Turkey? is identified with the period that precedes the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), when the country was governed by mainstream parties on the center-right and center-left of the political spectrum under military-judicial tutelage, then veteran Kurdish politician Hasip Kaplan would be neither a fan of that period nor of those parties.

An opposition deputy has taken the floor in Turkey's parliament to defend jackals and hyenas, after both animals were mentioned in an analogy about the government's alleged corruption.

Claims that plans have been made for the closure of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) have further heated up Turkish politics, already tense over the fate of the Kurdish peace process following recent unrest.

A parliamentary debate on Turkey’s peace process unsurprisingly started with acrimony on July 2 with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) trading accusations.

Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) officials have declined opposition calls for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to resign, following his nomination for the presidential elections, announced on July 1.

“Prime Minister Erdoğan’s resignation due to his candidacy is out of the question,” Deputy Prime Minister Emrullah İşler told reporters on July 2.  

Opposition parties have criticized Turkey’s top media watchdog for not taking action against the country’s state-owned broadcaster TRT, which they say does not adequately cover the opposition while widely covering the government.