Atalay

The parliament has stripped imprisoned Workers' Party of Türkiye (TİP) lawmaker Can Atalay of his parliamentary status, defying a ruling by the top court last September.

The decision by the Court of Appeals to unseat Atalay, who was elected to the parliament in last May's election while in prison, was read in the parliament on Jan. 30.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has criticized major world powers for their failure to intervene in the ongoing Gaza conflict, condemning what he described as a shameful display of helplessness "in the face of Israel's brutal attacks on Palestine."

This year's recipients of the Presidential Culture and Arts Grand Awards were announced on Oct. 29 by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The Workers' Party of Turkey, TIP, holds a protest in Istanbul. Photo: Workers' Party of Turkey

"We demand respect for the will of the people of Hatay," the TIP said in a statement.

"What is happening is against the constitution in every way. End this illegality and enforce the laws from which you derive your authority," it added.

The government has offered a 30 percent increase in the wages of the public sector workers for the first half of 2023, a labor union leader has said.

The government also proposed a base salary of 11,500 Turkish Liras for workers employed in the public sector, said Engin Atalay, the leader of Türk-İş.

A Turkish court has ordered that a man, who was taken by Israeli soldiers from the Mavi Marmara ship and ill-treated in prison, should be paid 150,000 Turkish Liras ($11, 200) in compensation.

Nine Turkish citizens died when Israeli commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara ship, which was trying to break the embargo on Gaza in 2010. One more died in hospital in 2014.

After coming to the country's agenda with forged documents showing her a professor, Zulal Atalay Laçin has been found using scientific papers of another Turkish academic, with whom she shares name resemblance, in her file, claiming that they are hers, daily Hürriyet has reported.

The last day of the first hearings in the case of daily Cumhuriyet journalists and executives began on July 28, as a verdict is expected to be announced in the evening hours. 

All 17 journalists and executives from the daily have testified over the past five days.

The trial of daily Cumhuriyet journalists and executives entered its fourth day on July 27. 

Journalist Hikmet Çetinkaya was the first to testify in the fourth hearing.
The charges directed at the Cumhuriyet journalists include "membership of an armed terrorist organization" and "helping an armed terrorist organization while not being a member of it."

The trial of seventeen executives and journalists from the daily Cumhuriyet, including the newspaper's editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu, Ahmet Şık Kadri Gürsel and cartoonist Musa Kart, went on to its second day on July 25.

Eleven of the 17, including Gürsel, Sabuncu, Kart and Şık, are held in custody, while the others have already been freed.