Latin alphabet ligatures

This Sunday, millions of Turks will go to ballots to vote for their next president. This will be the first time that the presidency, the top post in the republic, will be elected by popular vote. In this sense, the upcoming elections could be seen as a sign of maturation for Turkey’s almost 140-year-old democratic experience, which goes back to the first Ottoman Parliament in 1876.

It has emerged that Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu sent a letter of appreciation to presidential candidate Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, when İhsanoğlu was set to retire as the chief of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

The age-old problem of illegal electricity usage in eastern and southeastern Turkey, which has risen to the agenda once again with recent power outages, has deep and complex roots that cannot be explained solely by “poverty” or “political views.”

Supported by a number of opposition parties against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan, Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu launched his election campaign in Istanbul on June 10, bidding to be elected the next Turkish president a month ahead the first round on Aug. 10.

Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, the joint presidential candidate of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), started his official campaign June 30 by visiting Anıtkabir, where the Turkish Republic’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is buried.

The gunfight that took place in the western Turkish province of Edirne, which claimed the life of a policeman, was probably an extension of clashes between Russian, Georgian and Azeri mafias, Governor Dursun Ali Şahin has said.