Zaman

Amberin Zaman, Al-Monitor's chief correspondent covering major stories on the Middle East and North Africa, including Turkey, joins Thanos Davelis to get to the bottom of the rumors around whether Erdogan's White House visit was canceled or not.

Less than a year after securing another term, Turkish President Erdogan's Justice and Development Party suffered its worst defeat in its 22-year history in Sunday's municipal elections.

All eyes were on Istanbul, where Ekrem Imamoglu easily won reelection and is increasingly cementing his place as Erdogan's political challenger.

Turkey's Constitutional Court has rejected the individual appeals of journalists Nazlı Ilıcak and Ahmet Altan on May 3, finding no rights violations in their lawsuits filed for aiding the plotters of a 2016 failed coup attempt, while ruling for a violation of rights in the case of Ali Bulaç, a former columnist of closed Zaman newspaper.

The Bucharest Appeal Court on Friday rejected a Turkish request to extradite a Turkish journalist, Kamil Demirkaya, known for his criticism of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government.

Romanian police detained Demirkaya on December 5 on the basis of a warrant issued by the Ankara authorities.

Romanian police detained a Turkish journalist, Kamil Demirkaya, on Wednesday and brought him before the Court of Appeal in Bucharest, where he faces extradition to Turkey on the basis of a warrant issued by Ankara authorities.

An Istanbul court sentenced 15 of 10 former staffers of the shut-down daily Zaman to a range of jail terms on terror-linked charges on April 30. 

An Istanbul court on April 5 announced the indictments for former journalists of daily Zaman, which was closed because of its links to the Fethullahist Terrorist Organisation (FETÖ).

One aspect of the latest rift between Greece and Turkey which could prove decisive (if not this time, perhaps next time around) is the absence of a strong mediator with the political, economic and military weight to influence developments. In the existing conjuncture, only the United States can play this role.

Speaking at the first hearing into daily Zaman defendants on Sept. 18, Şahin Alpay, a former columnist for the now-closed newspaper, expressed "regret" at writing for the outlet, which had close links to the network of U.S.-based preacher Fethullah Gülen.

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office on Aug. 10 issued detention warrants for a total of 35 journalists and media workers over allegedly using the smartphone application ByLock, used almost exclusively by the followers of the U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen.