TURKEY

QANDIL — In a televised interview with Sterk TV last Friday, Cemil Bayik, senior leader in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and co-chair of the Executive Council of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), issued a stark warning to Ankara: unless Turkey enacts political and legal reforms to address systemic discrimination…

EDIRNE, Turkey — In a significant political gesture amid renewed discussions surrounding peace in Turkey, the Co-Chairs of the People’s Equality and Democracy Party (Halkların Eşitlik ve Demokrasi Partisi, DEM Party) visited Selahattin Demirtaş, the former Co-Chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (Halkların Demokratik Partisi, HDP), at Edirne Prison. Following…

ANKARA — People’s Equality and Democracy Party (Halkların Eşitlik ve Demokrasi Partisi, DEM Party) deputies and officials charged with supervising the “Peace and Democratic Society Process” to come to a formal multi-party peace commission in Turkey’s Grand National Assembly, met yesterday with Turkish Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç, Future Party leader…

ANKARA – Deputy leader of the IYI Party (“Good Party”) MP Buğra Kavuncu announced today that the ‘slanderous’ remarks of Syriac Member of Turkish Parliament for Merde (Mardin) George Aryo have been removed from the minutes of the Turkish Grand National Assembly at the request of his party.  A couple…

MEDYAD, Tur Abdin — Will Syriacdom revive in Tur Abdin? That is a question that Semir Sumer asked himself. He decided to make an economic contribution and opened the Assyria Hotel in the center of the Old City of Medyad (Midyat). The construction of the hotel lasted 2 years, Semir…

This article was originally published by Agos Gazetesi on 14 July 2025. The original can be found here. A special report by Marta Sömek for Agos Gazetesi — According to data, in the 1913-1914 academic year, there were a total of 2,580 schools belonging to Christian communities in the Ottoman provinces and districts. Of…

MEDYAD (MIDYAT), Tur Abdin — This Monday was a historic day in the decades-long struggle for recognition, democracy, and equality before the law of the different peoples in Turkey. Thirty fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) laid down their weapons by putting them in a fire during an official…

ANKARA — The People’s Equality and Democracy Party (DEM), an opposition party in Turkey, has submitted a request for the release of politician Selahattin Demirtaş and fellow politician Figen Yüksekdağ, the former co-chairs of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), along with 13 party deputies detained in the so-called “Kobani Case.” Below…

SULAIMANIYA, Beth Nahrin — In a symbolic and historic move, a group of fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) laid down their arms and set them ablaze near a cave in northern Beth Nahrin (Mesopotamia) on Monday, marking the first tangible step by the militant group to end its…

ANKARA — The 13th-century Armenian Surp Minas Church (Սուրբ Մինաս) in the Zara district of Sivas Province has been the target of repeated diggings and associated destructions by illegal treasure hunters. According to a report published by the Armenian Agos newspaper, published in Turkey, the church’s cemetery was recently damaged…