[This is a roundup of news articles and other materials circulating on Turkey and reflects a wide variety of opinions. It does not reflect the views of the Turkey Page Editors or of Jadaliyya. You may send your own recommendations for inclusion in each week`s roundup to turkey@jadaliyya.com by Sunday night of every week.]

English

June 24 Elections

Kurdish alliance emerges as key actor in Turkey's upcoming elections The Kurdistan Election Alliance aims to not only influence the June 24 elections, but also serve as a unifying political force across for Kurds across the Middle East.

“İnce will make it into the second round” The CEO for the polling company KONDA has said that the AKP has been forced into a “defensive strategy for the first time since 2002” while also noting that the politician most likely to make it into the second round was Muharrem İnce rather than Meral Akşener.

Erdoğan vote crisis in MHP The "No vote for Erdoğan" campaign in the MHP has called for MHP voters to vote for their own party in the parliamentary elections, but vote against Erdoğan in the presidential election.

Turkey: Six candidates to run for presidency Turkey's Supreme Election Board has released the list of presidential candidates; they are Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Muharrem Ince, Meral Aksener, Selahattin Demirtas, Temel Karamollaoglu and Dogu Perincek.

Erdoğan's UK Visit

Erdogan enjoys royal welcome in UK Amberin Zaman writes that, despite the UK featuring in pro-government outlets' anti-Western conspiracy theories, the relationship between the UK and Turkey is quite strong-the UK trades extensively with Turkey, has strongly backed its bid for EU membership, and has attempted to distance itself, in word if not in deed, from the YPG.

Post-Brexit, the UK will need Turkey for trade – and Erdogan is using that to his advantage Kim Sengupta writes that, in the face of shaky economic ties with the EU after a "hard Brexit", it is natural that the UK will want to increase its ties with another key trading partner-Turkey.

Migration

EU warns of new surge in asylum seekers from Turkey The European Commission said that the number of people crossing into Greece's sea and land borders from Turkey through March is 9 times higher than the same period last year, and has said that the EU border agency is ready to increase its presence on the Greece-Turkey land border.

Dawn at the Gateway to Europe An interactive report by Ekathimerini focusing on the increase of refugees crossing the Evros land border from Turkey into Greece, which numbered over 2,700 people last month; one Greek police officer said that the majority of these new arrivals are Kurds, many of them from Afrin.

Domestic Politics

New report: FinFisher changes tactics to hook critics A report by AccessNow outlines German spyware company Finfisher's attempts to obfuscate its involvement in aiding the Turkey and other governments who use its malware to target opposition activists and civil society groups.

You cannot hide the elephant in the room Çiğdem Toker writes that while previously, Article 21/b of the Public Procurement Law has been used contrary to its purpose in order to issue billions of lira worth of construction tenders, a provision in a newly introduced omnibus bill would make these tenders procedurally compliant in saying that they could be issued for projects that are “exhibiting particularity in terms of construction technique”.

Barış Atay Released Actor Barış Atay has been released following his detention for social media posts.

International Politics

Austria begins crackdown on Turks with dual citizenship The Austrian Provincial Administrative Court has approved the decision, which would cancel the dual citizenship of around 10,000 individuals with dual Austrian and Turkish citizenship.

US judge sentences ex-Halkbank executive Hakan Atilla to 32 months in prison Judge Richard Berman sentenced Atilla to 32 months in prison for five counts of bank fraud and conspiracy.

Turkey Sends Israeli Ambassador Home, Recalls Envoy From U.S. Turkey has expelled the Israeli Ambassador from Ankara, while recalling its envoys from the US and Israel.

AKP Rejects Resolution on Cancellation of Agreements With Israel A resolution which called for the cancellation of the agreements between Turkey and Israel was submitted to parliament, but shot down by AKP MPs.

Culture and History

Ancient city of Mardin gets big dose of contemporary art The 4th Edition of the Mardin Biennial, which is one of Turkey's few international events outside of Istanbul, featured around 40 contemporary artists from Turkey and abroad.

Horse domestication spread Turkish language, and the plague, across Eurasia Studies have found that the domestication of horses helped Huns and Mongols spread westward across the Eurasian steppe, supplanting the Indo-European languages being spoken there with Turkic ones.

Turkish

June 24 Elections

Son derece ‘s ı k ı c ı’ bir anayasa yazısı: TBMM’deki son ‘yetki’ kanunu Murat Sevinç worries the new bill being discussed in order to harmonize the government with the constitutional changes of the April 2017 referendum will allow the Council of Ministers to implement changes by degree rather than through parliament, and that if the AKP loses the majority in the upcoming elections, the AKP will still be able to rule by decree in the period leading up to the swearing in of the president.

Sandığı etkileyecek 3 seçmen profili Nuray Babacan writes that according to the AKP's analyses, there are three types of voters that will have a strong impact on the election results- Kurds, youth who are voting for the first time, and highly educated people. For this reason, the AKP is strongly courting conservative Kurdish voters, and increasing its youth outreach.

'Yine gitmeyecekler' duygusu Irfan Aktan writes that the the AKP has managed to create a perception that they will never leave power, and has made society afraid of what will happen if they do leave. Aktan says that the main test for the opposition is to strengthen the public's belief that the AKP can and will go.

Muharrem İnce mal varlığını açıkladı At a meeting in Hakkari, Muharrem Ince revealed his and his wife's assets, which total at 2 million 206 thousand lira, and include several houses, two BMWs, one Mercedes, three pistols, and a rifle.

Views on Palestine

‘Kahrolsun İsrail yaşasın Filistin’ Mine Söğüt writes that it is easy to say "Damn Israel, Long live Palestine", but it is more difficult to take the necessary, concrete steps for peace. She adds that the biggest error is condeming war and oppresion in one part of the world while still viewing a world without war as an impossible utopia.

Filistin bir samimiyet sınavıdır! Filistin her yerdedir! Banu Bülbül writes that the struggle for Palestinian is a test of one's sincerity in the fight against oppression, and that there is a Palestine everywhere; one only has to stand up against their own Israel. She writes that Palestine is in the heart of every person who has stood up against injustice, and is the metaphorical home of every Turk who has stood by Kurds, to Sunnis who have stood by Alevis, Israelis who have stood by Palestinians, and the citizens of imperialist countries who have stood against imperialist wars.

Domestic Politics

TRT sansürü Meclis'e taşındı: Halkın televizyonu adil ve eşit olmalı A CHP MP has inquired as to why the national public broadcaster of Turkey, TRT, has set aside 37 hours of pre-election broadcasting for the AKP and MHP, while only 3 hours were allocated to the CHP, nine minutes for the Iyi party, and no airtime for the HDP or Saadet party.

‘Yazlık saray uğruna doğa katliamı’ haberi ‘Erdoğan’a hakaret’ten engellenmiş In March, Cumhuriyet reported that 40 thousand trees were being cut down in Muğla in order to build a Presidential Summer Palace, and that all protests against this were prevented by security forces. However, access to the article (and all articles referring to it) were blocked for "insulting Erdoğan", so it is now being republished.

CHP’den TÜİK’in işsizlik rakamına ‘düzeltme’: Gerçek oran yüzde 20 Recalling the Turkish Statiscal Institute's claim that unemployment was at 10.6%, the CHP's Vice President of Economic Affairs says that if one counts those who have no hope of finding a job, those who have stopped looking for work, seasonal workers, and insufficiently unemployed workers, the real unemployment rate is 19.96%.

Bu siteye cepten girenlerin her şeyini izlediler! Cumhuriyet provides a more detailed look on how the smartphones of those who wished to follow Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's March for Justice last year were infected with Finfisher spyware; a fake site was created that offered users an application for their phones by which they could follow the progress of the march, and several twitter accounts were created to advertise it, after one clicked on the link to download the application, their smartphones were infected with spyware that was capable of monitoring all of their activities, including on SMS and Whatsapp.

Diyarbakır’da O An: “Kimseyle Fotoğraf Çektirmeyecek” Independent politician Tuna Bekleviç's 1,000 km "Brotherhood March" from Ankara to Diyarbakir reached its end on Saturday. Those who had planned to join him at the final stage of his walk were prevented by the authorities, and all photographs of the event were forbidden, although the one photograph that managed to be taken was circulated heavily on social media.

Anneler Günü Reklamlarının Cinsiyetçiliğini Ne zaman Konuşacağız? Rumeysa Çamdereli writes that writes that the sexism found in Mother's Day advertisements has reached intolerable proportions; the majority of the women portrayed in these ads are at home, with the sole job of cleaning the house and looking after children, and the only thing that makes them happy on Mothers Days are gifts of new household tools that will make these duties easier. As an alternative, she proposes ads that recognize the need for equal duties at home in order for women to pursue other dreams.

Munzur'da 'acele kamulaştırma'ya durdurma The expropriation of land in the Munzur valley for the construction of a dam and two power plants has been halted followed a decision by the council of state, which found that the environmental assessment of the projects went against the National Parks Act, the right to property, and constitutional principles of proportionality.

Erzurum ve Erzincan şeker fabrikalarının ihalesi: En yüksek teklif Albayrak’tan The highest bidder for the newly privatized sugar factories at Erzurum and Erzincan was Albayrak Tourism, Travel, and Construction Trading Inc.

Zaman gazetesi davasında iki tahliye Two writers for the newspaper Zaman, Ali Bulaç and Mehmet Özdemir, were released from prison, while Şahin Alpay was released from house arrest.