Report on tapes prepared outside but signed by TÜBİTAK

Experts have strongly criticized a report by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) stating that a voice recording between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his son Bilal suggesting that the two were attempting to hide unknown amounts of cash in their family home was a "montage,” saying the report was far from scientific and is instead politically motivated.

Turkey Lifts Two-Month Block on YouTube

Credit: Osman Orsal—Reuters

A Turkish court declared the ban unconstitutional, in another blow to Prime Minister Erdogan's Internet-censorship efforts. YouTube is back online in Turkey after more than two months in the dark, authorities said on Tuesday.

CNET reports that the video-sharing website is once again accessible after the Constitutional Court of Turkey, the country’s uppermost legal body, ended the government’s ban five days ago. The court cited the Turkish constitution’s freedom-of-expression clause, which guarantees that “everyone has the right to express and disseminate his/her thoughts and opinions by speech, in writing or in pictures or through other media.”

Read full article at Time.com: Turkey Lifts Two-Month Block on YouTube

Food and fuel trump graft for Turkey's local elections

Credit: REUTERS/Murad Sezer

by Humeyra Pamuk - Taxi driver Ramazan Aktay is quick to shrug off the corruption scandal swirling around Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, at least as long as the ruling party keeps delivering free food and coal to his working class suburb of Ankara.

Allegations of government graft, which Erdogan has cast as a campaign to destroy him by political enemies at home and abroad, have spiralled into the biggest challenge of his 11-year rule, unnerved foreign investors and raised questions about Turkey's commitment to democratic reforms.

Erdogan's ‘witch hunt' and abuse of state power

by Aydogan Vatandas - It was only about a week ago that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that his government will carry out a witch hunt on his own people: “If reassigning individuals who betray this country is called a witch hunt, then yes, we will carry out a witch hunt.”

Witch hunt in Europe

by Emre Uslu - Political madness in Turkey is at its peak. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan does not even refrain from using the term “witch hunt” against the Gülen followers. When Erdoğan and his circle don't find any evidence, they allegedly try to produce evidence. Bureaucrats who don't want to be part of Erdoğan's witch hunt have sent letters to the media and prosecutors confessing what they are doing. Unfortunately, what they said in those letters has been confirmed by later developments.