Michael Sercan Daventry

@michaeldaventry.com

Radio journalist @ BBC News/BBC Sounds. Formerly: Sky News, Euronews, Jewish News, TRT | 🇹🇷🇬🇧 | DMs open, all views mine, Türkçemiz de var az çok.

In Turkish North Cyprus, an education ministry official is turned away from a school barricaded by parents who don’t want to admit a pupil who wears a headscarf. It appears they’re fighting Turkey’s battles of the 1990s, but in the social media age. Via HaberKKTC

“The terrorism charge is particularly serious because it could allow him to be removed from office. It means that by the end of the day Ekrem İmamoğlu may no longer be mayor of Istanbul.” Me on the BBC World Service a little earlier.

A new page in a long-running row: Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu's university diploma has been annulled. It means that if a presidential election were called now, İmamoğlu – who is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's foremost challenger – would not be able to stand as a candidate.

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Where should I go with the family in Turkey this summer? Got two small children, so our demands are fairly sedate: a nice house, no pool, but next to a sandy beach. My go-to is glorious Gökova — that's where I spent my childhood holidays — but help me break old habits: what does BlueSky think?

History in the making in Turkey, where a message from PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan – apparently calling for peace and an end to an armed conflict lasting nearly half a century – is being read out live. But it’s in Kurdish first, so most of the country doesn’t know what’s in it yet.

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Today is one of those days I remember quite how many Americans I follow on Bluesky. Thanks for all your various exotic Thanksgiving dishes lovingly crafted from recipes handed down through the generations. My dinner was pasta with a dollop of supermarket pesto. Quite clearly, I win.

This is huge: six PKK-related arrests in north London, including searches at places linked to the group. It’s not just a counter terror operation that directly concerns Turkey – it’s also the first time I’ve seen an arrest of this kind in a while. news.met.police.uk/news/six-arr...

Six arrested as part of counter terrorism investigation into suspected PKK activity

A number of people have been arrested today, Wednesday 27 November 2024, as part of a significant Counter Terrorism Policing investigation led by the Met’s...

news.met.police.uk

There certainly won't be any public show of grief in Turkey today over Fethullah Gülen, whose death was announced overnight. The 83-year-old's name is toxic, and not just because the government blames him for the 2016 coup attempt. That notoriety makes him a pivotal figure. 🧵

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It’s official. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has become the first major Turkish political party leader this century to be defeated in a leadership contest. Is this a seminal moment in Turkish politics, or merely the final whimper of the movement defeated by President Erdoğan in May?

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