NEWS

Turkey votes for the 25th term members of parliament in one of the most important elections in the history of the Republic.

2 people are reported dead following a double explosion at the HDP’s Diyarbakır rally. HDP Co-Chairperson Selahattin Demirtaş repeated his call for calm and peace as in previous attacks targeting the party: “We will win, peace will win. I congratulate your resolve.”

Armenian civilian society organizations have rolled up their sleeves to find a solution for the shelter problem of the 15 thousand Syrian refugees in the country. The #RootsForRefugees campaign that will begin in the 2nd week of June will provide rent support for refugees trying to rebuild their lives in cities. Campaign organizers have called on Diaspora Armenians to contribute to the campaign.

Prime Minister Davutoğlu’s words, “It is nobody’s business what the trucks were carrying” constitute a scandalous disclosure of the current character of the State. Yet it is our business. What the trucks were carrying is the business of each and every citizen living in this country. The present and future outcome of this move by the State concerns first and foremost us, the citizens of this country.

General Election results by province according to Anadolu Agency data.

Cumhuriyet newspaper staff and writers have published a declaration in reaction to President Tayyip Erdoğan’s words, “This newspaper too is now part of the spying scheme. The person who wrote this report will pay dearly for it, he won’t get away with it so easily,” targeting their Editor-in-Chief Can Dündar after their newspaper published a report on a delivery of Syria-bound arms in MİT [National Intelligence Service] trucks.

I should have guessed we had to walk a kilometer once I heard an attendant repeat every five seconds, “The rally venue is 100 metres ahead, on the left”. You would think we were re-conquering the city, as we walked on and on but felt like we were in the same place. In the meantime, I observed the middle-aged men, whose commercial acumen I greatly admired, selling scarves, caps, sandwiches, bottled water, flags and plaques.

The 212 million dollar Akbank loan for SOCAR, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijani Republic, for the container port project in Aliağa, İzmir, was approved on May 25. The project land was transferred to SOCAR with a ‘preferential’ clause added to the omnibus bill.

100 years later, we would have loved to think that certain things have changed in these lands; however, we can’t. It is not easy to tolerate seeing what people will do for power, and how the smile on a face can, in a flash, change into an evil grin; but we will.

Prime Minister Davutoğlu, in a television interview, implying HDP co-President Selahattin Demirtaş, said, “I wonder what bargains he has made that led him to sabotage the Solution Process upon his return to Turkey, I wonder what bargains he has made that he is acting in tandem with the Armenian Diaspora that claims a right over the lands on which the Solution Process focuses”. Yet it was only three months ago that the same Prime Minister had said, “The Diaspora is our Diaspora”.