TURKEY

HDP Co-Chairperson Selahattin Demirtaş has stated that they were well aware of their responsibility and that they would not allow for chaos, tension, insecurity and instability in Turkey.

The Foreign Ministry of Turkey published a letter of condemnation after the Federal Senate of Brazil passed a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Turkey has also recalled its Ambassador to Brazil for talks.

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.

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”.

Interior Ministry permission has been imposed on any academic research on Syrian refugees to be carried out at universities. The Higher Education Council (YÖK) decision was taken upon the request of the Migration Administration Department of the Interior Ministry.

The Greek Parliament has passed a law that will pave the way for the construction of a mosque in Athens. This was among the conditions required by Ankara for the opening of the Theological School of Halki in the framework of reciprocity. Ankara is now expected to take a step regarding the seminary.

The People’s Democratic Party (HDP) had condemned the bomb attacks on its party bureaus in Adana and Mersin with a written statement: “Dark forces supported by the government want to prevent the progress and election work of our party”

The findings of the CRRC-Armenia/TESEV joint survey on public perception in Armenia on the normalization of Turkey-Armenia relations have been published. According to the survey, issues of trust regarding normalization persist, however, especeially the opening of the border and economic relations may constitute an important step in normalization.

The Presidency of Religious Affairs has published its “2015 Performance Program”. The program plans to spend a total sum of 4 million TL within the scope of activities to prevent “corruption of morality”.

A series of commemoration events and actions have been held in Dersim, Ankara, Antep and Adana on the 78th anniversary of “Tertele”, the Dersim Massacre. The centre of the commemoration in Dersim was the Seka Sure area, the site of mass graves in Hozat.