Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has proffered an olive branch to secular critics by publicly disowning his party’s proposals to curb pornography and encourage school prayer.
The move appeared designed to allay lingering fears of an Islamist state, coming less than two weeks after a court case in which the governing Justice and Development party (AKP) narrowly avoided a ban for allegedly undermining Turkey’s secular system.
Erdogan spoke out after AKP Deputy Chairwoman Edibe Sozen provoked an outcry by publishing a plan to force buyers of pornography to give their details to shopkeepers, who would have been obliged pass them to the authorities.
The bill also included provisions requiring prayer facilities in all state schools, despite constitutional laws demanding the separation of religion and state.
The draft Protection of Youth bill also proposed banning licensed restaurants from admitting unaccompanied minors after 10pm, and would have made it illegal for them to be there after midnight even if accompanied by their parents.
Sozen claimed the bill was based on laws in force in Germany, but withdrew her proposal under protest from secularists who claimed it was further evidence of the AKP’s Islamist “hidden agenda.”
The fallout forced Erdogan, known for his socially conservative views, into an unusually harsh rebuke in which he described Sozen’s proposals as “ill-timed and fatal.”
He urged party discipline at a time when the AKP is under fierce scrutiny for perceived anti-secular tendencies.
“It [the bill] is not the party’s work, but it was perceived as if it belonged to the party,” Erdogan told an AKP meeting.
“Such works should be discussed within the party first. It is an ill-timed and fatal statement. The content is bad,” he said.
“She [Sozen] put the party in a difficult situation. We are going through sensitive times that need caution and ultimate care. This is valid for each one of us. We all need to refrain from any actions or statements that could create new tensions,” the prime minister said.
His comments were later reinforced by an AKP statement, which dismissed Sozen’s proposals as “not in accordance with the party program.”
Sozen’s draft was published just days after the Constitutional Court — Turkey’s highest — effectively put the AKP on probation by depriving it of millions of dollars in state funding, after finding it guilty of being a “focal point of anti-secularism.”
The ruling stopped short of prosecutors’ demands for the party to be shut down and for its senior figures, including Erdogan, to be banned from politics for five years.
Mensur Akgun, an EU program director with Tesev, a Turkish think tank, said: “I don’t think the critics will be satisfied with such a motion from the prime minister.
“He has to show that he favors further liberalization of the country and cares about more than just the rights of the Muslim community,” Akgun said.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS