At least a million people marched in Turkey’s second city Izmir [May 13] against the ruling AK party. Pro-secular, Kemalist Turks fear that the ruling party’s Islamist roots will undermine Turkey’s secular constitution. On [May 12], a bombing in the city killed one man and injured 14 people. [AlJazeera, May 13]
[Turkey’s main opposition centre-left Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the smaller leftist Democratic Left Party (DSP) are in talks to form an alliance,and hope to use the rally to build momentum before elections on July 22. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has called a general election months ahead of schedule to defuse a conflict with Turkey’s secularists over a presidential election. Turkey’s secular establishment, including opposition parties, senior judges and army generals, successfully blocked parliament’s election of Abdullah Gul, the foreign minister, to the presidency.]
From Madrid11.net Security Briefs, May 14
See our last post on Turkey.
