Turkey has issued a warning to avoid bootleg alcohol in the country after around 103 people were reported to have been fatally poisoned in two major cities since the new year. According to the Independent, all deaths happened in Ankara and Istanbul, after authorities warned about a rising death toll tied to an increase in illegal alcohol being sold disguised as big-name brands. In Istanbul, 70 people have died since January 14, and in Ankara, 33 have died since January 1. Across the two cities, another 230 were hospitalised in connection with the poisoned “booze” with 40 of those in critical condition, officials said. 

In Turkey, the price of alcohol has spiked in the last few years due to heavy taxes imposed by President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party. Alcoholic drink makers have also faced an increasingly onerous tax burden and other restrictions, the outlet reported. Moreover, the Turkish government has again hiked taxes on alcohol and tobacco products for 2025 on 3 January.

This high cost has pushed some consumers, shops, restaurants and bars to rely on bootleg alcohol and homemade drinks, leading to rising poisoning in recent years. 

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Istanbul’s governor’s office last month said it had taken steps to combat bootleg sales and distribution, including mandatory cameras at shops selling alcohol, suspending or revoking sale licences, and carrying out regular inspections. Authorities have arrested 13 people in Ankara and 11 others in Istanbul. They have also reportedly seized 102 tons of methanol and ethanol in Ankara, and over 86,000 litres of bootleg pr smuggled alcohol in Istanbul, as per The Independent. 

Meanwhile, the recent deaths in Turkey come after six tourists, including an American and a backpacker from the United Kingdom, died in Laos after unknowingly consuming methanol-tainted booze. The youngest victim, an Australian woman, was only 19 years old.

Russian President Vladimir Putin with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as they with other participants in the BRICS Plus format meeting pose for a family photo during the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, on October 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Turkey is determined to pursue its talks with the BRICS group of emerging market nations, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday (October 24, 2024) after Ankara became the first NATO member seeking to join.

Mr. Erdogan joined the summit at the invitation of Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin after asking last month to join the bloc which incorporates Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

“We are determined to further our dialogue with the BRICS family, with whom we have developed close relations based on mutual respect and win-win,” he told delegates at the BRICS forum in the Russian city of Kazan.

If admitted, it would be the first NATO member to join the alliance which sees itself as a counterweight to Western powers and whose members are sharply at odds the West over several issues, notably the ongoing Mideast conflict.

“The political and financial mechanisms that emerged after World War II cannot deliver what is expected of them,” Mr. Erdogan said.

BRICS, he added, made a “unique contribution.. to the construction of a more just world” through “the development of global trade, economic growth and sustainable development goals”.

BRICS is an acronym for its five founding members although the alliance added four nations this year, three from the Middle East – including Iran.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday (September 7, 2024) said Islamic countries should form an alliance against what he called “the growing threat of expansionism” from Israel.

He made the comment after describing what Palestinian and Turkish officials said was the killing by Israeli troops of a Turkish-American woman taking part in a protest on Friday against settlement expansion in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Also read | Turkey’s Erdogan says ‘spirit of United Nations dead in Gaza’

“The only step that will stop Israeli arrogance, Israeli banditry, and Israeli state terrorism is the alliance of Islamic countries,” Mr. Erdogan said at an Islamic schools’ association event near Istanbul.

He said recent steps that Turkey has taken to improve ties with Egypt and Syria are aimed at “forming a line of solidarity against the growing threat of expansionism,” which he said also threatened Lebanon and Syria.

Mr. Erdogan hosted Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Ankara this week and they discussed the Gaza war and ways to further repair their long-frozen ties during what was the first such presidential visit in 12 years.

Ties between them started thawing in 2020 when Turkey began diplomatic efforts to ease tensions with estranged regional rivals, including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Erdogan said in July that Turkey would extend an invitation to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “any time” for possible talks to restore relations between the two neighbours, who severed ties in 2011 after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war.

Israel did not immediately comment on Mr. Erdogan’s remarks on Saturday.

Israel’s military said after Friday’s incident that it was looking into reports that a female foreign national “was killed as a result of shots fired in the area. The details of the incident and the circumstances in which she was hit are under review.

There was no immediate comment on Friday’s incident from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, talks with U.S. President Joe Biden during a working session on AI, Energy, Africa and Mideast, at the G7, on June 14, 2024, in Borgo Egnazia, near Bari, southern Italy.
| Photo Credit: AP

Türkiye’s President Tayyip Erdogan said on June 15 that U.S. President Joe Biden is undergoing “a test of sincerity” in his handling of the Gaza war.

In an interview with reporters on his way back from the G7 Summit in Italy, Mr. Erdogan said Mr. Biden is expected to demonstrate that the Gaza ceasefire plan is not a calculated electoral tactic but a sincere effort to end the war.

He also said that Germany softened its stance on the sales of Eurofightesr jets to Türkiye. In November, Türkiye said the country was in talks with Britain and Spain to buy Eurofighter Typhoons, though Germany objected the idea. “Eurofighters are important to us,” he added.

Mr. Erdogan also said that inflation will be put on a more favourable position in the final quarter with the steps to be taken on interest rates.

“Policies aimed at rebalancing the economy are bearing fruit,” Erdogan said.

Turks punished President Tayyip Erdogan and his party on Sunday in nationwide local elections that reasserted the opposition as a political force and reinforced Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu as the president’s chief future rival.

With more than half of votes counted, Imamoglu led by nearly 10 percentage points in the mayoral race in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, while his Republican People’s Party (CHP) retained Ankara and gained nine other mayoral seats in big cities nationwide.

Analysts said Erdogan and his AK Party (AKP) – which have ruled Turkey for more than two decades – fared worse than polls predicted due to soaring inflation, dissatisfied Islamist voters and, in Istanbul, Imamoglu’s appeal beyond the CHP’s secular base.

“The favour and trust our citizens have in us have indeed been demonstrated,” said Imamoglu, 53, a former businessman who entered politics in 2008 and is now seen by analsyts as a potential presidential challenger.

In Ankara, the capital, thousands of supporters gathered into the night waving CHP flags for a speech by CHP Mayor Mansur Yavas, who trounced his AKP challenger in another blow for Erdogan.

Erdogan had campaigned hard ahead of the municipal elections, which analysts described as a gauge of both his support and the opposition’s durability. The president’s disappointing showing could signal a change in the major emerging economy’s divided political landscape.

Hours after voting ended, the president was headed to Ankara from Istanbul to address the nation.

According to 79.77% of ballot boxes opened in Istanbul, Europe’s largest city with more than 16 million people, Imamoglu had 50.53% support compared with 40.73% for AKP challenger Murat Kurum, a former minister in Erdogan’s national government.

Polls had predicted a tight contest in Istanbul and possible CHP losses across the country.

Yet partial official results reported by state-run Anadolu Agency showed AKP and its main ally giving up mayoralties in 10 big cities including Bursa and Balikesir in the industrialised northwest.

The CHP is leading nationwide by almost 1% of the votes, a first in 35 years, the results showed.

Mert Arslanalp, assistant professor of political science at Istanbul’s Bogazici University, said it was Erdogan’s “severest election defeat” since coming to national power in 2002.

“Imamoglu demonstrated he could reach across the deep socio-political divisions that define Turkey’s opposition electorate even without their institutional support,” he said. “This makes him the most politically competitive rival to Erdogan’s regime at the national level.”

IMAMOGLU’S RISE

In 2019, Imamoglu had dealt Erdogan a sharp electoral blow when he first won Istanbul, ending 25 years of rule in the city by AKP and its Islamist predecessors, including Erdogan’s own run as its mayor in the 1990s. CHP also won Ankara that year.

The president struck back in 2023 by securing re-election and a parliamentary majority with his nationalist allies, despite a years-long cost-of-living crisis.

Analysts said the economic strains, including nearly 70% inflation and a slowdown in growth brought on by an aggressive monetary-tightening regime, moved voters to punish AKP this time.

“The economy was the decisive factor,” said Hakan Akbas, a senior adviser at the Albright Stonebridge Group. “Turkish people demanded change and Imamoglu is now the default nemesis to President Erdogan.”

Flag-waving supporters in front of the Istanbul Municipality building said they wanted to see Imamoglu challenge Erdogan for the presidency in the future.

“We are very happy. I love him so much. We would like to see him as president,” said Esra, a housewife.

Rising popular support for the Islamist New Welfare Party, which took an even more hardline stance than Erdogan against Israel over the Gaza conflict, also sapped AKP support. The party took Sanliurfa from an AKP incumbant in the southeast.

Imamoglu was reelected despite the collapse of the opposition alliance that failed to topple Erdogan last year.

The main pro-Kurdish party, which backed Imamoglu in 2019, fielded its own candidate under the DEM banner in Istanbul this time. But many Kurds put aside party loyalty and voted for him again, the results suggest.

In the mainly Kurdish southeast, DEM reaffirmed its strength, winning 10 provinces. Following previous elections, the state has replaced pro-Kurdish mayors with state-appointed “trustees” following previous elections over alleged militant ties.

Violence erupted earlier in the day, including one incident in the southeast in clashes by groups armed with guns, sticks and stones, killing one and wounding 11. In another, one neighbourhood official, or “muhtar”, candidate was killed and four people were wounded in a fight, Anadolu reported.

Several others were hurt in other incidents while one person was shot dead and two were wounded overnight ahead of the vote in Bursa, Demiroren reported.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A man checks the list with the candidates at a polling station in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, March 31, 2024. Turkey is holding local elections on Sunday that will decide who gets to control Istanbul and other key cities.
| Photo Credit: AP

Turks began voting on March 31 in municipal elections focused on President Tayyip Erdogan’s bid to reclaim control of Istanbul from rival Ekrem Imamoglu, who aims to reassert the opposition as a political force after bitter election defeats last year.

Istanbul Mayor Imamoglu dealt Mr. Erdogan and his AK Party the biggest electoral blow of two decades in power with his win in the 2019 vote. The president struck back in 2023 by securing re-election and a parliament majority with his nationalist allies.

Sunday’s results could now reinforce Mr. Erdogan’s control of NATO-member Turkey, or signal change in the major emerging economy’s divided political landscape. An Imamoglu win is seen fuelling expectations of him becoming a future national leader.

Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) in eastern Turkey and elsewhere at 8 a.m., with more than 61 million people registered to vote. Voting ends at 5 p.m. and initial results are expected by 10 p.m. (1900 GMT).

“The AK Party has completed very important projects for the development of this country,” said 28-year-old Faruk Baran after voting in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. “[It] needs to be strong at the local level in order to continue its services.”

In Istanbul, a city of 16 million people that drives Turkey’s economy, polls suggest a tight race as Imamoglu faces a challenge from AKP candidate Murat Kurum, a former minister.

The results are likely to be shaped in part by economic woes driven by rampant inflation near 70%, and by Kurdish and Islamist voters weighing up the government’s performance and their hopes for political change.

While the main prize for Mr. Erdogan is Istanbul, he also seeks to win back the capital Ankara. Both cities were won by the opposition in 2019 after being under the rule of his AKP and Islamist predecessors for the previous 25 years.

Mr. Erdogan’s prospects have been helped by the collapse of the opposition alliance that he defeated last year, though Imamoglu still appeals to voters beyond his main opposition Republican People’s Party.

Voters of the main pro-Kurdish party were crucial to Imamoglu’s 2019 success. Their DEM party this time is fielding its own candidate in Istanbul, but many Kurds are expected to put aside party loyalty and vote for him again.

In the mainly Kurdish southeast, DEM is looking to reaffirm its strength after the state replaced pro-Kurdish party mayors with state-appointed ‘trustees’ following previous elections over alleged ties to militants.

“I wish for an end to the trustee system. This election is important for Turkey’s future and for listening to us: Kurds are always decisive,” said civil servant Elif Durgun, 32.

One factor working against Mr. Erdogan is a rise in support for the Islamist New Welfare Party due to its hardline stance against Israel over the Gaza conflict and dissatisfaction with the Islamist-rooted AKP’s handling of the economy.

Istanbul:

Turks vote on Sunday in nationwide municipal elections focused on President Tayyip Erdogan’s bid to reclaim control of Istanbul from major rival Ekrem Imamoglu, who aims to reassert the opposition as a political force after bitter election defeats last year.

Istanbul Mayor Imamoglu dealt Erdogan and his AK Party the biggest electoral blow of two decades in power with his win in the 2019 vote. The president struck back in 2023 by securing re-election and a parliament majority with his nationalist allies.

Sunday’s votes could now reinforce Erdogan’s control of NATO-member Turkey, or signal change in the major emerging economy’s divided political landscape. An Imamoglu win is seen fuelling expectations of him becoming a future national leader.

Polling stations open at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) in eastern Turkey, with voting elsewhere starting at 8 a.m. and ending at 5 p.m.. Initial results are expected by 10 p.m. (1900 GMT).

Polls suggest a tight race in Istanbul, a city of 16 million people that drives Turkey’s economy, where Imamoglu faces a challenge from AKP candidate Murat Kurum, a former minister.

The results are likely to be shaped in part by economic woes driven by rampant inflation near 70%, and by Kurdish and Islamist voters weighing up the government’s performance and their hopes for political change.

While the main prize for Erdogan is Istanbul, he also seeks to win back the capital Ankara. Both cities were won by the opposition in 2019 after being under the rule of his AKP and Islamist predecessors for the previous 25 years.

Erdogan’s prospects have been helped by the collapse of the opposition alliance that he defeated last year, though Imamoglu still appeals to voters beyond his main opposition Republican People’s Party.

Voters of the main pro-Kurdish party were crucial to Imamoglu’s 2019 success. Their DEM party this time is fielding its own candidate in Istanbul, but many Kurds are expected to put aside party loyalty and vote for him again.

In the mainly Kurdish southeast, DEM is looking to reaffirm its strength after the state unseated pro-Kurdish party mayors following previous elections over alleged ties to militants.

One factor working against Erdogan is a rise in support for the Islamist New Welfare Party due to its hardline stance against Israel over the Gaza conflict and dissatisfaction with the Islamist-rooted AKP’s handling of the economy.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that the terrorists who carried out a bomb attack in front of the Interior Ministry in Ankara failed in their “latest attempt” to threaten citizens’ peace and security.

They “have not achieved their goals and will never achieve them,” he told members of parliament, adding in the speech that Turkey will continue to ensure that its southern borders are secure from outside militants.