Turkey’s Davutoğlu Launches Campaign for Return of Parliamentary System

Turkish parliament | Asharq Al-Awsat
Turkish parliament | Asharq Al-Awsat
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Turkey’s Davutoğlu Launches Campaign for Return of Parliamentary System

Turkish parliament | Asharq Al-Awsat
Turkish parliament | Asharq Al-Awsat

Turkey’s former prime minister and current leader of the opposition Future Party Ahmet Davutoğlu has launched a campaign to unify Turkish parties in the pursuit of serving the country and returning to a parliamentary system while scrapping the presidential system.

Davutoğlu stressed the need to return to a strong parliamentary system as the current presidential system has shown clear fragility in running state affairs.

This coincided with the Turkish presidency's request to lift the immunity of dozens of opposition MPs in parliament for trial.

Davutoğlu published video footage on social media in which he stresses that Turkey’s future resides in a parliamentary system.

On the other hand, the Turkish presidency asked the parliament to lift the immunity of 30 opposition deputies, including 21 deputies from the opposition Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP).

The move is in preparation for the lawmakers being tried on charges mostly related to supporting terrorism.

HDP lawmakers and members have long faced pressure from the government.

In other news, an Istanbul court has banned access to several news reports on Turkey’s Communications Director Fahrettin Altun, saying such articles aimed to shift focus from the country’s “success in the fight against coronavirus, despite many European countries failing.”

“The access ban on 273 online articles, including (Cumhuriyet’s) report, ‘Outlaw in the Bosporus’ about the Presidency Communications Director Fahrettin Altun, is full of ‘creativity’,” Reporters Without Borders Turkey said in a tweet.

The articles aim “to conduct and direct society with unproven claims”, “to disrupt or obscure our country’s success in the fight against the global coronavirus pandemic despite many European countries’ failure”, and “to discredit the success of our nation and our state in the fight by diverting attention elsewhere via a regular event,” according to the court order.



Air India Probe of Boeing 787 Fuel Control Switches Finds No Issues

FILE PHOTO: A firefighter stands next to the crashed Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, in Ahmedabad, India, June 13, 2025. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A firefighter stands next to the crashed Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, in Ahmedabad, India, June 13, 2025. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo
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Air India Probe of Boeing 787 Fuel Control Switches Finds No Issues

FILE PHOTO: A firefighter stands next to the crashed Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, in Ahmedabad, India, June 13, 2025. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A firefighter stands next to the crashed Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, in Ahmedabad, India, June 13, 2025. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo

Air India's inspection of the locking feature on the fuel control switches of its existing Boeing 787 aircraft found no issues, an internal communication circulated within the airline said.

The switches have come under scrutiny following last month's crash of an Air India jet that killed 260 people after a preliminary probe by Indian investigators found that they had flipped from run position to cutoff shortly after takeoff.

India's aviation regulator earlier this week ordered the country's airlines to investigate the locking feature on the switches of several Boeing models.

The order came after Boeing notified operators that the fuel switch locks on its jets were safe.

But it was in line with a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2018, which recommended inspection of the locks to ensure they could not be moved accidentally.

Air India's probe, however, found no problems with the locking mechanism, AFP reported.

"Over the weekend, our Engineering team initiated precautionary inspections on the locking mechanism of Fuel Control Switch (FCS) on all our Boeing 787 aircraft," the airline's flight operations department said in a communication to its pilots.

"The inspections have been completed and no issues were found," the communication said, noting that it had complied with the regulator's directives.

It added that all of its Boeing 787-8 aircraft had also undergone "Throttle Control Module (TCM) replacement as per the Boeing maintenance schedule", adding that the FCS was part of this module.

Other countries have also ordered their airlines to examine fuel switches on Boeing aircraft.

Singapore found them all to be "functioning properly".

"Our checks confirmed that all fuel switches on SIA (Singapore Airlines) and Scoot's Boeing 787 aircraft are functioning properly and comply with regulatory requirements," an SIA spokesperson told AFP earlier this week.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that crashed last month was heading from Ahmedabad in western India to London, with the accident killing all but one of the 242 people on board as well as 19 people on the ground.