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.
