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Turkish Authorities Launch Investigation Against Pro-Kurdish MP Over Militant Links

HDP's Dirayet Dilan Tasdemir
HDP's Dirayet Dilan Tasdemir
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Turkish Authorities Launch Investigation Against Pro-Kurdish MP Over Militant Links

HDP's Dirayet Dilan Tasdemir
HDP's Dirayet Dilan Tasdemir

Turkish authorities are investigating a lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) over suspected militant links, prosecutors said on Sunday, after a minister said the lawmaker had visited an area in northern Iraq where 13 Turks were killed.

President Tayyip Erdogan, his ruling AK Party and their ally the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) accuse the HDP of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which the HDP denies.

The HDP has come under renewed pressure this week after the government said that fighters from the PKK had executed 13 Turkish captives in Iraq's Gara region, including military and police personnel. The PKK said the captives had died during clashes in the area.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told broadcaster A Haber on Saturday that the HDP's Dirayet Dilan Tasdemir had visited Gara, according to an account by someone he said was a PKK militant who had surrendered. Ankara says the PKK have several bases in Gara.

Prosecutors in Ankara said on Sunday that Soylu's comments were considered a notice and that an investigation had been launched into Tasdemir's links to an armed terrorist organization.

Tasdemir, in a tweet on Saturday, had denied Soylu's comments.

"This country's interior minister made a statement giving my name based on the so-called accounts of one person. We will prove that this is a giant lie and slander," she wrote.

Many prominent HDP members have been investigated, tried, and jailed over terrorism charges. Selahattin Demirtas, the party's former leader and one of Turkey's most prominent politicians, has been in jail for more than four years.

On Friday, Turkey's top appeals court approved a jail sentence against another HDP lawmaker on terrorism charges, potentially opening the way to revoking his parliamentary membership.

Turkey has carried out several cross-border operations into northern Iraq against the PKK, which has waged an insurgency in the mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey since 1984. It is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and European Union.

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World

Quake Hits Spanish City of Granada, Damages Buildings and Cars

Members of the BRICA 401 and 402 units from Granada advance toward a fireline during a wildfire in Niebla, Huelva, Spain, August 8, 2026. REUTERS/Mikel Konate
Members of the BRICA 401 and 402 units from Granada advance toward a fireline during a wildfire in Niebla, Huelva, Spain, August 8, 2026. REUTERS/Mikel Konate
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Quake Hits Spanish City of Granada, Damages Buildings and Cars

Members of the BRICA 401 and 402 units from Granada advance toward a fireline during a wildfire in Niebla, Huelva, Spain, August 8, 2026. REUTERS/Mikel Konate
Members of the BRICA 401 and 402 units from Granada advance toward a fireline during a wildfire in Niebla, Huelva, Spain, August 8, 2026. REUTERS/Mikel Konate

An earthquake of magnitude 5 struck the southern Spanish city of Granada in the early hours of Saturday morning, with the regional government saying houses and cars were damaged but no injuries had been reported.

The earthquake hit the metropolitan area ⁠of Alhendin just ⁠after 1 a.m.

Spanish television channel TVE showed debris strewn on the street and some damage to cars in the popular ⁠tourist city. Andalusian emergency services rescued a number of people from damaged buildings.

Antonio Sanz Cabello, vice-president of the Andalusian regional government, said in a post on X on Saturday that authorities had declared an emergency.

"If you're in Granada, ⁠you've ⁠felt the earthquake, you're okay, and your home shows no damage, stay calm and avoid entering and exiting buildings unnecessarily," Reuters quoted him as saying.

"On the street, stay away from facades, cornices, balconies, walls, and other elements that could fall."

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Trump Says Will 'Soon' Declare Hormuz Strait US Territory

Police officers applaud as President Donald Trump arrives to speak at the David Mack Center for Training and Intelligence, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, in Garden City, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Police officers applaud as President Donald Trump arrives to speak at the David Mack Center for Training and Intelligence, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, in Garden City, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
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Trump Says Will 'Soon' Declare Hormuz Strait US Territory

Police officers applaud as President Donald Trump arrives to speak at the David Mack Center for Training and Intelligence, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, in Garden City, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Police officers applaud as President Donald Trump arrives to speak at the David Mack Center for Training and Intelligence, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, in Garden City, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

President Donald Trump said Friday he would "finish defeating" Iran and "soon" declare the Strait of Hormuz part of US territory.

Trump has repeatedly said that the key energy waterway, which Tehran effectively closed at the start of the Middle East war, is under US control -- an assertion Tehran denies.

"After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated -- pretty soon I'll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States," he said with a chuckle during a political rally at a police academy in New York state.

"It's true," he added, according to AFP.

An unnamed White House official later clarified that Trump was joking, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi fired back Saturday in a post on X, stressing that the "Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian."

"This strait will only be closed and opened under Iran's command," he added.

Trump, together with Israel, launched a war against Iran on February 28.

The United States remains locked in a stalemate with Iran over the strait, with Iran denying access to much of the civilian shipping and the US Navy mounting a blockade of Iranian ports in an attempt to cripple its economy.

"We have the blockade. No ships get through unless we want them to," Trump said to a cheering crowd of supporters and police.

World

Iran Defiant as Trump Tells Americans to Accept High Gas Prices

Vehicles drive along a street in northern Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Vehicles drive along a street in northern Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
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Iran Defiant as Trump Tells Americans to Accept High Gas Prices

Vehicles drive along a street in northern Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Vehicles drive along a street in northern Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iran called on the US to accept defeat while President Donald Trump blasted Tehran as "very evil" and told Americans to brace for continued high fuel prices as a result of the war.

Progress toward peace talks and oil tanker traffic through the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway remained halted, with no sign the warring parties were moving toward ending the conflict that the US and Israel launched on February 28.

"This strait will be opened and closed only under Iran's command, and so long as you do not accept the reality of defeat and stop indulging in fantasies, Iran will continue to enforce the blockade," Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi posted on X early on Saturday.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Iran had not decided to resume talks with the US. He told Iranian news outlet Shahrara News in an interview published on Saturday that Washington must meet conditions on the strait in order for shipping to ⁠resume in the waterway ⁠that handled one-fifth of the world's oil before the war.

Trump urged Americans to accept slightly higher gasoline prices while the conflict with Iran continues.

He told a political rally in Garden City, New York, on Friday that paying "a tiny little bit more for your gasoline" is worth the cost of ensuring "a very evil country" could not have a nuclear weapon, one of the president's stated rationales for the war.

In a trend that has sparked inflation and disappointed voters, the average US price of a gallon of gasoline was about $4.08 on Friday, up 29% from a year earlier, according to the American Automobile Association.

Trump, a Republican, campaigned for reelection on a promise to lower energy costs, and Democrats are seeking to ⁠make the war's fallout an issue in November congressional elections.

Crude oil futures rose $1 a barrel on Friday. Benchmark Brent futures were on track for a weekly rise of 6.0% and West Texas Intermediate 5.4%.

"The Strait of Hormuz cannot be seized by a tweet or an aircraft carrier, by issuing an order or by delivering an election speech," Gharibabadi said.

Despite Iran's defiant tone, though, there were signs of an economic toll there too.

President Masoud Pezeshkian, in remarks on state television, blamed high inflation on a US blockade of Iranian ports and sanctions on Iran's oil exports.

Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent each pledged to inflict more financial damage on Iran. Bessent told Newsmax's "Rob Schmitt Tonight" program on Thursday that announcements of more measures against Iran were coming next week.

Tehran calls its enforcement of strait traffic a blockade - the term Washington uses for its threat against Iranian vessels leaving their ports.

"What we're doing is a great service for the world, not only for ourselves ... and we're really doing a great job," Trump said, adding that a 260-day deployment ⁠by a US aircraft carrier supporting ⁠the war effort was "not nearly long enough."

Only two vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Friday with no crude oil shipments visible, according to analysis from ship-tracking firm Kpler.

Some ships may cross the strait undetected with their transponders off, but the figures are nowhere near the more than 130 ships that traversed it daily before the war.

Vessels that dare navigate the strait without Iranian permission risk missile or drone strikes.