One Dead, Four Injured in Post-election Violence in Southeast Türkiye

People enjoy the view from the Galata Bridge, backdropped by the Suleymaniye Mosque, two days after the general elections, in Istanbul, Türkiye, 16 May 2023. (EPA)
People enjoy the view from the Galata Bridge, backdropped by the Suleymaniye Mosque, two days after the general elections, in Istanbul, Türkiye, 16 May 2023. (EPA)
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One Dead, Four Injured in Post-election Violence in Southeast Türkiye

People enjoy the view from the Galata Bridge, backdropped by the Suleymaniye Mosque, two days after the general elections, in Istanbul, Türkiye, 16 May 2023. (EPA)
People enjoy the view from the Galata Bridge, backdropped by the Suleymaniye Mosque, two days after the general elections, in Istanbul, Türkiye, 16 May 2023. (EPA)

The brother of an opposition candidate was killed and four other people injured in clashes between opponents and supporters of the newly elected ruling-party mayor of a city district in a predominantly Kurdish region of southeastern Türkiye.

Supporters of President Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party (AKP) clashed with backers of the opposition DEVA (Remedy) Party in the Pervari district of the city of Siirt on Tuesday night, following local elections on Sunday in which the opposition mostly performed well across Türkiye.

In the district, the AKP candidate for mayor won with 52% of the vote, while the DEVA candidate placed second with 40%.

The governor's office said five people had been hurt in the clashes, one of whom died of his wounds. The DEVA deputy chairman Mehmet Emin Ekmen identified the person who died as the brother of the party's candidate.

DEVA was one of six parties in the opposition alliance before May 2023 general elections when Erdogan secured another 5-year mandate and his ruling alliance a parliamentary majority.

Police are investigating the incident and six people were detained, the Siirt governor's office said, adding that it had imposed a curfew in Pervari district until Thursday morning for security reasons.

Protests also spread elsewhere in Türkiye's southeastern provinces on Tuesday night, after Turkish authorities prevented the newly elected mayor from the pro-Kurdish DEM party taking up his post in the city of Van, and announced a re-run vote in Sanilurfa's Hilvan district where AKP lost, Reuters reported.

Footage showed protesters in Batman province firing firecrackers at police, who sprayed them with water cannons, while scores of security personnel were stationed around Hakkari city, where protests also took hold.



Macron Speeds up Rafale Warplane Orders as France Invests in Nuclear Deterrence

France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech in front of a Dassault Rafale (R) and A Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft during his visit of the French Air and Space Force (Armee de l'air et de l'espace) Luxeuil-Saint-Sauveur Airbase in Saint-Sauveur, north-eastern France on March 18, 2025. (AFP)
France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech in front of a Dassault Rafale (R) and A Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft during his visit of the French Air and Space Force (Armee de l'air et de l'espace) Luxeuil-Saint-Sauveur Airbase in Saint-Sauveur, north-eastern France on March 18, 2025. (AFP)
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Macron Speeds up Rafale Warplane Orders as France Invests in Nuclear Deterrence

France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech in front of a Dassault Rafale (R) and A Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft during his visit of the French Air and Space Force (Armee de l'air et de l'espace) Luxeuil-Saint-Sauveur Airbase in Saint-Sauveur, north-eastern France on March 18, 2025. (AFP)
France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech in front of a Dassault Rafale (R) and A Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft during his visit of the French Air and Space Force (Armee de l'air et de l'espace) Luxeuil-Saint-Sauveur Airbase in Saint-Sauveur, north-eastern France on March 18, 2025. (AFP)

President Emmanuel Macron said France would order additional Rafale warplanes in the coming years and invest nearly 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) into one of its air bases to equip its squadrons with the latest nuclear missile technology.

Jolted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and US President Donald Trump's more confrontational stance towards traditional Western allies, European countries are hiking defense spending and seeking to reduce dependence on the United States.

Macron, who has initiated a doubling of the French defense budget over the course of his two mandates, has recently set an even higher target, saying the country should increase defense spending to 3-3.5% of economic output from the current 2%.

He has also offered to extend the protection of France's nuclear weapons, the so-called nuclear umbrella, to other European countries.

"We haven't waited for 2022 or the turning point we're seeing right now to discover that the world we live in is ever more dangerous, ever more uncertain, and that it implies to innovate, to bulk up and to become more autonomous," he said.

"I will announce in the coming weeks new investments to go further than what was done over the past seven years," he told soldiers at one of the country's historical air bases in Luxeuil, eastern France.

Macron said he had decided to turn the base, famed in military circles as the home of American volunteer pilots during World War One, into one of its most advanced bases in its nuclear deterrence program.

The base will host the latest Rafale S5 fighter jets, which will carry France's next-generation ASN4G hypersonic nuclear-armed cruise missiles, which are intended to be operational from 2035 onwards, French officials said.

The French air force will also receive additional Dassault-made Rafale warplanes, in part to replace the Mirage jets France has transferred to Ukraine, Macron said.

"We are going to increase and accelerate our orders for Rafales," he said.

French officials said the 1.5 billion euros were part of the already approved multi-year military spending plan. It remained unclear how France would finance a massive hike in military spending at a time it is trying to reduce its budget deficit.

Macron's speech comes on the day the German parliament approved a massive increase in military spending.