Page 13 - TURKRptMay20

deposited​. It has also blocked Ankara municipality’s account.
Erdogan’s National Solidarity Campaign has raised at least $245mn. A list of donors published by the pro-government Hurriyet daily on April 16 included several Turkish conglomerates. ​Kalyon Holding and Limak Holding, which have won multi-billion-dollar construction deals from the Erdogan government, donated $1.8mn and $1.5mn​, respectively.
Donations are deductible from tax obligations.
Al-Monitor contributor Mahmut Bozarslan recently reported that ​only 19 of the 59 mayoral offices won by the Kurds in the municipal elections last year remain​ in Kurdish hands.
On April 10, according to local reports, the interior ministry blocked the bank accounts of soup kitchens run by the municipality of Eskisehir, long a CHP stronghold.
Coronavirus ​exacerbated​ Armenia-Turkey rancour. Ankara and Tehran have denied​ rumours emanating from Baku that they have sent humanitarian assistance to Armenia and residents of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway territory in Azerbaijan controlled by an Armenian ethnic majority.
The Turkish authorities ​banned​ Independent Turkish from being accessed by the country’s internet users. The move was part of a purge of more than a dozen news websites that Turkey says are connected to Saudi Arabia and ally the United Arab Emirates. Other outlets affected by the ban include Sky News Arabia, a joint venture between London-based Sky and an Abu Dhabi company
The bans were announced days after several Turkish media sites, including state-run Anadolu Agency, were blocked in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Last year, UK media regulator Ofcom held an extensive investigation into the offshore investments in both the Independent and its sister newspaper the London Evening Standard. It concluded that while the new investors had close ties to the Saudi state, there was no evidence of them influencing output at the English-language publications.
13​ TURKEY Country Report​ May 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com