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A30 world news
Diabierna 31 December 2021

Turkish govt expands probe targeting Istanbul city staff

deceased in preparation for group leader of the Repub-
Islamic funerals by the Istan- lican People’s Party, repeated
bul Metropolitan Municipal- calls for early elections after
ity. It also says some of the criticizing the indictment,
suspects were handing over which he said was based only
municipal aid to families on two secret witnesses and a
with PKK links. convicted PKK member. He
accused the ruling party of
Turkey’s Interior Ministry trying to replace the mayor of
said Sunday it launched a Istanbul with a government-
“special investigation” against appointed trustee instead of
557 employees of the Istan- going to the polls.
bul municipality and linked
companies. They are accused The deputy chairman of the
of links to terror groups, in- ruling party, Numan Kur-
cluding the PKK, far-left tulmus, told Haberturk tele-
groups and the network of vision Monday it was the
Muslim cleric Fethullah Gu- government’s job to identify
len, who the government and reveal people with terror
blames for the failed 2016 links as he tried to ease con-
coup attempt. cerns. “There is no need to
worry. ... I will say again, this
Minister Suleyman Soylu has nothing to do with the Is-
said they had identified peo- tanbul Metropolitan Munici-
ple with terror links among pality mayor.”
employees and argued the
move was to combat terror, But Erdogan’s key nation-
including in public institu- alist ally, Devlet Bahceli,
tions. “It’s not political, it’s a said Thursday that Imamo-
(AP) — A Turkish court The court’s decision fol- most important city. The op- security issue,” he said. glu should be sacked if terror
accepted an indictment lows an Interior Ministry position party has recently links are proven.
against suspects from probe announced Sunday accused the government of Imamoglu, defending his
a religious association against hundreds of mu- mishandling the economy, 86,000 employees, called for The government has re-
Thursday in a case that nicipal staff for alleged ter- calling for early elections. Soylu’s resignation. He said placed and jailed numerous
could have political and ror links. Together, the cases municipality staff must pres- elected mayors from the pro-
legal repercussions on the have prompted worries that The 335-page indictment, ent official criminal records Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic
opposition-held Istanbul the government could be lay- accepted Thursday, said DI- in order to be considered for Party, the second largest op-
municipality. ing the groundwork for tar- AYDER followed purported employment and had asked position party in parliament,
geting popular mayor Ekrem instruction by Abdullah Oca- the Interior Ministry to pro- for alleged links to the PKK.
The trial against 23 people Imamoglu, who is seen as a lan, the jailed founder of the vide lists of suspects and in- The PKK, which has waged
involved with DIAYDER, possible challenger to Turk- Kurdistan Workers’ Party or formation to investigate but an insurgency in Turkey since
which stands for Religious ish President Recep Tayyip PKK, for setting up an al- had not heard back. 1984, is considered a terrorist
Scholars Mutual Aid and Erdogan in elections sched- ternative religious structure group by Turkey, the United
Solidarity Association, for uled for 2023. to Turkey’s official religious Meanwhile, other opposi- States and others. Since the
purported links to outlawed authority in order to gar- tion mayors came out in sup- 2016 failed coup attempt,
Kurdish militants will be- Secular opposition Republi- ner support from religious port of Imamoglu. They said tens of thousands of people
gin on Feb. 18. Nine of the can People’s Party’s Imamo- Kurds. “unjust and baseless claims” have been investigated, jailed
defendants are in pre-trial glu came to power in 2019 in aimed to create suspicions on or sacked from government
detention and some are said re-run elections after Erdo- The indictment states that their municipalities and were jobs for purported terror
to work for the Istanbul mu- gan’s ruling party contested people with links to the as- part of “dirty politics.” links.
nicipality. his win, dealing a massive sociation were employed as
blow to Erdogan in Turkey’s imams and bathers for the Ozgur Ozel, parliamentary

Satellite images show smoldering wreckage at Syria port

(AP) — Satellite imag- explosion could be heard Wednesday, likely from the ual attacks or discusses details Iran-allied militias, such as
es taken this week over miles away. struck container still smok- of such operations, declined Lebanon’s militant Hezbol-
the Syrian port of Lata- ing. The images suggest it to comment on the reported lah group, which has fight-
kia show the smoldering It was the second such attack was a high precision strike strike. ers in Syria. It says it attacks
wreckage after a report- on the facility this month. that appeared to hit one con- arms shipments believed to
ed Israeli missile strike, tainer. Israel says it targets bases of be bound for the militias.
hours after firefighters The Latakia seaport han-
contained a massive blaze. dles most of the imports to A Syrian military official said
Syria, a country ravaged by the Israeli missiles were fired
The raid launched from the a decade-old civil war and from the sea, west of Lata-
Mediterranean Sea Tues- Western-imposed sanctions. kia, hitting the terminal and
day was among the biggest Another attack took place igniting fires. Maj. Mohan-
launched by Israel into Syria, Dec. 7, when Syrian media nad Jafaar, head of the Latakia
igniting a fire in the container reported Israeli warplanes hit fire department, said 12 fire
terminal that raged for hours the container terminal, also trucks worked for hours to
and caused significant mate- igniting a major fire. contain the blaze. He said the
rial damage in the vicinity. It containers that were hit held
damaged a nearby hospital Satellite photos obtained by spare auto parts and oil but
and offices, and also shat- The Associated Press from there were no casualties.
tered windows of residential Planet Labs PBC Thursday
buildings and cars parked in showed heavy smog over The Israeli military, which
the area near the port. The the container terminal on rarely comments on individ-