The Levant Files

Turkish prosecutors have submitted a request for the removal of opposition leader Özgür Özel’s parliamentary immunity, seeking to pursue a bribery investigation connected to the selection of a candidate for the 2024 local elections. The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office announced on August 4 that it had completed separate investigations concerning Özel, the leader of the Yeni Party, and Malatya MP Veli Ağbaba. Prosecutors prepared parliamentary dossiers, known in Turkey as fezlekes, and sent them to the Justice Ministry as part of the procedure required to lift the two politicians’ immunity. Both men are being investigated on suspicion of “repeatedly accepting bribes,” according to the prosecutor’s statement reported by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency. The submission does not mean that Özel has been convicted, indicted or formally placed on trial. As a serving member of Parliament, he is protected by legislative immunity. Prosecutors must first secure Parliament’s approval befo...

Turkey’s overstretched justice system has apparently found a new threat to public order: a small portable vibrator hanging from a photographer’s neck. Photographer and model Bennu Gerede was detained in İstanbul on August 4 after displaying the device during a YouTube interview, according to the independent news outlet Bianet. Prosecutors opened an “obscenity” investigation after a clip from the programme circulated on social media—now the country’s most efficient mechanism for converting manufactured outrage into criminal proceedings. The offending object appeared during an interview on journalist Emel Özuğurlu’s YouTube channel. When Özuğurlu noticed that Gerede wore few accessories and asked about her necklace, Gerede explained that it was a portable vibrator with several settings. She also described circumstances in which it could be used, including in a toilet or while driving. The latter suggestion was perhaps unwise from a road-safety perspective, although it remains unclear whe...

Amman warns that the gradual normalisation of Jewish prayer at Jerusalem’s most contested holy site could transform the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a wider religious confrontation. Jordan has called an emergency meeting of Arab and Muslim foreign ministers amid mounting fears that Israel is dismantling the decades-old arrangements governing the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem. The meeting, scheduled for Wednesday in Amman, will bring together ministers from Arab states as well as Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan. Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi is expected to seek a coordinated diplomatic response to what Amman describes as an “imminent” threat to the compound and to Jordan’s custodial role there. “Jerusalem is a tinderbox,” Safadi told The Guardian , warning that interference with the site’s established arrangements could produce repercussions across the Muslim world. There is, however, an important distinction: no Israeli cabinet decision form...

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday that he would not resign and insisted that his government was fully aligned with the country’s armed forces. “If I resign, I will announce it officially. I will not resign, and I will stand firm,” Pezeshkian said, according to the Iranian newspaper Entekhab . “We are fully coordinated with the military forces,” he added, rejecting attempts to portray the supreme leader, the government and the military as following different policies. The statement, released in a preview of a four-part televised account of his government’s first two years, was necessary because the resignation story had become more than a passing rumour. It was being used to question whether Pezeshkian still possessed meaningful authority at the precise moment Iran is weighing further escalation against a diplomatic exit from its five-month war with the United States. Left unanswered, the allegation risked turning him into a lame-duck president in the eyes of Iran’s bu...

Efforts to revive diplomacy between the United States and Iran appeared to have reached a dead end on Tuesday, with the two governments unable even to agree publicly on whether negotiations were taking place, as fresh incidents around the Strait of Hormuz and reports of expanding Iranian-aligned military coordination in Iraq deepened fears of a wider confrontation. US President Donald Trump said talks with Tehran were already under way and described them as Iran’s “last chance” to reach an agreement before Washington considered renewed large-scale attacks. He presented a two-stage process: first reopening the Strait of Hormuz and then addressing Iran’s nuclear programme. Trump also said he had postponed a major strike after appeals from Gulf partners and unnamed Iranian figures, allowing more time for diplomacy. Tehran offered a sharply different account. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Iran was not negotiating with the United States and that its discussions were solely...

Turkey's decade-spanning effort to end its conflict with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) entered a decisive week after a delegation from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) held a three-hour meeting with imprisoned PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan on İmralı Island on Sunday, August 2, just days before a long-awaited "framework law" governing the group's disarmament and reintegration is expected to be submitted to parliament. Delegation Returns From İmralı With a Message From Öcalan The visit was the delegation's second in as many weeks, following a five-hour session on July 20 at which Öcalan had first pressed for a legal foundation that would take "mutual sensitivities" into account. That earlier message urged political actors to move past what he called simplistic and narrow approaches and to root the new legislation in a report adopted in February by parliament's National Solidarity, Brotherhood and Democracy Co...

Greece remained under a state of high alert on Monday as a ferocious wildfire tore through Western Attica for a fourth consecutive day, surrounding the coastal settlement of Psatha and forcing new evacuations as fire crews fought to keep the flames from reaching the town of Megara. The blaze, which has already burned across roughly 10 kilometers of terrain in a matter of days, intensified again shortly after midday when a dangerous flare-up erupted on the hillside above Psatha. Flames tore through dense pine forest stretching down to the sea, sending thick black smoke billowing over the coastline and forcing television crews stationed in nearby Alepochori to relocate for visibility. "The situation remains critical today, Monday, August 3rd, as a very high fire risk (Category 4) is forecast for Attica, Boeotia and Evia, with the Fire Service on general alert," officials said, underscoring the gravity of conditions facing emergency crews. Flames Reach the Doorsteps of Kandili T...

Tehran on Monday firmly denied that it is engaged in direct negotiations with the United States, even as diplomatic efforts to defuse the standoff between the two countries continued through regional intermediaries. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei told reporters in Tehran that "there are currently no negotiations with the United States," pushing back against suggestions from Washington that a bilateral dialogue was underway. He added that Iran's engagement was instead focused on a separate channel: talks with Oman concerning the management of maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. That Oman-mediated track appears to be advancing quickly. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told cabinet members on Sunday that "negotiations with Oman over the Strait of Hormuz are in their final stages" and "on the way to being finalized," according to Iran's state news agency IRNA. Araghchi's remarks came just after President Trum...

Two firefighting helicopters collided mid-air on Sunday while battling a major wildfire in western Attica, in one of the most serious aerial firefighting accidents in Greece in recent years. All four crew members were located after the crash, with two rescued safely and two found unconscious before being transferred to hospital, according to Greece’s public broadcaster ERT.  The collision occurred over the wildfire front near Psatha, west of Athens, where aircraft were conducting water-dropping operations to contain rapidly spreading flames. ERT reported that each helicopter was carrying a two-person crew when the aircraft struck each other during the operation. According to ERT, rescue teams quickly reached the crash site. Two crew members were found in good condition, while the remaining two were discovered unconscious and were airlifted for urgent medical treatment. Their condition has not been officially updated. The accident unfolded as hundreds of firefighters, supported by airc...

Bölge Uçurumun Kıyısından Nasıl Döndü? ABD büyükelçiliklerinin güvenlik uyarılarından Suudi Arabistan’ın devreye girmesine, İran’ın tehditlerinden Donald Trump’ın son anda verdiği mesaja kadar 1-2 Ağustos gecesi Levant ve Basra Körfezi’ni büyük bir bölgesel çatışmanın eşiğine getirdi. Ancak son anda diplomasiye dar da olsa bir alan açıldı. Tehlike henüz geçmiş değil. Washington’ın saldırıları durdurma kararı şartlara bağlı, Hürmüz Boğazı krizin merkezindeki yerini koruyor ve bölge başkentlerinde alarm durumu sürüyor.  Bölge Alarm Durumuna Geçti 1 Ağustos Cumartesi günü ABD’nin Orta Doğu’daki büyükelçilikleri, alışılmışın dışında kapsamlı güvenlik uyarıları yayımladı. Açıklamalarda, Amerikalı vatandaşlar “öngörülemeyen bir tırmanış” ihtimaline karşı uyarılarak bölgeden ayrılmayı değerlendirmeleri istendi. Bahreyn, Irak, İsrail, Ürdün, Kuveyt, Lübnan, Umman, Katar, Suudi Arabistan ve Birleşik Arap Emirlikleri’ni kapsayan uyarılar, Levant’tan Basra Körfezi’ne uzanan geniş coğrafyada A...