Ruling AKP member gunned down in front of Istanbul election office Archives

Explosion has hit the Turkish city of Van on Monday.

September 12, 2016 by administrator

An explosion has hit the Turkish city of Van on Monday.

The car bombing occurred some 650 feet from the provincial administration, according to the DNA news service. The site is also located near a local ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) office. The blast left 48 people wounded but killed no one, according to local officials. “At 10:50 [07:50 GMT] as a result of a parked vehicle explosion, 48 people were injured, including 46 civilians and two police officers. Two are in critical condition,” the provincial administration said in a statement published on its website.

A number of ambulances and firefighter crews have been dispatched to the scene.

UPDATE

Blast hits Turkey’s #Van, ambulances dispatched, explosion hits area between AkParty HQ &Governor’s Office pic.twitter.com/kSpd1lZ6N3

The bombing attack appears to have targeted ruling party AKP’s local office in city of Van, 11 people injured. pic.twitter.com/4P4CttRgKx

Turkey, Flooded mine’s owner linked to Turkey’s ruling AKP

October 29, 2014 by administrator

The flooded mine where 18 workers remain trapped after a flood on Oct. 28 is owned by a former mayoral candidate from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

Saffet Uyar, the owner of the Has Şekerler Mining Company, was elected as the mayor of the Güneyyurt district in the Central Anatolian province of Karaman in 1994 and 1999 from the center-right Motherland Party (ANAP). Uyar was later nominated by the AKP in 2004 and 2009, but lost both elections.

According to the Doğan News Agency (DHA), he is also a cousin of Azim Uyar, who owns a mine in Soma where the deadliest disaster in Turkey’s history resulted in the deaths of 301 miners in May 2014. One worker died and 27 others were also injured in Azim Uyar’s mine in October 2013.

It has also been reported that the latest incident is not the first flooding in Saffet Uyar’s mine in Karaman. In 2012, the mine had to be urgently evacuated after workers noticed a water leak. The owner asked for his cousin’s help and Azim Uyar sent water pumps from his mines to Karaman, according to DHA.

Saffet Uyar’s accident-struck mine in Karaman was inspected by the Labor Ministry in June 2014. However, his company was only punished with a number of fines due to eight errors noted in the inspection report. The Energy Ministry, meanwhile, moved to shut down the mine for three months due to lack of safety. The mine was reopened after safety shortcomings were reportedly overcome.

More recently, Uyar shut down the mine himself, complaining that a new law passed in August had increased operating costs. After 45 days of closure, he reopened the mine following a deal with the workers.

Speaking in an interview with news website Radikal, Uyar said he did not know the cause of the latest flooding.

“It could be due to an underground spring or accumulated winter waters,” he said, adding that he did not “see any chance of survival if the workers remained where they were [when the water blast occurred].”

Ruling AKP member gunned down in front of Istanbul election office

February 13, 2014 by administrator

ISTANBUL

One person was killed by unidentified assailants in an armed attack in front of an election bureau of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Istanbul’s Beylikdüzü district late Feb. 12, according to the party.

The AKP confirmed that the slain man, Coşkun Demirkol, was among the party’s 168 candidates to run for the district’s council but denied that the campaign office was the target of the attack.

“Coşkun Demirkol was a candidate to run for the district council. But the fact that the attack happened in front of our election coordination center is pure coincidence,” AKP Beylikdüzü head Nevzat Demiröz told Anadolu Agency.

The fresh killing comes after an unprecedented string of attacks targeting parties ahead of the March 30 local polls.

An adviser for the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Cengiz Akyıldız, was killed during an armed assault on a campaign office in Istanbul’s Esenyurt district in late January, triggering security concerns for the upcoming elections.

Tension rose higher after another gun assault on the municipal building in Şişli on Jan. 27, in an apparent attack on Şişli Mayor Mustafa Sarıgül. Sarıgül is the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) mayoral candidate for Istanbul.

The MHP’s election bureau in the left-wing Istanbul neighborhood of Okmeydanı was also the target of an attack last week, while gunmen also recently assaulted a campaign office of the Felicity Party (SP) in the northwestern province of Kocaeli.

February/13/2014