Latest news with #Anka
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Yahoo
Ship carrying looted Ukrainian grain impounded in Black Sea
The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) and the State Border Guard Service (SBGS) have impounded a foreign vessel in the Black Sea for illegally transporting Ukrainian agricultural products stolen from temporarily occupied territories to third countries. Source: SSU Details: Sources told Ukrainska Pravda that the vessel in question is called Anka. Ukrainian investigators have determined that the detained vessel is part of Russia's shadow fleet, used for selling stolen Ukrainian grain to third countries. In late 2024, the bulk carrier exported 5,000 tonnes of wheat from the port of Sevastopol, taken from the temporarily occupied territories in Ukraine's south. The SBGS reports that the vessel flew the flag of an Asian country to conceal the cargo's origin. During the search, shipping equipment, ship documentation and other material evidence linking the vessel and its crew to the illegal transport scheme have been seized. The vessel has been impounded and the crew has been detained. A pre-trial investigation is currently underway. Background: Ukraine's National Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) has sold the seized Russian oil tanker Nika Spirit via the electronic auction platform. The tanker was sold for UAH 6.4 million (approximately US$154,000), significantly above its estimated value of UAH 2.4 million (around US$57,400). Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Around 100 tractors join opposition protest in central Turkey
Around 100 tractors blocked roads in central Turkey on Saturday as their drivers joined the latest anti-government protest called by the main opposition CHP. The rally in the central town of Yozgat took place exactly a month after the arrest of Istanbul's popular opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu -- President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's biggest political rival. That detention sparked Turkey's worst street protests in a decade and prompted a sharp crackdown by the authorities who detained nearly 2,000 people. Although the initial mass demonstrations tailed off, the government has failed to stamp out the unrest, with ongoing protests by university and high school students, and CHP leader Ozgur Ozel calling weekly rallies across Turkey. Wearing a flat cap, Ozel drove a tractor into Yozgat on Saturday at the head of a long convoy where several thousand flag-waving protesters had rallied in this deeply conservative farming heartland that has long backed Erdogan's Islamic-rooted AKP and its nationalist allies. "Government, resign!" they chanted in footage posted online by several opposition news outlets. "I warn the authorities who see the people of Yozgat as ants and are trying to crush them: we will not let you crush these hard-working farmers!" Ozel told the crowd. - 'Enough is enough' - "The 'despised farmer' and the villager who is ignored will demand an accounting, starting here in Yozgat! The nation's future will be saved by determination and resolve. It's not... those who fear the ballot box who will win, but the people!" he later wrote on X. The jailed mayor's wife Dilek Imamoglu said people wanted change. "The workers, farmers, students, women and men who are building our future ... have said 'enough is enough' in Yozgat today. Millions want a country ruled by justice and law that is united!" she said on X. Last month, around a dozen local farmers were fined for staging a tractor protest over Imamoglu's arrest and the government's roundup of young protesters which has sparked widespread anger. "The government is putting pressure on students but the future of Turkey is the students, right?" one of the tractor drivers told the Anka news agency, without giving his name. "We came here to support each other, we can't afford anything because of hunger and thirst.... Our government should stop being partisan and deal with people's hunger," he said. At the rally, organisers read out a letter from Imamoglu urging support for the opposition's call for early elections. "If the government were to call early elections today, the economy would get back on track," he wrote in a direct appeal to those who voted for Erdogan's AKP or its nationalist MHP ally. hmw/sbk
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Party of jailed Istanbul mayor re-elects its leader
Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) re-elected its party leader Özgür Özel on Sunday, as the CHP seeks to cement its resistance following the arrest of their presidential candidate and Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. Özel, 50, was re-elected at an an extraordinary party congress by an overwhelming majority of 1,171 of 1,276 ballots cast, reported news agency Anka, which is considered to be close to the opposition. He did not face a challenger. The secular CHP has been at the forefront of anti-government protests that have swept Turkey since İmamoğlu was arrested and removed from office over corruption and terrorism allegations last month. The party has planned weekly protests starting next week despite pressure from authorities. The congress in the capital was followed by a Sunday rally in Ankara in solidarity with İmamoğlu. People had also been out protesting the arrest of the deputy secretary general of the Istanbul city administration, Mahir Polat, local media reported. Polat's lawyer on X called for his client's release, saying his life was in acute danger in custody due to his high blood pressure. The CHP sees the arrests as a government manoeuvre to eliminate a key rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and has demanded a snap election. Turkey's next presidential election is scheduled for 2028. Sunday's vote was aimed at preventing the government from appointing a trustee to the party, which is under investigation over allegations that party members were bribed to vote for Özel at a party congress in 2023. Özel and the party deny the charges. Deputy CHP leader Gamze Taşcıer said that a threat to the party still remains despite Özel's re-election on Sunday. İmamoğlu and several aides are accused of corruption and supporting the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). İmamoğlu rejects the allegations as politically motivated. The long-time Islamic conservative leader Erdoğan recently threatened to expose more graft within the CHP and questioned the party's legitimacy.
