The bill on "strengthening national solidarity and social cohesion", filed with the backing of 360 deputies, sets out how the PKK's disarmament will be supervised and how its members will be treated judicially: ongoing investigations and prosecutions would be postponed for a period that depends on the severity of the alleged offences, and dropped altogether if no terror-related crime is committed in that time. A ministerial committee and a parliamentary commission would monitor the process, and parliament's Justice Committee takes up the bill on Friday with the aim of passage before the summer recess. A pardon is expected to cover about 4,000 members not directly involved in violence, while Öcalan and others sentenced to life before 2005 are excluded. The peace process is already felt regionally: one analyst says it has helped along an oil agreement and trade ties with Iraq, and the Syrian state's integration of areas held by the SDF.
A court jailed Erdal Beşikçioğlu (an award-winning actor known for "Behzat Ç." and mayor of Ankara's Etimesgut district since 2024) together with 39 others pending trial in a corruption investigation covering 42 municipal officials and 13 company representatives. Beşikçioğlu denies wrongdoing and says several of the cited irregularities were uncovered by an internal audit he himself ordered. The arrest shows the campaign against CHP-run municipalities, with Istanbul Mayor İmamoğlu behind bars since March 2025, now reaching the capital's districts: a continuing weight on rule-of-law perceptions and the EU relationship.
Consumer prices rose 1.78 percent in July, up from 0.99 percent in June, while annual inflation eased to 31.75 percent from 32.11, slightly below the 31.8 percent forecast in an Anadolu Agency survey, according to the TÜİK statistics agency. Among the three heaviest expenditure groups, annual prices rose 40.32 percent for housing, water, electricity and gas, 37.53 percent for food and non-alcoholic beverages and 30.83 percent for transport. Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said disinflation is continuing despite challenging global and geopolitical conditions. With the policy rate held at 37 percent for a fourth meeting running, attention now turns to the central bank's next decision, with tensions in the Middle East persisting.
