International Delegation of the World Tribunal on Iraq will come to İstanbul to attend first KCK trial and to meet with imprisoned translator Ayşe Berktay.

Journalist Bedri Adanır’s lawyers requested more time from the court where he is standing trial to avert a possible guilty verdict, as Parliament left deliberations on the Third Judicial Reform Package dragging until October. The next hearing is scheduled for Sept. 13.

A court in the southern province of Adana ruled to sentence speech and hearing impaired Mehmet Tahir İlhan to eight years and four months in prison for making propaganda on behalf of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK.)

An Istanbul court passed a landmark verdict to annul the demolition of the city’s historical Fener-Balat-Ayvansaray districts as part of the government’s “urban transformation” scheme. Critics found the decision timely, unlike in the historical Roma district of Sulukule.

The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office vindicated daily Cumhuriyet columnist Bekir Coşkun of charges leveled against him by Turkey’s General Staff for an article he penned, while CHP deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu also proposed an amendment to nullify a law that prescribes prison terms for insulting the president.

Fatih Mayor Mustafa Demir said he was certain the Council of State would not ratify the recent court decision to annul the project to “transform” Istanbul’s Sulukule district, a historical Roma quarter, adding that a new project was also in the works just in case.

Human rights organizations called for an end to all violence between the Turkish military and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) during a press release today, following fierce clashes that killed and injured scores of people from both sides in recent days.

13 inmates lost their lives and five were injured during a fire that broke out inside a prison ward in the southeastern province of Urfa on the evening of June 16. The incident may have come about due to rights violations caused by overcrowding, according to allegations.

The mothers who lost their children in the Roboski (Uludere) Massacre arrived in Istanbul to demand justice 173 days after the air strike that killed 34 civilians last year in the southeastern province of Şırnak.

Human rights organizations decried the new draft law on the Turkish Human Rights Institution (TIHK) during a press meeting at the headquarters of the Human Rights Association (IHD) on June 14.

Prominent representatives of Turkey’s Alevi minority sharply criticized the government’s move to include elective courses on the Alevi faith in school curricula as part of the new controversial education reform bill.

Turkey failed to take any concrete steps to execute the verdict passed by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, case lawyer Fethiye Çetin told the Committe of Ministers of the Council of Europe in a letter.

A court ruled to annul the preliminary project to demolish Istanbul’s historical Sulukule district inhabited mainly by the Roma community and to replace it with new villas as part of the government’s “Urban Transformation” scheme.

A court sentenced Aysel Tuğluk, an independent deputy from the eastern province of Van and the co-chair of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK,) to 14 years and seven months in prison on terrorism related charges.

The “People’s Law Office” (“Halkın Hukuk Bürosu”) has cautioned that the amendments to the Turkish Penal Code proposed in the third judicial package pending in Parliament will widen the scope of the definition of “weapons” to include deodorants and cologne while increasing penalties for using illegal electricity and water.

Law enforcement officials arrested Bekir Kaya, the mayor of the eastern province of Van, and nine other members of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) as part of the probe into the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK,) as hundreds gathered before the courthouse to protest the decision.

The new Human Rights Institution Draft Law leaves the business of monitoring human rights violations committed by the state to another structure that is also under the control of the state and the government, according to Ertuğrul Kürkçü, the Mersin deputy of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP.)

Law enforcement officials took Bekir Kaya, the mayor of the southeastern province of Van, and five other district mayors under custody today, as well as 10 members of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) as part of the probe into the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK.)

A court sentenced university students Ferhat Tüzer and Berna Yılmaz to eight years and five months in prison on terrorism related charges due to a banner they unfurled during a speech by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, while Utku Aykar, another university student, also received two years and two months of imprisonment.

Journalists attested for their imprisoned colleagues Çağdaş Kaplan, Mustafa Balbay, Naciye Yavuz, Ömer Faruk Çalışkan and Sultan Şaman as part of the “Witness Days” initiated by the Freedom for Journalists Platform (GÖP.)