Deputy Minister of the Martyrs in the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) Baravan Hamdi has said that what the Êzidis were subjected to in the region “is a genocide according to all available information and documents”.

Murat Demir from the Association for the Protection of Nature and Environment (DOĞADER) in Bursa has announced that the water and air pollution caused by the industry and highways and aggravated by the climate crisis lead to the death of the soil.

Schools will remain closed in İstanbul, Rize, Trabzon till March 21; 402 residential areas are inaccessible in the Black Sea. While it will also snow in the east and southeast, frost is expected in agricultural areas in the Mediterranean and Aegean.

Human Rights Association Co-Chair Keskin spoke at a press conference at İHD Diyarbakır Branch and called on the “AKP to stop violence against women”. HDP’s Co-Spokespersons for Foreign Affairs Commission also released a written statement.

84-year-old seriously ill prisoner Mehmet Emin Özkan could not go to the video conference room for his hearing yesterday as he was unable to walk. The court has ruled that he shall remain in prison.

The Ministry of Health has announced that over 319 thousand tests were conducted, 21,354 people were diagnosed with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and 101 people died of the disease in Turkey in the last 24 hours.

Opposition parties have criticized the bill, accusing the AKP and the MHP of tweaking the election system for their advantage in order to make up for the decline in their public support.

As part of diplomatic efforts for a ceasefire and permanent peace in the region amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu, having met Russia’s Lavrov the day before, met Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Kuleba in Lviv.

Imprisoned for over five years, Aysel Tuğluk is not released despite her severe illness.

As part of the investigation into the disappearance of university student Gülistan Doku in Dersim, Zeynal A., who was allegedly the last person who had met her, was taken into custody upon the instruction of the prosecutor.

The fifth hearing of the Gezi trial will be held on March 21. Holding a press conference before the hearing, labor and professional organizations called on everyone to “lay claim to the real history of Gezi, which faces attempts of defamation”.

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank convened today, on March 17, and decided to keep the policy rate (one-week repo auction rate) unchanged at 14 percent.