Imrali Whisper Rattles Terror-Free Turkey Process
KDP-linked site Darka Mazi claims SDG commander Mazlum Abdi was secretly taken to İmralı in March to meet Öcalan, days after a similar 9 May claim about PKK leaders in June 2025; the Presidency, Justice Ministry and MİT have stayed silent, and the AK Parti base is asking whether Parliament should pass process laws before disarmament. Ankara is finalising rules barring under-15s from social media, and has fined 1,200+ businesses TL 390m ($8.6m) for excessive price hikes ahead of Eid. FM Hakan Fidan meets Germany's Johann Wadephul Monday in Berlin for the third Strategic Dialogue.
The day's most politically loaded story is unverified but unanswered. The KDP-linked Iraqi Kurdistan website Darka Mazi reported on 12 May that SDG commander Mazlum Abdi — org-name of Ferhat Abdi Şahin — and SDG external-relations head İlham Ahmed had been taken to İmralı island prison in March 2026 through "a channel prepared by Turkey" to meet PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan, three days after the same site's 9 May claim that PKK leaders Sabri Ok and Bese Hozat (Hülya Oran) had been secretly brought to Öcalan in June 2025 — with Oran subsequently leading a symbolic weapon-burning ceremony near Sulaymaniyah on 11 July. The site's account has Öcalan upbraiding the SDG figures for being used in plans for an "Israel-controlled" Kurdish state outside his command and asking them to back the "Terror-Free Turkey" project. As of the morning of 17 May, neither the Presidency's Disinformation Centre, the Justice Ministry (held by Akın Gürlek in March and Yılmaz Tunç at the time of the alleged June 2025 meeting), nor MİT — which is coordinating the Terror-Free Turkey process under İbrahim Kalın — has issued a formal denial. Two debates have opened on the assumption the meetings happened: why wanted figures were brought to Öcalan rather than arrested (columnist Fatih Altaylı arguing "states do these things"), and AK Parti base unease over a sequencing risk: passing process legislation before the PKK actually lays down arms. The Darka Mazi reports landed during a week of high-level Turkish-Kurdish movement — Erdoğan met Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government PM Masrour Barzani in Istanbul on 9 May, the same day the first Darka Mazi story appeared, and on 16 May, returning from Kazakhstan, said the Cumhur Alliance "will not give pleasure to those who do not want Terror-Free Turkey to succeed."
A second domestic-policy thread tightens the screen on children's social-media use. Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş said Turkey is finalising rules to bar under-15s from opening social-media accounts, with age-verification systems and implementation guidance now being prepared by a dedicated working group; the framework would put Turkey in line with the most restrictive European models, and is being framed by the ministry as a public-health rather than free-speech intervention.
The Trade Ministry confirmed Sunday that authorities have imposed administrative fines totalling nearly TL 390 million (about $8.6 million) on more than 1,200 businesses so far in 2026 for excessive price increases, with inspections intensifying ahead of the Eid al-Adha holiday. The fines target food, household goods and personal-care sectors most affected by sticker-shock complaints. The crackdown lands inside a still-pressured macro picture: the lira weakened past 45.2 per US dollar in May to a fresh record low, with USD/TRY around 45.49 on 15 May and consumer prices up 4.18% month-on-month in April, pushing annual inflation to a six-month high of 32.37%.
Foreign minister Hakan Fidan will be in Berlin on Monday for the third meeting of the Türkiye-Germany Strategic Dialogue Mechanism, hosted by Germany's Johann Wadephul. The agenda runs through bilateral trade, Türkiye-EU relations, security cooperation, and the two regional wars defining current European calculations — Russia-Ukraine and the US-Iran impasse — with the Iranian file giving the meeting its weight after Israeli defence minister Yisrael Katz's mid-April threats toward Ankara.