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Turkey

Turkey

November 11, 2026

Ankara 3:10 pm

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Explainer

Iran war pushes up coal use, complicating Turkey’s COP31 pledge

Turkey is asking world leaders at COP31 to back a global push to use more electricity, even as the Iran war has driven up natural gas prices and pushed some power producers back to coal.

OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images

Turkey bars MP’s wife from travel after his fund scandal criticism: What to know

Opposition politicians and rights advocates described Yonca Verdioglu Sik’s brief detention as an attempt to intimidate her husband, opposition lawmaker Ahmet Sik, over his criticism of the government.

A steel worker works in front of giant iron melting pot in Kardemir Iron and Steel Factory in Karabuk, northwestern Turkey, Aug. 26 2005. (TARIK TINAZAY/AFP via Getty Images)

Steel factory explosion in western Turkey kills at least 16

Footage from the scene showed a huge plume of thick smoke spreading into the sky as flames engulfed a tall structure within the plant.

Latest News

Analysis

Will Democrats block Trump’s push to deliver Turkey F-35s, lift sanctions?

MEHMET ESER/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Costa Rica's Grynspan extends lead in UNSG poll as Nusseibeh places fourth

United Arab Emirates

Turkey’s parliament ratifies Mecca pact in boost to Saudi Arabia

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses Turkish members of parliament during the opening of the parliamentary session at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in Ankara, on Oct. 1, 2026.

Samuel Wendel

Senior Analyst, Middle East Business & Tech

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Amberin Zaman

Chief Correspondent

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Jack Dutton

Chief Business Correspondent

In Bristol, reporting on regional business, climate change, AI, tech

Ezgi Akin

Associate Editor (Turkey)

In Ankara, reporting on diplomacy, EU-Turkey ties, NATO

Francesco Schiavi

In Bologna, reporting on security, defense, economy, governance

Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan adjusts his sunglasses before a wreath-laying ceremony at the Jose Marti monument in Havana February 11, 2015. Erdogan is in Cuba for an official visit. REUTERS/Enrique De La Osa (CUBA - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR4P6U8

Does Erdogan believe he's on a mission from God?

Increasingly cornered and isolated both at home and abroad, Turkey's president is seeking to boost his public support by placing God directly at the center of his Islamist oratory.

Why some Turkish women are boycotting women-only taxis

A number of women have welcomed Turkey’s first women-only cab, but many activists reject the new service as further gender segregation in public life.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu speaks at a news conference at the end of a EU-Turkey summit in Brussels March 8, 2016. REUTERS/Yves Herman - RTS9QKE

Davutoglu attempts to get back to zero problems with Iran

Analysts warn that an unpredictable harsh statement by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could undermine Davutoglu’s efforts to gain a piece of the Iranian pie.

Why is Erdogan wary of women?

Women find creative and cheerful methods to circumvent bans on International Women’s Day parades, promising to celebrate their day to the fullest in the streets.

Women work at a textile factory in Kozluk, a town in the southeast province of Batman, April 21, 2011. Since Mehmet Simsek, Turkey's 44-year-old finance minister, left in the mid-1980s to go to Ankara University, his hometown of Batman has become known for incidents of Kurdish militancy and for a high number of unexplained suicides among women and girls. The other great blight on the area is rampant unemployment. Simsek is campaigning for one of Batman's four parliamentary seats in June 12 elections. Pictur

Why Turkish women are opting out of the workforce

A deeply patriarchal culture, work environments unfavorable to a healthy balance with family life and internalized gender roles keep many women in Turkey uninterested in taking advantage of opportunities to work.

Turkey’s Kurdish leader: We will struggle on in parliament ‘till the end’

Turkey’s top Kurdish political leader tells Al-Monitor his party remains committed to a political struggle despite government efforts to crush the party in parliament.

With spread of IS-like tactics, urban warfare in Turkey grows bloodier

Turkish officials believe Kurdish militants leading clashes in the southeast have learned techniques used by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units and the Islamic State in Kobani.

Co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtas (C) attends a ceremony to mark the ninth anniversary of the killing of Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink in Istanbul January 19, 2016. REUTERS/Osman Orsal - RTX232RL

Armenian animosity rekindled through PKK terror

The Justice and Development Party’s repeated insults that Kurds are considered Armenians are aimed at labeling the pro-Kurdish HDP as non-Muslim, and to justify the heavy attacks on border towns in the southeast of Turkey.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, September 21, 2015. Netanyahu said his visit to Moscow on Monday was aimed at preventing clashes between Russian and Israeli military forces in the Middle East. REUTERS/Ivan Sekretarev/Pool - RTS25BW

Why Israel needs Putin more than it needs Erdogan

Reconciliation with Turkey is stalled, possibly due to Israeli-Russian security interests regarding Syria, Lebanon and Hezbollah, as well as Russian hostility to Israeli-Turkish rapprochement.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan reviews an honor guard during a ceremonial reception in Abuja, Nigeria March 2, 2016 REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde - RTS8YZO

Erdogan's conquest of Africa

Turkey hopes that more muscular foreign policy moves in the Gulf and Africa will help neutralize increasing pressure from a Russia-led alliance.

Will Africa cheer up Turkey’s troubled exporters?

Turkey scrambles for trade opportunities in Africa to make up for major losses in economic ties with Iran, Iraq, Syria and Russia.

Sibel Yigitalp (L), a parliamentarian from the the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), and Abdullah Akengin, a former local mayor, holds a sit-in protest against the curfew in Sur district, in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, Turkey, December 18, 2015. REUTERS/Sertac Kayar - RTX1ZABH

Will Turkey oust Kurdish deputies from parliament?

The events surrounding the Feb. 17 bombing in Ankara have sparked a furor against Kurdish members of Turkey’s parliament as many political forces threaten to shut them out of the political scene.