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Turkey

Turkey

November 11, 2026

Ankara 4:23 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

Christian Syrian refugee Ghassan Aleid displays his Syrian passport at a terminal at the Charles-de-Gaulle Airport in Roissy, France, October 2, 2015. After the efforts of the mayor of Le Mans and a family member, a doctor residing in Le Mans, France accorded travel visas, requested a year ago, for the family who fled the conflict in Syria. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe - RTS2S8H

Iraqis see fake Syrian passport as golden ticket to Europe

Iraqis are buying forged Syrian passports to try to increase their chances of winning asylum in European countries.

Armenia's President Serzh Sargsyan (L-R), Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Kyrgyzstan's President Almazbek Atambayev pose for a family photo during a meeting of the heads of state of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council at the Burabai resort near Astana, Kazakhstan, October 16, 2015. The meeting of ex-Soviet leaders, including Putin, have agreed to create a joint task force to defend external borders in crisis situat

First the Middle East, now Central Asia slipping away from Turkey

Having lost influence in the Middle East, Turkey finds itself increasingly isolated from Central Asia and the Caucasus after its dust-up with Russia in Syria.

Shi'ite protesters carry posters of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr during a demonstration in front of Saudi Arabia's Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, January 3, 2016. REUTERS/Osman Orsal - RTX20V2E

Saudi-Iranian crisis complicates Ankara’s regional plans

Islamists and secularists alike want Turkey to stay out of the Iranian-Saudi conflict.

Three faiths, three commanders

The Popular Mobilization Units, initially identified as a Shiite militia, is changing the course of the battles in Iraq with participation of Sunnis and Christians.

Is Turkey heading to partition?

Turkey is losing Kurdish minds and hearts at a dramatic pace — the first outcome of the war raging in the Kurdish movement’s urban strongholds amid unprecedented destruction and civilian deaths.

Selahattin Demirtas, co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), speaks during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (not pictured) in Moscow, Russia, December 23, 2015. Turkey's political leadership was wrong to order the shooting down of a Russian warplane near the Turkish-Syrian border, Demirtas said on Wednesday. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov - RTX1ZUU6

HDP leader says Ankara has 'neither the power nor means' to eliminate Kurdish movement

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Selahattin Demirtas, Turkey’s top Kurdish politician, claims the Kurds in the Middle East are on an irreversible path “toward liberation and sovereignty building.”

Is Saudi Arabia next target of Islamic State?

IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi calls for Saudi uprising against "apostate tyrants"; Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erodgan’s policies contribute to Turkey’s growing isolation in the region.

Thousands of Turks stranded at Iraqi border

Thousands of people were left stranded in Iraq when Turkey closed the Habur crossing following the imposition of curfews in the nearby towns of Cizre and Silopi.

Diyarbakir's Christians suffer in margins of Turkey-PKK war

Diyarbakir's Christians, many of them ethnic Armenians, have been caught up in the violence between the Turkish security forces and the Kurdistan Workers Party.

Can Turkish lemons soothe Ankara-Moscow relations?

Turks are wondering why Russia is embargoing everything but lemons and nuts.

The rapid rise and fall of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party

Selahattin Demirtas, who led the Peoples’ Democratic Party to electoral success in Turkish politics, is now presiding over its downfall.

Palestinians fear Turkey will drop condition that Israel lift Gaza siege

Turkey has long insisted that Israel lift its siege on the Gaza Strip before Turkish-Israeli relations can be normalized, but a recent warming of ties suggests this may change.