Turkey - AL-MONITOR: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

Turkey

Turkey

November 11, 2026

Ankara 10:31 pm

8°C

People walk past a Bitcoin sign at the entrance of a cryptocurrency exchange office on Nov. 8, 2024, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Watchdog urges Turkey to tighten digital asset rules for $144B crypto economy

A review of Turkey’s crypto-asset regulations by the Financial Stability Board acknowledged significant progress made by local authorities but called for further measures to address potential risks.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) and Central Bank Governor Sahap Kavcioglu attend a signing ceremony with Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the Presidential Complex in Ankara on Nov. 24, 2021. ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images

Turkey’s banking watchdog chief submits resignation amid fund scandal

Turkey’s government is facing growing criticism over regulators’ failure to prevent a fund scandal involving more than $20 billion.

Chris McGrath/Getty Images

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.

Latest News

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

OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images

Steel factory explosion in western Turkey kills at least 16

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)

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

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

Supporters of Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu wave Turkish and AK Party flags during an election rally for Turkey's June 7 parliamentary elections in Istanbul, Turkey, May 17, 2015. REUTERS/Osman Orsal - RTX1DCCG

Erdogan’s presidential dreams hang by thread

With less than a fortnight left to go before the June 7 legislative polls, polls show that the Justice and Development Party's share of the vote will slip from the record 49% that it received in 2011.

Is Turkey arming radical groups in Syria?

A trial of gendarmerie officers and prosecutors in Istanbul is producing embarrassing revelations for the government.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu addresses AK Party' supporters during an election rally for Turkey's June 7 parliamentary elections in Istanbul, Turkey, May 17, 2015. REUTERS/Osman Orsal - RTX1DC5K

AKP claims God is on its side

Liberals and others should be concerned about AKP rhetoric proclaiming that God, the nation and history is on its side and that a vote for an opposing party is the mark of an infidel.

People stand by part of a Saudi fighter jet found in Bani Harith district north of Yemen's capital Sanaa May 24, 2015. Local media said that the Houthi rebels brought down a Saudi F-16 fighter jet north of Sanaa early on Sunday. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah - RTX1EAP8

Is Islamic State 'secondary priority' for Saudi Arabia?

Riyadh is preoccupied with the military campaign in Yemen; Velayati tells Lebanese officials there will be no deal on Assad; the Turkish opposition party is under attack ahead of June 7 elections.

A worker checks the chocolates on a production line at Konya Seker Sugar Factory in Cumra, a small town about 50km (31 miles) south of the central Anatolian city of Konya January 27, 2012. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: BUSINESS FOOD) - RTR2WYOX

Turkish NGO helps mothers return to work

Turkish women are poorly represented in the workforce, but a new foundation aims to change that.

Media mogul declares his 'masculine love' to Erdogan

Stiff competition among AKP partisans for extreme manifestations of adoration for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are rewarded in pre-election season.

Turkey can’t part with currency zeroes

Though Turkey wiped off six zeroes from its currency a decade ago, politicians stick to old figures, hoping for a stronger propaganda impact in the run-up to general elections.

Navy officers attend a delivery ceremony for the first nationally designed combat ship TCG Heybeliada at the Tuzla Naval shipyard in Istanbul September 27, 2011. REUTERS/Osman Orsal (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY) - RTR2RWMP

Turkish navy outlines 2033 vision

The Turkish navy aims at becoming a major global force by 2033.

Kurdish demonstrators gesture as Selahattin Demirtas, co-chair of the HDP, Turkey's leading Kurdish party, addresses a crowd in Diyarbakir October 9, 2014. A three-week battle for the Syrian border town of Kobani has also led to the worst streets clashes in years between police and Kurdish protesters across the frontier in southeast Turkey. In Diyarbakir, Turkey's biggest Kurdish city, five people were killed in clashes on Monday and Tuesday between Islamist groups and PKK supporters, a senior police office

Kurds abandon AKP

Thousands of pious Kurds, including entire tribes, have parted ways with the AKP, convinced that it has no real intention of reconciling with the Kurds.

A Syrian refugee family is seen in front of their house in Ankara November 21, 2014. Syrian refugees across the Middle East, some in exile for a fourth winter, face freezing temperatures, hunger and increasing hostility from locals as governments struggle to cope with the humanitarian crisis. Lebanon and Jordan are tightening their borders to stem the flow of those trying to escape whilst in Turkey, widely praised for hosting around half Syria's estimated 3.2 million refugees, the influx threatens to upset

Attacks on Syrians in Turkey increasing

Increasing numbers of Turks are angered over the social and economic consequence of Turkey hosting some 2 million Syrian refugees.

Supporters of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) shout slogans during a protest against attacks on their party offices, in central Istanbul, Turkey, May 18, 2015. Simultaneous bomb blasts hit the offices of the pro-Kurdish party in two cities in southern Turkey on Monday, three weeks before a parliamentary election, attacks which a party leader blamed on President Tayyip Erdogan. HDP officials said the blasts were the latest in a string of some 60 assaults against the party in the run-up to polling

What do attacks on Turkey's pro-Kurdish party mean?

Simultaneous bombing attacks against the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party show that Turkey may be heading toward a wild finish in key June 7 parliamentary elections.

A vendor sells potatoes and other vegetables to a customer in an open market in central Ankara February 5, 2014. The humble potato has become a factor in Turkey's political and economic turmoil as prices of the staple soar, hurting the living standards of poorer Turks just before the ruling AK Party's toughest election test in a decade. At a market in the lower-income Istanbul suburb of Kucukcekmece, potatoes sell for between 3 and 4 lira ($1.33 and $1.77) a kilogramme, up from slightly more than 1 lira at

Is there a potato conspiracy in Turkey?

A fall in potato crops, increased exports to Syria and Iraq and hoarding have led to an unprecedented potato shortage in Turkey.