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

Turkey

Turkey

November 12, 2026

Ankara 2:01 am

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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

Chairman U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) (C) listens to testimony at the House Intelligence Committee on "Worldwide Threats", in Washington February 4, 2014. REUTERS/Gary Cameron (UNITED STATES - Tags: CRIME LAW POLITICS MILITARY) - RTX187U2

Former House Intel chair: Turkey can't have it both ways in NATO

Mike Rogers, former chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, also sees economic pressure on Russia as presenting a “unique opportunity” for Moscow’s help in Syria.

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan (R) shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Ankara January 12, 2015. REUTERS/Adem Altan/Pool (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR4L43Z

Is Erdogan losing touch with reality?

Ankara’s welcoming ceremony for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Jan. 12 featured 16 ancient warriors, rekindling the Ottomanism debate.

Selahattin Demirtas, co-chair of the HDP, Turkey's leading Kurdish party, addresses his supporters in Diyarbakir October 9, 2014. Islamic State fighters launched a renewed assault on the Syrian city of Kobani on Wednesday night, and at least 21 people were killed in riots in neighbouring Turkey where Kurds rose up against the government for doing nothing to protect their win. REUTERS/Osman Orsal (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR49I8X

Turkish Kurds' electoral strategy is a high-wire act

Rumors of electoral collusion between the government and the Kurdish Peoples' Democracy Party (HDP) gain momentum.

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan walks down the stairs in between soldiers, wearing traditional army uniforms from the Ottoman Empire, as he arrives for a welcoming ceremony for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (not pictured) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara January 12, 2015. REUTERS/Adem Altan/Pool (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR4L487

Erdogan, inadvertently, brings humor to Turkey

Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s comically dressed warriors help Turks regain their sense of humor.

A view shows smoke raising from an eastern Kobani neighbourhood, damaged by fighting between Islamic State militants and Kurdish forces, November 18, 2014. Picture taken from the Turkish side of the Turkey-Syria border. REUTERS/Osman Orsal (SYRIA - Tags: CONFLICT CIVIL UNREST) - RTR4ELGD

Kobani hospitals overflow as battle continues

Makeshift hospitals are being set up in basements and schools across Kobani to treat fighters and civilians while armed groups have targeted the city’s main hospitals.

A Turkish police officer checks identification cards of Syrian men after they crossed from Syria to Turkey at the Akcakale border gate, southern Sanliurfa province, October 4, 2012. Turkish artillery hit targets near Syria's Tel Abyad border town for a second day on Thursday, killing several Syrian soldiers according to activists and security sources, after a mortar bomb fired from the area killed five Turkish civilians. Turkey's government said "aggressive action" against its territory by Syria's military

Turkey cannot secure Syrian border alone

Turkish officials say Turkey is doing its best to prevent crossings into and out of Syria by Islamic militants, blaming European countries for not furnishing useful intelligence.

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Turkish religious thinker ponders future of Islam

Turkey’s veteran religious thinker Levent Gultekin may have a solution for both Islamophobia and Islamic extremism.

Television journalists report from outside the headquarters of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) party, shortly before the country's president-elect announces the name of his party's new chairman, in Ankara, on August 21, 2014. Turkey's ruling party is meeting on August 21 to agree on a new leader and prime minister to replace incoming president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu the frontrunner for the job.AFP PHOTO / ADEM ALTAN (Photo credit should read AD

How foreign journalists become 'spies' in Turkey

Journalism in Turkey is increasingly becoming a nightmare for foreign reporters, too, while the president personally leads psychological lynching campaigns.

Traders work during the afternoon session on the floor of the Stock Exchange in Istanbul September 18, 2008. Turkish stocks fell to their lowest level in three years and bond yields topped 20 percent in a sharp sell-off on Thursday on a wave of risk aversion exacerbated by market closures in neighbouring Russia. REUTERS/Fatih Saribas (TURKEY) - RTR220LR

Will investment trends change in Turkey in 2015?

The Istanbul stock exchange emerged as the most profitable investment tool in Turkey in 2014, followed by the dollar.

Turkish police officers stand outside a basalt-stone Diyarbakir Evangelical Church in Diyarbakir July 19, 2004. A Turkish man described as mentally ill set fire to part of a Christian church in southeastern Turkey on Monday before authorities were able to subdue him, officials said. A 27-year-old shouting anti-American slogans broke into the Diyarbakir Evangelical Church and barricaded himself in the building's library and kitchen before vandalising property and lighting a fire. No one was hurt in the blaze

Turkey's Protestants complain of discrimination, harassment

A report by Turkey's tiny Protestant community shows some progress in the country, but also plenty of continuing bigotry.

Switzerland's President Simonetta Sommaruga (L), Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (2ndL), Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko (3rdL), Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Secretary-General Angel Gurria (3rdR), Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel (2ndR) take part with dozens of foreign leaders in a solidarity march (Marche Republicaine) in the streets of Paris January 11, 2015. Hundreds of thousands of French citizens will be joined by dozens of foreign leaders, among them

Mixed Turkish reactions to Paris massacre

The government’s attempt to be politically correct in its condemnation of the attack on Charlie Hebdo is not reflected by all elements of the ruling party and the Islamist media.

Turkish soldiers use mine detectors to search for landmines during a patrol on a road outside the south-eastern Turkish town of Sirnak bordering northern Iraq February 24, 2008. Turkey began sending thousands of ground troops across the mountainous border into northern Iraq on Thursday to crush PKK guerrillas who use the region as a base from which to attack targets inside Turkey. REUTERS/Fatih Saribas (TURKEY) - RTR1XHU0

Turkey faces demining delays

Having stalled for a decade, Turkey risks further delays in meeting its international obligations to clear vast minefields, most of them along the Syrian border.