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Turkey

Turkey

July 16, 2026

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Ozgu Ozel

Turkish opposition leader Ozgur Ozel could launch new party by August

Ozgur Ozel’s remarks on a potential new party came as the legal crackdown on the main opposition widened further this week with the arrest and suspension of the mayor of Cankaya,one of the party’s most secure and symbolically important strongholds in the heart of Ankara.

Visitors stand inside Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque in Istanbul on April 14, 2025.

Russian couple faces deportation from Turkey after Bible reading at Hagia Sophia

The couple were detained after reading from the Bible inside the Istanbul landmark, which remains one of Christianity’s most important historic sites despite its conversion into a mosque.

Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler and his Egyptian counterpart, Lt. Gen. Ashraf Salem Zaher, met at the Turkey’s Defense Ministry in Ankara, July 13, 2026.

Turkey, Egypt expand military ties with cooperation frameworks: What to know

Increasing defense cooperation between Ankara and Cairo comes as Turkey seeks to offset the expanding Greek-Cypriot-Israeli alignment in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Latest News

Analysis

From S-400s to SAMP/T: Turkey’s defense pivot gathers pace after NATO summit

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer (L) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pose after signing a defense partnership agreement on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, July 8, 2026.

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Lebanese PM Salam in Turkey as Erdogan seeks wider regional role

Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam speaks during a joint declaration press event with French President following their meeting at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris on April 21, 2026.

Samuel Wendel

Senior Market Research Analyst

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

A man waits to receive the COVID-19 vaccine the at Ankara City Hospital in Ankara on March 1, 2021. - The country started mass COVID-19 vaccination on January 14, after the authorities approved the emergency use of the Chinese CoronaVac vaccine. More than 8,857,445 people have been vaccinated so far. (Photo by Adem ALTAN / AFP) (Photo by ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Turkey aims to vaccinate 50 million by fall, health minister says

Turkey, a country of 89 million people, has so far administered more than 10.5 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine.

Turkey, Russia, Qatar push for unlikely new Syria peace track

The trilateral meeting between the countries is meant to push for a political solution to Syria's 10-year-long conflict.

A picture taken at the port of Dilovasi, outside Istanbul, on June 20, 2019 shows the drilling ship 'Yavuz' scheduled to search for oil and gas off Cyprus. - Turkey is set to send a new ship on June 20 to search for oil and gas off Cyprus, in a move expected to escalate tensions after the EU called on Ankara to stop its "illegal drilling activities". The region near the divided island is believed have rich natural gas deposits, triggering a race between Turkey and the internationally recognised Cyprus, whic

Is Turkey-Egypt maritime agreement dead in the water?

Turkey's efforts to secure a demarcation agreement with Egypt in the eastern Mediterranean seem fruitless as Cairo remains indifferent to Ankara's signals.

Kurdish forces blame Turkey for Euphrates River water drop in northeast Syria

The Syrian Democratic Forces claim Turkey caused a drop in the Euphrates River water level that will harm residents and their economic activities in the areas they control in northern and eastern Syria.

ERBIL, IRAQ - MARCH 07: A nun waves a flag as Pope Francis arrives to conduct a mass at the Franso Hariri Stadium on March 07, 2021 in Erbil, Iraq. PPope Francis arrived in Erbil, the final stop of his historic four-day visit, the first-ever papal visit to Iraq. In his first foreign trip since the start of the pandemic, Pope Francis visited Baghdad, Najaf, Erbil, and the cities of Qaraqosh and Mosul, which were heavily destroyed by ISIS. Although the trip is seen as an act of solidarity, the Vatican has bee

Kurdish stamp commemorating pope's visit to Erbil fans Turkish conspiracy fears

Ankara is furious over a commemorative stamp design featuring a map of Iraqi Kurdistan that includes chunks of Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast provinces.

Pandemic, domestic woes dim Istanbul’s economic luster

Istanbul’s economy is estimated to have shrunk about 3% last year, even as Turkey’s gross domestic product grew 1.8%.

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - OCTOBER 30: A man walks from the studio during a live broadcast of a news show at Belqees TV of Yemen on October 30, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey. Started by Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman of Yemen, Belqees TV opened in Istanbul in 2014 after their studio in Sana was seized by members of the Houthis. The station employs some one hundred and thirty five people from various nationalities many whom have been forced to flee their countries due to war or the political situation. The sta

Turkish journalist attacked after criticizing nationalist figure

Turkish journalist Levent Gultekin was attacked by two dozen assailants outside his workplace Monday evening in the latest act of violence against critics of Turkey’s nationalist party.

Grapfics and numbers of trade markets are screened on the floor of the Borsa Istanbul on May 22, 2018 in Istanbul. - Turkey's embattled currency, the Lira, on May 22 hit new historic lows against the US dollar after Fitch ratings agency expressed concerns over the central bank's independence in the wake of comments by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Photo by OZAN KOSE / AFP) (Photo credit should read OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images)

Former Halkbank executive resigns as head of Istanbul stock exchange

Borsa Istanbul CEO Mehmet Hakan Atilla stepped down Monday in a move possibly linked with the impending US trial of Turkey’s Halkbank, where he was convicted of helping Iran skirt US sanctions.

Is Ankara on mission impossible over S-400 conundrum?

Confusion reigns in Ankara on how to manage the S-400 crisis, as pressure to satisfy Moscow along with Washington makes it a tall, if not impossible, order.

Yazidis refugees carry their belongings on January 3, 2017 in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey as they change their refugee camp and move to Midyat, further south.
The population of Yazidis reaches 700,000, the majority residing in northern Iraq where persecution from Islamic State jihadists led to as many as 40,000 Yazidis fleeing their ancestral homes to the Sinjar Mountains in northwestern Iraq, where they were trapped without food or water. / AFP / ILYAS AKENGIN (Photo credit should read ILYAS AKE

Online ‘auctions’ of Yazidi captives speak of ongoing Islamic State activity in Turkey

The rescue of a 7-year-old Yazidi captive in Ankara raises questions about how hard Turkey is trying to tackle Islamic State militants in the country.

A Convoy of the opposition Presidential candidate, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, during the election campaign, ready to leave Bissau for the interior of the country on November 7th, 2019. - Sissoco was accused by former Prime Minister, Aristides Gomes, of trying to organize a coup'detat that never came into action. Embalo, a leader of the muslim community in Guinea Bissau, denies all of the accusations. It is a tense political period about two weeks before the Presidential elections. (Photo by - / AFP) (Photo by -/

Is Turkey challenging Egyptian influence in Guinea-Bissau?

Amid regional warnings of Turkey's growing role in West Africa, including Guinea-Bissau, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi received a call from Umaro Sissoco Embalo, president of Guinea-Bissau, to discuss ways to develop cooperation in the economic and security fields.

Istanbul's courthouse is surrounded by police fences during the trial of Erol Onderoglu, the representative of Reporters Without Borders, on July 17, 2019. - Erol Onderoglu, the representative of Reporters Without Borders (RWB) in Turkey, and two other Turkish journalists are prosecuted for supporting pro-Kurdish newspaper "Ozgur Gundem". They risk up to 14,5 years in prison. (Photo by Ozan KOSE / AFP) (Photo by OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images)

Teen suicide highlights torture in Turkey's juvenile detention centers

Conditions in Turkish jails and prisons for juveniles ignite charges of human rights abuses.