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

Turkey

Turkey

September 8, 2026

Ankara 7:05 pm

22°C

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hold a meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Bishkek on September 1, 2026. (Photo by Kristina Solovyova / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

Russia to give Turkey preferential fertilizer access amid Hormuz supply crunch

Ankara is expected to secure easier access to Russian fertilizer exports as the Iran war disrupts supplies from key Gulf producers.

Leyla Borovali at her studio overlooking the Aegean

Culture

Turkish ceramicist Leyla Borovali shapes Aegean heritage into clay

Named by AD Middle East as one of 11 artists from Turkey to know, Leyla Borovali belongs to a new generation building on a ceramic tradition shaped by figures from Fureya Koral and Alev Ebuzziya Siesbye to Elif Uras.

TAI Hurjet

Analysis

With Hurjet test, Turkey seeks defense dominance beyond drones

With export revenue from the supersonic crewed aircraft, Ankara plans to fund next-generation projects and gain strategic diplomatic and military leverage across NATO and the region.

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Ibrahim Kalin, Turkish presidential spokesperson, gives a press conference at the Presidential Complex, Ankara, May 25, 2022.

Turkey and Greece's intelligence chiefs hold rare talks: What to know

The meeting comes after Turkey recently warned Greece over what it called an arms race in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Latest News

US sanctions Turkey-based bank over Iran ties

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Israel, Greece sign $3.5 billion air-defense deal: What to know

Mecca Alliance

Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan set Mecca Alliance into motion

Mecca Alliance

Analysis

Why Turkey welcomes Israel-Syria talks despite mounting red lines

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrive for a joint press conference following their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Feb. 4, 2025.

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

Turkey helps Moldovan family escape Islamic State camp in Syria

The woman and her family had been living in al-Hol since 2019, but their exact connection to IS is unclear.

Turkey sends virus aid to Venezuela

US sanctions on Venezuela allow for humanitarian exemptions. Turkey is active in delivering coronavirus-related aid around the world.

Erdogan condemns Egypt's actions in Libya as ‘illegal’

The Turkish president's remarks came a day after his Egyptian counterpart met with Libyan tribesmen in Cairo.

BAD HERSFELD, GERMANY - JULY 05: Deniz Yuecel speaks during the opening of the 69. Bad Hersfelder Festspiele 2019 at Stiftsruine on July 05, 2019 in Bad Hersfeld, Germany. (Photo by Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images)

Turkey sentences Germany-based journalist to prison in absentia

Deniz Yucel was convicted of "incitement to hatred" and spreading "terror propaganda."

Is Erdogan after a Caucasus adventure?

Ankara’s harsh outbursts in favor of Baku in Azerbaijan’s rekindled conflict with Armenia might be aimed at domestic consumption as well as pressuring Russia into concessions in Libya and Syria.

Intel: White House sympathizes with France in Libya row with Turkey

White House National Security adviser Robert O’Brien on Wednesday expressed sympathy for France’s account of events in a Mediterranean naval standoff with Turkey last month over a Libyan arms smuggling allegation.

Seven security forces dead after plane crash in eastern Turkey

The plane was conducting a surveillance mission in the Van province, but its exact mission is unclear.

Hrachik Pogosyan, 55, points at the roof of his house in the village of Aygepar in Tavush region damaged by recent shelling during armed clashes on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border on July 15, 2020. - Defence officials in Armenia and Azerbaijan said fighting on their border subsided on July 15, 2020 after several days of deadly clashes raised fears of a major flare-up. At least 16 people on both sides were killed in three days of shelling that started Sunday between the ex-Soviet republics, which have been l

Turkish defense minister vows to 'avenge' Azerbaijanis killed in Armenian attacks

As clashes fare between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Ankara has warned Yerevan that Turkey will not let aggression against its ethnic Turkic kin go unpunished.

Four years on, former AKP insiders reflect on Turkey's failed coup

Former members and supporters of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party discuss the four-year anniversary of the 2016 failed coup and say that the rule of law and democratic principles have been weakened in the country.

Turkish workers of former state-owned tobacco and alcohol monopoly TEKEL shout slogans in protest against layoffs and the government�s labor policy on the 65th day of their strike in Ankara on February 18, 2010. Workers are demonstrating for the rights of some 10,000 workers who were made redundant by the privatization of the state tobacco monopoly TEKEL in 2008. AFP PHOTO/ADEM ALTAN (Photo credit should read ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Is it 12% or 52%? Turks disagree on jobless rate

Turkey’s unemployment problem is unlikely to scale down to pre-pandemic levels, bound to remain the main pressure factor on the country’s economy and politics.

TOPSHOT - Supporters of Turkey's main pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) party cheer as they celebrate the Kurdish New Year during a campaign rally in Istanbul on March 24, 2019 ahead of the March 31 local elections. - Under daily attack from Turkish President and with dozens of its mayors in jail, HDP is fighting an uphill battle for this month's local elections and hopes to mobilise its supporters in the vote to capture municipal mayor posts and local councils. (Photo by Yasin AKGUL / AFP)

Another pro-Kurdish mayor replaced as detentions continue in southeast Turkey

Police detained more than 50 people on alleged terror links in southeast Turkey a day after yet another mayor with the People's Democratic Party was replaced with a state-appointed trustee.

Members of the "Tripoli Brigade", a militia loyal to the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), sit in the back of a pickup truck as they parade through the Martyrs' Square at the centre of the GNA-held Libyan capital Tripoli on July 10, 2020. (Photo by Mahmud TURKIA / AFP) (Photo by MAHMUD TURKIA/AFP via Getty Images)

Intel: Eastern Libya invites Egypt to intervene against Turkey-backed offensive

Eastern Libya’s parliament passed a motion approving a possible military intervention by neighboring Egypt to stop an offensive by Libya’s Tripoli-based government in the west.