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

Turkey

Turkey

September 8, 2026

Ankara 9:02 pm

19°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

Iraqi kurds, some of them wearing protective masks due to COVID-19, march during a demonstration to denounce the Turkish assault in northern Iraq, in Sulaimaniyah city, in the Kurdish autonomous region of northern Iraq, on June 18, 2020. - Turkey launched a rare ground assault into northern Iraq on June 17, deploying special forces against rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which is blacklisted by Ankara as a "terrorist" group. Baghdad demanded Ankara immediately halt its assault in northern Ira

Baghdad's row with Ankara could benefit each side

Turkey’s latest military operation against Kurdish militants based in northern Iraq has triggered harsh reactions from Baghdad but also opened room for dialogue between the militaries of the two sides.

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta (L) performs a swearing-in ceremony to re-enlist four troops during his visit to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, on December 14, 2012. The United States will deploy two Patriot missile batteries to Turkey along with 400 troops to help defend its ally against potential threats from neighbouring Syria, US officials said on December 14. AFP PHOTO / POOL / Susan Walsh (Photo credit should read SUSAN WALSH/AFP via Getty Images)

US soldier accused of planning neo-Nazi attack on unit in Turkey pleads not guilty

The soldier allegedly sought to help recruit local jihadists in Turkey carry out an attack on a US military facility.

Israeli F-35 fighter jets roll on the tarmac during the "Blue Flag" multinational aerial exercise at the Ovda air force base, north of the Israeli city of Eilat, on November 11, 2019. (Photo by Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP) (Photo by EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images)

Intel: Senators berate Pentagon failure to sever F-35 cooperation with Turkey

The Pentagon is still allowing Turkey to produce components for US F-35 fighter jets, violating a defense law that President Donald Trump signed in December.

People wave flags of Libya (R) and Turkey (L) during a demonstration in the Martyrs' Square in the centre of the Libyan capital Tripoli, currently held by the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), on June 21, 2020. - The GNA on June 21 denounced Egypt's warning of military intervention in Libya, labelling it a "declaration of war", after the Egyptian President warned that if pro-GNA forces advanced on the strategic city of Sirte -- some 450 kilometres (280 miles) east of Tripoli -- it could pro

Turkey entrenches further into Libya as rivals strike back

Ankara is set to deepen its military intervention on the side of Libya’s Government of National Accord as it asserts dominance in the gas-rich eastern Mediterranean and drums up domestic support for the ruling party.

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - JULY 01: Groom Okan Barut and bride Oya Kulaksiz wear face masks as they take part in their wedding ceremony at the Kadikoy Municipality marriage office on July 01, 2020 in Istanbul, Turkey. Restrictions on Turkish wedding halls were lifted on July 01, 2020 after being closed for months due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Turkey continues to slowly ease restrictions after recently reopening, cafes, restaurants, parks and inter-city travel. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

No more Big Fat Wedding: Turks struggle to be wed in times of the coronavirus

From bejeweled masks to dummy brides, Turks struggle to combine tradition with new social distancing rules.

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - JULY 02: Tourists visit Istanbul's famous Hagia Sophia on July 02, 2020 in Istanbul, Turkey. Turkey's Council of State will begin a review today of the building's status and the possibility of changing it from a museum, back into a mosque upon the request of nationalist and religious groups. Throughout it's history the UNESCO World Heritage site has served as a Byzantine Cathedral, a mosque under Ottoman rule and now a museum, after a 1934 decision led by modern Turkey's founder Mustafa K

Turkish court hears case to convert Hagia Sophia into mosque

Long a subject of political discourse in Turkey, a court will issue a verdict within 15 days on whether Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia, currently a museum, can be converted into a mosque.

Complaints of torture on rise in Turkey's Kurdish southeast

The Turkish government no longer sees the need to conceal torture, especially of Kurdish women in the southeast of the country.

Turkey criticizes exclusion from EU list of safe travelers

The European Union's list of countries it will allow visitors from did not include Turkey.

An Iraqi phlebotomist draws blood plasma from a recovered COVID-19 patient at the blood bank of Iraq's southern city of Nasiriyah in Dhi Qar province, on June 24, 2020. (Photo by Asaad NIAZI / AFP) (Photo by ASAAD NIAZI/AFP via Getty Images)

Turkey sends coronavirus aid to Iraq

Turkey delivers coronavirus aid to Iraq as it continues its operations against Kurdish groups in the country's northern semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

A photo taken on August 7, 2019, shows the French anti-submarine frigate FREMM Auvergne (R) and the US Navy USS Donald Cook class guided missile destroyer (2R) and the Greek HS Aigaion frigate (2L) during an exercise how simulate a humanitarian response to a powerful earthquake and significant movement of IDF vessels and foreign vessels in the Mediterranean sea. - Sailors from France, Greece and the United States arrived on their vessels and were joined by the Israelis off the Israeli port city of Haifa for

France leaves NATO Mediterranean operation over dispute with Turkey

The French decision follows NATO's report on a June incident in the Mediterranean Sea between France and Turkey amid tensions between the two NATO allies over the sea and Libya.

An F-35 military aircraft of the Royal Netherlands Air Force trains on targets at the NATO training location at the Vliehors Range on Vlieland. (Photo by Vincent JANNINK / ANP / AFP) / Netherlands OUT (Photo by VINCENT JANNINK/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)

Intel: Pentagon to accept Turkey-made F-35 parts through 2022

The Pentagon will continue to accept Turkish-made parts for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter through 2022, despite the United States’ vow to kick Ankara off the program by this year.

A picture representing a mugshot of the twitter bird is seen on a smart phone with a Turkish flag on March 26, 2014 in Istanbul. A Turkish court on Wednesday overturned the government's controversial Twitter ban imposed after audio recordings spread via the social media site implicated Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a corruption scandal. AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE / AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE (Photo credit should read OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images)

Erdogan vows to tighten social media controls after insults on family

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he will to introduce new measures to hold social media platforms accountable after his family members were insulted online.