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Turkey

Turkey

November 11, 2026

Ankara 10:38 am

6°C

OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images

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

Opposition politicians and rights advocates described Yonca Verdioglu Sik’s brief detention as an attempt to intimidate her husband, opposition lawmaker Ahmet Sik, over his criticism of the government.

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)

Steel factory explosion in western Turkey kills at least 16

Footage from the scene showed a huge plume of thick smoke spreading into the sky as flames engulfed a tall structure within the plant.

MEHMET ESER/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

Will Democrats block Trump’s push to deliver Turkey F-35s, lift sanctions?

Democratic control of Congress complicates Turkey’s push for F-35s and sanctions relief, but Ankara remains hopeful Trump can still broker a deal.

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Latest News

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United Arab Emirates

Turkey’s parliament ratifies Mecca pact in boost to Saudi Arabia

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses Turkish members of parliament during the opening of the parliamentary session at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in Ankara, on Oct. 1, 2026.

Can Erdogan’s Baku visit fix Turkey-Azerbaijan rift?

TOFIK BABAYEV/AFP via Getty Images

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

(L-R) Ministers of Turkey's ruling Ak Party (AKP) Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz, Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker and Interior Minister Muammer Guler attend a ceremony in Ankara December 18, 2013.Scores of people including the sons of Interior Minister Guler, Economy Minister Caglayan and Environment and City Planning Minister Erdogan Bayraktar, prominent businessmen close to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, and local government officials were detained on Tuesday in the biggest

Pro-AKP media accuses Israel of role in Turkish corruption scandal

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to break the "dirty alliance" at the core of the crackdown.

A labourer works on the gold bars which are going to be melted in a smelter at a plant of gold refiner in Istanbul February 27, 2009. Gold extended gains to session highs in Europe on Friday as risk aversion spurred by worse-than- expected U.S. GDP data lifted the metal from the two-week lows it hit earlier in the day. REUTERS/Osman Orsal (TURKEY)

Iranian gold stars in Turkish corruption scandal

The CEO of Halkbank, which has been under scrutiny for bypassing US-EU sanctions on Iran, is at the center of bribery and corruption upheaval rattling Turkey.

Baris Guler (C in sunglasses), son of Turkey's Interior Minister Muammer Guler, is escorted by plainclothes police officers as he leaves a medical check-up in Istanbul December 16, 2013. Turkish police detained the sons of three cabinet ministers and several well-known businessmen as part of investigations into alleged corruption on Tuesday, state officials said, in a blow to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan months ahead of elections. Police carried out dawn raids in the main commercial city Istanbul, detainin

Pro-AKP media flop as corruption charges swell

The pro-AKP media fail to carry a credible message to combat corruption charges.

Istanbul police chief Huseyin Capkin (Front) leaves the police headquarters in Istanbul December 18, 2013. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said on Wednesday a corruption investigation in which 52 people including the sons of three cabinet ministers have been detained was part of a "planned operation" to tarnish the government. In the first official comments on the investigation from a senior member of the government, Arinc also said politics would not be allowed to stand in the way of the inquiry

Crackdown shatters AKP 'anti-corruption' taboo

Anti-corruption operations targeting four ministers of Erdogan's AKP government have inflicted irreparable damage on the government's reputation and legitimacy.

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan arrives for a ceremony in Ankara December 18, 2013. Scores of people including three ministers' sons, prominent businessmen close to Erdogan and local government officials were detained on Tuesday in the biggest corruption investigation since he swept to power in 2002. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX16NF0

Erdogan caught off guard in latest political crisis

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan may opt for early elections to ride out the corruption storm.

Riot police use tear gas to disperse pro-Kurdish demonstrators during a protest in the southeastern Turkish town of Nusaybin, on the Turkish-Syrian border, November 7, 2013. Thousands of Kurds protested on Thursday against Turkish plans to build a wall along the Syrian border, calling it a move to stop Kurdish communities strengthening cross-frontier ties as Syria splinters from civil war. Nusaybin is separated from the Syrian town of Qamishli by a strip of no-man's land and barbed wire fencing. REUTERS/Str

Can Turkey’s Kurds, military ever reconcile?

A court case in Diyarbakir provides hope for the first time for reconciliation between the Turkish military and Kurdish citizens.

Protesters demonstrate against Turkey's ruling Ak Party (AKP) government and demand that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's resign because of the corruption investigation in Ankara December 18, 2013. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said on Wednesday a corruption investigation in which 52 people including the sons of three cabinet ministers have been detained was part of a "planned operation" to tarnish the government. In the first official comments on the investigation from a senior member of the go

Turkish journalists caught in cross fire of AKP-Gulen conflict

The latest corruption scandal will be no picnic to cover.

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev (L) and Turkey's President Abdullah Gul (R) attend a welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Ankara November 12, 2013. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX15AC4

Gul may be winner in Turkey’s 'mother of all battles'

Abdullah Gul and Turkish democracy may be the winners in the latest AKP-Gulen escalation.

Residents and Kurdish fighters celebrate what they said was the liberation of their village from Islamist rebels near the city of Ras al-Ain November 5, 2013. The picture depicts a member of the Kurdish Youth Movement who died during the fighting. Redur Xelil, spokesman for the armed wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), said Kurdish militias had seized the city of Ras al-Ain and all its surrounding villages. Syrian Kurdish fighters have captured more territory from Islamist rebels in nor

Syrian and Iraqi Kurds more divided over Syria

The Syria war is proving to be a divisive, rather than unifying, force among the Kurds of Iraq and Syria.

Pedestrians look at billboards with the pictures of Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan (R) and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu (L), in Ankara March 25, 2013. Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday an Israeli apology for the 2010 deaths of nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists that was brokered by U.S. President Barack Obama met Turkey's conditions and signalled its growing regional clout. The billboard reads, "Israel apologized to Turkey. Dear Prime Minister (Erdogan), We ar

Turkey-Israel ties await 'normalization'

For now, both Turkey and Israel may prefer the status quo.

Turkey's European Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis listens to European Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule (R) after EU-Turkey accession talks in Brussels November 5, 2013. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir (BELGIUM - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX150NH

Turkey’s give and take with EU on visa policy

Ankara has started uphill talks with the EU on visa-free travel for Turkish citizens in return for agreeing to take back immigrants who illegally enter the EU via Turkey.

Demonstrators set barricades on fire as they clash with riot police during a protest in the Tuzlucayir neighbourhood of Ankara September 9, 2013. Billed as a symbol of peace between two faiths, a new place of worship has turned Tuzlucayir, a poor suburb of Ankara, into a battleground and exposed wider sectarian tensions within Turkey. The project's blueprint envisages a Sunni mosque rising side by side with a new cemevi, or assembly house, to be used by Alevis, Turkey's biggest religious minority. But with

Alevi jitters worsen in Turkey

Turkey’s Alevi community fears that the government’s ostracizing rhetoric and policies are encouraging discrimination and physical attacks.