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Turkey

Turkey

August 20, 2026

Ankara 9:01 pm

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Turkey signals restraint as war of words with Israel escalates over Syria

The Turkish president’s top communications aide says Ankara will not be drawn into the Israeli government's “games” as Washington pushes a Turkey-Israel-Syria deconfliction mechanism.

President Ahmad al-Sharaa meets Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar at the People’s Palace in Damascus, Syria, on Aug. 19, 2026.

Turkey looks to expand Syria energy footprint into oil, gas

Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said state oil giant TPAO and private companies are ready to explore for oil and gas onshore and offshore in Syria.

Latest News

Analysis

Netanyahu yields to Trump on Gaza, betting Hamas won’t disarm

Ohad Zwigenberg / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Sudan ramps up Saudi Arabia, Turkey contacts amid growing Red Sea cooperation

Sudanese army soldier stands in front of a tank

Analysis

How Israel's rivalry, defense deals prompted Turkey to join Mecca pact

Fireworks explode over Islamabad

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

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

Israel gas

Can Israeli gas bridge Turkey-Israel rift?

The dimming prospects of the EastMed pipeline project offer Turkey an opportunity to mend fences with Israel and break its isolation in the energy rivalry in the Eastern Mediterranean.

A screen grab from the music video for Sezen Aksu's "Manifesto".

Turkey’s pop queen draws sudden wrath over five-year-old lyrics

Sezen Aksu, the reclusive diva of Turkish pop, has become the latest target of conservatives who accuse her of blasphemy.

People walk past a currency exchange office on Aug. 29, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Pro-Erdogan business leaders anxious about Turkey's economy

The pro-government business association MUSIAD has stood behind Erdogan’s controversial economic policies but appears concerned that both borrowing costs and foreign exchange prices remain above the desired levels.

Elderly people wearing a protective face mask, sit and look at the Bosphorus on May 10, 2020, at Besiktas, Istanbul, after a month and a half of lockdown restrictions aimed at stemming the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Inflation crisis hits Turkey's retirees hardest of all

According to economists and Turkish seniors' personal accounts, the elderly who suffered most during the COVID-19 pandemic are now being hardest hit by the economic slump.

This photo taken on Feb. 9, 2020, shows an attendant checking the stock of sanitary pads inside a mobile toilet on a bus in Pune, India.

Turkish women decry high price of sanitary pads

Women activists call on the Turkish government for a tax reduction and other measures to lower the prices of menstrual products, which have grown forbiddingly expensive amid the country’s economic turmoil.

BULENT KILIC/AFP via Getty Images

BBC Turkish staff strike over pay

Workers at the BBC's Istanbul bureau are taking action after the corporation denied a salary increase in line with inflation.

People sit on the ground by a destroyed building in the Kurdish town of Kobani, in the north of Aleppo governorate, Syria, Feb. 25, 2021.

Turkey aims to keep tensions high in northeast Syria through targeted killings

In retaliation for a mysterious explosion along the Turkish-Syrian border, Turkey hit several Kurdish positions in the predominantly Kurdish town of Kobani in an attack that the Kurds call a “war rehearsal” aiming to test the water.

Turkey Hurjet

Turkey to begin mass producing fighter jet training plane

The Hürjet is now expected to take first flight next year.

OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images

Turkey, Armenia hold 'constructive' first round of normalization talks

Following talks in Moscow on Friday, representatives for the two countries agreed to meet again without preconditions.

Turkey politics

Erdogan accused of criminalizing opposition ahead of critical polls

A controversial probe into the opposition-led Istanbul municipality might be the prelude of a campaign to criminalize and sideline Erdogan’s potential opponents in the upcoming presidential race, critics say.

People wave Turkish flags and portraits of modern Turkey's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, during a rally organized by main opposition group the Republican People's Party, on July 24, 2016, in Istanbul's Taksim Square.

Turkish teen suicide revives secular-pious debate

The debate over the place of Islam in public life remains among the most contentious in Turkey.

Riot police officers patrol in a street as unprecedented protests over a hike in energy prices spun out of control in Almaty on Jan. 5, 2022.

Kazakhstan crisis challenges Turkey's leadership of Turkic union

The unrest rattling Kazakhstan has reflected the irrelevance of Turkey and the Organization of Turkic States chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.