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

Turkey

Turkey

September 6, 2026

Ankara 6:38 am

18°C

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.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

US sanctions Turkey-based bank over Iran ties

The Treasury Department said Golden Global Bank was facilitating transactions for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Mecca Alliance

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

Against the backdrop of growing tensions with Turkey, Israel signed one of its largest-ever defense industry deals to supply Greece with advanced air defense systems.

Latest News

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

Culture

In divided Cyprus, FC Barcelona youth camp sparks new dispute: What to know

Barcelona

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's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan greets his supporters during the Extraordinary Congress of the ruling AK Party (AKP) to choose a new leader of the party, ahead of his inauguration as president, in Ankara August 27, 2014. Turkish president-elect Erdogan said on Wednesday he would ask incoming prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu to form a new government on Thursday, and a new cabinet of ministers would be announced the following day. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR43YHW

How does the AKP pick its candidates?

The ruling Justice and Development Party's list of candidates for the Turkish parliament is based on simple criteria: loyalty and obedience to the president.

Selahattin Demirtas, co-chairman of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democracy Party (HDP), addresses his party members as he starts his campaign for Turkey's June 7 parliamentary elections, during a meeting in Ankara April 10, 2015. REUTERS/Umit Bektas - RTR4WSQ9

Turkey's minorities join race for parliament

An unprecedented number of minority candidates will run in Turkey’s June 7 general elections, promising representation for ethnic and religious communities after decades of parliamentary absence.

Syriac Christian monks attend a service at the ancient monastery of Mor Gabriel, 15 km (9 miles) away from the town of Midyat, in Mardin province of southeast Turkey January 13, 2009. Tucked amid rugged hills where mosques and minarets are silhouetted in the distance, the fifth century Mor Gabriel monastery stands out as a relic of another era when hundreds of thousands of Syriac Christians lived and worshipped in Turkey. But a land dispute between Mor Gabriel and neighbouring villages is threatening the mo

Syriacs commemorate their massacre

While the world prepares to commemorate what has become known as the Armenian genocide, the Syriacs are still struggling for international recognition of the massacre of members of their community in 1915.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani (L) walks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (C) during an official welcoming ceremony following the latter's arrival at the Saadabad Palace in Tehran on April 7, 2015, for an official one-day visit as the two countries criticized each other in recent weeks on their respective policies in the region. AFP PHOTO/ATTA KENARE (Photo credit should read ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images)

How will Turkey benefit from lifting of Iran sanctions?

Turkey faced substantial losses with declining exports to Iran because of the embargo. Now that easing of sanctions is a possibility, however, political ambitions and contradictory positions may impede recovery.

People attend a religious service marking the anniversary of mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915, at an Armenian church in Tbilisi April 24 2012. Armenia, backed by many historians and parliaments, says about 1.5 million Christian Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey during World War One in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered by the Ottoman government. Successive Turkish governments and the vast majority of Turks feel the charge of genocide is an insult to their natio

What was behind the ethnic cleansing of Armenians?

If Turkish society would develop a more emphatic view of the ethnic cleansing of Armenians, this will happen not due to any foreign pressure, but rather due to some honest self-criticism based on authentic values — such as those presented by Islam.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani (R) holds hands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (C) as they walk during an official welcoming ceremony following the latter's arrival at the Saadabad Palace in Tehran on April 7, 2015, for an official one-day visit as the two countries criticized each other in recent weeks on their respective policies in the region. AFP PHOTO/ATTA KENARE (Photo credit should read ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images)

Erdogan focuses on trade during Iran visit

Despite a red-carpet welcome to Tehran, where meetings between the Turkish president and Iranian officials focused on economic ties, the uproar around Recep Tayyip Erdogan's incendiary remarks about Iran continued unabated.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani shakes hands with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan after a news conference in Ankara June 9, 2014. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3SXID

Turkey reluctantly welcomes Iran deal

Observers say Iran deal will increase Tehran’s regional influence at a time when Ankara’s influence has waned.

Hungry bears threaten Turkey's villages

Starving bears have been ravaging cemeteries in Turkey, digging up and devouring the dead and forcing villagers to place barbed wire around tombs.

Relatives of detained military officers hold a portrait of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, and shout slogans in front of a courthouse in Ankara October 9, 2013. Turkey's appeals court upheld convictions on Wednesday of top retired military officers for leading a plot to overthrow Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government a decade ago in a case underlining civilian dominance over a once all-powerful army. The court overturned convictions of dozens of less prominent defendants among more th

Turkish justice 'sledgehammered'

The Sledgehammer coup case, which has ended with the acquittal of all defendants, inflicted enormous damage on Turkey’s justice system, judiciary and military, while failing to eliminate the danger of military coups.

Ankara - TURKEY, 03-15-2015: Hayko Cepkin on stage during a concert.(Photo © 2015 Piero Castellano)

Armenian singer Hayko Cepkin climbs to fame in Turkey

The generation growing up in the “New Turkey” has found in a Turkish Armenian rock musician the minstrel of their existential malaise.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L), U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz (2nd L), the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi (2nd R) and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif (R) wait with others for a meeting at the Beau Rivage Palace Hotel March 28, 2015, in Lausanne. Iran and major powers are close to agreement on a 2- or 3-page accord with specific numbers that would form the basis of a long-term settlement aimed at ending a 12-year standoff over Tehran's nuclear ambitions,

Iran framework agreement should boost regional diplomacy

The P5+1 and Iran agree on "detailed political agreement" for nuclear deal; Saudi Arabia, Iran hasten Yemen’s collapse; Netanyahu, Erdogan weigh in on Yemen.

Turkish riot police detain a protester outside the Justice Palace in Istanbul March 31, 2015. A far-left Turkish group took an Istanbul prosecutor hostage on Tuesday and threatened to kill him, prompting special forces to enter the courthouse and police to evacuate the building. REUTERS/Osman Orsal - RTR4VM35

Media pressure increases after prosecutor's killing

A government investigation is opened into Turkish newspapers that published photos that kidnappers released of a prosecutor who was later killed.