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Turkey

Turkey

November 4, 2026

Ankara 1:04 am

13°C

Turkey probes Google’s AI search tools, orders protections for news websites

Turkey’s competition watchdog said it is assessing whether AI-generated answers appearing on Google Search divert traffic from news sites and impose unfair content-use terms.

A protestor holds a flag bearing a portrait of jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan during a demonstration of Kurdish people from all around Europe to mark the 27th anniversary of his arrest and to demand his liberation, in Strasbourg, Eastern France, on Feb. 14, 2026.

Turkey moves PKK leader Ocalan to prison villa as peace process faces new test

The move is expected to give the PKK leader a more direct role in negotiations, but deep divisions over disarmament and Kurdish rights continue to threaten the process.

OSCE Secretary General Feridun Sinirlioglu is pictured during a joint press conference with the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Switzerland's Foreign Minister at Vienna International Airport on Feb. 6, 2026 in Schwechat, Lower Austria.

Explainer

Who is Feridun Sinirlioglu, Turkey’s candidate for UN chief?

The Turkish president's confidant enters the race for UN chief with decades of diplomatic experience marked by both praise and scrutiny.

Demonstrators hold a banner reading "Free Gaza, free world"

Analysis

Gaza progress, Syria pullback: What Turkey wants from Israel’s next government

Ankara sees room for limited improvement in ties if Israel’s next government eases Gaza’s humanitarian crisis and reduces military pressure on Syria.

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Latest News

Explainer

After EU rebuff, how Turkey is courting Egypt for maritime deal

Turkish Navy sailors wave their caps from the flight deck

Culture

Rock collapse near UNESCO-listed site in Turkey’s Cappadocia kills three

An view of the Uchisar settlement, east of Nevesehir in the province of the same name in central Turkey's historical Cappadocia region on Aug. 24, 2022.

Tornado kills 4 in Turkey’s Mediterranean tourism hub Antalya

Kepez

Saudi Arabia’s KBS, top Turkish and Pakistani officials hold rare meeting in Iran: What to know

GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/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

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY ANTONIO PAMPLIEGA
Syrian Turkmen rebels run across a street controlled by regime forces to dodge sniper fire in the Hanano district of the northern city of Aleppo on January 28, 2013. Members of Syria's Turkmen minority have joined forces with rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad's regime in a struggle they say is for democracy and revenge for years of oppression. AFP PHOTO/JM LOPEZ (Photo credit should read JM LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Al-Qaeda in Syria targets Turkmen minority

Syrian Turkmen feel Turkey has abandoned them.

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan addresses reporters during a news conference at the Government Banquet Hall in Helsinki, November 6, 2013. REUTERS/Jussi Nukari/Lehtikuva (FINLAND - Tags: POLITICS) ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS. NO THIRD PARTY SALES. NOT FOR USE BY REUTERS THIRD PARTY DISTRIBUTORS. FINLAND OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN FINLAND - RTX152EZ

Erdogan tries to shake Sisi comparison as elections near

The legacy of the Gezi Park protests, the Kurdish opening and tensions with the Gulen movement are generating a disparate opposition to Turkey's prime minister.

Leak deepens AKP-Gulen rift

The leaked National Security Council advisory ruling in 2004 about the state aiming to weaken the Gulen movement is another headache for Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

An elderly Syrian Alawite man sleeps in a tent at the courtyard of Pirsultan Abdal Cemevi in Istanbul October 11, 2013. As Syria's conflict takes on an increasingly sectarian dimension, a growing number of those fleeing to Turkey are shunning the refugee camps on its southern border and venturing instead to its major cities, as far from the war as possible. Picture taken October 11, 2013. REUTERS/Murad Sezer (TURKEY - Tags: SOCIETY IMMIGRATION POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT) - RTX14L6V

Syrian refugees in Istanbul sent from pillar to post

Over 200,000 Syrian refugees, most of them without legal papers, struggle to find shelter and work in Istanbul as winter sets in.

Turkish culture popular among Gaza Palestinians

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's support for Palestine, in particular Gaza, has prompted strong interest in Turkish culture among Gazans.

Demonstrators shout slogans as they hold up banners while staging a protest in central Istanbul December 11, 2004. Hundreds of protesters formed a human chain through the busy shopping street of Istiklal on Saturday to protest the recent killing of a 12-year-old boy and his father by security forces in Kiziltepe in the southeast Turkish province of Mardin which is now under investigation. Banner at left reads in Turkish "I am Turkish, Kurdish, Circassian and Laz from Turkey" and the banner at top right read

Turkey’s Laz awakening

Turkey’s Laz people are awakening to their language and culture, though it is still premature to speak of a “Laz Renaissance.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (R) shakes hands with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif after a ceremony at the United Nations in Geneva November 24, 2013. Iran and six world powers reached a breakthrough agreement early on Sunday to curb Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for limited sanctions relief, in a first step towards resolving a dangerous decade-old standoff. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse (SWITZERLAND - Tags: POLITICS ENERGY) - RTX15QM8

Iran deal recasts regional politics

The consequences of the agreement are already extending beyond Iran’s nuclear program.

National lottery sellers (L and C) chat on the main shopping and pedestrian street of Istiklal in central Istanbul September 27, 2013. REUTERS/Murad Sezer (TURKEY - Tags: SOCIETY) - RTX1428N

Surveys get personal in Turkey

For the first time in Turkish history, state institutions are conducting surveys on religion, further dividing citizens.

People take part in a commemoration ceremony to mark the anniversary of the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire at the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, April 24, 2011. Armenia, backed by many historians and world parliaments, says some 1.5 million Armenians died during the upheavals that accompanied World War I and labels the events as genocide. On the other hand, Ankara rejects the term genocide and says large numbers of both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks were killed. REUTE

Will Erdogan visit genocide memorial in 2015?

Turkey’s official position is not likely to change on the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

Protesters clash with riot police during a protest against Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish government's foreign policy on Syria, in Istanbul May 16, 2013. REUTERS/Osman Orsal (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTXZP3Y

Turkey's foreign policy reset will not be easy

Turkey’s allies still have misgivings about the recent past and direction of Turkish foreign policy.

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan addresses members of his ruling AK Party (AKP) during a meeting in Ankara November 29, 2013. Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan signed a multi-billion-dollar energy package this week that will help transform the semi-autonomous region into an oil and gas powerhouse but infuriate a central Baghdad government wary of increasing Kurdish autonomy. The energy deal came in the early hours of a frosty Wednesday morning in Ankara, and was signed during a three-hour meeting between Kur

Erdogan's blacklist

The battle between Erdogan's party and Gulenist elites shows that cooperation with the Gulen Movement is no longer worth it to the AKP.

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan greets members of parliament from his ruling AK Party (AKP) during a meeting at the Turkish parliament in Ankara November 26, 2013. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX15TOG

Turkey's constitution commission keeps working

Although the Turkish Constitution Reconciliation Commission has stalled in writing a new constitution, no political parties are eager to announce its end.