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

Turkey

Turkey

November 4, 2026

Ankara 10:42 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

Turkey's Prime Minister and leader of ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Tayyip Erdogan (R) welcomes his guest Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal during the AKP congress in Ankara September 30, 2012. Erdogan trumpeted Turkey's credentials as a rising democratic power on Sunday, saying his Islamist-rooted ruling party had become an example to the Muslim world after a decade in charge. Addressing thousands of party members and regional leaders at a congress of his Justice and Development (AK) Party, Erdogan

Turkey on Defensive Over Hamas

Claims that Turkey is obstructing Palestinian reconciliation are fueling the AKP's belief in an international campaign to isolate Ankara politically at an already low point in its foreign relations.

The U.N. special advisor on Yemen Jamal Benomar, who helped broker a power transfer deal, drafted by the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council and signed in November last year to pull back Yemen from the brink of civil war, leaves the House of Representatives (Parliament) in Sanaa January 14, 2012. The house on Saturday postponed for the third time a debate on a draft law proposed by the opposition-led government to give President Ali Abdullah Saleh immunity from prosecution. Yemen's cabinet proposed an immun

UN Envoy on Yemen Deserves Spotlight

Jamal Benomar, special adviser on Yemen to the UN secretary-general, has succeeded with a difficult brief.

Helal Sex Shop.JPG

Turkey’s Online 'Halal' Sex Shop Draws Ridicule, Criticism

The Turkish media's response to the nation's first "halal" online sex shop has been a mixture of criticism and ridicule.

Turkey’s Spymaster: The Making of a Hero

An impressive campaign by Hakan Fidan’s media team has made almost an entire nation worship him.

Turkish Airlines pilot Murat Agca talks to media at Istanbul's Ataturk airport October 19, 2013. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan personally greeted two kidnapped Turkish pilots when they arrived back in Istanbul on Saturday after two months in captivity in Lebanon. The pair were released earlier under a deal whereby nine Lebanese hostages were freed in Syria and allowed to return home via Turkey. The Turkish pilots had been abducted in retaliation for the snatching of the Lebanese. REUTERS/Osman Orsal (TURKEY

Turkey Rescues Its Pilots in Swap Deal

Turkey’s silent diplomacy yielded results on Oct.19, when it rescued the two Turkish Airlines pilots kidnapped in Beirut on Aug. 9.

Turkey: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Of the Hakan Fidan Story

During a 10-day holiday break, a series of Western news reports roiled Turkey's pro-government establishment.

Demonstrators hold Kurdish flags and flags with portraits of jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan during a gathering to celebrate Newroz in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir March 21, 2013. Ocalan ordered his fighters on Thursday to cease fire and withdraw from Turkish soil as a step to ending a conflict that has killed 40,000 people, riven the country and battered its economy. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds, gathered in the regional centre of Diyarbakir, cheered and waved b

Turkish Intelligence ChiefBoth Iconoclast and Target

Hakan Fidan, Turkey’s highly intellectual and pro-West intelligence chief, has drawn a lot of attention and criticism as the architect of the peace process with the PKK.

A U.N. vehicle returns to a hotel where experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) are staying, in Damascus October 11, 2013. The global chemical weapons watchdog charged with overseeing destruction of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile during a civil war won the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a relatively small organisation with a modest budget, dispatched its experts after a sarin gas attack killed more t

Is Saudi Arabia Holding Up The Geneva II Conference on Syria?

While Turkey may be shifting its Syria policy in response to domestic and international pressure, Saudi Arabia appears to be digging in to oppose the trend toward a diplomatic solution.

The construction of a residential tower is seen behind the newly built Mimar Sinan mosque in Atasehir on the Asian side of Istanbul in this September 4, 2012 file photo. Perched on the edge of a wasteland earmarked to become a financial district on Istanbul's Asian side, the curved facades of five massive luxury tower blocks sparkle in the sunshine, the centrepiece of a sprawling new residential complex. It is the sort of development that overseas property buyers in Turkey, mainly from Europe, have usually

Quo Vadis Istanbul?

Istanbul’s future development is also tied to the memories of its past.

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 Prefers Stalemate With Israel

David Ignatius of The Washington Post reported on Oct. 16 that Turkey leaked to Iran the identities of 10 Iranians working for the Mossad.

Saudi Arabia's Finance Minister Ibrahim Alassaf (front, 2nd R) walks with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary-General Abdulatif al-Zayani (front R) to attend a meeting of Gulf Arab monetary and finance officials in Riyadh October 5, 2013. The central bank of Saudi Arabia, one of the world's top holders of U.S. government bonds, said on Saturday it was not worried by the political deadlock in Washington that could cause the United States to default on its debt. The U.S. Congress must agree on a measure

Saudi Arabia Deepens Its Isolation

The kingdom’s rejection of UN Security Council seat does not convey more proactive foreign policy.

Hakan Fidan 222.JPG

Who's Out to Get Turkey’s Spymaster?

The pressure on Turkish Intelligence head Hakan Fidan may be a sign of concern over a shift in Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s policies toward Syria and Iran.