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Turkey

Turkey

May 10, 2026

Ankara 5:30 am

13°C

MURAT KOCABAS/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Culture

How ‘dog mom’ vacuum cleaner ad sparked culture war in Turkey

A Mother’s Day advertisement featuring a “dog mom” triggered a backlash from conservative media, government officials and regulators, turning a soft consumer campaign into a flashpoint over motherhood, declining birth rates, stray dogs and even antisemitism.

People look at a drone on display at the Baykar exhibit at the SAHA International Defence and Aerospace Expo on May 06, 2026 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Turkey, Japan launch defense industry partnership with eye on drones

The initiative could eventually lead to joint UAV development and production as Japan looks to expand drone capabilities amid regional tensions.

Latest News

Saudi FM in Turkey as Ankara, Riyadh step up coordination amid Iran war

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Ankara, May 6, 2026.

Turkey, Armenia agree to restore medieval bridge in normalization push

A picture taken near Kars on Feb. 28, 2024 shows the ruins of a bridge over Arpacay river, the natural border between Turkey and Armenia.

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

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (L), European Council President Donald Tusk (C) and European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker (R) greet each other after a news conference at the end of a EU-Turkey summit in Brussels March 8, 2016. REUTERS/Yves Herman - RTS9QJI

Is the EU really ready to commit to Turkey?

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is feeling his oats as he renegotiates his deal with the European Union.

How one sultan's harem is another's school

Emine Erdogan's praise of the Ottoman harem as a school has disturbed and baffled Turks.

After seizing Zaman newspaper, what's next for Turkey?

Not just a few newspapers like Zaman, but the entire Turkish media is under threat by the current regime in Turkey.

Turkish soldiers stand guard as a funeral convoy, carrying coffins of drowned Syrian migrants including the three-year old boy Aylan Kurdi, drives to the Turkish-Syrian border in Suruc, bordering with the northern Syrian town of Kobani, Turkey, September 4, 2015. Two Syrian toddlers who drowned with their mother as they were trying to reach Greece were laid to rest in the Syrian town of Kobani on Friday, a Reuters witness said. A photograph of the body of one of the toddlers, 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi, washed

Turkish military struggles to find new recruits

The Turkish Armed Forces has to overcome serious structural problems, including inadequate recruitment, before switching from a conscription-based military to a fully professional force.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan adjusts his sunglasses before a wreath-laying ceremony at the Jose Marti monument in Havana February 11, 2015. Erdogan is in Cuba for an official visit. REUTERS/Enrique De La Osa (CUBA - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR4P6U8

Does Erdogan believe he's on a mission from God?

Increasingly cornered and isolated both at home and abroad, Turkey's president is seeking to boost his public support by placing God directly at the center of his Islamist oratory.

Why some Turkish women are boycotting women-only taxis

A number of women have welcomed Turkey’s first women-only cab, but many activists reject the new service as further gender segregation in public life.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu speaks at a news conference at the end of a EU-Turkey summit in Brussels March 8, 2016. REUTERS/Yves Herman - RTS9QKE

Davutoglu attempts to get back to zero problems with Iran

Analysts warn that an unpredictable harsh statement by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could undermine Davutoglu’s efforts to gain a piece of the Iranian pie.

Why is Erdogan wary of women?

Women find creative and cheerful methods to circumvent bans on International Women’s Day parades, promising to celebrate their day to the fullest in the streets.

Women work at a textile factory in Kozluk, a town in the southeast province of Batman, April 21, 2011. Since Mehmet Simsek, Turkey's 44-year-old finance minister, left in the mid-1980s to go to Ankara University, his hometown of Batman has become known for incidents of Kurdish militancy and for a high number of unexplained suicides among women and girls. The other great blight on the area is rampant unemployment. Simsek is campaigning for one of Batman's four parliamentary seats in June 12 elections. Pictur

Why Turkish women are opting out of the workforce

A deeply patriarchal culture, work environments unfavorable to a healthy balance with family life and internalized gender roles keep many women in Turkey uninterested in taking advantage of opportunities to work.

Turkey’s Kurdish leader: We will struggle on in parliament ‘till the end’

Turkey’s top Kurdish political leader tells Al-Monitor his party remains committed to a political struggle despite government efforts to crush the party in parliament.

With spread of IS-like tactics, urban warfare in Turkey grows bloodier

Turkish officials believe Kurdish militants leading clashes in the southeast have learned techniques used by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units and the Islamic State in Kobani.

Co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtas (C) attends a ceremony to mark the ninth anniversary of the killing of Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink in Istanbul January 19, 2016. REUTERS/Osman Orsal - RTX232RL

Armenian animosity rekindled through PKK terror

The Justice and Development Party’s repeated insults that Kurds are considered Armenians are aimed at labeling the pro-Kurdish HDP as non-Muslim, and to justify the heavy attacks on border towns in the southeast of Turkey.