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

Turkey

Turkey

July 1, 2026

Ankara 6:20 pm

31°C

Syrian textile employees work in a textile workshop in Gaziantep, Turkey, on Jan. 30, 2025.

Explainer

Turkey eases job rules for 1M+ Syrians under temporary protection: What to know

The move, part of a broader easing of restrictions on Syrians living in Turkey, could allow roughly 1.1 million working-age Syrians to enter registered employment more easily as Ankara seeks to reduce informal labor and address workforce gaps.

KAREN MINASYAN / AFP via Getty Images

Turkey, Azerbaijan slam Israel’s Armenian genocide recognition as Yerevan mum

Ankara accused Israel of weaponizing history as Armenia avoided public comment amid delicate regional diplomacy.

From (L-R) Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan attend a meeting in Cairo on June 21, 2026.

Analysis

Why Turkey and Egypt are deepening military ties amid regional turmoil

Turkey and Egypt are expanding military cooperation as overlapping security challenges, from Libya and Sudan to Gaza and the Red Sea, bring the former rivals closer together.

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Latest News

Explainer

Israel's Armenian genocide recognition marks new front against Turkey

Members of the Jerusalem Armenian community hold placards as they march during commemorations for the 94th anniversary of mass killings of their kin under the Ottoman Empire, Jerusalem's Old City, April 24, 2009.

Trump hints at F-35 breakthrough with Turkey ahead of NATO summit

One of the first three US-made F-35 aircraft in Polish Air Force colors taxis along the runway at the 32nd Tactical Air Base in Lask, central Poland, while fire-fighting vehicles perform a water salute on May 22, 2026.

Israel, Turkey, Iran offer aid as Venezuela’s 2 quakes kill at least 188

Responders arrive to a demolished building at San Bernardino after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Venezuela and other regions in the Caribbean on June 24, 2026 in Caracas, Venezuela.

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

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a news conference at the NATO Foreign Minister's Meeting in Antalya, Turkey, May 13, 2015. NATO and Ukraine voiced concern on Wednesday about Russian statements on the possible future stationing of nuclear weapons in Ukraine's Crimea region, which has been annexed by Moscow. REUTERS/Kaan Soyturk - RTX1CTH4

Turkey needs to drop its dead-end foreign policy

Former diplomats say Ankara should act urgently with its NATO allies to face the new threats that have emerged to its security from groups like the Islamic State.

20150720114448 (3) (2).jpg

Ankara's response to forest fires ignites Kurdish anger

Kurds in southeastern Turkey believe the government was intentionally lax in combating a series of local forest fires, which residents think were intentionally set to destroy areas where fighters from the Kurdistan Workers Party had been known to operate in the past.

Riot police use water cannon as demonstrators throw fireworks during a protest in central Istanbul, Turkey, July 20, 2015. Police in Istanbul fired teargas and water cannon when a demonstration by protesters blaming the government for a suspected Islamic State suicide bombing turned violent, a Reuters witness said. Hundreds gathered near Istanbul's central Taksim Square after the bombing in the mostly Kurdish border town of Suruc which killed at least 30 people. Some chanted slogans against President Tayyip

Kurdish opposition figures denounce Ankara officials as 'accomplices' of IS after Suruc bombing

After 31 young Turks were killed and many more wounded by a suicide attack in Suruc, protests erupted across the country and politicians scrambled to point fingers.

Turkish artisans keep ceramic craft alight

In the Turkish city of Kutahya, ceramic artisans preserve a centuries-old craft, looking both for foreign markets and interaction with fellow craftsmen across the world.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (L) and his Greek counterpart Nikos Kotzias attend a joint news conference in Athens May 28, 2015. Zarif said on Thursday he hoped Tehran and world powers would reach a final nuclear deal "within a reasonable period of time" but this would be hard if the other side stuck to what he called excessive demands. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis - RTX1EXFK

How Turkey really feels about the Iran deal

Although Turkey seems to be happy with the Iran nuclear deal, it is hard to say that politically Turkey would be delighted seeing Iran emerging as a regional power and an international actor.

Kurdish fighters gesture while carrying their parties' flags in Tel Abyad of Raqqa governorate after they said they took control of the area June 15, 2015. Syrian Kurdish-led forces said they had captured a town at the Turkish border from Islamic State on Monday, driving it away from the frontier in an advance backed by U.S.-led air strikes that has thrust deep into the jihadists' Syria stronghold. The capture of Tel Abyad by the Kurdish YPG and smaller Syrian rebel groups means the Syrian Kurds effectively

Kurds push back against charges of ethnic cleansing

A visit to northern Syria casts doubts on claims that Kurds are carrying out ethnic cleansing in the area.

Boys wave East Turkestan flags during a protest against China near the Chinese Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, July 5, 2015. China warned its citizens travelling in Turkey to be careful of anti-Beijing protests, warning them that some Chinese tourists have recently been "attacked and disturbed". The notice, posted on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website on Sunday, said that there have recently been "multiple" demonstrations in Turkey targeting the Chinese government. The notice gave no details regarding t

Attacks on Chinese escalate in Turkey

Turkish anger over Chinese policies has led to attacks and racist protests.

Israeli play about French prostitute premieres in Turkey

Actor Zion Ashkenazi tells Al-Monitor about the warm welcome he and his one-man play based on the life of French playwright Jean Genet received at a Turkish theater festival.

Women sit and look at a container ship navigate through the Suez canal near Ismailia port city, northeast of Cairo May 2, 2014. Egypt has extended the bidding deadline to July 3 in an international auction of 22 concessions for oil and gas exploration, an official with the state-owned gas company said on Wednesday.The previous deadline for companies to submit bids for concessions in the Suez Canal, Egypt's western desert, the Mediterranean sea and the Nile Delta had been May 19. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

Turkish exports plunge

Turkish businesspeople have long advocated a cheap currency as a means to boost exports, but despite the plummeting Turkish lira, a combination of external factors have led to an alarming decrease in exports.

The Tigris river, with the minaret of a 14th century mosque on the right, flows through the town of Hasankeyf in southeastern Turkey, August 14, 2009. Western export credit insurers quit Turkey's planned Ilisu dam on the Tigris River on July because it failed World Bank environmental and heritage standards, but Ankara said the 1.2 billion euro project would go ahead. Turkey said it was determined to go ahead with the dam project in its impoverished southeast, a region long scarred by unemployment and Kurdis

PKK, Turkey squabble over same dam issue

Turkey's extensive dam construction projects are threatened with attacks by the Kurdistan Workers Party, which sees the projects as destructive and only serving military objectives.

Riot police try to stop protesters in the eastern city of Erzurum, Turkey, June 4, 2015. Turkish police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse crowds protesting against a rally by the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in eastern Turkey on Thursday, ahead of weekend parliamentary elections. The clashes are the latest in a series of incidents to mar campaigning in the run-up to Sunday's highly charged vote, in which the HDP is hoping to deal a heavy blow to President Tayyip Erdogan's hopes of a

Is Turkey on brink of more violence?

Increasingly militarized conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK has brought Turkey to the brink of a new spiral of violence.

As companies rush to Iran, Turkey slow to wake up to opportunity

As Western companies have already set up camp in Tehran, Turkey’s business circles are waiting and hoping, but political tensions with Iran do not bode well for openings to Turkey.