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

Turkey

Turkey

November 7, 2026

Ankara 5:32 pm

7°C

Costa Rica's Grynspan extends lead in UNSG poll as Nusseibeh places fourth

The Costa Rican candidate received 12 encourage votes in Thursday's UN Security Council straw poll.

United Arab Emirates

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses Turkish members of parliament during the opening of the parliamentary session at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in Ankara, on Oct. 1, 2026.

Turkey’s parliament ratifies Mecca pact in boost to Saudi Arabia

Turkey will now decide the scope of military support for Saudi Arabia amid ongoing Iran-backed Houthi attacks on the kingdom.

TOFIK BABAYEV/AFP via Getty Images

Can Erdogan’s Baku visit fix Turkey-Azerbaijan rift?

A dispute over religious dress in schools has exposed deeper tensions between the two allies, with energy, arms sales, Israel and financial interests adding to the strain.

Latest News

Turkey says soldier killed by gunfire from Iran at border: What to know

A sign marking the border of Turkey in Van, Turkey, on March 14, 2026.

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

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

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.

Explainer

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

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.

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

Salih Muslim, co-president of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), poses during an interview in Marseille, southern France, on December 1, 2013. PYD, the biggest Kurdish armed group, wants to establish an autonomous Kurdish state within a federal Syria and a commission is already writing the constitution of this potential state, Muslim told AFP. Syrian Kurds in the war-torn country's northeast announced last month the formation of a transitional autonomous administration after making key territo

Syrian Kurd leader urges Turkey to join fight against jihadists

In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, Syrian Kurdish leader Salih Muslim says his Democratic Union Party will not participate in Syria’s presidential elections, and questions why the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq is not helping Syria’s Kurds.

Plain clothes police walk on the main pedestrian street of Istiklal in central Istanbul during a May Day demonstration in Istanbul May 1, 2014. Turkish police fired tear gas, water cannon and rubber pellets on Thursday to try to stop thousands of people, some armed with fire bombs and fireworks, from defying a ban on May Day rallies and reaching Istanbul's central Taksim square. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3NEGD

Turkish trade unions in death throes

Restrictive laws and government hostility have crippled Turkey’s once-mighty labor movement, which made a poor showing this May Day.

A Turkish supporter of capital punishment holds a hanging rope as activists launch a petition campaign for its reinstitution in Ankara March 29, 2011. Public debate on the issue has been revived following a number of sexually motivated murders recently committed in the country which abolished the death penalty on January 15, 2003. The group also protests the reprieve given to Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the separatist Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) whose death penalty was approved by the appeals cou

Turkey's child murders revive death penalty debate

Despite the public outcry, it is unlikely that Turkey will reinstate capital punishment.

Members of the Palestinian security forces loyal to Hamas movement take part in a parade marking the fifth anniversary of the three-week offensive Israel launched in 2008-2009, in Gaza City January 13, 2014. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS ANNIVERSARY MILITARY) - RTX17CGC

Hamas sticks to its guns; Egypt could still surprise

The fate of Hamas’ Qassam Brigades could hold up the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas; Bassem Sabry’s last article for Al-Monitor anticipates surprises still to come in Egypt.

Saudi Prince al-Waleed bin Talal (R) and his wife Princess Amira al-Taweel attend a ceremony for the opening of housing units in the al-Dhafir village, west of Sanaa May 24, 2009. The houses were built by al-Waleed for victims of the December 28, 2005 landslide in al-Dhafir. The landslide killed 65 people and destroyed 27 of the village's 31 houses. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah (YEMEN POLITICS ROYALS SOCIETY) - RTXMPSM

Saudi Royal Court focus of twitter crossfire

The appointment of Prince Muqrin to deputy crown prince has reportedly angered some of the grandchildren of the kingdom’s founder.

Palestinian Hamas militants carry a coffin containing the body of their fellow comrade Rami Meshmish during his funeral in the central Gaza Strip April 16, 2014. Meshmish and another fellow militant were killed in an accidental explosion on Wednesday, al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of Hamas movement, said in a statement. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3LJNS

Hamas won't give up military wing despite agreement

Fatah and Hamas have deferred discussion on the fate of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

Germany's President Joachim Gauck (C) and his partner Daniela Schadt (L) listen to an Imam as they visit the Ottoman-era Sultanahmet mosque, known as Blue mosque, in Istanbul April 29, 2014. REUTERS/Murad Sezer (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS RELIGION) - RTR3N4QT

In Turkey, how Germany’s president became ‘Germany's imam’

The rampant political paranoia in Turkey is even capable of demonizing German President Joachim Gauck as the “imam” of a treacherous “parallel state.”

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a statement in the Independence Hall of Israel in Tel Aviv May 1, 2014. Netanyahu said on Thursday he would seek to enact a law to define Israel as a Jewish state, a step certain to raise opposition from Arab citizens who make up a fifth of the population. REUTERS/Dan Balilty/Pool (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3NETY

Israeli sanctions on Palestinians could backfire

The Israeli assumption that economic pressure will return the Palestinians to "the straight and narrow path," has already proven to be ineffective and might endanger the motivation for successful security cooperation.

A farmer rides his horse as he herds his cattle towards stockyards near the outback Queensland town of Aramac, west of Brisbane, in this May 22, 2002 file picture. Hot on the back of winning lower tariffs for beef exports from its largest buyer Japan, Australia is setting its sights on winning another major prize for its beef industry by persuading China to open its market to live cattle sales. China's growing middle class seems to have an insatiable hunger for beef, but with limited domestic stock, beef im

Gazans mock Australia for cattle ban

Palestinians are expressing their exasperation with Australia’s decision to ban cattle exports to Gaza because of ill-treatment, while seeming to ignore the treatment of Palestinians under occupation.

A member of Saudi security forces attends Abdullah's Sword military drill as a jet flies by in Hafar Al-Batin, near the border with Kuwait REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser (SAUDI ARABIA - Tags: MILITARY) - RTR3N4AM

What message is Saudi Arabia sending with war games?

Saudi Arabia has just finished its largest war games in recent history, signalling its intent to develop its military capabilities in an increasingly unstable region.

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan greets members of parliament from his ruling AK Party (AKP) as he arrives a meeting at the Turkish parliament in Ankara April 29, 2014. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3N1W3

Turkish liberals should back Erdogan's message to Armenians

Turks should come to terms with the Armenian genocide, recognize the momentous step taken by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and embrace the legacy of the many Turkish officials who saved Armenians from death.

Smoke rises after what activists said was shelling by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the Armenian Christian town of Kasab April 7, 2014. For three years, residents of Syria's Mediterranean provinces have watched from their coastal sanctuary as civil war raging further inland tore the country apart, killing tens of thousands of people and devastating historic cities. But a three-week-old offensive by rebel fighters in the north of Latakia province, a bastion of Assad's Alawite minority,

Turkey's Syria borders an open door for smugglers

Guns, people and stolen goods move with surprising ease and regularity over a sensitive border.