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Turkey

July 28, 2026

Ankara 11:49 pm

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan greets Iraq Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi upon his arrival in Ankara, July 28, 2026.

Explainer

Erdogan hosts Zaidi, touts ‘historic step’ in Turkey-Iraq energy ties

The Turkish president outlined Ankara’s priorities with the new Iraqi government during the Iraqi leader’s first visit to Turkey: security, energy cooperation and the Development Road.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi speaks during a meeting with US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (not pictured) at the Pentagon on July 14, 2026 in Arlington, Virginia.

Zaidi to meet Erdogan as Turkey-Iraq ties take off, Kurds feel sidelined

The Iraqi prime minister's visits to Ankara and Riyadh underscore Baghdad's push to deepen regional ties as Turkey seeks closer cooperation on energy and security.

Latest News

Analysis

Iran war puts Turkey’s inflation fight, lira under fresh pressure

Vendors sell dry food as people shop by a banner reading " No to Inflation" near the New Mosque area in Istanbul's Eminonu district on Nov. 6, 2018.

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Analysis

What challenges await Erdogan’s new rival and Turkey’s new opposition party?

Ozgur Ozel

Halil Karaveli

By Halil Karaveli

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

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani (R) greets the audience as he and his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul arrive at a meeting in Ankara June 10, 2014. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3T167

Will Turkey and Iran find common ground in Iraq?

Developments in Iraq, coming soon after a visit by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Turkey, might be forcing a change in Turkey's approach to jihadist groups.

Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) celebrate on vehicles taken from Iraqi security forces, at a street in city of Mosul, June 12, 2014. Since Tuesday, black clad ISIL fighters have seized Iraq's second biggest city Mosul and Tikrit, home town of former dictator Saddam Hussein, as well as other towns and cities north of Baghdad. They continued their lightning advance on Thursday, moving into towns just an hour's drive from the capital. Picture taken June 12, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer (I

Turkey paying price for jihadist highway on border

The hostage crisis in Mosul is the boomerang effect of Ankara’s policy of opening its borders to jihadists.

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY PHILIPPE ALFROY
A man, standing next to a tree with the Black Sea in the background, looks towards the area where Istanbul's third airport will be build, on February 20, 2014, north of Istanbul. This airport, already considered the "world's largest", is a symbol of major construction developments led by Turkey's Prime Minister and former Mayor Recep Tayyip Erdogan. AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE

Turkey's Greens protest Erdogan's airport plans

The world's biggest airport is planned for Istanbul and will come at an ecological cost.

A photo illustration taken in Istanbul shows a U.S. 100 dollar banknote against Turkish lira banknotes of various denominations January 7, 2014. Turkey's lira slipped against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday as the government bond yield curve, which had briefly inverted on Tuesday because of speculation about an emergency rate hike to rescue the currency, returned to a positive slope. Picture taken January 7, 2014. REUTERS/Murad Sezer (TURKEY - Tags: BUSINESS) - RTX1761E

Foreign investors spark Turkish stock rally

Defying expectations, foreign investors buy $705.59 million in Turkish shares in May.

A masked Kurdish protestor try to pull down a Turkish flag on June 8, 2014 in Diyarbakir, eastern Turkey, after a man was killed during clashes with Turkish soldiers the night before in Lice. Two Kurdish protesters have died of gunshot wounds sustained during fierce clashes with Turkish soldiers in the country's southeast on June 7. Three people, including two soldiers, were hospitalised after the demonstrators opened fire, hurled stones and fireworks at security forces, according to an AFP reporter on the

Removal of Turkish flag stokes anti-Kurdish sentiments

Turkey is in an upheaval over the removal of its flag from a military base.

Islamist Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra members gesture while posing on a tank on Al-Khazan frontline of Khan Sheikhoun, northern Idlib province May 17, 2014. REUTERS/Hamid Khatib (SYRIA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST MILITARY POLITICS CONFLICT) - RTR3PM9N

Why is Jabhat al-Nusra no longer useful to Turkey?

The Turkish government may be waking up to its failed Syria policies.

A woman pushes a baby's stroller loaded with belongings recovered from her home in the Wadi Al-Sayeh district at the al-Khalidiyeh area in Homs May 14, 2014. The fall of Syria's third largest city to government forces is a major blow to the opposition and a boost for Assad, weeks before his likely re-election. Picture taken May 14, 2014. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki (SYRIA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT) - RTR3PD8B

Will Homs truce be repeated in Aleppo?

Hezbollah sources indicate that efforts are underway, including interventions by Iranian and Turkish authorities, to repeat the truce reached in Homs last month in Aleppo.

A giant banner, which reads: "Negotiation or war" and shows different pictures of jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), is displayed during a gathering celebrating Newroz, which marks the arrival of spring and the new year, in Diyarbakir March 21, 2014. Ocalan called on the Turkish government on Friday to create a legal framework for their peace talks, whose fate is looking increasingly uncertain a year after he called a ceasefire by his fighters. Tens of thous

Turkey's Kurds key to Erdogan's presidency bid

The Kurdish movement, uneasy with the stalling of the peace process, may have a card to play in the August presidential elections.

Syrian Kurds continue to blame Turkey for backing ISIS militants

In a report from northeast Syria, Syrian Kurds, locked in a bloody battle with the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), also fear a potential clash with Syrian government forces.

Mahamet, a 17-year-old Syrian boy from Azaz, waits for customers in front of the jewellery shop where he works as a translator in Kilis on the Turkish-Syrian border March 18, 2014. The busy market district of Kilis in southeast Turkey is full of Syrian refugee children, repairing household goods, serving baklava and selling jewellery to become the main breadwinner of their families because their parents struggle to find jobs. The civil war in neighbouring Syria has killed more than 140,000 people and driven

Refugees help spark Turkish trade with Syria

Despite the war, Turkish-Syrian trade is growing in several sectors, fueled in part by the influx of Syrian refugees.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani shake hands before their meeting in Istanbul April 19, 2012. REUTERS/Stringer/Pool (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR30XVH

How Turkey lost its influence in Iraq

Ankara's tilt toward the Kurdistan Region of Iraq has undermined its once considerable influence in Iraq.

A vendor sells potatoes and other vegetables to a customer in an open market in central Ankara February 5, 2014. The humble potato has become a factor in Turkey's political and economic turmoil as prices of the staple soar, hurting the living standards of poorer Turks just before the ruling AK Party's toughest election test in a decade. At a market in the lower-income Istanbul suburb of Kucukcekmece, potatoes sell for between 3 and 4 lira ($1.33 and $1.77) a kilogramme, up from slightly more than 1 lira at

Turkish inflation at its 'worst' before expected slowdown

Turkey’s inflation shot up to a two-year high in May, but a slowdown is expected to begin in June.