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Turkey

Turkey

November 12, 2026

Ankara 6:10 pm

15°C

People walk past a Bitcoin sign at the entrance of a cryptocurrency exchange office on Nov. 8, 2024, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Watchdog urges Turkey to tighten digital asset rules for $144B crypto economy

A review of Turkey’s crypto-asset regulations by the Financial Stability Board acknowledged significant progress made by local authorities but called for further measures to address potential risks.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) and Central Bank Governor Sahap Kavcioglu attend a signing ceremony with Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the Presidential Complex in Ankara on Nov. 24, 2021. ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images

Turkey’s banking watchdog chief submits resignation amid fund scandal

Turkey’s government is facing growing criticism over regulators’ failure to prevent a fund scandal involving more than $20 billion.

Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Explainer

Iran war pushes up coal use, complicating Turkey’s COP31 pledge

Turkey is asking world leaders at COP31 to back a global push to use more electricity, even as the Iran war has driven up natural gas prices and pushed some power producers back to coal.

Latest News

Turkey bars MP’s wife from travel after his fund scandal criticism: What to know

OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images

Steel factory explosion in western Turkey kills at least 16

A steel worker works in front of giant iron melting pot in Kardemir Iron and Steel Factory in Karabuk, northwestern Turkey, Aug. 26 2005. (TARIK TINAZAY/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

Will Democrats block Trump’s push to deliver Turkey F-35s, lift sanctions?

MEHMET ESER/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

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

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu listens to a question during a joint news conference with his Italian counterpart Enrico Letta at the end of a bilateral meeting at Villa Madama in Rome December 2, 2013. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi (ITALY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX1616K

Netanyahu stalls on reconciliation with Turkey

Israel's premier still does not trust Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Journalists and activists participate in a rally calling for press freedom in central Ankara March 19, 2011. The recent arrest and jailing of some 10 journalists as part of investigations into Ergenekon, an ultra-nationalist, secularist network opposed to Prime Minister's Tayyip Erdogan's rule, has a triggered expressions of concern from the European Union, the U.S. and human rights groups about Ankara's commitment to media freedom and democratic principles. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: CIVIL UNREST

Freedom House right about Turkey

Turkish journalists should not follow Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's suggestion to reject the press freedom report.

A civil defence worker runs towards a fire after what activists said was an air strike by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in Aleppo's Bustan al-Qasr April 18, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer (SYRIA - Tags: CONFLICT CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3LTHO

Aleppo's rebel fighters disillusioned with war

Rebel fighters in Aleppo look to Homs as a potential model for a cease-fire to end the war in the city.

Sinai residents complain of violations by Egypt army

Sinai civilians claim they are bearing the brunt of the Egyptian army’s war on terror in the peninsula.

Turkish lira banknotes are seen in this photo illustration taken in Istanbul 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) - RTX1761J

Turkey’s currency prepares for a fall

After years of efforts to keep its currency valuable, Turkey’s government seems to be shifting to a cheaper lira policy in an attempt to boost exports and reduce the country’s gaping current account deficit.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu attends the opening of a meeting of foreign ministers at the Zaatari refugee camp in the Jordanian city of Mafraq, near the border with Syria, May 4, 2014. Foreign ministers of major refugee hosting countries attended a one-day meeting in the Zaatari refugee camp to discuss a resolution for the Syrian refugee crisis. The meeting - the third for countries harbouring the largest number of Syrian refugees - brought together Foreign Ministers from Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt,

State Dept. rejects Davutoglu’s denial of media watchdog report

While the Freedom House report was expected to cause a stir, the statements by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu stand out, eliciting a rebuke from the State Department.

A woman wearing a sign on her head that reads "No Harassment" takes part in a protest against Egypt's President Mohamed Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood and in support of women rights in the constitution in front of the presidential palace in Cairo October 4, 2012. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh (EGYPT - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR38T3N

Egyptian women scared to speak out against sexual harassment

Sexual harassment leads all crimes against Egyptian women, and experts say it is abetted by toothless laws, lax enforcement and societal acceptance of the phenomenon.

A poster depicting U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen as a pope, is seen as supporters of the ruling AK Party attend an election rally in Konya, central Turkey, March 28, 2014. Erdogan pulled out of election rallies in central Turkey on Friday in order to rest his voice after weeks of campaigning around the country, his office said. Erdogan had difficulty speaking at rallies in southeast Turkey on Thursday ahead of Sunday's local elections. Turkey will hold municipal elections on March 30. REUTERS/Umi

Does Erdogan really want Gulen in Turkey?

Turkish Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan is calling for Fethullah Gulen's extradition from the United States to Turkey, but he should be careful what he wishes for.

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.