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

Turkey

Turkey

November 13, 2026

Ankara 4:28 am

12°C

Burak Kara/Getty Images

Turkey inks $5.1B in climate loans at COP31: What to know

Ankara can count 10 loan deals worth $5.1 billion with four multilateral development banks so far at the UN climate summit, Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said Thursday.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan (L) and his son Bilal Erdogan (R) stay on the stage during Istanbul Youth Festival in Istanbul on May 4, 2017.

Explainer

Bilal Erdogan, floated as father’s possible successor, visits Lebanon: What to know

Bilal Erdogan, the son of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is in Lebanon for a three-day visit that will include meetings with officials and religious leaders, as well as stops in Sunni-majority cities.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh of Libya on the sidelines of the 31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in Antalya, Turkey, on Nov. 12, 2026.

Turkey hosts Libya’s Hifter, Erdogan meets Tripoli PM as unity push gains pace

Ankara is expanding ties with Libya’s eastern leadership while seeking to protect its agreements with Tripoli under a potential power-sharing arrangement.

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.

Latest News

Turkey’s banking watchdog chief submits resignation amid fund scandal

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

Explainer

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

Chris McGrath/Getty Images

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

Protesters argue with municipality workers during a demonstration against reconstruction plans that include a part of the Middle East Technical University campus in Ankara October 21, 2013. The municipality plan, opposed by the students, involves building a road across the Middle East Technical University campus and uprooting a large number of trees in the area. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST EDUCATION) - RTX14IMG

Why Turks Are Fighting Over Trees

The controversy over thousands of trees to be uprooted on a university campus in Ankara for a construction project is reminiscent of Gezi Park.

A man cleans apples for sale in the city of Aleppo October 5, 2013. REUTERS/Muzaffar Salman (SYRIA - Tags: FOOD SOCIETY BUSINESS) - RTR3FMF8

Aleppo's war economy

Residents of Aleppo have moved beyond the initial shocks of war and are adjusting to make ends meet.

Iraq's Defense Ministry spokesman Major-General Mohammed al-Askari holds a news conference in Baghdad January 18, 2010. Askari showed a picture of an al-Qaeda member named Ali Mamoun Qasim, who they say is a pharmacist responsible for killing military officers and wounding Iraqi police at a hospital in Mosul. REUTERS/Saad Shalash (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST) - RTR290V1

Al-Qaeda Sinks Roots in Mosul

Al-Qaeda continues to gain strength in Iraq, taxing the residents of Mosul, attacking minorities and "collaborators" and making the city a base of operations in Ninevah province.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu shows a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) pin after a signing ceremony granting Turkey a partner status in SCO, in Almaty April 26, 2013. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov (KAZAKHSTAN - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS) - RTXZ0SB

Turkey's Road to China

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said NATO or any other country does not have the right to question Turkey’s decision to co-produce missiles with China.

Turkey's Prime Minister and leader of ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Tayyip Erdogan (R) welcomes his guest Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal during the AKP congress in Ankara September 30, 2012. Erdogan trumpeted Turkey's credentials as a rising democratic power on Sunday, saying his Islamist-rooted ruling party had become an example to the Muslim world after a decade in charge. Addressing thousands of party members and regional leaders at a congress of his Justice and Development (AK) Party, Erdogan

Turkey on Defensive Over Hamas

Claims that Turkey is obstructing Palestinian reconciliation are fueling the AKP's belief in an international campaign to isolate Ankara politically at an already low point in its foreign relations.

The U.N. special advisor on Yemen Jamal Benomar, who helped broker a power transfer deal, drafted by the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council and signed in November last year to pull back Yemen from the brink of civil war, leaves the House of Representatives (Parliament) in Sanaa January 14, 2012. The house on Saturday postponed for the third time a debate on a draft law proposed by the opposition-led government to give President Ali Abdullah Saleh immunity from prosecution. Yemen's cabinet proposed an immun

UN Envoy on Yemen Deserves Spotlight

Jamal Benomar, special adviser on Yemen to the UN secretary-general, has succeeded with a difficult brief.

Helal Sex Shop.JPG

Turkey’s Online 'Halal' Sex Shop Draws Ridicule, Criticism

The Turkish media's response to the nation's first "halal" online sex shop has been a mixture of criticism and ridicule.

Turkey’s Spymaster: The Making of a Hero

An impressive campaign by Hakan Fidan’s media team has made almost an entire nation worship him.

Turkish Airlines pilot Murat Agca talks to media at Istanbul's Ataturk airport October 19, 2013. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan personally greeted two kidnapped Turkish pilots when they arrived back in Istanbul on Saturday after two months in captivity in Lebanon. The pair were released earlier under a deal whereby nine Lebanese hostages were freed in Syria and allowed to return home via Turkey. The Turkish pilots had been abducted in retaliation for the snatching of the Lebanese. REUTERS/Osman Orsal (TURKEY

Turkey Rescues Its Pilots in Swap Deal

Turkey’s silent diplomacy yielded results on Oct.19, when it rescued the two Turkish Airlines pilots kidnapped in Beirut on Aug. 9.

Turkey: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Of the Hakan Fidan Story

During a 10-day holiday break, a series of Western news reports roiled Turkey's pro-government establishment.

Demonstrators hold Kurdish flags and flags with portraits of jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan during a gathering to celebrate Newroz in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir March 21, 2013. Ocalan ordered his fighters on Thursday to cease fire and withdraw from Turkish soil as a step to ending a conflict that has killed 40,000 people, riven the country and battered its economy. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds, gathered in the regional centre of Diyarbakir, cheered and waved b

Turkish Intelligence ChiefBoth Iconoclast and Target

Hakan Fidan, Turkey’s highly intellectual and pro-West intelligence chief, has drawn a lot of attention and criticism as the architect of the peace process with the PKK.

A U.N. vehicle returns to a hotel where experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) are staying, in Damascus October 11, 2013. The global chemical weapons watchdog charged with overseeing destruction of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile during a civil war won the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a relatively small organisation with a modest budget, dispatched its experts after a sarin gas attack killed more t

Is Saudi Arabia Holding Up The Geneva II Conference on Syria?

While Turkey may be shifting its Syria policy in response to domestic and international pressure, Saudi Arabia appears to be digging in to oppose the trend toward a diplomatic solution.