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Turkey

Turkey

August 2, 2026

Ankara 8:48 pm

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Explainer

Guterres visit to Cyprus revives frozen diplomacy amid regional tension

The first visit to Cyprus by a UN chief in more than 16 years aimed at testing waters for resumption of UN-led talks amid growing urgency to address the island’s division.

Sudan's de facto leader and armed forces chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan greets supporters in Port Sudan, Dec. 29, 2024.

Analysis

Amid realignment with Egypt, Turkey steps up support for Sudan’s Burhan

Turkey has been intensifying engagement with the Sudanese army leader as Red Sea security concerns grow and to protect its interests in the broader Africa region.

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Latest News

Explainer

What’s behind Turkey’s latest wave of arrests against opposition mayors?

A demonstrator carries a CHP flag during a protest in Izmir, Turkey, on May 24, 2026.

Turkey, Pakistan among 14 countries backing Saudi Arabia's anti-Houthi Red Sea alliance

A Saudi navy ship is pictured docked at King Faisal navy base in Jeddah before the departure of a team to Port Sudan to help with the evacuation efforts of people fleeing Sudan, on April 29, 2023.

Turkey ready to participate in post-UNIFIL force in Lebanon, Erdogan tells Aoun

Erdogan and Aoun

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

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu speaks to the media after the Friends of Syria alliance meeting in Amman May 22, 2013. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed (JORDAN - Tags: POLITICS) - RTXZX4H

Davutoglu Cautiously 'Not Pessimistic' On Syria

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says US-Turkish policies on Syria are now synchronized.

Workers adjust a valve of an oil pipe in Tawke oil field near Dahuk, 400 km (249 miles) north of Baghdad, November 24, 2010. In this part of Iraq, the hillsides sweat oil. Without any coaxing, the sticky black treasure oozes from the layered rock and gathers in pools that bubble as dissolved gases surface. Gradually, as the crude slips down the hillsides, it solidifies into a grey mass that resembles a hardened lava flow. It's a good metaphor for the progress of oil from the semi-autonomous Iraqi region of

Turkey Puzzled by US Stance On Exxon-KRG Oil Deal

Ankara questions US concerns over its arrangement with ExxonMobil for energy exploration in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Palestinian Fatah members carry their weapons as they take part in a parade to mark the 65th anniversary of Nakba, at Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near the port-city of Sidon, southern Lebanon May 15, 2013. Palestinians marked "Nakba" (Catastrophe) to commemorate the expulsion or fleeing of hundreds of thousands of their brethren from their homes in the war that led to the founding of Israel in 1948. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho (LEBANON - Tags: POLITICS ANNIVERSARY) - RTXZN6R

Syria’s Conflict May Already Be in Lebanon

Following recent conflict in Lebanon’s Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, it is becoming ever more apparent that Syria’s conflict, as represented between Jabhat al-Nusra and Hezbollah, is already in Lebanon.

A billboard advertising the TV series "The Magnificent Century" is seen after being damaged by eggs thrown by pro-Islamic protesters in Istanbul January 9, 2011. Turkish protesters angry over the depiction of an Ottoman sultan drinking alcohol and wooing women in a new television series threw eggs and chanted "God is Great" outside of the broadcaster's studio on Sunday. A group of about 100 protesters, accompanied by a band playing Ottoman military music, marched to the offices of the entertainment channel

Turkey’s Clash of Civilizations

Turkey’s secular and democratic identity should not be compromised for religious orthodoxy.

Misreading The 'Syria Transition Act' In Turkey

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee bill does not signal the imminent arrival of US arms to the Syria opposition.

Iran's Ambassador to the U.N. Mohammad Khazaee speaks before the U.N. Security Council at the U.N. Headquarters in New York, June 9, 2010. The U.N. Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions on a defiant Iran on Wednesday over a nuclear program the West suspects is aimed at developing the means to build atom bombs. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR2EY9Q

Iran’s UN Ambassador Welcomes Geneva II Conference on Syria

Mohammad Khazaee, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, discusses Iran’s position on Syria in an email interview with Al-Monitor.

Selahattin Demirtas, co-chairman of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, greets his supporters during a rally to celebrate the spring festival of Newroz in Istanbul March 17, 2013. A picture of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan is seen in the background. REUTERS/Murad Sezer (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3F4BY

Turkish-Kurdish Leader Cautious, Hopeful on Peace Plan

Ahmet Turk, a pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party member, draws attention to a new legislation bringing municipalities under direct tutelage of governors, and argues that is in direct contradiction to the government’s Kurdish initiative.

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan makes a speech during the Global Alcohol Policy Symposium in Istanbul April 26, 2013. REUTERS/Murad Sezer (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS HEALTH) - RTXZ138

AKP Wages Jihad Against Alcohol in Turkey

The AKP’s draft law of aggressive alcohol restrictions aims not only to engineer an Islamic society but to prevent possible losses in its conservative electoral base.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul waves as he visits the bomb scene on May 16, 2013 during the funerals of the victims of a car bomb which went off on May 11 at Reyhanli in Hatay just a few kilometres from the main border crossing into Syria. The death toll in twin car bombings in a Turkish town near the Syrian border has increased to 50 after another body was recovered and a victim died in hospital, the health minister was quoted as saying on May 14. The attacks also provoked a backlash against Syrian refugee

Turkey’s Syria Policy: No Easy Answers

Turkey’s Syria policies were not wrong, but poorly presented.

Workers attend a training class at LUKOIL training centre in the southern city of Basra December 25, 2012. Russian oil firm LUKOIL has opened its first training centre located in al-Rumaila in the southern city of Basra to develop skilled staff to work in its oilfield. The firm, Russia's second-largest crude producer, won a contract to develop the West Qurna-2 oilfield. Picture taken December 25, 2012. REUTERS/Atef Hassan (IRAQ - Tags: ENERGY BUSINESS) - RTR3C2HM

Iraq to Simplify Visa Procedures For Foreign Oil Workers

The Iraqi government has announced that it will simplify entry-visa and residency-permit procedures for foreign oil workers, following complaints that the current lengthy process deters investors.

Turkish-Kurdish woman waves a PKK flag during a demonstration in support of Syrian Kurds, in the southeastern Turkish town of Nusaybin, near the Turkish-Syrian border, January, 26, 2013. Sitting across the table from top Turkish officials, jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan wields the power to silence guns across southeastern Turkey which have killed more than 40,000 people in a three decade-old insurgency. Reviled by most Turks and held in virtual isolation since his 1999 capture, the Kurdistan Wo

Is Gulen Movement Against Peace With PKK?

The Gulen Movement in Turkey is not against the peace process with the PKK, but is not on its bandwagon either.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) answers a question as U.S. President Barack Obama (R) listens during a joint news conference in the White House Rose Garden in Washington, May 16, 2013. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS) - RTXZPFQ

Washington Relaxed About Prospect Of Erdogan Visit to Gaza

US President Barack Obama seems confident that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won’t upset the Turkey-Israel rapprochement.