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

Turkey

Turkey

November 12, 2026

Ankara 12:53 am

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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

Turks divided over plans to introduce Arabic-language teaching

Turkey's Ministry of National Education has announced that Arabic courses will be offered to students starting in second grade, prompting some to call this an attempt to "assassinate secularism."

Women wave flags outside the AK Party headquarters in Ankara, Turkey November 1, 2015. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu described the outcome of a general election which swept his AK Party back to a parliamentary majority on Sunday as a victory for democracy. Picture taken November 1, 2015. REUTERS/Umit Bektas - RTX1UC6Q

How the AKP dominated yesterday's election in Turkey

While the Justice and Development Party was projected to win in Turkey’s Nov. 1 polls, a concurrence of factors led to an unexpected sweeping victory.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan poses as he casts his ballot at a polling station in Istanbul, Turkey November 1, 2015. Turks began voting on Sunday amid worsening security and economic worries in a snap parliamentary election that could profoundly impact the divided country's trajectory and that of President Tayyip Erdogan. The parliamentary poll is the second in five months, after the ruling AK Party founded by Erdogan failed to retain its single-party majority in June. REUTERS/Murad Sezer - RTX1U7U8

Turkey’s dispiriting elections

Erdogan offers an uncertain democratic future for Turkey; Syria Contact Group avoids divisions over Assad’s fate; Iranian and Russian support pivotal in Syrian military campaign to retake Aleppo.

Members of Turkish police special forces take part in a security operation in Diyarbakir, Turkey, October 26, 2015. Two Turkish policemen and seven Islamic State militants were killed in a firefight after police raided more than a dozen houses in Turkey's southeast early on Monday, security sources and government spokesman Numan Kurtulmus said on Monday. The clash took place in the Kayapinar district of the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir. It was the first such shoot-out between Turkish security forces an

Islamic State creeps in on Kurdish stronghold

The discovery of an Islamic State cell in Diyarbakir, Turkey’s main Kurdish city, stokes fears that the extremist group is seeking to further fuel Kurdish-Turkish ethnic tensions.

Forget online dating, now the Turkish government will find you a spouse

Struggling to recover decreasing youth support for the AKP, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu gambles on the sexual frustration of bachelors by promising to play matchmaker for the desperate.

Turkey reconsiders security priorities

The recent raid on Islamic State safe houses in Diyarbakir has shed light on the organization's activities in Turkey and prompted Turkey to reconsider its top security priorities.

A family takes a stroll next to a reservoir in Myrtoy that will receive fresh water from Turkey via a water pipeline project linking Turkey to northern Cyprus Oct 17 2015. The 106-kilometre (66-mile) pipeline will transport some 75 million cubic metres (2.6 billion cubic feet) of water annually to northern Cyprus, a breakaway Turkish Cypriot state recognized only by Ankara. Cyprus suffers from frequent droughts. REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou - RTS4V5V

Turkey's peace pipe to Cyprus

The water pipeline slated to reunify Cyprus faces strong opposition on environmental, cultural and political fronts from both Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

Supporters of Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu attend an election rally in Istanbul, Turkey, October 25, 2015. Turkey's general election will be held on November 1. REUTERS/Osman Orsal - RTX1T4UY

Congress muted ahead of Turkish elections

The US is largely staying silent ahead of this weekend's controversial snap poll.

Is Turkey setting a Kurdish trap?

In the lead-up to Turkey's Nov. 1 parliamentary elections, skeptics of the government are wondering if Ankara will resort to something "extreme" in Syria.

Russia puts brakes on Turkey's truck traffic

Moscow responds to Ankara’s threats to cancel natural gas and nuclear power station contracts by closing its borders to Turkish trucks.

Turkey's shameful state of media freedom

Following new police raids against Ipek Media, home to two newspapers and two TV news channels, Turkey's media suffers another blow.

A member of security forces watches as Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan casts a shadow as he addresses to supporters in front of the party headquarters in Ankara August 10, 2014. Erdogan secured his place in history as Turkey's first directly elected president on Sunday, sweeping more than half the vote in a result his opponents fear heralds an increasingly authoritarian state. REUTERS/Murad Sezer (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR41WAO

When it comes to foreign policy, will Erdogan resort to 'wily Oriental means'?

The best-case scenario for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the worst-case scenario for Turkey, could be the failure of possible coalition talks after the snap elections.