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

Turkey

Turkey

November 12, 2026

Ankara 2:43 am

8°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

A money changer counts U.S. dollar bills at a currency exchange office in central Istanbul April 15, 2015. Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said on Wednesday the lira's slide to record lows was not a cause for concern and reflected global developments, arguing against forex intervention and saying the currency will find its own balance. He also told a meeting in Istanbul that he expected first quarter year-on-year growth of around 1.5 percent, and full year growth exceeding last year's 2.9 percent. R

Turks turn to dollar as lira hits low

Turkish depositors are abandoning the Turkish lira and clamoring for the US dollar.

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (L) welcomes Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif before a meeting in Damascus January 15, 2014, in this handout released by Syria's national news agency SANA. REUTERS/SANA/Handout via Reuters (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CONFLICT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. THIS PICTURE WAS PROCESSED BY REUTERS TO ENHANCE QUALITY. AN UNPROCESSED VERSION W

Zarif presses diplomacy on Syria

Iran brokers humanitarian cease-fires in Syria; Yair Lapid discusses “dreadful gamble” in US-Israel relations; Turkey’s Stone Age temple may predate Stonehenge and Egyptian pyramids by thousands of years.

- PHOTO TAKEN 29NOV05 - A woman weaves a kilim carpet as a way to contribute to the household income in a workshop in Hakkari province, the most remote southeast province in Turkey, November 29, 2005. [In the shadows of mountains bordering Iraq and Iran, Turkey's Hakkari province may one day be an outpost of the European Union. But for now, it feels cut off from the world. Picture taken November 29, 2005.] - RTXO1TP

Weaving through Turkey's history of kilims

Hand-woven kilims are inspired by a rich culture, but are also gaining global popularity among rich, modern-day nomads.

Cattle, to be slaughtered during next week's Eid al-Adha holiday, are seen at a market in Ankara October 11, 2013. Muslims around the world are preparing to celebrate Eid al-Adha (feast of sacrifice), marking the end of the Haj, by slaughtering sheep, goats, cows and camels to commemorate Prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail on God's command. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: ANIMALS RELIGION BUSINESS) - RTX14791

Ankara slices away at meat prices

The Turkish government has intervened in the market to address soaring food prices as the Central Bank stumbles in its fight against inflation.

PKK vs. Turkey: Violence plagues people of Basak

Turkish security forces expand their operations to urban areas in the southeast of the country.

Who is targeting Iranians in Turkey?

A series of attacks on Iranian interests in Turkey raises the question of why the PKK may seek to hit Iran at this point.

A Turkish Air Force F-16 fighter jet lands at Incirlik air base in Adana, Turkey, August 11, 2015. REUTERS/Murad Sezer - RTX1NXHJ

Speculation about Turkish civil war is just that

Clashes between Turkish security forces and the PKK are intensifying and becoming more violent.

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan talks with students of Tevfik Ileri Imam Hatip School during its opening ceremony in Ankara November 18, 2014. Turkey has seen a sharp rise in religious schooling under reforms which Erdogan casts as a defence against moral decay, but which opponents see as an unwanted drive to shape a more Islamic nation. Almost a million students are enrolled in "imam hatip" schools this year, up from just 65,000 in 2002 when Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party first came to power, he told

Turkey's baby boom sends many children into state care

The increasing number of children left to state care in Turkey raises fresh questions over President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s call on families to have at least three children.

A Kurdish refugee man from the Syrian town of Kobani holds prayer beads in a camp in the southeastern town of Suruc, Sanliurfa province October 24, 2014. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach (TURKEY - Tags: MILITARY CONFLICT POLITICS RELIGION) - RTR4BEW0

Turkish men not so worried about worry beads

The traditional use of worry beads, or tesbih, thrives in modern times as a tool for personal therapy, a status symbol and a faithful companion.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin is pictured during a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan (not pictured) in Ankara December 1, 2014. Putin said on Monday that Moscow could not carry on with the South Stream project if the European Union was opposed to it. Speaking at a joint news conference with Turkish President Erdogan, Putin said the European Commission was reluctant to give the green light to the South Stream project. REUTERS/Mikhail Klimentyev/RIA Novosti/Kremlin (TURKEY

Turkey treads carefully on new gas pipeline with Russia

Ankara doesn’t want to put all of its energy eggs into the Russian basket.

Riot police chase demonstrators during a protest in central Istanbul, Turkey, July 20, 2015. Police in Istanbul fired teargas and water cannon when a demonstration by protesters blaming the government for a suspected Islamic State suicide bombing turned violent, a Reuters witness said. Hundreds gathered near Istanbul's central Taksim Square after the bombing in the mostly Kurdish border town of Suruc which killed at least 30 people. Some chanted slogans against President Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling AK Par

Is Turkey's 'emergency rule' back?

With increasing tensions in the region, declaring 37 areas "provisional security zones" off-limits to civilians is seen by some as a resurrection of Turkey's emergency rule.

A woman walks along a street in the southeastern Turkish town of Silopi in Sirnak province, near the Turkish-Iraqi border crossing of Habur, Turkey, August 7, 2015. Five people were killed in eastern Turkey on Friday in a series of clashes between security forces and Kurdish militants, part of a surge in violence that has put further strain on a fragile peace process between Ankara and the rebels. Three people were killed and seven wounded during clashes between police and militants of the Kurdistan Workers

Ankara warms to idea of political solution in Syria

Ankara seems to be growing more amenable to a solution that includes the Syrian regime, unhappy about perceptions that it has used the international effort against the Islamic State as an excuse to resume strikes against the Kurdistan Workers Party.