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Turkey

Turkey

November 12, 2026

Ankara 8:57 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

Activists hold pictures of Armenian victims during a demonstration to commemorate the 1915 mass killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, in Istanbul April 24, 2014. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan offered on Wednesday what the government said were unprecedented condolences to the grandchildren of Armenians killed in World War One by Ottoman soldiers. In a statement issued on the eve of the 99th anniversary of the deeply contested deaths, Erdogan unexpectedly described the events of 1915 as "inhuman

Armenians dig out their Ottoman land deeds

Armenians might count on Ottoman title deeds, preserved and passed down to generations for 100 years, to claim their abandoned properties next year.

The Fener Greek highschool with the Mosque of Yavuz Selim in the background overlooks the Fener district in Golden Horn where the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate complex is located in Istanbul November 21, 2006. Pope Benedict will pay an official visit to Muslim but secular Turkey on November 28 to December 1 and will hold talks with Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual head of the world's Orthodox Christians, at the Patriarch's residence in Istanbul. REUTERS/Fatih Saribas (TURKEY) - RTR1JKES

Pope's visit to Turkey is a chance to bridge ancient divide

Pope Francis’ visit to Turkey on Nov. 28-30 is not really about Turkey, instead it offers new opportunities to mend the schism with the Orthodox Church.

Turkey's Prime Minister and leader of ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Tayyip Erdogan (R) and his guest, Egypt's President Mohamed Mursi greet the audience during the AKP congress in Ankara September 30, 2012. REUTERS/Murad Sezer (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR38LZD

Outsized ambitions leave Turkey with hefty bill

Turkey is isolated not just by its neighbors but also by nations further afield.

An Islamic State flag is seen atop a building in eastern Kobani, as seen from the Turkish border crossing of Mursitpinar as Kurdish Peshmerga forces fight against Islamic state fighters, November 1, 2014. Iraqi Kurdish forces arrived in the Syrian town of Kobani with heavy weapons to help Syrian Kurds fend off attempts by Islamic State insurgents to seize the town and cement control in the Turkish border region. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis (TURKEY - Tags: MILITARY CONFLICT POLITICS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR

Turks increasingly sympathetic to Islamic State

The Islamic State's declaration of a caliphate has generated conflicting views in Turkey.

Customers use an ATM machine at a branch of Bank Asya in Ankara August 12, 2014. Turkish Islamic lender Bank Asya said its second-quarter net profit fell 81 percent to 10.6 million lira ($4.9 million) as its deposit base shrank and lending wilted under pressure from the government. The lender has seen its profits and capital base collapse since December when it found itself at the centre of a power struggle between Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his political foe Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric whose

Stocks plummet as Turkey names Gulenists top security issue

Following the decision to add the Gulenist "parallel state" to its Red Book of national security priorities, companies with ties to the Gulen movement have suffered huge stock market losses.

Syrians wait to cross back into Syria at the Turkish Cilvegozu border, opposite the Syrian commercial crossing point Bab al-Hawa, in Reyhanli, Hatay province, May 14, 2013. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTXZLW2

Turkey's border security problem

Political factors are not the only cause of Turkey’s border security vulnerability.

A Free Syrian Army fighter carries his weapon as he stands in front of graffiti that reads "Daesh (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ) down" at Masaken Hanano neighborhood in Aleppo January 7, 2014. Five days of heavy rebel infighting has shaken the ISIL, which lost its main base in the northern city of Aleppo to rival rebels on Wednesday, according to a monitoring group. Picture taken January 7, 2014. REUTERS/Jalal Alhalabi (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT MILITARY) - RTX1767F

Decrypting Erdogan's 'Daesh' stumbles

Why did President Recep Tayyip Erdogan begin using an incorrect Arabic acronym, Deash, in referring to the Islamic State immediately after his meeting with French President François Hollande?

Islamist Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra members gesture while posing on a tank on Al-Khazan frontline of Khan Sheikhoun, northern Idlib province May 17, 2014. REUTERS/Hamid Khatib (SYRIA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST MILITARY POLITICS CONFLICT) - RTR3PM9N

Jabhat al-Nusra deflates hopes of Assad opponents

Following the Islamic State's advance, Jabhat al-Nusra has also moved to the Turkish border, routing moderate rebels and dashing the hopes of “train and equip” proponents eager for a renewed war on the Syrian regime.

An Israeli gas platform is seen in the back as a sailor in the Israeli navy stands aboard a patrol boat in the Mediterranean sea some 15 miles (24 km) west of the port city of Ashdod February 25, 2013. Israel's huge new offshore gas resource offers its enemies an obvious target and gives its navy, long overshadowed by other branches of the Israeli armed forces, a big job that will require extra spending. Picture taken February 25, 2013. REUTERS/Amir Cohen (ISRAEL - Tags: MILITARY ENERGY BUSINESS POLITICS MA

Military presence increases in eastern Mediterranean

Regional crises and economic squabbles have led to a military buildup in the eastern Mediterranean that threatens to shift from feints and preparation to armed conflict as Russian and NATO forces further complicate the situation.

Turkey's President-elect Tayyip Erdogan (R) and incoming prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu leave the stage together during the Extraordinary Congress of the ruling AK Party (AKP) in Ankara August 27, 2014. Erdogan said on Wednesday he would ask Davutoglu to form a new government on Thursday, and a new cabinet of ministers would be announced the following day. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR43Z11

Will Davutoglu ever emerge from Erdogan's shadow?

Having been forced into a secondary role, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu merely implements what President Recep Tayyip Erdogan decides — but for how long?

Turkish gendarme soldiers prepare to change shifts with their colleagues standing in front of protesters waiting outside Silivri prison, some 70 km (43.5 miles) west of Istanbul, during the trial of a shadowy-right wing group in the heavily-guarded prison, October 23, 2008. The trial of Ergenekon, a shadowy right-wing group, resumed in Turkey on Thursday on charges of trying to topple Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government. REUTERS/Osman Orsal (TURKEY) - RTX9U0U

Splitting gendarmerie from Turkish army: reform or bad timing?

The Turkish public is divided over the government’s decision to attach the Gendarmerie Command to the Ministry of Interior.

Riot police take up positions as they clash with protesters in Istanbul, during a pro-Kurdish demonstration in solidarity with the people of the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, October 7, 2014. Turkey's president said Kobani was "about to fall" as Islamic State fighters pressed home a three-week assault that has cost a reported 400 lives and forced thousands to flee their homes. REUTERS/Osman Orsal (TURKEY - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS) - RTR49AXB

Turkey adds entry to book of enemies

Turkey’s National Security Policy Document — known as the "Red Book" and infamous for designating social groups as “internal enemies” — has been taken off the shelf again.