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

Turkey

Turkey

November 5, 2026

Ankara 4:44 am

10°C

Turkey probes Google’s AI search tools, orders protections for news websites

Turkey’s competition watchdog said it is assessing whether AI-generated answers appearing on Google Search divert traffic from news sites and impose unfair content-use terms.

A protestor holds a flag bearing a portrait of jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan during a demonstration of Kurdish people from all around Europe to mark the 27th anniversary of his arrest and to demand his liberation, in Strasbourg, Eastern France, on Feb. 14, 2026.

Turkey moves PKK leader Ocalan to prison villa as peace process faces new test

The move is expected to give the PKK leader a more direct role in negotiations, but deep divisions over disarmament and Kurdish rights continue to threaten the process.

OSCE Secretary General Feridun Sinirlioglu is pictured during a joint press conference with the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Switzerland's Foreign Minister at Vienna International Airport on Feb. 6, 2026 in Schwechat, Lower Austria.

Explainer

Who is Feridun Sinirlioglu, Turkey’s candidate for UN chief?

The Turkish president's confidant enters the race for UN chief with decades of diplomatic experience marked by both praise and scrutiny.

Demonstrators hold a banner reading "Free Gaza, free world"

Analysis

Gaza progress, Syria pullback: What Turkey wants from Israel’s next government

Ankara sees room for limited improvement in ties if Israel’s next government eases Gaza’s humanitarian crisis and reduces military pressure on Syria.

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Latest News

Explainer

After EU rebuff, how Turkey is courting Egypt for maritime deal

Turkish Navy sailors wave their caps from the flight deck

Culture

Rock collapse near UNESCO-listed site in Turkey’s Cappadocia kills three

An view of the Uchisar settlement, east of Nevesehir in the province of the same name in central Turkey's historical Cappadocia region on Aug. 24, 2022.

Tornado kills 4 in Turkey’s Mediterranean tourism hub Antalya

Kepez

Saudi Arabia’s KBS, top Turkish and Pakistani officials hold rare meeting in Iran: What to know

GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/AFP via 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

A screen grab from the music video for Sezen Aksu's "Manifesto".

Turkey’s pop queen draws sudden wrath over five-year-old lyrics

Sezen Aksu, the reclusive diva of Turkish pop, has become the latest target of conservatives who accuse her of blasphemy.

People walk past a currency exchange office on Aug. 29, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Pro-Erdogan business leaders anxious about Turkey's economy

The pro-government business association MUSIAD has stood behind Erdogan’s controversial economic policies but appears concerned that both borrowing costs and foreign exchange prices remain above the desired levels.

Elderly people wearing a protective face mask, sit and look at the Bosphorus on May 10, 2020, at Besiktas, Istanbul, after a month and a half of lockdown restrictions aimed at stemming the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Inflation crisis hits Turkey's retirees hardest of all

According to economists and Turkish seniors' personal accounts, the elderly who suffered most during the COVID-19 pandemic are now being hardest hit by the economic slump.

This photo taken on Feb. 9, 2020, shows an attendant checking the stock of sanitary pads inside a mobile toilet on a bus in Pune, India.

Turkish women decry high price of sanitary pads

Women activists call on the Turkish government for a tax reduction and other measures to lower the prices of menstrual products, which have grown forbiddingly expensive amid the country’s economic turmoil.

BULENT KILIC/AFP via Getty Images

BBC Turkish staff strike over pay

Workers at the BBC's Istanbul bureau are taking action after the corporation denied a salary increase in line with inflation.

People sit on the ground by a destroyed building in the Kurdish town of Kobani, in the north of Aleppo governorate, Syria, Feb. 25, 2021.

Turkey aims to keep tensions high in northeast Syria through targeted killings

In retaliation for a mysterious explosion along the Turkish-Syrian border, Turkey hit several Kurdish positions in the predominantly Kurdish town of Kobani in an attack that the Kurds call a “war rehearsal” aiming to test the water.

Turkey Hurjet

Turkey to begin mass producing fighter jet training plane

The Hürjet is now expected to take first flight next year.

OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images

Turkey, Armenia hold 'constructive' first round of normalization talks

Following talks in Moscow on Friday, representatives for the two countries agreed to meet again without preconditions.

Turkey politics

Erdogan accused of criminalizing opposition ahead of critical polls

A controversial probe into the opposition-led Istanbul municipality might be the prelude of a campaign to criminalize and sideline Erdogan’s potential opponents in the upcoming presidential race, critics say.

People wave Turkish flags and portraits of modern Turkey's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, during a rally organized by main opposition group the Republican People's Party, on July 24, 2016, in Istanbul's Taksim Square.

Turkish teen suicide revives secular-pious debate

The debate over the place of Islam in public life remains among the most contentious in Turkey.

Riot police officers patrol in a street as unprecedented protests over a hike in energy prices spun out of control in Almaty on Jan. 5, 2022.

Kazakhstan crisis challenges Turkey's leadership of Turkic union

The unrest rattling Kazakhstan has reflected the irrelevance of Turkey and the Organization of Turkic States chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Vendors sell cheese as people shop near the New Mosque area in Istanbul's Eminonu district on Nov. 6, 2018.

Turkey’s middle class put on austerity footing amid skyrocketing prices

Staggering price increases are forcing Turkey’s middle class to cut on spending in myriad fields, from shopping and transport to dining and travel.