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Turkey

Turkey

November 5, 2026

Ankara 2:12 pm

12°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

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.

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan waits for the start of a meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk (unseen) at the EU Council in Brussels, Belgium October 5, 2015. Erdogan appeared to mock European Union overtures for help with its migration crisis as he arrived for a long-awaited state visit to Brussels and a string of meetings with EU leaders set to start on Monday. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir - RTS33VZ

Merkel's 'indecent proposal' to Erdogan

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's impromptu visit to Istanbul on behalf of the EU was highly criticized as a desperate gift to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as Turkey's elections draw close.