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

Turkey

Turkey

May 7, 2026

Ankara 4:47 am

5°C

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Ankara, May 6, 2026.

Saudi FM in Turkey as Ankara, Riyadh step up coordination amid Iran war

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan’s visit to Ankara comes amid rapidly expanding Turkish-Saudi coordination as the fallout from the Iran war reshapes Gulf security dynamics.

A picture taken near Kars on Feb. 28, 2024 shows the ruins of a bridge over Arpacay river, the natural border between Turkey and Armenia.

Turkey, Armenia agree to restore medieval bridge in normalization push

Ankara is pursuing normalization with Armenia ahead of June parliamentary elections in a thaw also positioned to advance its broader Middle Corridor ambitions.

Sabah Fidan

Turkey hosts Kuwaiti FM as UAE's OAPEC exit fuels Gulf rift

Kuwait's top diplomat visited Turkey as the Gulf rift deepens following the UAE’s exit from OPEC and its affiliated alliances, forcing Ankara to balance ties between Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi.

Latest News

Analysis

Iraq’s Zaidi offers economic promise for Turkey but unknowns loom

Zaidi

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Turkey warns France over Cyprus troop deployment: What to know

Members of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), from the British Army's 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards, No. 2 Company, patrol along the buffer zone separating the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus and the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the divided capital Nicosia on Feb. 17, 2026.

Turkey advances gas pipeline plan to northern Cyprus as East Med rivalry grows

This aerial photograph shows Turkey's first floating natural gas production platform, "Osman Gazi," passing through the Bosphorus, in Istanbul, on May 29, 2025.

Samuel Wendel

Senior Market Research Analyst

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

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan makes a speech during a Peace Summit ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli, in Istanbul April 23, 2015. Thousands of Australians, New Zealanders and Turks gathered on Turkey's Gallipoli peninsula on Thursday ahead of the 100th anniversary of one of the bloodiest battles of World War One. A century ago, thousands of soldiers from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) struggled ashore on a narrow beach at Gallipoli at the start of an ill-fated

Is Erdogan signaling end of secularism in Turkey?

The Religious Affairs Directorate has become the center of the election campaign in Turkey, causing further social discord.

Three F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (rear to front) AF-2, AF-3 and AF-4, can be seen flying over Edwards Air Force Base in this December 10, 2011 handout photo provided by Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin Corp on February 25, 2013 said there was no evidence that a lithium-ion battery contributed to a Feb. 14 incident that caused smoke in the cockpit of an F-35 test plane. Lockheed spokesman Michael Rein said initial reviews indicated a potential failure in the plane's cooling system, which had been removed fro

Will the F-35 change Middle East warfare?

Once it appears in Middle Eastern skies, the F-35 fighter aircraft may alter how wars are waged in the region.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) attends a commemoration ceremony marking the centenary of the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in Yerevan, Armenia, April 24, 2015. Armenia's president said on Wednesday he was ready to normalize relations with Turkey, two months after he withdrew peace accords from parliament, blaming a Turkish lack of political will to end 100 years of hostility. Speaking ahead of Friday's centenary of the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks which is at the heart of t

Russia's recognition of Armenian genocide strains ties with Turkey

Moscow’s acknowledgment of the Armenian genocide and President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Yerevan for the genocide commemorations shake Turkish-Russian ties.

Turkish Cypriot politician Mustafa Akinci delivers a speech to supporters after his election victory in Nicosia, April 26, 2015. Mustafa Akinci, standing as an independent, won 60.3 percent of the votes, according to figures provided by the election commission. His rival was incumbent president Dervis Eroglu, a conservative elected five years ago. REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou - RTX1ADHX

Northern Cyprus demands respect from Turkey

The new Turkish Cypriot president, Mustafa Akinci, infuriated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as soon as he was elected by calling for a dignified relationship between Turkish Cypriots and Ankara.

A military veteran walks among gravestones at the Pieta Military Cemetery before a service to mark the 100th anniversary of ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) landings at Galllipoli, in Pieta, Malta, April 25, 2015. The Gallipoli campaign has resonated through generations, which have mourned the thousands of soldiers from the ANZAC cut down by machinegun and artillery fire as they struggled ashore on a narrow beach. The fighting would eventually claim more than 130,000 lives, 87,000 of them on th

In Turkey's battle of the G-words, Gallipoli wins

The damage of the 1915 centennial is already done to Turkey’s international standing and only time may heal it.

Women protest against the government and violence against women, a day after International Women's Day in Istanbul March 9, 2014. On March 8 activists around the globe celebrate International Women's Day, which dates back to the beginning of the 20th Century and has been observed by the United Nations since 1975. The UN writes that it is an occasion to commemorate achievements in women's rights and to call for further change. REUTERS/Osman Orsal (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3GB8T

Turks protest prison term for woman who killed her rapist

A Turkish woman who murdered and beheaded her rapist has been sentenced to life in prison, prompting activists to decry the Turkish justice system, which so often offers leniency to men and harshly punishes women for the same crimes.

Co-leaders of the pro-Kurdish left-wing Peoples' Democracy Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas (C) attends a rally in front of the ruins of Surp Sarkis (Saint Sarkis) Armenian church in Diyarbakir, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1915 mass killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire on April 24, 2015. Armenians demand that Turkey regognizes the genocide of 1,5 million of their kin killed between 1915 and 1917 by the Ottoman Empire, Turkey's predecessor. In rejecting the genocide label, Turkey says be

Kurds pay respects to Armenians

Most of the massacres during the Armenian genocide were carried out in today's southeastern Turkey, often by Kurdish militias, but today Kurds commemorate the genocide in Diyarbakir.

A man tries to get connected to the youtube web site with his tablet at a cafe in Istanbul March 27, 2014. The Turkish telecoms authority TIB said on Thursday it had taken an "administrative measure" against YouTube, a week after it blocked access to microblogging site Twitter. REUTERS/Osman Orsal (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY) - RTR3IUSP

'Unnatural' porn becomes ticket to jail in Turkey

The Constitutional Court’s decision to ban pornography featuring “unnatural sexual behavior” has confounded Turkey and provoked average people to speak out about sex.

The Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque are seen in background as an Israeli flag flutters from atop a home of Jewish settlers in Silwan, a mostly Palestinian district abutting the Old City, November 3, 2014. For months, the streets of mainly Arab East Jerusalem, in the shadow of the Old City but where tourists seldom venture, have been ablaze, with daily clashes between armed Israeli police and Palestinians throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails.The roots of the unrest are many: from the killing in July of a

Turkish pilgrims to Jerusalem face backlash

Turkey’s Department of Religious Affairs elicited protests from an unexpected quarter when it added Jerusalem to its Umrah pilgrimage.

A supporter greets Turkish Cypriot politician Mustafa Akinci after the presidential elections in Nicosia April 19, 2015. Akinci will move to a second round of leadership elections in north Cyprus after a vote on Sunday failed to produce a clear winner. REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou - RTR4XXFR

Turkish Cypriot presidential candidate brings hope for unity

Former Nicosia Mayor Nicosia Mustafa Akinci, if elected president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, could open the way to peace on the divided island.

Syriac Christians from Turkey and Syria attend a mass at the Mort Shmuni Syriac Orthodox Church in the town of Midyat, in Mardin province of southeast Turkey February 2, 2014. Despite the empty streets of Midyat, the historical Mort Shmuni Syriac Orthodox Church is overcrowded with a community of three hundred people, mostly children. For longer than two years, not only the native Turkish Christian citizens of Midyat, but also the Syriac families escaping the bloody war in Syria just across the border are j

Syriacs urge Turkey to recognize massacres

Turkey’s Syriacs are for the first time holding protests to urge Ankara to acknowledge the massacres of Syriacs in 1915, which proceeded along with the mass killings of Armenians.

U.S. President Barack Obama pauses during remarks at a reception for supporters of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington April 21, 2015. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst - RTX19Q1Z

White House omits 'G-word'

The Obama administration speaks obliquely of the “1915 atrocities” that “extinguished” 1.5 million lives — without saying who was responsible for the killing.