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

Turkey

Turkey

November 27, 2025

Ankara 4:36 am

8°C

Andreas SOLARO / AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

Pope Leo heads to Turkey, navigating faith, politics and Orthodox tensions

The visit will bolster Turkey’s image on religious tolerance and shared positions with the Vatican while Ankara navigates sensitive issues surrounding the Halki Seminary and the Greek Patriarchate’s ecumenical status.

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Prominent Turkish journalist Fatih Altayli is pictured in this undated image.

Turkey sentences journalist over 4 years in jail for threatening Erdogan

Prominent Turkish journalist Fatih Altayli was sentenced to over four years in prison in a trial government critics say aimed at silencing one of Turkey's most influential journalists and intended to intimidate journalists nationwide.

People take part in a demonstration to call for the liberation of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan outside the European Council in Strasbourg, eastern France, on Sept. 15, 2025.

Analysis

PKK leader Ocalan gains legitimacy in Turkey, bigger sway over Syria’s Kurds

The ongoing deadlock between Damascus and the SDF is seen as a major obstacle to progress in Turkey’s efforts to address its long-standing Kurdish issue.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

BASHAR TALEB/AFP via Getty Images

Turkey’s spy chief holds talks in Egypt over trapped Hamas militants

Turkey’s spy chief met with Qatari, Egyptian officials as the Gaza ceasefire process stalls over Hamas fighters trapped in tunnels.

Latest News

Culture

Turkey’s graphic-novel culture blossoms in face of censorship

cartoons

Culture

Can AI save Turkey’s endangered Laz language?

A villager stands at a high point to survey the damage to the hill sides by quarrying in Ikizdere in the Rize Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey on June 7, 2021. A government-friendly company plans to extract 20 million tons of stone from a quarry in the northeastern town of Ikizdere for one of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's latest development projects. The locals are rising up in protest, challenging the government and its priorities in a region dear to the domineering Turkish leader's heart. (Ph

Turkey secures COP31 climate summit after compromise with Australia: What to know

Samuel Wendel

Senior Market Research Analyst

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Francesco Schiavi

In Bologna, reporting on security, defense, economy, governance

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

Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

A ritual of hope: Exploring Istanbul's 'First Day of the Month Church'

On the first day of 2024, hundreds from different faiths, including Muslims, flock to a famous Istanbul church, engaging in ancient rituals that transform New Year's aspirations into realities.

How Turkey contained Super Cup crisis with Saudi Arabia

A soccer debacle in Riyadh last week over Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of secular Turkey, has become a public debate over the trajectory of secularism in Turkey.

Kemi Badenoch 1

UK, Turkish trade ministers meet in Turkey, announce joint railway deal

The two countries have an existing trade deal that covers goods but not services, digital trade or data.

Members of a band play music s they participate in a demonstration in support of Somalia's government following the port deal signed between Ethiopia and the breakaway region of Somaliland at Eng Yariisow Stadium in Mogadishu on January 3, 2024. Somalia vowed to defend its territory after a controversial Red Sea access deal between Ethiopia and the breakaway state of Somaliland that it branded as "aggression". (Photo by ABDISHUKRI HAYBE / AFP) (Photo by ABDISHUKRI HAYBE/AFP via Getty Images)

Ethiopia-Somaliland deal receives wide condemnations, including from Egypt, Turkey

Several countries in the region condemned a recent deal giving Ethiopia access to Somaliland’s coast.

The Soloturk aerobatic demonstration team of the Turkish Air Force flies an F-16 aircraft over Anitkabir, the mausoleum of Turkish Republic's Founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, during celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Turkey in Ankara, on October 29, 2023. Turkey marked its centenary as a post-Ottoman republic on October 29, 2023, with somewhat muted celebrations held in the shadow of Israel's escalating war with Hamas militants in Gaza. (Photo by Adem ALTAN / AFP) (Photo by ADEM ALT

Ahead of Blinken's trip, Turkey's patience is wearing thin on F-16s sale

Ahead of the US top diplomat’s visit, Ankara has signaled that its patience over its bid to purchase new F-16 fighter jets from the United States is wearing thin.

Erkan Bas (L), leader of the Workers' Party of Turkey (TIP), and fellow party MPs Sera Kadigil (C) and Ahmet Sik (R) display a portrait of jailed TIP MP Can Atalay, during a swearing-in ceremony at the Turkish parliament in Ankara, June 2, 2023.

Erdogan rivals call Turkey 'banana republic' as high court rulings ignored

Turkish officials’ dismissal of courts has also resulted in the threat of targeted sanctions against them by the Council of Europe.

stock photo of market

Turkey’s year-end inflation soars to almost 65%

Newly announced minimum wage hikes and upcoming pay raises for public servants, workers and pensioners bode a resurgence of price spikes across the board.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey’s exports to Saudi Arabia, UAE and Russia shoot up in 2023: Erdogan

The Turkish president also said the country’s total export revenues reached an all-time high.

sea mind explodes

Turkey to block UK minesweeper ships intended for Ukraine

Turkey appears determined to strictly adhere to a treaty under which Ankara also closed off its straits to Russian warships.

People take part in a solidarity protest over events happening in Gaza and the West Bank on January 01, 2024 in Istanbul, Turkey. As the world celebrated New Years, Israel warned that the ongoing offensive in Gaza could last months and continue through 2024.

Turkey detains 33 people accused of spying for Israel’s Mossad

Authorities are still searching for an additional 13 people suspected of links to the Israeli spy agency as tensions between Turkey and Israel have been rising amid the Israel-Hamas war.

Analysis

Can Turkey's Erdogan godfather Palestinian Hamas-Fatah reconciliation?

Uniting the Palestinians is a complicated task that will prove a challenge to the Turkish president's influence.

Fehim Tastekin

By Fehim Tastekin

In Paris, reporting on Turkish politics

What canceling of 'Crimson Buds' TV series says about Turkey's religious split

Turkey’s television series and films, once heralded as Turkey’s top exports and a symbol of its soft power abroad, have become a political battlefield at home throughout 2023.