Editorial Team

Images of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani accompanied by uniformed peshmerga fighters wearing red berets and carrying assault rifles weapons in Şırnak sparked outrage — particularly from MHP Chair Devlet Bahçeli — and drove the Interior Ministry to investigate itself.

A key lawmaker, Mustafa Şen, from Turkey's ruling AKP suggested that the government should discontinue the practice of appointing state trustees to replace elected mayors. 'The terrorist organization has concluded its activity. Therefore, if a trustee was appointed to a municipality for that reason, we believe the practice should now be ended,' Şen stated.

Under the agreement signed between Turkey and the U.K., the £5.4 billion payment to the Eurofighter consortium for 20 Typhoon fighter jets was not included in either the Defense Ministry’s budget or the Defense Industry Presidency's (SSB) budget. The Defense Industry Support Fund (SSDF) can be used as a source of funding for this project, but the cost of the Typhoons is approximately double the annual amount transferred to the fund from taxes collected by the state.

When basketball player Alperen Şengün told an international audience that “rakı is our national drink,” he walked straight into a long domestic war over who is allowed to say “we” in Turkey. The outrage from certain commentators, demanding that the 23-year-old Houston Rockets center be punished for “promoting alcohol,” was predictable, not because of rakı itself, but because symbolic ownership of the drink has become a proxy for symbolic ownership of the nation.

Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University launched an investigating after musician Kaan Tangöze altered the lyrics of the song “Baltalar Elimizde” (The Axes Are in Our Hands) during a concert on campus, prompting political backlash.

The Defense Ministry’s budget, 623.9 billion lira in 2025, is set to increase 31.9% to 822.9 billion lira in 2026, according to figures released during parliamentary budget talks Nov. 26. This allocation does not cover Turkey’s latest procurement of Eurofighters.

İYİ Party Chair Müsavat Dervişoğlu condemned the parliamentary visit to İmralı, calling it a “national disgrace” and asserting that there is no statute of limitations for what he described as betrayal. İYİ Party deputy Alpaslan Yüce resigned from his party, saying it had abandoned its founding centrist ideals.

A rift has emerged between the two smaller nationalist partners in the People's Alliance, the MHP and the BBP, over talks held with Abdullah Öcalan.

Democrat Party (DP) Izmir Deputy Haydar Altıntaş has announced the party's withdrawal from the National Solidarity, Brotherhood, and Democracy Commission, citing objections to the delegation’s visit to İmralı where PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan has been jailed since 1999.

Abdurrahim Aksoy, a founding member of the DEVA Party, resigned over the party’s decision not to participate in the proposed İmralı delegation.