Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
At the 41st hearing of the sweeping Istanbul Municipality corruption trial, nine more defendants were released ahead of Eid al-Adha, bringing the total number of remaining detainees to 68.
Journalist Deniz Zeyrek writes about a closed-door briefing organized by AKP's media and communications chief Faruk Acar, at which Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke to senior editors and Ankara bureau chiefs from pro-government outlets about Turkey's foreign policy. Zeyrek identifies three problems with the meeting.
Turkey is preparing to host a NATO Summit for the first time in 22 years, and is working to finalize both the list of invitees beyond member states and the summit's agenda in consultations with the NATO Secretariat through a series of meetings.
The 34th day of the corruption trial targeting Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and dozens of officials linked to the CHP and Istanbul Municipality saw the mayor in tears as he questioned a defendant — soon after he declared that the allegations in the indictment were collapsing one by one.
The government program against soaring prices faced a significant setback when new data revealed that inflation is already on the verge of exceeding year-end targets in the first four months of 2026.
Esra Işık, an activist from the village of İkizköy in Muğla’s Milas district who has spent years fighting to save her community's olive groves and farmland from coal mining expansion, was brought to her first court hearing on April 27 in handcuffs, escorted by gendarmerie officers from Şakran Prison in İzmir — more than 100 miles from her hometown where her case is being tried.
Despite weeks of public speculation, four senior diplomats based in Ankara tell Turkey in Depth that the question of US President Donald Trump's non-attendance of the NATO summit is off the table and preparations are well underway.
A recent judicial operation that placed the CHP-run Ataşehir municipality under trustee administration has exposed something more damaging than any prosecutor's indictment: the party is being undone, in part, by its own.
The CEO of Turkey’s largest private lender, İşbank, called for an immediate departure from the government’s economic program, saying that global conditions have made the fight against inflation impossible.
Concerned by the risk of being excluded from trade with Europe, the AKP government is planning to amend the public procurement law.
The sixth week of the mass corruption trial of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and more than 400 co-defendants produced some of its most dramatic courtroom exchanges. İmamoğlu and the presiding judge continued sharp exchanges while the municipality’s housing company, KİPTAŞ, chair Ali Kurt implicated senior government figures in a land scheme, and the European Court of Human Rights formally demanded answers from Ankara.
The excessive use of anti-terror laws came under renewed criticism in Geneva as five United Nations special rapporteurs issued a joint statement urging Turkey to stop criminalizing human rights defenders and lawyers.