INTELLIGENCE ACADEMY URGES TRANSFORMATION IN MILITARY CAPACITY
Turkey needs more long-range and defensive missiles, according to the National Security Academy (MİA), a branch of the Turkish intelligence agency MİT.
Analysis
In-Depth Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
INVISIBLE IN MUNICH, TURKEY FLEXES MUSCLE IN BALTIC
Photographs from two separate locations in Germany taken in mid February reveal the ambiguous and intriguing position of Turkey in Europe’s geostrategic landscape.
TRUMP’S BOARD OF PEACE MAY HAVE FATAL IMPLICATIONS FOR TURKEY
This year’s Munich Security Conference (MSC) held lively discussions on the global security environment, especially in Europe, and the collapse of the rules-based international order. Strained transatlantic relations, the Ukrainian War, and Iran, all burning matters for Turkey, were on the agenda. Figures such as Marco Rubio, Friedrich Merz, Emmanuel Macron, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy reached global audiences from the MSC. Turkey was not heard.
EVEN TRANSACTIONALISM FAILS TO REVIVE EU–TURKEY TIES
Akın Gürlek, the prosecutor who has overseen several high-profile cases involving members of the CHP, became justice minister four days after European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos visited Ankara.
HOPES INCREASE IN PEACE PROCESS AS IT MOVES FROM RHETORIC TO LEGAL GROUND
Following the consensus between Syria’s interim government and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), momentum has returned to Turkey’s long-running efforts to end the decades-long armed conflict and address the Kurdish question through political and legal channels. This renewed dynamic has also pushed the “right to hope” for PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan back to the center of the political agenda.
SEARCH FOR A THIRD WAY WIDENS AMONG CONSERVATIVE AND RIGHT-WING PARTIES
Efforts by conservative and right-wing parties to build a “third way” outside the ruling and main opposition blocs are gaining momentum, as Saadet Party and YRP — both rooted in Turkey’s first political Islamist tradition, the National View (Milli Görüş) shaped by Necmettin Erbakan — step up talks on election cooperation. The renewed contacts signal a shift in relations between the two parties, which had previously been at odds over the movement’s legacy following the founding of YRP in 2018. This time, the talks focus on bringing together Saadet Party, YRP, Gelecek Party and DEVA Party under a common framework, with a broader alliance that could also include the İYİ Party.
CHP MAYORS FACE COURT AS WIDE-RANGING CORRUPTION TRIAL STARTS
Hearings have begun in a corruption probe involving municipalities run by the main opposition CHP, following investigations launched in March 2025. The case marks the first major trial stemming from the allegations, ahead of a separate prosecution involving Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu that is set to begin on March 9. The CHP’s legal strategy and the court’s approach to the defendants are expected to shape Turkey’s political agenda over the many years the trials are expected to take.
ANKARA SIGNALS NEW OUTREACH TO YAZIDIS
Turkey took a new step in its engagement with minority communities when a Yazidi delegation was received in Ankara by Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz and Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş.
CASH FLOW BECOMES PRIORITY IN SHIPBUILDING
Turkey is considering generating cash flow by exporting newly built naval platforms originally designed to meet domestic requirements. The first of 10 light corvette-class vessels planned for the Turkish Navy, the TCG Akhisar (P-1220), was sold straight to Romania without entering the Turkish inventory after its completion in December 2025. Ankara is now in talks to sell two newly built I-class (Istanbul/İstif-class) frigates to Indonesia.
PEACE PROCESS UNDER SYRIA’S SHADOW
The expected has happened. The “new peace process,” now more than a year old, has fallen under the shadow of Syria. Map-altering clashes between the new Damascus government and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), whose backbone is formed by Kurds, have driven a wedge between the AKP-MHP ruling bloc and the DEM Party in Turkey.
ALEPPO CLASHES DEEPEN FAULT LINES IN ANKARA
An operation by the Syrian army targeting Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo has fueled tensions in Ankara between the two main actors of Turkey’s peace process, even as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says he remains optimistic for a resolution in the southern neighbor.
WORLD IS BIGGER THAN FIVE—EXCEPT WHEN IT ISN’T
From Donald Trump’s perspective, he has just one interlocutor in Turkey: President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. No criticism of the United States — no matter how harsh — coming from presidential advisors, the AKP spokesperson, the Foreign Ministry, or the MHP chair matters in the slightest to Trump.