Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
Osman Kavala will turn 70 next year. He has been in prison for nine years. During those nine years, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled three times that his detention and conviction violated his rights and called for his “immediate release.” Most recently, just three days ago, the ECHR once again called on Turkey to “release him.”
Israel strikes near the Turkish border, a message thinly veiled, Barrack says Netanyahu wanted Ankara provoked, not just derailed.
The Defense Ministry has signed a contract with a lobbying firm headed by Brian Ballard, one of Trump’s leading fundraisers in Florida.
A sexual harassment investigation has been launched against CHP deputy Ahmet Baran Yazgan.
Former Treasury Undersecretary and prominent economist Mahfi Eğilmez calculated that the fair value of the US dollar should be 65 liras based on the Big Mac Index, far above the market exchange rate of 47.50 liras and warned that the holding the exchange rate below its fair value inflates the country's GDP and per capita income figures on paper without making Turks any richer.
A new legislative proposal submitted by ruling party AKP lawmakers aims to allow foreign online travel agencies, including Booking.com, to return to the Turkish market under a structured legal framework after nearly nine years of suspension.
The Turkish government has temporarily eliminated the special consumption tax on diesel fuel for the remainder of August in an effort to curb inflation. Pump prices fell by more than 13 percent a day after the government’s decision on Aug. 12.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan traveled to Libya on Aug. 11 and 12, visiting both Tripoli and Benghazi, in what appears to be the first time a Turkish foreign minister has made a simultaneous visit to meet competing sides in the Libyan conflict.
Two parties that once stood as rivals, both claiming the legacy of Necmettin Erbakan — the founding leader of political Islam in Turkey under the name of National View— are continuing merger talks.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to welcome new members into the AKP at the party's 25th anniversary event in Ankara on Aug. 14, with two sitting deputies from the İYİ Party set to join.
Police forcibly intervened on Aug. 13 against striking miners outside the Energy Ministry in Ankara, detaining union leaders and multiple workers on the fourth day of their protest over unpaid wages.
Ekrem İmamoğlu, Istanbul’s jailed mayor, announced his resignation from the CHP and his decision to support the Yeni Party three weeks after its founding.