Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
The main Istanbul Municipality corruption trial completed its 87th day on Sept. 24. The court heard nine more defendants, leaving 63 of 325 still to testify, as the presiding judge aims to complete the second session by the end of September.
Turkish Airlines has agreed to buy up to 150 Boeing passenger jets in a landmark order made during Erdoğan’s trip to the United States.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has released its 5th Round Mutual Evaluation Report for Turkey, confirming that the country faces no risk of returning to the grey list, the Finance Ministry said.
Garanti BBVA, the high-street bank majority-owned by Spain’s BBVA, has agreed to pay a fine of 1.55 billion liras ($31.8 million) after settling an antitrust investigation into labor market practices, the lender disclosed on the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP).
The EU is enforcing new temporary safeguard measures on some steel and related products imported from Turkey starting Sept. 25.
Armenia will host its 35th Independence Day reception in Istanbul on Oct. 14. The event marks a rare diplomatic event in Turkey as the two neighbors work to normalize long-strained ties.
“In an age when artificial intelligence does data analysis,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan asked assembled ambassadors at the 2025 Ambassadors Conference in December, “is there still such a need for the classical diplomat and for classical diplomacy?”
Zülfü Livaneli made a clear decision this week. The musician and novelist put an end to the playing of his celebrated composition at opposition rallies protesting the operations that have targeted Ekrem İmamoğlu — and subsequently numerous other mayors and municipal officials — since March 19, 2025.
The Education Ministry hailed the latest educational achievement results as a 'historic success,' reporting that the nation became the fastest-climbing OECD country across all subjects, surpassing average scores in the 2025 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) assessment of science and reading.
The Mecca Joint defense Agreement signed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan at the beginning of last month came as a surprise to many, although Turkey was interested in joining the defense agreement signed by the latter two a year ago. The new agreement goes further than defense cooperation due to a collective security pledge modelled on NATO’s famous Article 5.
Only two of the 53 formally arrested defendants in the Istanbul Municipality trial were released on the case's 75th hearing day, as relatives of those still held broke down in tears in the courtroom.
Annual consumer inflation in Turkey remained above 30% for the 57th consecutive month in August. Official figures from TurkStat put August inflation at 31.5%, slightly slower than 31.75% in July.