Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
“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?”
The pro-government newspaper Yeni Şafak devoted its entire front page on Sept. 9 to a scathing critique of Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek and his policies, urging immediate shifts including tax overhauls and fuel subsidies.
Binali Yıldırım, Turkey's last prime minister who has long been sidelined by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has also entered the agenda alongside the Gökçek case.
For the first time in Turkish history, a former prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, was summoned for criticizing the president and then he invited President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to his son’s wedding ceremony.
Joel Lion, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi and close associate of Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, presented his credentials in Ankara on Sept. 9 and left the same day after attending a US Independence Day reception.
Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said a supplementary indictment is being prepared in the Istanbul Municipality corruption case, as the court’s agenda shifted from hearing detained defendants to hearing those on trial who are not in detention.
The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation into former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, 67, for allegedly insulting the president in a video recorded five years ago but circulated recently on social media.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan welcomed the dissolution of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), expressing satisfaction while emphasizing the need to verify implementation on the ground.
Turkish authorities have closed a brief investigation into British economist Timothy Ash over comments likening President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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.
A reference to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks was enough to increase the tension between the AKP and DEM soon after the two’s cooperation on the framework law.
On Friday — a day of particular symbolic weight for the Islamic world — President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif put their signatures to a trilateral defense agreement in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city.