Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
Economic hardship has long been measured through the humble simit -— the sesame-covered circular bread sometimes called the Turkish bagel. Now the ruling AKP is being accused of shrinking even that symbol. Once used by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to show that a family could not afford a single simit and tea with the minimum wage, the calculation has taken a new turn: a simit divided into three.
The Family and Social Services Ministry has finalized a draft bill that would impose a ban on social media use for children under the age of 15.
Turkey’s broadcast watchdog has imposed heavy fines on three major television channels over their most-watched programs, citing viewer complaints and alleged violations of family values and public morality.
Access to Turkish pop singer Mabel Matiz’s song Perperişan has been blocked following a court order issued by the Ankara Criminal Court of Peace. The move came at the request of the Family and Social Services Ministry, which claimed the song violated public order and general health regulations.
Gürsel Tekin is the child of a family that migrated to Istanbul immediately after the 1980 military coup that turned Turkey upside down. The family’s roots lie in the province that was then called Kars, now Ardahan—a region where leftist and socialist movements were strong before the coup.
Baykar, the unmanned aerial vehicle manufacturer owned by the Bayraktar family, announced plans to build a factory on 400 acres in Tekkeköy, Samsun. The facility is expected to boost high-tech production and create high-quality jobs in the Black Sea region, the company said Aug. 8.
You wouldn’t know Ramazan Şaşkın. Likely, no one does beyond his family, friends, and the people in his town. In his 38 years, Ramazan Şaşkın only became news in death. The story goes like this: “While battling a fire in Bursa, a firefighter suffered a heart attack and died.”
Enis Güçlü Şirin, the trustee appointed to İmamoğlu İnşaat—the family business of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu—holds positions on the boards of more than 20 other companies. All the firms where Şirin serves are under the administration of Turkey’s Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) which operates firms that have been seized by the state often because of bankruptcy, tax debts, or links to the Gülenist movement.
In Turkey, tatil (holiday) is a prism through which one can observe culture, class, and politics. It conjures images of mosque courtyards and family dinners or bustling resort towns thrumming with booked-out hotels and overpriced beaches.
In Turkish, çocuk simply means “child” — a small, willful person who believes the world should bend to their will. But in political life, çocuk is more than a noun: it is a litmus test. Unlike evlat, the solemn, Arabic-rooted term for “offspring,” çocuk suggests an individual, complete in themselves, not just a branch on a family tree. No surprise, then, that the AKP prefers evlat — a word that keeps people firmly tethered to family, lineage, and duty.
Every time Turkey takes a big step backward and away from democratic rule, those familiar with Turkish-EU relations tend to also blame the Merkel-Sarkozy duo, who reined back Turkey’s accession talks in the mid-2000s at a time when the AKP was undertaking sweeping reforms to reach universal standards. It was the most serious and bitter wake-up call for those who still had faith in European values, that no matter what Turkey would do, it would never be considered a member of the European family, despite its NATO and Council of Europe membership.
My grand-aunt never used the word 'zorba' to describe a bully, though it would be the first term to come to mind for many Turkish speakers. Instead, when one of the boys in the family became too combative, she would say, 'What are you, a small 'Ali Kıran Başkesen'?' The phrase, which translates literally as 'Ali who crashes things and cuts heads,' is a Turkish term for an authoritarian bully. It derives from the proverb 'Dalı kıran, baş keser' ('Whoever cuts a branch cuts a head'), originally a cautionary ecological metaphor that somehow evolved into the ultimate descriptor for an overbearing strongman.