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Deciphering Turkish Diplomacy Sep 19, 2025

ANKARA–BEIJING TIES TESTED FROM HOTEL DOORS TO TRADE FLOORS

It is not unusual for a Turkish citizen visiting China to receive a knock on the door in the middle of the night by a police officer. On my third day in China, I received a call from the reception telling me a police officer wanted to come up to my room to ask a few questions. I said that I would come down and while I was trying to get in touch with the German think-tank that had invited me to China, the receptionist and the police officer were at the door of my hotel room.

Barçın Yinanç

Inside Turkey Sep 8, 2025

CHP SHUTTERS ISTANBUL OFFICE AFTER COURT-IMPOSED CHAIR TAKES OVER WITH POLICE

After court-appointed interim chair Gürsel Tekin entered the main opposition CHP’s Istanbul provincial office under police escort, the party announced it would close the building and relocate operations to its Bahçelievler branch, notifying authorities.

Editorial Team

Word of the Week Aug 28, 2025

TEŞHİRCİ

In Turkish, teşhirci (exhibitionist) is a word with two lives. In everyday use, it is an insult, hurled at women whose clothes are judged too revealing or at men who flaunt their cars and watches. In the Criminal Code, however, teşhircilik has a very precise meaning: exhibitionism. Article 225 punishes those who “publicly exhibit their sexual organs” with up to six months in prison. A word meant to describe a trench-coat flasher in a public park has, over time, swollen into a moral cudgel: used less to prosecute streakers and more to police women’s bodies.

Nazlan Ertan

Foreign Affairs Aug 15, 2025

AFTER ERDOĞAN–KAVELASHVILI TALKS, GEORGIA DETAINS 14 SUSPECTS

Hours after Georgian President Mikheil Kavelashvili’s visit to Ankara for talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Georgian police detained 12 people wanted on Interpol red notices and two sought at the national level in a joint operation with Turkish authorities.

Editorial Team

Inside Turkey Aug 15, 2025

FIVE HELD FOR TRYING TO DELIVER PALESTINE LETTER TO ERDOĞAN

Police detained five people, including three women, outside the Presidential Complex as they attempted to deliver a letter to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan outlining demands related to Palestine. All were reported to be members of the Rainbow Association and the March for Palestine Platform.

Editorial Team

Inside Turkey Jul 25, 2025

SYMBOL OF FEAR RETURNS

One of the prosecutors overseeing the case against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu has come under fire after CHP Chair Özgür Özel revealed that the prosecutor displays a model of a Beyaz Toros—a car widely associated with disappearances and state violence in the 1990s. İmamoğlu, who has been held at Silivri Prison since his March 19 arrest, recounted the incident during an interview with journalist Ruşen Çakır of Medyascope as he visited the Istanbul Mayor in prison. İmamoğlu said the prosecutor, who took his testimony following the sweeping police operation, placed a symbolic image of the white Renault Toros on his desk and ended the interrogation by saying: “Tomorrow you become president, then you judge us.”

Editorial Team