Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
Ebru Eroğlu, one of five lieutenants expelled from the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) on the grounds of insubordination for raising their swords in the air and chanting the slogan “We are Mustafa Kemal’s soldiers” during the Military Academy’s swearing-in ceremony on August 30, 2024, lost the lawsuit to return to the military she filed against the Defense Ministry.
Following the signing of an agreement with the U.K. in Oct. 2025 to procure 40 Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets, the defense ministers of the two countries signed a contract for technical and logistical support regarding the maintenance and operation of these aircraft.
An unmanned surface vessel manufactured in the U.S. was found washed ashore in the Ünye district of Ordu, on the Black Sea coast, on March 21. An unmanned surface vessel (USV) of unknown origin struck the Altura, a Sierra Leone flagged tanker which is owned by a Turkish company, Pergamon Maritime, on March 26 in the Black Sea, 15 miles off the coast of the Bosphorus Strait.
NATO has launched efforts to establish a second headquarters in Turkey, adding to the alliance’s presence and strengthening its posture against threats from the Middle East.
Few Turkish words arrive with less subtlety than füze. Borrowed from the French fusée, it sounds clipped, metallic and modern. It is a word that pierces a sentence rather than softly enters it, except when used in slang. In the mid-20th century, füze was slang for breasts that projected upward; the opposite of pide, or flat, breasts. It is a small linguistic reminder of how the male gaze has long blended the language of warfare with that of desire.
In the March 8 election in Baden-Württemberg, Green Party candidate Cem Özdemir came first, edging out the CDU, if only narrowly. So far, so unremarkable. The state has, after all, been governed by the Greens since 2011. But the picture changes when the victor, under the Green banner, is Cem Özdemir.
The European Union has requested full access to Turkey’s public procurement market as a condition for including Turkish goods under the 'Made in Europe' initiative.
The deal to resolve the case over allegations that Halkbank helped Iran evade American sanctions was announced on March 9, at the height of U.S.-Israeli attacks against Iran.
In response to the reinforcement of defense in Southern Cyprus by Greece and some European countries due to the Iran conflict, Turkey deployed F-16 fighter jets and additional air defense systems to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) for the first time in 28 years.
Iran destroyed U.S. long-range radar installations in Qatar and Jordan on Feb. 28 and March 7, increasing the importance of the Kürecik AN/TPY-2 radar station in Malatya province. Like the Adana İncirlik Air Base, NATO has placed the Malatya Kürecik Radar Station under the protection of its Patriot air defense system, another possible target for ballistic missiles launched from Iran.
NATO announced that its assets shot down two ballistic missiles aimed at Turkey in a week, but Iran denied that they had targeted Turkey. Since the Defense Ministry and NATO did not provide information on which region of Iran the ballistic missiles were launched from, the route taken by the missiles and their target became a matter of debate.
Turkey has withdrawn civilian administrative units from the Operation Olive Branch zone in northern Syria after seven years of activity, according to a statement by Şanlıurfa Governor Hasan Şıldak. The announcement prompted questions regarding the withdrawal of Turkish armed forces from the area.