Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
Turkey’s sweeping drug operations have expanded to include prominent figures from business and entertainment, triggering debate over whether the focus remains on organized crime kingpins or on well-known public personalities.
The EU’s draft “Made in Europe” proposal to support European producers of green technology excludes Turkey from “Europe” but allows the European Commission to determine which non-EU countries can be included in the scheme on a sectoral basis. The Turkish business community is alarmed at the new rules aimed at strengthening European manufacturing against rising competition from China and the U.S., Turkey in Depth learned. Fearing this would create a new hurdle in Turkey’s trade with the EU, business leaders have been lobbying in Brussels, urging officials to consider Turkey as part of Europe. Turkey in Depth has learned that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sent a letter to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen regarding the decision.
The European Union’s push to conclude free trade agreements (FTAs) is reshaping the economic landscape around its periphery. Chief among these is the long-negotiated EU–Mercosur Trade Agreement, alongside accelerating talks with India. While these agreements are formally bilateral between the EU and third parties, their implications extend well beyond signatories. For Turkey, which is bound to the EU through a customs union covering industrial goods, these deals carry direct consequences—despite Ankara not being a negotiating party.
One would expect the bromance between U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to reach new heights following the former’s recent disavowal of the PKK/YPG.
At the turn of the year, a familiar ritual repeats itself in Turkey. Gyms raise their membership fees. Tradespeople adjust their prices. Real estate agents pocket higher commissions by systematically pushing up sale prices. Hardly anyone objects. Hardly anyone asks what added value is being offered. Price hikes are taken for granted — not because products have improved, but because inflation exists.
Turkey is close to finalizing a major expansion of its fighter jet fleet with the acquisition of Eurofighter Typhoons, marking a significant step toward diversifying its air power away from U.S.-supplied platforms.
As Turkey prepares to purchase 12 second-hand Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets from Qatar, a series of defense industry cooperation agreements were signed between the two countries, further deepening bilateral relations.
Turkey’s top business association, TÜSİAD, elected Ozan Diren as its new chair at its ordinary general assembly in Istanbul. Diren, the sole candidate, will serve for the 2026–2027 term. He succeeds Orhan Turan, who completed two terms in office.
A new U.S. tariff move targeting countries that do business with Iran is placing billions of dollars of Turkey’s trade at risk, with exports to the United States and energy trade with Iran most exposed.
Turkey is watching the protests in Iran with growing concern, warning that U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat of intervention could trigger dangerous regional consequences as Ankara pushes de-escalation through diplomacy with Gulf countries.
In Turkish, emekli / retired is supposed to be a word of closure. It comes from emek: labor, effort, the long arc of work, and implies that something has been duly completed. You have labored; therefore, you may withdraw.
Following the PKK’s decision to lay down arms, the newly launched “peace process” has become tangled up in tensions over Syria. The military operation by the Damascus regime that pushed the SDF/YPG out of two Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo has strained relations between the AKP–MHP alliance and the DEM Party, ending a cautious rapprochement as part of the process. It has also disrupted a positive atmosphere that had lasted for nearly a year, raising fresh doubts about the prospects of success.