Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
Ankara’s signal that its “institutionalized good relations” with Hungary will continue even as the Turkish opposition congratulated Magyar as observers draw parallels between Orbán’s rule and Erdoğan’s.
Amid uncertainty surrounding ceasefire talks between the United States and Iran, Ankara has accelerated its steps to rebuild regional security.
The sixth week of the mass corruption trial of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and more than 400 co-defendants produced some of its most dramatic courtroom exchanges. İmamoğlu and the presiding judge continued sharp exchanges while the municipality’s housing company, KİPTAŞ, chair Ali Kurt implicated senior government figures in a land scheme, and the European Court of Human Rights formally demanded answers from Ankara.
The question of whether Turkey's Kurdish peace process — officially dubbed 'Terror-free Turkey' — has hit a deadlock is being asked more frequently, as tensions between the ruling AKP and DEM Party escalate over who bears responsibility for the lack of progress.
Turkey will assume command of NATO's Allied Reaction Force starting in 2028, and the TAF plans to increase the number of its commando brigades from 25 to 40 within the next three years.
Turkey launched offshore oil and gas exploration off the eastern coast of Africa, deploying a 7th-generation ultra-deepwater drillship. Simultaneously, Turkish F-16 fighter jets, T-129 attack helicopters, and AS-532 Cougar utility helicopters, and the aircraft performed ceremonial flyovers across Mogadishu.
The TAF is participating in a US-led military exercise in Libya, where Turkey backed the Government of National Accord (GNA) in the west during the civil war. Meanwhile, attention has again focused on the plane crash in which the GNA Chief of Staff Muhammed Ali Ahmed Al Haddad and his delegation died near Ankara on Dec. 23, 2025.
Hungary’s parliamentary elections on April 12 — described as the toughest test of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s 16-year rule — will be closely watched not only in Europe but also in Turkey by both the AKP and the opposition.
Turkish comedian Tuba Ulu has been detained after a clip from one of her stand-up shows went viral on social media.
Journalist Yılmaz Özdil has stepped down from his position as head of the Sözcü Media Group — which encompasses SZC TV and the Sözcü and Korkusuz newspapers — after just four months in the role. Özdil also resigned from his column at the Sözcü newspaper.
Ankara is happy to see the two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran as a significant first step, but worries it may not hold. The central fear focuses on Israel, which stayed silent through the night of negotiations only to issue a statement on Lebanon afterward.
Three seemingly separate stories — a party purge, a criminal network, and a political assassination — are converging into a single story with the ruling alliance partner MHP at its heart.