Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
A social media post by the Court of Cassation’s 11th Civil Chamber President Abdullah Yaman has ignited a heated conflict involving a top judge, a prominent businessperson, and the pro-government daily Yeni Şafak, drawing attention to serious corruption allegations within Turkey’s judiciary.
President of the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) İbrahim Hacıosmanoğlu revealed that 371 of the 571 referees officiating in professional matches had betting accounts, and 152 of them were actively placing bets.
Turkey’s once-mighty dams are losing their power — literally. Electricity generation from the country’s largest hydro plants has fallen by a quarter in the past three decades, a drop experts link to worsening drought and years of poor planning.
The election of Tufan Erhürman as president of Northern Cyprus rekindled hopes for renewed negotiations with the Greek Cypriots.Erhürman’s opening statements — stressing democratic tolerance, representation and the need to reopen talks under UN auspices with political equality as his “red line” — set a constructive tone: “There are no losers in this election. The Turkish Cypriot people won, our children won, our brotherhood won.” Yet those words of unity sit alongside firm warnings: political equality cannot be treated as a bargaining chip, and any new process must have meaningful limits and commitments from the outset.
Nearly a decade after the migration deal that was signed between the EU and Turkey under the leadership of Germany, the arrangement that succeeded in stopping migrants entering Europe via Turkey remains the backbone of the transactional relationship between Ankara and Berlin. However, although Turkey continues to be seen as a buffer zone stopping the migration flows, there is also a renewed discovery among European capitals of the country’s value as a strategic asset.
Training for Syrian military forces by the Turkish Army has begun in accordance with the Joint Training and Advisory MoU signed between the two countries on Aug. 13, the Defense Ministry announced.
Following lengthy negotiations, an agreement for Turkey to procure 20 Eurofighter Typhoon Tranche 4 fighter jets from the UK was signed in Ankara on Oct. 27. Turkey will increase the number of aircraft in its Eurofighter fleet to 44 by procuring 12 second-hand Typhoons each from Qatar and Oman. The $10.7 billion (£8 billion) payment to the U.K. under the agreement has become a subject of debate in Turkish domestic politics, as the details of the package were not announced.
Turkey marked the 102nd anniversary of the Republic with fresh signs of political realignment — reminiscent of the symbolic gestures seen during Parliament’s opening earlier this month. While the chairs of Gelecek Party and DEVA Party, both breakaway movements from the AKP, attended the Presidential Palace reception for the first time, the MHP opted to stay away. Talks on a possible merger among conservative parties are also ongoing.
Tufan Erhürman became the new president of Northern Cyprus in Sunday’s election—winning twice as many votes as incumbent Ersin Tatar. Erhürman is a familiar name among Turkish Cypriots but not to the Turkish public. A seasoned politician who has served both as prime minister and party leader, he joins a line of Cypriot leaders whose names rarely surface in Turkey outside moments of crisis. Yet, like some of his predecessors, Mehmet Ali Talat and Mustafa Akıncı—both presidents from the same social-democratic tradition—his story also crosses paths with Ankara’s academic and political world.
Turkish democracy is the casualty of Europe’s rediscovery of Turkey’s strategic value. To better understand the context of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s visit to Ankara next week, one has to go back to the end of the Cold War. Whereas European countries have benefited from the peace dividend, the contrary happened for Turkey in the aftermath of the fall of the Iron Curtain. After enjoying the relative stability of the bipolar order of the Cold War era, Turkey found itself in the midst of several conflict zones. While most European countries downsized their defense budgets, Turkey had no such luxury. The fight against separatist terrorism, the turbulence created by the Gulf War, and regional conflicts like the ones in the Caucasus dictated the maintenance of a big and well-equipped army.
Funding for space research was increased from 5 billion lira to 8.7 billion lira, but Turkey's first lunar landing project was postponed for another year, according to the 2026 budget bill submitted to Parliament.
The term of the presidential motion authorizing the deployment of Turkish Armed Forces in Iraq and Syria to combat terrorist organizations and the acceptance of foreign troops in Turkey has been extended for another three years.