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.
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.
If Cyprus were a film, it would probably be The Truman Show. Not because anything dramatic is happening, quite the opposite. The genius of The Truman Show is that nothing seems to be happening at all.
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 a historic development for Turkish-American relations, the long-standing legal battle over Iran sanctions involving the Turkish state lender Halkbank has been settled. The U.S. government said the result will curb support for Iran.
After the completion of the Parliamentary Commission report on the Kurdish peace process, legal steps are expected to accelerate after the Ramadan holiday, which ends on March 22 and overlaps with Newroz, the spring festival seen as a symbol of Kurdish identity.
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.