Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
İYİ Party Chair Müsavat Dervişoğlu and Zafer Party Chair Ümit Özdağ directed sharp criticism at the MHP as political tension rose over whether a parliamentary commission should visit İmralı Island.
In Turkish, zehirlenme or poisoning is one of those words that lands with a sting. Its genealogy stretches back through Ottoman Turkish to Persian zahr (poison), but the word has given birth to colorful idioms: zehir saçmak (to scatter venom), zehir zemberek sözler (barbed words that blister on impact), ağzı zehir gibi (a tongue sharp enough to wound).
Turkey’s Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) released new data covering the first nine months of 2025, revealing the country’s debt landscape by province. The capital, Ankara, recorded the highest total credit debt, while the central Anatolian province of Karaman had the largest share of citizens unable to repay their loans and facing collection proceedings.
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.
Northern Cyprus’s presidential contest is more than a domestic struggle for the island’s Turkish-Cypriot leadership: it is a referendum on identity, economic survival and the shape of relations with Ankara, the EU and the Greek Cypriot.
Turkey and Italy signed a joint venture agreement for landing-gear maintenance, starting with T129 attack helicopters produced by Turkish Aerospace Industries, and aiming to expand capacity for military and civilian aircraft.The Military Factory and Shipyard Management Corporation of Turkey and Italy’s Magnaghi Aerospace will establish a joint maintenance center in Turkey. The Turkish side plans to extend services to civilian platforms, aiming to make Turkey a regional hub for landing gear maintenance and exports. The deal was signed during the technology and defense festival Teknofest Istanbul, on Sept. 19.
Turkey and Egypt conducted their first joint military exercise in the Eastern Mediterranean after a 13-year hiatus, between Sept. 22-26. The two countries also signed an agreement in August on the joint production of unmanned aerial vehicles capable of vertical takeoff and landing.
Turkey’s state-owned Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKE) has signed an agreement to supply 20mm ammunition to Poland for use with KAI FA-50GF Block 10 light combat aircraft.
DEM Party Deputy Parliamentary Group Chair Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit has renewed her party’s call for the National Solidarity, Brotherhood and Democracy Commission to visit imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan on İmralı Island.
Cyprus, the mythical land of Aphrodite, has long been in the headlines for one defining issue: its division. Since the 1960s, when Greek Cypriots pursued Enosis—union with Greece—the island has been riven by conflict. The Turkish military intervention of July 1974 cemented this division, leaving Northern Cyprus under Turkish protection and Southern Cyprus under Greek Cypriot control. For decades, this seemed to be the central challenge of the island: reunification, or lack thereof. But today, Cyprus is far more than just a frozen conflict—it is becoming one of the most militarized and geopolitically contested territories in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Turkey has postponed its moon landing project, which it had aimed to carry out in 2023 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Republic but later delayed to 2026, this time to 2027. The government established the Turkish Space Agency in 2018 to coordinate space activities.
Teknofest, Turkey’s flagship defense and technology festival organized by the T3 Foundation — whose board is chaired by Selçuk Bayraktar, son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and head of Baykar — kicked off this year with a maritime focus under the theme “Blue Homeland.”