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HAKEM /REFEREE
Word of the Week Nov 13, 2025

HAKEM /REFEREE

In Turkish, the word hakem conjures, for the average football fan, the image of a man with a whistle — revered when he blows it in your favor, reviled when he doesn’t. Yet the word has a far deeper pedigree. Hakem comes from the Arabic ḥakam, meaning “one who judges,” sharing roots with hakim (judge or ruler) and hikmet (wisdom). The referee is, linguistically at least, meant to be a wise arbiter among impassioned players and fans — no small task given the layers of expectation and resentment attached to every call.

Nazlan Ertan
IS MERAL AKŞENER MAKING A COMEBACK?
Portrait of the Week Nov 13, 2025

IS MERAL AKŞENER MAKING A COMEBACK?

You may ask, “Meral Akşener? Where did that come from?” It’s been a year and a half since she bid farewell to both the İYİ Party leadership and active politics. She has remained completely silent since. Yet, in recent days, an unexpected Akşener debate has been simmering—not in the headlines, but in İYİ Party circles. The discussion did not start with her; she has kept her silence. But when Esma Bekar—Akşener’s former chief of staff and perhaps the person closest to her—posted a message, the question suddenly arose: “Is Akşener returning?”

Anonymous
ÇUBUKLU PİJAMA
Word of the Week Nov 7, 2025

ÇUBUKLU PİJAMA

In Turkey, çubuklu pijama, or striped pajamas, means much more than bedtime. It’s the uniform of the “baba”: the modest patriarch who comes home, trades his jacket for cotton stripes, and settles in front of the evening news. A garment of thrift and decency, it once stood for the steady comfort of the lower middle class.

Nazlan Ertan
ANKARA LEADS IN CREDIT DEBT, KARAMAN TOPS IN UNPAID LOANS
Economy and Finance Nov 7, 2025

ANKARA LEADS IN CREDIT DEBT, KARAMAN TOPS IN UNPAID LOANS

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.

Editorial Team
NUMBER OF COMPANIES FILING FOR CONCORDAT RISES BY 72%
Economy and Finance Nov 7, 2025

NUMBER OF COMPANIES FILING FOR CONCORDAT RISES BY 72%

The financial crisis facing companies in Turkey is deepening as the amount of non-performing loans from banks exceeded 519 billion lira as of the week of Oct. 24. In the January-October period of 2025, the number of companies granted a temporary moratorium on debt repayment rose to 2,326, a 72% increase year on year.

Editorial Team
CASUS
Word of the Week Oct 31, 2025

CASUS

In Turkish, casus is the spy who slips through keyholes and whispers down telephone lines. In Ottoman Turkish, the word appears as câsûs, borrowed from Arabic, and, under Sultan Abdülhamid II’s watchful reign, it had a cousin, hafiyye, the “secret investigator” who made surveillance an imperial art.

Nazlan Ertan
EKREM İMAMOĞLU: “NOT TOMORROW, NOW”
Portrait of the Week Oct 31, 2025

EKREM İMAMOĞLU: “NOT TOMORROW, NOW”

We’ve borrowed the headline from a famous Turkish pop song of the 1970s, “Çilli Bom Bom.” One verse goes: “Don’t leave today’s work for tomorrow / Seize the moment, don’t hesitate / The world turns fast, life is short / Tomorrow won’t do—it has to be now.” Ekrem İmamoğlu could be said to be “impatient.” Like in the song, he’s in a hurry. But to explain this as a mere character trait would be insufficient. Some attribute his impatience to being from Trabzon — in other words, a typical Black Sea temperament — but geography alone cannot explain it either.

Anonymous