Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
'Trees die standing.' That is the title of a play that has been staged in our theaters for many years. Müjdat Gezen is 83 years old and has been a performer for more than 60 years. Not just on stage — also a film actor and television personality. He has spent most of his life, in a sense, broadcasting live. His life is, in fact, a summary of Turkey's most turbulent era.
The Tele 1, under the administration of a trustee, has been put up for sale by the TMSF before even the first hearing of the case that led to the opposition broadcaster’s seizure.
A series of aircraft crashes related to the Turkish Armed Forces over the past six months has sparked debate over whether there was external interference.
Sigara (and its unruly cousin, cigara) comes to Turkish via Italian — a linguistic clue that matches the prevailing historical account: tobacco reached the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century through Genoese trade routes, though some credit goes to the British. Origins aside, the word now points to a habit so entrenched it once traveled abroad as cliché: “smoke like a Turk.”
As Hüsamettin Cindoruk and Yalçın Küçük passed away within days of each other, this is an attempt to sketch their portraits in a single piece. They were close in age. While they may have moved in different political lanes, they still shared firsthand experience of more than sixty years of this country’s political life.
“The opposition called for a quorum check, and when the required majority was not met, parliament was adjourned.” In recent months, this recurring news in parliament is not merely a simple quorum crisis. Behind it lie both structural problems inherent in the presidential system and the power struggle between the government and the opposition, spilling into parliamentary proceedings.
The CEO of Turkey’s largest private lender, İşbank, called for an immediate departure from the government’s economic program, saying that global conditions have made the fight against inflation impossible.
Two Turkish courts have handed down prison sentences to four journalists who were facing the same accusation of 'spreading information misleading to the public,' under Article 217/A of the penal code.
Each time political appointments in diplomacy are criticised in Turkey, the same defence appears with the reliability of a reflex: “Other countries do it too”. Perhaps they do. But mediocrity does not become wisdom once imported.
Concerned by the risk of being excluded from trade with Europe, the AKP government is planning to amend the public procurement law.
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.