Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
While Ankara is seeking to strengthen its ties with the Washington administration, U.S. Ambassador to Ankara and Special Envoy to Syria Thomas Barrack has dusted off an old project aimed at transforming Turkey and Syria into a hub for energy security as an alternative to the Persian Gulf, caught in the crossfire for a month.
Turkish authorities launched a new anti-drug operation on March 25, detaining high-profile figures from the worlds of sports, business, and entertainment. The raids marked the end of a brief lull in such operations following the appointment of the new interior and justice ministers in February.
Bakım, or care, is one of those deceptively soft words, the sugar coating over a complex vitamin pill, a soft towel draped over the hard machinery of an economy. It suggests tenderness and love. What it rarely suggests is exhaustion, lost income, or the quiet arithmetic of inequality.
The poet Nazım Hikmet writes in his poem The Postman: “The news of humankind, of the world, of the homeland / The news of the tree, the wolf, the bird / At dawn or in the middle of the night / I carried to people in the middle of my heart...”
Turkey is unlikely to return to the “grey list” of jurisdictions that don’t do enough to fight money laundering.
The central bank spent approximately $23.5 billion in foreign exchange interventions during the first two weeks of the Iran war to defend the Turkish lira.
The government’s efforts to cool down the Turkish economy are falling short as rising energy prices and deteriorating market confidence push inflation targets out of reach.
The war that erupted on Feb. 28, between Iran, the U.S. and Israel has sparked deep global uncertainty, as Iran targets U.S. bases and strategic energy infrastructure across the Gulf.
The war on Iran has once again revealed the confusing complexities of Turkey’s geostrategic positioning as a middle power between Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar denied media reports that Iran stopped natural gas exports to Turkey following an Israeli military strike on the South Pars gas field on March 18.
A Qatari Air Force helicopter crashed into the sea, killing a Turkish air defense major, two Aselsan technicians, and four Qatari crew members. Questions remain unanswered, including the type of helicopter, the exact time when it crashed and the site of the crash.
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.