EU SEEKS TO AVOID DIPLOMATIC TURBULENCE AS ANKARA SIDESTEPS CONFRONTATION
When European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen listed Turkey alongside the bloc's strategic rivals, both Brussels and Ankara moved quickly to contain the fallout.
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AS GOVERNMENT SIGNALS CONTINUITY, OPPOSITION SEES SHARED POLITICAL FATE WITH HUNGARY
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.
ANKARA TO ACCELERATE REGIONAL SECURITY EFFORT AT ADF
Amid uncertainty surrounding ceasefire talks between the United States and Iran, Ankara has accelerated its steps to rebuild regional security.
DEFENDANTS CONTINUE CHALLENGING CORRUPTION INDICTMENT ON İMAMOĞLU CASE
The sixth week of the mass corruption trial of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and more than 400 co-defendants produced some of its most dramatic courtroom exchanges. İmamoğlu and the presiding judge continued sharp exchanges while the municipality’s housing company, KİPTAŞ, chair Ali Kurt implicated senior government figures in a land scheme, and the European Court of Human Rights formally demanded answers from Ankara.
EYES ON LIBYA AGAIN
The TAF is participating in a US-led military exercise in Libya, where Turkey backed the Government of National Accord (GNA) in the west during the civil war. Meanwhile, attention has again focused on the plane crash in which the GNA Chief of Staff Muhammed Ali Ahmed Al Haddad and his delegation died near Ankara on Dec. 23, 2025.
TURKEY WORRIES ABOUT ISRAEL’S NEXT STEPS
Ankara is happy to see the two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran as a significant first step, but worries it may not hold. The central fear focuses on Israel, which stayed silent through the night of negotiations only to issue a statement on Lebanon afterward.
JOURNALIST ULUDAĞ CASE SHUTTLES BETWEEN ANKARA AND ISTANBUL
An Istanbul court accepted an indictment against DW Turkish correspondent Alican Uludağ, ruled it had no jurisdiction over the case, and then transferred the file to Ankara.
RESURRECTION OF FOUR SEAS PROJECT
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.
ANKARA DENIES REPORTS OF IRANIAN GAS CUTOFF
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.
ANKARA ACTIVATES TAX SHIELD TO CUSHION IMPACT OF OIL SURGE
Turkey has reintroduced the “sliding scale mechanism” to prevent dramatic pump hikes from feeding inflation after the Iranian War pushed global oil prices higher.
TANIL BORA: AN ANKARAN ATTACKED FOR A BOOK
Tanıl Bora, who quietly reads, translates, and writes books, suddenly became a target last week after Özgür Özel and Ekrem İmamoğlu announced that they were reading his book “Cereyanlar” (Currents of Thought).
RUSSIAN AND FRENCH EMBASSIES IN ANKARA SPAR ON SOCIAL MEDIA IN TURKISH
In a rare diplomatic spat in the local language, the Russian and French diplomatic missions in Ankara traded barbs on social media over the ongoing war in Ukraine amid the war’s anniversary. The dispute, which drew attention from Turkish users, shifted from geopolitical accusations to historical insults and the use of emojis.