Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
Nasreddin Hoca, the wise and witty Turkish folk hero, once arrived at a dinner in his ordinary clothes and discovered that nobody thought him worth much attention. He went home, put on his finest fur coat and returned. This time he was welcomed warmly, seated at the table and offered the best food. So Hoca began dipping the sleeve of his coat into the dishes.
Garanti BBVA, the high-street bank majority-owned by Spain’s BBVA, has agreed to pay a fine of 1.55 billion liras ($31.8 million) after settling an antitrust investigation into labor market practices, the lender disclosed on the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP).
After the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) imposed an 8 million lira administrative fine on ATV, outlets belonging to pro-government Turkuvaz Media published articles targeting the watchdog.
Before the government submits a bill to define Turkish zones of jurisdiction in the surrounding seas, Turkey and Greece have once again clashed off the coast of Cyprus.
Turkey’s Parliament witnessed a rare moment on Dec. 4 as a summary of notes from the recent meeting of three lawmakers with PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan was read aloud and recorded in the parliamentary minutes. In the summary, he was not referred to as “terrorist” despite the decades-long reputation shaped by the state, nor as a founding leader of the PKK, as MHP Chair Devlet Bahçeli — the initiator of the recent process — had defined him.
Otokar, the Koç Group vehicle manufacturer that signed a €857 million agreement with Romania in Nov. 2024, was fined for the second time for delays in the project schedule.
Turkey’s broadcast watchdog has imposed heavy fines on three major television channels over their most-watched programs, citing viewer complaints and alleged violations of family values and public morality.
The abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by the United States has reignited a fierce debate in Turkey over the concept of the “internal front,” a term increasingly used by the government to call for national unity amid shifting global dynamics. The notion of “fortifying the internal front” — defined by the government as acting in unison on national issues — gained prominence alongside changes in the international order. It was President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who first introduced the phrase in August 2024, and has repeatedly emphasized it over the past year as a shield against foreign policy challenges and a necessity for “national survival.”
Broadly defined unemployment in Turkey has climbed close to 12 million, according to a December 2025 report by DİSK-AR, the research branch of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey.
While Turkey and Iran were on opposite sides during the Syrian civil war, Israel's hostility to the new regime in Damascus appears to be pushing Ankara and Tehran closer as both define Israel as a threat to Syria’s stability.
Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu was fined 9,267 lira for speeding.
Altın varak, the Turkish expression for gold leaf, is what happens when human vanity finds its most delicate expression. The Ottomans used it with flair: laid onto Qur’an illuminations, painted into miniatures, burnished across mosque panels and palace ceilings. It was a craft in which theology, politics, and decoration were rolled into one, performed with fine brushes.