Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
Uçum said the role assigned to Öcalan should not be interpreted differently, and that the residence built for him on İmralı Island is an additional unit attached to the prison, after the reactions on the construction of a villa announced by MHP Chair Devlet Bahçeli.
When the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office summoned the city’s former mayor, Melih Gökçek, to testify over his family members' assets and accounts in Germany, the first reaction was silence.
After the reactions of Turkish journalists and media organizations over the refusal to grant them credentials to cover the NATO Summit in Ankara, some member states conveyed their concerns at NATO headquarters.
The recent terror attack in Kashmir and the subsequent tension between India and Pakistan have returned this decades-old rivalry to the spotlight. Events quickly spiralled into a dangerously charged standoff, with India’s initial reaction—withdrawing from the Indus Water Treaty—drawing a fierce response from Pakistan, which even hinted at the possibility of nuclear retaliation.
Turkey will assume command of NATO's Allied Reaction Force starting in 2028, and the TAF plans to increase the number of its commando brigades from 25 to 40 within the next three years.
Four staff members of the satirical magazine Leman were arrested after a cartoon accused of insulting religious values triggered violent protests in Istanbul and drew sharp reactions from across the political spectrum.
“Turkey gives its children no chance to concern themselves with anything but itself,” said Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, a prominent Turkish poet and novelist who died in 1962. While the world was preoccupied with Donald Trump’s tariffs and the international media’s coverage focused on the reactions, Turkey was only discussing the opposition's call for an economic boycott implemented on April 2.
The word of the week is “ihtiyatlı iyimserlik,” literally, “cautious optimism.” A staple of diplomatic jargon, the phrase allows diplomats, speechwriters, and strategists to sound hopeful without making any actual commitment. Last week alone, the term was trotted out as a reaction to the latest Damascus-SDF agreement, the ever-elusive prospect of a Ukraine-Russia ceasefire, and Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s pledge to establish an independent commission to bring those responsible for civilian killings in Latakia and Tartus to justice. And, yes, we are also cautiously optimistic about PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan’s calls to dissolve PKK and lay down arms, too.
For some in Turkey whoever wins the White House in next week’s elections, it won’t make much difference. It might not be that simple. It is no secret that ever since the failed coup attempt in 2016, there has been bad blood between Ankara and the Democrats in Washington. The view that part of the U.S. establishment was close to the Gülenist movement and the lukewarm reaction shown to the coup attempt reinforced the conviction among AKP elites that had the coup succeeded, Washington was not going to shed tears for the toppling of the government.