At times, history compresses into weeks, and some rare nights carry the burden of decades. June 13 might just have been one of those nights. That’s when Israel struck Iran in a bold, chilling, and calculated move. Missiles flew, tensions spiked, and the post-post-Cold War order shuddered. But beneath the noise, five brutal and illuminating
Israeli warplanes launched a major airstrike on Iran in the early hours of June 13. The attack targeted military and nuclear facilities, killing Iran’s Chief of General Staff Mohammad Bagheri, Revolutionary Guards Commander Hossein Salami, and 6 scientists involved in Iran’s nuclear program. The Natanz nuclear reactor was also hit. Reports claim Airospace Forces Commander
In geopolitics, power is no longer measured solely by having a seat at the table, but by one’s ability to disrupt it if excluded. Today, Türkiye is demonstrating precisely that: an increasingly agile power whose influence cannot be ignored, even when it is not formally included. Some nations are invited to shape the game. Others
The front page of the Yeni Şafak newspaper on May 26 surprised those who saw it and was widely discussed in political and economic circles. The headline of Yeni Şafak (New Dawn in Turkish), one of the staunchest supporters of President Tayyip Erdoğan and the AKP government, read in large letters, “Interest rates up, foreign
“You are not a global leader, you are a local dictator,” Turkish main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel said to President Tayyip Erdoğan at a rally in İzmir on May 19, adding, “You will leave the way you came in.” Addressing nearly two million people on the 106th anniversary of the beginning
From the dissolution agreement concerning the PKK to shifting dynamics in Syria and ongoing Russia–Ukraine negotiations, Türkiye is currently navigating an intense period of political and diplomatic activity. Another significant process is set to begin in July: the negotiations for a revised Turkish-UK Free Trade Agreement. If managed effectively, these talks could present Türkiye with
Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in İstanbul on May 16 for possible peace talks. These are the third round of negotiations between the two countries, since the Russian war on Ukraine started in 2022; the previous two were also held in Türkiye with the mediation of the Turkish government. This time, a high-ranking US delegation
The PKK’s decision on May 12 to give up the armed struggle and dissolve itself means crossing another important threshold in terms of the possibility of ending the era of widespread political violence in Türkiye. From now on, even if the process is undermined and fails to produce results, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)
In Türkiye, the outcomes of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) disarmament and dissolution congress, convened in response to a proposal by Nationalist Movement Party leader Devlet Bahçeli and a call from PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan, are announced on May 12. Central to the process are critical issues such as the modalities of disarmament and