On August 7, 2026, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan signed a trilateral defense pact in Mecca, each committing to treat an attack on one as an attack on all. Coming amid the Iran-US war and a renewed Houthi threat to Saudi Arabia, the agreement has drawn immediate comparison to NATO's Article 5. Our experts weigh in.

Turkey stands closer to ending its four-decade war with the PKK. A draft framework law, the product of more than two years of negotiations with the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, reached parliament this week, and a plenary vote is expected soon. An end to the armed conflict would benefit Turkey and the wider region. The way the government has drafted the law and managed the process, however, carries several warning signs that temper such optimism.

Challenging the official coup attempt narrative is a red line in Turkey. Revelations about the night could shake the foundations of the current political order. This explains the lack of interest among the politicians and journalists in the coup trials. Nevertheless, the path to return democracy and rule of law for Turkey is still hidden in the darkness of that night.

The NATO summit held in Ankara on July 7 and 8 produced few surprises. By the standards of the alliance in its current condition, a summit that ends without a scandal counts as a success, and Ankara delivered one. Participants across delegations described a flawlessly organized event in which every need had been anticipated, a sentiment the summit declaration itself echoed in recording the allies' appreciation for Turkey's hospitality.

Turkey crossed another threshold in Africa this week. On June 30, Turkish F-16 fighter jets struck Al-Shabaab positions in Somalia in the first publicly acknowledged combat use of Turkish warplanes in the country. According to Somalia's Ministry of Defense, the strikes, conducted in support of the Somali National Army, targeted caves, weapons depots, and hideouts, killing approximately 35 militants and seriously wounding more than 20 others.

The NATO Summit will be attended by the heads of government, among them U.S. President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, along with other guests such as Syrian President Ahmad al-Shaara. These are the busiest days for Western diplomats posted in Turkey, who are scrambling to prepare for their leaders' arrivals.

This submission to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) highlights severe issues undermining the integrity of Türkiye's judiciary, particularly focusing on rampant judicial corruption and impunity as well as human rights abuses which they facilitate. Based on the most recent incidents of corruption concerning members of the judiciary who serve in courts in Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara, this report seeks to examine the high-level corruption within the judiciary and the Turkish government’s failure or even willful ignorance in addressing it.

This report focuses on Turkey's prominence as an emerging market for cocaine trafficking and organized crime in the last decade. Cocaine production in Latin America has dramatically increased since 2013, and Turkey’s status as an emerging market has attracted the attention of Latin American government officials on the front lines of the cocaine trade.

This report sets out to provide a comprehensive analysis of the tactics employed by the Erdoğan administration to achieve repressive goals abroad and the vulnerabilities and how they are enabled by the AML and CFT regulation in place.

This submission highlights the ongoing systematic actions and omissions by Turkish authorities against the so-called members of the Gulen Group, framed as crimes against humanity. It demonstrates the violations of recommendations that even Türkiye has supported.

This report offers an update to the United Nations Committee against Torture (the Committee) regarding the obstacles to implementing the Convention against Torture (the Convention) in Turkey. As a coalition formed by a collective of former Turkish diplomats, our focus is on the systematic torture faced by former diplomats detained at Ankara Police Headquarters. We delve into the Turkish context and present insights from our organization.

His electoral victory in May 2023 gave President Erdoğan five more years to further consolidate his power, eviscerate institutions, fill the bureaucracy with yes-men and expand his corruption network. This, of course, raises questions about the Turkish political system’s chances of recovery, the prospects for democratization after Erdogan and the regime’s tolerance for his demise.