This bulletin has turned out to be rather more What’s Happening in the Middle East than What’s Happening in Türkiye?, but here we are.
Politics
🗳️ Claims of New Pro-Kurdish Party Emerging from AKP Circles
Turkish political journalist Nuray Babacan has reported claims circulating within AKP corridors that jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan is pushing for the establishment of a new political party capable of appealing to both Kurdish and Turkish voters through a fresh ideological approach.
📜 AKP Accelerates New Constitution Drive as Parliamentary Peace Commission Report Takes Centre Stage
Following the publication of a joint report by Turkey’s Grand National Assembly commission established under the Kurdish peace process, formally titled the National Solidarity, Brotherhood and Democracy Commission, sources close to the ruling AKP say the party has significantly stepped up work on a new constitution. According to political insiders, the commission’s report will not merely serve as an advisory document but will form the backbone of the constitutional draft, which is said to be ready for presentation to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Three broad themes are understood to be at the fore: a redefinition of fundamental rights and freedoms, an expansion of local government powers with a reduced role for central administrative oversight, and stronger mechanisms for democratic participation by civil society and professional bodies. Party figures suggest the “peace process” political consensus will be enshrined in the spirit of the new text, even if not directly cited within it. The opposition remains guarded, CHP and DEM Party sources acknowledge the door is not entirely shut, but warn the process could be used to lend constitutional legitimacy to political arrangements, whilst İYİ Party, which opposed the commission from the outset, is expected to resist any constitutional changes altogether.
🇺🇳 UN Security Council Removes HTS and Al-Nusra from Sanctions List, Potentially Affecting Nearly 500 Cases in Turkey
The United Nations Security Council has voted to remove Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Al-Nusra Front from its sanctions list, lifting asset freezes, arms embargoes and travel bans against both organisations. The decision follows a similar move by the United States State Department in May 2025, when Washington delisted HTS on the grounds that the group had formally disbanded and integrated into Syria’s governing structures, and a subsequent November 2025 delisting of HTS leader Ahmed al-Shara and Interior Minister Anas Hattab from UN sanctions. Turkish lawyer Onur Güler told reporters that the Security Council ruling could trigger acquittals in roughly 500 ongoing HTS-related criminal cases before Turkish courts, as defence teams are expected to use the shift in the organisation’s international classification as a powerful legal argument. Güler added that militants currently on Turkey’s National Police wanted list under the Al-Nusra category, particularly those with known ties to HTS commander Colani and his leadership circle, could also be removed from that list, naming Abdülsamed Dagül and Mehdi Canpolat as the most likely candidates. He noted, however, that whilst Turkey is legally bound by Security Council resolutions as a UN member state, the removal of international sanctions does not automatically nullify domestic terrorism legislation, meaning national courts retain the authority to conduct their own assessments.
Iran
Ruling Government (JDP and NMP coalition aka People’s Alliance)
🕊️ Erdoğan Offers Condolences Following Death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has issued a message of condolence following the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an attack. In his statement, Erdoğan expressed sorrow at the loss of his country’s neighbour and extended his sympathies to the Iranian people, adding that Turkey would continue its determined efforts to restore peace and stability to the region, bring an end to the ongoing conflict, and support a return to diplomacy.
⚠️ Erdoğan Voices Deep Concern Over US-Israel Strikes on Iran, Vows Diplomatic Push for Ceasefire
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has made his first public statement on the US-Israel military offensive against Iran, saying Turkey views the attacks, which he said were provoked by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, with deep sorrow and concern. Speaking at an iftar dinner, Erdoğan condemned the strikes as a clear violation of Iranian sovereignty while also stating that Iran’s missile and drone attacks against Gulf nations were equally unacceptable. He warned that without the prevalence of reason and a return to diplomacy, the region risked being dragged into a ring of fire, and called on all actors, particularly the Islamic world, to act urgently to prevent further bloodshed. Erdoğan added that Turkey faced no issues with regard to border security or airspace, with military, gendarmerie, police and intelligence services operating at the highest level of preparedness, and pledged to accelerate diplomatic efforts to first secure a ceasefire and then bring all parties back to the negotiating table.
🤝 Von der Leyen and Erdoğan Align on Diplomacy as Regional Tensions Deepen
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced via social media that she had held a productive telephone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, saying that regional instability was deeply affecting both sides and that close coordination was essential. Von der Leyen said both leaders had spent the day in contact with regional partners to assess the situation and work towards de-escalation, and that she welcomed Turkey’s readiness to mediate and support a peaceful resolution, with both sides in agreement that diplomacy was the only viable path forward. She also expressed appreciation for Erdoğan’s preparedness efforts regarding the potential migratory impact of the crisis, noting that the two countries were already working closely on Syria, and acknowledged that regional and global stability were under serious threat.
📢 Turkey’s Communications Director Calls for Urgent Revival of Negotiation Mechanisms
Turkey’s Director of Communications Burhanettin Duran has stated that the escalating conflict between the US, Israel and Iran, and its spillover effects on other countries in the region, represents an unacceptable situation and a serious threat to both regional and global peace. In a social media post, Duran said the developments endangered stability and civilian safety across a wide geography, and called for dialogue and negotiation mechanisms to be reinstated without delay. He reiterated that under President Erdoğan’s leadership, Turkey had always stood for lasting peace, regional stability and solutions grounded in international law, and pledged that the country would continue to fulfil its responsibilities in reducing tensions, protecting civilians and keeping diplomatic channels open. Duran also noted that all state institutions were closely monitoring developments and taking necessary measures to ensure the safety of Turkish citizens, and urged the public to remain vigilant against provocation and disinformation, particularly on digital platforms, advising people to rely solely on official sources.
🛃 Day-Trip Passenger Crossings Halted at Turkey-Iran Border as Freight Traffic Continues
Turkish Trade Minister Ömer Bolat has confirmed that whilst no extraordinary situation exists at the three border crossings between Turkey and Iran, namely Gürbulak in Ağrı, Kapıköy in Van and Esendere in Hakkari, day-trip passenger crossings have been mutually suspended at all three gates. Commercial freight traffic is continuing in a controlled manner, and Iran is permitting its own nationals to re-enter the country via Turkey, whilst Ankara is allowing both Turkish citizens and third-country nationals to cross from Iran into Turkey. Bolat added that contingency plans and additional measures are being updated should the need arise, that staff reinforcements have been deployed and control infrastructure strengthened, and that all relevant public institutions are on standby to ensure uninterrupted border and trade flow operations.
✈️ Turkey Becomes Aviation Hub as Regional Airspace Closures Force Mass Rerouting
Turkey’s airspace has come under extraordinary pressure following the closure or restriction of airspace over Iran, Iraq, Israel, Syria, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar in the wake of US-Israeli strikes on Iran, with international flight routes being redirected en masse through Turkish airspace. Turkey’s Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure confirmed that traffic is being rerouted primarily along the Saudi Arabia-Egypt-Turkey-Cyprus corridor, with some flights taking a northern route via Azerbaijan, and that air traffic services are continuing safely and without interruption. On 28 February alone, 15 flights diverted due to regional closures, nine of which were directed to Istanbul Airport. Ground operations at several Israeli airports have also been severely affected, with Ben Gurion operating at limited capacity and Haifa, Ramon, Rosh Pina and Herzliya airports fully closed, whilst Damascus and Aleppo airports are operating under variable conditions. Two Turkish aircraft, belonging to Turkish Airlines and Pegasus, remain grounded at Tehran Airport, with Turkish carriers applying route adjustments across their networks in line with current restrictions.
Opposition Parties (RPP and others)
🔴 CHP Leader Özel Condemns US-Israeli Strikes on Iran and Calls for Return to Diplomacy
Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel has issued a seven-point statement on the US-Israeli military offensive against Iran, making clear that his party opposes the attacks as violations of international law and calling on all parties to cease hostilities and return to the negotiating table immediately. Özel said that whilst the CHP does not endorse the Iranian regime’s repressive policies and human rights record, the future of Iran and the wider region must be determined solely by those who live there. He warned that a war spreading across the region would cause irreversible devastation, rejected any interference that targets civilian populations, and called on regional countries and the international community to stand against all interventions that disregard international law. Özel also drew a parallel with US and Israeli conduct towards Palestine, Venezuela and Greenland, arguing that Washington and Tel Aviv were attempting to build a system in which they could intervene in any country at will, change regimes by force and acquire territory, and pledged that his party would continue to defend a rules-based international order grounded in law, ethics and respect for national sovereignty.
🕊️ DEM Party Calls for Dialogue Over Conflict, Arguing a Third Way Is Possible in Iran
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party has issued a statement on the US-Israeli strikes against Iran, calling on all parties to halt attacks and return to dialogue and negotiation, whilst urging that the democratic and freedom aspirations of the Iranian people be taken into account. The party’s statement was accompanied by a broader ideological analysis arguing that the current wave of militarism is not merely a product of geopolitical calculation but reflects the historical crisis of the neo-liberal order, which it contends has exhausted its capacity to generate legitimacy and is increasingly resorting to authoritarian rule at home and aggression abroad. Drawing on the 2026 Munich Security Report and other recent analyses, the party argued that the rules-based international order is not merely eroding but disintegrating, and that US policy under Donald Trump represents a systemic shift towards prioritising corporate and national interests over universal legal norms. The statement traced this trajectory through US national security doctrines from the 2002 pre-emptive war doctrine through to the present, concluding that the conflicts unfolding today are the expression of a deeper crisis within global capitalism rather than the actions of any single leader.
⚖️ İYİ Party Leader Dervişoğlu Condemns Strikes as Clear Violation of International Law
İYİ Party leader Müsavat Dervişoğlu has responded to the Israeli-US military offensive against Iran by calling for restraint and urging all parties to return to the negotiating table, warning of the serious risks and potentially irreparable losses the conflict poses for the wider region. Dervişoğlu stated that the pre-emptive war doctrine, under which Iranian government buildings were targeted, constitutes a clear violation of international law and was invented to legitimise state aggression. He expressed particular concern that the military operation was launched despite an agreed framework for nuclear talks between Iran and the United States that had been due to resume in Vienna the following week, describing this as deeply troubling.
🚨 DEVA Leader Babacan Condemns Iran Strikes and Warns of Economic and Migration Risks for Turkey
DEVA Party leader Ali Babacan has condemned the Israeli-led, US-backed military operation against Iran as a clear violation of international law and the foundational principles of the UN Charter, rejecting the pre-emptive war doctrine invoked as justification and arguing it has no standing in international law. Babacan warned that launching military action whilst negotiations were still under way posed a grave threat to regional stability, and drew on past experience to argue that democracy cannot be built through external intervention, which he said only deepens chaos and humanitarian tragedy. He also sounded an economic alarm, cautioning that targeting Iran’s governing centres and infrastructure could trigger direct economic consequences for Turkey as well as new waves of migration, and that any threat to energy routes through the Strait of Hormuz could reach a scale capable of shaking the global economy. Babacan concluded by urging Turkey to take an active role in reviving diplomatic channels and preparing for potential crises, stating that his party stands firmly on the side of diplomacy, reason and international law.
🔐 Davutoğlu Demands Turkey Close Kürecik Base and Take Control of İncirlik Amid Iran Strikes
Former prime minister and Gelecek Party leader Ahmet Davutoğlu has issued one of the most detailed and assertive Turkish political responses to the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, calling on Ankara to immediately declare that its territory will not be used in attacks against Iran, shut down the Kürecik radar base, and establish Turkish Armed Forces oversight mechanisms to prevent İncirlik air base from being used in the offensive, with full control of İncirlik to be transferred to the Turkish military should any such request or unauthorised use occur. Davutoğlu argued that the real agenda behind the strikes is not Iran’s nuclear capacity but rather regime change or the destruction of Iran’s defensive capabilities to pave the way for Israeli regional dominance, and warned that those who remain silent today will find their turn comes eventually. He set out a comprehensive diplomatic roadmap urging Turkey to invoke NATO Article 4 consultations, revive the P5+1 negotiating format, conduct urgent telephone diplomacy with UN Security Council permanent members, establish a trilateral initiative with Egypt and Saudi Arabia to approach the United States, convene the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on an emergency basis, build a strategic dialogue mechanism with Iraq, and launch direct mediation between Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent the conflict from spreading further east.
🕌 Saadet Party Leader Arıkan Calls for Immediate Closure of Kürecik and İncirlik Bases
Saadet Party leader Mahmut Arıkan has called on the Turkish government to immediately close the Kürecik and İncirlik bases and refuse to be complicit in what he described as US and Israeli attacks that trample international law underfoot, arguing that Turkey must move beyond symbolic declarations and accelerate the formation of a new bloc with genuine capacity for action. Speaking at an iftar dinner in Ankara, Arıkan offered condolences for the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei and for those killed in a school strike during the offensive, and situated the attacks within a broader pattern he described as stretching from the 2001 invasion of Iraq through to the Gaza conflict and now Iran, arguing that the ultimate goal is the establishment of a Greater Israel. He warned that the Venezuela intervention was an economic precondition for the Iran strikes, designed to secure alternative oil supplies ahead of potential disruption to the Strait of Hormuz, and that the simultaneous flaring of tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan was no coincidence, as both countries had stated they would stand with Iran in a conflict. Arıkan also alleged that NATO bases on Turkish soil may be providing intelligence support to US and Israeli forces, and cautioned that countries hosting American bases risk themselves becoming future targets, urging all regional nations to come together and take the necessary measures to prevent the conflict from escalating into a full-scale regional war.
🚧 Zafer Party Leader Özdağ Urges Turkish Military to Establish Buffer Zone Inside Iran to Halt Migration
Zafer Party leader Ümit Özdağ has warned that the war against Iran risks triggering a massive new wave of migration towards Turkey, and called on the Turkish Armed Forces to establish security zones inside Iranian territory to stop any such movement at source, whilst urging the United Nations to be brought in to meet the needs of displaced people through its own channels. Speaking at an iftar dinner in Bursa, Özdağ argued that the conflict follows the same pattern as Syria, where a strategy of toppling a regime through civil war led to mass bloodshed and displacement, and warned that millions of Afghans already present in Iran and waiting to leave could flood towards Turkey if the situation deteriorated further. He said Turkey, which he claimed already hosts nearly 13 million refugees and undocumented migrants at an annual cost of 11 billion dollars, was in no position to absorb further arrivals, and that the financial and social burden of existing migration was one of the principal causes of the country’s current economic difficulties. Özdağ described the broader migration dynamic as a deliberate plan to alter Turkey’s demographic composition, and insisted that any costs arising from Iranian displacement must be borne by the United Nations rather than the Turkish public.
📰 ANKA News Agency Editor-in-Chief Detained Over İncirlik Air Base Report Defends Journalism
Kenan Şener, editor-in-chief of Turkish news agency ANKA, has given a statement to authorities after being detained as part of an investigation into a report his outlet published about İncirlik Air Base in Adana. Şener, accompanied by his lawyers, was taken for a medical examination at Yüreğir State Hospital alongside others detained in the same investigation, and is expected to be referred to the courthouse the following day. In his statement, Şener maintained that the report did not pose a national security risk and said that whilst he accepted responsibility for any publication found to contain such risks, he did not believe any mistake had been made, either in general or from a journalistic standpoint.
Economics
🧵 Turkey’s Textile and Footwear Sectors Sound Alarm Over EU-India Free Trade Deal
Turkey’s textile and footwear industries are warning of significant market losses in Europe following the free trade agreement signed between the European Union and India, which is set to usher in a zero-tariff regime from 2027. Industry representatives say India’s price advantage of up to 30 percent in ready-to-wear clothing, combined with its vast production capacity of 2.2 billion pairs of footwear annually and the transfer of Italian and Taiwanese manufacturing technology to the subcontinent, could erode Turkey’s current 50 percent share of the EU footwear market to as low as 25 to 30 percent. A further structural disadvantage cited by sector leaders is that Indian producers source raw materials from China tariff-free, whilst Turkish manufacturers face additional levies of between 50 and 100 percent on comparable inputs, making Turkish goods 10 to 20 percent more expensive overall. The Istanbul Textile and Raw Materials Exporters’ Association chairman called for a trade agreement with the United States as a potential counterweight, describing such a deal as having a “doping effect” on the sector, whilst industry figures broadly agreed that competing with India on price alone is not viable and that new strategic orientations must be developed before 2027.
⚓ Lydia Yeşil Enerji to Absorb Batıliman in Strategic Shift Towards Port Operations
Lydia Yeşil Enerji Kaynakları AŞ, listed on Borsa Istanbul’s main market, has announced it will absorb port operator Batıliman Liman İşletmeleri AŞ in its entirety, including all assets and liabilities, with the merger process initiated following board decisions taken by both companies on 27 February 2026. Upon completion, port operations will continue under a newly formed publicly listed entity to be named BATILYDİA Liman İşletmeleri AŞ, with Lydia’s share capital set to increase to 3,777,069.16 Turkish lira as part of the transaction, which will be conducted on the basis of independently audited financial statements dated 31 December 2025 and in compliance with Capital Markets Board regulations. The merger is described as a strategic repositioning of Lydia’s core business towards port management and integrated logistics operations, with the publicly listed structure expected to strengthen transparency, improve access to financing, and generate operational synergies across the group’s logistics and energy activities, whilst also simplifying the overall subsidiary structure.