Politics
🏛️⏱️📍 Cabinet Meeting Wraps Up at the Presidential Complex
The Presidential Cabinet meeting chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has concluded in Ankara after lasting approximately two and a half hours. Held at the Presidential Complex, the session began at 4.10pm and ended in the early evening, with no immediate details released.
📞🌍🤝 Erdoğan and Trump Talk Turkey, Syria and Gaza
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has held a phone call with US President Donald Trump, covering the state of bilateral relations alongside a sweep of regional and global issues. According to Ankara, Erdoğan stressed that Turkey is closely monitoring developments in Syria and considers the country’s unity, territorial integrity and stability non-negotiable, while discussions also touched on the fight against ISIS and the future of detention facilities holding its fighters. Gaza featured prominently too, with Erdoğan reaffirming Turkey’s commitment to working in coordination with Washington to support peace efforts and thanking Trump for the invitation to the Gaza Peace Council. For his part, Trump summed it up succinctly—calling it “a very good phone call”—which, in diplomatic terms, is about as warm as it gets.
🕯️🏔️🔥 Kartalkaya Remembers: One Year On, Grief and the Call for Justice Endure
On the first anniversary of the Grand Kartal Hotel fire in Kartalkaya, families and supporters gathered outside the ruins at 03:18—the hour the blaze began—to remember the 78 people, including 34 children, who lost their lives. Photographs, carnations and projected names turned the hotel’s façade into a quiet memorial, while relatives spoke of a pain that has not faded and of a determination that has only hardened. Although heavy sentences have been handed down to the hotel’s owners and staff, families insist the reckoning is incomplete as investigations into public officials continue. Their message, delivered without theatrics but with resolve, was stark: remembrance is not enough—accountability must be comprehensive, and negligence must never again be allowed to pass for fate.
🎨🚨🏛️ Attack on Turkish Embassy in Berlin Leaves Two Detained
The wall of Turkey’s embassy in Berlin was vandalised overnight after a group targeted the building in the Tiergarten district, German police have confirmed. Around 40 people are reported to have splashed red paint across the embassy wall and daubed slogans in white on the pavement outside, while also damaging the neighbouring South African embassy and setting off smoke bombs. Police arriving at the scene found the group had dispersed, but two suspects aged 19 and 20 were later detained nearby. The investigation is being handled by Berlin’s state security police unit.
🌲⛏️📄 Final Approval for Limak’s Hatay Mine as Last Obstacles Fall Away
Limak Holding has received final approval from Turkey’s environment ministry for the expansion of its bentonite mining project in Hatay, clearing the way for work that will see at least 4,237 trees felled in a forested area. The project will enlarge the existing mine from 20.69 to 81.76 hectares—roughly the size of 115 football pitches—and more than double annual production from 200,000 to 440,000 tonnes. According to the approved environmental impact report, the expansion will affect a biologically rich area home to endemic plant species as well as dozens of amphibian, reptile, bird and mammal species. Despite strong local opposition that halted a public consultation meeting last year, the project has now passed its final regulatory stage, leaving no administrative barrier to its implementation.
🍽️🧓📉 Elderly at Risk: Data Shows Widespread Undernutrition Among Over-70s
New figures from TÜRK-İŞ paint a troubling picture of old-age poverty and poor health in Turkey, with many people over 70 now at risk of inadequate nutrition. As the hunger threshold rose to ₺30,143 in December 2025, millions of pensioners attempting to survive on a ₺20,000 monthly income are struggling to afford even basic food. According to the Turkey Elderly Health Report, 32 per cent of older people living in care homes face the risk of malnutrition, a figure that climbs further among those living alone. Experts point to chronically low social spending on the elderly—far below European averages—as a key factor, warning that insufficient income and poor diet are already translating into muscle loss, declining health and, ultimately, higher long-term healthcare costs.
🇹🇷🚨📍 Flag Provocation in Nusaybin Prompts Official Investigation
An investigation has been launched after a group in the Nusaybin district of Mardin breached police barricades and took down a Turkish flag flying along the border. Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç condemned the incident and confirmed that the Mardin Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened a criminal inquiry. Tunç also noted that related protests linked to developments in Syria have triggered wider legal action across the country, with hundreds of suspects investigated, dozens detained and judicial controls imposed. The message from authorities was unequivocal: acts seen as targeting state sovereignty or public order will be pursued through the courts.
✈️🏛️💷 New VIP Terminal Planned for Ankara’s Esenboğa Airport
As Ankara prepares to host the 36th NATO Summit in July 2026, plans are moving ahead for a new VIP building at Esenboğa Airport, with an estimated cost of ₺800 million. According to Turkey’s 2026–2028 Investment Programme, the 7,000-square-metre facility will complement broader upgrades linked to heightened security and high-level visits, including those of world leaders such as US President Donald Trump. The announcement comes alongside ongoing, far costlier works at Etimesgut Military Airport—effectively being refashioned into a VIP hub—underscoring a renewed focus on prestige infrastructure at the capital’s gateways, justified officially by logistics and security, and funded accordingly.
Opposition (RPP and others)
🚨🏛️⚖️ Operation at Bayrampaşa Municipality Leads to Multiple Detentions
A fresh operation targeting Bayrampaşa Municipality has resulted in the detention of 12 people, with arrest warrants issued for a total of 13 suspects as part of an ongoing corruption probe in Istanbul. The investigation, led by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, centres on allegations including embezzlement, extortion, bribery and rigging public tenders, involving the mayor, municipal officials and private individuals. Police carried out simultaneous raids, searches and seizures across homes and workplaces, while efforts to locate the remaining suspects continue.
🗂️⚖️🗣️ Özgür Özel Alleges Partnership Linking Former AK Party Chief to IBB Case
CHP leader Özgür Özel has claimed that Murat Gülibrahimoğlu, a fugitive businessman named in the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality investigation as an alleged organisation leader, was in a business partnership with Osman Nuri Kabaktepe, the former AK Party Istanbul provincial chairman. Speaking at his party’s parliamentary group meeting, Özel said the partnership dates back to 2018 and added that Gülibrahimoğlu had made donations, via Kabaktepe, to a foundation established by Bilal Erdoğan. Özel further alleged that certain financial transactions—amounting to millions of euros—were not properly scrutinised during the investigation, raising questions over selective oversight and undisclosed financial links.
🕯️🏛️📰 Former Avcılar Deputy Mayor Burçin Baykal Dies
Burçin Baykal, a former deputy mayor of Avcılar Municipality, has died, with reports indicating that he took his own life. Baykal had previously been arrested in 2022 as part of an investigation into an alleged criminal network and was released the following year after a brief period in custody. His death comes amid renewed attention to personal tragedy within the family, following the death of his brother Burak Baykal in November 2025.
📣🗳️📍 İmamoğlu Calls Supporters to Çekmeköy Rally
Ekrem İmamoğlu, the elected Mayor of Istanbul and CHP’s detained presidential candidate, has issued a video appeal inviting the public to attend the “Defending the People’s Will” rally in Çekmeköy on Wednesday, 21 January. Sharing the message on social media, İmamoğlu said the crowd would speak with one voice, invoking the slogan: “There is no salvation alone—either all of us together, or none of us.”
Crime
🚓🧾🔒 Crackdown Across Nine Provinces Nets 89 in Organised Crime Sweep
Turkey’s gendarmerie has rounded up 89 suspects in coordinated operations targeting nine organised crime groups across nine provinces over the past fortnight, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has said. Sixty-five of those detained have been remanded in custody, with others released under judicial supervision, as investigators traced more than ₺7 billion in suspicious account activity dating back several years. Assets including homes, land, bank and crypto accounts—and ₺50 million in cash—have been seized, while the alleged offences range from loan-sharking and online fraud to arms trafficking, illegal betting and drug distribution.
Economy
💶🤝🌱 EU–Turkey Business Dialogue Unlocks €6 Million for 18 Joint Projects
Under the second phase of the EU–Turkey Business Dialogue programme, 18 joint projects will receive a combined €6 million in funding, aimed at keeping cooperation alive in a world that seems increasingly fond of uncertainty. Backed by the European Commission and running until 2027, the initiative will pair Turkish and EU chambers of commerce to work on energy efficiency, green and digital transformation, food and agriculture, tourism, start-ups and alignment with EU legislation. TOBB President Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu used the launch to gently remind Brussels that Turkey’s young workforce, manufacturing capacity and strategic geography make it more partner than peripheral—and that initiatives like “Made in EU” are best served when they are inclusive rather than inward-looking. In short, a modest pot of money, sensibly deployed, and a quiet nudge that cooperation still beats going it alone.
📲⚖️🟢 Papara Gets a Reprieve as Central Bank Decision Is Scrapped
Papara has been given a legal lifeline after Turkey’s central bank formally withdrew its decision to revoke the company’s operating licence, following a court order to suspend enforcement. A notice published in the Official Gazette confirms that the TCMB’s Bank Council ruling lost its legal validity after Ankara’s 25th Administrative Court intervened, effectively clearing the way for Papara to resume business. The company had already indicated that its systems would be reactivated once the court decision took effect, suggesting that—after weeks of uncertainty—users can expect services to return. A reminder, perhaps, that in regulatory matters, the final word is not always the first one.