Türkiye

Mecca Defence Pact: Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan

Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan signed the Mecca defence pact on 7 August 2026, formalising a trilateral security arrangement that commits each state to treat an armed attack on any one of them as an attack on all three. The agreement, formally designated the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, was concluded in the Saudi holy city...

Türkiye diplomacy: Fidan, NATO and new alliances

Türkiye diplomacy entered an intensive phase in the second week of June 2026, with Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan conducting a bilateral visit to Bulgaria, receiving United States of America (hereinafter: USA) special envoy Tom Barrack in Ankara, coordinating on the Washington-Tehran nuclear negotiations with Qatari and American officials, and overseeing parallel advances in defence and...

Whose Seat Is It? Party Switching, Elected Office and Democratic Legitimacy in Türkiye

When a member of parliament or a mayor switches parties after being elected, the act may seem like an ordinary exercise of political freedom. Yet it raises a deeper democratic question: whose seat is it? Does the elected office belong to the individual officeholder, to the party that nominated them or to the voters who...

What Can Türkiye Do?

Continuing with the last work in our five-article series on the current war on Iran, we are adopting the strategic lens of Türkiye. In this article, we put ourselves in the position of the Turkish state to understand what it can do within this war. As Türkiye is multidimensionally affected by this war, we will...

Türkiye Expands Artificial Intelligence And Drone Technologies

Türkiye is expanding the development and application of artificial intelligence (hereinafter: AI) technologies across multiple sectors, including defence systems, startup ecosystems and national digital infrastructure. Recent announcements include the introduction of an artificial intelligence-enabled unmanned aerial vehicle by the defence company Baykar and initiatives to establish sovereign artificial intelligence infrastructure aimed at supporting domestic companies...

Türkiye’s Military Alignment: NATO, an Islamic Army or the Turan Army?

Türkiye’s debate on military alignment is increasingly narrated as a civilisational choice: remaining anchored in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (hereinafter: NATO) or turning towards alternatives often invoked in public discourse as a “Turan Army” or an “Islamic Army”. This framing is politically evocative, but analytically misleading. NATO is an existing alliance with decades of...