“Türkiye is favored by both sides,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Monday about Ankara’s role in mediating between Ukraine and Russia. Speaking to reporters, Peskov said they were grateful to Türkiye for creating conditions that allowed the negotiations between the two sides to continue. He emphasized that they were willing to advance talks with Ukraine and were awaiting Ukraine’s response to their proposal to establish three working groups in the third round of negotiations.

NATO member Türkiye is one of the most active countries working to ensure a permanent cease-fire between Ukraine and Russia. Its delicately balanced act of assuming a role as a mediator by keeping communication channels with both warring sides open provides a glimmer of hope in diplomatic efforts to find a solution and achieve peace in the Ukraine crisis. With its unique position of maintaining friendly relations with both Russia and Ukraine, Türkiye has garnered widespread praise for its efforts to end the war.

While Ankara has opposed international sanctions aimed at isolating Moscow, it has also closed its straits to prevent some Russian vessels from crossing through them.

On July 23, Istanbul hosted the third meeting of the Russian and Ukrainian delegations, who had also met in May and June in the city amid U.S. pressure to agree on a cease-fire to end their three-year conflict. Despite the urging of U.S. President Donald Trump, no major breakthrough was made.

“We aim to bring together the leaders of Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. to achieve peace in the ongoing war, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said last Friday.

“I might speak to Putin and Trump this week to see if we can hold a leaders’ meeting on the war in Istanbul,” the president told reporters after Friday prayers in Istanbul.

“The last meeting was at Çırağan. My foreign minister conducted the meeting on my behalf. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian delegation met with us in Ankara before moving on to Çırağan. I received them and had meetings with them. Of course, I also talked with Mr. Vladimir Putin during these meetings and we sought his support,” he elaborated.

Peskov said on Monday that Erdoğan had demonstrated political will for a Trump-Putin meeting in Türkiye, but there had been no tangible development so far on the matter.

Ukrainian and Russian negotiators have so far only agreed to hold prisoner exchanges. And Russia has since launched intense air attacks on Ukraine and seized more front-line territory.

Russia has demanded that Ukraine give up four regions, on top of Crimea, which it annexed in 2014. The Kremlin also insists that Ukraine should abandon any plans to join the NATO military alliance.

Ukraine has rejected the demands and expressed doubt that Russia wants a cease-fire.

On Saturday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan underlined that one key agenda of the Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul is bringing the leaders together.

He recalled that Russia and Ukraine expressed their willingness to meet in Istanbul under Türkiye’s hosting, but noted that ongoing negotiations continue over the timing and conditions of the meeting. “As negotiators, we are making efforts to find a middle ground between Ukraine and Russia’s differing positions,” he said after a meeting with top diplomats of the Balkan countries in Istanbul on Saturday.

He pointed out increasing agreements on prisoner exchanges and humanitarian efforts, saying: “Both sides are showing goodwill and effort to implement this, which greatly pleases our president and us.”

Fidan highlighted Trump’s interest in the cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine, adding: “Our president wants to accelerate this process.

He is a firm believer in leaders’ diplomacy, believing that certain deadlocks between negotiating teams can be resolved through a leaders’ meeting. “We may take initiative to make this possible,” he added.

The foreign minister said that both the Russian and Ukrainian leaders are willing to meet, but there is a disagreement over the conditions for such a meeting.

He said the disagreement is not over whether the leaders should meet, but somewhat over the conditions, timing and agenda of the meeting, stressing that progress must first be made at the delegation level.

Fidan expressed hope that, once the groundwork is laid, a trilateral meeting hosted by Erdoğan in Istanbul could take place in the near future.

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With the latest confession in the corruption investigation against the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB), run by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the number of suspects released under the effective remorse law has climbed to 32.

Burak Korzay, the general manager of ISFALT, an asphalt production subsidiary of IBB, was released from prison on Monday morning after pleading “adequate remorse.”

Korzay, who was arrested on June 4, provided testimony on July 10 and July 21 that prosecutors deemed sufficient for his release. His statements reportedly helped advance the case, according to judicial sources.

According to his testimony made public, Korzay alleged a covert “system” of coercion and illicit payments at the heart of the widening corruption probe.

Korzay claimed companies were forced to make off-the-books payments to receive funds already owed to them by IBB. He directly implicated Ertan Yıldız, chair of IBB’s Subsidiaries and Affiliates Commission, stating that Yıldız demanded 30 million lira from contractor Aziz İhsan Aktaş, warning, “They won’t pay him unless you send it.”

When Korzay objected, Yıldız allegedly replied, “Is this the first time you’ve heard of the system?” and said the money was needed for the upcoming election campaign budget of CHP.

Korzay said he immediately told Aktaş to pursue legal means instead of making the payment, but Aktaş insisted on paying in order to collect his receivables quickly. The money, according to Korzay, was allegedly dropped off in a bag at a hotel in Kilyos.

He also claimed Aktaş later paid $100,000 to another suspect, Baki Aydöner, who Korzay said had influence over vehicle and waste tenders in various municipalities. Tender procedures, he alleged, were manipulated by senior IBB officials, including Deputy Secretary General Arif Gürkan Alpay and Fatih Keleş.

Korzay stated that IBB approved projects without actual financial resources, launching tenders to appear active while using them to generate unofficial revenue. Detailed knowledge of tenders was allegedly shared informally, allowing preferred companies to secure lucrative contracts. “The real profit came from İSFALT tenders,” he said.

CHP-run municipalities are accused of taking bribes and engaging in irregularities in public tenders. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has recently described operations and allegations as “tentacles of an octopus” that stretch across various administrative bodies overseeing municipalities.

Although CHP-run municipalities were already under investigation and several mayors were detained for corruption last year, IBB has been under the spotlight as its high-profile mayor was arrested in March on graft charges.

Investigators have launched successive operations into an alleged criminal network run by former Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu and expanded another investigation linked to a businessman who was awarded a lucrative contract by district municipalities.

Operations are the culmination of four separate investigations and are mainly based on the confessions of Aziz Ihsan Aktaş, a businessperson identified as the head of a criminal network active in municipalities. Aktaş’s confessions revealed the scale of corruption at IBB and other CHP-run districts, including Istanbul’s Beşiktaş, as well as municipalities in other cities, such as southern Adana.

As the investigation deepens, a growing number of former suspects, including many prominent businesspeople, municipal officials and legal professionals, have opted to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for leniency.

Businessperson Ahmet Sari and Ismail Sari, construction figure Adem Soytekin and his brother Ogün Soytekin are among those who have testified under adequate remorse provisions.

Other notable individuals who provided testimony include Nezahat Kurt, ISTAÇ Board Chair Ziya Gökmen Togay, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality surveying engineer Yakup Öner and lawyers Orçun Muhittin Yılmaz and Bülent Yılmaz. While several of these testimonies led to releases, not all statements were deemed substantial enough to warrant a release. Togay, Öner and Yılmaz, despite their cooperation, remain in custody.

The list of released suspects features high-level officials and influential figures across various sectors. Among them are: Murat Abbas, the head of IBB Culture Inc.; Ertan Yıldız, head of the IBB Subsidiaries and Affiliates Commission; businesspeople Ali Nuhoğlu, Seyfi Beyaz, Ahmet Sari, Ismail Sari, Ahmet Çiçek, Eyüp Subaşı, Noyan Kırmızıgül, Murat Ilbak, Muhittin Palazoğlu, Kabil Taşçı, Mehmet Ilhan Gülay and Nezahat Kurt.

Other suspects include Servet Yıldırım, personal driver to the arrested suspect Hüseyin Köksal, lawyer Süleyman Atik, construction technician Altan Gözcü and accounting manager Murat Bıyık; advertiser Hüseyin Kum; owners of Yapı Merkez Construction, Mustafa Başar Arıoğlu, Erdem Arıoğlu and Özge Arıoğlu; Ogün Soytekin, brother of arrested Adem Soytekin; and Murat Erenler, his bodyguard; business people Şeyhmus Sarıboğa, Güngör Gürman, Hasan Özsoy, Taner Gümüş and Kadir Gümüş; lawyer Bülent Yılmaz; former CHP Şişli Municipal Council Member Umut Şenol; and businessman Berat Çağrı Kapki.

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The terror-free Türkiye initiative moves forward with the first instance of disarmament by the terrorist group PKK, but there is still a lot to do for its main actors. As Parliament considers forming a committee to oversee the process, parties directly and indirectly involved in the initiative hope to garner public support for the initiative.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and its ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), will hold public meetings throughout the rest of the summer to explain the initiative, particularly to their electorate. The MHP’s leader, Devlet Bahçeli, is the informal architect of the initiative that began with his call to the PKK’s jailed ringleader, Abdullah Öcalan, last year to urge his group to lay down arms. The Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), closely associated with the PKK, will hold similar meetings to inform the public.

The initiative surprised many at first as it was commenced by an unexpected name who is known for his staunch support for strict counterterrorism efforts to wipe out the PKK. Bahçeli has reasoned that the PKK’s dissolution is a must to reinforce unity in Türkiye at a time of Israeli expansionism that also threatens Türkiye. The PKK’s longtime goal has been carving out a so-called Kurdistan in the southeast and it exploited the Kurdish community of the country, who were deprived of some fundamental rights in the past. Bahçeli and AK Party Chair President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan repeatedly emphasized Turkish-Kurdish unity as key to the future of the country against any separatist agendas.

A recent survey conducted by polling company ASAL earlier this month shows that more than 61% support the initiative. The initiative is not without its opponents and skeptics. The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) endorses the initiative but expresses reservations about its success. The far-right Good Party (IP) flatly opposed it and plans to hold nationwide “First Duty” rallies to voice its opposition. Inspired by the first sentence of a famous address to Turkish youth by the republic’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the rallies aim to sway public opinion against the initiative.

Legal framework

Elsewhere, Parliament is set to launch a committee to support the initiative with a legislative, legal framework later this week. The AK Party, MHP and DEM Party announced their contributions to the committee, while other parties are expected to unveil the names of lawmakers they would nominate for the committee by Thursday.

The DEM Party on Monday announced that its deputy parliamentary group chair Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit, lawmakers Meral Danış Beştaş, Saruhan Oluç and Cengiz Çiçek would join the committee, while the MHP said on Sunday that the party’s deputy chair Feti Yıldız and lawmakers Muhammet Levent Bülbül, Halil Öztürk and Yücel Bulut would represent the party at the committee.

Koçyiğit said at a news conference on Monday that they opposed the initiative to be called “terror-free Türkiye” and claimed that there was a “Kurdish question” in Türkiye. “If we are going to provide a democratic solution to the ‘Kurdish question,’ we should not frame this issue through security policies,” Koçyiğit said.

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Ilham Ahmed, a senior leader of the U.S.-backed terrorist group YPG in Syria, said they would not join the PKK for disarmament and said they would continue advocating “decentralization” in the post-Assad country.

Her comments to Rudaw are likely to anger Ankara, which is worried about the security risk the YPG poses at a time of expected dissolution of its parent terrorist group PKK.

The YPG controls parts of northeastern Syria since the civil war broke out in Türkiye’s southern neighbor more than a decade ago. Türkiye launched a cross-border offensive during the civil war to limit the expansion of the YPG and succeeded in confining it to a narrower area. After the fall of the Assad regime last December, the terrorist group, which is called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) by its main partner United States, managed to negotiate a deal with the new administration in Damascus. The deal, which involves integration of the YPG into the new army of the country, is not final and Ahmed insisted that it was not “a bargain.”

In an interview published on Rudaw’s website on Monday, Ahmed said Damascus sought to “take them over” and they would not “submit.” She acknowledged that they would be integrated into the Syrian army as stipulated in a March 10 deal between Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and YPG leader Ferhat Abdi Şahin, but insisted that it would be based on “mutual recognition.” The YPG, which enjoyed immense U.S. military support, wants to keep its so-called autonomous “canton” situated across the Turkish border. Ahmed reiterated this stance and said they were willing to leave “some services” to Damascus’ control, “such as borders and foreign policy.”

An “autonomous” region controlled by a terrorist entity is a major threat to Türkiye, which suffered cross-border rocket attacks by the YPG in the past, as well as terror attacks by YPG members who infiltrated into the country.

On a question whether the PKK’s jailed ringleader Abdullah Öcalan asked them to lay down arms as he called upon the terrorist group, Ahmed dodged the question but flatly said disarmament was “out of question” for them, claiming it would be a “suicide” for them to lay down arms at a time of “massacres” in Syria.

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will chair Monday’s meeting of the Cabinet, which will discuss a range of issues affecting Türkiye and the region.

Wildfires that spread across Türkiye amid unusual temperatures will likely dominate the discussions. The terror-free Türkiye initiative will also be discussed at the meeting, according to media reports on Sunday. Additionally, the ministers are expected to discuss Israel’s “tactical pause” in Gaza, where the death toll from Israeli attacks has neared 60,000 since October 2023.

At the meeting, ministers will share details about a week of wildfires across the country that are still underway in some provinces, as well as how the government responded to them. Wildfires are at their worst in years for the country due to their sheer number, as a scorching heat wave has gripped Türkiye since mid-July. As of Sunday, firefighters and volunteers have been battling dozens of fires from west to the south, while Agriculture and Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumaklı said on Sunday that they worked to contain 84 blazes in just one day on Saturday.

Another important topic for the Cabinet is the disarmament of the PKK terrorist group as part of the terror-free Türkiye initiative launched last year by government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). This will be the first Cabinet meeting before a parliamentary committee set up to tackle the initiative will start work later this week. The Cabinet will assess the stage of the initiative in the wake of the first act of disarmament by the PKK earlier this month in northern Iraq.

The Cabinet will also discuss the latest developments in Gaza after Israel declared a “tactical pause” to its attacks on the Palestinian enclave amid international pressure and the beginning of a limited aid flow for Palestinians left starving by the Israeli aggression. Türkiye is a major critic of what it calls Israel’s genocide targeting Palestinians and has long sought to deliver aid to desperate Gazans, although Israel’s blockade has hampered the efforts.

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Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş is set to visit Switzerland from July 29 to 31 to attend the Sixth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament.

The high-level international event, hosted by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) at the United Nations Office in Geneva, will convene parliamentary leaders from around the world alongside representatives of the United Nations.

The conference will focus on global cooperation amid rising challenges, featuring key panels on topics such as parliamentary cooperation and multilateralism for peace, justice and prosperity for all in a turbulent world; the participation of women and youth in parliaments in times of polarization and challenges; innovation for a peaceful future; and the role of parliaments in shaping the digital future.

Kurtulmuş will address the opening session and take part in several panels.

In addition, he will hold bilateral meetings, including those with IPU President Tulia Ackson and Secretary-General Martin Chungong.

A signing ceremony is also scheduled, marking the agreement to host the 152nd IPU General Assembly in Türkiye.

As part of his visit, Kurtulmuş will meet with members of the Turkish community in Zurich.

The conference, first established in 2000 on the eve of the United Nations Millennium Summit, aims to provide a unique forum for high-level engagement and dialogue among parliamentary leaders from around the world.

Previous conferences, held every five years since then, have served as catalysts for shaping and strengthening the parliamentary dimension of global governance, thereby helping to bridge the democracy gap in international affairs.

This occasion will mark the culmination of two years of work by a preparatory committee comprising approximately 20 speakers of parliament from all regions of the world, and promises to be the largest gathering of its kind, according to the IPU.

The union said in keeping with its inclusive approach, the conference will also feature prominent leaders from other international organizations, academia and civil society organizations, as well as the media.

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