Politics
Erdoğan urges diplomacy amid tensions in call with NATO’s Rutte
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stressed that escalating regional conflicts underscore the urgent need for meaningful diplomacy, telling NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte that lasting peace will depend on giving dialogue real space to work.
In a statement, Türkiye’s Communications Directorate said Erdoğan stressed that Ankara is closely monitoring the growing instability across the region and believes diplomacy must be prioritized to prevent further escalation.
The discussions come as Türkiye emphasizes the need for dialogue in the face of U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, which have escalated regional tensions.
He also highlighted preparations for the upcoming NATO Leaders Summit in Ankara, saying Türkiye is ready to host the gathering and expects productive outcomes at a time when the alliance faces mounting security challenges.
Rutte said NATO will continue working to ensure the security of all member states through a 360-degree approach, according to the statement.
The conversation comes as multiple crises strain Euro-Atlantic security, prompting calls within the alliance for stronger coordination and a renewed focus on diplomatic solutions.
Türkiye’s second Communication Council will convene in Ankara on July 28-29 under the theme “Century of Türkiye: The Century of Communication,” bringing together government officials, academics, media representatives and civil society to discuss the country’s communication policies and future strategy.
The two-day event, organized by the Presidency’s Directorate of Communications, will open at the ATO Congresium with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in attendance. Presidency’s Communications Director Burhanettin Duran is also scheduled to deliver opening remarks.
The second day will feature panel discussions at the Directorate of Communications Conference Hall, where experts from various disciplines will examine developments in the field of communication and exchange views on future policy priorities.
According to the Directorate, the council aims to establish a practical framework for Türkiye’s Communication Model in line with the country’s “Century of Türkiye” vision. Participants from public institutions, the private sector, academia, civil society and the media are expected to assess current communication policies, identify challenges and propose recommendations for future implementation.
The event will also see the release of the Second Communication Council Reports and Second Communication Council Proceedings, prepared following consultations conducted by 425 participants across 16 working groups during a preparatory workshop held last year.
Officials said the council is intended to contribute to the development of public communication policies while providing a platform for stakeholders to exchange ideas on strengthening Türkiye’s communication strategy.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi will visit Türkiye on Tuesday, the Turkish Presidency’s Communications Directorate confirmed on Monday. It will be the first visit to Türkiye by the young premier since he took office in May. The Directorate said al-Zaidi was invited by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and talks between Turkish and Iraqi officials during his visit would focus on security, trade, energy, transportation, water management, as well as an exchange of views on regional and global developments.
The prime minister is expected to sign several memoranda of understanding on cooperation with Türkiye in various fields. During Erdoğan’s visit to Baghdad two years ago, the two countries signed a series of agreements, particularly related to the Development Road Project and political, security and economic cooperation. That visit also paved the way for a Strategic Framework Agreement between the two neighbors.
He reaffirmed the future agreements with Türkiye that would be signed during his visit when he received Turkish Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu last week. During the meeting, he emphasized the deep-rooted ties and shared interests between the two countries, as well as the importance of strengthening bilateral relations, particularly in investment.
Sudan’s Foreign Minister and Minister of International Cooperation, Mohieddin Salem, will pay an official visit to Türkiye on July 28-29, as Ankara seeks to deepen bilateral ties while reaffirming its support for Sudan’s sovereignty and efforts to end the country’s conflict.
According to Türkiye’s Foreign Ministry, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is expected to hold talks with Salem focusing on political, economic and humanitarian cooperation, as well as regional developments, particularly in the Horn of Africa.
The ministry said Fidan will reiterate Türkiye’s support for Sudan’s sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity, while emphasizing Ankara’s commitment to diplomatic efforts aimed at achieving lasting peace and stability in the African country.
Sudan has been engulfed in civil war since April 2023 after a dispute between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) over plans to integrate the paramilitary force into the regular military collapsed into open conflict.
U.N. estimates indicate the war has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced nearly 13 million at its peak, making it one of the world’s largest displacement crises.
The ministers are also expected to discuss expanding cooperation in trade, investment, energy, education and culture, alongside strengthening the legal framework governing bilateral relations.
Ankara is expected to reaffirm its commitment to humanitarian assistance for Sudan and highlight the potential role of Turkish companies in the country’s future reconstruction efforts.
During the visit, the two sides are scheduled to sign a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between the Diplomacy Academy of the Turkish Foreign Ministry and the Diplomatic Institute of Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
Sudan’s army has regained control of a key highway linking the capital Khartoum with the flashpoint city of El-Obeid, according to AFP sources announced on Monday.
The report was followed by the claims of the Sudanese army on Sunday that government troops and supporting units destroyed 62 RSF combat vehicles and seized 54 others during military operations in North Kordofan state.
In a statement carried by the state-run Sudan News Agency (SUNA), the Joint Force of Armed Struggle Movements said the Sudanese Armed Forces, the Joint Force and allied units achieved a new battlefield victory across operational axes in North Kordofan.
The Joint Force said the operations inflicted heavy personnel and equipment losses on the RSF, including the seizure of 54 combat vehicles in good condition and the destruction of more than 62 others.
Türkiye-Sudan ties
Türkiye and Sudan established diplomatic relations in 1957. Bilateral ties gained new momentum following President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Sudan in 2017, when the two countries established a High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council.
Senior-level contacts have intensified over the past year. Sudan’s Sovereignty Council Chairperson Abdel Fattah al-Burhan visited Türkiye in December 2025 and met Erdoğan again in Türkiye in early June. Sudanese Prime Minister Kamil Idris also visited Türkiye in May, when the two countries held the 16th meeting of the Joint Economic Commission. Salem previously traveled to Türkiye in April to attend the Antalya Diplomacy Forum.
Despite Sudan’s ongoing conflict and broader regional challenges, bilateral trade reached approximately $390 million in 2025, according to the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
Türkiye has also continued humanitarian support, sending eight aid ships carrying around 12,000 tons of relief supplies and 30,000 tents since mid-2024.
In July 2025, Türkiye’s Health Ministry delivered 64 tons of medical supplies to support Sudan’s response to a cholera outbreak.
The Turkish Presidency’s Communications Directorate is spearheading efforts to combat terrorist propaganda and disinformation, two issues that have plagued the country’s online space. In coordination with the directorate, the cybercrime units of the Turkish police, prosecutors, and the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) have blocked online propaganda and disinformation campaigns targeting Türkiye.
Over the past seven months, authorities have imposed access bans on 6,644 social media accounts. Of these, 3,679 were linked to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) and its affiliates, while 2,965 accounts promoting terrorism, disseminating disinformation, or engaging in psychological warfare were also blocked, according to a statement by the Communications Directorate. FETÖ was behind the July 15, 2016, coup attempt and made extensive use of social media both before and after the attempted coup to spread propaganda and disinformation against the government.
According to the Directorate, the X social media platform topped the list of platforms with the highest number of access bans, followed by Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and Spotify.
In its statement, the Directorate said terrorist groups and organized disinformation networks sought to manipulate public opinion, influence public perception, and create “information pollution” during periods of crisis, particularly by exploiting platforms with high engagement potential.
“The coordination mechanism is not limited to intervening against illegal content. Trending Topic (TT) lists, hashtag campaigns, coordinated sharing networks, and bot account activity on social media platforms are also monitored in real time using advanced digital analysis methods. Artificial agenda-setting efforts conducted as part of psychological operations are detected quickly, while the origin and dissemination patterns of these campaigns are identified through digital network analysis. Thanks to the simultaneous technical and legal processes carried out by the relevant institutions, coordinated influence operations are prevented from reaching large audiences,” the statement said.
“Security sources state that digital platforms have become a battlefield directly affecting national security, rather than merely serving as a means of communication. They say that, through the coordinated efforts of relevant institutions, technical analysis, judicial proceedings, and access restriction measures are managed in a unified manner. As a result, not only individual accounts but also organized digital networks are identified and neutralized. The restriction of access to 6,644 accounts over the past seven months demonstrates that Türkiye has adopted a multilayered and coordinated approach to combating terrorist propaganda, disinformation, and psychological operations in cyberspace,” the statement added.
Former members of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) formed the New Party (YP) last week, but tensions between the two parties continue despite YP leader Özgür Özel saying he would no longer “pay attention” to his former party.
Özel, who was ousted as CHP chair in May following a court ruling, kept his promise to return to the “father’s home” for only about two months before launching the YP, which instantly became the main opposition party thanks to the large number of lawmakers who joined from the CHP. Although he has previously emphasized that the YP would adhere to the same “Atatürkist policies” as the CHP, he now appears determined to leave his CHP past behind. Speaking to Sözcü, a newspaper openly supportive of Özel, the YP chair said in remarks published on Monday that he would no longer pay attention to the CHP because it was “run by the appointed.” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, his predecessor as CHP chair, was reinstated in May after a court ruled that the party’s 2023 leadership election, which brought Özel to power, had been marred by vote-buying carried out by Özel’s supporters. Özel told Sözcü that the “losers of two elections united against me,” referring to Kılıçdaroğlu and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which lost several strongholds to the CHP in the 2024 municipal elections.
“We won’t engage with them politically, but we won’t fight them either,” he said, hours after Burhanettin Bulut, who switched from the CHP to the YP, sparked an online dispute with CHP’s Istanbul chair, Gürsel Tekin. Earlier, Tekin had claimed that Bulut used CHP resources to put several journalists on the party’s payroll while responding to allegations by pro-Özel groups that Kılıçdaroğlu had hired extras through a casting agency to “create a crowd” at a party meeting in Istanbul on Saturday. Bulut, in turn, referred to the background of Tekin, “who rose to become a property mogul after working in a teahouse,” in a scathing social media post on Sunday. Tekin then questioned the “$1 million” Bulut was allegedly paid by a CHP-run municipality in southern Türkiye.
The row is expected to continue in the coming days as the CHP stands to lose more members. Media reports say that around 200 CHP mayors across Türkiye are expected to join the YP soon, while 264 former CHP lawmakers pledged their loyalty to the new party in a joint statement on Monday. The YP is also expected to attract more CHP lawmakers in the coming days, potentially increasing its parliamentary group to around 100 members and further diminishing the CHP’s status in Parliament.
Turkish media outlets alleged that large quantities of untreated medical waste collected across Istanbul have been illegally buried instead of being properly sterilized and incinerated by the Republican People’s Party (CHP)-run Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB).
The allegations, reported by Yeni Akit and some other media outlets, cited unnamed municipal sources who claim that pathological waste including human tissue, blood samples, laboratory animal remains and other infectious materials was transported from hospitals to unauthorized burial sites rather than being disposed of in accordance with Turkish regulations.
According to the report, medical waste from more than 1,000 collection points across Istanbul is transported to the IBB affiliate, İSTAÇ Medical Waste Sterilization Facility in the Kemerburgaz district, which began operations in 2016. The outlets alleged that the facility has been unable to process the volume of waste generated in the city due to limited treatment capacity and equipment failures.
The report claimed that while the facility is capable of processing about 24 metric tons of waste per day, Istanbul generates between 100 and 200 metric tons of medical waste daily. It alleged that untreated waste was instead loaded onto excavation trucks and buried at undisclosed locations, primarily after dark, to avoid inspections.
It further alleged that the practice had continued for approximately 18 months, resulting in nearly 100,000 metric tons of medical waste being buried.
It was also stated that the buried waste included infectious pathological materials and warned of potential environmental and public health risks if the allegations prove accurate.
In addition, the report alleged that several employees working at the facility had contracted serious infections linked to exposure to untreated medical waste, with some reportedly suffering permanent injuries or dying.
According to the media outlets, employees documented the alleged disposal practices and submitted criminal complaints through Türkiye’s judicial system while also filing reports with the Presidency’s Communication Center (CİMER). Authorities were asked to investigate whether environmental and public health laws had been violated.
The report further alleged that disposal operations were conducted outside normal inspection hours to avoid regulatory oversight.
The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and İSTAÇ had not issued an official statement addressing the allegations.
If confirmed, the allegations could raise questions about compliance with Türkiye’s medical waste disposal regulations, which require infectious and pathological waste to be sterilized or incinerated before final disposal in order to protect public health and the environment.
IBB is already embattled with allegations of corruption involving former mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu and municipal bureaucrats. Imamoğlu stands accused of multiple offenses, including bribery, laundering criminal proceeds, fraud against public institutions and organizations, recording personal data, illegally obtaining and disseminating personal data, concealing criminal evidence, obstructing communications, damaging public property, receiving bribes, publicly spreading misleading information, extortion, laundering assets derived from crime, and rigging tenders. Prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence ranging from 828 years and two months to 2,352 years for Imamoğlu over 142 alleged acts. The first hearing was held on Monday, March 9.
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