Politics
Turkish security forces detain 19 in ops against terrorist FETÖ
Nineteen suspects were detained on Monday in operations against the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ). Authorities said the suspects were linked to the group’s secret network in the military.
Operations were part of an investigation by the Chief Prosecutor’s Office in the central province of Konya. Suspects were apprehended in operations in Konya and 12 other provinces. Eight other suspects remain at large.
FETÖ thrived thanks to its widespread infiltration into key public institutions for decades. The terrorist group’s members managed to disguise themselves through secretive communication methods and by conspiring against those who detected their infiltration, through blackmail, sham trials organized by prosecutors linked to the group and other methods. Once he believed he had a sizable number of military infiltrators, the group’s leader, Fetullah Gülen, ordered them to stage another coup attempt on July 15, 2016. The coup attempt, this time carried out by military infiltrators of the group, spectacularly failed due to an unprecedented public resistance. Gülen died in 2024 before his expected extradition from the U.S., where he lived for years. In the aftermath of the coup attempt, Türkiye expanded its crackdown on the group.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan arrived in Syria on Sunday for a trilateral meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
According to Turkish diplomatic sources, Fidan held talks in Damascus with President al-Sharaa and President Zelenskyy.
No further details of the meetings were immediately available.
Foreign Ministry sources said Fidan would discuss bilateral issues and regional matters with Syrian officials. The talks will also focus on bilateral projects for rebuilding postwar Syria and supporting Syria’s capacity-building efforts, sources said.
Another issue on the table will be the assessment of the state of the integration of the U.S.-backed terrorist group YPG, in the framework of the Jan. 17 and 29 deals Damascus agreed upon with the group after a string of offensives. Security of Syria will also be discussed.
Sources said Fidan and Syrian officials will separately discuss the impact of the U.S.-Israel-Iran war on Syria, as well as the situation in Syria’s neighbor, Lebanon, which suffered from Israel’s attacks after the war broke out in February.
Earlier this month, al-Sharaa told an event at Chatham House in London that they were working to keep Syria out of the ongoing regional war. He warned that Syria could still become a target amid escalating tensions. “Could Syria be targeted? It’s possible, but we are trying not to initiate hostility with anyone, and we are trying to keep Syria away from any battlefield,” he said.
He warned that the current regional climate is driven by heightened emotions and unpredictable decision-making. “Everything is possible right now, because it is not wise judgment that is controlling matters today. The atmosphere is charged with anger, reactions and random policies,” he added.
The Syrian president noted that such dynamics are affecting multiple countries, including Gulf states that had previously remained outside the conflict but have since been targeted. He said Syria is seeking to take the safest course for its people and is carefully weighing its options to avoid being drawn into the conflict. “We are trying to choose the safest situation for our people and to measure things carefully so that we do not reach a point where we are targeted and forced to respond,” he said.
Zelenskyy was in Türkiye on Saturday, where he met President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Turkish-Syrian relations, frozen during the civil war, took a new turn after forces led by al-Sharaa led a revolution in December 2024 to overthrow the oppressive regime of Bashar Assad, a close ally of Russia. Within one year, Ankara-Damascus ties gained an unprecedented momentum, with deals serving the interests of both countries.
Sources said Türkiye both helped Syria to heal the wounds of the civil war and exerted efforts for new cooperation opportunities, aiding Syria’s lasting stability and security.
Fidan was among the first Turkish officials to visit Syria after the Baathist regime collapsed. His last visit was on Dec. 22, 2025. During that visit, Fidan was accompanied by Minister of National Defense Yaşar Güler and National Intelligence Organization (MIT) director Ibrahim Kalın.
The General Assembly of the Turkish Parliament will convene this week for two critical decisions: extending maternity leaves and banning social media for children.
A bill before the assembly increases maternity leave from 16 weeks to 24 weeks.
Personnel whose maternity leave has expired as of the date the regulation goes into effect, but who have not yet completed 24 weeks since the date of the birth, may be granted an additional eight weeks of maternity leave upon request.
Additionally, the duration of paid leave granted to an employee upon their spouse giving birth will be increased from five days to 10 days.
Civil servants who become foster parents to one or more children will be granted 10 days of leave upon request following the date the child is placed with them.
Protective and preventive measures will be implemented to ensure children are cared for and supported by their families or relatives without being taken into institutional care. In cases of need, social and economic support will be provided, taking regional conditions into account. Women and children deemed to have insufficient income will be provided with a net allowance, without any deductions.
According to another bill before Parliament, social network providers will be prohibited from offering services to children under the age of 15. They will be obligated to take necessary measures, including age verification, to ensure this service is not provided. Gaming platforms will not be permitted to offer games that have not been properly rated according to established procedures.
Ahmet Torun, father of 16-year-old Tuana Torun, who was recently killed in a car crash, said the family faced political pressure to remain silent. He said his daughter’s death was suspicious. Torun was the victim in a sexual harassment case, and Hasbi Dede, mayor for the northern town of Görele for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), was arrested in February as the prime suspect. The girl died days after a March 28 accident where a car hit her as she was crossing the street in Görele. Dede, who was released earlier with judicial control, had denied allegations that he had connections to the driver.
The father claimed that they faced pressure after filing a complaint against Dede over sexual harassment. “After we submitted our complaint, people we believe to be relatives or acquaintances of the defendant contacted the CHP’s Giresun MP, Elvan Işık Gezmiş. She then became involved in the process. She asked us to withdraw our complaint, but we did not accept this. From the very beginning, we never considered taking a step back.”
He said that the family only wanted “justice” and was not seeking any compensation. He highlighted that they faced political pressure and witnessed efforts to cover up the case. The father complained that CHP’s lawmakers did not raise their voice about the case.
He also claimed that her daughter and the family faced threats on social media. “No political power or position should stand in the way of justice. We only want those responsible to receive the punishment they deserve,” he stated.
The Directorate of Communication’s Center for Combating Disinformation rejected claims that its air defense systems shot down a U.S. F-15 fighter jet and that it is supplying Iran with advanced anti-aircraft and UAV missiles.
In a statement on Saturday, the center said allegations on some social media accounts, claiming that Türkiye supplied Iran with advanced anti-aircraft and UAV missiles, and that a reportedly downed U.S. F-15 fighter jet was struck by a Turkish-made shoulder-fired air defense system, are unfounded.
“Such baseless allegations, whose origin can be inferred, constitute deliberate psychological warfare and black propaganda aimed at undermining Türkiye’s constructive role in regional crises, as well as its diplomacy and peace-oriented efforts.
Türkiye maintains a principled stance focused on preserving peace and stability across all processes in the region. These perception management operations, targeting Türkiye’s globally recognized diplomatic achievements, seek to mislead international public opinion. No credence should be given to such malicious disinformation campaigns intended to manipulate the public and disrupt the delicate balance in the region. It is of utmost importance to exercise caution against speculative claims originating from non-official sources,” the Center said in a statement.
As the U.S.-Israel-Iran war rages, Türkiye fights its own war against disinformation. The center last week rejected claims that Türkiye would side with Iran in the war and make an incursion into Lebanon to that extent.
Türkiye has been neutral in the U.S.-Israel-Iran war despite having close ties with the U.S. and Iran. Instead, it preferred a role as mediator to end the conflict that threatens a lingering instability in the region. On March 29, Pakistan hosted talks with Türkiye, Egypt and Saudi Arabia aimed at ending the conflict in Iran, with early discussions centered on proposals to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan engaged in an intense phone diplomacy over the past weeks to end the conflict. As Foreign Ministry sources announced, he held discussions with a wide range of regional and international officials to evaluate efforts to secure a cease-fire.
Positioned at the intersection of Europe and Asia and at the heart of a volatile Middle East, Türkiye faces significant challenges in preserving neutrality. Despite this, the government continues to pursue what it describes as a “peace diplomacy” approach, aiming to engage all parties and promote de-escalation without becoming directly involved in the conflict.
Iran’s military said on Sunday that it destroyed three U.S. aircraft involved in a search operation for a crew member of a downed American fighter jet.
Iran and the U.S. had been racing since Friday to locate a second crew member of an F-15E before U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the officer had been recovered in a search and rescue operation.
“The enemy’s intruding aircraft in southern Isfahan, including two Black Hawk helicopters and one C-130 military transport aircraft, were struck and are now burning,” the military’s central command, Khatam Al-Anbiya, said.
It added that the rescue operation had “failed.”
State media shared images of charred wreckage scattered across a desert area, with smoke still emanating from the site.
Iranian media reported that strikes during the rescue operation killed five people in southwestern Iran, though it was not immediately clear whether they were civilians or military personnel.
Since Friday, Iranian media have also shared footage showing local residents, some carrying flags and rifles, searching for the pilot after authorities announced bounties for information.
Early on Sunday, Trump said the second crew member was “SAFE and SOUND” following the operation.
Türkiye itself faces the spillover of the conflict. A ballistic missile was intercepted by NATO defense system in Türkiye on March 30, the fourth since the war broke out on Feb. 28. Iran has denied firing the missiles while Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held a phone call with Fidan last Tuesday and warned of “repeated false-flag operations aimed at undermining regional ties.”
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance, values or position of Daily Sabah. The newspaper provides space for diverse perspectives as part of its commitment to open and informed public discussion.
As the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict entered its second month, diplomatic efforts to halt the conflict intensified, with Pakistan facilitating indirect contacts between the parties and Türkiye, Egypt and Saudi Arabia coordinating regional initiatives aimed at establishing a framework for dialogue.
Türkiye, on the other hand, has consistently warned against the outbreak and expansion of the tensions. Ankara has also reiterated that its priority remains preventing further escalation, keeping itself outside the hostilities and continuing to emphasize diplomacy in all its engagements and initiatives.
Emphasizing Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s simultaneous phone diplomacy since the war that began on Feb. 28, Oral Toğa, a researcher at the Center for Iranian Studies (IRAM), told Daily Sabah, “Ankara is not merely a ‘message carrier’ in this process but a founding partner of the diplomatic architecture itself.”
“Indeed, Fidan’s own acknowledgment that the four-way foreign ministers’ meeting in Islamabad was originally planned to take place in Ankara confirms that Türkiye was the driving force behind the design of this mechanism,” Toğa added.
On March 29, Pakistan hosted talks with Türkiye, Egypt and Saudi Arabia aimed at ending the conflict in Iran, with early discussions centered on proposals to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping, sources familiar with the matter said.
At the end of the first day of talks in Islamabad, Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said foreign ministers from the regional powers had discussed “possible ways to bring an early and permanent end to the war in the region,” and had been briefed on potential U.S.-Iran talks in Islamabad.
The talks were held as Iran warned the U.S. against launching a ground attack, and global oil prices surged amid continued fighting between Iran, the U.S. and Israel.
“Türkiye, on the other hand, is the actor building regional consensus, bringing conflict-affected countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt to the same table,” Toğa asserted, pointing out that the essence of Ankara’s proposal was not about where the talks would be held but about what mechanism would govern them reflecting a structural attempt to address the trust deficit between the sides.
Fidan engaged in an intense phone diplomacy over the past weeks for an end to the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict. As Foreign Ministry sources announced, he held discussions with a wide range of regional and international officials to evaluate efforts to secure a cease-fire
Fidan recently returned from a Gulf trip where he held talks with counterparts and attended a meeting in Riyadh over the Gulf countries’ response to the war, which quickly expanded into those countries.
“It is important to recognize that Türkiye and Pakistan are playing complementary rather than competing roles in this process,” Toğa noted, underlining that Türkiye still proceeds to form the intellectual backbone of this process.
Fidan previously underlined that under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s strong and resilient leadership, Türkiye has become an international actor with a say in international affairs, an actor with gravity that has an impact on the balance of matters.
Over the past few years, issues regarding securing justice and representation within the current international system have become unsustainable. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s “The world is bigger than five” approach represented not only a political stance but also a humanitarian and ethical call for reform.
Türkiye has also been a central diplomatic figure between Kyiv and Moscow since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Ankara’s most notable diplomatic triumph was brokering the Black Sea Grain Initiative alongside the U.N. on July 22, 2022.
Erdoğan has maintained open communication channels with Moscow and Kyiv. With his landmark visit to Lviv on Aug. 18, 2022, Erdoğan became the only NATO leader to have visited both nations since hostilities erupted, reflecting Türkiye’s unique position.
Moreover, steps taken through Türkiye’s mediation have paved the way for resolving a dispute between Somalia and Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa over Somaliland.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed met in Ankara under the auspices of President Erdoğan and reached an understanding aimed at ending a crisis that has persisted for nearly a year between the two countries.
According to the Ethiopia-Somalia Ankara Declaration, the sides agreed to set aside differences and contentious issues and move forward with determination toward shared prosperity.
Professor Nurşin Ateşoğlu Güney from the National Intelligence Academy also stated that the meeting is highly significant, particularly given the participation of Egypt, Pakistan and Türkiye, as it reflects growing concern over the widening scope of the conflict.
She further added that the involvement of additional actors, including Yemen’s Houthis, underscores how the confrontation has taken on a broader regional dimension, stressing that the conflict with Iran is no longer a limited confrontation between specific parties, but a far more serious and expansive crisis with implications for the entire region.
Türkiye as energy hub
Iran has effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries about a fifth of the world’s total oil consumption, in retaliation for U.S.-Israeli strikes that began Feb. 28. The conflict has caused a spike in oil prices, inflation concerns, supply chain problems and worries about the impact on the global economy.
Toğa warned that the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has triggered a humanitarian and economic crisis affecting millions, with Pakistan and Bangladesh facing acute LNG shortages, Gulf states halting energy exports and a sharp rise in global prices.
“In this context, Türkiye’s position should be read not as an ‘opportunity’ but as a structural responsibility imposed by a regional crisis,” he said.
Gulf countries are reconsidering pipeline projects that would bypass the Strait of Hormuz, as the renewed conflict has revived concerns over the region’s reliance on one of the world’s most critical oil and gas chokepoints, the Financial Times (FT) reported Thursday.
The renewed debate underscores growing fears that prolonged Iranian control or disruption in the strait could leave Gulf exporters vulnerable, prompting officials and industry executives to revisit alternatives once deemed too costly or technically challenging to pursue.
He drew attention to the potential reactivation of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline following a Baghdad-Irbil agreement, the growing importance of the Southern Gas Corridor for Europe, and the emergence of the Ceyhan terminal as one of the few secure energy exit points in the Eastern Mediterranean as factors placing Türkiye at the center of the evolving energy landscape, driven largely by geography rather than strategic choice.
“At the same time, Türkiye itself is paying a heavy price for this crisis. Thirteen percent of its natural gas imports come from Iran, and the prolongation of the crisis directly jeopardizes that supply.”
About 20% of the global oil supply passes through the strait daily, and heightened insecurity has driven up oil prices and shipping and insurance costs.
Toğa remarked that disruptions in industrial inputs imported from the Gulf, including aluminum, plastic raw materials and mono-ethylene glycol, are threatening the competitiveness of Türkiye’s $30 billion (TL 1.34 trillion) textile sector annually
While Türkiye’s role as an energy transit hub has expanded due to its geographic position, the country is simultaneously bearing the macroeconomic costs of the same crisis, he also asserted.
“The real issue here is not the capacity of pipelines but the urgent need for this war to end. The lasting solution lies not in transit infrastructure but at the diplomacy table.”
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Monday to obliterate Iran’s energy plants if it does not agree to a peace deal and open the Strait of Hormuz.
Oil prices fell briefly below $100 per barrel on Wednesday after Trump said the U.S. will be done attacking Iran probably in two to three weeks, and that the U.S. “will not have anything to do with” what happens next in the Strait of Hormuz.
On the other hand, Güney also noted that the involvement of Yemen’s Houthi forces, extending the conflict into the Red Sea, underscores the fragility of global energy markets.
“The disruption of two critical maritime chokepoints has made the transportation of oil and gas increasingly difficult, highlighting the strategic importance of Türkiye and indirectly Syria in energy transit.”
The discussions over pipeline projects predating the Syrian war, aimed at transporting Gulf oil and gas through Syria to Türkiye, are now resurfacing, she said, emphasizing this development is significant in terms of bringing alternative hydrocarbon resources to global markets, positioning Türkiye as a key hub.
U.S. Ambassador to Ankara and Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said last week that Syria has the geopolitical capacity to serve as an alternative to the energy security crisis in the Strait of Hormuz.
“Türkiye and Syria will become the main distribution center of energy for the entire world,” Barrack said following his presentation.
Anti-Semitism is still the most powerful weapon in Israel’s international lobbying to justify its genocidal attacks on Palestinians since 2023. In the post-truth world, Israel conveniently exploited the genuinely real phenomenon for its own purposes, tagging anyone opposing the country’s aggressive policies toward Palestinians and other countries.
Türkiye has had its fair share of anti-Semitism accusations, especially after October 2023, when the new round of the Palestine-Israel conflict began. Yet, these accusations do not translate into the facts on the ground, that is, although the Turkish public and politicians are strictly “anti-Israeli,” they do not necessarily harbor a hatred for Jews, or rather, take action based on this hatred, against Jews and even Israel. Israel’s efforts to portray anti-Zionism or even discourse against the incumbent Netanyahu administration as anti-Semitism spread across the world and surfaced most concretely in the U.S. but in Türkiye, the situation appears different.
Last March, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was clear about Türkiye’s stand on anti-Semitism. As he attended a dinner with representatives of the faiths in Türkiye, including the chief rabbi of the Jewish community of the country, Erdoğan underlined that anti-Semitism was as much a crime against humanity as Islamophobia, “an unreasonable evil that cannot be legitimized.”
“We built a country where everyone feels equal, free and safe,” he underlined while he pledged no tolerance against “Daesh and other dark networks bombing places of worship, from mosques and churches to synagogues.”
What Israel and pro-Israeli or Zionist lobbies are portraying as anti-Semitism in Türkiye are limited to a strong discourse against Israel’s genocidal policies, something that has been most evident in massive rallies since 2023 against the Netanyahu administration’s genocide in Gaza and attacks in the regional countries.
Several media outlets that appear supportive of the government occasionally use wording lumping the global Jewish community with Israel’s genocidal actions, despite considerable opposition by Jews themselves to those actions. Yet, the mainstream media in Türkiye, relentless in its criticism of Zionism and the Netanyahu administration, largely shuns anti-Semitic tropes. Instead, they squarely focus on Israel’s massacres and Türkiye’s efforts to stop them. Indeed, Türkiye has doggedly pursued diplomacy to end the genocide, mostly due to the enormous support in the West for Israel that hindered any non-diplomatic, collective action to stop what Turkish authorities called a “Hitler-like regime” in Tel Aviv.
One of the most glaring examples of anti-Semitism in recent years can be calls for stripping citizenship of Türkiye’s Jews, as some among the community also serve in the Israeli army. Even this has more to do with those accused of aiding Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, rather than a questioning of the “patriotism” of Türkiye’s Jewry.
Türkiye’s Jewish community numbers below 20,000, though no official figures are available. Some among those with dual citizenship proudly display their service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on their social media accounts. In parallel, Turkish social media has been awash with calls for terminating the citizenship of those they called “loyal” to Israel rather than Türkiye. Nevertheless, this social media campaign, perpetuated by hardline anti-Israeli circles in the country, has gone unanswered by the authorities so far.
A report by the Academics and Authors Association of Islamic Countries (AYBİR), based in Istanbul, released two years ago, tried to gauge whether anti-Semitism raged in the country after 2023 and how the Jewish community in Türkiye responded to it. The report prepared by associate professor Eldar Hasanoğlu notes that the Jewish community has been largely silent about Israel’s attacks, while some members have been open to their opposition to the genocide. The report also confirms the absence of a full-on anti-Semitism translating into violence.
The Jewish community, from a religious perspective, has been loyal to the state in which they live, something most evident in the Hanoten Teshua, the Jewish prayer for the government of the country in which they have citizenship. Some researchers trace the origin of this prayer to Sephardic Jews of the 16th century, who fled oppression in Spanish territories to the Ottoman Empire, where they were warmly embraced and have called it home since then. As a matter of fact, most of the Jewish community, particularly those living in Istanbul, are descendants of these people.
To an extent, AYBİR’s report links the perceived silence of Türkiye’s Jews on Israel’s genocide to the reaction of Turkish people to Israel, apparently fearing genuine anti-Semitism could rear its ugly head. Their fear, in some ways, is justified as the community was targeted in the past, most notably during the 2003 terror attacks on Istanbul’s major synagogue, Neve Şalom, which, to this day, is under police protection.
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