Politics
Turkish Cypriot leader warns of trust erosion after Cyprus talks
Turkish Cypriot President Tufan Erhürman said no agreement had been reached on confidence-building measures following talks with Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides, as the two sides prepare for separate meetings with U.N. officials in New York.
Erhürman said Thursday’s meeting was “better” than their previous talks but that the sides remained at the stage of listening to each other’s positions on substantive issues.
“There is currently no issue that has been resolved in terms of confidence-building measures,” Erhürman told a news conference following the meeting.
“On the remaining substantive issues, the two sides are only at the stage of listening to each other’s thoughts and views. That is the clear picture,” he said.
The two leaders met under U.N. auspices in the United Nations Protected Area in Nicosia (Lefkoşa), discussing confidence-building measures, methodology and substantive issues related to the decadeslong Cyprus dispute.
The United Nations described the talks as a “good discussion” and said the two leaders would brief U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on their work and discuss the way forward during upcoming engagements in New York.
Erhürman said seven confidence-building measures remain under discussion, adding that the Turkish Cypriot side had already accepted six but that no agreement had been reached on opening new crossing points.
He also welcomed Greek Cypriot statements describing the citizenship status of Turkish Cypriots born to mixed marriages as a humanitarian issue, calling the position a step forward. Erhürman said the matter should also be viewed as a human rights issue.
Despite continued dialogue, Erhürman accused the Greek Cypriot side of taking steps that he said undermined efforts to build trust between the communities.
Erhürman raised concerns over closer ties and agreements between the Greek Cypriot administration and Israel, arguing that such developments did not contribute to the negotiating environment and instead undermined confidence.
Christodoulides, speaking separately after the meeting, said the two sides were not yet “on the same page” but said he had presented new proposals covering confidence-building measures, methodology and substantive issues. He said the proposals could lead to positive developments.
The two leaders’ meeting came as the United Nations continues efforts to revive negotiations over the divided island. Cyprus has been divided since 1974, with the Greek Cypriot administration controlling the south and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) controlling the north. The TRNC is recognized only by Türkiye at the moment.
Erhürman said he would travel to New York on Sept. 23 and was scheduled to meet Guterres and the U.N. chief’s personal envoy on the island, María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar.
The Turkish Cypriot leader said there was also no agreement yet on a four-point methodology discussed as part of efforts to move the negotiations forward.
The U.N. has said the leaders will use their upcoming contacts in New York to brief Guterres on their work and discuss the next steps in the Cyprus process.
The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) has brought concerns over the Western Thrace Turkish minority’s right to elect its muftis and the status of its religious institutions before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
ABTTF, on Friday, submitted a written statement to the council’s 63rd regular session, being held from Sept. 7 to Oct. 7 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Titled “Ongoing interference with the religious autonomy and violations of freedom of religion of the Western Thrace Turkish minority in Greece,” the statement said the minority’s religious status and rights are protected under the 1913 Athens Treaty and the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne.
ABTTF said the Western Thrace Turkish minority has the right to elect its muftis and administer its religious institutions.
The federation said the minority elected its own muftis until 1985, but that following a legal change in 1991, muftis began to be appointed by the state. It said the practice effectively eliminated the minority’s right to elect its religious leaders.
The statement also said a law enacted in 2022, Law No. 4964, changed the status of the mufti offices, turning them into public institutions under the Ministry of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports.
ABTTF said the state appointed a mufti to Didymoteicho (known as Dimetoka in Turkish) in 2026, while similar appointment processes were underway in Iskeçe (Xanthi) and Gümülcine (Komotini).
The federation said followers of other recognized religions in Greece are able to choose their religious leaders, while the religious institutions of the Western Thrace Turkish minority remain under state control. It said this situation raises concerns regarding freedom of religion and belief and the principle of equality.
In Greece, the state appoints the religious leaders, or muftis, of the Western Thrace Turkish minority, as well as the administrative boards of minority-owned charitable foundations.
The Turkish minority opposes the practice and calls for its elected muftis to be allowed to serve.
The Western Thrace region, located near Greece’s northeastern border with Türkiye, is home to a substantial, centuries-old Muslim Turkish minority numbering around 150,000.
The rights of Western Thracian Turks are guaranteed under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. But over the decades, the situation has seriously deteriorated for the community, which is also economically one of the poorest in Greece.
The Western Thracian Turkish community often complains of double standards and continuing inequalities in the country, namely socioeconomic discrimination, lack of equal access to quality education for children of minorities, and political rights.
The head of Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) Ibrahim Kalın visited Afghanistan’s Kabul and Kandahar, security sources said Wednesday.
Kalın held talks with Afghan officials including General Directorate of Intelligence head Abdul Haq Wasiq, first deputy prime minister Abdul Ghani Baradar, Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and Defense Minister Mawlawi Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid.
The talks focused on steps to deepen security and intelligence cooperation between Türkiye and Afghanistan, as well as bilateral relations.
Sources said Kalın’s talks focused on steps to enhance cooperation between the two countries on security and intelligence and the improvement of overall bilateral relations. Officials also discussed regional and global developments, including the U.S.-Israel-Iran war, the fight against terrorism, migrant trafficking and drug smuggling.
Security forces detained four people on Thursday over the 2011 death of Kaşif Kozinoğlu, an intelligence officer, while in a prison in Istanbul.
Among the suspects detained are two former prosecutors whose jurisdiction covered the prison where Kozinoğlu was held and a former inmate who shared the same prison ward with Kozinoğlu at the time of his death. Authorities also issued a detention warrant for former Col. Hasan Atilla Uğur, who also shared Kozinoğlu’s ward, but Uğur remains at large; media outlets report he is currently on the island of Cyprus.
Kozinoğlu, a former soldier, was a senior figure in the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), mostly working in Central Asia, before his arrest in March 2011 as part of the notorious Ergenekon probe. Ergenekon was allegedly the name of a “deep state gang” that included influential figures, from generals to journalists. Kozinoğlu’s name came up during a search of the premises of a news website, specifically in a digital document that allegedly contained confidential information about MIT leaked to the website. Kozinoğlu was accused of leaking the information but died in prison on Nov. 12, 2011, before he had a chance to defend himself in court.
Years later, Ergenekon turned out to be part of sham trials orchestrated by judiciary and law enforcement infiltrators of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ). FETÖ stands accused of fabricating evidence in the Ergenekon case in a bid to imprison critics of the terrorist group who opposed its infiltration of public institutions. According to media outlets, Kozinoğlu had prepared his defense before his death and was expected to claim that FETÖ had targeted him through the trial.
Media outlets also reported that Enver Altaylı, another former intelligence official imprisoned for links to FETÖ, sent letters to the terrorist group’s leader, Fetullah Gülen, warning about Kozinoğlu’s rise in MIT and claiming that Kozinoğlu would take action against FETÖ in Central Asia, where the group had a large network, if he were promoted to the top office of the intelligence organization.
At the time, a probe into Kozinoğlu’s death in prison ended with a decision not to prosecute, while his cause of death was listed as a heart attack.
The Justice Ministry recently ordered a new probe into Kozinoğlu’s death as part of a drive to investigate notable cases of the past that either remained unsolved or were treated as suspicious but concluded without further prosecution. Authorities recently ordered the exhumation of Kozinoğlu’s body as part of the investigation.
Media reports say one of the prison guards, who was later found to be linked to FETÖ, deliberately delayed in intervening when Kozinoğlu pressed an emergency button in the ward after suspecting that he was having a heart attack. Kozinoğlu was taken to a hospital but was pronounced dead there. The guard is among the wanted suspects in the case, while other prison guards and officials who worked at the prison at the time of Kozinoğlu’s death were detained earlier this month.
The new investigation also focuses on “Valley of Wolves,” or “Kurtlar Vadisi,” a popular TV show about the mafia and “deep state,” in which Kozinoğlu’s death was portrayed through a fictional character with striking similarities to the intelligence officer before his death. Prosecutors summoned screenwriters of the show to testify earlier this week, but the show’s creators claimed that it was simply a coincidence that Kozinoğlu died two days after an episode of the show in which other characters ordered the death of “Kazım Kaşifoğlu” was aired. In another episode aired a few weeks after Kozinoğlu’s death, the Kaşifoğlu character, a shady figure in the TV series, was killed by poisoning while in prison, like his real-life counterpart, and his death was covered up as a heart attack.
In a statement on Thursday, Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said that they were determined to shed light on any suspicious death “no matter how many years have passed.”
Gürlek said in a social media post that judicial proceedings were underway against four suspects and that they were investigating what happened on the night Kozinoğlu died, the course of the initial investigation and the fate of evidence collected during that investigation.
It has been 65 years since Adnan Menderes was hanged by a military junta, but the memory of the prime minister is still vivid. He is remembered as a beloved figure and one of the first victims of anti-democratic coups in the history of the Republic of Türkiye.
On Thursday, dignitaries, including Interior Ministry officials, attended a remembrance ceremony for Menderes in Istanbul, while President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issued a statement denouncing the unfair sentencing of Menderes, Foreign Minister Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and Finance Minister Hasan Polatkan. Menderes was executed on Sept. 17, 1961, while Zorlu and Polatkan were hanged one day earlier.
Menderes, whose Democrat Party swept to power with 52.7% of the vote in 1950, governed for a decade and is remembered for liberalizing the economy, expanding religious freedoms by ending the ban on the Arabic call to prayer and steering Türkiye into NATO membership in 1952. His populist slogan, “Enough. The nation has the word,” earned him lasting popularity as “the people’s man.”
On May 27, 1960, a group of officers calling themselves the National Unity Committee seized power, dissolved Parliament and detained leading officials, including President Celal Bayar and Menderes. Their trials were held on Yassıada Island, where Menderes and other officials faced charges ranging from constitutional violations to mishandling unrest.
On Sept. 15, 1961, a special court sentenced 15 men to death. The junta approved the executions of Menderes, Zorlu and Polatkan. Menderes was hanged on Imralı Island near Istanbul. Bayar’s sentence was commuted due to his age.
The executions shocked the nation, and in 1990, Türkiye’s Parliament formally restored the trio’s honor. Their remains were moved to a state memorial in Istanbul. Yassıada, where the trials were held, was later renamed Democracy and Freedom Island.
Speaking at the commemoration ceremony by the graves of the three men, Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi announced that the body of his predecessor, Ismail Namık Gedik, would also be relocated to the memorial site. Gedik was arrested along with three men but died while in detention. He was buried in Ankara after a probe into his death was closed by the military junta, which ruled that he had died after jumping from the window of the military school where he was being held. Gedik’s family objected to the ruling. Çiftçi said the putschists claimed Gedik had committed suicide, but they rejected “that narrative conceived in the dark days of the coup.” “He is a martyr of the May 27 oppression,” Çiftçi stated.
The minister said at the ceremony that Menderes and the three ministers were representatives of the “nation’s will to have a say in its own future” and that this will “was hijacked” in 1960. He denounced the trial process on Yassıada. “(The putschists) thought the nation’s will would be erased when they removed Menderes, Zorlu, Polatkan and Gedik, but you cannot erase the nation’s love for them; you cannot erase the nation’s memory,” he said.
“Throughout the period stretching from the May 27 coup to March 12, from Sept. 12 to Feb. 28, from the April 27 e-memorandum to July 15, the tutelage mentality manifested itself in different forms,” Çiftçi said, referring to coups, coup attempts and ultimatums to elected governments by powerful military figures who portrayed themselves as guardians of Türkiye and collaborated with like-minded politicians while attempting to oust governments in 1960, 1971, 1980, 1997 and 2007.
On July 15, 2016, infiltrators from the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) within the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) again tried to seize power, only to meet strong public resistance, for the first time in the history of the Republic of Türkiye.
“On the night of July 15, our noble nation, taking to the streets and squares at the call of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, stood up to the tanks and said ‘enough’ to this chain of tutelage in a historic uprising. This noble nation will never forget either the men of the people who emerged from its own ranks and paid a price for the sake of the nation, or the tutelage mentality and the cruel coup plotters who fought against our people’s values, sacred beliefs, will and history,” Çiftçi said.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s chief adviser Mehmet Uçum, who also serves as deputy chair of the Presidency’s Legal Policies Board, clarified a debate over the date of the next elections. Speaking to journalists on Thursday, Uçum said the elections will most likely be held on April 16, 2028, the same date as a referendum held in 2017 on the switch to an executive presidential system. He also underlined that this would be the last election Erdoğan would be eligible to run in.
Uçum said the elections may be held on that date if Parliament approves the renewal of elections, something that would require the support of 360 lawmakers. He said the possibility of an election in the last quarter of 2027 was “low” amid calls from the opposition for an early election.
Under Turkish law, an election would normally be held in May 2028.
But the Constitution allows Parliament to trigger an early election if such a move has the support of 360 of the Turkish Parliament’s 600 lawmakers, which would open the way for Erdoğan to seek another term.
Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and its ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), have 326 seats in total. Earlier this week, MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli reaffirmed his party’s unwavering support for Erdoğan’s candidacy in the next election.
The government has repeatedly insisted that elections will be held on schedule. Erdoğan, who was elected prime minister in 2003, was elected president in 2014 after serving three terms as premier. Following Türkiye’s switch to an executive presidential system, he was re-elected in 2018 and again in 2023.
Terror-free Türkiye
Uçum also spoke about the terror-free Türkiye initiative, which advanced with the introduction of a new law last month. The law provides for the deferral of prison terms for members of the terrorist group PKK, which announced its dissolution in 2025.
The initiative still awaits confirmation of the PKK’s disarmament, something coordinated by the group’s jailed ringleader, Abdullah Öcalan. Öcalan’s status in the initiative, first proposed by Bahçeli, is widely debated, with critics of the process claiming Öcalan would be granted rights he did not deserve, such as being allocated “a villa” on the prison island where he is held.
Uçum said Öcalan’s status may be reconsidered, although he would remain in prison, more than two decades after he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Uçum said Öcalan was part of “a dialogue” to carry out the initiative.
“The goal is clear: dissolution of the terrorist group. Whoever founded it, he’d dissolve it. This is possible through dialogue, and Öcalan should be tasked with it. He should be accommodated in such a way as to facilitate dialogue; this is a requirement,” Uçum said.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will meet U.S. President Donald Trump in New York on the sidelines of next week’s United Nations General Assembly, U.S. Ambassador to Ankara Tom Barrack announced. Details of the meeting, reported by Turkish media outlets, are not clear yet.
The two men last met on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara last July, as the defense alliance charted its future amid the threat of a U.S. withdrawal under Trump, the U.S.-Israel-Iran war and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The summit was also an opportunity to showcase the improving ties between the two countries under Trump, who often praises President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s political skills. Trump also signaled the lifting of sanctions against Türkiye.
Erdoğan met Trump at the White House in September 2025 during his first visit to Washington in six years and his first in-person meeting with Trump.
Relations between the two countries hit both lows and highs during Trump’s first term. They flourished during the president’s second term, as Trump built a good rapport with Erdoğan after returning to the White House in January 2025.
World leaders will gather in New York next week for the high-level general debate of the U.N. General Assembly’s 81st session, a gathering that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will open for the final time before his mandate ends.
The General Assembly’s high-level week runs from Sept. 22 to Sept. 28, following the session’s formal opening on Sept. 8. Bangladeshi diplomat Khalilur Rahman is presiding over the 81st session, held under the theme “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations That Delivers for All.”
Leaders are also expected to address the Cyprus issue, the conflict and worsening humanitarian crisis in Sudan, Myanmar’s political and humanitarian crisis, and the security crisis in Haiti, alongside the wars in Gaza, Iran and Ukraine, rounding out an agenda dominated by conflicts with no clear resolution in sight.
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