Politics
OIC summit in Istanbul brings out diplomacy in ring of fire
The 51st session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was held in Istanbul on Saturday and Sunday. The two-day event, held under the theme of “The OIC In A Transforming World,” was a display of unity for the world’s largest Muslim organization as Türkiye took over the rotating chairpersonship of the Council of Foreign Ministers.
The pressing issues the Muslim world is facing were naturally on the agenda of the meeting that continued amid Israel’s attacks on Iran and Iran’s response. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was among the diplomats closely watched by journalists covering the event, while diplomats’ focus was also on the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza, something Türkiye repeatedly called on the world not to forget amid escalating tensions between Iran and Israel.
Iran requested a special session at the summit. The closed-to-press session late Saturday focused on Israeli attacks on the country, media outlets reported. Similarly, ministers of OIC member states that are also members of the Arab League held a one-hour meeting on the sidelines of the summit to discuss developments in the Iran-Israel conflict.
Araghchi was later received by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the sidelines of the summit. At the meeting, Erdoğan expressed that Israel “must be stopped immediately” and said the dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme must be resolved at the negotiating table, according to a statement by the Turkish Presidency. Türkiye is ready to play its part, for example, by facilitating dialogue, the president said. He told Araghchi that immediate steps should be taken to resume diplomacy between Iran and the United States, and that Türkiye would continue to support this process. At the OIC meeting, Erdoğan previously accused the Israeli government of being the “primary obstacle to regional peace” and stressed that Iran had a legitimate right to self-defense.
More than half of the OIC member countries are located in the Middle East or in its close vicinity, standing to be affected by ongoing conflicts directly.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Saturday accused Israel of leading the Middle East toward “total disaster” by attacking Iran on June 13.
“Israel is now leading the region to the brink of total disaster by attacking Iran, our neighbor,” Fidan told the summit. “There is no Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian, Yemeni or Iranian problem, but there is clearly an Israeli problem,” he said. He called for an end to the “unlimited aggression” against Iran. “We must prevent the situation from deteriorating into a spiral of violence that would further jeopardize regional and global security,” he added.
The OIC, founded in 1969, says its mission is to “safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony.”
The summit brought together top diplomats from nearly 50 Muslim-majority countries amid mounting global concern over Israel’s military operations in Gaza and what leaders described as a failure by the international community to protect Palestinian civilians.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addressed the summit on its opening day, emphasizing the need for Muslim nations to stand united against what he called “barbaric and inhumane” attacks on Palestinians. “The Islamic world must raise its voice louder against injustice,” Erdoğan said. “We can no longer tolerate double standards in international politics.”
OIC Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha echoed calls for international accountability and said the organization stands firmly behind the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. “What we are witnessing in Gaza is not just a political issue; it is a human tragedy that requires urgent action,” Taha said.
In addition to the Gaza conflict, ministers addressed growing anti-Muslim sentiment in the West, particularly in Europe and North America. The summit also touched on economic cooperation, climate change, and regional stability. Delegates reaffirmed the OIC’s commitment to sustainable development and voiced support for conflict resolution efforts in Sudan, Yemen, and Afghanistan.
Ministers, including Fidan, held bilateral talks on the margins of the summit. The summit also hosted representatives of other international bodies and agencies, including Miguel Angel Moratinos, high representative of the U.N. Alliance of Civilizations, as well as Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Overall, some 1,000 people attended the event.
Türkiye is among the founding members of the OIC and hosts eight subsidiaries of the organization. Since 1976, it has hosted three Council of Foreign Ministers meetings. The country was also the first to open a permanent OIC representation office in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah in 2015, and one year later, it hosted a heads of state summit.
Eight of the 17 suspects detained in a major corruption investigation targeting the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) have been arrested, authorities announced on Monday.
The investigation, led by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, centers around serious allegations including bribery and tender rigging. The suspects were taken into custody on charges of “giving a bribe,” “receiving a bribe” and “rigging a tender.”
Following their initial detention since last week, an Istanbul court ordered the arrest of the following individuals: Ali Cüneyt Özdemir, Can Karataş, Cengiz Tosun, Deniz Erzincan, Erdinç Karataş, Mehmet Karataş, Murat Timuçin Altıer and Taylan Çokyiğit.
The remaining nine suspects were released under judicial control, pending further investigation.
Authorities say the case, in which the first arrests were made earlier this year, has widened significantly.
The arrests are part of an ongoing investigation by the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul into alleged bribery, tender rigging and fraud at the IBB, which is run by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Dozens of suspects, including Istanbul’s former mayor, Ekrem Imamoğlu, have been arrested on charges of “leading a criminal organization,” “membership in a criminal organization,” “extortion,” “bribery,” “aggravated fraud,” “unlawful acquisition of personal data” and “tender rigging” since March.
A barrage of investigations focusing on CHP-run municipalities across Türkiye netted mayors and municipal bureaucrats accused of taking bribes in exchange for building permits, rigging tenders and other forms of corruption involving municipal businesses.
The CHP, which runs Istanbul and more than half of its districts, claims the charges are politically motivated, while authorities highlight that the judiciary is independent of any political influence and point out that some investigations were launched upon complaints by CHP members themselves against mayors and municipal officials.
While 97 suspects were arrested in the corruption case, judicial control measures were applied to 206 additional suspects, the public prosecutor’s office stated recently.
The unfolding scandal has cast a shadow over the city’s municipal administration, raising fresh concerns about corruption in public procurement processes.
The Blue Homeland is essential for the Eastern Mediterranean as it is for the Turkic world, the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Ersin Tatar said on Tuesday, underlining that the Turkish Cypriots are not alone.
Speaking to the press after a ceremony in Istanbul, Tatar said they have strengthened the TRNC’s diplomatic status on international platforms thanks to the two-state policy pursued with the support of Türkiye over the past five years.
The TRNC’s representation in the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) are important indicators of the foreign policy success of recent years, he stressed.
Emphasizing that the federal solution model poses serious risks for the Turkish Cypriots, Tatar said: “Under the guise of a federation, Turks will be reduced to a minority, the Republic of Türkiye will withdraw from Cyprus, the Republic of Türkiye’s guarantorship will be eliminated, and Turkishness will lose the Eastern Mediterranean.”
Underlining the geopolitical importance of the Eastern Mediterranean, Tatar said the TRNC should be evaluated as a whole, not only as a landmass but also with its maritime jurisdictions, continental shelf, exclusive economic zones and airspace.
“As (Turkish) President (Recep Tayyip) Erdoğan has said, the TRNC will continue to be a shining Turkish state in the Eastern Mediterranean,” Tatar added.
Later, at a reception in Istanbul marking the 51st anniversary of the Cyprus Peace Operation, known as Peace and Freedom Day, he underscored that the Turkish soldiers in the TRNC will continue to remain there as a deterrent force.
If an agreement is to be signed on the Cyprus issue, the Turkish Cypriots will only sign an honorable agreement that is built on solid foundations, with Türkiye as a guarantor and the Turkish military remaining there as a deterrent force, the president underlined.
“Blue Homeland” is the name of a doctrine conceived by two former Turkish naval officers, encompassing Türkiye’s maritime jurisdictions, exclusive economic zone and continental shelf in line with United Nations resolutions.
The island of Cyprus has been mired in a decadeslong struggle between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the U.N. to achieve a comprehensive settlement. Five decades of Cyprus talks have led nowhere.
In the early 1960s, ethnic attacks forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety. In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aiming at Greece’s annexation of the island led to Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence.
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was founded in 1983.
The island has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland.
The Greek Cypriot administration entered the European Union in 2004, the same year that Greek Cypriots thwarted the U.N.’s Annan plan to end the decadeslong dispute, which had envisaged a reunited Cyprus joining the EU.
The status of the island remains unresolved in spite of a series of negotiations over the years.
While Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration supported a federation in Cyprus, Türkiye and the TRNC insisted on a two-state solution that reflected the realities of the island.
Economic ties grow
Stressing that economic relations between Türkiye and the TRNC are developing, Tatar said annual trade volume between the two countries is approaching around $3 billion.
He said they trade with more than 100 countries and noted that significant strides have been made in tourism with the Varosha (Maraş) initiative, which has been partially made available to the public.
The Defense Ministry on Tuesday shared footage recorded during a reconnaissance and surveillance drone flight of the navy that captured Greek coast guard elements pushing back migrants into Turkish waters.
It was detected that a boat of the Greek coast guard, close to the eastern shore of Samos (Sisam) island, pushed irregular migrants on their dinghy toward the west of Aydın province’s Yılancı Burnu, according to a statement of the ministry on social media.
“Subsequently, a civilian boat in the area tied the irregular migrant boats to a civilian boat, towed them eastward and released them into our territorial waters west of Yılancı Burnu. The irregular migrants in the rubber boat were rescued by a Turkish coast guard boat that arrived in the area,” it said.
Many boatloads of migrants attempt to make the dangerous sea crossing to reach the Greek islands from the Turkish coast, hoping to make their way to prosperous European Union countries eventually.
Others attempt to enter Greece by crossing the Maritsa (Meriç) River that runs along the land border between the two countries.
While many make it to the EU, many others perish at sea or are pushed back by Greece into Turkish waters in violation of international law.
Athens’ illegal practice has been documented by Türkiye, international human rights groups and charities on many occasions, as well as in accounts of migrants intercepted in the Aegean or land borders.
Athens has strongly denied such so-called “pushbacks,” arguing that its coast guard has saved hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa crossing in small boats from Türkiye.
Greece says it needs to protect its borders, which are also those of the EU, from mass illegal immigration. It has stepped up patrols in the Aegean Sea with the help of the European Border Surveillance Agency, Frontex.
The Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers discussed the nuclear talks set to take place in Istanbul on Friday in a phone call, Turkish diplomatic sources said on Monday.
Hakan Fidan and Abbas Araghchi also discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza and developments in Syria, said sources.
A new round of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the three European countries, known as the E3 – comprising the U.K., France and Germany – is set to take place in Istanbul, Türkiye, on Friday.
The talks mark a potential step forward in efforts to revive or renegotiate aspects of the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which has faced significant setbacks since the U.S. withdrew from the agreement in 2018.
In talks with Araghchi on Thursday, the top diplomats of the U.K., France, Germany and the European Union emphasized the urgency of returning to diplomacy for a nuclear deal, or else they were prepared to trigger the U.N. “snapback” mechanism, which would reimpose international sanctions.
Talks between Tehran and the U.S. were being held through Omani mediators until Israel’s surprise attack on Iran on June 13, which triggered a 12-day war. The attack came just two days before a planned sixth round of negotiations in the Omani capital Muscat.
Iran accused the U.S. of complicity in the Israeli attack, which killed top Iranian military officials, nuclear scientists and civilians. The U.S. also launched strikes on three major Iranian nuclear sites, claiming to have obliterated them. A cease-fire took effect on June 24.
While the U.S. and Europeans say Iran can never have a nuclear bomb, Tehran argues its program is meant for the peaceful use of nuclear power.
After the talks with the E3 and EU, Araghchi highlighted that it was the U.S. that withdrew from the 2015 nuclear accord, and any new round of negotiations is only possible “when the other side is ready for a fair, balanced and mutually beneficial nuclear deal.”
“If EU/E3 want to have a role, they should act responsibly and put aside the worn-out policies of threat and pressure, including the ‘snapback’ for which they lack absolutely no moral and legal ground,” he said on X.
Connecting Europe and Asia, Istanbul fosters numerous connections between the two continents and serves as a hub of diplomacy. The city has hosted talks between Iran and Western powers, as well as two rounds of Russia-Ukraine talks and discussions on the future of Syria, which brought together foreign diplomats.
Türkiye is keen on boosting its international profile as a key mediator and utilizes Istanbul’s symbolic location to promote diplomacy between the sides of conflicts and disagreements on a global level.
Under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the country has emerged as a key player in diplomacy, thanks to an effective foreign policy grounded in win-win principles. Its geopolitical advantage also plays into Türkiye’s hands.
Iran maintains good neighborly relations with Türkiye, which stood against Israel’s attacks on Tehran.
Türkiye advocates a peaceful settlement to the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program and harshly criticized Israel for launching attacks on Iran, allegedly to prevent the latter from developing nuclear weapons.
Türkiye views any attempts to divide Syria as a national security threat and would directly intervene if such an attempt were made, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Tuesday.
Speaking at a news conference with his El Salvadorian counterpart, Alexandra Hill, in the capital Ankara, Fidan said Israel was seeking to “drag the region to chaos to preserve its status” and that the unrest in Syria’s Druze-majority south was a “reflection of that.”
“As Türkiye, we could never stay silent against such a move,” Fidan said, stressing that clashes between Druze and the Bedouin factions could have only been prevented by the military intervention of Syria’s central government.
Israel is unwilling to see a stable country around itself and aims to divide Syria with the violent unrest in southern Suwayda province, Fidan added.
On July 13, clashes broke out between Bedouin Arab tribes and armed Druze groups in Suwayda in southern Syria. The situation worsened on July 16 when the Israeli military conducted strikes near the Syrian presidential palace and on the General Staff headquarters and Defense Ministry.
Ankara played a key role in establishing the cease-fire in Syria after Israeli airstrikes targeted the capital, Damascus, as well as Suwayda and Daraa, on the pretext of protecting the Druze community.
Fidan highlighted that the whole international community and regional actors strived for Syria not to become a state hosting terrorism or a state being the source of migration, while Israel sabotages all initiatives for stability and security in Syria.
Fidan said that Türkiye is one of the countries most negatively affected by the regional problems and terrorism in terms of security, and added, “But despite this, while we continue our struggle, we are trying to present stability and goodness as a larger strategic vision. All our relations with Iraq, Syria and Iran are developing in this way.”
Besides Israel, Fidan also warned other groups within Syria not to stoke tensions.
“No group should attempt to divide. We have much to discuss through diplomacy,” he said.
Fidan underlined that Türkiye tries to end all conflicts and wars through diplomatic initiatives and is following the developments in Syria’s south closely.
In one of the biggest turning points for the Middle East in generations, anti-regime forces seized the Syrian capital, Damascus, and longtime dictator Bashar Assad fled to Russia following 13 years of civil war and more than 50 years of his family’s brutal rule in December. Following the fall of the Assad regime and the installation of a new government in Syria, Türkiye pledged support for Damascus and rallied countries to follow suit. Ankara explained to its interlocutors the importance of lifting sanctions and rebuilding the country for refugees in the region, Europe and Türkiye to be able to return.
Türkiye also formed a counterterrorism platform that includes Syria’s neighbors to fight Daesh and thus prevent any future uprising of the terrorist organization through intelligence sharing and joint action.
Six Daesh suspects were caught by security sources in a counterterrorism operation in Istanbul late Monday.
The Istanbul counterterrorism branch conducted an operation to arrest suspects identified as having links to the Daesh terrorist group and connections to conflict zones.
Six suspects were detained during the operation, and searches yielded numerous digital materials.
During the operations, five foreign nationals identified as having visa violations and lacking identification were taken into custody and handed over to the Provincial Immigration Administration for processing.
The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) thwarted the terrorist group’s efforts for recruitment, obtaining funds and logistics support after its latest operation in the aftermath of a church shooting in Istanbul in January 2024.
Daesh remains the second biggest threat of terrorism for Türkiye, which faces security risks from multiple terrorist groups and was one of the first countries to declare it a terrorist group in 2013.
In December last year, Turkish security forces detained 32 suspects over alleged links with Daesh, who were planning attacks on churches and synagogues, as well as the Iraqi Embassy.
Terrorists from Daesh and other groups, such as the PKK and its Syrian wing, the YPG, rely on a network of members and supporters in Türkiye.
Turkish authorities have ordered the freezing of millions of lira worth of assets since 2013 to crack down on terrorism financiers in line with United Nations sanctions.
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