Politics
Allies back Türkiye after NATO intercepts missile launched from Iran
Several international organizations and governments expressed solidarity with Türkiye after a ballistic munition fired from Iran toward Turkish airspace was intercepted by NATO air and missile defense systems.
In a statement issued Thursday, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the attempted missile launch, describing it as a “serious escalation” and a violation of state sovereignty.
The ministry said such hostile acts represent “a direct threat to regional security and stability,” warning that expanding attacks to additional countries is unacceptable under international legal and political norms and risks further inflaming tensions in the Middle East.
Türkiye’s Ministry of National Defense said Wednesday that a ballistic munition launched from Iran and directed toward Turkish airspace was detected after crossing Iraqi and Syrian airspace. The projectile was intercepted and neutralized by NATO air and missile defense units deployed in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Debris from the missile fell in the Dörtyol district of Hatay province in southern Türkiye, officials said, adding that no casualties or injuries were reported.
In response to the incident, Türkiye summoned Iran’s ambassador to Ankara, Mohammad Hassan Habibollahzadeh, to the Foreign Ministry, where officials conveyed a formal protest and expressed deep concern over the launch.
Turkish officials stressed that any steps that could expand ongoing conflicts or further destabilize the region must be avoided.
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) also denounced the firing of the ballistic missile toward Turkish airspace. In a statement on Wednesday, the group expressed full solidarity with Türkiye and reaffirmed its support for the country’s sovereignty, security and stability.
The OIC general secretariat called for an immediate halt to actions that could escalate tensions and warned that threatening member states undermines the principles of international relations based on good neighborliness and mutual respect.
Several NATO allies also voiced support for Türkiye following the interception.
Albania said it stands in “full solidarity with our NATO ally and strategic partner Türkiye,” in a statement posted on the social media platform X by the country’s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. The ministry welcomed NATO’s rapid response, saying the interception helped protect civilians and allied territory while warning that Iran’s “reckless attacks” risk further destabilizing the region.
Spain likewise condemned the incident. Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said he spoke with Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and conveyed Spain’s strong condemnation of what he described as Iran’s missile attack targeting Türkiye.
“I conveyed our strong condemnation of Iran’s missile attack against their country and expressed our solidarity with the Turkish government and people,” Albares said in a statement posted on X.
Albares also reiterated Spain’s call for de-escalation in the Middle East and urged all parties to return to diplomatic negotiations and respect international law.
NATO also condemned Iran’s targeting of Türkiye, spokesperson Allison Hart said following the incident.
“We condemn Iran’s targeting of Türkiye. NATO stands firmly with all allies, including Türkiye, as Iran continues its indiscriminate attacks across the region. Our deterrence and defense posture remains strong across all domains, including when it comes to air and missile defense,” Hart said.
On the other hand, Iran’s armed forces on Thursday denied claims that a missile had been launched toward Türkiye, saying they respect the country’s sovereignty and had not fired any missiles at Turkish territory.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke over the phone on Sunday with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi, Foreign Ministry sources said. The two top diplomats discussed the latest developments in peace talks between Iran and the United States, sources added.
Ankara is an active and major actor working for a peaceful resolution to the U.S.-Israel-Iran war. Fidan has been at the forefront of the diplomatic blitz to achieve this, along with Pakistan, a major ally of Türkiye, which hosted the last round of U.S.-Iran talks.
Iran has sent its response to a U.S. proposal aimed at ending the more than two-month war to the mediator, Pakistan, Iran’s IRNA news agency said Sunday.
According to Iran’s proposal, the current phase of negotiations will focus exclusively on the cessation of hostilities in the region, a source familiar with the matter told IRNA.
Sources in both camps have told Reuters the latest peace efforts are aimed at a temporary memorandum of understanding to halt the war and allow traffic through the Strait of Hormuz while they discuss a fuller deal, which would have to address intractable disputes such as Iran’s nuclear program.
Talks with the United States aim to defend Iran’s rights, “not surrender,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday.
“If there is any talk of dialogue or negotiation, it does not mean surrender or backing down, but rather the goal is to secure the rights of the Iranian nation and powerfully defend national interests,” Pezeshkian said in a statement carried by IRNA.
Iran “will never bow before the enemy,” he vowed during a meeting of the task force for reconstruction of damage caused during the U.S.-Israeli war.
Regional tensions have escalated since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, triggering retaliation from Tehran against Israel as well as U.S. allies in the Gulf, along with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
A cease-fire took effect on April 8 through Pakistani mediation, but talks in Islamabad failed to produce a lasting agreement. The truce was later extended by U.S. President Donald Trump without a set deadline, paving the way for diplomacy toward a permanent solution to the war.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will visit Qatar Tuesday for talks expected to focus on preparations for a high-level strategic meeting, regional security and Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, Turkish Foreign Ministry sources confirmed Monday.
During the visit, Fidan is expected to review preparations for the 12th meeting of the Türkiye-Qatar High Strategic Committee, set to be held in Türkiye later this year under the chairmanships of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, according to the sources.
The talks are also expected to cover Türkiye’s support for Qatar following Iranian attacks in March and April, the sources said. Fidan is also expected to underline Ankara’s sensitivity over restoring freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, describing it as critical to regional security and economic stability.
The minister is also expected to emphasize that recent regional developments have once again demonstrated the growing importance of Türkiye-Qatar military and defense cooperation. He is also expected to underline how joint efforts on connectivity carry strategic importance for regional stability.
The sources said Fidan will stress that bringing down tensions in the Gulf to a lasting end remains an urgent priority and will exchange views on ongoing diplomatic initiatives.
The meetings are also expected to focus on Israel’s actions in the region, including its operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Fidan is expected to call for stronger joint efforts, based on regional ownership, to address conflicts and disputes, and urge that Israel’s actions and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza be brought to the attention of the international community.
He is also expected to warn against the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government that claim Türkiye undermines peace efforts. He is also expected to emphasize the importance of preserving Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity amid Israeli attacks.
Türkiye and Qatar established a strategic partnership in 2014 and their High Strategic Committee has met annually since 2015. The two countries have signed 115 agreements through 11 committee meetings.
Bilateral trade reached $1.15 billion in 2025, with both countries aiming to raise the volume to $5 billion. To that end, a trade and economic partnership agreement entered into force on Aug. 1, 2025.
Fidan last visited Qatar on March 19, 2026.
A group of demonstrators known as the “Diyarbakır Mothers” marked another Mother’s Day on Sunday without a reunion with their children who were brainwashed to join the terrorist group PKK years ago.
The “mothers,” who were later joined by male members of families, started a sit-in protest in 2019 outside the building of a party with links to the PKK, in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır. Since then, the number of families joining the protest reached 385. They claim the party, the now-defunct Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), had tricked their sons and daughters, mostly teenagers, into joining the terrorist group.
The protest was unprecedented, especially in Diyarbakır, a province with a predominantly Kurdish population. The PKK claims to fight for Kurdish rights and, for decades, has exploited the disillusioned Kurdish youth to join them. The Diyarbakır Mothers’ act was the first instance of defiance against the PKK in the wider region where the local population is intimidated by the terrorist group. Over time, it paid off, with 77 families reuniting with their children who surrendered to Turkish authorities, mostly on Türkiye’s border with northern Iraq, where the PKK has hideouts. Surrendered members of the PKK are often handed out lenient sentences, including house arrests, if they invoke a law for collaborators and if they are not involved in acts of terrorism.
Mevlüde Üçdağ still awaits good news from her son Ramazan. Ramazan was brainwashed to join the group when he was 17. Üçdağ sought to reunite with him for years, even traveling to Iraq once, but could not find her son. Pro-PKK websites reported in 2018 that Üçdağ was killed, but the mother was determined to get him back, dead or alive. Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA) on Sunday, Üçdağ said she missed him very much. “It would mean the world to me if he were here with me now. Mother’s Day is just an ordinary day for me without him,” she said.
Ayten Elhaman, who joined the mothers to reunite with her son Bayram, said they never lost their determination and always had hopes for the return of their children. “The terror-free Türkiye process is a new hope for us. We wake up with new hopes every morning. Seventy-seven children returned to their families, and Allah willing, we will have ours back too,” she said, adding that reuniting with her son would be “the greatest gift for Mother’s Day.”
Sariye Tokay said she has been holding the sit-in protest in the hope of reuniting with her son Mehmet, adding that they have continued their struggle for their children regardless of summer or winter, illness or pandemics.
Stating that they will not give up their struggle until they are reunited with their children, Tokay said they are marking yet another Mother’s Day with sorrow. “My son used to celebrate both my Mother’s Day and his grandmother’s every year, but unfortunately, we have been apart for 15 years. We don’t have a ‘Mother’s Day.’ Our only wish is for all mothers to be reunited with their children.”
Fatma Laçin, who seeks to reunite with her son Muhammed, said her only child was taken away from her. Emphasizing that she is fighting to reunite with her son, Laçin said, “I hope no mother has to cry anymore.”
Academics and intellectuals from across the world gathered in Istanbul on Monday to examine how colonial legacies continue to shape global knowledge production, with speakers at the World Decolonization Forum urging universities, societies and cultural institutions to break away from Eurocentric frameworks.
The session, titled “The Problem of Knowledge Production: Decolonized Methodologies,” was held at the Atatürk Cultural Center as part of the World Decolonization Forum, which focused on the roots of global crises and the lasting impact of colonialism.
Speakers included decolonial theory scholar Walter Mignolo, Salman Sayyid from the University of Leeds, Syed Farid Alatas and U.S. political scientist and author Anne Norton.
Norton argued that colonialism remains embedded in modern global structures, saying today’s world continues to operate within systems built by colonial powers.
“Colonialism has not ended,” she said, adding that the colonization of the mind has become deeply normalized in everyday life.
She also pointed to the role of corporate power and universities, particularly in the United States, in sustaining these systems.
Sayyid emphasized that many universities around the world remain modeled on Western frameworks, not only rhetorically but institutionally.
He said decolonizing universities would transform knowledge production from a profit-oriented enterprise into a public good.
“A university should not merely become a diploma factory,” he said, stressing that cultural, social and academic decolonization must progress together.
Alatas described the decolonization of knowledge as fundamentally tied to critical thinking, arguing that Europe continues to maintain cultural, political and intellectual dominance through what he called modern forms of neocolonialism.
“Eurocentric knowledge functions to sustain neocolonial structures,” he said.
Mignolo explored the connection between modernity and colonialism, arguing that liberation and decolonization are understood differently across regions and societies.
He cautioned against conflating decolonization with “de-Westernization,” saying the latter is often driven by state-led geopolitical or economic projects, such as those associated with China, Russia or BRICS countries.
According to Mignolo, decolonization goes beyond state policy and instead involves a broader process of intellectual independence shaped through education, knowledge production and social consciousness.
While classical colonial administrations have largely disappeared, he said, coloniality continues through military power, financial systems, dollar dominance and global media networks.
He added that decolonization should not be viewed as opposition to the West, but rather as an effort by societies to reclaim intellectual and cultural autonomy.
The Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul said Sunday that renovation work on the Halki seminary will be completed in September, but noted that the Greek Orthodox school still does not have an operating license.
Located on Heybeliada, one of the Princes’ Islands near Istanbul, the seminary opened in the mid-19th century and was the main theological school for the Eastern Orthodox Church until it was closed under Turkish law in 1971.
“We are also optimistic regarding the reopening of the Holy Theological School of Halki,” the 86-year-old patriarch Bartholomew I told donors in Athens last Thursday.
“In the coming months, the extensive renovation works on the school’s building complex will be completed, and, God willing, we shall celebrate its inauguration this coming September,” he said.
Although his remarks were widely interpreted to mean the seminary would reopen, Nikos Papachristou, a spokesman for the Istanbul-based patriarchate, told AFP there were no plans to reopen the seminary, only to inaugurate the newly renovated building.
“What he said in Athens is that we are expecting that the renovation will be finished by September, so at the end of September, he will be able to inaugurate the renovated building,” he explained.
“He is always expressing the wish that it would be a nice coincidence if, when he inaugurates the renovated building, the licence for reopening the school will come,” he added.
Blocked for years, Bartholomew I raised the matter with U.S. President Donald Trump during his visit to the White House last September. Trump pledged to help, raising hopes that the deadlock could be broken and the hilltop seminary reopened. Established in 1844, it has turned out scores of Orthodox leaders, including Bartholomew I.
Momentum in reopening grew after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also discussed the issue with Trump at the White House last September.
Erdoğan said Türkiye would “do our part” regarding its reopening. He had previously linked the move to reciprocal measures from Greece to improve the rights of Turks and Muslims there.
Since coming to power in 2002, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) governments have enacted reforms to improve the rights of religious groups, including opening places of worship and returning some property that was confiscated by the state in the past decades.
International scholars and experts scrutinized the impact of colonization and decolonization efforts as the World Decolonization Forum opened in Istanbul Monday.
The forum, organized by Institute Social, continued with a session entitled “Why Are Institutions Aligning Around Decolonization?” after a keynote speech by Dr. Esra Albayrak, chair of the NÛN Foundation for Education and Culture and a member of the forum’s scientific committee.
Participants discussed how to break free from Western-centric concepts of knowledge, the role of universities and other institutions in knowledge as part of the decolonization process.
Professor Mürteza Bedir, from the Centre for Islamic Studies (ISAM), told the session that the Encyclopedia of Islam published by Türkiye’s Presidency of Religious Affairs was a reflection of a “more local viewpoint to knowledge generated on Islam.”
Professor Naci Inci, the rector of Boğaziçi University, said discussing decolonization was not merely confronting the past but also rethinking the university of the future.
Institute Social’s Dr. Ipek Coşkun Armağan told the session that they needed to focus on decolonizing the concepts and this should be the first stage of decolonization.
“The case of Palestine moves decolonization debates beyond a historical matter, calling for a rethinking of pressing global issues such as sovereignty, self-determination, displacement, and structural violence.” Mireille Fanon Mendes-France, chairperson of the Frantz Fanon Foundation, told a session entitled The Reason for Unreason.
“The concept of decolonization is gaining ground; yet the real question is whether we can genuinely transform the intellectual frameworks through which we make sense of the world,” said Salman Sayyid, a professor of Decolonial Thought and Rhetoric at the University of Leeds.
“A decolonized university is one that can view knowledge production as a public value, and that can open space for different intellectual traditions, disciplines and epistemologies. Such a transformation can only be conceived alongside a broader process of decolonization in culture and society,” he added.
“Colonialism hasn’t disappeared. It has transformed its instruments of control, spreading into cultural, intellectual, military and political domains. We live in a world that colonialism built, a world where many of us, both in the Global South and the Global North, are left out. And the starting point is simple: questioning the ideas and assumptions we’ve been taught to take for granted,” Syed Farid Alatas, Professor of Sociology & Anthropology at the National University of Singapore, told the plenary session entitled The Problem of Knowledge Production: Decolonizing Methodologies.
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