Turkey's coast guard began refusing passage through the Dardanelles to commercial vessels bound for Novorossiysk and Odessa on August 8, Bloomberg reported citing sources; the move followed repeated drone attacks on Turkish-owned cargo ships and adds a new chokepoint risk to Black Sea grain and commodity routes already disrupted by the Russia-Ukraine war

The US State Department approved Turkey to re-export 70 M39 ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles, 12 M270 MLRS launchers, 2,524 M26 rockets, and roughly 47,000 cluster munitions to Ukraine on August 8, according to multiple outlets citing a US Congress disclosure and State Department notifications; Ukraine's national news agency reported Kyiv purchased the weapons from Ankara, with transfer to begin after conditions are met

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement in Makkah on August 7, capping nearly a year of trilateral talks; the pact's mutual-defence clause means an armed attack on any signatory is treated as an attack on all three; Indian outlets frame it as a potential 'Islamic NATO'; Middle East Eye called it 'first in kind' among the three states; The National (UAE) reported the agreement aims to 'strengthen collective security and promote peace'

Drones struck two Turkish-owned cargo ships, Nadezhda and Yasar, near Russia's Novorossiysk port on the night of August 3, injuring three crew members; the captain of the Nadezhda attributed the attack to Ukraine and said six or seven drones were used; Turkey's Foreign Ministry expressed 'serious concern' and called on both Russia and Ukraine to implement 'concrete measures' for navigational safety, deliberately not naming Ukraine

Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's former prime minister and founder of the Gelecek (Future) Party, announced the party's dissolution; the closure will be formalized at a congress on August 22, ending a five-year experiment in opposition centrist politics after failed alliance negotiations and the collapse of the party's 'new center' project

Turkish police detained the CHP opposition mayor of Ankara's Etimesgut district and 51 other suspects on July 30 in a widening corruption investigation; the arrests follow the detention of Istanbul district mayors the previous day and a broader wave of probes that the CHP says are politically motivated to disable the main opposition party ahead of the 2028 elections

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi visited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara on July 29, signing five cooperation agreements and discussing a plan for Iraq to supply Turkey with up to one million barrels of oil a day; Turkey's state oil company TPAO has taken a 15% equity stake in the Kirkuk oil field alongside BP, ending the terms of the 1973 Iraq-Turkey pipeline deal; the shift is driven by Turkey's need to reduce dependence on Gulf routes disrupted by the Iran-US war

Turkish newspaper Hürriyet, citing senior defence columnist Abdulkadir Selvi, reported on July 10 that Turkey had already completed the sale of its Russian-made S-400 systems to a Gulf state, most likely the UAE or Qatar; an official announcement was expected the same day; analysts and Greek media said the sale could reopen negotiations for Turkey to obtain US-made F-35 jets, from which Ankara has been excluded since 2019

US President Trump said he would 'consider' allowing Turkey to buy F-35 fighter jets and that the US would lift sanctions on Ankara, a bilateral announcement on the first day of the NATO summit in Turkey; Turkey's President Erdogan claimed Trump had promised five specific jets; if confirmed, it ends Turkey's exclusion from the program since 2019

Turkey's president and Pakistan's prime minister met at the Vahdettin Mansion on July 4, reaffirming strategic alignment on the Iran ceasefire, pledging a US$5 billion bilateral trade target and expanding defence and logistics cooperation

The two-day Ankara summit ratified Europe's largest Ukraine commitment, introduced China formally into NATO's threat framework, and was interrupted by Iran striking three ships and the US hitting 80+ Iranian targets, the largest exchange since the January ceasefire

A new Sunni alignment is forming around Riyadh, one that excludes Abu Dhabi, positions Saudi Arabia as the Arab world's pivotal state post-Iran war, and places Pakistan's nuclear capability inside a coherent geopolitical coalition for the first time

Ankara Governorate imposed a province-wide assembly ban from July 1-15 covering the NATO summit on July 7-8; Amnesty International reported at least 225 people including academics, lawyers and an LGBTQ activist detained in pre-summit sweeps

The alliance's 32 members convened in Ankara on July 7 after Trump held separate calls with Putin and Zelenskyy on July 5; South Korea's President Lee also attended; NATO Secretary-General Rutte urged members not to be 'naive' about China's military build-up

High Representative Kaja Kallas, Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos, and Home Affairs Commissioner Magnus Brunner visited Turkey on June 29-30 in a coordinated signal of intent; meetings covered accession progress, customs union, migration, and Ukraine ahead of the July 7-8 NATO Ankara summit.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar won unanimous Cabinet approval on Sunday for a proposal he called a 'moral and historical duty'; the measure goes to the Knesset for a final vote, while Turkey's foreign ministry called it a cover for Israel's own alleged crimes in Gaza

The State Department formally notified Congress of its intent to sell roughly 80 GE Aerospace F110 turbofans to Turkey for early KAAN production models; the administration proceeded over congressional objections tied to Ankara's retention of the Russian S-400 system, and ahead of the NATO Ankara summit in July

Turkey's central bank, established 1930, sets Turkish lira policy rates and manages international reserves, with its independence under President Erdogan a persistent market variable.

A five-layered dispute between two NATO allies over Aegean territorial waters, airspace, the continental shelf, island militarization, and flight-information authority, frozen since 1995 and flaring again in 2026.

Türkiye's national currency, a barometer of the country's recurring battles between heterodox monetary policy and orthodox stabilization, and a global reference point for emerging-market currency risk.

High Representative Kaja Kallas, Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos, and Internal Affairs Commissioner Magnus Brunner spent June 29-30 in Ankara meeting Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and two other ministers, the highest-level EU visit since Turkey's accession talks stalled, timed eight days before the Ankara NATO summit

Ankara condemns the strikes as illegal, mourns Khamenei, and offers Trump support to implement a ceasefire, with two-thirds of Turks wanting Turkey to stay out

Erdogan told AK Party MPs that legislation to accelerate the PKK's disbandment is being prepared; the PKK voted to disband in May 2025 after Ocalan's appeal, but the process stalled as Turkey engaged in mediation over the Iran-Israel conflict

A damning annual report passes 381-107, naming Akın Gürlek over the İmamoğlu case; Ankara calls it 'hostile propaganda'

US, Greece, Cyprus and Israel launch an energy centre at Rice University; Ankara invokes 'guarantor state' powers and warns Israeli strikes now threaten Turkey

Transport ministers in Riyadh signed two memoranda of understanding on June 9 for railway and logistics cooperation along a revived Hejaz Railway route; the feasibility study is due by year-end and completion is targeted in three to four years

An Istanbul court annuls the CHP's 2023 congress, unseating Özgür Özel and bringing back Kılıçdaroğlu, judicial pressure on Erdoğan's main rival party deepens

Jailed over a year, Erdoğan's strongest rival faces 15-20 years on espionage charges and a separate indictment seeking up to 2,430, and tells the court the nation will decide at the ballot box

A 14-article bill would let Erdogan declare a 200-mile EEZ and deny islands a full continental shelf; Athens calls it illegal under UNCLOS as Dendias warns against 'revisionism'