Assessments

Turkey

The Broker Who Won't Be Bound

May 2026

The Read

Turkey is converting a turbulent neighborhood into brokerage from Yerevan to Tashkent. At home, the courts now do what the ballot box cannot.

Ankara is moving fast to lock in a corridor windfall from the Iran war and Russia's Central Asian retreat, anchoring new lanes through Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the Middle Corridor.

Erdogan is running the late-stage playbook of an electoral autocracy: hollow the opposition through prosecution rather than ban it outright, keeping the form of competition while removing its content.

Embedded leverage inside NATO's industrial base is now Ankara's strongest card with Europe, extracted through defense supply chains without any political concession on the S-400 or accession, a one-way ratchet European capitals have not yet figured out how to manage.

LAST 30 DAYS

36

35

Δ -1

  1. APR 18Sat

    Türkiye-Armenia Border Normalization Advances Toward Reopening

  2. APR 23Thu

    Turkey-Europe Defense-Industrial Integration Acceleration

  3. MAY 01Fri

    UAE Exits OPEC Amid Post-Iran-War Strategic Realignment

  4. MAY 02Sat

    Somali Piracy Resurgence in Western Indian Ocean

  5. MAY 11Mon

    48th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting Convenes in Hiroshima

The Imamoglu prosecution stack widened with a new insult probe, hardening judicial control over the 2028 succession field. Armenia border reopening moved from intent toward operational implementation, and Turkey's defense-industrial penetration of European rearmament accelerated past what EU political institutions can govern.

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Sources

  • Türkiye-Armenia border reopening moves from diplomacy toward implementation (Eurasianet)
  • Türkiye and Azerbaijan Contend With Potential Kurdish Role in Iran Conflict (Jamestown Foundation)
  • Debate on Turkey's integration into European defense (Carnegie Endowment)
  • Turkish prosecutors launch new probe into jailed Istanbul mayor Imamoglu (Arab News)
  • The Myth of Middle Power Agency (Foreign Policy)
  • The Limits of Trump's Libya Diplomacy (Foreign Affairs)