Turkey in March 2026: the most important developments in politics
Turkey in March 2026 saw the start of the trial of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a leading opponent of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on corruption charges that critics call politically motivated. On 9 March he clashed with the judge in the opening session and received applause from supporters in the courtroom. On 12 March a Turkish court put the main opposition party and hundreds of its members on trial, which critics also describe as political.
The war involving Iran shaped Turkey's foreign policy. Erdogan warned that a US war on Iran would have serious consequences, called Iran's attacks on Gulf states an 'incredibly wrong strategy', and later called the US-Israeli war on Iran 'senseless and unlawful'. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan warned that pushing for a change of government in Iran would lead to 'far more dangerous scenarios' and said Turkey opposed any plan to incite civil war there. NATO said an Iranian missile was intercepted over Turkish airspace on 4 March; Iran denied firing it. After a second missile on 9 March, Ankara summoned the Iranian ambassador and Tehran proposed a joint investigation. Erdogan said Turkey was determined to stay 'outside the ring of fire', warned that Israel was pushing the region toward disaster, and on 26 March said Israel had plunged it into a 'bloodbath'. Turkish officials confirmed relaying messages between Washington and Tehran, and Turkey urged Gulf Arab states not to join the war.
Tensions with Greece and Cyprus continued. Athens answered Turkish claims about demilitarisation in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, and dismissed Turkish protests over a missile system on the island of Karpathos. Cyprus's president dismissed Turkish objections to the island's search and rescue zone.
Erdogan proposed talks between Ukraine and Russia in a call with Volodymyr Zelensky, and Ankara offered to host Ukraine peace talks.
by WorldBrief & Maksim Micheliov | AI-generated summary
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