![A demonstrator holds a placard during a rally in Milan on the sixth day of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement, October 12, 2023.](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/2023-10/GettyImages-1720542378_0.jpg?h=4d462e7b&itok=2ZOUYCHb)
![Ezgi Akin headshot (new)](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2024-04/IMG_0153.jpg?h=502e75fa&itok=I9IFt0g8)
In Ankara, reporting on diplomacy, EU-Turkey ties, NATO
Ezgi Akin is Al-Monitor’s correspondent in Anakara and associate editor of the Turkey Pulse. Prior to joining Al-Monitor, she covered the foreign policy beat in the country for over a decade, working for various Turkish media outlets as well as international media. Akin is a Fulbright alumna.
![A demonstrator holds a placard during a rally in Milan on the sixth day of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement, October 12, 2023.](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/2023-10/GettyImages-1720542378_0.jpg?h=4d462e7b&itok=2ZOUYCHb)
![A view of the sign that reads "Caution: mines" on the beach on April 25, 2022, in Odesa, Ukraine.](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/2023-10/GettyImages-1240233246.jpg?h=6dbf6853&itok=Yf9j8Obx)
![Turkish President and the leader of the Justice and Development (AK) Party Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during his party's group meeting at the Turkish Grand National Assembly in Ankara, Turkiye on October 11, 2023. (Photo by Adem ALTAN / AFP) (Photo by ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images)](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/2023-10/GettyImages-1718683820.jpg?h=ac778ff2&itok=xrh9z6kW)
Analysis
![DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/2023-10/GettyImages-1709021887.jpg?h=a5ae579a&itok=HzEcNMNa)
![- A man prepares to ride a motorcycle close to a fire raging at the Zarba oil facility in al-Qahtaniyah in northeastern Syria close to the Turkish border on October 5, 2023. Turkish strikes on October 5 on the Kurdish-controlled region of Hasakeh in northeastern Syria hit a car, killing two people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, after Ankara had threatened raids in retaliation for a bomb attack. In another strike, "Turkish drones targeted a factory north of Hasakeh, injuring three workers", s](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/2023-10/GettyImages-1708253022.jpg?h=790be497&itok=CWi9yKyI)
![Media film and photograph the Abdulhamid Han drill ship, the fourth built by Turkey, in Mersin on August 9, 2022 before it leaves for gas exploration to an undisputed area in the Mediterranean Sea, in south of the city of Gazipasa. - Turkey on August 9, 2022 sent its newest drill ship on the first eastern Mediterranean energy exploration mission in nearly two years. The search for natural gas in energy-rich waters around the divided island of Cyprus has turned into an irritant in Turkey's ties with the Euro](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/2023-10/GettyImages-1242401826.jpg?h=bea3b22c&itok=OSuWFFgF)
![Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan looks on during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly at the Lotte Palace Hotel in New York on September 22, 2023. (Photo by BING GUAN / POOL / AFP) (Photo by BING GUAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/2023-10/GettyImages-1683430985.jpg?h=790be497&itok=EqUYphNq)
![A security forces member looks on during the burial of one of three Kurdish counterterrorism officers killed the previous day in a strike by a drone that had reportedly originated in Turkey, in the city of Sulaimaniyah in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq on September 19, 2023. A senior military official in Baghdad said on September 19 that three members of the counterterrorism forces of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region were killed and three wounded in the strike on Arbat airfield, southeast of](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/2023-10/GettyImages-1676515788.jpg?h=790be497&itok=3XuMn2Hs)
![People shop at a local street market, Istanbul, Turkey, May 3, 2023.](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/2023-10/GettyImages-1487346822.jpg?h=a5ae579a&itok=X8xic_WN)
![Police presence after the attack in Ankara, Turkey.](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/2023-10/IMG_2146.jpeg?h=623b8f11&itok=sW74_dpk)
![An undated image of the ancient city of Gordion.](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/2023-09/EymNxL2XIAA7B2O.jpeg?h=1d34674f&itok=xoTD1I2A)
![People walk past a currency exchange shop on June 23, 2023 in Istanbul, Turkey. The Turkish Lira weakened to a record low of 25.74 against the dollar, a day after the central bank hiked interest rates from 8.5 percent to 15 percent in the first rate decision since the appointment of new central bank governor Hafize Gaye Erkan and the re-election of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/2023-09/GettyImages-1500926357.jpg?h=31b6ea7b&itok=WWK34528)