On Saturday night (15 June), central Istanbul descended into apocalyptic scenes of unfettered violence. The police targeted tear gas, water cannons and plastic bullets at protestors, and stormed a hotel near the park, ...

Members of the European Parliament on Thursday (13 June) urged the Turkish government to stop police brutality against protesters gathering for the second week in Istanbul. The protests in Istanbul were initially ...

Turkish riot police pummeled protestors with tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons in Istanbul’s Taksim square into the early hours of Wednesday (12 June) as unrest deepens over Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’ ...

French, German and EU officials have criticised Turkey after a week of "shocking" police violence. Markus Loning, the human rights supremo in Germany's foreign ministry, said in a statement on Thursday (6 June): "The ...

Violent clashes between protestors and police in Turkey over the weekend have seen its Prime Minister deny accusations that he is becoming a "dictator." A violent crackdown on a peaceful demonstration on Friday (31 May) ...

Turkey wants to be included in an upcoming EU-US free trade deal, amid fears its EU accession process might take too long to complete. "We think Turkey should be part of all free trade agreements being signed, otherwise ...

European Council chief Herman Van Rompuy has repeated his invitation for Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan to come to Brussels to mark the restart of EU entry talks. Speaking in Ankara on Thursday (23 May) - almost 50 ...

Bailed-out Cyprus should reunite in order to boost its struggling economy, EU economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn said on Wednesday (8 May). "It is worth recalling that the reunification of the island would give a ...

Cyprus and Greece have rebuked Turkey for trying to "take advantage" of the bank crisis to get a favourable deal on the Cypriot-Turkish conflict. The Greek foreign minister, Dimitris Avramopoulos, complained about the ...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has backed France on re-starting EU accession talks with Turkey. Speaking in a regular, weekly podcast on Saturday (23 February), before going on a two-day visit to Turkey on Sunday, she ...

France wants to "give a new impetus" to Turkey's EU membership talks, allowing negotiations to resume this week after a break of almost three years. "We are favourable to the idea of opening talks on what is called ...

Nato head Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said that the alliance would only take action against Syria if Turkey is attacked. Speaking to EUobserver in his office in Brussels last week, the secretary general of what calls ...

The sharp pin of hammers striking on metal can be heard through the noise of a speeding scooter. Above, hidden away in back alleys and crumbling buildings in the maze of streets in the Kumkapi district in Istanbul, ...

Many of the groups which smuggle people into Europe are based in the migrant quarters of Turkey's vast city on the EU border - Istanbul. Kumkapi in Istanbul's Fatih district on the Marmara Sea coast is home to French ...

EUobserver's Nikolaj Nielsen visited the Greek-Turkish border in November to see what 'Fortress Europe' means in practice for refugees and people smugglers trying to get into the Union.

'Fortress Europe' - the fifth in a series of EUobserver investigative reports - looks at refugee and immigration networks operating on the edge of Europe, focusing on the 12.5-km Greek 'wall' completed late last year.

Refugees and asylum seekers from Afghanistan in Turkey are caught in a legal limbo, pushing some into the arms of smugglers. Turkey does not give refugee status to anybody from Afghanistan or outside Europe. The ...

EU candidate country Turkey may reinstate capital punishment for people convicted of terrorism. A total ban on the practice is a pre-condition to join EU ranks, but Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday ...

EU institutions do not do God. But for some religious leaders in EU-aspirant countries, member states' Christian origins are still important. The morning call to prayer at the Blue Mosque in Istanbul means different ...

Seen through a Brussels-based prism, it is easy to forget just how far to the east Cyprus is. Lebanon, Syria and Israel are all within a couple of hundred kilometres. To its north is Turkey, to its south Egypt. To fit ...

At a time when the EU faces economic challenges and continuing instability in the Middle East, our relationship with Turkey matters more than ever. Last week saw the 50th EU/Turkey Association Council, which ...

Turkey has invoked the softer article four of the Nato treaty after Syria shot down one of its warplanes on Friday (22 June). Its decision will see the 28 Nato countries' ambassadors hold emergency talks in the North ...

Turkey says future visa-free travel will work out well because Turks no longer want to live in the EU. Its European affairs minister Egemen Bagis told EUobserver on Friday (22 June) that Turks these days travel to EU ...

While Cyprus is feverishly preparing its EU presidency starting 1 July, Turkish Cypriots from the isolated northern part of the island fear that Nicosia's international role will entrench divisions between the two sides ...

Turkey is aiming to tell its 75 million citizens on Thursday (21 June) they can visit the EU without visas in a couple of years' time. The breakthrough concerns a technical step designed to end a toxic stalemate. The EU ...

The EU-endorsed Nabucco pipeline project is shrinking and might vanish by the end of June. When executives from five energy firms - Botas, Bulgargaz, Mol, OMV and Transgaz - ate dinner in Vienna in October 2002 after ...

The Luxembourg-based European Court of Auditors on Wednesday (23 May) said EU assistance to the Turkish Cypriot community in northern Cyprus is complicated by political and legal difficulties. The auditors looked at 34 ...

Nearly 30,000 irregular border crossings were detected on Europe’s external borders in the last three months of 2011, the European Commission said on Wednesday (16 May). In its first annual report on the Schengen ...

The incoming Cypriot presidency is getting ready to tackle the biggest and ugliest dossier in the EU - the money - amid problems in its own backyard. "It's the big bang in the EU because everything gets put on the table ...

On the Road to EU Membership: The Economic Transformation of Turkey. By Selen Sarisoy Guerin and Yannis Stivachtis (eds.). VUBPress; 302 pages; €37.74 (excl. VAT and shipping) at EUbookshop.com. This well-researched ...

Turkey's EU affairs minister has described the Greek anti-migrant fence as a symbol of division between the Union and outside countries. Alluding to the Berlin wall, which used to separate western Europe from the Soviet ...

French senators on Monday (23 January) voted in a bill to outlaw denial of the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks in 1915, prompting strong threats of economic retaliation from Ankara. President Nicolas ...

The European Union initiated membership talks with Turkey in October 2005, but Ankara still has a long list of hurdles to jump over on its road to Brussels. Some Turks who have been born and raised in Belgium feel the ...

Oomen-Ruitjen in her latest report on EU-Turkey relations underlined that Ankara must fulfill the EU's so-called Copenhagen Criteria on enlargement in the areas of press freedom and women's rights. She told EUobserver ...

Turkey has imposed sanctions against France in reaction to a draft law on the Armenian genocide which could see the Turkish Prime Minister put in prison unless he claimed diplomatic immunity. The measures comprise a ...

The founding fathers of Europe were convinced that they had to define common interests and shared perspectives in order to overcome a culture of hatred and mistrust. In this process, they did not make a reference to ...

EU leaders are planning to tell Turkey to "fully respect" Cyprus when it takes over the rotating presidency next year after Turkey threatened to boycott meetings. "The EU council calls on EU partners to fully respect ...

Eurozone countries will have to give up on normal democracy and the European Central Bank (ECB) will have to print money if the euro is to survive, Turkey's ambassador to the EU has said on the eve of the EU summit. ...

The EU is currently focused on the turmoil in the Eurozone. That poses severe risks to economic growth across our countries. But these tumultuous economic and political times should not lead to the EU turning its back ...

The trial of 11 journalists - including Turkey's "last investigative reporter" - begins on Tuesday (22 November) in a country which says it wants to join the EU. Nedim Sener, Ahmet Sik and nine other journalists will ...

Turkey's former ambassador to the EU, Volkan Bozkir, has described it as a spent force in world affairs amid general acceptance EU-Turkey accession talks are going nowhere. Bozkir told delegates at a business congress ...

Turkish EU affairs minister Egemen Bagis has again highlighted the EU's visa regime as a source of friction in EU-Turkey relations, but EU officials deny there is a big problem. Speaking to a packed room of 750-or-so ...

The European Commission in its annual enlargement report will tell Turkey to stop attacking investigative journalists and to back off on Cyprus gas exploration. The report, due to be published on Wednesday (12 October) ...

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will be in the spotlight mid-week as he stands before parliament to give a state of the union address. The speech comes at one of the most testing times in the EU's ...

Turkish vessel the Piri Reis has set sail to drill for gas in waters claimed by EU member Cyprus amid talk of a potential new military confrontation after 35 years of peace. Turkish TV showed the ship leaving port of ...

People in the US and in Turkey have told a major pollster that relations with Asian countries are more important for their future than relations with the EU. The Transatlantic Trends survey, published each year by the ...