Türkiye
In his UN General Assembly address, President Erdoğan said more than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza over three years, most of them women and children, and that over 1,500 have died even after the ceasefire. "I call on you to exert greater pressure on Israel," he said, and urged international recognition of a Palestinian state within 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. He also warned against dismantling UNRWA. "Attempts to suffocate Palestine will fail," he added.
AK Party deputy chair Ali İhsan Yavuz said the party has completed the bulk of its work on a proposed new constitution meant to replace the current, military-drafted charter, and that it is now seeking a meeting with President Erdoğan to present it. "Sooner or later, we will accomplish drafting a new, civilian, democratic constitution," Yavuz said, giving no timeline.
At a UN General Assembly sidelines meeting with roughly eight countries, including Iraq, Jordan and Qatar, aimed at easing tensions in the Gulf region, President Trump praised his Turkish counterpart: "He's a tough cookie. You don't mess around with him."
At an investor conference in New York, Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said Türkiye's low debt burden, fiscal flexibility, declining external vulnerabilities, rising reserves and the phase-out of the FX-protected deposit scheme (KKM) make the economy resilient. He pointed to defence, tourism and digital export services as investment opportunities, despite what he called difficult global conditions and regional conflict.
Three polls published this week, GENAR, Areda and BETİMAR, all put the AK Party at roughly 35 to 36 percent and the New Party (YP), founded by lawmakers who broke away from the CHP, a clear second at 17 to 22 percent. The CHP, whose elected leader a court recently removed, now polls at just 5 to 11 percent, behind both the DEM Party and the MHP.
Europe
The EU's 27 member states agreed hours before a midnight deadline to extend the Russia sanctions regime to 22 September 2029, but as part of the compromise struck oligarchs Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from the blacklist under pressure from France and Slovakia; Latvia, which had wanted the sanctions tightened rather than eased, eventually dropped its objection to delisting the two. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha called the decision "Moscow's victory," saying it hands Russia a sense of impunity and divides Europeans.
Source:
Euronews · Tuesday, 22 September 2026
President Trump, Danish PM Mette Frederiksen and Greenland's head of government Jens-Frederik Nielsen signed a security deal at the UN in New York that modernises Pituffik base and opens new American defence areas at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig, with free movement by land, sea and air. The deal reaffirms Danish sovereignty and Greenland's self-determination, while barring US rivals from investing in or basing forces on the island without American approval; it falls short of Trump's earlier demand to buy Greenland outright.
Source:
Euronews · Tuesday, 22 September 2026
Speaking from the UN in New York, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told CNN that Morocco's border control "failed," repeating what he had already told the Spanish parliament on 3 September, after more than 70,000 migrants crossed into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco on 30-31 July. A Spanish police report seen by AFP found the number of Moroccan officers at the border post on those days was well below normal. Sánchez said he lacks evidence Morocco orchestrated the crossing, but still wants explanations and changes from Rabat.
Source:
La Libre · Wednesday, 23 September 2026
Culture, the week in Istanbul
The 21st edition of the art fair opens with a VIP preview on Wednesday and runs for the public from Thursday to Sunday at Tersane Istanbul, the restored Ottoman shipyard on the Golden Horn. More than 70 galleries from 24 countries take part, almost a quarter of them for the first time.
Türkiye's longest-running jazz festival, held since 1991, opens with 36 concerts and nearly 200 artists from more than 15 countries, at venues including Akbank Sanat, Salon İKSV, Babylon and Zorlu PSM. The programme mixes jazz's classical heritage with electronic, hip-hop, Mediterranean and Anatolian influences, plus panels and masterclasses.
Akbank Sanat ve İstanbul genelinde çeşitli mekanlar · September 26–October 11 · Source:
Akbank SanatThe eighth edition of the Istanbul Fringe Festival brings together local and international performing artists at venues across the city, with theatre, dance, circus, comedy and queer performance alongside workshops and talks.
Antiquarian booksellers, publishers and readers gather in the garden of the old French orphanage in Beyoğlu for book stalls, signings, talks and a closing book auction on 26 September.
