Israel bombed an air-base in northwest Syria on Aug. 18, bringing into sharp relief the simmering rivalry between Israel and Türkiye. The attack reportedly came shortly after a Turkish delegation visited the Abu Duhur base in Idlib province. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that Israel had attacked the base because Syria was on the verge of breaching the agreed "status quo in security matters" by allowing in Turkish troops. Ankara condemned the Israeli bombing and seemed to deny it was planning to deploy at Abu Duhur, which it has reportedly been rebuilding. The two countries are increasingly at odds over each other's regional presence. A campaign billboard for Netanyahu's Likud party in the upcoming Israeli elections places Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan alongside the leaders of Iran, Hezbollah, and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. "They want Netanyahu to lose," it says, refering to his political opposition. "Don't let them win."

The righties are apoplectic that Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey famously portrays a Black Helen—displaying their ignorance of the actual intercourse between Africa and the ancient Greek world. But apart from the cultural politics of the movie, the geopolitics of the Trojan War have all too much to say about the contemporary world crisis. Then, the Bosphorus and Dardanelles constituted the strategic chokepoints at issue, just as the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb do today. And the Bosphorus & Dardanelles could suddenly become critically strategic if Turkey becomes embroiled in either the Middle East war or the Ukraine war—or both. Finally, the movie itself has become embroiled in a geopolitical dispute: Nolan shot his cinematic spectacle partly in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara—not, as the film credits say, "Morocco." This is another near-forgotten conflict that now shows signs of re-escalating—and may have been at issue in the recent deadly incident at the Spanish North African exclave of Ceuta, situated just within the strategic Strait of Gibraltar. The current world crisis could bring about a civilization collapse far more decisive and complete than the Bronze Age Collapse that followed the Trojan War.

Türkiye's parliament on Aug. 10 announced that it has passed a new law creating conditional legal mechanisms for members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The shift signifiesan advance for the government's "Terror-Free Türkiye" initiative and a potential de-escalation in the country's decades-long conflict with Kurdish militants.

As the US-Iran war escalates, more countries in the Middle East have—officially or unofficially—entered the fray over the past week. Saudi Arabia said July 30 that 14 countries (including Egypt, Türkiye and Bahrain) have so far joined an alliance it set up to protect shipping and energy supplies through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The alliance, which the kingdom calls defensive, formed in reaction to the blockade by Yemen's Houthi rebels against Saudi ships in the strait. Among those that has signed on is the internationally recognized (but largely exiled) government of Yemen, which would presumably be onside with reported plans by Saudi Arabia to launch a ground offensive against the Houthis.

Amnesty International on July 6 condemned the conviction in Türkiye of environmental activist Esra Işık. Amnesty's deputy regional director for Europe, Esther Major, spoke on the broader impacts of the conviction on the fight to defend the environment:

Amnesty International raised concerns June 26 over an absolute blanket ban by the Turkish government on all protests in the capital Ankara ahead of the NATO summit that is to be held in the city next week. The statement also decried the pretrial detention of more than 100 people in the city, including lawyers, academics and activists.

Riot police erected steel barriers and used water cannon to prevent crowds from gathering to hear a speech by the deposed leader of Turkey's main opposition party in Izmir's central Cumhuriyet Square on May 26. Özgür Özel and the core leadership of the Republican People's Party (CHP) were removed from their posts five days earlier by a court order that they charged was politically motivated. Following issuance of the order, Özel and his supporters barricaded themselves inside the CHP headquarters in Ankara. Police stormed the building on May 24, firing rubber bullets and tear-gas in a violent end to the standoff.

Istanbul mayor and Turkish opposition leader Ekrem İmamoğlu went on trial March 9, accused of establishing an "İmamoğlu Criminal Organization for Profit" that operated parallel to and was concealed by his official duties.