The Levant Files

The NATO summit held in Ankara on July 7-8 marks the formal launch of what alliance officials are calling "NATO 3.0" — but according to prominent Turkish journalist Murat Yetkin, this label is really shorthand for the opening of a second Cold War, one in which democratic backsliding in member states is treated as a secondary concern. Writing in the Yetkin Report on July 7, Murat Yetkin argues that viewed through this lens, the ongoing legal cases against Turkey's main opposition CHP party and Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu no longer appear contradictory to Turkey's NATO role. He notes that President Trump's renewed warnings about "the communist threat" during America's 250th anniversary speech fit the same framework, as does NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte's own choice to walk hand-in-hand with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara despite raising press-freedom concerns. Strategic and military imperatives, Yetkin writes, tend to override righ...

The fragile US-Iran ceasefire faced its sharpest test in weeks overnight, as American forces struck dozens of Iranian military sites and Tehran retaliated with missile and drone attacks on US installations in Bahrain and Kuwait — all unfolding against the backdrop of the funeral procession for slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Below, a five-question breakdown of what happened, what's still unfolding, and what it means. What happened? US Central Command launched a wave of strikes on Iranian air defenses, radar sites and anti-ship missile positions, along with more than 60 small boats operated by Iran's Revolutionary Guard. Washington said the operation was retaliation for Iranian attacks a day earlier on three commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, among them a Qatari LNG carrier and a Saudi-flagged tanker. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps hit back, striking what it described as 85 US military installations in Bahrain and Kuwait — including the US Fifth...

Two explosive devices detonated in central Damascus on Tuesday morning, injuring at least 18 people just as French President Emmanuel Macron arrived at the Syrian presidential palace for a historic meeting with President Ahmed al-Sharaa, in an attack that has not been claimed by any group. What Happened The explosions struck near the Four Seasons Hotel, where Macron had spent the night, and beside the nearby Ministry of Tourism, according to Syria's state-run SANA news agency. Syrian security officials said the blasts occurred while officers were attempting to dismantle two "primitively" made improvised explosive devices discovered during field operations — one planted inside a parked vehicle and the other hidden in a garbage container. At least 18 people were wounded, including four police officers, though the site was located "outside the security perimeter" designated for Macron's residence, the Interior Ministry stressed. The timing was striking: the bla...

  Greek shipping companies have generated at least $3.8 billion in revenues transporting Russian oil over the past three years, capitalizing on a sanctions framework that permits the trade under strict conditions, according to an analysis by the Financial Times. The investigation, based on freight cost estimates from Argus Media and tanker movement data from Kpler, found that Dynacom Tankers — founded by Greek shipping billionaire George Prokopiou — led the trade with at least $915 million in revenues, accounting for nearly a quarter of the total among Greek shipowners since July 2023. The Onassis Group’s Olympic Shipping and Management ranked second with at least $404 million, while Athens-based Stealth Maritime and Polembros Shipping each earned more than $200 million from the trade. The activity falls within the G7 price cap mechanism, introduced in December 2022 to limit Moscow’s energy revenues while maintaining global oil flows. Western operators are permitted to transport Ru...

The NATO summit opens in Ankara on Tuesday and Wednesday with the alliance confronting what Chinese foreign policy analysts characterize as a fundamental identity crisis. According to Dong Yifan, an associate research fellow at the Belt and Road Academy of Beijing Language and Culture University, writing in Global Times, Washington’s unilateral “America First” orientation has deepened transatlantic rifts to the point where NATO’s core function is now in question. Disputes over Greenland and divergent approaches to Middle East conflicts have created structural challenges to NATO’s traditional role as a coordinator of transatlantic security interests. Expectations for the Ankara summit have been deliberately lowered. As Dong notes, European diplomats are privately hoping for “a dull NATO summit” precisely to avoid further diplomatic ruptures. The US president recently reinforced these concerns by declaring that continuing the alliance’s “one-sided path” would be “ridiculous,” confirming...

Turkish authorities detained at least 548 people in operations and police interventions against protests during the 20 days leading up to the NATO summit in Ankara, according to a report by Ufuk Sepetçi published in Cumhuriyet on July 7. The two-day summit, which opens in Ankara on Tuesday, has been preceded by extensive security measures, including a sweeping protest ban, house raids, road closures, online access restrictions and disputed media accreditation decisions. Figures compiled by Cumhuriyet show that at least 548 people were taken into custody between June 20 and July 6 in operations linked to the summit and in interventions against anti-NATO demonstrations. Those detained reportedly included journalists, lawyers, academics, students, trade unionists, association members and political party representatives. In the first Ankara-centred wave of detentions, prosecutors issued detention orders for 241 people. Of those, 225 were taken into custody, while 178 were subsequently rema...

As the 36th NATO Summit opened this week in Ankara, Turkey's press split along familiar lines, with pro-government outlets celebrating the country's "historic" return to the alliance's center stage and opposition media training its lens on the security clampdown surrounding the event. Pro-government dailies, led by Yeni Şafak, cast the summit — the largest since the 2004 Istanbul gathering — as validation of Turkey's rising defense-industrial clout. Coverage leaned heavily on official framing from Communications Director Burhanettin Duran, who described a "360-degree" review of allied deterrence, Ukraine, and Euro-Atlantic threats, alongside detailed logistics of Erdoğan's bilateral meetings with visiting leaders, chief among them Donald Trump. A notable scoop concerned reported friction over US arms transfers: Israeli media leaks cited by Yeni Şafak said Netanyahu had asked Trump to withhold F-35 jets and F-110 engines destined for Turkey's ...

The NATO summit opening in Ankara on July 7-8 will do more than press alliance members to raise defense spending: it is set to showcase NATO's expanding footprint into the Middle East, the Black Sea and the Caucasus, according to a report by veteran Turkish journalist Murat Yetkin, published on YetkinReport. Hosted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the summit will bring together 32 leaders under what Yetkin describes as an emerging "NATO 3.0" doctrine. Its most visible signal, he writes, is U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to hold separate meetings on the sidelines with two non-NATO leaders invited personally by Erdogan: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, both scheduled for Wednesday, July 8. According to Yetkin's account on YetkinReport, security for the summit has placed unusual strain on the capital. A three-month-old security operation, dubbed "Turquoise," has deployed roughly 70,000 personnel — inclu...

Senior figures in the Turkish Cypriot administration moved within hours to brand the assault of a 47-year-old Turkish Cypriot man in Ayia Napa a nationalist hate crime, issuing forceful public statements before Cyprus police had established a motive or completed even a preliminary investigation. The rush to judgment from the unrecognized north — voiced while the victim remained intubated and in critical condition at Nicosia General Hospital — has drawn attention for pre-empting an inquiry that was, at the time, still in its earliest stages. Police said the man was discovered injured early Sunday morning, with initial witness testimony indicating he had been attacked by a group of unidentified individuals. The Famagusta Criminal Investigation Department opened a probe into the case of grievous bodily harm, and by early Monday three 18-year-old suspects had been arrested under court warrants to assist the investigation. All three travel on Swedish passports, though their countries of ori...