Turkey and its allies are facing a difficult situation in the northwestern Syrian town of Idlib, particularly after the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad seized the control of Saraqib in eastern Idlib countryside this week, said Timur Göksel, former spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon.

The Erdoğan government is turning into a war regime - Yektan Türkyılmaz

Political repression and curtailed freedoms have earned Turkey a troubling reputation abroad in recent years. For generations of western artists and intellectuals in the 20th century, though, the country was a haven, and many congregated in Istanbul to lead a lifestyle of freedom, far from the Cold War repression of their own countries.