Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
The parliamentary commission examining the Kurdish problem is expected to complete its joint report by the end of February, marking nearly one year since PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan called on the PKK to lay down arms on Feb. 27, 2025.
European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos succeeded in angering both the government and the opposition with her stance towards the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu on March 19, 2025.
The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from the aircraft that crashed near Haymana, Ankara, in late 2025 had been decoded, but it provides information that clashes with the prosecutor’s file and the Interior Ministry’s statement on the lethal crash.
The engines of the plane carrying Libya’s top military officials, including Chief of General Staff General Muhammad Ali Al-Haddad, were still running when it crashed near Ankara on Dec. 23, 2025, killing all on board, according to findings of a preliminary investigation.
Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said, “digital conscience” was selected as the Word/Concept of the Year for 2025 following a public vote organized by the Turkish Language Association (TDK), despite the term not being widely used in daily language.
Broadly defined unemployment in Turkey has climbed close to 12 million, according to a December 2025 report by DİSK-AR, the research branch of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey.
The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) released its Poverty and Living Conditions Statistics for 2025, showing a limited decline in the relative poverty rate while material deprivation and social exclusion remain widespread, meaning millions are unable to meet basic needs such as heating.
The Defense Ministry’s budget, 623.9 billion lira in 2025, is set to increase 31.9% to 822.9 billion lira in 2026, according to figures released during parliamentary budget talks Nov. 26. This allocation does not cover Turkey’s latest procurement of Eurofighters.
In early November 2025, two gatherings revealed the evolving architecture of Eurasian energy and resource corridors: the “3+1” Energy Ministerial in Athens, bringing together Greece, Cyprus, Israel, and the United States, and the C5+1 Summit in Washington between the United States and the five Central Asian republics—Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
Turkey’s Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) released new data covering the first nine months of 2025, revealing the country’s debt landscape by province. The capital, Ankara, recorded the highest total credit debt, while the central Anatolian province of Karaman had the largest share of citizens unable to repay their loans and facing collection proceedings.
The financial crisis facing companies in Turkey is deepening as the amount of non-performing loans from banks exceeded 519 billion lira as of the week of Oct. 24. In the January-October period of 2025, the number of companies granted a temporary moratorium on debt repayment rose to 2,326, a 72% increase year on year.
Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz unveiled the Medium-Term Program for 2026–28, raising the end-2025 inflation target by 11 points from the previous plan. Yılmaz said real GDP growth targets are 3.8% in 2026, 4.3% in 202, and 5.0% in 2028. The inflation path is 28.5% for end-2025, 16% for end-2026, 9% for 2027, and 8% for 2028.