The 2025 balance sheet

I have a personaltradition. As I bid farewell to the year, I create a balance sheetconsisting of "what I did, what I couldn't do, and what good/badthings happened to me."This way,the projection for the followingyear forms on its own.This time, the balance sheetFor many countries, Iwant to draw a conclusion so that when I wish everyone a happy new year at the end of the article, the reason why I said thewriting on the wallwasclear from the start makes sense.

Let us admit that formanyfor usit was a challenginganddownright bad year.OpenlyandclearlyfranklyTurkeyhas never been a "calm" country.However, since March, we have been going through a period where we never know what operation we will wake up to, where we cannot fully comprehend everything, and which is, to put it mildly, "in total disarray."In March,following the detentionand arrest of İmamoğlu,many municipalities won and held by the opposition, and even the CHP's provincialheadquarterseven the presidency faced the mechanism of appointed trustees.

At this turning point, where the judiciary designs politics, or rather the opposition,we followed another process, this time largelyconducted through Öcalan with the agenda of a "Turkey without terrorism."On one hand, we observed this process,which is linked to domestic constitutional debatesand, on the other, to the external issue of Syria.Where this process will leadis a fundamental question mark for 2026 and even beyond. However, the difference from its predecessor in the early 2010sis that this time, ambitious concepts such as "democratization" and the like are not very popular,and it reflects more of a "give-and-take" mechanism amongthe elites. These two issues will also be among the topics we willdiscuss the most in domesticpolitics in 2026.it appears. Of course, 2026 will bealongside these, betting, gang, media, and drugthemes, but in reality, it will be spent trying to understand amultitude of operations thatresemble a spiral.Without understandinghow this spiral formed, this mIs it possible? I don't reallythink so.

Let's turn to the foreign policyagenda... 2025 was a year in which Turkey once again began to follow policies closerto the US. Will our strategic autonomy debates, which began with the S-400s, end with the S-400s? We willsee.Trump's attempt to leave Europe on its own, the relationship betweenTurkey and Europewhether it will present a win-win relationship, we willsee. Whether all these distancing and rapprochements, vague, ups and downs and in a shortperiodlet us also say that it is prone to change. Because nowtheworld is such a place.And Turkey...

Perhaps in the year 2025the most stableactor of this entire storywill bethe ambassador became Barrack. He does not likenation-state systems and argues that the Middle Eastshould be governed bystrongmen. The ambassador, who knows almost nothingabout the Ottoman millet system, thinksthatitAlthough I am completely against hisviews, I at least think he is clear.Ithinkhe will, I believe,continue to speak with this clarity in 2026 andpresent his projection regarding the region. I say regionbecause, in 2024,close thewhile the Assad regime in Syriasdsdwe were discussing itsfall. In 2025, for us againOne of the most important issues was how the state-building of Syriawould develop. The integration of the Kurds in the north, a subject wehave discussed extensively,is a topic we will continue to talk about in 2026. What we must now accept is that although Syria has emerged from the civilwar,it remains anunstable being a countryand this instabilityas a source of concern for Turkey, will continue to standconstantly before us.

Moreover, Israel's influence in Syria haspassedthroughout the past year, it increased in a waythat would be against Turkey. It is also necessary to keep Israel in mind not only in Syria, but alsoin terms of the situationin the anti-Turkeyblocin the EasternMediterranean.Certainly, this is not a new bloc. However, throughout 2025, theseemingly quietissue of Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean gained momentum toward the second half of the year,containing somesignals for 2026. Israel's establishment ofcloser relations regarding securitywith Greece and Cyprus, and Lebanon'ssituation.signing an agreement with Cyprus delimiting maritime jurisdiction areas, Turkey's Eastern Mediterranean interests interms of negative developments. Undoubtedly, in 2026, both in the Mediterranean and the Russia-Ukraine Wardue to this, we will discuss the geopolitical situation in the Black Sea.

As for the balance sheetof the economic situation, wecan summarize it as follows: Wage earners and retirees continue to pay the price. If you look at the official course of inflation,it isin the 31-32 percent bandrange.it appears. It can be called better than 2024, but the tax burden in the country is mostlyborne by the wage earner the salary that will be deposited into their account in February 2026 will not receive this officialinflation bandraise mostlywill not come. In short, the "bitter prescription"the gang” will continue in 2026 as well. It is alreadyimposs ible to understand the economic situation in the country with these percentages, and it is not possible. As the middle class disappears and the gap in income distribution continues to wa situation that isbeing opened isin question...

In short, the 2025 balance sheet does not promise anything positive for 2026. Or, as the old saying goes, “the arrival of Thursday is evident fromWednesday.” Nevertheless, as is customary for the “new yI wish you a happy new year. Continuing to write in 2026...