New statement from Erdoğan regarding the Super Cup crisis

AKP Chairman and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended the program for the announcement of the 2023 export figures.

SUPER CUP STATEMENT: A VERY CLEAR ATTEMPT AT SABOTAGE

Speaking at the event, Erdoğan also touched upon the Super Cup crisis with Saudi Arabia. Erdoğan said, "We are facing a frenzy that amounts to Islamophobia and xenophobia. The opposition is also acting as a voluntary extra in this base and dangerous hate politics just to get on the agenda. It is no coincidence that they are targeting brotherly countries that have stood by us in our difficult times. There is a very clear attempt at sabotage here aimed at Turkey's interests. We will definitely thwart this game as well."

Here are the highlights from the speech Erdoğan is currently giving:

"The center of the crises and hot conflicts that have broken out recently is in our region. We have not allowed the war barons who want to make our country a party to the bloody conflicts to our north and south.

Turkey will continue to increase the number of its friends. We are aware of the attempts to alienate our country from its partners in the region through provocations. A campaign was carried out in the summer months to undermine tourism. Now we see that a similar wave is being attempted to be created through sports with the support of the opposition. Beliefs and countries are being targeted.

We are facing a frenzy that amounts to Islamophobia and xenophobia. The opposition is also acting as a voluntary extra in this base and dangerous hate politics just to get on the agenda. It is no coincidence that they are targeting brotherly countries that have stood by us in our difficult times. There is a clear attempt at sabotage aimed at Turkey's interests. Just as we tore up and threw away previous dirty scenarios, we will definitely thwart this game as well. We have shaped our foreign policy with a Turkey-centered but global perspective, and there will absolutely be no turning back from this.

HE GAVE A DATE AGAIN FOR THE DECLINE IN INFLATION

Inflation continues to remain high despite all the measures taken. We aim to bring inflation back to single digits without compromising on production, employment, and economic growth. The heat of inflation has begun to subside with the measures we have taken. If no new extraordinary situation occurs in the global economy from the second half of the year, we will see the effects of our policies more clearly.

We will definitely not give an opportunity to those who prey on the livelihood of our nation's children under various pretexts. We will remove the issue of inflation from our citizens' daily lives.

I convey my best wishes on behalf of myself and my nation to Japan, which was shaken by a severe earthquake yesterday. We recovered rapidly, especially in production, after the disaster called the disaster of the century. Tremors in the global economy still continue. Despite these, we are reaping the importance of the effort we put into developing our foreign trade in exports.

2023 EXPORT FIGURES

Our exports in 2023 reached 255 billion 809 million dollars with an increase of 0.6 percent compared to the previous year, breaking the record in our Republic's history. We also exceeded our 255 billion dollar export target.

ISTANBUL FIRST, KOCAELI SECOND

There was no province of ours that did not export last year. Our top 5 provinces that exported the most in 2023 are, respectively; Istanbul ranked first with a total of 59.4 billion dollars in exports. Istanbul is followed by Kocaeli. Izmir ranked 3rd, Bursa 4th, and Tekirdağ 5th. While we were exporting an average of 3 billion dollars per month in 2002 when we set out, today we are realizing an average of 21.3 billion dollars in exports per month.

DECLINE IN FOREIGN TRADE DEFICIT

Our country's foreign trade deficit decreased by 2.3 percent compared to the previous year. In the last 7 months of the year, the foreign trade deficit decreased compared to the same month of the previous year. We see that the foreign trade deficit and current account deficit have started to fall permanently for the last 5 months. We believe that the improvement will continue in the coming period.

There was a decline in the current account deficit. A surplus of 2 billion dollars was given in the current account. We expect the closing in the current account deficit to continue. We expect the current account deficit to fall permanently. I congratulate everyone who contributed to reaching this record, especially our 61 exporters' associations and more than 120 thousand exporters under the umbrella of TİM. We are proud of all our exporters who export under uncertain economic conditions and contribute to the country's economy.

2024 TARGET IS 375 BILLION DOLLARS

The 3 countries that stand out in exports on a value basis are the UAE, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. Our largest partner in exports is the European Union with 104.3 billion dollars. We believe that we can increase our goods and services exports to over 375 billion dollars in 2024. Turkey has more than enough power to achieve this.

We provided 11.6 billion liras of support to our goods and services exporters in 2023. We are doubling the budget we allocated for export supports in 2024. Our goal is to leave no country where Turkish products are not known and where our exporters have not set foot."