The Cabinet Meeting chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has ended. The meeting at the Presidential Complex lasted approximately 2 hours.
Highlights from President Erdoğan's statements:
16 of our brothers lost their lives in the explosion in Izmir. 13 of our citizens were injured, 2 seriously. The investigation into the explosion continues. First of all, I pray that God Almighty has mercy on our workers who lost their lives. I offer my condolences to their grieving families.
Immediately following these, our Ministers of Energy and Internal Affairs quickly arrived at the scene upon the instructions of our cabinet. A judicial and administrative investigation was launched regarding the explosion. It will be revealed why and how this painful event, which breaks our hearts, happened and who is responsible. Once again, I wish God's mercy to those who lost their lives, and I extend my best wishes to their families, relatives and citizens.
In our meeting, we evaluated the issues that occupy the agenda of our country and nation. We had the opportunity to comprehensively consider the recent events and developments in foreign policy. As you follow closely, Türkiye is experiencing one of its most turbulent periods after the Second World War. Türkiye, under the leadership of experienced, hard-working and astute staff, is one of the leading countries that successfully manage this difficult process, thank God. Despite the spiral of instability surrounding us, we continue our development journey in stability and confidence without interruption. Export and tourism figures, most recently announced last week, reaffirmed Türkiye's shining star in the midst of regional tensions.
EXPORT RECORD
Despite all the pessimistic scenarios and all the smear campaigns, our upward trend in exports continues unabated. In October, we increased our exports by 8.1 percent compared to the same month of the previous year, reaching 25.9 billion dollars. With this figure, we achieved the third highest monthly exports and the highest October exports in the history of our Republic. Our exports in the January-October period increased by 5.5 percent and broke a new record with 236.8 billion dollars. In October, our annualized exports reached the highest level in its history with 285.6 billion dollars. As you know, at the beginning of 2026, we set our annualized goods and services export target as 410 billion dollars. It seems that we will reach a new peak with 413 billion dollars.
We achieved another success in exports in technology. Our medium and high technology product exports reached 18.6 billion dollars with an increase of 8.8 percent. We have also achieved significant success in defense and aerospace exports. In October, our exports in this field increased by 61 percent compared to the same period last year, reaching 1 billion 140 million dollars. On a twelve-month basis, it increased by 37 percent to 11 billion 357 million dollars. While our foreign trade deficit decreased by 11.4 percent in October, the ratio of exports to imports increased by 3.4 percent. I wish you good luck. I congratulate all our exporters, companies, and all the rings of the chain, from our workers to our transporters, who contributed to this success.
TOURISM REVENUES REACHED THE HIGHEST LEVEL
Dear friends, we see a similar graph in tourism. We hosted a total of 49 million 132 thousand visitors in our country between January and September 2026. We increased our tourism income by 2.4 percent compared to the same period in 2025, reaching 51 billion 278 million dollars.
With this figure, we increased tourism revenues to the highest level in both quarterly and nine-month periods. In the same period, the average stay of visitors in our country was 10.34 nights, while the average spending per person per night increased by 4.6 percent to 107.7 dollars. The average spending of foreign visitors per person per night approached 120 dollars. I hope that our tourism figures will be beneficial to our economy and sector.
GOOD NEWS ABOUT ACCOMMODATION TAX
Another good news is that we are extending the accommodation tax discount that we started in April for another year. We have decided to extend the employee support we provide to our facilities with Ministry of Tourism operating certificates until 2028. Good luck.
Here I would like to underline the following: These increases we achieved in both exports and tourism are not increases that occurred spontaneously or were affected by trends in the world. Behind all of this lies the effort, sweat and contribution of our exporters and tourism professionals who work with great dedication. These increases are also the result of the investments made, incentives and supports provided by our government. These increases are the result of the steady growth of our Turkish Airlines, the spread of Turkish TV series around the world and the increase in Türkiye's brand value.
TERROROR-FREE Türkiye MESSAGE
As Türkiye changes, as the Turkish economy grows, and as Türkiye's reputation in the international arena increases, we as a nation receive positive news in many areas, especially in tourism and exports. Of course, as I always say, these are just the beginning. Hopefully we will reach much better levels in the coming period. Especially when the Terrorism-Free Türkiye process, which we carry out as a state project, reaches its conclusion in this sense, one of the biggest reflections of this will appear in tourism and exports.
Just as we can safely present the historical and touristic beauties of Istanbul, Antalya and all our cities to the world, we will also be able to present all the beauties of Hakkari, Şırnak, Van, Bitlis, Diyarbakır, Mardin and Ağrı to the world. In an environment where peace, brotherhood, friendship and sisterhood are strengthened on the streets of Türkiye, 86 million will be the winners. When the process progresses successfully, not only the regions that have been facing the threat of terrorism for years, but all of our 81 provinces will benefit from the economic benefits that will arise. When the shadow of terrorism completely recedes, hopefully our cities, which have been crushed under the pressure of sadness and insecurity for years, will rise again. As Türkiye, we will make the real big leap in the economy then. We will make the real breakthrough in tourism, trade, investments and other fields in the prosperous, free Türkiye climate.
I want this issue to be known by all ministries. We are determined to successfully continue this strategic project, which is the locomotive of a great and powerful Türkiye, far beyond a public order process. As I have stated many times before, we do not want to go back on this path, which ultimately leads to peace, prosperity, brotherhood and development. For this reason, we strive to continue the process with common sense, common sense, caution and the broadest social consensus.
"IT WILL ACHIEVE SUCCESS IN THE SHORTEST TERM"
Finally, an important step was taken towards establishing state authority in Iraq. The previous week, the integration of more than a hundred members of the organization into the Iraqi security forces began. There are positive developments regarding the evacuation of the caves.
We proceed the process carefully, without compromising security sensitivity. We are looking ahead. We mind our business. We are focusing on resolving this issue permanently as soon as possible. I wholeheartedly believe that we will achieve success in the shortest term, hopefully, with the intense efforts of our security units and relevant friends, the strong support of political institutions regardless of party, and the blessings of our beloved nation.
"WE ARE MAKING MOVE AFTER MOVE IN ENERGY"
My dear citizens, another problematic area that is concentrated in our region and whose negative impact we see is energy security and management. We are making move after move in the energy field. And we have minimized its impact in our country with what we call diversification and our effective energy diplomacy. However, we are a country that has grown at an average rate of 5.4 percent in these 23 years and will continue its growth momentum from now on. We aim to increase our exports to over 300 billion dollars and our tourism revenues to over 50 billion dollars.
Our population is expected to exceed 88 million in 2030 and reach 94 million in the 2040s. This situation requires us to use our energy resources more efficiently. As our energy consumption increases, we attach special importance to meeting this demand in the safest, most stable and most cost-effective manner by increasing our production and drilling activities. What we focus on with great care in this process is the mobilization of our domestic oil and natural gas resources. It cannot be found without searching. We know this truth: We have taken many steps both in our seas and abroad. We worked, we struggled, we invested. We did not give up in the face of obstacles. And thank God, we wrote these important discoveries to our country's bottom line.
"GABAR BECAME THE CAPITAL OF OIL"
One of these great discoveries is Sakarya gas. Here is our Gabar oil. Here is our rare earth elements reserve in Eskişehir Beylikova. Our successes in the Eastern Mediterranean...
Look, today we meet the gas needs of four million households from the Black Sea with the natural gas we produce. With the Osman Gazi floating production platform, which we sent off to its place of duty on October 17, we will double the current production and increase the number of households to which we deliver gas to eight million. On the other hand, Çukurova and Gabar have become the capitals of oil. Today, we produce Türkiye's highest quality oil in Gabar, where terrorism and violence were once prevalent. Today, we reached 84 thousand barrels per day in 184 wells. We procure a significant part of our consumption from here.
A total of 75.4 million barrels of crude oil have been produced at Gabar so far. Thus, a contribution of 6 billion dollars was made to closing the current account deficit. Thank God, good news continues to come from Gabar. Oil was discovered in two new fields in the region. Production started in October in the fields we call Gazi and Çardaklı.
According to our initial assessments, these two new fields have an in-situ oil potential of 135 million barrels. With the field development activities in Gabar and the commissioning of new wells, the daily oil production of the region will increase by 30 percent. In the second half of 2027, our daily production in the region will reach 100 thousand barrels with approximately 230 wells. We expect this development to contribute 4.4 billion dollars to our economy. I hope this news will be beneficial to our country and nation.
"REVIVAL MOBILIZATION IS EXPERIENCED IN KARABAKH"
On October 30, we held the 13th Summit of the Organization of Turkish States in our Social Complex. I sincerely hope that the decisions we took at the summit will contribute to the unity of the Turkish world. I would like to thank my brothers from the Turkish world on behalf of my country and nation. On October 31, we hosted Ukrainian President Mr. Zelenski in Istanbul.
Yesterday we were in Azerbaijan. We witnessed an emotional scene in Shusha. There is a revival campaign in Karabakh under the leadership of my brother Aliyev. Almost everywhere, roads, buildings, underpasses, places of worship and residences are rising rapidly. The wind of peace and tranquility is blowing all over Karabakh. We provide all kinds of support to our Azerbaijani brothers with the principle of two states, one nation. I remember with mercy our heroes who were martyred for the liberation of Karabakh.
FUNDING INVESTIGATION: THERE WILL BE NOT THE SMALLEST CONCESSION
We are resolving the funding issue, which has been on our agenda since September 17, step by step within the framework of the road map we announced. Our ministers and institutions make the necessary statements regularly. We are following the issue very closely. Hopefully we will not have the slightest compromise or compromise.
When the funding issue first arose, I said, "We are not like others." I think it is now very clear that we are not like others. I believe that our astute stance and determined attitude towards protecting the rights and laws of our nation is understood by everyone. I expect our citizens to continue to trust us.
