Op-Ed Criticizes Turkish Government’s 2026 Promises Amid Economic Turmoil

ANKARA – A recent opinion piece published in a Turkish news outlet sharply questions the credibility of the government’s newly announced economic goals for 2026, arguing that the administration’s repeated failures to control spending have devastated both citizens and the private sector.

The author, Mr Çetin Unsalan, writing on November 6, argues that the government’s renewed commitment to “a year of reform” and “public savings” for 2026 lacks substance, given the unprecedented economic distress witnessed since the start of the “Year of Savings” in 2024.

Failure to Deliver on Past Promises

The op-ed highlights a pattern of unfulfilled government promises, drawing parallels between the recently announced “reform year” for 2026 and previous initiatives:

• 2024 (Year of Pensions) and 2025 (Year of the Family): The author critiques the government for failing to deliver meaningful relief during these years, pointing out that citizens are now “living on half the starvation line,” citing a surge in divorce cases and domestic violence that these initiatives were supposedly meant to address.
• Budgetary Records: The article points out the irony in the government now talking about fiscal control, given that the budget deficit and tax revenues have both reached “Republican-era record levels” over the past two years, largely due to runaway spending and historic interest payments.

💰 Questioning the Savings Narrative

The author specifically targets the hypocrisy inherent in the government’s 2026 budget targets, which project massive debt burdens alongside calls for savings:

“An administration that targets 2.7 trillion TL in interest payments and a 2.7 trillion TL budget deficit for 2026 has no right to talk about controlling spending and public savings now.”

The piece reminds readers that during the so-called “Year of Savings,” the government’s efforts were limited to minor cuts like eliminating civil servant shuttle services, while failing to rein in the ballooning deficit.

📉 The Burden Shifts to the Citizen

The op-ed concludes that the true “savings tool” for the new year will be the citizens themselves. The author predicts that the promised “public savings” initiative will inevitably translate into new tax burdens (or “levies”) on employees, employers, and pensioners. Furthermore, the expected salary increases will be calculated using inflation targets that “no one believes.”

The core argument is that the government is choosing to become a “taker rather than a constant provider,” squeezing households that are already far below the poverty line.

“It appears the new year’s tool for savings is us. This means they will tighten the noose even further around the necks of households that cannot even reach the starvation line, and they will market this as economic management.”

The op-ed warns that the government’s approach, characterized by wishful thinking and a detachment from reality, is pushing the real sector into a record number of bankruptcy filings (konkordato) and will only exacerbate the issue of unregistered employment. The author urges Turkey to “shake itself and come to its senses quickly,” warning that otherwise, there will be “neither citizens nor a real sector left to employ them.”