02.02.2026 19:59
In statements made after the Cabinet meeting, President Erdoğan announced good news. Erdoğan said, "We are launching a financing package worth 100 billion lira for all manufacturing industries. We will offer a 6-month grace period for principal payments and a repayment term of up to 36 months."
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan chaired a Cabinet Meeting. The meeting at the Presidential Complex lasted for 2.5 hours. After the meeting, President Erdoğan is making statements.
Highlights from Erdoğan's statements are as follows:
"I wish that these blessed days and nights, when our people's spiritual feelings are heightened and our hearts are directed towards goodness and beauty, bind us more closely together and further strengthen our brotherhood. I hope that the new era will bring blessings for our education community, our children, and our families.
Regardless of the position we hold, we promised to run for Turkey with love without making any distinctions. We have remained faithful to our pledge to our nation for 23 years. For 23 years, we have served each and every one of the 86 million people. We are not like those who say 'We are following our ancestors' like the main opposition party and take the whole year off, nor are we like those who enjoy themselves on tropical islands while our worker brothers cannot receive their salaries. Since our last cabinet meeting, we have continued our work for the nation and the country with great enthusiasm. While following critical developments in foreign policy regarding Syria and Iran, we have also continued our project politics without slowing down at home.
On January 22, we participated in the extraordinary general assembly of the Turkish Entrepreneurs Businessmen Confederation and met with our business community. TÜGİK, with 6 federations, 60 associations, and nearly 10,000 members, makes significant contributions to our economy. On January 24, we were guests in our city of Aydın to carry out our collective openings and to conduct the key delivery and lottery draws for our new housing projects. We drew lots for a total of 6,973 houses to be built in Aydın center and its districts as part of the 500,000 social housing project. We opened the Aydın City Hospital, which suits the pearl of the Aegean very well, by cutting the ribbon for the service of our citizens in Aydın.
During our visit, we also inaugurated the projects of the Aydın Metropolitan Municipality. I congratulate all our ministers, our institutions, especially our Aydın Metropolitan Municipality. I want to announce from here that we will not recognize any obstacles for Aydın from now on. We awarded the representatives of our overseas contracting and technical consultancy sector.
"OUR RELATIONS WITH AFRICA ARE STRENGTHENING IN EVERY FIELD" I thank our companies individually. On the same day, we hosted the President of Nigeria and his delegation at our complex. Thank God, our relations with the African continent are strengthening in every field. We have increased the number of our embassies on the continent to 44, and our goal is 50. Turkish contractors have undertaken more than 2,000 projects worth 100 billion dollars in Africa. By 2025, our foreign trade volume with the continent is expected to reach nearly 35 billion dollars with a 10% increase. Tens of thousands of students from different corners of the continent are receiving education in Turkish universities. Graduates from Turkey are taking active roles in politics, business, academia, and civil society in many countries in Africa.
The Turkish world has a unique position in Turkey's foreign policy. The Turkish world, with a population of approximately 300 million, an area of 4.5 million square kilometers, and an economic volume of 2 trillion dollars, represents a significant power and potential. We are trying to evaluate this vast potential in the best way through the projects we have implemented under the roof of the Organization of Turkish States. The visit of the President of Uzbekistan, Mr. Shavkat Mirziyoyev, on January 29 was also meaningful. We signed 10 new agreements. We have tripled our bilateral trade volume with Uzbekistan in the last 10 years. Inshallah, we will soon reach our new target of 5 billion dollars.
"ROADS MEAN PRODUCTION, TOURISM, AND DEVELOPMENT" On January 30, we celebrated the pride of putting our 30,000th kilometer of divided roads into service. Only 6 of our provinces were connected by divided roads. By launching a major transportation mobilization across our country, we increased the length of our divided roads to 30,049 kilometers and the number of cities connected by divided roads to 77. We achieved this despite the mentality that opposes services and projects. Roads are civilization, roads are horizons, roads are vision; roads mean transportation, industry, production, tourism, and development. Our investments in divided roads and highways provide an economic benefit of 303 billion lira each year. 6.3 million tons of carbon emissions are prevented annually. Thanks to this, accidents caused by road defects have almost been reduced to zero.
"TOURISM ENDED 2025 WITH A RECORD" Those who try to cover their incompetence with the argument that if we build more roads, traffic will get more congested need to learn these facts. Our goals in transportation are also significant. We will first increase our road network, which is currently 30,049 kilometers, to 31,250 kilometers and then to 38,000 kilometers. Despite those who find their way through corruption, we will patiently continue to build new roads for our nation and to open Turkey's path and horizon.
In 2025, when uncertainties increased globally, we closed the year with hope in key economic indicators from inflation to exports. The announced data also brought smiles to our faces in tourism. Turkish tourism completed 2025 with a record. In 2025, our tourism revenue exceeded 65.2 billion dollars with an increase of 6.8%. With this figure, we surpassed our target of 64 billion dollars. A record was also broken in per capita nightly spending. The per capita nightly spending of foreign visitors increased by 5.2% to 114 dollars.
"THE CENTRAL BANK'S RESERVES REACHED 215.6 BILLION DOLLARS" We are receiving positive news in other areas related to the economy as well. The reserves of our Central Bank continue to increase. As of last week, the Central Bank's reserves reached 215.6 billion dollars. Inshallah, we will reach much better places. We will not allow the so-called economists disguised as operation apparatus to darken the fate of this country. As a government, we stand by those who produce, export, and provide employment.
"WE ARE LAUNCHING A 100 BILLION LIRA FINANCING PACKAGE" We continue to strongly support our manufacturing industry. In the Employment Protection Program that we will implement in 2026 for labor-intensive sectors, we had provided monthly support per employment.
I would like to share the good news that will alleviate the difficulties our manufacturing industry businesses face in accessing financing. We are launching a financing package worth 100 billion lira with favorable conditions. There will be a 6-month grace period for principal payments, with terms of up to 36 months. Attractive loans of up to 50 million lira will be provided per business. Our SMEs will be able to access this loan opportunity without facing collateral issues.
We will provide a 10-point discount opportunity to our SMEs through KOSGEB. With these supports, we are facilitating significant access to financing and reducing financing costs in our manufacturing industry.
"THEY DID NOT SEE THAT THE SECURITY OF SYRIA AND TURKEY IS INTERCONNECTED" With a land border of 911 kilometers, Syria is our neighbor with the longest border. Syria is a brother country with deep religious, cultural, historical, commercial, and human ties. Just as the Tigris and Euphrates are brothers, we are also brothers with our southern neighbors, especially Syria. For years, opposition circles have failed to understand why Turkey is so closely interested in Syria. They said, "What does Syria have to do with us?" They did not see that the security of Syria and Turkey is interconnected. Those who cannot read the developments in Syria correctly continue to produce discourse today, unfortunately.
"THEY FAILED BY CALCULATING POLITICAL GAINS" We witnessed this once again in the last 3 weeks. Those who view the events in Syria with ideological prejudice, especially the main opposition party, have once again stumbled and failed the brotherhood test. By calculating political gains, they have once again ended up with zero. While Turkey is providing all kinds of humanitarian aid related to Syria and doing its best to reduce tensions, they slandered our country with ugly expressions like "Kurd enemy." We are in favor of peace, tranquility, stability, reconciliation, and inter-community embrace in every inch of our region. We know that if there is fire, conflict, or war beyond our borders, it is impossible for us to feel safe here.
"WE WANT TO SEE A NEIGHBOR WHERE ALL SECTORS IN SYRIA LIVE IN PEACE" We want to see a neighbor where all segments of the Syrian people, regardless of whether they are Arab, Kurdish, Turkmen, Nusayri, or Christian, live in peace, not one that constantly struggles with instability right next to us. Our entire struggle is aimed at achieving this first in Syria and then in other conflict zones. It is very important to resolve the situation in northern Syria based on a single army, a single state, and a single Syria without bloodshed. We evaluate the agreements reached between the Syrian government and the structure known as the SDF from this perspective. With the latest agreements, a new page has been opened for the Syrian people. Our hope is that this new page will be stopped not by conflict, but by peace, tranquility, development, and prosperity. Whoever attempts to dynamite this will, I say clearly and unequivocally, be left behind.
"WE HAVE BEEN HERE FOR CENTURIES" We hope that the agreement will be implemented in accordance with its spirit without resorting to cheap calculations such as stalling, dragging feet, or procrastination. Turkey will stand firmly against all blood merchants who invest in tension. No matter what background, sect, or belief we come from, we are neighbors. We have all been here for centuries. God willing, we will be here until the Day of Judgment. When we are in trouble, we will knock on each other's doors again. The wise saying of our ancestors should be a lesson for everyone: The flood passes, but the sand remains!
After the dust settles in Syria and the stones are put back in place, we will again look into each other's faces. We must not give an opportunity for this spirit of solidarity to be damaged. I especially urge all our citizens and my brothers beyond our borders to be very careful in this regard. We will not allow those who fuel hatred, anger, and enmity among us. We will not allow particularly malignant elements that tie their own interests to the downfall of Turks, Kurds, Arabs, and Nusayris among us. The rest will come, with God's permission.
"WE ARE EMBARKING ON A 2-DAY JOURNEY COVERING SAUDI ARABIA AND EGYPT" I say may God make our brotherhood everlasting and strong. Tomorrow, we are embarking on a 2-day journey covering Saudi Arabia and Egypt. We will address the developments we will have with both brother countries regarding the hot developments in our region. We will evaluate what steps we can take in the security construction of Gaza and what we can do to prevent the escalation of the crisis in Iran. As long as God gives us life, we will work, sweat, and struggle for all the oppressed and victims along with our 86 million citizens. We will continue to represent this nation with dignity, honor, and pride, ensuring that the Turkish nation does not bow its head. "