Turkey's leaders urge reforms in agriculture and defense industry

Saadet Party leader Mahmut Arıkan addressed a gathering in Antalya, arguing that Turkey’s growth depends on boosting production, investment, planning and development. He highlighted the high costs faced by farmers – expensive diesel, fertilizer, pesticides and electricity – and the disproportionate burden of interest payments, noting that agricultural support funds total 98 billion TL while interest costs exceed 1.26 trillion TL. Arıkan called for the removal of taxes on agricultural inputs and pointed to Antalya’s $1.5 billion annual agricultural export value as evidence of the sector’s potential.

At a NATO summit in Ankara, Sarsılmaz Chairman Latif Aral Aliş said the meeting opened new opportunities for Turkey’s defence industry. He described Turkey as a reliable partner offering joint production, technology sharing and long‑term project cooperation across areas such as unmanned systems, smart munitions, air‑defence and platform integration. Aliş credited recent government support and domestic engineering capacity for positioning Turkey among the leading contributors to NATO security.