İmamoğlu warns in Foreign Affairs that Turkey’s weakened institutions and erratic foreign policy are undermining the country at home and abroad, and argues that a democratic reset is essential for Turkey to regain credibility and global influence.

Istanbul’s imprisoned mayor and presidential hopeful Ekrem İmamoğlu has written an article for Foreign Affairs. Here are the key takeaways:

• Turkey enters its second century facing an increasingly unstable global environment marked by geopolitical fragmentation, democratic backsliding, and cross-border crises.

• Instead of providing stability and competent governance, the current Turkish government has weakened democratic institutions, the judiciary, the bureaucracy, and the country’s diplomatic discipline.

• İmamoğlu argues that he has personally experienced this democratic erosion, pointing to politically motivated legal cases, a 3,379-page indictment, and what he describes as an attempt to remove him as a presidential contender.

• These prosecutions, he says, aim to secure President Erdoğan’s political survival by suppressing the opposition ahead of the next presidential election (due by 2028).

• Public demonstrations following his arrest show that Turkish citizens still demand honest, representative, democratic governance.

• According to İmamoğlu, the government’s talk of “strategic autonomy” is used to mask foreign policy missteps and experimental economic policies. He argues that true autonomy requires democratic legitimacy, rule of law, and strong institutions - conditions he believes no longer exist.

• The CHP, in contrast, proposes restoring predictable economic policy, protecting institutional independence, and investing in green industry, digital transformation, and technological capacity.

• Turkey is trapped in dependencies on Western finance, Russian energy, and Chinese supply chains; İmamoğlu argues that deeper integration with the EU, especially a modernized customs union, is key to breaking these dependencies.

• A rebalanced foreign policy, he writes, would repair ties with Europe and the U.S., institutionalize relations, and once again make Turkey a constructive and predictable NATO member.

• Turkey should maintain transparent, institutional relations with Russia and China, cooperating where interests genuinely overlap but avoiding opaque, leader-to-leader bargaining that increases vulnerability.

• A diplomatic reset in the Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean, and Caucasus requires sustained dialogue, consistency with international law, and steps such as normalization with Armenia.

• İmamoğlu concludes that with restored democracy and competent foreign policy, Turkey can once again become a European power with global reach, and a stabilizing force in a fragmented world.