Erdoğan Cabinet Tackles War Inflation as Exports Hit $25.4B

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will chair the Monday Cabinet in Ankara around three threads. Ministers will discuss the impact of the US–Israel–Iran war on the Turkish economy, particularly rising energy prices and inflation, and the measures the government plans to absorb the shock. The "terror-free Türkiye" disarmament process for the PKK is on the same agenda — reports from authorities monitoring the process will be presented, and ministers are likely to consider a timetable for legal amendments, including lenient sentencing for surrendering members. The third file is unsolved high-profile murder cases. New evidence in the Gülistan Doku disappearance — the young woman who went missing in Tunceli six years ago — pointed last month to the son of the province's former governor, who was arrested, and then to the former governor himself, on suspicion of covering up the case. The government has pledged to extend the same renewed scrutiny to the deaths of Rabia Naz Vatan in Giresun and Rojin Kabaiş, the Van university student found near Lake Van.

Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz travels to Yerevan on Monday to attend the European Political Community summit, becoming the first sitting Turkish vice president to visit Armenia. Armenia's invitation had originally gone to Erdoğan; the substitution still marks a deepening of normalisation between the two neighbours, who have had no formal diplomatic relations since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited Türkiye last year and met Erdoğan; in 2008 then-President Abdullah Gül became the first Turkish head of state to visit Armenia in a similar normalisation push that subsequently faded. The new dynamic moves on the back of Azerbaijan's Karabakh victory and the early-August US-brokered peace deal between Yerevan and Baku. The EPC summit, themed "Building the Future: Unity and Stability in Europe," will discuss energy security, economic development, security policy and democratic resilience; almost all European countries will attend, though German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is not expected.

The export ledger turned the war pressure into a counter-narrative. Trade Minister Ömer Bolat announced from Ordu that April exports rose 22.3 percent year-on-year to $25.4 billion — "the highest April export figure in history and the second highest export figure in the 102.5 years, or 1230 months, of our republic." Imports rose 3.1 percent to $33.91 billion; the trade deficit narrowed 29.8 percent to $8.5 billion, and the export-to-import ratio jumped from 64 percent in March to 75 percent. Türkiye Exporters Assembly head Mustafa Gültepe broke the month down: automotive led at $3.9 billion, followed by chemicals at $3.1 billion, electrical and electronics at $1.8 billion, ready-made clothing at $1.451 billion and steel at $1.438 billion; sixty-one provinces boosted exports, led by Istanbul, Kocaeli, Bursa, Ankara and Izmir. For January–April exports totalled $88.5 billion against $126 billion in imports; annualised exports reached a record $275.8 billion. Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek attributed part of the April jump to calendar effects and warned of "periodic fluctuations in the foreign trade outlook" through Q2 as geopolitical tensions persist.

The defence-industry calendar opens its own week. Aselsan will unveil five new products and new versions of six existing systems at SAHA EXPO 2026, running 5–9 May at the Istanbul Expo Center; the showcase includes the Alp low-altitude defence radar, the hybrid Gürz air-defence system, the Korkut air-defence system, the Ejderha anti-UAV system, the Gökberk mobile laser weapon, and the Puhu electronic-warfare system, with components of the "Steel Dome" presented to international delegations. CEO Ahmet Akyol said the launches would "demonstrate the power of national engineering" and described the fair as "a springboard in Aselsan's journey to becoming a global technology brand," with cooperation agreements expected. Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Jarrah Jaber Al Ahmad Al Sabah meets Hakan Fidan in Ankara on Monday for talks on the Iran war, Gaza and Lebanon. The Culture Ministry's anti-smuggling head Zeynep Boz, speaking in Gaziantep, said Türkiye intercepts more than one million historical artefacts a year, mostly coins, at the border.