The Turkish Clothing Manufacturers’ Association (TGSD), in a letter dated July 24 titled “A Call for Reindustrialization” and addressed to Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz and İbrahim Şenel, President of the Presidency of Strategy and Budget, shared its assessments on the structural transformation of the industry, global competitive conditions and Türkiye’s industrialization vision.
The letter, made public on July 30 and signed by TGSD Co-Chairs Ümit Özüren and Toygar Narbay, was described as “more than a sectoral request; a call for a comprehensive industrial policy that will carry Türkiye’s production strength, export capacity and industrial ecosystem into the future.”
In the introduction to the letter, which underlined that deindustrialization in Türkiye is not merely an economic issue but one that concerns the country’s future, TGSD described the text as “an observation, an idea and a heartfelt contribution for the future of the country’s industry.”
Taking as its guiding principle the Turkish proverb, “The eye is that which sees beyond the mountain; the mind is that which foresees what will come,” TGSD stated: “With our eyes, we have seen beyond the mountain; with our minds, we have calculated what lies ahead. We now share both with our state, with the sincerest of intentions,” before setting out its assessments.
“Competitiveness built over 50 years does not evaporate in three years”
TGSD first underlined that the industry is not one that has lost its competitiveness or suddenly forfeited its capabilities. It recalled that between 2015 and 2022, Türkiye consistently held an average 3.5 percent share of global apparel exports, and in 2021 ranked as the world’s sixth-largest apparel exporter and fourth-largest producer, with a 3.7 percent share.
The letter stated that, with the same factories, the same skilled workers and the same customer relationships, this share fell below 3 percent in 2025 for the first time in 35 years. “Competitiveness built over 50 years does not evaporate in three years,” it said.
“Following the peak level reached in 2022, in a global apparel export market that contracted in 2023 but grew rapidly in 2024 and 2025, the Turkish apparel industry has unfortunately been the only major producer whose exports declined,” TGSD said, adding that the same rupture was also visible in the ratio of Türkiye’s goods exports to national income.
The letter noted that between 2022 and 2025, approximately 377,000 people lost their jobs in the apparel and textile industries, while 9,936 companies shut down. It added that some large manufacturers had begun moving to Egypt, while orders had started shifting to Bangladesh and Far East Asia.
“Growth is expected not from industry, but from services and consumption”
TGSD set out its views on the Medium-Term Program as follows: “Even the Medium-Term Program, whose objectives we fully respect, expects growth not from industry but from services and consumption, as its own growth composition charts also show; for 2028, the program’s horizon year, it targets the share of goods exports in national income at 16.4 percent. The decline from 27.1 percent in 2022 to a targeted 16.4 percent in 2028 is not the preference of any institution; but if the current path continues, the destination has a clear name: even if unintentionally, it is ‘deindustrialization’.”
At this point, TGSD recalled Europe’s “mistake of deindustrialization,” describing it as one of the greatest mistakes in history. Arguing that high technology cannot develop if the underlying ecosystem disappears, the association cited China as an example of a country that preserves low and medium technology while building high technology on top of it.
The letter stressed that the current problem is not losing production but failing to protect it. “When we have the world’s second most integrated supply chain after China and 10 billion dollars in idle capital, we do not have the luxury of wasting this potential,” it said.
The association framed its call for reindustrialization as a strategic vision for Türkiye’s future, stating: “We are the last major producer neighbour that still retains its industry in relation to Europe. This is not a weakness; it is a trump card waiting to be brought to the table.”
“The logic of the disinflation program is correct, but the outcome in practice is wrong”
TGSD also made a notable distinction in its assessment of the disinflation program. While stating that the economic rationale of the program is correct, and that the association supports the logic of “fighting inflation by restraining consumption and strengthening production,” it pointed out that, in practice, the outcome has turned into the opposite of its intended purpose.
“Since 2020, consumer prices have increased approximately ninefold, wages elevenfold, financing costs four-and-a-half-fold and the exchange rate five-and-a-half to sixfold,” the association said, adding that this historic increase in wages had neither brought prosperity to employees nor allowed employers to preserve their competitiveness.
As a result, TGSD said, a “double loss” had emerged, while the only winners in this equation were, “even if unintentionally, those engaged in imports and those earning interest income.”
“A generation that does not want to produce is a national security issue”
In addition to its economic assessments, the letter also carried social messages, placing special emphasis on preserving the culture of production. TGSD warned that changing attitudes toward working life and production could have long-term consequences, stating: “A generation that does not want to produce is a national security issue.”
Drawing attention to the recent increase in criminal case files, TGSD shared the following data: “As production has come to a halt, the pursuit of unearned income has replaced the hard work, and its traces have appeared in judicial statistics. The annual number of files submitted to public prosecutors’ offices has climbed from 7.2 million to 11.7 million; in the past year alone, fraud files increased by 41 percent, while drug-related offenses rose by 21 to 33 percent. This disintegration, extending from the family to the courthouse, is a collapse of the ethics of production. A society that loses its ethics of production loses far more than its production capacity.”
“No one is safe in the age of artificial intelligence”
TGSD also included assessments on the economy of the future in its letter. It stated that artificial intelligence is expected to cause its fastest disruption over the next decade in call centers, logistics, finance and banking, and office jobs, drawing attention to the fact that the services sector, which today carries growth on its own, is set to become tomorrow’s most fragile area.
The letter said the only real insurance against this wave is to build industrial capability today.
“There were arrows, but no whistling arrow”
The association noted that the 86 “separate” support mechanisms currently offered to the sector are each the result of serious effort, and that it is grateful for every one of them, while placing particular emphasis on the word “separate.” In this context, TGSD referred to the first known regular Turkish army, established in 209 BC, and pointed to the solution developed at the time of its founding:
“The problem solved then is precisely the problem we face today: There were many arrows, but everyone was shooting in a different direction. Mete Han’s genius was not to give the army new arrows, but to develop a whistling arrow. Wherever that arrow went, all bows turned in that direction. Scattered bravery was transformed that day into a power locked onto a single target; the phrase ‘now we are an army’ has been the core of our state wisdom ever since: unity of purpose is the source of strength.”
Through this story, the association drew attention to the fact that support mechanisms operating through different institutions, with different logics and unaware of one another, cannot together produce transformation. “We share this finding with regret but with clarity, because what is not seen cannot be corrected: There were arrows, but no whistling arrow,” it said.
In the same section, TGSD also used the analogy, “No water comes from fifty one-meter wells; water comes from one fifty-meter well,” to underline the importance of using resources and policies in a more focused manner.
Finally, the association once again stressed that the report was not written to request incentives. “This report was written so that our children may grow up in a country that produces, so that our young people may once again believe in hard work, and so that when the unemployment wave of the artificial intelligence age reaches the shore, this nation will have an industry on which it can stand. It was written for our tomorrows,” the letter stated.
In its final paragraph, the letter quoted Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic: “Societies that wish to live in comfort without working, without tiring themselves and without producing will first lose their dignity, then their freedom, and finally their independence and future.”