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Türkiye's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) released its 2025 Annual Activity Report on Tuesday.
MIT President Ibrahim Kalin offered a sweeping assessment of global security trends, regional conflicts, and the organization's counterterrorism and intelligence diplomacy operations throughout the year.
MIT's 2025 budget was published in the Official Gazette on Dec. 31, 2024.
The initial appropriation stood at ₺28.9 billion ($660.61 million). By year's end, total appropriations reached ₺36.44 billion, while total expenditure reached ₺36.31 billion, according to the report.
The organization's stated mission is "to produce state intelligence that will contribute to decision-makers making the right decisions, utilizing technological and scientific developments, and to use its budget effectively, efficiently, and economically while fulfilling duties assigned by applicable legislation."
Its vision is to be "a multidimensional, dynamic and globally effective intelligence service with qualified personnel, advanced technological equipment and wide news-gathering sources, capable of rapid response to developments."
Describing 2025 as a year shaped by war and conflict, Kalin said in the report's foreword that traditional security threats had increasingly taken on a hybrid character, and that uncertainty and chaos had made their effects felt worldwide.
On the Middle East, Kalin said a 60-day temporary ceasefire was brokered in Gaza mid-year with the support of mediating countries, but that the failure to establish a lasting peace deepened the humanitarian catastrophe in the region.
He added that Israel's expansion of its strikes to include Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran continued to keep the Middle East equation fragile.
Türkiye's intelligence chief also addressed the war in Ukraine, saying, "Simultaneously, the Russia-Ukraine war has reached a deadlock between the West's military support and Russia's industrial attrition strategy; while the parties are caught between territorial concessions and security guarantees at the table, the dynamics of the war have evolved toward nuclear brinkmanship and the dominance of autonomous weapons systems."
"On the economic and geopolitical plane, U.S.-China rivalry has reinforced its 'new cold war' character through aggressive tariffs and technological moves applied by the United States. While trade wars are reshaping global supply chains, the reverberations of the competition have been directly felt on the African continent," he noted.
He added that the African continent, struggling with political instability due to coup attempts and internal conflicts, maintained its place in 2025 as one of the most important geopolitical chessboards where global powers compete for both raw materials and spheres of influence.
Kalin said Türkiye experienced a strategic period of "balance and consolidation" in both foreign policy and internal security in 2025.
He said: "Our country, which once again demonstrated its diplomatic capacity with its active mediation role in regional crises such as Gaza and Ukraine, has deepened the 'Terror-Free Türkiye' process, which is the most critical internal security and social peace goal of the 'Türkiye Century' vision."
"Gaining momentum with the important steps taken and concrete calls for disarmament in the first quarter of 2025, 'Terror-Free Türkiye' is progressing toward a social consensus with the contribution of the work of the National Solidarity, Brotherhood and Democracy Commission," he added.
"Our country, which has come a long way toward being rid of the burden of terrorism, will have achieved not only a security success with the 'Terror-Free Türkiye' goal but also an important strategic gain in terms of our state determining its own fate and ensuring regional stability in an age of global uncertainty," he said.
On Syria, Kalin said MIT played an active role from the onset of the Syrian crisis through its resolution and has taken a comprehensive approach to Syria over the past more than one year since the Dec. 8 Revolution.
“As we worked to build a new state, we took proactive steps to counter emerging threats in Syria, preventing any new dangers to our national security along our border,” he said.
"MIT conducted intensive intelligence diplomacy with all relevant actors on ending the war in Gaza—which deeply affected the security architecture of the Middle East and turned into a great humanitarian tragedy—on the issues of permanent ceasefire, humanitarian aid, prisoner exchange, Palestinian internal reconciliation and a two-state solution," Kalin stated.
"By assuming a bridge role between all parties in overcoming problems experienced in ceasefire negotiations, concrete contributions were made to achieving positive outcomes," he noted.
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Regarding counterterrorism, Kalin said MIT coordinated with security forces to apprehend members of FETO within Türkiye while blocking the organization's efforts to expand its overseas operations.
He also described operations against radical groups, explaining that the organization conducted sensitive work to identify members of extremist networks, primarily Daesh. This work led to the capture of numerous members both domestically and abroad. By collaborating closely with multiple countries—especially African nations actively combating the terrorist threat—MIT provided operational support to counter the activities of these radical groups.
On counterintelligence, Kalin said MIT again succeeded in 2025 in neutralizing espionage activities and exposing agent networks run by hostile states and organizations acting against Türkiye.
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