A chart circulated by elected Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor and presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu has placed fresh scrutiny on Turkey's trajectory over the past decade, drawing on international rankings and official statistics to compare conditions in 2015-2016 against projected 2026 figures. The comparison spans four areas - economic cost of living, rule of law, democratic freedoms, and perceptions of public-sector corruption - and in nearly every category, the country's position has worsened.
İmamoğlu shared the data with a pointed caption, accusing the governing authorities of mismanagement and declaring that it was time for the government to "get off the nation's back." The chart's economic section leans on Turkey's Consumer Price Index figures from the national statistics agency TÜİK, showing inflation rising from 8.81 percent in the 2015-2016 period to a projected 30.89 percent by 2026 - a shift that touches nearly every household budget decision, in the same way consumers abroad weigh recurring costs like subscriptions, where understanding what happens when you cancel a service can matter just as much as the price of signing up.
Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights Erode
The World Justice Project's Rule of Law Index, one of the most widely cited measures of judicial independence and institutional accountability globally, shows Turkey slipping from 80th out of 102 countries in 2015-2016 to 118th out of 143 countries in the 2026 dataset. Within that same index, the fundamental rights category - covering due process, freedom from discrimination, and protection of civil liberties - fell from 96th to 134th place. The criminal justice category followed a similar pattern, dropping from 79th to 106th. Taken together, these movements suggest a judiciary and legal framework increasingly seen by outside evaluators as less independent and less protective of individual rights than a decade ago.
Freedoms, Internet Access, and Press Conditions Decline
Freedom House's Freedom in the World index, which scores countries on political rights and civil liberties on a 100-point scale, recorded Turkey's score falling from 53 to 32 over the period in question. The organization's separate Freedom on the Net index, which evaluates obstacles to access, limits on content, and violations of user rights online, showed an even steeper decline - from 61 to 31. Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index placed Turkey 149th out of 180 countries in 2015-2016; by the 2026 edition, it ranked 163rd out of the countries assessed. These three measures, compiled independently by different organizations using distinct methodologies, point in the same direction: shrinking space for political expression, online activity, and journalism.
Corruption Perceptions Also Worsen
Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, which measures how business professionals and country experts perceive levels of public-sector corruption, gave Turkey a score of 42 out of 100 in 2015-2016. That figure dropped to 31 in the 2026 data. The country's global ranking fell accordingly, from 66th among 168 countries to 124th among 182 countries. Because the index relies on perception rather than direct measurement, it reflects how institutional trust and transparency are viewed by those closely tracking governance and business conditions - a view that, according to this comparison, has grown markedly less favorable.
A Pattern Across Every Category
What stands out in İmamoğlu's chart is not any single statistic but the consistency of the pattern across unrelated fields of measurement. Economic indicators, judicial rankings, press freedom scores, and corruption perceptions are compiled by different institutions using different methods, yet they converge on the same conclusion: diminished standing relative to a decade earlier. For a country positioning itself as a regional economic and diplomatic actor, that convergence across independent benchmarks is likely to remain a point of domestic political contention well beyond the current election cycle.