By Doğu Perinçek

ANKARA,Türkiye: The Türkiye–Russia–China–Iran alliance (TRCI) is no longer merely a proposal for the future. An operational alignment among Russia, China and Iran has already emerged, and in the first stage of the recent confrontation it has shown its strength. Türkiye is the missing partner. Yet Türkiye’s participation is not a matter of preference. It is becoming a strategic necessity imposed by the regional and global balance of power.

TRCI is necessary not only for the four countries themselves but also for all states that want to prevent a wider war. In West Asia, no durable balance capable of restraining a regional conflict can be built without Türkiye, Russia, China and Iran acting together. The same alignment could also become one of the strongest barriers against the escalation of regional wars into a third world war. Its potential strength therefore comes not only from the resources of its members, but from the broader demand for peace and sovereignty across the world.

Why is this alliance necessary for Türkiye? The first reason is security. The principal threats to Türkiye’s territorial integrity and strategic autonomy come, in our view, from the U.S.–Israel axis and the military architecture built around it. Türkiye’s NATO membership has not prevented Washington from supporting projects and armed forces that Ankara regards as threats, from northern Iraq and Syria to the Eastern Mediterranean.

Military cooperation among the United States, Israel and Greece, together with the growing military presence around Cyprus and the Aegean, reinforces this concern. Under these conditions, Türkiye will increasingly need strategic cooperation with Russia, Iran and China, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The second reason is the reconstruction of the national state. Türkiye cannot strengthen its sovereignty while remaining tied to an Atlantic system that has weakened national institutions and increased external dependence. A stronger state, capable of defending its borders and making independent decisions, requires a new international environment.

The third reason is economic. Türkiye has lived for decades with the consequences of an economic model tied to global financial centers, speculative capital and import dependence. A production-oriented economy—a “Production Revolution”—requires energy security, industrial investment, access to large markets and long-term strategic partnerships. Russia and Iran are indispensable for energy security, while China and Russia have long ranked among Türkiye’s most important trading partners. TRCI would therefore provide a more favorable geopolitical climate for rebuilding a production economy.

The global environment is also changing. U.S. hegemony is weakening, the dollar-centered order is losing its former dominance, and Western institutions are facing deep internal crises. NATO itself is increasingly questioned even within Türkiye. An alliance that once claimed to guarantee security now appears unable to resolve the conflicts produced within its own sphere. Meanwhile, Turkish business circles are increasingly looking toward China, Russia and Iran. These trends indicate that Türkiye’s Atlantic ties are no longer treated as unquestionable.

Türkiye has in fact been moving away from the Atlantic system since 2014. The defeat of the July 2016 coup attempt, followed by Türkiye’s cross-border military operations in Syria, accelerated this process. These operations targeted organizations that Ankara regards as extensions of U.S. and Israeli regional strategy. At the same time, large-scale purges within the military, police, judiciary and state bureaucracy dismantled structures that had long tied the Turkish state to the Atlantic system. Türkiye has therefore already taken important steps toward strategic independence.

TRCI is also compatible with Türkiye’s relations with the Turkic states. These countries are geographically, economically and politically part of Asia. Their economies have deep links with Russia and China, while several are members of or closely connected to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and BRICS. The Turkic world cannot be built against Russia, China or Iran. On the contrary, Türkiye can deepen its relations with the Turkic states more effectively within a broader Eurasian framework.

For this reason, TRCI should not be understood simply as a foreign-policy formula. Its deeper meaning is Türkiye’s transition from the declining Atlantic system to what we see as the rising civilization of Asia. The new civilization emerging from Asia is based on the sovereignty of national states, public responsibility, social solidarity, development and peace. Türkiye’s historical revolutionary tradition has always aimed to reach and surpass contemporary civilization. Today, that objective requires an independent place within the rising Asian order.

This transition also carries a historical meaning for the Turkish Revolution. Since the constitutional struggles of the nineteenth century, through the 1908 Revolution, the War of Independence and the Kemalist Revolution, Türkiye has repeatedly fought to establish national sovereignty. The next stage is the completion of that process by breaking the remaining structures of Atlantic dependence. An alliance with Russia, China and Iran would create the international conditions for that transformation.

The TRCI project is therefore no longer an abstract aspiration. It is becoming a practical political task. The balance policy pursued for years by Ankara is reaching its limits. As regional confrontation deepens, Türkiye will have to define more clearly where it stands. Political forces across the country are already debating closer cooperation with Russia, China and Iran, and the idea is entering mainstream political discussion.

The economic and geopolitical dimensions of this shift are inseparable. A production-oriented economy needs an independent foreign policy; an independent foreign policy needs a strong national economy. These are two sides of the same transformation. Türkiye’s workers, public employees, farmers, tradespeople, national industrialists and merchants all have an interest in escaping a system based on financial dependence and establishing one centered on production.

Türkiye is approaching a historic threshold. The central question is no longer whether it should maintain old habits indefinitely, but how it will position itself in a world where the Atlantic system is declining and Asia is rising.

The Türkiye–Russia–China–Iran alliance offers, in our view, the strategic framework for protecting Türkiye’s independence, territorial integrity, energy security and productive capacity while contributing to the prevention of a wider war. For that reason, TRCI is not simply an option. It is becoming an urgent necessity.

*Doğu Perinçek is Chairman of the Vatan Party.*