Türkiye reached the highest cultural and artistic figures in the history of the republic in 2025, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy announced at a press conference held on Feb. 5, 2026, at Istanbul’s Atatürk Cultural Center (AKM).

From museums and performing arts to libraries, archaeology and cinema, Ersoy said the growing public interest in culture and the arts is clearly reflected in the data, describing culture as "a nation’s memory and the strongest legacy it leaves to the future.”

Global cultural brand

One of the highlights was the Türkiye Culture Route Festival, which began in 2021 with 80 venues and more than 2,000 artists and has since grown into an international cultural brand. A member of the European Festivals Association since 2023, the festival hosted more than 9,600 events across 20 cities over eight months last year, with over 50,000 artists performing at more than 1,000 venues. In 2026, the festival will expand to 26 cities with the addition of Aydın, Eskişehir, Kahramanmaraş, Mersin, Ordu and Sakarya, while Balıkesir, Denizli, Hatay, Kocaeli, Muğla and Tekirdağ are set to join in 2027.

Ersoy also underlined Türkiye’s strong position in safeguarding living heritage. With 32 elements registered on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists, Türkiye ranks second worldwide, while 102 masters have been officially recognized as "Living Human Treasures."

Record growth in theater, opera

Audience numbers in the performing arts continue to rise. State Theaters, which operated 28 stages in 2002 and 41 in 2017, now run 59 stages nationwide, with the figure expected to reach 64 in the 2025-2026 season. Audience numbers are targeted to exceed 2.5 million. The State Opera and Ballet reached a historic high with 1,228 performances in the 2024-2025 season and aims for 1,350 performances and 775,000 spectators next season. The ballet "The Nutcracker" drew particular attention, with tickets selling out in just 45 seconds at every performance, including shows in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Cinema was described as a "strategic investment,” with state support rising from nearly TL 56 million ($1.29 million) for 305 projects in 2017 to TL 491.6 million for 390 projects by 2025. Ersoy also announced that Turkish TV series, which reach more than 1 billion viewers in around 170 countries, will increasingly be used as part of Türkiye’s international promotion strategy.

Significant growth was also recorded in fine arts, with events organized by the General Directorate of Fine Arts increasing from 585 in 2017-2018 to 1,006 in 2024-2025, with a target of 1,500 this season. The Presidential Symphony Orchestra marked its 200th anniversary with concerts planned across all seven regions of Türkiye.

Libraries, heritage, manuscripts

Libraries remain a cornerstone of the "Türkiye Century” vision. The number of libraries has surpassed 1,300, seating capacity has increased from 93,000 in 2017 to 150,000, and total usable space has expanded by 152% to 789,000 square meters. Rami Library alone welcomed more than 3.6 million visitors last year.

In heritage protection, Türkiye set records in copyright revenues, which rose from TL 200 million in 2020 to nearly TL 3 billion in 2025. The inventory of the Türkiye Manuscripts Institution reached 776,700 works, with 455,000 manuscripts digitized and made accessible to researchers. Between 2002 and 2026, a total of 13,449 cultural artifacts were returned to Türkiye, including 9,134 in the past eight years alone, with the Marcus Aurelius statue standing out as a symbol of this effort.

Reclaimed artifacts

Among the most symbolic returns was the Marcus Aurelius statue repatriated last year, which Ersoy described as a powerful example of Türkiye’s determined pursuit of artifacts removed from its lands through illicit means. He emphasized that the systematic efforts carried out in recent years have turned cultural repatriation into an effective and results-driven state policy rather than isolated cases.

Archaeology has entered a new phase under the "Legacy for the Future” vision. By 2025, 255 excavation sites were included in year-round projects, employing over 1,200 experts and more than 3,000 workers, while more than 15,000 archaeological finds were brought into the scientific record. Night museum visits also expanded to 27 museums and archaeological sites, attracting around 600,000 visitors.

Ersoy concluded by noting that Istanbul’s iconic Haydarpaşa and Sirkeci railway stations are being transformed into a new culture and arts hub under a protocol signed in August 2024, reaffirming the ministry’s commitment to preservation, production and accessibility in culture and the arts.