Türkiye'de enerji ithalatı, cari açık ve büyüme ilişkisinin Türkiye'nin Doğu Akdeniz politikası ve Doğu Akdeniz'de küresel rekabet kapsamında değerlendirilmesi

High foreign dependency in energy puts economic growth, current account deficit and energy imports into a vicious circle. In this context, the energy reserves that are likely to be discovered in the Eastern Mediterranean create an opportunity for Turkey. This study aims to evaluate the causality relationship between energy imports, economic growth and current account balance within the scope of Turkey's Eastern Mediterranean Policy and Global Competition in the Eastern Mediterranean. For this purpose, a Vector Autoregressive Model (VAR) was established by using the quarterly data of Turkey between 1999 and 2020, and Granger Causality Test, Impulse Response Function and Variance Decomposition analyzes were performed on this model. As a result of the analysis, a one-way causality was found from the energy imports and economic growth to current account balance. At the same time, it was determined that 9.13% of a change in the current account deficit and 18.88% of a change in economic growth was explained by the energy imports. In the light of these data, energy resources to be discovered in the Eastern Mediterranean mean that Turkey will have a healthy growth model in terms of keeping the high amount of foreign currency spent on energy imports in the country and directing this money to domestic investments and R&D studies. It is also possible that the cost advantage in energy-intensive sectors will be reflected in prices and, thanks to domestic energy generation, prices will be less affected by the exchange rate effect and developments in the world.