Opinion: Women in Turkey (and elsewhere) are not fair game | Opinion | DW | 31.08.2019

Opinion: Women in Turkey (and elsewhere) are not fair game

A Turkish man kills his former wife in broad daylight, and thousands take to the streets to protest violence against women. But the shocking crime is not just a problem in Turkey, writes Beate Hinrichs.

More:Opinion: Women in Turkey (and elsewhere) are not fair game | Opinion | DW | 31.08.2019

bne IntelliNews - VW ‘one tax pledge away from choosing Turkey over Bulgaria for €1bn plant’

VW ‘one tax pledge away from choosing Turkey over Bulgaria for €1bn plant’

By bne IntelliNews August 30, 2019
A pledge from Turkey for a change in the special consumer tax system at a specific date in the future would reportedly be enough to convince Volkswagen to choose the country over Bulgaria as the location for a €1bn multi-brand auto production plant.
More:bne IntelliNews - VW ‘one tax pledge away from choosing Turkey over Bulgaria for €1bn plant’

Turkey marks Independence War victory - Turkey News

Turkey marks Independence War victory
ANKARA

Turkish people celebrated Victory Day on Aug. 30 marking the anniversary of when Turkish armies succeeded in the Great Offensive under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk against occupying Greek forces on the same date in 1922.

More:Turkey marks Independence War victory - Turkey News

Ergenekon: The bizarre case that shaped modern Turkey | Middle East Eye

Ergenekon: The bizarre case that shaped modern Turkey
Alex MacDonald

Hundreds faced arrest and prosecution since 2007 over membership of a 'terror' organisation - but prosecutors recently ruled that the group may never have existed
In July, Turkey saw the closure of one of the longest-running and strangest chapters in its recent political history: the notorious Ergenekon trials.

For decades prosecutors and police claimed a secretive, ultra-secular, ultra-nationalist organisation named Ergenekon had been carrying out terrorist attacks and manipulating events behind the scenes, all in an alleged plot to throw Turkey into chaos and justify a military coup ousting then-prime minister, and current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

More:Ergenekon: The bizarre case that shaped modern Turkey | Middle East Eye

Turkey drifting from the West towards Russia? - Modern Diplomacy

Turkey drifting from the West towards Russia?
By Andrei Isaev

In the years of the Cold War, Turkey positioned itself at the vanguard of the free, i.e. Western world, confronting the so-called “evil empire”. Many Turks, especially in the hinterland, truly believed that the words “communism” and “terrorism” meant the same, while newspapers wrote about the “oppressed” status of millions of Turks in the USSR. But everything changed at the end of the 20th century. The 1990s became a period of unprecedented growth in bilateral trade, as Turkish contractors rushed to tap into Russian expanses by erecting a variety of buildings of disputable architectural value. The collapse of the USSR gave rise to expectations of the arrival of a “Turkic century” and a “Turkic world from the Adriatic to the Great Wall of China.” According to many in Turkey, the Turkic-speaking people living in Russia were to occupy a place in this world too.

More:Turkey drifting from the West towards Russia? - Modern Diplomacy

Europe’s Complicity in Turkey’s Syrian-Refugee Crackdown - The Atlantic

Europe’s Complicity in Turkey’s Syrian-Refugee Crackdown

Ankara is moving against Syrians in the country—and the European Union bears responsibility.

More:Europe’s Complicity in Turkey’s Syrian-Refugee Crackdown - The Atlantic

Istanbul mayor cuts funding to AKP projects as waste outrage grows

Istanbul mayor cuts funding to AKP projects as waste outrage grows
Diego Cupolo August 28, 2019

The misuse of state funds has been a central issue in Turkey since this spring’s municipal elections. Istanbul’s new opposition Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who won both that vote and a do-over election on June 23, is now following through on campaign promises to audit expenditures and cut wasteful spending.

More:Istanbul mayor cuts funding to AKP projects as waste outrage grows

Locals fight to stop Canadian firm’s gold mine project in northwest Turkey | Ahval

Locals fight to stop Canadian firm’s gold mine project in northwest Turkey

Massive deforestation and revelations that cyanide will be used in the production process have sparked a protest movement against a Canadian company’s construction of a gold mine in northwest Turkey’s Ida Mountains, Canada’s Globe and Mail reported on Monday.

More:Locals fight to stop Canadian firm’s gold mine project in northwest Turkey | Ahval

Will Putin's 'ice cream diplomacy' with Erdogan help resolve Idlib?

Will Putin's 'ice cream diplomacy' with Erdogan help resolve Idlib?
Maxim A. Suchkov August 27, 2019

MOSCOW — They say that familiarity breeds contempt. In recent years Russian President Vladimir Putin has met his Turkish counterpart more than any other foreign leader. Practically every meeting between the two brings something amusing, be it Putin pulling the chair from under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan or treating the Turkish leader with Russian ice cream. Both obviously enjoy media attention and know how to work public interest in their personas. Both still have the ability to surprise the public. Both seem to enjoy it. Most importantly, however, they know how to link the projection of this “special personal relationship” between the two to the improvement of Russia-Turkey relations.

More:Will Putin's 'ice cream diplomacy' with Erdogan help resolve Idlib?

Lira flash crash: Erdoğan double-down leaves Turkey exposed | Ahval

Lira flash crash: Erdoğan double-down leaves Turkey exposed

Turkey’s vulnerability to shifts in investor sentiment – and a possible repeat of last year’s currency crisis -- was exposed on Monday when Japanese investors sold the lira in droves, leading to a flash crash that briefly sent the currency down by 10 percent against the dollar.

The lira later recovered most of its losses to end the day down 1.2 percent at 5.8296 per dollar, but the flash crash – the second this year – points to growing concern over the direction of economic policy under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

More:Lira flash crash: Erdoğan double-down leaves Turkey exposed | Ahval

Turkish lira slides on trade war unease, hit by 'flash crash' - Reuters

Turkish lira slides on trade war unease, hit by 'flash crash'
Daren Butler, Nevzat Devranoglu

ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) - The Turkish lira weakened more than 1% against the dollar on Monday, after briefly tumbling to 6.47 overnight in what market watchers described as a “flash crash” as Japanese investors cut risk assets over Sino-U.S. trade war worries.

More:Turkish lira slides on trade war unease, hit by 'flash crash' - Reuters

Turkey Plans to Make Cyprus Ghost Town Varosha Tourist Lure - The National Herald

Turkey Plans to Make Cyprus Ghost Town Varosha Tourist Lure
By TNH Staff August 25, 2019

Turkey plans to help Turkish-Cypriots reopen the abandoned town of Varosha, a once-famous celebrity-filled seaside resort, that was shut down after the unlawful 1974 invasion that saw Turkey occupy the northern third of the island.

More:Turkey Plans to Make Cyprus Ghost Town Varosha Tourist Lure - The National Herald

Erdogan Warns of Crisis as Syrian Offensive Strains Turkish-Russian Ties | Voice of America - English

Erdogan Warns of Crisis as Syrian Offensive Strains Turkish-Russian Ties
By Dorian Jones
August 23, 2019 03:24 PM

ISTANBUL - A Russian-backed Syrian government offensive against the rebel-controlled Idlib enclave is putting Turkey's recent rapprochement with Russia to the test. Ankara, which backs the rebels, is voicing alarm over the attack, warning of a "humanitarian crisis."

More:Erdogan Warns of Crisis as Syrian Offensive Strains Turkish-Russian Ties | Voice of America - English

“We will continue until we win,” say the Turkish protesters taking on a major Canadian mining project - Equal Times

“We will continue until we win,” say the Turkish protesters taking on a major Canadian mining project

(Nick Ashdown)
At a teahouse in the tiny village of Karaibrahimler in Turkey’s lush north-western Biga Peninsula, older male residents sitting at a table debate with young environmentalists from Istanbul and the nearby town of Çanakkale about the adjacent gold and silver mining project.

More:“We will continue until we win,” say the Turkish protesters taking on a major Canadian mining project - Equal Times

Turkish Democracy Is Down, But Not Out by Javier Solana - Project Syndicate

Turkish Democracy Is Down, But Not Out

Aug 22, 2019 JAVIER SOLANA
Relations between Turkey and the West are damaged, but not irreparably, and the same is true of Turkish democracy. Although President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seems to believe that his country’s geostrategic importance gives him carte blanche, the fact is that Turkey needs the West, and the West needs Turkey.

More:Turkish Democracy Is Down, But Not Out by Javier Solana - Project Syndicate

Turkey: Why Are Elections Being Held at All? | Al Bawaba

Turkey: Why Are Elections Being Held at All?

“The government has not offered any clear evidence linking the mayors to terrorist acts and has not declared why they were allowed to contest elections in the first place,” he added.
The suspensions of elected mayors and the detainment of hundreds of people in eastern and southeastern Turkey has sparked harsh criticism and has raised questions as to why elections are being held in the country at all.

More:Turkey: Why Are Elections Being Held at All? | Al Bawaba

Turkish central bank moves to boost profits of state banks - Reuters

Turkish central bank moves to boost profits of state banks
Nevzat Devranoglu, Ezgi Erkoyun

ANKARA/ISTANBUL, Aug 20 (Reuters) - A central bank decision that banks with higher loan growth can hold lower reserves will boost profits at Turkish state banks and encourage private banks to follow suit with increased lending, analysts say.

More:Turkish central bank moves to boost profits of state banks - Reuters

Flash floods washed through Istanbul this weekend—and it was madness! | Condé Nast Traveller India | Earth Matters

Flash floods washed through Istanbul this weekend—and it was madness!

Streets turned to rivers, Bazaars were flooded as the city got a month’s worth of rain in just three hours

More:Flash floods washed through Istanbul this weekend—and it was madness! | Condé Nast Traveller India | Earth Matters

Turkey’s Rising Wave of Social Protests - The Globalist

Turkey’s Rising Wave of Social Protests

This year’s Istanbul election and last year’s move to a presidential system have unified and galvanized the opposition, raising questions about Erdogan’s next move.

By Soner Cagaptay, August 17, 2019

Ever since the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) suffered a rout in Istanbul’s June 23 mayoral race, Turkey has witnessed a rise in anti-government protests, mostly focusing on environmental issues.

more:Turkey’s Rising Wave of Social Protests - The Globalist

Turkish Lawyers to Boycott Ceremony at Presidential Palace | Asharq AL-awsat

Turkish Lawyers to Boycott Ceremony at Presidential Palace
Sunday, 18 August, 2019 - 17:45

Dozens of bar associations representing lawyers from provinces across Turkey, including the largest cities, have said they will boycott an annual ceremony for the judiciary because it will take place at the presidential palace.

more:Turkish Lawyers to Boycott Ceremony at Presidential Palace | Asharq AL-awsat

Now, Anatolia’s natural resources are up for grabs | Yavuz Baydar | AW

Now, Anatolia’s natural resources are up for grabs

The problem with Turkey’s opposition in general is its disorder and lack of coherence in organising the public discontent.

More:Now, Anatolia’s natural resources are up for grabs | Yavuz Baydar | AW

Turkey's provincial bar associations wage unexpected war on Ankara | Ahval

Turkey's provincial bar associations wage unexpected war on Ankara
This story has been updated several times according to increasing number of provincial bar associations that are boycotting the ceremony.

The Turkish Bar Association, said on Saturday that its president Metin Feyzioğlu would attend a ceremony marking the beginning of the judicial year at the Turkish Presidency’s Congress and Culture Centre in Ankara despite provincial bar associations’ calls for a boycott, Artı Gerçek news site reported.

More:Turkey's provincial bar associations wage unexpected war on Ankara | Ahval

US-Turkey Tug-Of-War About The Kurds – OpEd – Eurasia Review

US-Turkey Tug-Of-War About The Kurds – OpEd
August 17, 2019 Neville Teller 0 Comments
By Neville Teller

Valiant Kurdish Pershmerga troops bore the brunt of the West’s struggle against Islamic State (IS) in Syria.  The defeat of IS on the ground is largely due to them, and the US-led coalition owes them a debt of gratitude.  The north-eastern region of Syria has always been a Kurdish-occupied  area, and now the Kurds have established a semi-autonomous self-governing region there known as Rojava.

More:US-Turkey Tug-Of-War About The Kurds – OpEd – Eurasia Review

Turkey at a crossroads between authoritarianism and liberalisation - analysis | Ahval

Turkey at a crossroads between authoritarianism and liberalisation - analysis

Turkey is experiencing a crumbling of the broad regime coalition, leaving room for a narrower, more sectarian and coercive ruling alliance, while simultaneously being presented with the historic opportunity for radical liberalisation, wrote analysts Sinem Adar and Yektan Türkyılmaz in Open Democracy.

Analysts maintain the June 23 Istanbul municipal mayoral election rerun, which saw the opposition candidate score a landslide victory against the candidate from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), was a revitalising moment for the opposition and a nearly fatal blow to Erdoğan’s grip on power.

More:Turkey at a crossroads between authoritarianism and liberalisation - analysis | Ahval

Turkey plugs bleeding budget with large central bank transfer | Business – Gulf News

Turkey plugs bleeding budget with large central bank transfer

Without disbursement, the government would have posted a budget deficit of about 12b liras

More:Turkey plugs bleeding budget with large central bank transfer | Business – Gulf News

Turkish Bitcoin Adoption Ramps Up amid Flagging Economic Recovery

TURKISH BITCOIN ADOPTION RAMPS UP AMID FLAGGING ECONOMIC RECOVERY
By Aaron Weaver 16/08/2019 3 Min read In Bitcoin Analysis, Cryptocurrency News, News

By CCN Markets: Turkey likes bitcoin more than any of the other 14 nations polled in a recent survey by Dutch banking group ING. Sixty-two percent of Turks were crypto positive, while 36% said they would be happy to be paid in bitcoin. Meanwhile, Austrians were the most skeptical, with only 13% being pro-crypto.

More:Turkish Bitcoin Adoption Ramps Up amid Flagging Economic Recovery

The decline of Erdoğanist authoritarianism: a new chance for “democratization” in Turkey? | openDemocracy

The decline of Erdoğanist authoritarianism: a new chance for “democratization” in Turkey?
The Istanbul municipal elections might be the beginning of the post-Erdoğan period. But is it the end of authoritarianism?

Sinem Adar
Yektan Türkyılmaz
16 August 2019

Turkey continues to be a most intriguing case for political analysts of the global wave of authoritarianism. Ekrem İmamoğlu’s resounding ballot-box victory against a humiliated Binali Yıldırım in the re-run of the Istanbul municipal mayoral election on June 23 added new impetus to the already bourgeoning curiosity about Turkey’s political future. As the number of post-election analyses has mushroomed, pundits have almost unanimously celebrated this landslide victory as a revitalizing moment for the opposition and a nearly fatal blow to Erdoğan’s grip on power.

More;The decline of Erdoğanist authoritarianism: a new chance for “democratization” in Turkey? | openDemocracy

Will Turkey and China Become Friends? - The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Will Turkey and China Become Friends?
Soner Cagaptay with Deniz Yuksel

August 14, 2019

Despite their limited economic relations and ongoing differences over the Uyghur issue, the two countries could grow closer if Western partners fail to provide the financial boost Turkey needs so badly.

More:Will Turkey and China Become Friends? - The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

How Turkey deals with returning Islamic State fighters - Young, evicted and back

How Turkey deals with returning Islamic State fighters
A mixed picture

Print edition | Europe
Aug 17th 2019 | ISTANBUL
Suheyla remembers the day clearly. She had invited her children for dinner and was preparing her youngest son’s favourite stew. He never showed up. Neither did her four daughters. When none of them picked up the phone, she and her husband Lutfu understood what was happening. They rushed to a police station to ask the authorities to track down their children: they were headed south. A month later one of Suheyla’s daughters called. She and her siblings, the youngest 18 and the eldest 27, along with her brother’s wife and their infant son, had smuggled themselves into Syria and joined Islamic State (is).

more;How Turkey deals with returning Islamic State fighters - Young, evicted and back

Turkey’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate hits highest on record | Financial Post

Turkey's seasonally adjusted jobless rate hits highest on record

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate climbed to its highest level on record, statistical data showed on Thursday, despite a slight fall in the April-June headline figures.

More:Turkey’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate hits highest on record | Financial Post

Erdogan Plays Washington Like a Fiddle – Foreign Policy

Erdogan Plays Washington Like a Fiddle

As U.S. policymakers worry about their special relationship with Ankara, Turkey’s president knows it's already dead.

More:Erdogan Plays Washington Like a Fiddle – Foreign Policy

Turkish lira weakens as investors remain cautious of emerging markets | Financial Post

Turkish lira weakens as investors remain cautious of emerging markets

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s lira made up most of its early losses on Tuesday on news that the United States will delay imposing some tariffs on China, but investors remained wary of emerging markets after the Argentinian peso hit a record low against the dollar.

More:Turkish lira weakens as investors remain cautious of emerging markets | Financial Post

Turkey's Erdoğan makes troubling turn toward Atatürk - Foreign Affairs | Ahval

Turkey's Erdoğan makes troubling turn toward Atatürk - Foreign Affairs

The politician from whom the Islamist Recep Tayyip Erdoğan initially sought to distance himself, the secular-minded, Western-leaning founder of Turkey, is the one Turkey’s president has come to resemble the most, said an analysis for Foreign Affairs magazine. 

Erdoğan is the most baffling politician in Turkey’s history, polarising and popular, by turns calm and angry, and with an ideology that shifts every few years. But starting with his early years in Turkey’s Islamist Welfare Party, he steadily built a base among Turkey’s poor and conservatives, which he converted into a series of increasingly impressive electoral victories, from Istanbul mayor in 1994 to the Turkish prime ministership and finally president in 2014.

More:Turkey's Erdoğan makes troubling turn toward Atatürk - Foreign Affairs | Ahval

How Turkey's Erdogan Stays in Power by Reinventing his Persona

Erdogan’s Way
The Rise and Rule of Turkey’s Islamist Shapeshifter
By Kaya Genc September/October 2019

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the most baffling politician to emerge in the 96-year history of Turkey. He is polarizing and popular, autocratic and fatherly, calculating and listless. Erdogan’s ideology shifts every few years, and he appears to make up his road map as he goes along. He is short-tempered: he grabs cigarette packs from citizens to try to force them into quitting, scolds reporters who ask tough questions, and once walked off the stage after an angry exchange with the Israeli president at the World Economic Forum in Davos. But he can also be extremely patient. It has taken him 16 years to forge what he calls “the new Turkey,” an economically self-reliant country with a marginalized opposition and a subservient press.

More:How Turkey's Erdogan Stays in Power by Reinventing his Persona

Turkey’s Rising Wave of Social Protests - The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Turkey’s Rising Wave of Social Protests
Soner Cagaptay and Deniz Yuksel

August 12, 2019

This year’s Istanbul election and last year’s move to a presidential system have unified and galvanized the opposition, raising questions about Erdogan’s next move.

Ever since the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) suffered a rout in Istanbul’s June 23 mayoral race, Turkey has witnessed a rise in anti-government protests, mostly focusing on environmental issues. The wave of peaceful demonstrations—the country’s largest since the 2013 Gezi Park rallies—suggests a newfound vitality among the opposition, with potentially deep implications for Turkey’s democracy.

More:Turkey’s Rising Wave of Social Protests - The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

90 US troops arrive in Turkey to set up safe zone on Syrian border: Reports | Indiablooms - First Portal on Digital News Management

90 US troops arrive in Turkey to set up safe zone on Syrian border: Reports

Ankara, Aug 12 (Sputnik) Some 90 US service personnel arrived in southern Turkey on Monday, days after the two allies agreed to set up a safe zone in northeastern Syria, Turkish media said.

More:90 US troops arrive in Turkey to set up safe zone on Syrian border: Reports | Indiablooms - First Portal on Digital News Management

Investors are right to be rattled by Turkey’s central bank purge | Euromoney

Investors are right to be rattled by Turkey’s central bank purge

By: Published on: Monday, August 12, 2019
The gradual erosion of institutional credibility could prove more damaging to Turkey than economic and political shocks.

More:Investors are right to be rattled by Turkey’s central bank purge | Euromoney

Withheld in Turkey: how the government exploits removal requests to silence critical and independent voices · Global Voices

Withheld in Turkey: how the government exploits removal requests to silence critical and independent voices

Twitter and other platforms ''[do] not want to anger the Turkish government''.

More:Withheld in Turkey: how the government exploits removal requests to silence critical and independent voices · Global Voices

Turkish fund considered front runner to take over British Steel - The London Post

Turkish fund considered front runner to take over British Steel

The British government is reportedly waiting to announce bid for British Steel, with Turkish consortium favoured over others. 

The country’s second largest steelmaker was put into compulsory liquidation on May 22 after Greybull Capital, which bought the company from Tata Steel (TISC.NS) for one pound three years ago, failed to secure funding to continue operating it.

more:Turkish fund considered front runner to take over British Steel - The London Post

Turkish lira defies dire predictions for now, but risks loom over longer-term sustainability - The Japan News

Turkish lira defies dire predictions for now, but risks loom over longer-term sustainability

Reuters

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is pictured during a welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Ankara on Wednesday.

7:30 pm, August 10, 2019

Reuters
ISTANBUL (Reuters) — Turkey’s lira has risen in recent months despite Ankara abruptly sacking the central bank governor and risking U.S. sanctions over Russian missiles, silencing for now critics who had warned such moves could cause another currency crisis.

More:Turkish lira defies dire predictions for now, but risks loom over longer-term sustainability - The Japan News

Turkey Got $1 Billion From China Swap in June Boost to Reserves - Bloomberg

Turkey Got a $1 Billion Foreign Cash Boost From China in June

By Kerim Karakaya and Asli Kandemir
August 9, 2019, 1:54 PM GMT+1 Updated on August 9, 2019, 3:32 PM GMT+1
Cash infusion reflects Erdogan’s efforts to realign Turkey
First time Turkey gets significant cash under the 2012 deal
China’s central bank transferred $1 billion worth of funds to Turkey in June, Beijing’s biggest support package ever for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivered at a critical time in an election month.

The inflow marks the first time Turkey received such a substantial amount under the lira-yuan swap agreement with Beijing that dates back to 2012, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter who asked not to be named because the information isn’t public.


More:Turkey Got $1 Billion From China Swap in June Boost to Reserves - Bloomberg

Tough season for the Turkish opposition | openDemocracy

Tough season for the Turkish opposition

Ekrem Imamoglu, if he wants to be next leader of the country, has to go far beyond the local election coalition of early 2019, and look for a new kind of social contract.

More:Tough season for the Turkish opposition | openDemocracy

U.S. Safe Zone Deal Can Help Turkey Come to Terms with the PKK and YPG - The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

U.S. Safe Zone Deal Can Help Turkey Come to Terms with the PKK and YPG
Soner Cagaptay

August 7, 2019

Checking the YPG’s ascendance in Syria could bring the PKK back to the negotiating table, ultimately making Turkey more amenable to Kurdish enclaves across the border.

Earlier today, Ankara and Washington agreed to “stand up a joint operations center in Turkey as soon as possible to coordinate and manage the establishment of a safe zone” in Syria. This development could help realign the relationship between Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and its Syrian offshoot, the People’s Defense Units (YPG), a group that controls large swaths of Syria’s northern frontier. That in turn could help heal a major sore point in U.S.-Turkish relations.

More:U.S. Safe Zone Deal Can Help Turkey Come to Terms with the PKK and YPG - The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Ankara’s opposition mayor awards municipal employees first holiday premium in 25 years | Ahval

Ankara’s opposition mayor awards municipal employees first holiday premium in 25 years

The newly elected opposition mayor of the Turkish capital, Ankara, has signed off on a religious holiday bonus for municipal staff, a common practice in Turkey that had not been implemented at the Ankara municipality for 25 years.

Mansur Yavaş announced on Wednesday that civil servants at the municipality would receive a bonus ahead of the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha (the Festival of the Sacrifice), left-wing news site Artı Gerçek reported.

More:Ankara’s opposition mayor awards municipal employees first holiday premium in 25 years | Ahval

bne IntelliNews - Turkey’s Teflon lira rises and rises but dollarisation rates show Turks not yet buying into recovery

Turkey’s Teflon lira rises and rises but dollarisation rates show Turks not yet buying into recovery

Critics say Erdogan is now de facto at the wheel when it comes to Turkey's monetary policy and he's in no mood to budge.
By bne IntelliNews August 6, 2019
The Turkish lira has become the Teflon lira of late with nothing knocking it off a surge up the tracks. Not geopolitical and defence rows with the US—Donald Trump has proved a handy pal with his great reluctance to hit the Erdogan administration with sanctions—and not President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s July firing of the central bank governor by presidential decree, leaving the idea that the national lender still retains monetary policy independence as for the birds.

More:bne IntelliNews - Turkey’s Teflon lira rises and rises but dollarisation rates show Turks not yet buying into recovery

Turkey, U.S. Reach Agreement on Creating Buffer Zone in Syria - Bloomberg

Turkey, U.S. Reach Agreement on Creating Buffer Zone in Syria
By Onur Ant
August 7, 2019, 10:11 AM GMT+1 Updated on August 7, 2019, 4:48 PM GMT+1
NATO allies to create joint operation center for coordination
Turkey has vowed to remove Kurdish militia from border area

Turkey and the U.S. reached a long-sought agreement to distance American-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters from the Turkish border, softening a major point of contention between the NATO allies.

Turkish and American officials meeting in Ankara over the past three days agreed to set up a joint operations center to coordinate efforts to carve out a buffer zone in northern Syria, according to statements from both governments. The area would be off-limits to the Kurdish forces, which Turkey regards as threats to its territorial integrity.

More:Turkey, U.S. Reach Agreement on Creating Buffer Zone in Syria - Bloomberg

UPDATE 1-After protests, Alamos CEO defends Turkish mine project against 'misinformation'

UPDATE 1-After protests, Alamos CEO defends Turkish mine project against ‘misinformation’
PUBLISHED 4 HOURS AGO

Tuvan Gumrukcu

ANKARA, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Canada-based Alamos Gold has defended its environmental record at a mining project in western Turkey against a wave of protests, saying it had paid for future reforestation at the site and denying cyanide would leak into the surrounding area.

More:UPDATE 1-After protests, Alamos CEO defends Turkish mine project against 'misinformation'

The Turkish summer camp where children are taught to shout ‘death to Jews’ - The Jewish Chronicle

The Turkish summer camp where children are taught to shout ‘death to Jews’

Politician calls for government probe after footage of young girls being encouraged to hate generates outrage in Turkey

More:The Turkish summer camp where children are taught to shout ‘death to Jews’ - The Jewish Chronicle

Turkey Needs Friends in a Volatile Region

Turkey Needs Friends in a Volatile Region

It is becoming harder and harder to ascertain who exactly are Turkey’s long-term allies. On July 26, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan threatened that Turkey would simply look elsewhere for fighter jets if frozen out of the US F-35 program, of which it has been an integral part.

More:Turkey Needs Friends in a Volatile Region

Turkish court bans access to 136 social media accounts, sites, including independent Bianet | Ahval

A Turkish court banned access to 136 websites and Twitter accounts after a request by the gendarmerie.

The court ruling said the gendarmerie command last month submitted a request for banning the websites and social media accounts, including the independent news site bianet.org and the Twitter account of pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Oya Ersoy, independent outlet MedyaScope.tv reported on Tuesday.

More:Turkish court bans access to 136 social media accounts, sites, including independent Bianet | Ahval

Curbing creeping authoritarianism in Turkey | Ahval

Curbing creeping authoritarianism in Turkey

The victory of Turkish secular opposition candidate, Ekrem İmamoğlu, in the rerun of Istanbul’s mayoral election in June is a rebuke to the authoritarian tendencies of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his governing Islamist party. Although the election highlights the competitive nature of Turkey’s politics, the country’s democracy is not definitively back on track. Continued authoritarian behaviour by Erdoğan’s government poses challenges for both Turkish society and Western interests.

More:Curbing creeping authoritarianism in Turkey | Ahval

The politicisation of Turkey’s armed forces continues | Ahval

The politicisation of Turkey’s armed forces continues

A meeting of Turkey’s Supreme Military Council last week continued the politicisation of the armed forces as part of a strategy to create an army comprised of Erdoğan loyalists through expulsions, promotions, retirements and trials.

Turkish pro-government media outlets have badly misreported decisions announced last week after a meeting of the Supreme Military Council (YAŞ), the committee that decides the promotions and retirements of top generals.

More:The politicisation of Turkey’s armed forces continues | Ahval

'Stop the eco-slaughter': Thousands march in Turkey against Canadian-owned gold mine | Middle East Eye

'Stop the eco-slaughter': Thousands march in Turkey against Canadian-owned gold mine
Opposition to mining project in northwest Turkey has mounted after tens of thousands of trees were felled

Thousands of people have gathered around the outskirts of a small town in western Turkey to protest against a Canadian-owned gold mine project they say will negatively impact the local environment.

Around 5,000 protesters staged a peaceful and unusually large demonstration near the town of Kirazli on Monday against the environmental pollution they say the project will generate, Reuters news agency reported.

More:'Stop the eco-slaughter': Thousands march in Turkey against Canadian-owned gold mine | Middle East Eye

Behind Erdogan’s Strange Ideas About Interest Rates: QuickTake - Bloomberg

Behind Erdogan’s Strange Ideas About Interest Rates
By Onur Ant
August 2, 2019, 6:01 AM GMT+2 From

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan doesn’t like it when the country’s banks charge people relatively heavily to borrow money. That alone doesn’t make him unusual for a politician, given that cheap money can garner electoral support. What makes Erdogan extraordinary is his unorthodox argument for low interest rates and his determination to bring them about by wresting control of monetary policy from theoretically independent central bankers.

More:Behind Erdogan’s Strange Ideas About Interest Rates: QuickTake - Bloomberg

The Kemalist CHP and the Kurdish HDP: Decision time for Turkeyʹs opposition - Qantara.de

Decision time for Turkeyʹs opposition

Will the CHP take Imamogluʹs success in the re-run of the Istanbul mayoral elections, achieved through the support of the HDP, as an opportunity to finally abandon its rigid attitude towards the Kurds? By Gulistan Gurbey

more:The Kemalist CHP and the Kurdish HDP: Decision time for Turkeyʹs opposition - Qantara.de

bne IntelliNews - TURKEY INSIGHT: Awesome, surreal!

TURKEY INSIGHT: Awesome, surreal!

On some days not a single transaction occurs even with Turkey's benchmark government bonds since the government has spooked private investors to lower interest rates.
By Akin Nazli in Belgrade August 1, 2019
In terms of surrealism in global finance, Turkey must have a fair claim to the lead with the OFFICIAL (yes please, note the upper case letters) inflation data from the country’s TUIK statistical institute currently indicating tempting real returns on Turkish lira (TRY) bonds and the central bank (even quicker nowadays to answer the direct-line phone when the monetary masterminds in the Erdogan administration choose to make a call) almost certainly set to cut its policy rate further across the remainder of the year in the dash for another dose of short-term growth that distracts from the longer-term reckoning.

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The closing of the Turkish mind

The closing of the Turkish mind

An authoritarian state can do many things to get rid of democratic types but ultimately the government must attack the institutions that produce and sustain them. This is what Erdogan and his allies have sought to do. AP

Suzy Hansen
Aug 1, 2019 — 1.49pm

Ilhan Uzgel learned he had been fired while driving his Honda Civic from the village of Ayas to Ankara, after a visit to his ailing, elderly father. A little after midnight, one of his former research assistants called his cellphone. “Ilhan Hocam,” the student said, using a Turkish honorific (“my teacher”) bestowed on educators. “Your name was on the list.”

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