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Attacks On the Press Escalate Ahead of Turkish Elections
Attacks On the Press Escalate Ahead of Turkish Elections
ON WEDNESDAY MORNING, Turkish riot police stormed the offices of Koza Ipek Holding, a media group in Istanbul housing the Bugun TV channel and the Bugun and Millet newspapers.
“Dear viewers,” a Bugun TV anchor casually announced during the early morning broadcast, “do not be surprised if you see police in our studio in the upcoming minutes.” Outside, police were leading journalists away in handcuffs, while citizens — many of them journalists who worked in the building — protested the dawn raid as police attempted to disperse the growing crowd with tear gas and water cannons.
Scenes of riot police suddenly and forcefully storming media outlets perceived to be critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have become increasingly common in Turkey. In June the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) won 13 percent of the vote in the Parliamentary election, thereby surpassing the 10 percent electoral threshold needed for Parliamentary representation and taking away seats from President Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Crackdown Ahead of Elections
As the November 1 elections approach — a “snap” election called by the AKP in hopes of regaining a Parliamentary majority — press freedom advocates are concerned that the increasing raids on media outlets and attacks on journalists represent a dire threat to Turkish democracy.
“This pressure and attacks have significantly impacted journalists’ ability to report on matters of public interest freely and independently,” said Muzaffar Suleymanov, a researcher for the Committee to Protect Journalists Europe and Central Asia Program, at a recent press conference hosted by an emergency press freedom mission to Turkey. “In a practical sense, attacks on journalists compromise their work and affect the public’s ability to make an informed decision to vote.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Protests Erupt In Turkey As Government Accused Of False Flag In Weekend Suicide Blast
Protests Erupt In Turkey As Government Accused Of False Flag In Weekend Suicide Blast
For those who might still be unaware, Turkey is playing a large role in perpetuating violence across the Mid-East.
A few months back, when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan finally decided to allow US warplanes to fly sorties from Incirlik, it was fairly obvious what what was going on. Erdogan had just lost his absolute majority in parliament which is a bigger deal than it might sound. That majority was critical for Erdogan in his bid to alter the constitution and consolidate his power. Adding insult to injury, the AKP’s lost ground at the ballot box was partially the result of a strong showing by the pro-Kurdish HDP. Given the, how shall we say, “contentious” relationship between Ankara and the PKK, that was a bitter pill to swallow.
So, what Erdogan did, is effectively start a civil war by reigniting the conflict with the Kurds. This was done under the guise of a “war on terror” (and when you think about it, what isn’t done under the guise of a “war on terror” these days?) and NATO gave its blessing in exchange for access to Incirlik and a (largely fake) promise from Erdogan that part of his war would be focused on ISIS.
For Erdogan, the idea was to stir up fear amongst the populace in an effort to boost support for AKP. Once that plan was put into motion, he then moved to stymie the coalition building process. Once he had sabotaged that completely, the path was clear for him to call for new elections.
In short, this was a gambit to subvert the democratic process by stoking violence which Ankara hopes will lead to stronger support for AKP at the ballot box in November. That, in turn, would pave the way for Erdogan’s power play. Thanks to the fact that Erdogan is a US “ally” in the war on terror, this whole thing gets the Good Housekeeping seal of Western approval.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Angry Mobs Torch Kurdish Offices, Shops As Turkey Descends Into Chaos
Angry Mobs Torch Kurdish Offices, Shops As Turkey Descends Into Chaos
History is replete with examples of US-backed world leaders oppressing their people with Washington’s implicit blessing and despite the fact that the eyes of the world are trained squarely on Syria and, by extension, on any neighboring country that has a role to play in determining the outcome of the Syrian civil war, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan has managed to orchestrate a political coup of epic proportions in plain sight by plunging his people into civil war as NATO looks the other way.
What Erdogan has done, in the space of just three months, is nullify a democratic election outcome by first obstructing efforts to form a coalition government on the way to calling for new elections, then launching a military campaign against the PKK, knowing full well that if enough people are killed between now and the time Turks return to the ballot box in November, the public’s negative perception of the PKK will likely translate to diminished support for the pro-Kurdish HDP, which was in part responsible for AKP losing its absolute parliamentary majority in June.
This is all possible because Erdogan was effectively allowed to trade access to Incirlik (which gives the US army a forward operating base for what will eventually be a ground incursion in Syria) for NATO’s acquiescence to the extermination of the Kurdish opposition in Turkey.
As of Tuesday, this deal had resulted in: 1) hundreds of people killed, 2) the arrest of journalists, 3) the collapse of the lira, 4) a Turkish invasion of Northern Iraq (the fifth in two decades), and 5) no perceptible progress in the “fight” against ISIS which was the pretext for the entire effort.
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Turkey On The Brink As Calls For Martial Law, Civil War Send Lira Plunging Again
Turkey On The Brink As Calls For Martial Law, Civil War Send Lira Plunging Again
For anyone who might have missed it, Turkey is quickly descending into chaos on all fronts.
The lira is putting to new lows against the dollar on a daily basis as confidence suffers from a worsening political crisis which began in June when AKP lost its parliamentary majority for the first time in over a decade throwing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s plan to transform the country’s political system into an executive presidency into doubt. Not one to give up easily (especially when it comes to consolidating his power), Erdogan proceeded to launch an ad hoc military offensive against the PKK in an attempt to undermine support for the pro-Kurdish HDP ahead of new elections which, thanks to the willful obstruction of the coalition formation process, are now virtually inevitable.
Turkey’s central bank hasn’t helped matters and the lira legged lower on Wednesday after it was made clear that a rate hike was not in the cards until Fed liftoff is official.
Citi has taken a look at the situation and determined that in fact, the lira is the most vulnerable of all EM currencies they track:
We believe it is going to be difficult for the local markets angle of the EM asset class, in this important (potential) transition of monetary policy in the US, and also taking into account any potential move by the ECB in 2016 (away from a QE stance). That prompted us to revisit our FX vulnerability model. In the model, we look into EMFX from three angles: 1) the macro vulnerability aspect (focused on BoP dynamics, FX reserve metrics, portfolio flows and CDS); 2) interest rate coverage (measured by 1y1y forward real rates, current implied yields and bond yield premium after hedging costs); and 3) our assessment of positioning by real money investors and leveraged accounts in the several EM currencies. TRY, BRL, ZAR, MXN and MYR rank high in terms of aggregate vulnerability.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
More Trouble In Turkey As Lira Plunges To New Lows, Bond Yields Soar
More Trouble In Turkey As Lira Plunges To New Lows, Bond Yields Soar
On Monday, Turkey’s lira plunged to new lows against the dollar as coalition talks between prime minister and AK Party leader Ahmet Davutoglu and nationalist MHP leader Devlet Bahceli broke down. The result, AKP won’t be able to form a coalition government after elections in June saw the party lose its parliamentary majority for the first time in 12 years.
In the absence of a coalition, the country will go back to the polls – likely in November – where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes heightened violence between Ankara and the PKK will translate into a stronger showing for AKP.
The political turmoil, rising violence, and general EM malaise have hit the country’s currency hard and on Tuesday, Turkey’s central bank left rates unchanged prompting further weakness in the lira which had already fallen earlier in the session after Emine Nur Gunay, Davutoglu’s chief adviser, hinted that a rate hike was not in the cards.
Meanwhile, 10-year yields have spiked to their highest levels in nearly a year and a half.
As Bloomberg reports, the market is also not impressed with the central bank’s plan to stabilize markets in the face of policy normalization in the US:
Investors sold Turkish assets, sending TRY to record low after central bank published “road map” of measures it said would prepare country for normalization of global monetary policy.List of 9 technical adjustments fell short of investor expectations that Turkey’s central bank would move toward simplifying monetary policy framework
TRY fell as much as 0.9% to record 2.8941/USD; 2Y yields surged to the highest in more than a year at 10.59%
“The strategic plan is disappointing,” Guillaume Tresca, a senior emerging market strategist at Credit Agricole wrote in e-mail
Central bank is “just trying to justify saying to the markets that it’s ready to face a Fed rate hike, without really announcing anything new”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Is Turkey In Over Its Head?
Is Turkey In Over Its Head?
Turkey’s war against Islamic State began with bombs being dropped on Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) forces – a central actor in the ongoing insurgency across parts of Syria (a country that ostensibly no longer exists) and Iraq. The PKK has sought autonomy from Turkey since the mid-1980s, with tens of thousands of Turkish and Kurdish soldiers and civilians being counted as part of the casualties of the roughly 30-year conflict. Attempts to carve out a sovereign Kurdish homeland from Turkey during the 1980s led to the deaths of over 30,000 people, many of whom were ethnic Kurds. As part of Turkey’s new role in its conflict with ISIS, the United States has been granted permission to launch aircraft from the Incirlik airbase located near Adana. The United States already has approximately six fighter aircraft and several hundred military personnel stationed at the base.
The battle of Kobane, which lasted from mid-September 2014 until mid-March 2015, brought the fighting to the borders of Turkey. At the end of July 2015, when Turkey entered into the conflict, its attacks against the PKK were the first strikes against the Kurds situated in northern Iraq since the brokering of a peace deal between Turkey and the PKK in 2013. The Kurdish group’s accusations that the Turkish government is plotting terrorist attacks (in collusion with ISIS forces) against ethnic Kurdish communities greatly adds to tensions due to Ankara’s already inimical disposition toward the Kurds.
The situation in northern Iraq and Syria is a Gordian knot: Turkey vs. Kurds (with Kurdish intergroup fighting predating ISIS) vs. ISIS (with internal fragmentation and al-Qaeda support) vs. Syrian opposition groups.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Turkey Permits U.S. To Use Its Airbase For Air Strikes Against Syria
Turkey Permits U.S. To Use Its Airbase For Air Strikes Against Syria
Earlier we reported that in an apparent retaliation against Monday’s alleged suicide bombing and today’s follow up killing of a Turkish soldier on the border with Syria, the Turkish army launched what under normal conditions would be deemed a land invasion of Turkey when four of its tanks entered Syrian territory. Rhetorically, we asked in “one may wonder if NATO-member Turkey’s land invasion of Syria, which many have said was long overdue following months of rhetoric and belligerent posturing, under the pretext of ISIS “liberation”, has just begun.”
A following report from the WSJ largely answers our question: citing unnamed defense officials, WSJ reportsthat after months of negotiations, “Turkey has agreed to let the U.S. military carry out airstrikes against Islamic State fighters from a U.S. air base near the Syrian border.”
This is the same authoritarian president who has repeatedly cracked down against protesters using various less than media friendly means, and one whom Obama has lashed out at diplomatically. It appears that when pursuing grander visions, Obama is will to forgive anyone’s humanitarian record, or lack thereof, and do anything to achieve America’s real politik ambitions.
Like in this case: the deal, agreed to by President Barack Obama and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will allow the U.S. to use Incirlik Air Base in eastern Turkey to send manned and unmanned planes to attack Islamic State fighters, the officials said. The two leaders spoke on Wednesday, the White House said.
Use of Incirlik is part of a broader deal between the U.S. and Turkey to deepen their cooperation in the fight against Islamic State that is growing increasingly perilous for Turkey.On Thursday, Islamic State forces in Syria and the Turkish military engaged in a deadly cross-border battle that left at least one Turkish officer dead.
“They’re in a counter-ISIL fight right across the border,” said one defense official, using one of the acronyms for Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS.
And with that the northern wing of the anti-Syria, pardon anti-ISIS campaign is complete, with the US covering air sorties while Turkey will use NATO tanks to secure the ground and slowly but surely, together with the eastern front where the US will soon deplay troops, close in on Damascus to eliminate the biggestSyrian ISIS threat of them all: president Assad and his (and the Kremlin’s) stern anti-Qatar pipeline position.
BBC News – Turkey police raid opposition media with Gulen links
BBC News – Turkey police raid opposition media with Gulen links.
Turkish police have made at least 23 arrests during raids on a newspaper and TV station with close ties to US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Those detained are accused of forming an illegal organisation and trying to seize control of the state.
Mr Gulen, the spiritual leader of the Hizmet movement, is a rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The raids come days after Mr Erdogan pledged a fresh campaign against Mr Gulen’s supporters.
Among those arrested are journalists, producers, scriptwriters and a police chief in eastern Turkey.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
