Focus on Turkey

ERDOĞAN SUGGESTS SHIFT FROM DOLLAR TO GOLD

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan states that instead of ruling the world under the pressure of the dollar the IMF should switch to using gold.

Sabah,

13 November, 2012

During his stay in Indonesia, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan brought up an interesting suggestion for the International Monetary Fund.

Stating that although IMF assistance may appear to be a prescription for some nations, in fact quite the opposite, the fund has often caused serious problems for countries in trouble, Erdoğan asks why it is that the fund uses dollars instead of gold.

Expressing that he doesn't feel it is right for the IMF to act according to one nation's currency, Erdoğan states, "The IMF extends aid on a who, where, how and on what conditions bases. For example, if the IMF is under the influence of any single currency then what, are they going rule the world based on the exchange rates of that particular currency?

Why do we not switch then to a monetary unit such as gold, which is at the very least an international constant and indicator which has maintained its honor throughout history. This is something to think about."

IT IS IMPERATIVE THE IMF AND OECD CHANGE

Explaining that Turkey had to pay a heavy price for the agreement they made with the IMF, Erdoğan stated, "We have not made a stand-by agreement for the past three periods. In April, we will have zeroed out our debt completely and we have no intentions of working with the IMF again."

Prime Minister Erdoğan went on to state: "One would hope that the IMF would help countries in trouble, however at present this is not the case. This is what we need to achieve."

Erdoğan also said he believed the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Security and Co-operation n Europe (OSCE) and the Organization for Co-operation and Development (OECD) need to all undergo a reform.

This is a translation of an article originally written by Zübeyde Yalçın. 

Resurgent Turkey may bring

back the death penalty

RT,

13 November, 2012

Prime Minister Erdogan has mooted restoring the death penalty and introducing a presidential system of government as the 2014 election looms nearer and he looks to boost Turkey’s status as a regional power.

A decade after Ankara abolished capital punishment as part of reforms aimed at EU membership; Recep Erdogan has said Turkey should bring back the death penalty. 

Political commentators believe his announcement is an attempt to increase his popularity. 

“He is trying to put together some kind of domestic coalition that will propel him towards the presidential election of 2014,” Srdja Trifkovic, foreign affairs editor of the Chronicles Magazine, told RT.  

Erdogan has mentioned bringing back the death penalty several times this month and he said opinion polls show strong support for reintroducing it. “Probably the Premier’s staff, following the mood of the nation through frequent opinion polls, advised him that a pro-death penalty stance might help his presidential aspirations,” columnist Yusuf Kanli wrote in the Hurriyet Daily News. 

Erdogan has pointed to other countries which have the death penalty such as the US and believes that Turkey must review the situation. He has also suggested that families of murder victims and not the state should decide a killer’s fate. 

The last time a prisoner was executed in Turkey was in 1984, and in 1961 Prime Minster Adnan Menderes was executed after an army coup.
As a prerequisite for EU membership Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2004 during Erdogan’s first term as Prime Minister. 

In recent years Turkey’s progress towards joining the EU has ground to a halt, primarily because of concerns of Germany and France that Turkey is too different from Europe in terms of culture, political tradition and institutions. 

An old player makes a comeback

Erdogan’s comments come amid a dramatic worsening of relations with Assad’s Syria and increasing violence from Kurdish separatists. The 28-year conflict with the Kurds has killed more than 40,000 people. 

But his policy towards Syria is unpopular with Turks, 70% of whom are opposed to any kind of intervention into Syrian affairs. 

“Erdogan is aware that he has overplayed his hand vis-à-vis Syria. The problem is his own making and his old policy of no problems with neighbors lies in tatters,” said Trifkovic. 

Assad has responded to Erdogan’s hostility by encouraging Kurdish guerillas in Turkey.  In north eastern Syria, which is home to a large Kurdish population, the Syrian army has all but pulled back and the Kurds have stepped into the power vacuum, leaving the Kurdish flag flying over most towns in the region.   

Trifkovich explained that Turkey is experiencing something of a resurgence since it lost its empire 100 years ago, “It is a rare example in history that a power makes the comeback of the kind that Erdogan has engineered over the past decade.” 

“Erdogan sees Turkey as a regional power in its own right and one that will not necessarily adjust its policies to the requirements or wishes of Brussels,” said Trifkovic. 

But Turkey’s resurgence has come at a price. It has used its NATO membership and alliance with America to become more influential in the region at the price of relations with Iran and Syria.

Turkey: Devastating Economic Consequences of Syrian Crisis and Iran Sanctions Regime

New economic figures just out show that Turkey’s erstwhile rising star as a powerful emerging economy has suddenly taken a plunge.

Finian Cunningham

Global Research,

11 September, 2012

Second-quarter economic data show that the country’s halcyon days of stellar growth of more than 8% during 2010 and 2011 are over.

While this year’s 2.9% growth still looks robust compared with stagnant North America and Europe, nevertheless the abrupt fall by 50 percent from previous heights serves as a stark warning that Turkey is heading for tough economic times. And parsing the headline figures, there are signs of much deeper malaise for the Turkish economic outlook.

The Financial Times this week notes that the economic news for the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would have been a lot worse, only for a recent surge in exports to Iran.

The FT reports that “60 percent of the increase in Turkey’s exports during the first seven months of the year was due to soaring gold sales to Iran.”

Demand for gold in Iran is largely due to the tighter Western economic sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic this year, which are driving Iranians to seek financial security by buying tangible assets of the precious metal.

The worrying news for Turkey’s government is that the Iranian export surge is likely to be a one-off boost. There is only so much gold that Iranian households can buy, thereby giving a limited lifeline to Turkey to fend off an even more precipitous decline in the latter’s economy.

In recent years, Turkey has been seen as something of an international showcase for economic development, garnering glowing reviews in the business media for its growth in the key industries of agriculture, textiles, manufacture of cars and consumer appliances, and a heavyweight ship-building industry. Turkey is now ranked fourth in the world for ship-building behind China, South Korea and Japan.

Such has been the country’s rapid growth that some commentators had begun to class Turkey as a “developed economy” rather than an emerging one.

However, the Erdogan government’s newfound reputation for sound economic management is taking a battering with the recent downturn.

A major factor in Turkey’s economic woes is Ankara’s more interventionist and reactionary foreign policy, which is rebounding badly on its economy.

Flagging consumer sales reflect uncertainty among ordinary Turks stemming from the political risk of conflict in neighboring Syria, according to the Financial Times. That risk is also having a detrimental knock-on effect on foreign investment in Turkey, which has been up to now an important driver in the country’s recent economic success.

Another source of political risk that is undermining confidence in the Turkish economy is the renewed violence from Kurdish separatists in the southeastern provinces. Dozens of state forces and militants belonging to the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) have been killed in a spate of clashes in recent weeks. This renewed violence is a repercussion from instability in Turkey’s southern neighbor Syria.

Prime Minister Erdogan has led the way for his government’s interventionism in Syria, aligning with the Western powers of the US, Britain, France and Germany, and their allies of Israel and the Persian Gulf Arab monarchies, in trying to topple President Bashar Al Assad.

Erdogan’s interventions in Syria have become increasingly strident, denouncing Assad for running “a terrorist state” and calling for the setting up of “no-flying zones” in Syria’s territory.

Evidence, however, points to the main source of violence in Syria accruing from the foreign powers sponsoring mercenary armed groups. Erdogan’s Turkey has taken a lead role in supporting the Sunni extremist network running amok in Syria by providing land bases, logistics, weapons and senior Turkish military personnel, according to recent reports.

The instability in Syria has also caused a massive flow of refugees into Turkey. All of which are placing duress on the Turkish economy and further eroding domestic confidence.

Compounding Turkey’s economic woes is Ankara’s reactionary relations with neighboring Iraq. Iraq is a major trading partner with Turkey, ranked fifth behind Germany, France, UK and Italy in terms of export purchases.

Erdogan’s alignment with the Sunni monarchs of Saudi Arabia and Qatar in facilitating the Western geopolitical agenda of regime change in Syria is driving a political wedge between Ankara and Baghdad. Iraq has cordial relations with Syria and Iran and is none too pleased about the Western covert war of aggression in the region, which is also reigniting sectarian violence across Iraq, with thousands killed in terrorist blasts over the past three months. The recent move by Turkey to afford refuge to Iraq’s fugitive former Vice President Tareq Hashemi, who is wanted by the Iraqi authorities for masterminding terrorism, is seen as a deepening of the political wedge between the two countries. Again, the repercussion for Turkey’s economy will carry a heavy cost by alienating a key trading partner.

But the cost to Turkey’s economy from Ankara’s wayward foreign policy is bigger still. While Turkey continues to maintain friendly relations with Iran officially, its pro-Western geopolitical agenda in the region is inevitably lending greater momentum to American and European belligerence towards Tehran. It is crass double-think on the part of Ankara to take such a strident and criminal role in the Western-led destabilization of Syria, and yet to somehow not realize that such a policy is offensive and damaging to Syria’s key ally Iran.

This detrimental dynamic of Erdogan’s government against Syria and Iran is feeding into the Western sanctions that are taking a heavy toll on Iran’s oil economy. That dynamic, in turn, is driving up oil prices, which are rebounding to hit European economic growth. The EU bloc is the main trading engine for the Turkish export economy. Europe’s economic stagnation today is therefore Turkey’s stagnation tomorrow.

So there you have it. Regional violence and instability, domestic consumer anxiety, the alienation of key regional trading partners such as Iraq and Iran, and the hammer blow to European economic recovery from Iranian oil sanctions are all boomerangs on Turkey’s economy that the Erdogan government has thrown into the air with its reckless foreign policy. In that way, you could say Erdogan’s Turkey is voting for Christmas