This week:
Foreign Affairs
- Turkish FM Davutoğlu hits back to Syrian FM’s accusations of backing ‘terrorism’
- EU Sparks Fly Over Turkey’s Civil Rights as Entry Bid Languishes
- Erdogan tells Turkish ambassadors to spread word of ‘treacherous’ plot
- Turkish President Gül urges gov’t to re-calibrate Syria policy
Domestic Politics
- Turkish judicial purge brings corruption investigation to halt
- Turkey: Contentious Medical Bill Signed
- Top business group head warns that Turkey may slip into ‘police state’
- Turkey seizes assets of opposition party’s mayoral candidate
- Turkey’s major defense contracts await political calm
Economy/Energy
- Turkey’s Tupras fined $186 mln for abusing market position
- Interest-Rate Obsession May Doom Turkey’s Erdogan
Foreign Affairs
Turkish FM Davutoğlu hits back to Syrian FM’s accusations of backing ‘terrorism’
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has hit back at Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem’s accusations during the U.N. peace conference in Montreux that Turkey is “backing terrorism.”
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Hurriyet Daily News, 22 January 2014, Turkish FM Davutoğlu hits back to Syrian FM’s accusations of backing ‘terrorism’
EU Sparks Fly Over Turkey’s Civil Rights as Entry Bid Languishes
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan faced calls to ease curbs on free speech and let judges operate independently in order to breathe fresh life into the country’s languishing bid to join the European Union.
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Bloomberg, 21 January 2014, EU Sparks Fly Over Turkey’s Civil Rights as Entry Bid Languishes
Erdogan tells Turkish ambassadors to spread word of ‘treacherous’ plot
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan ordered his ambassadors to redouble efforts in “telling the truth” to allies that a graft investigation shaking Ankara was nothing other than a treacherous plot to sabotage Turkey’s international standing.
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Reuters, 15 January 2014, Erdogan tells Turkish ambassadors to spread word of ‘treacherous’ plot
Turkish President Gül urges gov’t to re-calibrate Syria policy
Turkey should re-calibrate its Syrian diplomacy and security policies in the face of realities, President Abdullah Gül urged Jan. 14 in his address to Turkish ambassadors convened in Ankara for an annual conference.
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Hurriyet Daily News, 14 January 2014, Turkish President Gül urges gov’t to re-calibrate Syria policy
Domestic Politics
Turkish judicial purge brings corruption investigation to halt
Turkey’s purge of the judiciary and police has brought a corruption investigation shaking the government to a grinding halt and could undermine confidence in state institutions, senior legal figures and the opposition said on 22 January.
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Reuters, 22 January 2014, Turkish judicial purge brings corruption investigation to halt
Turkey: Contentious Medical Bill Signed
Over the objections of human rights and medical groups, President Abdullah Gul signed a measure into law on Friday that makes it a crime to administer emergency first aid without government authorization. Critics contend that the law could be used by the police and prosecutors to intimidate and punish doctors and other medical workers for treating protesters wounded in demonstrations against the government, like those in Turkey last year.
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The New York Times, 17 January 2014,
Top business group head warns that Turkey may slip into ‘police state’
Turkey’s top business group has issued a staunch warning to the government on respecting the rule of law in its move to reform the judiciary, expressing concerns that the country may slip into a “police state.”
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Hurriyet Daily News, 15 January 2014, Top business group head warns that Turkey may slip into ‘police state’
Turkey seizes assets of opposition party’s mayoral candidate
Turkish authorities seized the assets of Mustafa Sarigul, the main opposition party CHP’s candidate for Istanbul mayor, an official said on Friday, ahead of a crucial local election due to take place in March.
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Reuters, 17 January 2014, Turkey seizes assets of opposition party’s mayoral candidate
Turkey’s major defense contracts await political calm
The political turbulence that has shaken Turkey since the Dec. 17 corruption investigations began has unnerved the country’s defense procurement bureaucracy and industry, with insiders expressing divided opinions over how the turmoil may affect major programs.
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Hurriyet Daily News, 21 January 2014, Turkey’s major defense contracts await political calm
Economy/Energy
Turkey’s Tupras fined $186 mln for abusing market position
Turkey’s competition regulator has fined Tupras, the country’s sole oil refiner, 412 million lira ($186 million) for abusing its dominant market position in pricing and contracts.
Tupras is owned by Koc Holding, Turkey’s biggest company which is controlled by one of the country’s most prominent business dynasties.The government has accused the family of sympathising with protesters during anti-government unrest.
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Reuters, 17 January 2014, Turkey’s Tupras fined $186 mln for abusing market position
Interest-Rate Obsession May Doom Turkey’s Erdogan
It is possible that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be undone not by the corruption probe he is suppressing, but by his fixation on low interest rates, writes Marc Champion of Bloomberg.
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Bloomberg, 17 January 2014, Interest-Rate Obsession May Doom Turkey’s Erdogan
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