Foreign Policy
• US Vice President Joe Biden to visit Turkey next month
• Turkish Leader, Using Conflicts, Cements Power
• Iraqi Kurdish Fighters Enter Turkey En Route to Syria to Battle Islamic State
• Senior PKK leader says US could mediate in Turkey talks
• Erdoğan accuses international media of waging ‘psychological war’
Economy and Energy
• Turkey seeks observer status in EU-U.S. trade talks
• Turkey’s defense spending reaches $13.2 billion
• Turkish company acquires British biscuit giant, becoming global number 3
• Turkey to re-launch bid to privatize roads, bridges
Domestic Politics
• Karaman mine accident due to water accumulated in old facility: Prosecutors
• New composition at top judicial body legal, legitimate, appropriate: Turkish gov’t
Foreign Policy
US Vice President Joe Biden to visit Turkey next month
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden next month visits Ukraine as well as Turkey, where fighting across the border in the Syrian town of Kobane has sparked tensions with Washington.
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Hurriyet Daily News, October 28, 2014, US Vice President Joe Biden to visit Turkey next month
Turkish Leader, Using Conflicts, Cements Power
Sprawling over nearly 50 acres of forest land that was once the private estate of Turkey’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a new presidential compound has nearly 1,000 rooms, an underground tunnel system and the latest in anti-espionage technology. It is larger than the White House, the Kremlin and Buckingham Palace.
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New York Times, October 31, 2014, Turkish Leader, Using Conflicts, Cements Power
Iraqi Kurdish Fighters Enter Turkey En Route to Syria to Battle Islamic State
Iraqi Kurdish forces arrived early Wednesday in Turkey en route to reinforce a Kurdish militia battling Islamic State militants in the Syrian city of Kobani, a ground intervention that will be the first by a Western-backed foreign force since the Syrian conflict began.
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Wall Street Journal, October 29, 2014, Iraqi Kurdish Fighters Enter Turkey En Route to Syria to Battle Islamic State
Senior PKK leader says US could mediate in Turkey talks
The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) wants an international mediator, possibly the United States, to help get peace talks with Turkey back on track and avert an escalation of their insurgency, a senior commander of the organization has told an Austrian newspaper.
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Hurriyet Daily News, November 3, 2014, Senior PKK leader says US could mediate in Turkey talks
Erdoğan accuses international media of waging ‘psychological war’
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has accused the international media of waging a “psychological war” against Turkey, also slamming local media outlets for collaborating in this campaign.
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Hurriyet Daily News, November 3, 2014, Erdoğan accuses international media of waging ‘psychological war’
Economy and Energy
Turkey seeks observer status in EU-U.S. trade talks
Leading Turkish business group TUSIAD has demanded an observer status for Turkey in the ongoing EU-U.S. free trade talks on creating a new transatlantic marketplace.
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World Bulletin, October 31, 2014, Turkey seeks observer status in EU-U.S. trade talks
Turkey’s defense spending reaches $13.2 billion
Turkey’s defense spending stood at 29.4 billion Turkish Liras ($13.2 billion) this year, Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz said on Nov. 2, in response to a parliamentary question from a deputy of the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
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Hurriyet Daily News, November 3, 2014, Turkey’s defense spending reaches $13.2 billion
Turkish company acquires British biscuit giant, becoming global number 3
Turkey’s Yıldız Holding has said it has acquired U.K.-based cookies and snacks maker United Biscuits from Blackstone Group and PAI Partners, thus becoming the world’s third largest biscuit maker.
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Hurriyet Daily News, November 3, 2014, Turkish company acquires British biscuit giant, becoming global number 3
Turkey to re-launch bid to privatize roads, bridges
Turkey is to revive plans to privatize two bridges across the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, along with a number of motorways, and aims to start the process by the first quarter of 2015, banking and government sources said on Nov. 3.
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Hurriyet Daily News, November 3, 2014, Turkey to re-launch bid to privatize roads, bridges
Domestic Politics
Karaman mine accident due to water accumulated in old facility: Prosecutors
Prosecutors have cited water accumulated in an older facility as the possible cause of the flooding of a mine in the Central Anatolian province of Karaman, as rescue efforts for the 18 trapped miners continued on their seventh day.
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Hurriyet Daily News, November 3, 2014, Karaman mine accident due to water accumulated in old facility: Prosecutors
New composition at top judicial body legal, legitimate, appropriate: Turkish gov’t
There is no flaw in the new composition of the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK), many of whose new members have been either elected or appointed by the president, the Turkish government has said.
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Hurriyet Daily News, October 28, 2014, New composition at top judicial body legal, legitimate, appropriate: Turkish gov’t