TURKUVAZ GROUP BLASTS WATCHDOG AFTER FINE
After the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) imposed an 8 million lira administrative fine on ATV, outlets belonging to pro-government Turkuvaz Media published articles targeting the watchdog.
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BIG MAC INDEX SUGGESTS LIRA IS SEVERELY OVERVALUED
Former Treasury Undersecretary and prominent economist Mahfi Eğilmez calculated that the fair value of the US dollar should be 65 liras based on the Big Mac Index, far above the market exchange rate of 47.50 liras and warned that the holding the exchange rate below its fair value inflates the country's GDP and per capita income figures on paper without making Turks any richer.
FIDAN MEETS TRIPOLI AND BENGHAZI LEADERS ALIKE
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan traveled to Libya on Aug. 11 and 12, visiting both Tripoli and Benghazi, in what appears to be the first time a Turkish foreign minister has made a simultaneous visit to meet competing sides in the Libyan conflict.
A NEW SUNNI AXIS?
On Friday — a day of particular symbolic weight for the Islamic world — President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif put their signatures to a trilateral defense agreement in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city.
SYRIA, TURKEY PUSH FOR KURDISH INTEGRATION IN HIGH-LEVEL ANKARA TALKS
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan Sheibani held separate talks in Ankara with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and National Intelligence Organization (MİT) Chief İbrahim Kalın, focusing heavily on regional security and the integration of Kurdish armed groups into Damascus’ central authority.
VİBRATÖR /VIBRATOR
The word of the week is vibratör (vibrator), because Turkey has reached that stage of public life where even a small vibrating object of adult pleasure may require a prosecutor’s attention. Here, a vibrator is not merely a device; it is a small object with the bad manners to expose the size of the state.
NOT A FILM, ALL TOO REAL: ERDAL BEŞİKÇİOĞLU ARRESTED TOO
Erdal Beşikçioğlu, mayor of Etimesgut, a satellite town of the capital, has been arrested. The charge against him is much the same as those leveled at other CHP mayors: 'Forming a criminal organization for the purpose of corruption.'
A THIRD-STAGE IMMUNITY OPERATION?
There's a Turkish saying for describing one misfortune piling on another: 'What happened to us didn't even happen to the boiled chicken'. The last three years for opposition leaders Özgür Özel and Ekrem İmamoğlu, and the 'Change Movement' they lead, bring that saying to mind.
CRACKDOWN ON PRO-GOVERNMENT SCREEN FACES CONTINUES
After the detention of Cem Küçük, a prominent commentator on TV screens known for leaking information from judicial files, Tahir Sarıkaya, an anchor from the Beyaz TV channel owned by former Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek and his son Osman Gökçek, was arrested for blackmailing and spreading false information.
A101 ACQUISITION OF CARREFOURSA TRIGGERS ALCOHOL SALES DEBATE
The acquisition of French grocery chain Carrefour's Turkish subsidiary, CarrefourSA, by A101's parent company Yeni Mağazacılık, owned by a religious conservative family, has sparked intense online debate over potential restrictions on alcohol sales.
STRIKING MINERS IN ANKARA AGAIN OVER UNPAID WAGES
Coal miners from Doruk Mining, a subsidiary of Yıldızlar SSS Holding that made the headlines earlier this year, held a new sit-in protest in Ankara, demanding years of unpaid severance and termination benefits as promises were not kept.
ÖZEL FACES NEW REQUEST TO LIFT IMMUNITY
Yeni Party Chair Özgür Özel faces a new effort aimed at removing his immunity from prosecution, one that looks more serious than 60 other such applications already filed in parliament.