Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
The “framework law” that will provide the legal basis for the PKK’s disarmament process appears set to be enacted after nearly five months of waiting. Öcalan’s view that “even if it is incomplete and inadequate, a step needs to be taken” proved instrumental in overcoming the disputes surrounding the law. In a sense, it was Öcalan who untied the knot.
António Guterres will arrive in Cyprus at the end of July, carrying another possibility of peace to an island familiar with such visits. Cyprus diplomacy sometimes resembles Buñuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. The guests assemble, the table is laid, and dinner is indefinitely postponed.
The central bank kept its benchmark policy rate unchanged at 37% during its Monetary Policy Committee meeting on July 23, matching market expectations. However, business leaders are increasingly complaining about high borrowing costs, tight credit restrictions, and falling industrial output.
The number of electric vehicle charging sockets across Turkey exceeded 45,000 in June, according to data released by the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK).
Özgür Özel, ousted as CHP chair by a court ruling, is preparing to set up a new party even as legal threats mount against him and his allies. The party is likely to be called Yeni Party (New Party), Özel said. 'We are working on the name and the logo. The name has started to become clear. There is a generally accepted name, while the logo is still being worked on. For now, let's call it 'Yeni Party.' Until there is a new name, let's say Yeni Party,' Özel told SZC TV. 'The statute and the program are being written. The official step will be taken at the end of July or the beginning of August,' Özel told the channel at parliament ahead of a special session marking the 10th anniversary of the failed coup attempt.
Turkey is shaken by the misdoings of an Anatolian rock singer Haluk Levent, who once topped the list of Turkey's 'most trusted celebrities' due to his leadership of the respected charity organization Ahbap.
The DEM Party is intensifying pressure on the AKP/MHP ruling alliance to pass the framework law underpinning Turkey's Kurdish peace process before parliament enters for its summer recess — even as the party struggles to extract details of the draft from the AKP. The push has produced a flurry of contacts. İmralı Delegation members Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar, together with Faik Özgür Erol, met AKP Deputy Chair Efkan Ala and AKP Group Chair Abdullah Güler on July 15, and MHP Chair Devlet Bahçeli at his office in parliament the following day. Asked about the talks, Buldan declined to elaborate: 'We will not give information on the content.'
“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will have several bilateral meetings in the margins of the NATO summit; yet all of them will be very short. His longest meeting will be with Antonio Costa and Ursula Von Der Leyen,” a Turkish diplomat told a European expert at a side event that took place in Ankara.
Haluk Levent is a musician who rose to fame in the early 1990s, performing what is known as Anatolian Rock.
Ten years after the failed coup, the crackdown on Gülenist-owned businesses has become a revenue stream: the state has collected $1.5 billion from selling off seized firms — and the state fund managing them has grown into one of the country's largest conglomerates, its reach now extending far beyond the Gülenists.
Foreign investors' confidence in Turkish equities is under mounting pressure as two of the world's leading index providers signaled Istanbul's stock market could face a downgrade. Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) issued another warning regarding investment accessibility and shareholder transparency, announcing it may re-evaluate free-float structures on a company-by-company basis and reclassify certain shareholders as 'non-free float' to address distorted calculations driven by coordinated fund actions.
In a July 2 joint statement with the European Union following the High-Level Economic Dialogue, Turkey agreed that EU-Turkey relations “should continue to be guided by values, such as respect for the rule of law, fundamental rights, democracy and media freedom.”