TURKEY LETTER October 27, 2014

Foreign Policy

  • Kobane aid triggers Turkey-US debate
  • Growing Kurdish Unity Helps West, Worries Turkey
  • Turkish official says Iraqi Kurdish fighters free to cross to Kobani
  • FATF removes Turkey from gray list over fight against terror financing

Economy and Energy

  • One third of youth neither at work nor at school in Turkey
  • FDI inflow to Turkey rises by 10 percent in 2014
  • Turkey world’s second highest TV series exporter after US

Domestic Politics

  • Turkish president sends AKP-linked lawyers to key judges and prosecutors council
  • PKK hijacks truck, seizes explosives: Turkish army

Foreign Policy

Kobane aid triggers Turkey-US debate
Washington took the initiative to airdrop ammunition and weapons to Kurdish fighters battling jihadists in Kobane despite Turkey’s objections, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, in a bid to underline that Ankara does not consider the Democratic Union Party (PYD) a legitimate counterpart, regardless of U.S. views.
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Hurriyet Daily News, October 23, 2014, Kobane aid triggers Turkey-US debate

Growing Kurdish Unity Helps West, Worries Turkey
Kurds in Iraq and Syria set aside long-held rivalries and took steps to unify their forces this week to battle Islamic State, gaining greater international legitimacy but magnifying fears in Turkey that a powerful enemy is on the rise.
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Wall Street Journal, October 23, 2014, Growing Kurdish Unity Helps West, Worries Turkey

Turkish official says Iraqi Kurdish fighters free to cross to Kobani
A Turkish official said on Monday Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters were free to move through Turkey to Syria “as soon as they are ready” after a Syrian Kurdish leader accused Ankara of stalling on an agreement to allow them passage to the besieged Syrian border town of Kobani.
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Reuters, October 27, 2014, Turkish official says Iraqi Kurdish fighters free to cross to Kobani

FATF removes Turkey from gray list over fight against terror financing
Turkey will be removed from the gray list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) — the international body responsible for setting global standards for combating terrorist financing — as the country has made sufficient improvements regarding the relevant standards, according to a report recently released by the organization.
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Today’s Zaman, October 23, 2014, FATF removes Turkey from gray list over fight against terror financing

Financial Action Task Force, October 23, 2014, Mutual Evaluation of Turkey: 15th Follow-up Report

Economy and Energy

One third of youth neither at work nor at school in Turkey
According to the July 2014 Household Workforce data, the Turkish population in the 15-24 age group is currently 11.7 million and roughly a third of them are in education. Another third is working, while the final third is either unemployed because they have not been able to find a job or they are neither at school nor holding a job. In other words, they are outside the workforce. This number has reached 3.7 million.
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Hurriyet Daily News, October 27, 2014, One third of youth neither at work nor at school in Turkey

FDI inflow to Turkey rises by 10 percent in 2014
International net direct investments in Turkey totaled $8.6 billion in the first eight months of 2014, a 9.8 percent increase from the same period of the previous year, the Economy Ministry announced on Oct. 27.
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Hurriyet Daily News, October 27, 2014, FDI inflow to Turkey rises by 10 percent in 2014

Turkey world’s second highest TV series exporter after US
Turkey is globally the second highest exporter of TV series abroad after the United States, and it plans to reach $2 billion from exporting cultural products by 2023, Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) head Mehmet Büyükekşi said on Oct. 25.
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Hurriyet Daily News, October 26, 2014, Turkey world’s second highest TV series exporter after US

Domestic Politics

Turkish president sends AKP-linked lawyers to key judges and prosecutors council
The four new members of Turkey’s Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK), who were not elected but appointed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, have sparked fresh controversy on the crucial judicial body’ objectivity.
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Hurriyet Daily News, October 27, 2014, Turkish president sends AKP-linked lawyers to key judges and prosecutors council

PKK hijacks truck, seizes explosives: Turkish army
Militants from Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on Oct. 27 hijacked a truck, seizing 400 kilogrammes (880 pounds) of the explosive substance ammonium nitrate, the Turkish army said.
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Hurriyet Daily News, October 27, 2014, PKK hijacks truck, seizes explosives: Turkish army

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