TUSIAD Turkey Letter: 30 September 2014

Foreign Policy

  • Turkey’s mandate includes military action abroad, opening bases to foreign troops: Deputy PM
  • Turkey Inching Toward Alliance With U.S. in Syria Conflict
  • Turkey gearing up fight against ‘barbaric’ ISIL
  • Turkish tanks take up position on Syrian border next to besieged Kurdish town
  • Turkey to comply with UN bid over foreign fighters
  • EU and Turkey are bound to succeed together, says Barroso

Economy and Energy

  • Dollar rallies against lira, hitting eight-month high
  • Turkey unveils 9 percent hike on natural gas, electricity prices

Domestic Politics

  • President, PM hold surprise midnight meeting
  • Turkey suffering ‘rights rollback’ under Erdoğan: HRW

Foreign Policy

Turkey’s mandate includes military action abroad, opening bases to foreign troops: Deputy PM
The mandate the Turkish government is seeking from the Parliament to authorize the army to send troops into Iraq and Syria to deal with growing threat of extremist jihadists does also include opening its bases to foreign troops, a senior government official has said, signalling about potential Turkish contribution to the international military campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
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Hurriyet Daily News, September 30, 2014, Turkey’s mandate includes military action abroad, opening bases to foreign troops: Deputy PM

Turkey Inching Toward Alliance With U.S. in Syria Conflict
No American ally is closer to the threat of the Islamic State than Turkey, and no country could play a more important role in a coalition that President Obama is assembling to combat the extremist Sunni militants. Yet Turkey has been reluctant to enlist, in part because of the desperate conflict playing out on its border with Syria.
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New York Times, September 27, 2014, Turkey Inching Toward Alliance With U.S. in Syria Conflict

Turkey gearing up fight against ‘barbaric’ ISIL
Turkey’s top leaders have begun deploying sharper rhetoric against extremist jihadists in Iraq and Syria, with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu calling them “barbaric” and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan underlining “the obligation to fight” against them.
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Hurriyet Daily News, September 28, 2014, Turkey gearing up fight against ‘barbaric’ ISIL

Turkish tanks take up position on Syrian border next to besieged Kurdish town
Turkish tanks took up position on a hill overlooking the besieged Syrian border town of Kobane on Sept. 29 after several shells hit Turkish territory as militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fired on the town.
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Hurriyet Daily News, September 29, 2014, Turkish tanks take up position on Syrian border next to besieged Kurdish town

Turkey to comply with UN bid over foreign fighters
Turkey will not be hesitant in complying with a resolution adopted by the U.N. Security Council urging countries to take effective measures against foreign fighters, a senior Turkish official has said, while adding that the country was yet to study it in detail before putting it into effect.
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Hurriyet Daily News, September 26, 2014, Turkey to comply with UN bid over foreign fighters

EU and Turkey are bound to succeed together, says Barroso
The new head of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, might be skeptical of Turkey’s accession to the European Union, but the process is tied to institutions and not individuals, outgoing head Manuel Barroso has indicated, suggesting Ankara and Brussels “are bound to succeed together.”
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Hurriyet Daily News, September 29, 2014, EU and Turkey are bound to succeed together, says Barroso

Economy and Energy

Dollar rallies against lira, hitting eight-month high
The Turkish Lira has opened the new week by continuing its downfall against the U.S. dollar, touching a fresh eight-month low, as the greenback’s worldwide rally is resuming.
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Hurriyet Daily News, September 29, 2014, Dollar rallies against lira, hitting eight-month high

Turkey unveils 9 percent hike on natural gas, electricity prices
The Turkish government has announced a massive hike of 9 percent on natural gas and electricity bills, citing pressure from the increase in dollar currency exchange-rate levels and the low levels of rainfall across the country.
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Hurriyet Daily News, September 30, 2014, Turkey unveils 9 percent hike on natural gas, electricity prices

Domestic Politics

President, PM hold surprise midnight meeting
Turkey’s president and prime minister held an unannounced midnight meeting Sept. 30, on the eve of the critical decisions the country will make regarding the fight against extremist jihadists in Iraq and Syria.
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Hurriyet Daily News, September 30, 2014, President, PM hold surprise midnight meeting

Turkey suffering ‘rights rollback’ under Erdoğan: HRW
Turkey is undergoing a “worrying rollback” on human rights as the government is taking “far-reaching steps to weaken the rule of law, control the media and Internet, and clamp down on critics and protestors,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Sept. 29.
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Hurriyet Daily News, September 29, 2014, Turkey suffering ‘rights rollback’ under Erdoğan: HRW

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