“The intervention by the Central Bank has relieved capital markets to a certain extent,” said Tuncay Özilhan, the head of the Supreme Advisory Board of Turkey’s biggest investor’s club TÜSİAD on May 24 in a routine meeting of the organization.
At around 3.00 a.m. on May 23 the Turkish Lira suddenly fell to 4.83 against the U.S. dollar, at a time when not only Turkey but also European and American markets were asleep.
Candidate lists for the snap parliamentary elections on June 24, which will be held together with the presidential election, show a possible regression in women’s representation in Turkey’s Grand National Assembly in the next term.
Mahfi Eğilmez is a prominent economy analyst who worked as the Undersecretary of the Turkish Treasury in the past and is now working as a consultant. In the morning economy show on private broadcaster NTV on May 21, he underlined that the value of 1 United States dollar has risen to 4.55 Turkish Liras. It was 4.42 when the Borsa Istanbul exchange closed on May 18.
As Turkey heads for snap presidential and parliamentary elections on June 24 a new opinion poll seems to be hitting the wires every day. On some days multiple polls are published.
It was a time when many people thought Turkey was coming to an end. The “sick man of Europe” was in bed and many thought he could not return again. Parliament was becoming obsolete, the army was crippled, many parts of the country - or what was left of it - were under invasion of foreign armies. Perhaps worst of all, the Ottoman dynasty in power was collaborating with the invaders to keep its own crown safe.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is set to meet today in Istanbul for an emergency meeting called by Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan, the term chair, to discuss the Israeli security forces’ killing of 61 protesters on May 14, who were protesting the U.S.’s embassy move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel.
It is important for Turkey’s friends to understand that the Gaza killings of May 14 by Israeli security forces are not perceived by the Turkish people mainly as another blow to relations with Israel. Rather, the focus of relations is on the unfair treatment that the Palestinians receive.
Israeli soldiers’ attack on Palestinian protesters, which killed at least 61 in Gaza on May 14, has caused widespread anger and grief in Turkey, like many parts of the world. Thousands of people took to the streets on the same day in different parts of the country, while the government declared three days of national mourning.
