After it became clear that Reza Zarrab would plead guilty and would testify against former state Halkbank manager Hakan Atilla in the Iran sanctions case in New York, the Turkish government focused on blasting opposition claims about President Tayyip Erdoğan’s relatives’ foreign currency transactions to an off-shore account.
Turkey’s news agenda looks quite different from the outside than it does from within. International problems such as strife with the U.S. or Europe often boil down to a single parameter inside the country: Will it benefit President Tayyip Erdoğan or will it weaken his position, as the opposition would like to see.
The telephone conversation between Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan and U.S. President Donald Trump on Nov. 24 was revealing regarding the political psychology of the two leaders, which is likely to influence the near future of problematic relations between Ankara and Washington.
Under other circumstances, the Nov. 24 phone conversation between Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan and U.S. President Donald Trump could have been considered a necessary and routine call between two NATO allies.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said on Nov. 22 that the Reza Zarrab case in the United States has started to harm Turkey and its interests on a global scale.
Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on Nov. 22 that the military episode of the Syrian civil war, ongoing since 2011, has now come to an end. He was speaking in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi ahead of a key trilateral meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
The postponement of the New York court case of the Iranian-Turkish businessman - accused of breaking U.S. sanctions on Iran through gas-for-gold trade and delivering bribes to Turkish politicians - has further agitated the rhetorical fight over the case.
Remember the terrorist attack in Barcelona on Aug. 17, when an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) suicide bomber drove into a crowd of pedestrians, killing 13 and wounding 130, one whom died later on?
Turkey’s withdrawal of military officers from a drill of the Western defense alliance NATO on Nov. 17 has turned into a scandal.
