TURKPULSE No: 29-33.................................................... FEBRUARY-MARCH 2001

TURKPULSE No:29 THE TURKISH ECONOMY -Double “Black Wednesdays” for a “White” future

Amidst the wishful screams of its rivals at home and abroad about the crumbling down of the national economy, the Turkish Government are heading for a successful performance to catch up with EU standards. For the details of the current “disaster” in the Turkish economy and the background of the whole affair please see the article below before being carried away by the excitement of the day when the Istanbul Stock Exchange plummeted, overnight interest rates soared up to 7500% and an alleged devaluation brought down the value of the TL by 35-40% in contravention of the basic principles of the 3-year disinflation program.    

TURKPULSE No:30 THE TURKISH ECONOMY – There will be no whirling around, that’s for sure.

Partly due to the signals from the Disinformation Mechanism in the Turkish media, and mostly because of sincere and opportune enthusiasm from all walks of people, there has been an all-out welcome and support to Kemal Dervis’s assignment as the new head of the Turkish economy. He will definitely be given a chance to do what he can for his fatherland at this critical point of Turkey’s development drive. The healthy impact of Dervis’s assignment on the Turkish economy has immediately been seen. He is starting work under the suspecting eyes of certain quarters who remember some bitter experiences of the past and who are determined to place the Turkish economy on sound grounds in cooperation with its neighbours and the EU.

 

TURKPULSE No:31 TURKEY AND NATO MUTUALLY SEEK HIDDEN INTENTIONS, BY LIP-READING

  The task of the new Economy Minister, Kemal Dervis, is rather difficult because he started work with security experts’ lip-reading what he had said on the phone - a replicate of the pessimism that the Turkish economy is harmed beyond repair. Even though he claimed that the lip-reading was incorrect and that he was speaking English, the experts had deciphered it correctly and admitted after a couple of sentences that the rest was beyond their competence, being in English. Meanwhile, NATO was using similar methods to learn of Turkey’s real intentions about the Caucasus Stability Pact and similar multinational security initiatives by Ankara for its own region.

TURKPULSE No:32 IS THERE REALLY ANY “POLITICAL PROCESS” TO CONTINUE      WITH?

On the grounds that Turkey should first stick to the “economic and political processes”, Washington is holding back its financial support, indeed treaty obligations to Ankara through the IMF, for the solution of the current economic crisis. Below are the realities about these “processes” and the current situation in Turkish-American relations. Most Turks feel that Ankara has been straightforward in fulfilling its commitments in both the economic and political processes and it is now the duty of the new Bush Administration to follow suit worthy of a superpower without playing for time about the IMF`s financial commitments. What if the Bush Administration keeps on only paying lip service to this duty? “It is not the end of the world. We will then win this economic battle with our own resources,” says Foreign Minister Cem. 

 

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