So I am guessing, someone we won't miss a lot.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Word on the news is that Erdogan's trying to sincerely make peace with Europe due to Biden.
Foreign Troper
Well he could start by stop locking up reporters.
Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
And tourists who posted once a critical post of him on facebook.
Edited by Zarastro on Jan 17th 2021 at 8:55:41 PM
Turkey's Erdoğan quits Istanbul Convention with a midnight presidential decree
Something's happening. Moves like these that are way too bold, that appeal to AKP's core Islamist base at the expense of the majority who oppose them are increasing with an alarming rate. It shows that they are getting desperate, and will do anything to humor their remaining supporters now.
𐀀𐀩𐀯𐀂𐀰𐀅𐀡𐀄
Foreign Troper
Erdogan doesn't even bother to put up a facade anymore, it seems.
Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian
Erdogan has really a contradictory record on women's rights. He has repeatedly stated that he considers women to be mentally and physical inferior to men and that all women should strive to be mothers. His government has also recently tried to implement a law that would allow pedophile rapists to go unpunished if they marry their underage victims.
However his government has also done a lot to combat violence against women. It was the first which tried to adress the endemic "honour killings" and has since raised the punishment for rape and child marriages.
He has, however, a consistent record of mismanaging economic affairs.
I certainly wouldn't say consistent, Turkey has had years of economic success under the AKP. Which even though it can't be solely laid at the feet of the AKP is still a strong showing on their part.
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Mar 23rd 2021 at 7:25:22 AM
"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn
Oh, bother.
Except that article is about warning that Turkey has an uncertain future...and considering it was written back in 2013, it's kind of prescient.
Disgusted, but not surprised
I'm aware, "years of success" does not mean everything's perfect. I wasn't arguing that they had no flaws.
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Mar 23rd 2021 at 7:41:09 AM
"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn
Inflation has been a constant problem for Turkey and it has only gotten worse during the last few years. Erdogan is notorious for forcing the Central Bank to keep the interest rates down and has recently sacked its' director who raises the rates. The director was only installed a few months earlier to reassure investors that the Central Bank was supposedly doing what is best for the country, not Erdogan.
In the name of being honest
Bitcoin tumbles after Turkey bans crypto payments citing risks.
In legislation published in the Official Gazette, the central bank said cryptocurrencies and other such digital assets based on distributed ledger technology could not be used, directly or indirectly, to pay for goods and services.
The decision could stall Turkey's crypto market, which has gained momentum in recent months as investors joined the global rally in bitcoin, seeking to hedge against lira depreciation and inflation that topped 16% last month.
Bitcoin was down 4.6% at $60,333 at 1117 GMT after the ban, which was criticised by Turkey's main opposition party. Smaller coins ethereum and XRP , which tend to move in tandem with bitcoin, fell between 6%-12%.
In a statement, the central bank said crypto assets were "neither subject to any regulation and supervision mechanisms nor a central regulatory authority", among other security risks.
"Payment service providers will not be able to develop business models in a way that crypto assets are used directly or indirectly in the provision of payment services and electronic money issuance" and will not provide any services, it said.
"Their use in payments may cause non-recoverable losses for the parties to the transactions ... and include elements that may undermine the confidence in methods and instruments used currently in payments," the central bank added.
This week Royal Motors, which distributes Rolls-Royce and Lotus cars in Turkey, became the first business in the country to accept payments in cryptocurrencies.
Cryptocurrencies remain little-used for commerce even as they become increasingly mainstream global assets, although companies including Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) and travel site Expedia Group Inc (EXPE.O) do accept such payments.
Tough regulatory clampdowns on cryptocurrencies by major economies have been relatively rare, with most seeking to clarify rules rather than prevent usage. Traders say such bans are hard to enforce, and crypto markets have in the past shrugged off such moves.
Turkey's main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu described the decision as another case of "midnight bullying", referring to President Tayyip Erdogan's decision last month — announced in a midnight decree — to fire the central bank governor.
"It's like they have to commit foolishness at night," he said on Twitter.
The legislation goes into effect on April 30th.
Heavy hand
Crypto trading volumes in Turkey hit 218 billion lira ($27 billion) from early February to 24 March, up from just over 7 billion lira in the same period a year earlier, according to data from U.S. researcher Chainalysis analysed by Reuters.
Trading spiked in the days after Erdogan replaced the bank governor, sending the lira down as much as 15%.
Last week, Turkish authorities demanded user information from crypto trading platforms.
"Any authority which starts regulating (the market) with a ban will end up frustrated (since this) encourages fintech startups to move abroad," said economist Ugur Gurses.
In what would be one of the world’s strictest policies, India will propose a ban on cryptocurrencies and fines on those trading or holding the assets. China banned such trading in 2017, slamming the brakes on a free-wheeling emerging crypto industry.
"Headlines like this at this point tend to send a bolt across the bows," said Joseph Edwards, head of research at crypto brokerage Enigma Securities in London, while noting that similar regulatory moves in Nigeria and India "didn't even move the needle".
Ahmed Faruk Karsli, CEO of Turkish payment systems firm Papara, said the ban on transferring money to cryptocurrency platforms via fintech systems was unexpected.
"It is much easier to choose to ban than to make an effort to deal with this financial technology," he told Ekoturk TV.
"This is a regulation that makes me concerned for my country."
($1 = 8.0800 liras)
Erdogan presided over the opening of the mosque in Taksim Square.
In the name of being honest
RFE: A New Wave Of Afghan Refugees Finds Shelter In Turkey.
Over the past several years, Turkey has become a critical refugee hotspot for Afghans alongside its still-expanding Syrian and Iraqi refugee population. Its key location straddling East and West has made it a stopover for refugees on their journey to start a new life in Europe.
According to refugee officials, an estimated nearly 200,000 Afghan refugees are living in Turkey, a number that is increasing on a daily basis since the United States announced its full withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in early April.
Since then, the Taliban has made considerable gains, capturing dozens of districts across Afghanistan. As a result, a mass exodus is taking place as Afghans seek a new home away from insecurity and threats from the Taliban.
“I came to Turkey to save my life,” said Nisar Ahmad, an Afghan refugee living in Zeytinburnu, a densely populated district on the European side of Istanbul known as a hub for all things Afghan. “I was working with American troops in Afghanistan,” he noted.
Single Afghan men who are menial workers make up the majority of those fleeing, and Turkey provides them an opportunity to support themselves and their families back home, even if just temporarily.
“I came here illegally since it was difficult to obtain a permit,” Ahmad said. “Finding a place to live and work has been a big struggle. For refugees, our options are either working as waiters in restaurants or doing manual labor like construction work. We have very few options here, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made things even worse.”
The Road To Europe
Since 2019, Afghans are the largest group of asylum seekers in Turkey. According to UNHCR, Afghans are the second-most common citizenship to claim asylum in the European Union. This movement to Turkey and onward to Europe is expected to continue post-pandemic.
“Most refugees coming to Turkey don't intend to stay here. Everyone wants to go to Europe, but since borders and routes are closed they have all become stagnant. These days, because of the U.S. withdrawal, everyone is planning their exit strategy, and many are choosing Turkey as a kind of pitstop,” Ahmad said.
Ali Hekmat is co-founder of the Afghan Refugee Solidarity Association (ARSA), a nonprofit that helps Afghan refugees settle in Turkey. He has witnessed a gradual increase of refugees since 2009, when he himself arrived as one.
News from Afghanistan and Turkey related to the main airport in the former.
Foreign Troper
Erdogan has declared Ambassadors from 10 countries to be Persona non grata after they asked him to free Osman Kavala
Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian
Official Twitter accounts of eight of the ten embassies have tweeted a copy-paste statement amid the cabinet meeting where a decision about the 10 envoys was expected to be made.
Notably, while it reads “In response to questions regarding the Statement of October 18, country name notes that it maintains compliance with Article 41 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.” in English, the Turkish translation reads more like “In response to questions regarding the Statement of October 18, country name asserts that it will comply with Article 41 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.”
My two cents is that this was deliberate, and was done so that Erdoğan can pretend the West has backed down while not expulsing the ambassadors, averting a much bigger diplomatic crisis.
Edited by amateur55 on Oct 25th 2021 at 5:29:20 PM
And I guess to distract from the inflation?
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Beware the Crazy Man.
Seems they had raised the issue of a political prisoner who Erdogan alleges was part of the 2016 coup.
Final Fantasy, Foreign Policy, and Bollywood. Helluva combo, that...
Vice News has a video about the coup attempt in Turkey:
Apparently I live in Türkiye now, not Turkey.
Dumb move. At least make it a word that's pronouncable in English, like Turkia.
Turkey's become a refuge point for Russians against the war in Ukraine.
Turkey court gives cult head Adnan Oktar over 1,000 years in jail.
Standard disclaimer on TRT being a Turkish government mouthpiece and all that. But anyway, for those unfamiliar: Oktar (under his pen name, Harun Yahya) runs one of the Muslim world's biggest televangelical-industrial complexes, publishing tomes of Creationist books and CDs
in just about every language and stacking them up in mosques and madrasas worldwide.
As you might expect, it's not rhetorically sophisticated stuff, mostly filled with ad hominem attacks against Charles Darwin and wacky Animorphs-style illustrations with the caption "Do we want to believe that this was how humans/birds/fish came to be?". But sheer volume and longevity means that his publications had a lot of clout in the worldwide Muslim community from the '90s onwards, likely doing a lot of lasting damage to scientific education and outreach around the globe — and that's before you take his actual cult into account. So basically a Turkish Ken Ham, if he ran a multilingual global self-publishing enterprise and was also a sex megapredator.
The court in Istanbul tried 236 defendants, including 78 remanded for their organised crimes under Oktar's lead, said the source on Monday on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
The court gave Oktar a total of 1,075 years and three months in prison over the charges of founding and leading a criminal organisation, political or military espionage, aiding Fetullah Terrorist Organisation (FETO), even though not being its member, sexual abuse of minors, sexual abuse, deprivation of liberty of the person, torture, disturbance of right to education, recording personal data, and threat.
The 64-year-old cult leader, who owned a TV channel, was arrested in 2018 along with 200 collaborators, following allegations of sexual abuse and kidnapping of minors.
Oktar's TV channel broadcasted his shows surrounded by women he referred to as his “kittens".
Other defendants get lengthy jail terms
Tarkan Yavas, one of the defendants, also received 211-year prison sentence for being an executive member of the organisation, sexual abuse of a minor, sexual abuse, misstatement of property, and committing perjury in official document.Oktar Babuna, another defendant, was given 186 years in jail for being a member of a criminal organisation, sexual abuse of a minor, and sexual abuse. The court continues to declare rulings on other defendants.
Oktar – also known by his pen-name Harun Yahya – has authored numerous books promoting creationism against Darwin's theory of evolution as well as conspiracy theories.
Edited by eagleoftheninth on Jan 11th 2021 at 7:51:30 AM
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