Page 10 - TURKRptDec19
P. 10
On November 26, the head of Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, Alexander Mikheev, was cited by RIA news agency as saying: “You can see how confident India, China, Turkey and other countries are on the international stage. Many are openly outraged by US sanctions policy, which is trying to prevent them from developing their own armed forces and technical military cooperation with Russia.”
Meanwhile, the Democrats wage their attritional ‘Ukraine’ impeachment war while many American voters are still asking themselves ‘What is Ukraine?’.
The turkey is a bird that looks wild and might appear to glower at humans, but it’s actually a tamed animal and can remain calm under almost any conditions when it’s been raised properly at some US farms.
Erdogan yells angry rhetoric at Europe, Israel, the Kurds, Western energy companies daring to drill near Cyprus. Not that he hasn’t got it in him to adopt an extremely calm real statesman’s act when it’s required, as long as the cameras aren't rolling.
The case of American Evangelical Presbyterian Pastor Andrew Brunson was a great one for the endless Erdogan outbursts. Since August 2018, Trump regularly threatens Erdogan, on Twitter or during a press briefing, with laying waste to the Turkish economy if Erdogan does not follow his orders.
Not to forget Trump’s ‘insane’ “Don’t be a tough guy” letter to Erdogan on the eve of the latter’s Syria invasion.
On November 13, at an Erdogan and Trump joint press briefing at the White House, Erdogan said: “Well, this letter was represented to Mr. President this afternoon. And I’ve also underlined the fact that a terrorist, such as Ferhat Abdi Sahin, should not be considered as an interlocutor by a country such as the United States... And, as I’ve said before, I have shared them with His Excellency, Mr. President. And we gave back the letter that we have received.”
The BBC previously reported that Erdogan chucked the letter in the bin.
On November 18, Boeing announced that SunExpress, a joint venture between national flag carrier Turkish Airlines and Germany’s Lufthansa, had exercised options for 10 additional Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, valued at $1.2bn according to list prices.
Tim Miller has compiled all aspects of this “tough love” between Trump and Erdogan for The Bulwark.
2.5 Turkish central bank valuation account decline prompts worries national lender may transfer funds to government
A so-called valuation account at Turkey's central bank has reportedly declined by a third over the last month, sparking worries among some bankers that the national lender may transfer some of the funds to the government.
The account was worth Turkish lira (TRY) 47.2bn ($8.3bn) as of November 20, an analytical balance sheet published on the central bank's website showed, compared to TRY69bn a month ago.
Reuters, citing a person with knowledge of the matter, reported last month that Ankara was working on transferring some TRY100bn from the valuation account to the Treasury’s coffers. That would go down as another move by
10 TURKEY Country Report December 2019 www.intellinews.com
